I'm not sure I understood the building phase (in the controls it says I can pick up blocks with left mouse click, but this didn't have any effect for me).
The shooting phase has some draw in a tower defense kind of way (but I didn't get very far since I couldn't move the blocks and eventually got stuck under a pile of them 😅
I like the idea though and would like to have been able to play more!
There are "slots" around the character that we didn't have time to add UI for, but as you change levels, the number of slots changes. This was meant to give a sense of scaling up, but we probably could have done it to a large extent than we did.
The game was harder than I thought it would be! Felt overwhelmed quite quickly. Maybe a slower ramp up could help ease the player into the mechanics and get used to the aiming?
Also not sure about the functionality of the absorbing (when it makes sense to use, what the consequences are besides increasing the difficulty).
But I do like the concept and the asteroids like gameplay works well!
I like the toss of the block being the way to interact with the UI haha. Respect the consistency.
The physics on the block I'm placing felt a bit too much. Would have been nice if I had more stable control of it and its rotation until I place it.
The first checkpoint of 10m took me a few tries to reach! After that I got some of the other checkpoints in that same try. Maybe the first checkpoint could be a bit lower?
And why would I want a circle?? :p
Otherwise I had some good fun! Congrats on the game
Some specific things about the controls (as others have already generally mentioned), you want to aim for them to feel intentional and snappy. Getting good platformer controls can take a lot of tweaking or prior knowledge. There feels like a slight lag from when the player presses the jump button to when they actually jump, and the momentum of the forward motion is continuing during this time, which would lead to me falling off the edge without ever jumping. This disconnect feels frustrating and like it's not my fault, but the game's fault (a game can be difficult/frustrating and still feel fair). You could consider giving a few frames of wiggle room after the player has left the platform to still register the jump. You can look into GMTK's own video on Celeste to get some other ideas.
Also I think it's quite common for space to be the jump button. You could have both w/z and the space button be jump and leave it up to the preference of the player.
It's also worth considering the intention of the level design. The first level is fairly simple in design, but not simple to play though. The jumps between the platforms are difficult because of the low ceiling and the fast forward movement of the character, mixed with the low friction with the ground. If the intention is to teach the player about shrinking to get through the smaller corridor, then just do that, and just once.
Good game ideas though, which fit the theme nicely. I also liked the art and that you added a bit of story.
I ended up with more than 100% taxation, which I count as a win :) It does feel like I have to side with the peasants as much as possible or I lose. Could be interesting if there's a rubber banding affect where the other classes start to fall behind really quickly. Overall though, very creative!
despite you saying it's incomplete it's actually pretty fun! The style is also pretty great. Reminds me a bit of snake and I could definitely see myself playing this in class for longer than I should :)
Super polished! Cute idea and fun to play. Would be interesting to see some new kinds of obstacles as you get further along (or maybe I never got far enough to see it 😅)
Took a little bit to fully understand, but was really cool once it clicked. Awesome idea and execution!
Only thing was after playing for a while it got a bit overwhelming. Could be nice to mark the rooms which you've entered (since the start of the round) and the requirements are met.
As someone already mentioned, the slider wasn't the best interface for changing the size and could make it a bit frustrating.
FWIW, after I beat level 7 I got a crash (I think level 8 doesn't exist?). Also the start of level 7 is a bit too slow to want to try it again and again 😅
There's a lot going on right away. I think it could be nice to have had a bit of a tutorial.
I'm also not sure how to make use of the boxes as there didn't seem to be size where I was big enough to jump on them, even if I made them small (since they only scale and don't move toward the floor). Maybe I was missing something else.
Really great entry! Super polished and excellent visuals and sound effects.
The puzzles were a little simple and it feels like it could have used a ramp up in the different mechanics (rather than having them all in the puzzles from the start), but I really enjoyed it. Could be expanded into something interesting with a few more puzzle mechanics.
It took me a couple attempts to understand what I was meant to do though. I think it would be worth updating the description to say that the shape on the right is the one you are changing the shape on the left to match (at first I thought I was able to place the card on the left or right to change that shape).
Once I understood, I got to level 26 (although I'm pretty sure there were a couple times where they didn't actually match, but it was still accepted). It was fun, but maybe I'm just a math nerd
I have to admit it wasn't super clear to me what was happening. I see that the cards change the stats, but I don't know what affect those stats have. And at the end, why the green was always going extinct (especially since it looked like they were covering the planet).
The music made my the ups and downs of the population(?) was a cool idea!
Nice idea. I was able to find one of the hidden objects, but not more than that. Not sure if I was missing something though.
It was a bit unclear what discovered me when I was seen - I think the camera angle and controls made it more difficult. Did you try it with the camera following the player?
Unfortunately I'm not sure I understood exactly what to do in regards to going to sleep. I kept killing the monsters and then realizing my time had run out (would be nice if there was a sound effect when it was close to ending). When swapping to the other characters I could sleep sometimes and even once put the "main" character to sleep as another character, but I wasn't able to get them to sleep all at the same time :/
The game is intriguing enough that I tried a few times and want to know more!
Simple, but a good use of the theme and super polished. The faces on the fruits are great! I wonder if making the swipes require a certain kind of fruit (maybe just for extra points) would add a bit more engagement?
Thanks for playing and for the comment! Yes, the controls and feedback definitely didn't get the love we wanted to give it.
If you want to try again, my advice would be to move straight up while holding the required item and have the sprite stuck against the top of the bag. Then wait until the hero is a few steps away from the beam of light to drop the item and move to the side or back down (the item doesn't actually drop until you move off of the place you dropped it). The item will slowly fall, but it takes a few seconds for it to fall out of the top two rows (this is the area where the hero's hand can pick up items).
Was a bit difficult to play because of the lack of polish and bugs, but I like the idea. I wonder if allowing the player to move the camera themselves would help a bit? It was hard to place objects when the camera movements outside of my control affect the placement.
Nice idea. The sound effects and music really sold the tension! But I feel like the gameplay didn't live up to that tension. I mostly didn't think about the big giant foot and I wasn't clear if I needed to be worried while in a building?
The lack of contrast on the building colors/textures made it a bit difficult to maneuver around as well. But I like the take on the theme for sure!
I feel like the turret doesn't quite make it feel like like a role reversal, but the game itself is very polished and fun! Particularly good presentation and audio.
