itch.io

Ello – I loved playing this game, I had a very similar idea about turning a vehicle with candy canes but I was planning on building it with a top down view. My team and I ended up doing something entirely different, but it’s interesting to see someone else build something similar to what I was thinking.

I have a few pieces of feedback if you’re interested:

1. As a couple other people mentioned I felt lost while playing most of the levels. Notably, it wasn’t an interesting lost where I was excited to find my way back, I was just consistently guessing where to go next. And then I would randomly stumble to where I needed to go. Either adding landmarks or subtle hints of where I’m meant to go would help.

2. It was very dark in some of the levels – I’m pretty sure at some point I hit an invisible wall, but it took me 10-20 seconds to realize my car wasn’t actually moving anymore. Maybe putting a house there or making sure that all level borders are clearly visible would help.

Well done!

Hey there! Congrats on submitting, for a second game this is great work!

I have a few pieces of feedback if you’re interested:

1. The grappling hook mechanic was difficult to time – I am using a trackpad so it might just be an issue that gets solved with a mouse, but I find it’s often important to think about ways to make the game easier for players. It’s always going to be easier to you as the developer than it will be for other players. Maybe instead of clicking on the box, the player could just hold left click once they’re in range, and that would do the trick.

2. Adding feedback also goes a long way – for example when attacking the enemies, I was never sure if I had actually hit them or not. If they flashed white or took knockback it would indicate to the player that something actually happened.

Though these two points are specific to this game, they can be interpreted for future games as well in two simple ideas: make the game easier than you think it needs to be, provide feedback to the player so they know their actions actually happened.

Great job, keep at it!

Loved this idea, and got a highscore of 1095 while playing. I’ve got a few pieces of nitpicky feedback:

1. Would love to have progress more clear when manually wrapping gifts. I often tried hitting them before then entered the machine, but it was unclear whether I was actually wrapping them or not until they suddenly turned into the present icon. Having some kind of effect or sound or maybe a slow animation play as I wrap them would be great.

2. Increasing the hit box size for the gifts would also help greatly. There were a few frustrating moments where I thought I was hitting them but they just weren’t moving at all.

Great job overall!

I only made it to stage 2 but this was great fun!

My only piece of feedback is that I would have enjoyable a small buffer before leaving the cane and a small buffer before attaching as well as after.

Amazing job overall!

Hey there!

I loved the 3D models for this game, they look great. I unfortunately had to stop playing at the 1:30 mark because I started getting motion sickness (it may be that I’m also playing this in a moving vehicle…). I have a few points of feedback if you’re interested (just my opinion on what you could change to improve the game):

1. I think a 3rd person camera view as oppose to a 1st person camera would do wonders for this game. Mainly, it would make it less disorienting, because I would be able to see how my Christmas tree is moving. 2nd, the camera would be more stable and it would reduce motion sickness.

2. I often found myself wanting to stabilize the tree because it was just spinning out of control. Facilitating this by either showing the player which way they’re going so they can stabilize themselves, or by adding some damping so the ship naturally stabilizes would also solve this issue.

Keep at it!

Ello! Oh man, this was very well made!

I only have a couple points of feedback:

1. I felt the time before the next level loads after I got the balls into the bag was just a little too long. It was just long enough that I felt I should make this comment, if it was just a little shorter it would be perfect. I don’t know if it’s intentionally left a little longer so the bombs have more time to fall in, and if that’s the case, maybe you can only increase the time if there are any bombs in the level.

2. I love that the scene doesn’t reload when the ball misses, and instead it just spawns a new ball. It makes restarting the level feel like it wasn’t too bad after all.

3. The background doesn’t feel cohesive with the rest of the game art. Though the pixel scale is the same, because it makes use mostly of double pixels, it looks like it’s half the size as the rest of the game assets, but scaled up.

Great job!

Heylo! Congrats on submitting a game to the jam, the fact you submitted is an accomplishment in of itself.

I tried to play the game, but I ran into a few issues, mainly I couldn’t always pick up candy canes from the counter. I’m also not really sure what the menu does. When I opened it, pressing the numbers on my keyboard did nothing.

My biggest piece of advice / feedback for future jams is to focus on building one thing well as oppose to stretching yourself thin. For example, I noticed the dash mechanic, the many types of candy canes, the menu, etc… But the main mechanic of the game didn’t work as intented it seems. If all that time had been spent specifically and allowing the player to pick up candy canes and deliver them, it would significantly increase the overall quality of the game.

Congrats nonetheless, keep at it!

I love the cutscene at the beginning! Very well done.

My only piece of feedback is that the actions themselves did not feel very impactful. Like dealing damage, or taking damage, launching myself, etc… Adding some extra effects like screenshake when you take damage, or knockback when you deal damage. Maybe the player should squish down when they prepare to jump.

Adding some anticipation and completion effects would take this game to the next level.

Very well done.

