Emotion Vessels

koalaknight 2021-10-05 01:16

Nice game! I really liked the papercraft and hand painted aesthetics. Pushing blue blocks off makes the gameplay feels really engaging.

The gameplay goes nicely with the theme, and everything fits together well. I liked the metaphor of how life is not fair when the game spawns multiple blue blocks on one side and there it is really difficult to get out of that situation. I tried to weather out the storm on the other side hoping that one of them would fall off, and I tried to run there to push it off and hope that the balance hasn't already shifted too much to that side.

Loved the sense of despair when it tilts too much too one side, I can keep on jumping and survive for a bit trying to hold on but eventually it continues spinning after going vertical.

koalaknight 2021-10-05 01:23

Maybe instead of life is not fair metaphor, it's more of how quickly negative emotions can build up and drag you down.

colbymakesgames 2021-10-05 12:45

very good,no critisms

sasha-v 2021-10-05 13:00

Very cool! I love the idea, for such a simple game it actually does a fantastic job discussing emotional balance. Pretty complicated too (I kept falling off the edge by accident lol and balancing wasn't easy) but not too complicated, just the good level to be engaging but not too exasperating. Cool art style too!

kyakune 2021-10-05 13:08

A nice game ! A bit difficult to keep stability but it's really in agreement with the theme ! Cat is cute but so dark :'( Good job !

arya-s 2021-10-05 14:49

Fits the theme perfectly. It was fun having to balance the constrains. And after all the effort and balancing we try to do, life just throws curveballs anyway right?

The mood was great, the art is beautiful. The only thing I think wasn't necessary is the long intro with the text. But it's not too bad either.

Really cool game you two made!

crescentodyssey 2021-10-05 16:05

I like the art style a lot! Also like the metaphor of positive and negative emotions. As in other comments, some times is the negative side that drags you down, despite all our efforts. To further elaborate on the theme, I believe there can be more rules added to the gameplay too, but the current version is already quite relatable.

adamcyounis 2021-10-06 05:04

I thought this was a thoughtful and cute premise for your game. I like the cat character design, and I think although very literal, the theme was well-considered.

Unfortunately, I really felt like the gameplay didn't offer the player much control over the experience. I think this is something you would want to happen toward the end, but maybe for a minute or two at the start, the player should be able to balance the boxes in a deliberate and careful way. Mostly, I would put this down to the throwing distance, force of the player's mass on the boxes and the amount that the player weighs on the scales. Right now, everything seems a bit floaty, and makes the input feel too risky to engage with the systems confidently.

I liked the graphic design and soundscape of the game. Perhaps with some more time we would have seen some more visual context with the way the experiences create vessels, and the nature of those emotions. Blue and yellow boxes were functional but not particularly engaging, emotionally.

Thanks for your entry, best of luck in future development!

coderaurus 2021-10-06 15:44

Nice game with simple mechanics. I like the art style, although I feel the boxes and the cat didn't quite match with the rest.

Good job!

eoshadows 2021-10-09 06:56

Great game! The graphics were really good, and the game mechanic was too! I found the concept to be quite innovative, and it was pretty fun to play! I think the main issue I found though was that it was pretty easy to fall off while trying to push negative emotions away. Perhaps you could make the player be able kick the emotions away or something, so they wouldn't have to get close to the edge? But other than that, I really liked this game! Your idea to answer the theme of "unstable" with balancing emotions was really neat. Well done!

sofimei 2021-10-13 03:33

Hi! Very cute game and premise. I like the intro and how the theme and story are introduced. The watercolor style and textures are nice, would have loved to see more of that during gameplay moments. You could make cloudy particles in the background for example, or an aura that emanates from boxes or the mc depending on where their stability is. The music is nice! Very calm and atmospheric choices there. Really felt the inner world / dreamlike vibe.

m1nus 2021-10-19 17:49

Loved the concept of this game! Emotions do need balance. The music and sound design was really good, and the graphics made this game so cute!