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Bumblepie

Feedback comments for LD38

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Timestamp	Since previous	Game		Bumblepie's comment
Apr 29 06:43:20		liftoff	♥ 2	I like the general idea behind the game, and I think there's definitely potential there. I think it could be improved in a couple of areas though, namely the flying controls and the clarity around the economics system. The high thrust force on the spaceship and low friction (which kinda makes sense in space) means that quite often you go flying past planets for example, so perhaps adding some kind of gravity mechanic so that you lock on to the planet within a certain radius to make this a bit less frustrating. The economics system also seemed a bit random (unless I was missing something) meaning that the strategy was just buy something, and go to each planet until one of them wants it for more than you paid for it. Perhaps if each planet had a tendency to value certain goods more than others, it could make the game more engaging by allowing the player to form a strategy. This could be combined with the prices of goods fluctuating over time so that you are forced to evolve you strategy over time, or even make it so that the player selling a good to a planet makes the planet value that item less.
May 6 07:37:35	168h 54m	Conquer Earth	♥ 1	This game has surprising depth for something made in a game jam. I really liked the core mechanics behind the game, and it was complex enough that there wasn't an easily identifiable strategy to just win. However, I would say that the game balance seems slightly off: it is noticeably easier to destroy the earth than achieve the other victory conditions, for example. The gathering of resources is also frustratingly slow, compounded by the fact that you lose it all when you are killed. This leads to a particularly annoying pattern I fell into where I'd need a lot of resources, so I'd just mash the end turn button in order to get them faster (just waiting and gathering isn't fun so I want to to happen fast). However, this meant that the enemies would often appear out of nowhere and kill me as you get one turn's notice due to reduced vision and I was mashing the end turn button. This was for sure my fault, but I think it could be avoided by increasing the resource gain rate on the planets (or reducing the costs of the weapons).
May 6 07:43:51	6m 16s	Bitverse	♥ 1	Some really nice simple run n gun gameplay. As I said on stream, there's a few things that could be done to improve the game balance, notably: - Don't let the enemies shoot from off screen (it feels unfair and preventing it would allow for introduction of more player focused gameplay challenge - Reduce the activation range of the enemies (this would allow the player to specifically take out groups of enemies, allowing for a more strategic approach) - Improve the level design (Either through making more linear levels with a clear path the player is especed to follow allowing for carefully crafted challenges, or through areas of carefully crafted challenges) - Reduce the speed of the bullets (Again, this allows for more "fair" difficulty - allow the player to dodge them if they're good enough and allow the challenge to stem from player skill - being surrounded is basically game over as is) Overall though, a really solid first time entry, with awesome game feel - I loved the feedback you got when killing the enemies, both the blood and sound effects really added to the experience.
May 6 07:48:43	4m 52s	Soleil	♥ 0	As I said on stream, I think the controls kind of take away from the game. It feels a bit awkward when trying to jump near the end of a platform, as if you don't time it absolutely perfectly you will just fall off. This is compounded by the way the player moves at a constant speed rather than accelerating, as it becomes hard to make small adjustments. The level design could help this - I think you mentioned that the beveled platforms actually affect the hitbox, meaning you can't jump at the edge. Additionally, adding some variation to the size of the jumps required, and the platforms you have to land on, could really help the game.
May 6 07:56:12	7m 29s	MITOA	♥ 1	Great aesthetic and music, and I thought that the game made good use of the small world concept. I think the puzzles could have made better use of the world-wrapping mechanic though. Additionally, the one with the blowing statue took quite a while (I had to cheat by watching another youtube video from someone else) because the timing required was so pixel perfect. I would recommend making the difficulty of the puzzles based more on figuring them out rather than doing a set of actions perfectly, as not being able to do something that seems like it should be simple can be pretty frustrating.
May 6 07:58:28	2m 16s	Powerless	♥ 1	I gotta be honest, I couldn't figure this one out. It had an interesting aesthetic with the 3D cutout style, but I think the main mechanic could have been explained better. I couldn't tell what caused which spikes to grow, or whether I was supposed to even be getting all of them green! I'd also recommend making the controls WASD or arrow control based rather than mouse based as it felt a bit awkward.