Hello! Got to the end of the game and tried all the weapons. I have a few points of feedback:

1. I enjoyed the focus on more “boss fight” types of enemies.

2. The enemy attack patterns felt basic in that most of them could be avoided simply by running in circles. Making them more complex so the player actually needs to dodge the projectiles instead of just running in circles would make the game more enjoyable.

3. I found myself trying all the weapons, and eventually just sticking to the rocket launcher because it seemed like the best one (and most fun to use), but in future jams, instead of spending time creating multiple weapons I would try to make 1-2 weapons, and then add a TON of polish to them. Things like screenshake, indicators that show where your enemies will attack, particles, etc… can go a long way to make a game more enjoyable.

Great job!

Hey there! This was great to play, I managed to win with a time of 1:23 and collected 23 gifts. I have a few pieces of feedback:

1. The gravity scale felt very high, like I was being thrown at the ground when I wasn’t actively jumping. It made some of the platforming elements very difficult, like landing on the penguins to make my way across the pit of spikes.

2. There wasn’t a strong distinction between the penguins and the bears. It took me a while to figure out I could stand on the penguins without taking damage. Making a clear distinction between what is friend and foe often makes the play experience more enjoyable.

3. Falling off the map should respawn the player at the ledge where they fell with one less life instead of restarting the whole level. It goes with the rest of the pattern you had established in the game where doing something bad takes away one life instead of restarting.

Overall, amazing job!

Thank you for trying it out, glad you enjoyed it!

This makes sense! But if I were to dig, I am digging on the tile I am standing or the tile I am looking?

This is a great concept!

If you had more time, I would have love to have seen some post-processing effects to make tie the graphics together.

Having some feedback as well when you hit an enemy with your guns would also let the player know that what they are doing is helping. Like making the enemies flash white or having a sound effect play would be a great place to start.

Hope this helps!

The art looks fantastic!

I’m confused as to how the map and the game world line up? There doesn’t seem to be a beach icon, yet I consistently found myself on a beach.

Walking around and checking the map and trying to figure out where I was seemed like a hopeless endeavour, and I assumed I was supposed to try to find the X on the map and dig but I felt more confused than anything.

If you could clear some of these things up I’d love to play again and adjust my rating :D

Very cool game!

How to 10x your game:

• Add Camera Movement so you can see the island from more than one perspective

Thanks!

Thank you :D

Thanks! Glad you liked it! :D

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thank you! :D

Thank you! We're continuing development of this game, so feel free to follow us if it's something you're interested in :]

Thanks!

Thank you so much for the suggestions! Glad you like it :)

Thank you! :D

Thanks! Enemies have health, the D6 have 3 health, you need to shoot them 3 times, the D4 have 8, etc

Thank you, thank you! The retro / arcade vibe is kind of what I was going for while making the art so I'm glad it feels that way :D

Thanks!

Thank you! We'll keep that in mind :D

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you! :D Yep, d12 is on the features list for further development xD

thanks! I'll be sure to check it out

Thank you!
More variety as in more of the dice? We were planning on implementing the D10, D12, and D100 but ran out of time. But we already have a D4, D6, D8, and D20. If you have any ideas for how the D10, 12, or 100 should behave, let us know! We'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you so much! Weird that it didn't work in webgl for you in the past...

Hello hello! :D

Here's some feedback:

🎮 Gameplay:
- Gameplay was cool! But I would have liked to know what the dice rolls and the attacks did, sometimes I wasn't shooting, sometimes I was. Would have also liked to know what determines that behaviour :)

- I still have no idea what the lines do when the big enemies appear and connect with the smaller enemies, would have loved some kind of in game feedback for what's happening there.

- I think this game could have benefited from a score or count up timer to see how long I survive

🔊 Audio:
- Would have loved some shoot and hit sounds for the player and enemies. It's currently a little unclear whether I actually hit an enemy or not with a bullet, so the sounds would have made it more clear. 

- I have a hypothesis that the attachments to the big ships are shields? Having audio feedback for it would be nice as well (we did something in our game where D6s when they are rolled on a six, become invulnerable, and there's a different sound when they get hit)

🎨 Design:
- Generally, it looks great, but I think it could have benefited from a lot more juice.

- More visual feedback as well would have been nice, like when I hit an enemy, they flash white for like a SPLIT second, but it's waaay too fast  for me to actually notice it most of the time. Adding particles or making the flash last a bit longer could help here.

- Again if the attachments to the bigger ships act as shield, you could stop the bullet at the shield and make the shield flash white instead of the enemy ship.

- The game is generally missing in game feedback for the player to let me know how I'm doing.

- Death particles or animations for the ships would bring the overall experience up

Hope this helps!

Thank you!

Thank you! For Lighting, here's a good tutorial by Brackeys in case you want to do something similar in the future :)

Thank you!  Glad you liked the way it looked - For the shaders and lighting, here's a good tutorial by Brackeys in case you want to do something similar in the future :)

Thank you!!! :D

Thank you so much!
Yeah, the WASD works on our end for web version, but there seems to be quite a few more bugs - we just wanted to make it easier for people to play xD