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Experimental Existence's itch.io pageJudge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- The design document is well organized and easy to read through. All of the inspirations, theme, and ideas for the game are clearly laid out and described. The mechanics for the game are explained and some helpful image references are included to help visualize the concepts that are being talked about. Lots of consideration is given for how the art and audio of the game will reinforce the intended mood and setting of the game. Movement controls are smooth and the warp ability is really handy. The cooldowns of attacks and abilities are well timed. Abilities can't just be spammed to cheese the content. Enemy variation adds a lot to the run. The fact that each enemy has a slightly different way of moving and different attacks keeps the run very interesting. It also gives a reason to play with the different weapons, as they each have strengths and weaknesses against different enemies. The levels change every run, so there's a lot of replay potential here. Additional levels, level types, weapons, powers, and enemies could all easily be added depending on the long-term vision and desires for expansion.
Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Q8sdsF9FjauIAIF2ojwbzerrs4EWX0U02k8Q1pjQms/edit?usp=sharing
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes
Summarise your game!
Our game is a top down action roguelike where you play as an experiment gone wrong. Your goal is to escape the lab you are contained in, and fight off anyone who stands in your way. You have access to 2 weapons, which you can use simultaneously, and are given the power to warp a short distance to outmaneuver your opponent. You explore a randomly generated laboratory every run, which results in each run being a little unique. There are a total of 8 weapons and 8 enemies to encounter. WASD to move, SPACE to warp, I to pause the game, and to aim and attack use the mouse.
Please explain how your game fits the theme:
The weapons you wield are fused to your body, resulting in you being part weapon (the sprites leave a lot to imagination)
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
The variety of the weapons we added, and the enemies you can encounter. They all work fairly differently from each other. Also, the gun with the blue rings around it has a MWAH sound (we are very sleep deprived rn)
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Comments
(For reference, I played the Windows version, not the web build)
Right off the bat, what stuck out to me was the main character design, which was quite unique, as well as the tutorial signs on the walls, which are a nice way to tell the player that they can use those keys to do things.
The pixel art has a cool style to it and the fog of war makes exploring a mystery that you need to be careful of.
One of the things that stuck out to me on by far was the ambientation. Knowing the context of the game, the game has a hint of tragedy for me. Especially considering that you and all of the other creatures are products of experimentation. The dog with wheels is certainly an example (really cool enemy designs too, by the way).
A couple of touches I also appreciate is the fact that shots have a very bright light attached to them, so you don't miss them in the map, as well as the fact that enemy shots get deleted when their source enemy is defeated.
I noticed that the flamethrower particles and the damage numbers have very similar colors, so it can be hard to tell one from the other when attacking with the flamethrower. Also, the enemy with red hair that shoots you can sometimes shoot you while they're walking. Their shooting animation doesn't play when that happens; they only keep walking as their shot spawns, so it can get you off guard, since there's no anticipation.
I also noticed that you can get the same weapon spawning in both chests of the same floor, which can be a bit rough if you don't like the weapon (which happened to me). I'm not sure if this is entirely intentional, so I'm pointing it out here.
I definitely felt a bit of a difficulty spike on the last floor, since it introduces new enemies that are quite tough (the slime and the spider cyborg thing). It more enemies, some which can feel tanky, like the big security guards and the slimes. I do appreciate that they're slower though, so it lessens the chance of them pushing you into rooms and drawing the attention of more enemies.
The music variations were welcomed. They were all bangers. Very good choices! The sound effects also felt fitting.
One thing I did miss on the game was having some sort of map or minimap. It can be a bit easy to get lost on the levels, and I think the game could really benefit from having a map function, especially so you can keep proper track of what areas you haven't explored yet.
With all of that being said, I enjoyed my time with this game. The controls feel intuitive and fun to use, some of the weapons were a lot of fun to me (like the long laser gun), I like some of the humor the game has, and the enemy variations were unexpected and quite impressive. Very well done!
