itch.io

I guess still this one: https://paulsgames.itch.io/ostarkdidi    

Sometimes simple game mechanics just work out really well. I had no problems coming up with 70 different levels/puzzles for this game (well, it still took a lot of time), because of the depth of the game mechanics and all the different possibilities they give. Because of how well it does in terms of depth vs complexity (see e.g. Extra Credits), I'm really proud of this one. 

I've also used this six year old game to practice new tools and skills over the years (drawing with Krita, adding online leaderboards, extending my custom engine to the web, writing dynamic music, etc.)

Thanks! Did you play single player or with two players? Feel free to keep me updated about your progress!

All that's needed is a tiny UI update, right? 

Anyway, let me know if you have an arcade machine build, and I'll put it on there.

Cool game! 

...and did I notice arcade machine compatible controls...?

Thanks! Unity can easily build for MacOS, so there shouldn't be any problems, but I don't have a way to check the MacOS build myself. If you want I can still try it, and ask others to check, and post it if it all works.

I made a music visualizer! Chill out and listen to your favorite music, while staring at abstract, fractal-like visuals that evolve and react in real time to the music.

It works with microphone input, or you can play mp3 / ogg / wav files from your computer with it.

Download it here: https://paulsgames.itch.io/ink-blob

I just made a major update again. Have fun, and let me know what you think!

Ostark and Didi

Hello, and welcome!

Typically everyone here recommends their own games, but I'll try to refrain from that... Are you looking for free or paid games?

If you look at my creator page, I share a couple of collections: the arcade games collection contains free, short and fun browser games. The bundle collections contain some of my favorite paid games on here.

Considering your preferences, if you're looking for paid games: I can really recommend Hypagogia Boundless Dreams (weird, atmospheric), Pikuniku (narrative, simple puzzles, very funny) and Micro Dash (exploration, puzzles, retro) - you can find the links in my collections.

Um... How do I enter a cabin? I'm just wandering around aimlessly for minutes...

That's awesome. I'm a bunny spider chicken!

Hello Howard,

Your game looks interesting! I'm interested in play testing it. The need for creating an account and another player is a bit of a hurdle, but I'll try it later this week and let you know how it goes.

More feedback is still welcome!

I created a gameplay video which shows some of the gameplay as it is in the later, more challenging levels:

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I was in doubt about this level. I think I'll put it a bit later - it's always good to let the player practice new abilities in a safe environment (I have known and preached this for years - just didn't apply it myself...).

By the way there's no standard "one player presses button, other walks through door" mechanic in this game. The core cooperative mechanic has a similar function, but is a bit more original. It's only introduced in Level 8 however...

I thought so too about automatic fire. Fortunately, it's one of the first upgrades that's available in the skill trees. Buy it! :-)

Okay I have some feedback.

Here's what I like:

- it's all very "juicy" and alive: lots of particles, screen shake, everything is animated (tweened).

- in principle, there's a clear tutorial that takes you through everything.

- the game play is fast.

Here's what I don't like:

- The downside of all that juice is that it's visually very "noisy": it's hard to understand what's going on.

- There's no time to learn what everything is or does: if you take it slow and look at the pickups or enemy behaviors, you're dead. The first wave is immediately all out. That's good for experienced players (with full skill trees), but probably there should be a slow training mode where enemies and abilities are introduced one by one. Possibly without gaining XP.

- For such a fast and short game, replaying is frustratingly slow: it's possible that you die after 2 seconds, but then you need to wait more than 5 seconds for the UI animation, to go back to the menu, and to restart (at least that's what it feels like - I didn't time it). There needs to be an immediate restart button - I don't care about my newly gained XP, unless I got very far.

- Some of the tutorial text is absolutely tiny! (When viewed on an average laptop screen.) The smallest fonts need to be at least twice as big, if not more.

REVIEW:

I just finished this game, playing together with my brother, and we had a blast. (Surprise twist: we're both in our forties.)

I think all the levels can be finished when playing alone, but with two players it's easier. Or is it? If you're not communicating and following a plan, you're sabotaging each other just as much as helping, and that's hilarious.

Anyway, there are eight worlds with ten levels each, and a lot of different puzzle mechanics that are introduced and explored nicely throughout these worlds. It's an entertaining puzzle action game, with a lot of variation.

Some small constructive criticisms: there are some difficulty spikes: levels that might have you stuck for a long time, without a way to continue to the next world, so some perseverance is needed. The colors are extremely bright, saturated and mostly primary (like bright red, green, yellow, blue). In some levels this actually hurts the eyes, especially when playing on a good screen like a TV. I don't mind the cartoony, child-like look, but slightly more modest color schemes would have been nice. Finally, starting the game with two controllers is somehow a bit finicky, but we did manage every time.

EDIT:

I just made a new major update, so feedback is again welcome! The major new changes are that the controls are faster (but also enemies are faster to compensate), and a new ability is introduced: laying an egg! If you just want to try out the new ability: in the first level, go all the way to the left with both birds, and then jump simultaneously.

ORIGINAL POST:

I recently updated one of my browser games, Ostark & Didi, a puzzle platformer for one or two players:

https://paulsgames.itch.io/ostarkdidi

One of the recent additions was adding online leaderboards. According to those, only few people manage to get past the early levels, so now I'm wondering:

- is the difficulty curve too steep and are people bouncing off?

- or is the difficulty curve to gentle, and does it take too long before the game gets interesting? (Is "the hook" presented too late?)

