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Thanks ! wow appreciate the time you took to write this comment. i think your feedback is spot on and reinforces a lot of what I've been seeing during the 10ish playtests I've watched. a stamina system (botw circle) would probably make the void dodging more intuitive. the Tetris hold idea is really good and the second stomach is a great way to justify it in the context. i briefly considered this mechanic for the jam but decided against it for timing and complexity sake, but i think it would really complement the simple fundamental mechanic of the queue. im glad you mentioned an eating mechanic cause in my head I've been playing around with the idea of sucking/eating things to re put them in the queue. in a full version of this game the world eater probably should have the ability to eat something lol.

this is really awesome, love the idea, vibe, and execution, its super satisfying when your playing well. i do think the game could be a little bit more lenient with the time that the fish get alerted and you restart, maybe like x seconds  before they call the boss to close the door so you have a final opportunity to silence them.

damn this guy just said "why are you cigarette? to me theres no coming back

really fun when i got the hang of it, heres some personal thoughts but im wondering why there isnt a window between when i fully charge and when i can release. having to throw instantly when ur finished charging makes you fully at the mercy of what eels are on screen at that exact moment if there was like 1 second you could hold it longer and release to fire it would be a lot more forgiving.

thanks! and yea totally agree, the postjam update should adress a lot of issues with the dodges clarity.

I had a lot of fun playing this. you've got an extremely engaging game loop and a really solid foundation. here are somethings i think could improve the experience.

- an initial enemy type that actually moves towards the player when in x proximity.

- instead of waiting for your player to return after exploding, gain a burst of speed that lerps over time to normal speed after x seconds, IMO this could help the game flow better and mesh well with the frenetic sense of energy this game has.

- i wonder if you could simplify the control scheme by merging the dash and the hooks purpose into one ability. with this new ability u could send a hook/arm to slingshot yourself by hooking walls or pulling yourself to enemies.

- an easier way to restore lost abilities

yea your right, so their is an underlying system where it costs more end lag to be in the dodging void state for longer.  its just not communicated well enough. giving this mechanic more clarity would improve the experience a lot i believe. 

Thanks Alex appreciate you, its funny cause i was worried during my own testing that it wouldn't be enough of a challenge, but its clearly not the case after watching some actual playtests. the post release version should address a lot of things that will overall make it less overwhelming.   

The dash is satisfying, attaching two guns was a great moment for me, i like how the lighting changes to accompany the change of time it really helps sell the wild west aesthetic. the enemies were super charming i love the legs on the bullets and the sounds of the bigger sheriff wheely guy had me laughing. one thing  i was a little confused about if i just had lost or not when i used up all my ammo because it didnt seem like there was any on the field to suck up, and if thats the case maybe i should of just exploded on the spot instead of living in purgatory.

thanks i appreciate that! i think making the hearts could pop up a bit more frequently in the queue or clarifying the ways to avoid damage better would help with that

Thanks for this, i definitely agree about the queue having a bit too much useless items

Such an effective game as a fun arcade experience. I think the main mechanic of increasing charge when in close proximity to crystals 

has a perfect opportunity for improvement in sound design 

- juicier satisfying magical charge sound with longer successful charge = higher pitch

which could improve the game drastically in fun and satisfaction.

Very solid game and starts to feel great when you get the hang of it. 

heres some changes i would like to see ( in my opinion )

1. increased coyote time (I'm sure a bit more would go a long way considered how many short platform sequences there are)

2. i really really really hate how the end of level trigger is not the entire floor and so you can basically "beat" a whole level and then land slightly to the right of the finish checker square and still drive off a cliff. it feels unfair and a brutal way to lose in some of the harder levels

3. less single square platforms in the later levels and some more interesting windy roads

4.  some of the more difficult levels are artificially even harder by the camera limited views so maybe it could zoom out a bit or do a better job of showing incoming platforms / hazards

5. better sound effects for hitting wall / better sound design in general

6. variety in visual level design / colors

7. increased visual depth of non driveable area (is it lava?)