Thank you so much for the compliments and feedback!
The damage numbers were added late into the development, and we didn't have much time to tweak them. I can definitely see them needing some changes to be more visually noticeable. We decided to make the scientists run away from the player if they were getting too close, while also allowing them to shoot in order to be stronger enemies. The downside was that it made it so the attack animation wouldn't play when the scientists shot while running away from the player. I'm going to try and make it so the scientists pause and face the player with the attack animation when they are about to shoot while they are running away. That's how I would have done it if I knew how, but I didn't have the time for it during the jam. I also agree that the way it happens currently is unfair.
Your interaction with the chests is possible due to how we coded them, but it's something that we wanted to change if we knew how. The way the chests currently work, it's impossible for them to drop a starter weapon (knife and gun), and it's also impossible for them to drop a weapon that you currently have on you. This of course means that it is possible for 2 chests on the same floor to drop the same weapon if you don't pick up the weapon from the first chest, but it is something that we don't want to be possible as it isn't a good feeling for the player.
Hope the last floor's difficulty didn't feel too jarring haha. We wanted it to be a lot harder and we didn't have much time to get playtesters, so some enemies might be too strong due to the amount of health they have or damage they deal etc. There also might be too many enemy spawns, but we hope to work on that.
A minimap was also considered, but we couldn't figure out how to make one given the time limit. Part of the reason Ganos implemented the fog of war was to make it easier for the player to know where they have already been, and what areas are left to be explored.
Thanks for playing!
This is really cool and im very angry at lab man for killing me how he did my self esteem will never recover XD
I love the art, the music and sound effects for this game and how you did the fog of war especially!
This is a really good roguelite! I'd go so far and say this is probably the best roguelite in this jam too! A bunch of equally balanced weapons to pick and choose, different levels with harder and harder enemies, super nice music, smooth gameplay, all in a single package! Great job!
Nothing much to criticism except a crash after going through ladder, lack of map visual variations for different level, and the teleport feels like an under powered dash. But overall this is a very good game!
Thank you so much for your compliment! Glad you got to explore so much of our game! We did want a map, but we didn't have enough time to find out how to implement one. I also agree with your input on the warp core. It would definitely be getting a buff if we continue development on this game. I hope the crash didn't affect your experience too much. It seems to be strictly a web build issue.
Super glad you enjoyed it enough to explore the weapon variety. Different map variation would be a super nice thing to add if we didn't over scope on weapon and enemy variety haha. Good to know about the dash (looks like thats a common complaint), and yea we wish the stairs crash just... didnt exist haha. Glad you enjoyed!
Cool game. The sounds and music were excellent. I found that the enemies felt a bit too tanky, they weren't hard to kill, just tedious. I didn't realise until almost 15 minutes in that there were chests with items in them because I never came across one until then. Got the staircase bug once, but not consistently on Chrome.
Thanks for taking the time to play our game! I'll note your feedback about the enemies. I'm glad you mentioned that about the chests. I also felt like on some runs the chests would be nowhere to be seen. I think either trying to spawn the chest rooms differently or communicating to the player about the chests might help.
Thanks for enjoying! The enemy tediousness feels like a problem I have to agree. It feels like its not only a problem with tankiness, but also a problem of the enemy ai being too basic to provide continuous interesting combat. If we continue to develop after the jam it's definitely something to change. Also sucks that the chests felt rare. The different weapons are what we thought were the most fun part of the game. Thanks for playing our game and the feedback!
Just popping in to clarify that I did really enjoy your game :) If you work on it post-jam and tidy up some of those elements I think you've got a great base for a fun roguelite!
An enjoyable experience! It would be cool to have an animation when teleporting or to make the teleport a dodge. The fog of war was an interesting implementation
The game crash when I interact with the stairs (firefox)
There was going to be an animation for the warp, but we didn't have enough time for one. Sorry about the crash. It seems like it's strictly a web build issue. We would recommend trying out the windows build to have a better experience. Regardless, thanks for playing our game!
