Hi there panzermacer.
I am the teacher who was overseeing all the work done in this game (I also did some programming, mostly in the platform parts)
I just want to say thank you for your comments, I think you made some fair constructive criticism.
And make no mistake, this wasn't made in 72 hours. It was actually made in 48 hours. There was some discussion over the theme for about 2 hours after the theme was unleashed. Then everyone went to sleep, and work was done in Saturday (Brazilian time) from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm and sunday from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. (24 hours of real work)
Like it was said, it was the first game for most of those kids. They are aged 14-16, are still learning code, they had never even tried making graphics or serious programming for a big game before.
I can obviously clearly see a *lot* of stuff that could have done better. I've made a few games in the past (mostly as a hobby), but I've never been part of something like this, and it was a big learning experience to me too (I am sure it was for the kids). After all the ratings are done, I am really feeling like sitting with all of them and seeing everything that could be done better.
The different weapons indeed should be better balanced. The energy balls are useless (We all had agreed they were useless by the end of the development, but it was too late too change), the spikes should had been stronger, and the last weapon... we were basically out of ideas :D. The shooter levels are too long and too unbalanced (again, when we noticed it was too late), and they should had proper level design. The intro indeed is too long too (But the kids *loved* working in that). They had a lot of trouble when doing graphics to notice they need to work with the same resolution in mind all the time... they begun to get the hang of it close to the end of the deadline. There were a lot of resizing done without keeping the ratio in that intro which, in a "professional" game, shouldn't be there. Also the writing indeed isn't good... but none of them have english as their first language! Translating the text from portuguese to english was one of the biggest tasks they had to do.
As for the bosses... I don't completely agree with you. The shooter bosses aren't really *that* difficulty, if you have experience with shoot'em ups. Their bullet patterns are pretty easy to avoid most of the time.
But I also know most people nowadays barely plays this kind of game seriously. (Take a look at videos on youtube for games like Dodonpachi, Deathsmiles, Mushihimesama .. those games are furious on their difficulty, our shooter levels are a piece of cake compared to those)
Though I agrre, most of their attacks (Including the platform bosses) will be hard to avoid the "first time", but that's how most games were in the 80s and 90s... you *would* die first time you got to a boss, then learn and do it better next time. THat's something we were trying to do, get that vibe from games of that era (Have you ever played the NES Megaman games? :D). Although I agree there are a few attacks that really should give the player some warning.
The jump'n'run bosses, the 3rd one (The blue cute guy who fires the blue energy balls) is really completely broken (And it's my fault there), it's the only part of the game that I have big trouble to get past without dying, and indeed the direction and speed of his attacks demand out of this world reflexes. THe last boss also has at least 1 attack that's nearly impossible to avoid, even when you know what you're doing.
The platform levels have endless spawning enemies, if you stay in the same place for a while you will get overwhelmed and certainly die, and most of the time is easier to just rush the levels (Now if this is a bad design or not is debatable, but I can asure you that's not how it was planned).
And its obvious we all tried to do more than we could at such a small timeframe. Yet everyone really wanted to do a *complete* game. We didn't want to make a concept game with a couple of levels and call it a day, we wanted to do something that felt it was a complete game.
I'll write a Post Morten about all of this, but you were so kind in posting this comment that I really felt you deserved a reply. (And it seems I am reviewing and batantly pointing out the flaws of our game, which I bet it isn't common either :D). I would like you to know what this little project sparked in our school:
All the kids working in the game are now kinda of "heroes" in the school. Everyone wants to know what they did, they are showing their games to everyone. Other kids now are interested in learning more about programming and game development, at least 3 kids told me they want to participante in the next LD;
Some of the students who worked in this game have been trying to make a game in the "post-class" project for like 3-4 months and couldn't do anything... and suddenly they are part of project that materializes and exists in 48 hours. They really feel they *CAN DO IT* now. \
The parents of at least 2 of the students were awesomely proudly of what they did. One of them even wanted to know more about what is this Ludum Dare thing.
There were students in our school in a WEEKEND, which is a first for our school.
And believe me, this team will grow and make even better games in the future. If they could do something like this in 48 hours, as their FIRST project... imagine what they can do now, with a little more experience, the possibility of planning something properly and work with a more relaxed deadline?
There will be a showcase of what they will do up until the end of the year (They are now going to work in solo projects up until there, and one big group project). I would love to keep you updated about those projects if you are interested :)