- is there something else that's holding players back from enjoying the game? (controls? I don't know...)

So I would love to get some more feedback on this. If you play it, was something holding you back? Was some level too difficult? Or was it boring because new abilities were introduced too slowly? What were your (least) favorite levels?

Also, if you give useful feedback, and you have a browser game that you want feedback on (not NSFW, not horror), let me know - I'd be happy to return the favor.

https://paulsgames.itch.io/ostarkdidi

Here are more than 50 levels of puzzle / action fun. Give your brain a workout, and explore the deep game play created by the interaction between these original player ability and path finding systems.

This game is best with two players (and controllers), but can be played single player as well.

In this new major update, online leaderboards are added, and the graphics have been vastly improved! Can you reach the top of the leaderboard?

All comments and feedback are welcome!

Thanks for the detailed feedback, awesome! I recognize the things you point out. Indeed, the game is mainly designed for two players, only later I added single player mode. I also agree on the tile look. The game has come a long way from its game jam roots, but the tiles are still as they were made in the first weekend. That should be a priority.

Alright, here's one: https://paulsgames.itch.io/ostarkdidi

Questions:

1) Are there are levels that were too hard or frustrating?

2) How far did you get until you were bored?

3) What is the main thing you would you add to make it more attractive?

In 99% of the cases, yes. Just be happy and proud if your game is put into collections.

However you can use collections for anything, and I have seen people use it for instance to keep track of malware: https://itch.io/t/3512426/itch-is-not-a-safe-place-do-not-download-things

Then you can find that game page more easily next time, if you want to play it again (or if you want to check for updates, or give feedback).

You can also create public collections, to show your followers and possibly others what the good games here are (I have three such collections, you can find them on my creator page).

itch.io (most likely) also uses collections to determine the games that should be at the top of their recommendation lists, or on the front page, but the details behind their recommendation system are a secret (for a good reason).

https://paulsgames.itch.io/showtime

This is a short dexterity game, where you need to do tricks and create  combos to get the high score. 

Are you skilled enough to get your name on the online leader boards?

For me too (Firefox), but not in the download version. Both versions still have the "shop close" bug though.

Yay, I finally did it!

How? Mostly by learning when exactly The Bug occurs, and managing to avoid it until getting around 5000 points. This allowed me to build a "double spiral" fort, with an essential door in the middle, that you can use to fool all troops except wizards, to let them run endlessly back and forth. Also, placing some doors at key positions allows for "harvest runs", since colon collectors don't go fast enough to achieve crazy high scores.

In the end, when it dipped below 1 FPS, I decided to end it during a wizard wave, but I think I could have played forever with this strategy... This game is awesome, but the end game still needs to be fixed!

Thanks for the update! I noticed some changes, like the sound effects stopping in the later levels. That is probably a good idea indeed. Maybe keep the most important sounds, like wizards shooting and crowns dropping?

Unfortunately I still had some trouble: in the WebGL version, both times when I reached about Wave 25, it completely crashed now... I didn't see anything special in the browser console log (maybe I didn't look well enough? Also maybe it's my old laptop & browser - I use Firefox btw).

In the download version, the "shop close" bug happened again, each time when I got above Wave 50. The last time was in Wave 55, while quickly placing a whole battery of colons.

About the path finding: GPU path finding and the GIF are really cool, but is that really the bottleneck? If you have 1 player and 1000 enemies, you still need to run the path finding (or "flow map generation") algorithm only once, right?

Anyway, it's great to hear that you're still working on this! I'll be following for further updates.

I liked the challenge of hitting the fast moving bats. Sometimes it takes a long time before the next wave starts. What do the mutation options mean?

This is cool; well done on all aspects! I only played it twice, but it does seem that this game play system really allows for some depth and strategy...

This is a nice polished game. Great art style! The game play works well, but is a bit slow for my taste (unless you grab a speed powerup), and it's too easy - it almost seems like you can play forever, though after a few minutes some real enemies appear. I would also add that enemies drop powerups (or mutation / XP points), maybe even powerups that disappear after a while, which makes the movement and positioning more interesting. Anyway, that's nitpicking - it's still among the top games of this jam!

Wow, I love this! Simple but interesting game play, a funny interactive tutorial, and polished graphics and sound design. I can't believe it took me so long to play it, but better late than never. My only minor criticism is that sometimes there's nothing to hide in your color, so you cannot help getting hit. But overall this is a very fun game with an original take on the theme, well done!

Hm interesting concept, but it has some accessibility issues... The instruction text at the start flies by at an insane speed which makes it hard to understand (even though I'm definitely not dyslexic!). Once I figured out the mechanics (match the color), and figured out the keys, I still kept dying quickly and seemingly randomly, without clear feedback why... Did I miss something? Also, where's the score aspect?

This is cool! I like the way it looks and sounds, and the level layout. It would be cool if there were more enemies with different movement behaviors.

I got a high score of 564 (somehow?), and then it broke the game... :confused:

Wow this is a juicy, polished game. With a complete tutorial even! Fun, fast game play and interesting combo systems.

That's the spirit!

That's right, there's very little Mutation going on (though I jokingly point to the king's face...). It does however implement the Momentum theme, which was announced as the theme for a short time at the start of the jam. (See also the announcements on the ScoreSpace Discord.)

Yeah that's how it goes. The life of a jester... (There are other endings however!)

Showtime!