Hi, firstly congratulations to release this early version, it takes much courage to open to feedback.
Now, talking about the game, I think it has some merits and some flaws.
The ogre is a nice tutorial, it is easy to beat and while I didn't understand mechanics such as the grab and it being called "tutorial" instead of ogre as it is referred to in the big text of the main menu confused me, I think it was successful in teaching me the basics.
From what I understand, the point is avoiding the enemy damage and dealing yours. Dodging is always better than defending because it nullifies all damage. It is really difficult to strategize due to the cards having odd shapes that are always a couple of ticks off, I think adding more damage ticks in a card instead of just one would help.
I liked how you could keep adding during play without having to stop the game, and also that you could drag a card between two, and they would rearrange themselves accordingly (great polishing touch).
It was not clear to me this was a permanent death game, and the ogre giving me no money or cards, and the dinosaurs being too hard, made me impossible to get stronger, but this is just an early-build.
I'm interested in which game inspired you, if any, I can think of Backpack Hero, but there were also another roguelike with a conveyor belt of which I don't remember the name right now.
Beaten the content provided in a couple of runs, overall a solid foundation for a roguelike with a good variation in levels, enemies, and environments, but with much-needed changes to the combat and the amount of info available to the player, such as: * Sometimes the enemy design didn't match their attack * How effects such as Shock work are not explained * The cooldown on the range attack is really slow * The player is not easily aware of the range attack cooldown, being focused on the center of the screen. * All the time-based attacks (such as the throwables launched by the skeletons) don't show their timers. Reducing the orange circles would help mitigate that (the closer the circle the less time you have to get out of the way). I don't know if the circle was also indicating the area of effect, in that case maybe another solution should be found.
Reading a first comment is always heartwarming. Thanks to your kindness and time I was able to remember how messy is this game, such sweet memories. I know solitaire can be difficult to win, but I am glad you liked the aesthetic, it is an aspect of game development I always put great effort into.
Nobody is "the best" at anything, so don't feel bad, you made excellent progress from Spinner Defender.
The UI is good enough, I like how the sniper zoom position works nicely in both 3rd and 1st person. Now, I was referring to the arrows not disappearing, or in a better way conveying they can't be interacted with, that at first confused me.
Very well-made videogame for having been completed in a jam. There are unbalances like the sniper is probably the best weapon I tested, and some UX oddities, like showing decision arrows on the level selection screen that does not work until you have completed the tutorial. Still, overall it is a solid product for the time limit you had.
Nerf the Vulkan, it is just too OP XD Nice game btw, I couldn't make it past the second stage, but I found the gameplay limitations fun. Being able to only shoot in 8 directions was challenging. The art was nice, especially the icons of the different weapons. Plenty of room for improvements, but that's true with every jam game.
Unfortunately, the gifs tire quickly, distracting from the game loop that is the brothel minigame. Which, for its part, lacks clarity and enough data to avoid making the player a slave to luck. Personally, I would advise you to refine the game before investing time in polishing the animations or lengthen the story. Without a solid foundation, it won't matter how good the content is.
Hey, happy that you are updating the game, and I like most of what I'm seeing.
What I liked: - The new store page background and images in the description, really nice touches and well made. - The first screenshot. It is probably too subtle for a gif, but it's still good. - The game seems easier now, did you make something with the random generation? The gems stopped spawn too far away and are now easier to catch. - The powerups, I didn't find them too useful, but it's refreshing to see something different now and then.
What I disliked: - The image at the top. It is just a screen, you can do better. And remember to upload it as a banner, to get all the top. You can do it by visiting the "Edit theme" menu. - The oversaturated screenshots 2 to 6. You have put too many overlays and they are really repetitive. - The screenshots text. Too simple, since I know you can come up with something way better, I'm a bit disappointed to see just a simple rhombus. - The screenshots above the 7th, they are no more necessary in my opinion. - The 2 builds, better to have an option to toggle between windowed and fullscreen. - Still no settings to mute the game.
Bugs: - The green powerups are defined as help to collect the gems (screenshot), but from what I experience, the additional carts act just as a shield preventing you from losing HP.
Anyway, nice update and keep up with the good work
This game has great potential, but it needs a little more work regarding the User Experience.
These are my suggestions: - Add the possibility to mute or lower the music/sound effects. - A little squeeze animation on weapon reload, to briefly attract the attention of the player. - Don't restart the intro every time the game is open. - Pause in-game with resume, go to the menu and restart options.
Apart from these little additions, the game is beautiful, efficient and fun to play.
Great job, since I have a lot to say I'll try to be brief Starting with the Itch.io page, which is good, but can be improved. Your game works well with GIFs, so I recommend that you introduce at least one in your screenshots. Also, the look of the page would improve with a large logo and background, like in these other games: https://ko-op.itch.io/dep-nocturne https://terrycavanagh.itch.io/dicey-dungeons Unfortunately, the game font is really difficult to read, perhaps due to the size of the window. And this causes problems in understanding the help panel, mainly due to the difficulty of recognizing the controls compared to the rest of the text. I recommend using a different colour or font to highlight them. Nice idea to insert links to social media in the credits. The text you use to explain the game is perhaps too long and sometimes redundant. You could try reducing it, like in this attempt I made: "Catch as many gemstones as you can, each one missed will reduce your health. Good luck." As the game is built for PC, it would be a nice addition to be able to return to the menu using the ESC (from panels such as help and credits), rather than having to click the 'back' button. Following long-established practices, the button to close the game should be coloured red. Also, its icon is too similar to that of the credits, I recommend changing one of the two. Nice custom intro, with the game logo. Adding options to change the sounds or increase the window size would improve the gaming experience. I recommend creating a button for the resume in-game. If you apply any of my suggestions, remember to update the Itch.io page.