May 6 08:01:45	3m 17s	Intergalactic Gold Rush	♥ 0	I love this game. I thought that the main mechanic was original and really well thought out, and all the other mechanics surrounding it really complemented it perfectly. Some great game design decisions were made, for example, forcing the player to risk getting eaten by the monsters in order to regain magic faster in water. My main complaint would be the delay when using magic, it feels like the main cause of death (for me at least) was running off the edge about a second after pressing spacebar - maybe make the ones next to the player spawn instantly?
May 6 08:11:00	9m 15s	Something Something	♥ 0	I can see the potential here, the camera controls felt intuitive and the aesthetic, while simple, had its charm. However, there's obviously not a whole lot you can do in the current state. Look forward to seeing what you make with it!
May 6 08:20:42	9m 42s	Island Boom (but it's cats so it's okay)	♥ 1	It's really impressive to come up with something similar to worms in the short time allowed for a game jam. The controls for the game felt a little off somehow, perhaps due to the pixel-based platforms instead of using vector shapes? Additionally, the weapons were a little imbalanced. Also, I nuked myself next to the enemy cat and only I died, that's not fair at all!
May 6 08:31:25	10m 43s	Asteroid Survival	♥ 0	I like the idea for the game, similar to factor.io. However, I think that there aren't a lot of interesting decisions to make. You just kind of figure out what runs out the fastest and build that. I would suggest adding some greater goal like rebuilding a rocket, for example, that you have to build up to as staying alive seems to easy. Similarly, I would suggest adding a way to harvest resources on specific places on the map, to make exploring useful - otherwise this game could effectively just be played in a menu. I think there's definitely potential here, but the player needs a clear challenging goal for the game to be more fun.
May 6 08:38:39	7m 14s	Planet Energico	♥ 1	The game has a really nice aesthetic, I especially like the way the healthbar is obvious yet non-intrusive. I think the gameplay is great, fun and challenging, however, as a rhythm game, I think the music should inform the movements the player is forced into making - as such, your movement should be a bit more restricted and you should be able to kind of anticipate what's going to happen in game by the pattern of the music.
May 6 08:50:21	11m 42s	Binary Glitch	♥ 2	Very cool idea, possibly the best use of theme I've seen so far. I like that the main mechanic is centered around the fact that the world is small, and that informs most of the player's decisions. I did have a few complaints regarding the gameplay, mainly that the bigger enemies make way too much black territory. It seemed like I was dying offscreen to them sometimes, by accidentally shooting them. Additionally, if you don't move straight away, you just straight up lose the game, so that's not good. The bullets collide with each other which was funny. I wasn't a fan of the movement system - the bullets weren't restricted to the tile-based movement, so it made a really unerring contrast between the two making t seem like the player was at a much lower framerate than the bullets. That said, I'm complaining so much because I really like the core game here, it was interesting, original and fun, so great job.
May 6 09:00:00	9m 39s	A small fungal genocide	♥ 1	I think that the difficulty of the game needs to be toned down a bit. There's a lot of content here, which is awesome for such a short development time, but the difficulty stems from being impotent in combat due to the controls. If your knife falls just short of an enemy for example, there's not much you can do. If an enemy respawns right next to you, there's not much you can do. I think if you had a button to retract the knife, or at least start off with two knives, it might be managable, but as is, it feels like you have to m,anipulate the game mechanics to beat the game.
May 16 10:37:08	241h 37m	Anger Birb: World	♥ 1	Obviously there's not a ton to this game, as it was made in pretty limiting circumstances, but it's surprisingly polished despite that.
May 16 10:50:07	12m 59s	ChronoCombat	♥ 1	I really like the idea here, like a kind of superhot but multiplayer. However the execution is a bit off - the idea hasn't translated well as it's really difficult to actually manage what you're doing. I think that what could help it is if your movement was more restricted, and you were placing bombs rather than shooting - like first person bopmberman but turn based. This would greatly improve the intuitiveness of the gameplay, as timing a shot as well as considering the enemy's movement in 2d space is simply too difficult and random to pull off without coordinating with each other. Additionally, this would make the playback of the turns more readable which would help the player learn how to play much faster.