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Second Chances's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #1616 | 2.957 | 2.957 |
| Audio | #1864 | 3.255 | 3.255 |
| Artwork | #2366 | 3.468 | 3.468 |
| Enjoyment | #2611 | 3.234 | 3.234 |
| Creativity | #6216 | 2.660 | 2.660 |
Ranked from 47 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
You are in an experimental ship, stuck in a time loop. Every time your ship is destroyed you get sent back in time to where you can upgrade your ship and begin again, trying to fight your way through the waves of enemies.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
See description, and in game, for credits.
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Dragon's Isle Software
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Comments
I wish I weren't in a hurry to return comments! I really liked what I saw here, but I feel like I only scratched the surface on this one, and I would like to see how deep it goes. A few thoughts:
Thanks for playing and the feedback.
We have a post-jam update that should address some of this.
The intro text was added late, and got dumped where we had a dialog box that could be used. Unfortunately, the auto-advance there was meant for the short upgrade flavor text messages, and ended up being a problem for the length of the intro. We've added a dedicated dialog box with manually advancing to the next message for the intro, and moved it to the start of the first combat.
The ships now have an explosion animation when destroyed.
We've sped up the first enemy getting on screen.
There is so much to upgrade in this game I love it.
Thanks for playing. Glad you liked it. We love upgrading our character in games, so may have gone a bit overboard on the upgrades for a jam game.
Really fun game, this something I could find myself sinking my teeth into on a friday night. Defense definitly needs some balancing though. Getting taken out quickly, even after upping my hull integrity, and even after one shot, felt a little frustrating.
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Glad you had fun.
Yeah, we needed to do more balancing, especially early game. Armor and shields are much more powerful than the hull, though hull is also important for penetrating attacks. Each point of armor takes 2 points of damage, in a single hit, to destroy. Shields regenerate over time. We tried to balance so that you needed all 3.
It may be benefitial to lower the cost of the armor and shield. at least the first level, so you can get it early on and gain traction.
Thanks. We have a post-jam update that lowers initial costs, and instead ramps up the speed by which the costs increase later.
Pretty deep in terms of upgrades and functionalities for a jam submission, much more enjoyable to play with a gamepad in my opinion. Since the jam has loop as a theme I was expecting to "loop around" the screen like in those old asteroid games, it would also give the player a better chance to evade enemies, right now I think the best tactic is to hover around at the center of the map to have a better chance. Anyway, fun game to play.
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Glad you had fun.
I don't know how we missed looping around at the edges when designing it. We had another comment early on mentioning it, and agreed that it would have fit well. If we keep developing the game, it might just make it in. For much of the early game staying near the center is a pretty good plan.
Really cool game, loved the controls of the ship (especially after having strafe). The amount of content you pack in it is crazy, must have been a lot of work. Good job!
Thanks for playing. Glad you liked it. Strafe definitely gives you more freedom with how to maneuver around the enemies and incoming fire.
Excellent work! Aspects like the gorgeous visuals, massive number of upgrades, so many characters, lots of dialogue, great music, and the enormous amount of potential playtime make this one of the stronger submissions I've played. I do wish that the start of the game was a bit easier. I know you get infinite continues and you don't lose powerups, but it feels a bit too easy to die at the start. I also think there should be more sound effects - especially when you destroy enemy ships. Apart from those minor issues, this is a very good submission!
Thank you for playing, the kind words, and the feedback.
We agree that the early game is a bit too tough, especially for a jam game. We made some late changes, and focused more on balancing them for the mid-game, which negatively impacted the early game. Our post-jam update will lower some initial costs, and add highlighting of some recommended initial upgrades.
We did want to get more SFX, but did not get around to it. There will be a ship explosion VFX added in the post-jam update, though not sure if we will get to more SFX as well. If we continue work in the future, there will be more SFX and VFX added.
Very fun! Lots of upgrades, it's a bit intimidating at first but the diversity of weapons/protection/speed is appreciated. Atmosphere works well, and the save system and scores is something really unique in this jam from what I've seen. UX wise, I was a bit confused to have upgrade selection on the left, upgrade buying on the right, and play in the bottom center. I've clicked on play wanting to buy an upgrade twice.
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Glad you had fun.
We've got some changes for a post-jam release for the upgrades list to grey out the options you can't get yet, and highlight some we recommend getting sooner. This will hopefully make it not quite so overwhelming.
We saw a couple games in a jam we did recently with auto-save, and really liked it, so wanted to add it to ours. Similar with the leaderboard.
I agree on the upgrade screen UX. We designed it in isolation, when it should have had more thought to the integrated experience. The long list of upgrades resulted in the tall section on the left, and we wanted the central section to have the dialog, with the ship being centered, which pushed the details to the right. It worked OK on its own. Then we added the play and menu buttons, which best fit in the center, and realized it didn't work so well, but we also did not have the time to redesign the whole thing. We've got some ideas, and will redo it if we continue working on this game.
Very good, I spent more time on this than most others. I found the ship motion a bit tricky, controller would have been better for me than mouse and keyboard. The upgrades were enticing. I appreciated the save system after I accidentally quit the game. And the highscores were an unexpected bonus. Would have been nice to be able to add your name or initials.
Thanks for playing and the feedback.
