Loved it, even though I'm usually not a fan of rage platformers this game did several things right:
- Checkpoints to limit how much progress you lose - Variety between areas and skills - Good feedback on impact, consistent
When spinning the blade it sometimes felt like it was too bouncy, and in the later areas it felt like I didn't have much reason to use it, maybe its initial jump could be buffed a bit, which would also make the initial area easier for a smoother difficulty curve.
The art is super nice and crisp, same goes for sound design, shattering glass is satisfying and the TF2 sticky bomb launcher has a lot of neat tricks you can do with it. Out of the jam games I played this is the best in its genre.
I was hoping the sound design would resonate with players (hehe), shoutout to Rausch and Chase for sound, music and voicelines.
I hope to expand on it with more varied level elements, like the bell and the piano, and plan to overhaul the camera a bit so that steering feels more natural.
Yes, I played around with a bunch of different lerp values but I'll still have to adjust it, maybe even add a few impact frames on bounce as someone else suggested.
Looks neat, but the camera needs to be MUCH more zoomed out to give the player a chance to see where to land. Shift isn't a great choice for a key you have to press repeatedly since that's the sticky keys shortcut by default, and fullscreen didn't work for me (Win/Firefox)
Thanks for letting me know, of course jam games will have a few bugs, but it's nice to see that you have a wiki that you could maybe integrate into the game if you choose to keep working on this project.
Very cute game! I like the toon shader on the little slime and it does lend itself to speedrunning.
Wallrunning can be a bit disorienting, I would advise rotating the camera to align with the wall when you stick to it, the same way you already flip it upside down when the player is on the ceiling.
Looks great and I like the autobattler mechanics, but I encountered two issues: - After a while my inventory was full and I couldn't sell anything in the shop, even after saving and reloading it wouldn't sell any of my items, which also meant I couldn't buy anything (web build, Firefox) - A lot of the keywords would benefit from a tooltip, or a manual that tells you what they do. As funny as "delicious" is as a trait for a sword, I have no idea how it affects my build
I really dig the style, not many mech games go with a marine theme. Gameplay and upgrades are quite cool, though I wish I could pause on a different screen for the upgrades, it's hard to remember what each one does.
Thanks for the comment, I assume you mean the spacing of the buttons in the main menu - I noticed they were anchored incorrectly too late, but in full screen it should work ok (depending on resolution).
Glad you enjoyed the rest though, we'll work on adjusting the volume for some sfx and probably all of the voicelines (in case it was too quiet there's a random voiceline each time you complete a level).
Lots of fun, and a great example of good scoping for a jam game!
I actually briefly went back to the now ancient Newgrounds game "Streets of Fire" after this, because your concept reminded me of it, but your game feels way more complete.
I love how the music slowly changes as you get more upgrades! The solo mechanic is really cool in theory, but WASD and 12345 don't work together that well - maybe if the attacks had autoaim, leaving the mouse hand free (not having to use the mouse), you could use keys that the player can easily press with the right hand.
If I were to make this game here's how I would try to make it:
- Have the "solo" challenge going all the time, but instead of a specific sequence, each instrument/upgrade you pick up has a different note it adds to the beat, which you have to match with the corresponding button - for example Bass would play one note every 1.5 seconds, where you have to press [2] to trigger its attack. Then each new instrument adds an additional "note" to this sequence, so the more upgrades you have, the more complex the melody becomes. Maybe multiple upgrades of the same instrument type could change the rhythm, for example two bass notes in quick succession instead of one at a time.
- These attacks should automatically aim at the nearest enemy
- Move the rhythm bar to the middle of the screen, like in Crypt of the Necrodancer
Very cute game, consistent artstyle and the stomp feels nice and impactful. Reminds me of some games I used to play on Nitrome. Good luck with the jam!
I do plan on adding a mouse sensitivity slider in the next version, as well as a proper tutorial, I justran out of time before I could implement it.
The voicelines should play, at least they play fine for me, after you complete a level press "Space" to advance to the next level. Let me know if it takes you to the next level automatically, that is definitely a bug.
Adding checkpoints was a great choice, I wish more games would do it.
The wallbounce mechanic was really interesting and the visuals are very polished, though if there's anything white in the background or a platform above the sword the jump bar becomes hard to see - maybe a black outline could help with that.
Love the style and animation, and it's a unique concept. The enemies turning you around when getting hit felt a bit disorienting, maybe I would get used to it over time. Solid jam entry!
Really fun entry, gives me Angerfoot vibes, and you even fit an upgrade system in there! My one bit of criticism is that Shift to sprint feels unnecessary, I would let the player move at their maximum possible speed without having to hold a button, or maybe add a dash ability instead if you want to give the player more options for movement.
I have a function in place to ease the camera into a new angle, but I'll probably have to tweak it more, the freeze frame is an interesting idea.
If you can't find an enemy try looking behind barrels, or up on windmills. I'll consider making them more visible, maybe with a marker/arrow that appears if the player is stuck.
If it's an intentional choice that's fair, although then I would suggest using two separate buttons for starting and ending slow motion - maybe LMB and RMB.