My own hubris has caused my downfall many times. Really aught to learn to space myself from enemies better.
Game was fun, though! Full on roguelike with a good amount of weapons to make a build with. Vibes like enter the gungeon. Well done!
Thanks for playing! The enemies are definitely brutal if you don't space yourselves correctly. Changing up the ai and making it feel less "they just swarm you" would have been something we'd love to add if we had more time, and also fix up that issue haha. Glad you enjoyed!
Nice art style! The control works great, but I think the gun could use a stronger feedback. Overall, well done!
Definitely could use some more feedback throughout the whole game haha. Regardless, thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed!
hey! played the game (windows build because who likes webgl), the artstyle is amazing
the warp mechanic seems a little underwhelming and underpowered, probably could've buffed it a little and some extra effects/particles because having it just teleport you seems a little weird
i imagine it'd feel better if the enemies had knockback, instead of just stopping in place and also could use some particles on hit
getting hit could also use more feedback, e.g a sound, some particles, a vignette and/or screenshake, and a slow-mo effect for a fraction of a second, getting hit should be a lot more noticeable, especially with so few ways to heal
the flamethrower's hitbox felt a little weird, maybe extend it
i was able to shoot through walls sometimes tho (and so were the enemies, especially that spider robot looking thing whatevecr)
in general, the game was pretty fun tho! when are games with flamethrowers not fun tho tbh
Thanks for your feedback! I do also think that the warp core is a bit underpowered, and that it's currently better used as a means of getting around faster, rather than assisting with combat. We did want to add particles when you warped, but we unfortunately didn't have enough time. The thought of knockback didn't occur to me, but that would definitely enhance the combat! Screenshake along with more ways to heal were going to be in the game originally, but we couldn't focus on it. The flamethrower's hitbox also used to be longer, but it used to be overpowered and we had to give it a major nerf before finishing up with the game. The particle accelerator (the gun with the rings around it) was designed to shoot over walls, and the beaker scientist as well, though he might have needed a nerf. Glad you enjoyed the game!
no, i could shoot through some walls with a normal gun
like there were gaps
If you are referring to gaps in the walls, then that is intentional. But if you mean you could actually shoot past visible walls with other weapons, then that would need to be looked into.
ah i see
I really like the "fog of war" going on. I also liked the different enemies and the way they moved around the level. The art style I love! It's such a funky mashup and the main characters looks crazy! Nice music as well. You could get attacked through walls if you were close enough to a room with scientist. He can chuck those test tubes(?) through the wall. There was no real reason for me to put myself in harms way with the melee if I could do more damage with the gun and play ultra safe the entire time. Once you started getting weapons it seems like it could go places but really gun just go brr.
Good job!
Glad you liked the enemies and the art style! If we had more time to test and balance the game, we probably would have lowered the attack range of the scientist throwing beakers, along with making him unable to throw them over walls. We did want to allow players to have a more passive playstyle, which we tried balancing by making the enemies chase the player when shot at. Ultimately, you could play the game by just using ranged weapons and playing more passively, but we encourage trying out different strategies and playing more aggressively! Thank you so much for playing!
Love the lighting system, the way the level is opened up in front of you is really cool and reminded me of Bastion. The weapon choices and various enemies added some good variety which I liked. Nice work :)
Funny part about the fog of war was its implantation was to stop you from getting lost rather than obscuring the level haha. Glad it worked though and elevated the experience. Thanks for playing!
Were the floating dogs inspired by Animal Well? The game looks great. I think the combat loop could be improved a bit, make it a bit more impactful to hit things. Really nice job!!
Animal Well was definitely something I had in mind while drawing them yup lol. Seems like feedback on hit and getting hit is lacking as many have said that (combat loop too but I think that has more to do with the enemy ai/hitboxes). Thanks for playing! Appreciate it