We have adjusted the acceleration and friction a bit for a post-jam update. The game does support controller, and has inputs mapped to it (d-pad and analog) among the defaults. There is also input remapping if you prefer to customize things.
I've been debating on allowing free entry for the high scores, but was concerned about moderating it for such a big jam. Trying to find a good balance there, so playing it safe for now.
Cool asteroid like rogue-like game, love the funky music that sets the arcade mood. You have a lot of cool upgrades, but I think the game could benefit a lot more from some more visual effects such as enemies exploding and a shield effect around your ship if you have the shield upgrade. Also, some of the backgrounds are also a bit too bright imo, and the player/enemy sprites can get lost in all the shiny stars. Other than that no notes, great work!
Thanks for playing and the feedback. We did want to add more VFX, especially an enemy explosion, but did not get around to it.
There should be a shield showing when you get it. At low levels it is a bit faint, so might have been lost in the background. As you level up it, it gets brighter until level 5, and shows its state by how faded it is.
We will take a look at the backgrounds, and see about adjusting them so the defaults are better. In the jam version the background is layered, and you can adjust which layers show in the settings. There is a setting for the clouds, and several for the stars/planets.
It was a fun game to play although as others have said, probably not fast enough to begin with. Otherwise it would have been even more engaging. Thanks for playing my game by the way!
Glad you had fun. We focused too much on mid to late game play, and should have done more to make early game more fun.
Your game was fun. Thank you for playing ours!
A good game and concept.
Cons
It did take me a while to get used to the controls,
On hitting play it takes about five seconds for first enemy to appear
For the amount of content/abilities It takes a while to get enough $ to buy them
Sometimes audio didn't play
Pros
There is a ton of upgrades
There is a lot of enemy types
The sound design is good
Gameplay feels good
Overall I had fun :)
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Glad you had fun. We really needed to rebalance the early game. We put too much focus on the long term for a jam entry.
We've not yet run into the audio not playing, so we'll do some testing and see if we can replicate it. What OS/browser are you using?
I am using brave. (which has a built in add blocker that might have caused problems)
The thing I remember for sure was that the secondary fire made sound when I first bought it and a few runs later I noticed it did not.
Other thing that may or may not (since I don't know what all had sound effects) are taking damage, primary fire and destroying enemies.
Thanks. We'll need to do some testing with it. We primarily use the Vivaldi browser, which also has a built in ad-blocker, plus have uBlock running, and have not noticed the issue yet. We did do most of our testing on Linux native, rather than in browser, so it may just need more time in the web version.
Cool idea! I was really overwhelmed from the amount of upgrades, I think it would have been better to have 5-10 important upgrades instead. But it's impressive that you were able to make that many upgrades in the first place. Nice work
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Yeah, we have a problem of designing as if it is a full game, and forget to focus enough on early and simple for the jam. I had planned to hide the later upgrades until they were unlocked, and add more prerequisites, but that did not make it in.
Ey pretty cool, enjoyed it
Thanks for playing. Glad you enjoyed it.
I like the idea, but I think between the challenging controls and the huge amount of possible upgrades, introducing them gradually would be a good idea, to give the player a chance to get used to it and also to "force" them to take some sensible upgrades the first couple times ;)
Thanks for playing and the feedback. We had originally intended for some upgrades to be hidden and only shown once unlocked, especially those that have prerequisites, but that never made it in. We balanced a bit too much toward mid to late game, and not enough for early game, especially for a jam game.
Challenging controls, but interesting (and nearly overwhelming) set of upgrades. Great work!
Thanks for playing!
This was fun. Making and balancing upgrades for a game like this can be tricky, specially for a game jam. Good job!
Thanks for playing. Glad you had fun. Play balancing the upgrades was tough. We wish we'd made the early part a bit easier, especially for a jam game.
The theme "LOOP" interpretation leaves to be desired, I wish the game had a more creative way to approach it.
Otherwise the game is really good, especially for a 4 days game jam, there is a looot of features, quality of like elements and juice + feedback.
Good assets, whether it's sounds, music or art, really appreciated all of those.
Interesting backstory, I do like the dialogue (Or what I got to see of it, you want to change the speed and maybe wait for input before going to the next prompt).
The gameplay is cool as well, lot of elements to play with, maybe a bit too much considering the people are not going to play the games for that long, but at least if you do really like the game you have quite a lot of ground to enjoy yourself.
Good stuff, excellent work, just make a better interpretation for the theme next time please :).
Thanks for playing our game on your stream, and for the great feedback.
Very complex game with many upgrades, and the background is mesmerizing! With more visuals, like animations and particle effects, this game would be even more satisfying! Well done!
Thank you for playing and the feedback.
Really love the visual, so much depth! Nice addictive little looper and really well polished. Only thing I'd like is for a bit more of an easier time at the beginning or maybe just more entropy earlier on to build momentum. Great job feels like a well rounded game
Thanks for playing and the feedback. We agree that early game needs to be easier.
At first i was like, this seems like a nice lil game! but then... DANG THIS IS TOUGH 😭 I love the parallax effect in the BG and the fact that u got SO MANY SETTINGS available and diff controls, those were much appreciated.
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Yeah, early game is a bit tough, though you get currency for destroying enemies, even if it is mutual, so eventually you can buy upgrades. We'd like to redo the early part to be a bit easier to get those first upgrades. Glad you liked the options. We try to think about accessibility when designing our games.