That's it, thanks for sharing your game with the community and good luck.
This game needs an active and numerous userbase to function properly, like Forts. It is promising, but not ready in its current state, mainly due to the lack of clear objects to pursue. The art style is beautiful, but without a tutorial to effectively introduce a player to the gameplay, it is unlikely that anyone will enjoy the experience. What I really founded interesting, is the flying system. It is easy to understand, but it can sustain complex moves and attacks. The UI is ok, maybe the buttons are a little hard to see, especially with the not strong color difference between the charging bar and its grey background.
I cannot further critique a game that is still in an alpha state. Develop a great tutorial with scripted missions to help the player handle the basics of the gameplay, and keep working hard like you are already doing.
Nice game, difficult at least for me, I had to repeat the third level three times and the fourth two.
In some places it's easy to fool the AI by continuing to jump over a cover, firing a shot and then hiding again, but it makes the gameplay boring and the fact that dying makes you just restart the current level, makes trying new strategies less risky and therefore more fun.
Every time I found a new weapon I was excited to try it, and the possible weapons are many, but it's a pity that it doesn't change the model too. The artistic department is varied, each level has its own aspect, unfortunately recognizing the different enemies is difficult, and therefore also understanding what weapons they have and therefore how to fight them becomes complex. But as said before, there is not much risk and after redoing several levels several times, I knew different ways to avoid many of the enemies, so as to quickly return to where I died.
It's the product of a Game Jam, so I'll avoid judging it too much. That despite all the limitations, you managed to achieve something so well done is a great achievement.
It's been a while since I tried Spinner Defender, and the changes you made are excellent, congratulations. I particularly liked all the graphic and sound improvements and the addition of a new map, although this unfortunately is not different from the original, which could be improved by making one of the two easier, I found the game much more difficult than before . The menu is simple and easy to navigate, the instructions are concise and clear but sufficient to understand the functioning of the game.
Now the pains begin, I'm sorry but there is still something, little, to improve. The sound addition has been great, but there are still no options to turn it down or turn it off. Better if divided into Music and Effects. After a defeat you cannot restart the level but you are forced to return to the previous window.
At the moment this I noticed, I don't think the game needs too many changes now, especially if you have decided to move to new projects. I am very happy to see you finish Spinner Defenders and I am looking forward to trying your next work.
Thanks for including me in the credits and good luck.
Omg, how much progress! It was a while since I played the game and before I could do it I also accidentally started the first version (from the itch.io client), and now that I have tried 0.9.1 ... I am speechless. There is still a lot of work to do, for example the possibility of mutating the audio, I almost became deaf. But I owe you my warmest congratulations for the enormous improvements you have made to the project.
Starting from the most immediate as the UI, which you managed to create in the same style of the game, perhaps too simple but sufficient for this type of game (don't know, instead of the words some icon?) The new enemy is now more within the reach of the player's attacks but still remains a killer with his lasers, although it is a pity that there is never more than one. But most of all the biggest improvement is the rebound when you kill an enemy, the first time I discovered it was amazing. Since then I have continued to try to take more than one enemy at a time, risking more than once to die. But it was still fantastic.
A somewhat more elaborate menu and maybe a few more backgrounds would be nice additions, but I still think the game is really well done.
I completely agree with what SphaeriCactus said. Personally I never managed to bounce on more than one enemy, but I felt the vulnerability to fall from very high after destroying many enemies, definitely adrenaline.
As for the new enemy, it's a simple opponent to understand but difficult to manage in large quantities, which for now has never happened. Since I've never seen more than one at a time, which makes it easy to destroy.
A very funny thing is to die while falling because of a bullet that the new enemy fired, maybe just before he died.
You definitely have to go on like this, I can't wait to see what you'll do next time ^^
Obviously not perfect, for example you don't understand that you have to assign different codes for different actions, and for the jump 3 touches are too many, I don't imagine how it could be after ... But apart from that it's ... nice, I can't find other words to describe it. An original idea, well done, that captures you and above all makes you have fun.
I'm very sorry I didn't find this game before to review it in Game Jam. But I'm glad I found it, so now I can follow you and play the full game, because you'll finish it ... right?
Nice, maybe the colors would have chosen them different, but it's still beautiful.
Everything works, from the least to the restart, so great job for a game jam. The idea of having only one bullet is not original, but it was very well done and it's fun to play the game, that's enough in my opinion.
Although I only arrived at 3rd level due to the lag, I really appreciated the idea, interesting and funny, especially when I went to retrieve a sailor at the bottom of the sea, hoping that you hadn't added a drowning system.
A not very original idea but well done, I could not proceed beyond the 3rd level and this is good, even if I failed it kept me busy a long time and it is not the kind of game I love to play.
Great game, difficult but you never have the impression that it's impossible, just that you're doing something wrong.
And when you finally pass the level you're really happy.
The mechanics of the one direction blends perfectly with the game, which in addition to being very pleasant to play is also pleasant to look at with a light and well-made minimal graphics, although I found the backgrund sometimes annoying, because it was confused with the corridors.
For having been made in 48 hours it is a pearl, I absolutely recommend to continue developing it.
