hive-mind 2018-08-12 21:42
Digging the numerous mechanics in this game. Every level has something new and challenging. I like it!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD42 → A blob with a destination - LD42
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 473 | 3.19 | 40 | |
| Fun | 421 | 3.13 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 432 | 3.06 | 40 | |
| Theme | 610 | 2.93 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 357 | 3.26 | 40 | |
| Audio | 400 | 2.78 | 39 | |
| Mood | 2 |
Digging the numerous mechanics in this game. Every level has something new and challenging. I like it!
I think what's really impressive about this game is the number of mechanics and ideas you've managed to cram into 48 hours. It keeps the game feeling quite varied and interesting. I made it to level 9 but then got kind of confused and couldn't keep up with all the mechanics. I really like the animations for the main unit, the lasers, and the lava. A little rough around the edges, but it demonstrates lots of good ideas, and could be really fun with some more polish.
A lot of mechanics. Would have liked to have more levels to get more practice with every mechanic before a new one is introduced. Also not sure why I can move with arrow keys while I can jump to everywhere ;) Fun game!
This is exactly the type of addicting frustrating game that I like to play, reminds me of Celeste.
The Concept of the game is really good, the one issue that I have is that I encountered a fair couple of bugs while playing the third level. other than that was a good game that looks and sounds like a lot more time was spent on it than it actually was.
Interesting game. Easy to learn, hard to master.
Good variety of mechanics, but I think the movement is a bit too floaty.
Great little platformer. Really shines from level 7 onwards where both speed and precision are required. Feels good when you manage to chain actions together just right.
Couple of issues with collision / through walls, etc. but quick, short levels mean that it's not too much of a problem. Would definitely remove the 'return to level select' button though. Pressed it a few times mid-level by accident!
@melmo I meant to put it in the bottom left corner but may have forgotten to.
@wizard the one where you just fall out of the level? I forgot to put a kill zone, you could probably do this on the later levels too. Outside of the falling out of levels I had some issues with getting stuck inside colliders/walls, didn't quite manage to fix all of those.
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
Cool little platformer, like the pacing of the levels!
I like the variety of the ideas, but it's very hard to judge the jump trajectory, which makes the lack of air control frustrating. I also ran into some physics issues where bounces would send me in unexpected directions, or I'd lose momentum in mid air.
@mrjorts thanks for the feedback! The trajectory bothored me too, but making a suggestion of your trajectory seemed like a lot of effort so I focused on the other elements of the game (like art and multiple levels).
Your little blob animations are so cute! It's pretty difficult to control. I think air movement would make things feel more responsive. Movement and control are so essential to this type of game so if you continue development definitely focus on that! Congratulations on your first compo!
With reliable controls and some bug fixes, this could be a fun "beat-the-challenge" platformer! I love how it tells you the levels will start trying to kill you AFTER I've been boiled alive by lava twice. (: I made it to level 7, but technically I won by selecting level 13 from level select.
Nice work, I like this submission a lot! The levels ramp up nicely and once you start chaining mechanics together, it feels very fun.
Loved it! Really impressive how you've done this!
The first few levels didn't have anything to kill you, I added that during the final level polish (because I was tired of fixing bugs). Forgot to update that text message it seems @pace
Glad you are all enjoying the game, I went in with very low expectations since it's my first time ever releasing a game.
Nice job! The graphics were cute and the mechanics were interesting. The main things I didn't like is that it was hard to determine how high I would jump based on where I clicked. I think it would feel better if the peak of your jump arc was at the mouse click, instead of just jumping some arbitrary amount based on where you click. It would probably be hard to work out the math for that though, so I understand why you didn't do it.
@sylvie I understand your problem, if there was time I would have made some visual indication of where you would peek, but it turned out to be quite difficult to code this in. After a bit you get a feel of where you go and it gets better.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
Where this game shines is in two places, the innovation and the amount of levels. The way items are short term modifiers to your movement is quite an interesting idea and not one I've really seen before. I particularly liked the phase mechanic.
I think where the game falls flat is it's lack of polish. For starters, I found the audio to be quite grating. Even after I muted the music there was still what I think is the spinning blades sound effect which is quite unpleasant.
Secondly, and most notably, is the control. Launching yourself feels more like a guessing game than a skill game, particularly when in air using the double jump. For some reason my launches seemed to be less accurate and less powerful in double jump mode as well. When the bouncing blocks are introduced then it really feels like luck, and if I mess up I just have to watch myself bouncing around hoping to accomplish something. I know the restart is an option but when failure is uncertain, it feels mean forcing the player to impose failure on themselves. I'm not sure how the blue blocks could be improved to help this though, perhaps if they gave you a double jump?
