Thank you for playing! That issue with the drill not saving your last input is sadly a known issue, it mainly only comes up when playing on keyboard and I did most of my testing on controller so I didn’t find the problem until the last day or two of the project, at which point I wasn’t able to fix it in time. If I decide to go back and patch the game after this jam that will definitely be the first thing I touch up. I hope you had fun regardless!
You hit the nail right on the head! This is the first video game I’ve ever completed from start to finish and seeing it in motion is a dream come true! I’m glad you had fun with it!
I’m sorry that you had difficulty with the controls. I would have loved to implement a tutorial level to help get players more acclimated but it ended up getting cut for time constraints. Similar issue with letting the player map their own keybinds, which I imagine would have helped alleviate some frustration for you. If using WASD, jump and shift is too close together for you, maybe try using arrow keys, Z, and X instead! I tried to make enough standard control options so everyone could be accommodated.
I’ll keep this critique in mind for future projects though, thank you for your honesty!
Thank you so much for playing to the end and for the constructive feedback! Originally I had decided to keep the charging time short so the player couldn’t float in the air for a super long time, I thought getting the “rhythm” of the charge timing would be fun to master. I may consider making the charge timer much more lenient if I go back to patch the game after the jam. Thanks again!
This game was super sick! Smooth controls, a great risk reward style of play where you want to play aggressively to keep yourself alive. I always want to just push forward and hit hard in video games so this hit the spot perfectly for me. A good variety of boss types. I loved the "I'm you, but stronger" final boss, always a good trope. Only tiny nitpick is that I would love for there to be a ranking system so I can go for high scores. You have a score system that works really well but I want to have a "reach this score to be turbo awesome" kind of system so I have an excuse to replay the game more.
Excellent work, really hoping you win something for this!
Probably my favorite game from this jam so far. Controls are super intuitive so you can pick up and play right away. The art style is really fun, water physics are very funny, humor is very funny, fish is very funny, spin is very funny. You do a sick flip and the game does a tony hawk sound effect. Absolutely peak. I only wish that I didn't need to restart after every death. I really wanted to beat it but it was too hard for me :(
This game is just so good, the art and animation is on point, the wealth of content is staggering for a game made in only a month, and the whole package screams professional polish. I'm also EXTREMELY bad at this game, and I think the main issue I'm having is with the controls.
Jump, dash, attack, special attack, and switch weapons is a bit too much for me to juggle on a keyboard, I found myself constantly trying to remind myself what buttons I needed to press while trying to fight the bosses, which can feel pretty frustrating. This would have been instantly remedied if I could have used my controller but for some reason dash wasn't mapped to any buttons? (Or at least none of the buttons on my controller let me dash). Dashing is super important for dodging enemies so playing on controller was not really a good alternative for me.
If controls had been implemented just a bit more gracefully I think this game would be a 10/10, but for now it's just a bit below that for me.
I really want to love this game, the art is spectacular and the feel of play is solid. I stuck with it for like 5 tries before I had to give up for two main reasons.
1. At the beginning of the first fight you have to get underneath the boss to screw in a blue bolt. However, when you are under the boss he will hit you with spike attacks that are basically completely undodgeable. There are spikes to the left and right so you can't get out of the way, the only way I could see that it was possible to avoid the attack was to fully jump out and fly away, which isn't super fun to do since you lose the chance to continue screwing in the bolt.
2. When you die you start over at the beginning of the tutorial instead of right in front of the boss. That extra wait time can really kill motivation to play, as it did for me.
I really think this game could be awesome with just a little bit more balancing and some quality of life improvements though! The bones are there, it just needs polish.
This is an absolutely beautiful game, I love the style and artwork, the animations are fun and I can totally get behind the concept that this game is going for.
However, I genuinely think this game is not functional in its current state. When I first played, I was immediately flung out of bounds by the boss and had to restart the program. On my second try I basically ignored the fast forward and slow down mechanic and just stood on top of the bosses and mashed attack until they all died. I was also allowed to stand in the center of the record, which let me avoid all obstacles without worry.
I really love the concept for this game and the presentation made it easy to stick with the game to completion despite the issues but the gameplay really needed more time in the oven.
The game was very addictive and fun to master. By the end of playing I found myself parrying over and over to lay the smack down and that was a good feeling. The fact that every single attack can be parried was awesome too.
However, I think the parry may also be the game's biggest weakness. The parry timing is very generous and healing after every successful parry makes the dominant strategy to stand still, wait for the boss to attack, and then parry and mash attack. It's fun to master that, but can feel a little one note and repetitive.
I still had a good time though, great job with this!
Those are all really good ideas, thanks for the cool suggestions! I like the idea of players being able to dynamically choose their own difficulty, making the fight hectic and fast or relaxed and slow, seems like a strong way to make the game appealing for both casual and hardcore players.
Thank you for the feedback! That weird dash mechanic was sadly something caught pretty late into development, I did the vast majority of my testing with controller where that effect of drilling the wrong way basically never comes up. Once I found the bug I wasn't able to fix it before the jam ended :(
But otherwise thanks for the kind words and being honest about how you think the game can improve!
Thanks for playing and for the constructive criticism! The waiting times was a known issue through later development, it was difficult trying to balance around making sure you can't beat the first two bosses way too quickly with fast recharges vs making the final boss way too hard with the slower recharges.
I had originally bounced around the idea of spawning more charges more quickly and requiring the player to get more of them before winning and maybe that would have helped your issue of the game being too slow. Sadly I didn't have the time to implement that change later in development and hoped that people would like the game regardless.
Thanks for being genuine in your critique, it helps me get better!
Super cool game, awesome visuals and a fun gameplay concept. However, it seems like the game is based entirely around controller inputs and I couldn't get my controller to work for this game for the life of me. I was able to beat the first boss by using WASD for movement and J to drill attack but I couldn't get past the win screen for the first boss because I couldn't "push A". Not sure if that's just a problem with my system or with the game but maybe in the future provide some form of keyboard support for greater accessibility.
I do wish I could have played more, I really liked what I played and the screenshots make the rest of the game look even cooler!
"You doin' alright? Or just waitin' for traffic to finish the job?" Is a hilarious way to start your game, the style hooks you right away. No idea how to get past the tutorial fight but I'm sure the game would be super sick if I did haha.
Not bad! I like that once I learn the boss's patterns I can beat pretty quick! Fun use of the spin theme and a hectic and crazy fight. Only wish there was more!
Fun game! Really really difficult and a little overstimulating but I had fun trying to master the systems. Art and sound design were awesome. Well done!
Nice game! I really enjoyed the designs of the bosses, animations felt good and the player character feels nice and responsive to control. Dodge roll feels like you can always control how much damage you take.
Only issue I had was some attack telegraphs were hard to read. The timing when the mole would pop out of the ground could be a bit hard to gauge and I was never sure when the spider would go for a normal swipe or a spin attack.
I also loved that the bosses all had new attacks once they hit half health. A great way to make the fight more intense as it progresses.
I thought the game was really awesome! Excellent work!