Thanks for the advice ! i found that a lot of people felt similar about the sluggishness of the player, i wanted the player to feel powerless to push the game more into the horror genre but i think i ended up taking to much control out the players hand resulting in less fun gameplay. im gonna take a crack at making the ooblek more trampoline like, and less quicksand. 

for those of you who played, Do you think it would be worth expanding the game for a steam release priced  at $1.99.  finished game would include 3 worlds, new enemy and player mechanics,  polish n speedrun timer.  a problem a lot of players faced was the unfair onslaught of rng type enemies so i would want to push the game more puzzly / little nightmares esque. I wanted to hear your thoughts before I invest a month or two. 

Thanks i really appreciate it! yea incorporating more platform oriented sections is a great idea to switch up the gameplay. totally agree about the clarity, one thing i planned on doing but ran out of time was an oobleck noise screen shader that would kind of let the players know how low their stamina is. great idea about the color change i wish i thought of doing this just lerping to a more blue hue cause that would of been quick and effective.

Thanks it means a lot! yea one of the first things i do when i release a polished version is tweak the enemies to  be less unfair ahaha

Ur a beast! loved watching u do the slime strats lmao the last hit was insane, when i make an updated version of the game i think im gonna add a dive mechanic that can make general movement for speedrunning more engaging and help avoid close calls with sharks

You should speedrun Ooblek! i really wanted to add a timer but didnt have . time

my best time was 5"56

https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2582914

https://jahju.itch.io/ooblek

incredibly well designed platformer, so much content here and it all felt super tight. the music was super enjoyable the whole way through and it gave me crash bandicoots vibes. I would like some more easy sections to break up the pacing but wow that was great, really a complete package

If you like 3D Platformers

I made a game about oobleck

https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2582914

fun and chaotic i love it. I think it might be less confusing what to do if the cloning machine was at the top spitting them out so its more clear the connection between the what you put in effects what comes out

 fun and challenging experience. at the end i was able to finish that section by slashing up the vertical spikes to win which got me excited

love the walking animation 

great presentation and game feel. i think the gameplay would be stronger if the people tried to escape in more random patterns - it would feel more rewarding to catch up to them / convey their fear better,  maybe they start a chain reaction putting other people they bump  into in the fear state and every kill from this chain is added to a kill combo counter.  

pretty solid base, i think the player should start out with a more simple one shot slower fire rate and work up to the speed he currently with each progressive fight, its pretty intense out the gate. in a game like this the first boss is basically a tutorial on how to play so i think it should be even slower and have less health, the overall game package could be improved drastically by adding simple intro cinematics to the bosses, like literally if they just lerped in while player input is overidden that would be enough to give players some time to digest what is about to come. good work

I made a 3D Platformer 

Ooblek!

https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2582914

This game feels extremely faithful to classic retro games from the beeps to the game feel to the more detailed version of the 8bit character bordering the play screen. this made the horror twist all the more impactful lol i jumped and the transition to 3D was great.

Thank you so much for the kind words, you make me want to expand this into a full game!

cool experience, definitely defied my expectations, dialogue did get annoying after a bit

Thanks! yea for the sharks i ran out of time to make them follow bezier curves so the movement is a little unnatural, great feedback about the gameplay, if i go back to make this into a more full experience i want to push each area more puzzly where timing + awareness matters and basically to make the decisions the players make have more impact  with less shark rng lol

wow this was great, nice escalation of difficulty and breaks inbetween. good game design!

Mines Ooblek, a 3D Platformer

https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2582914

appreciate you ! yea when i figured out the slime ball boosting i loved how they could help you out, crocodile jumping definitely getting added when i make a polished jam version

Id love to see you play Ooblek on stream

https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2582914

really enjoyed the art and i was genuinely stressed at the end segments

thankss ! if i won i would seriously consider it 

thanks! yea the slime enemies predict movement so they became too difficult, i plan on changing them to be more fair post jam