On the other hand, I can think of a few ideas for how the launching mechanic could be aided, fixing the inaccuracy with the double jump being most obvious. Perhaps if the player could slow down time by holding the mouse and then releasing to launch, this could also be tied with a shown trajectory, though I could see how you may feel this goes against the core game; personally I think it could work better.
Lastly, is just the small things that add up. Having to push space when most of the game can be played with one hand feels off. Usually I would go to click to get rid of text only to find my player launch off randomly after I press space. Also I think there should be some way to ease the player in rather than suddenly starting, like the lava only rises once the player launches for the first time or waits until after a 3 second timer.
Overall, the game is quite unpolished and this dampened my enjoyment quite a bit. However, I'm glad I played the game because it has some really interesting ideas which the levels seem to use quite well from what I played. Personally, I probably would have enjoyed the game more if less time was spent on levels and more on testing and polishing.
**Yay!** blobvictory.png
Pretty neat graphics. Especially the blob (although it sometimes looked weird with the missing outline) and lava. The music was okish too but it really could have used some sound effects. And obviously it looked kinda weird when the character "died" with gory blood splatter and still kept going for few seconds before it restarted the level. I mean, turn the character visibility off, stop its moving and do blood splatter. The level outskirts could have used some killboxes or something, I get triggered when I see that Unity default blue background... :smiley:
Had some nice mechanics to it. The neat directional jumps (which I would have preferred without the ability to actually move at all) from that one game that I can't recall the name of right now. The direction switching from VVVVVV. Rechargeable double jumps from Celeste. The phasing through the walls must have been used somewhere as well. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
But it was kinda too short and introduced those mechanics with such a machine gun pace that it didn't let the player get used to them. And those help messages were not great, turned them off right away after reaching a semi hard level. And by the way, you can que in jump during the help text (which I did several times trying to skip it with mouse). Showing it just once should be more than enough.
The execution could have used some polish, it was kinda riddled with bugs. There were invisible platforms and overall getting stuck on corners. blobinvisible.png
It was also quite easy to glitch through the ground without the powerup on that same level (9th I think). blobstuck.png
The overall level design was quite nice even though the difficulty spiked quite quick. It was nice that at least some levels had some freedom of choice and some tricky skips that could be performed. The levels weren't really ordered by difficulty in my opinion at least. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, an easier level after a tough one is a nice change of pace.
Wasn't a huge fan of the skill que system. For example that first double jump skill on the 11th level (the hardest one in my opinion) killed me so many times by blocking me out of phasing because I made it there without using the double jump just to get rewarded by getting my face melted off by the laser. Would it really have broken any levels that much if you were allowed to use the skills out of order?
Anyways, good job!
@brandon-js-lea You hit the nail on the head there, my main issue is that I didn't get enough polish in. It's my first ever jam/game release and I probably should have cut a few mechanics and focused more on having the mechanics in the game actually work. I appreciate the feedback a lot, I'll keep these things in mind for the next jam.
@antti-haavikko I'm glad you enjoyed the game. Your problems seem to be mostly with my UX, where I fully agree the game is lacking. The jump queue is annoying and glitching through the level is just plain sloppy. I mean to put in a kill zone around the levels but totally forgot about it because I kept finding bugs to fix.
I'd like to thank you both for the extensive reviews, I joined the jam for feedback and that is exactly what you gave me.
Really fun! My only issue would be that the jump mechanics take a while to get used to, and even then it's kind of difficult to control to the degree of accuracy needed in this game. Overall, great job!
First time I did level 2 I got stuck in the floor. Needs a bit more polish I think, but a decent starting point
Congratz on making it through the compo!
Jumping to the direction of the mouse is not very intuitive. Maybe because it's not used that often in platformers. Once I got hang of it, it started feeling nice though. Level design is nice and tips make it clear what to expect.
I had some cardboard grinding sound that stuck looping after the first level. It didn't go away when restarting level. Mildly annoying. Death should be instant when it happens. Often I felt that I avoided death when the character didn't die instantly. I got stuck on the edge of the first ledger in level 3. On the same level went through wall on the right. Character wasn't always responding to my click for some reason. The music was destroying my ears, no offense! :smiley:
Base of this game is solid and the game fits the theme well. Bugs and the lack of polish all-around is what holds it all back.
Love the backgrounds and the overall visuals, kinda reminds me of super meat boy