Started off promising and with a bit of polish I can see myself playing it for longer, but the level design is hostile in a way that isn't fun, even for a rage game. This becomes more problematic because ground movement means having to roll a square peg along the ground, which wastes a lot of time in an otherwise fast-paced game. Letting the player walk or even just making the collision box circular would cut the downtime in half. I like the simplicity of the controls, but there's definitely room for improvement in resetting the player for their next attempt, both in terms of ground movement and level design.
Great idea (I knew I wouldn't be the only one to make a remote controlled bullet) and lovely artstyle that reminds me of some of my favourite Sega Genesis era games, but the difficulty is brutal, even without the time limit. With how fast the bullet moves it zooms across most of the screen by the time I lifted my finger and managed to click again. Of course that can be tweaked, or a small delay could be added before the bullet fully speeds up, so it's very promising, would love to see a version 2.0 sometime.
Thank you! I tried to design the levels to teach one mechanic at a time, but didn't have time for a proper tutorial. We plan on continuing work on it, probably with different environments/themes each chapter.
Fun game concept (and Earthbound reference). The core gameplay is solid, although it might need a bit of polish. The borther can get stuck in a loop of falling into the same few pits if he gets into the wrong spot, and I didn't see an exit portal on the second level when I first played it.
I do enjoy the idea of protecting a different character though, while you only get knocked out temporarily, and making escort missions fun at all is an achievement in itself.
Very cool idea and well designed, but it would be nice to have more distinct visuals for the enemies and hostages.
Initially I wasn't sure why I don't get a full score when moving and stationary enemies kill each other, on level 8 it says "Enemies killed: 4/7", then I realized that technically I shot some of those enemies before they could get to the others. Adding some kind of marker to the timeline to show the order of events (such as a standing enemy getting killed) would make it way more intuitive.
Still a very unique and surprisingly complete game for this jam.
Edit: I also noticed that overlapping enemies cover each other completely. If two enemies are on the same tile it would be nice to have an offset between their positions.
Looks and plays like a hidden gem from the early Sega Genesis era.
Really solid entry, although after a while just sitting in the middle with a massive pile of corpses felt like I was unbeatable and actually had to try to lose. A Vampire Survivors-esque spin on it could work really well if you choose to continue this project.
I like the visuals and sound design, I wish it was more about using each tower!s respective specials instead of pressing the upgrade button.
I do like the way the resources physically moves along a pipeline, maybe you could have the player build pipelines and switches instead of directly controlling the towers.
There's a lot of potential here, but I'm not sure how to best rate this game, I have some conflicting thoughts.
The art style is great and works well with the theme and concept of the game. Controls are intuitive, although crouching happens too abruptly for a non-action game and can feel a bit disorienting, and at least for the web version using ESC to exit isn't the best, since it unfocuses the mouse cursor every time.
The limitation is incorporated very nicely and is integral to the core gameplay loop. I do wish you could zoom in on the instructions the same way you look at screens, otherwise it can be hard to read.
It has tons of potential and the presentation delivers that Iron Lung-esque vibe, but my main issue is a lack of real direction. Do I just maintain the three stations until the timer counts down? Do I try to find a way into the area I see past the grates? Is it even accessible? And what is causing the damage I keep fixing? Is plugging the power cell into the socket in front of the gate sealing or opening it when the valve turns?
Leaving things vague does help engage the player's imagination and that's especially helpful in horror games, but I wish there was a clearer overall thread that ties together the moment-to-moment gameplay, so that I can be engaged in an overarching goal instead of putting out fires where I see them like when playing Overcooked with a younger sibling, and more visual feedback when losing would help me want to try again. It's a solid foundation, just needs to find the right balance between "vague and mysterious" and "clear and responsive".
Edit: Oh and subtitles for the ending sequence would be great too, I couldn't make out everything, but appreciate that you added some voice acting too.
Effective use of a simple concept, although it's very hard to read the long descriptions of all the different upgrades while also doing a timed minigame and checking all the timers.
Maybe moving the upgrades to in-between levels could help, or if the hectic nature of performing multiple tasks is the point then you should definitely add icons to the upgrades to help players quickly recognize them.
Not sure if winning is possible, by the end I had almost everything maxed out but still got destroyed in two quick hits.
Thank you for the comment! There is an indicator for the amount of energy you have left, but because I messed up the UI scaling it only shows in fullscreen. Pushing should work by holding both LMB and RMB, but if it didn't work for you it might be a bug I'll have to look into.
I'll probably rework the bullets once I have clearer level designs so I can plan accordingly.
Edit: I made the game launch in fullscreen mode by default now, in hindsight I should've done that from the start.
Unique and funny concept, would like to see it explored a bit more with different stats.
I'd also prefer if you could parry multiple multiple incoming hits with one swipe, and the flashing effect is a bit too strong once the battle really gets going.
Best use of the limitation I've seen so far and charming visual style, but I wish interactions were more seamless, dropping flowers directly onto the workstations instead of having to open a menu each time.
A simple concept executed well. I would have liked to see more complexity with the mechanics, but the presentation is nice and it's a good example of a game with a small scope that's actually doable within a jam deadline.
