Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 8! My name's Hythrain, a co-host and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!

So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.

This was interesting to play. I'll admit, I'm not a fan of the font choice with how big it looks when you go full screen. In addition, the intro sequence didn't stay up long enough for me to do a dramatic read of it, while waiting on the title screen takes too long.

I will say one thing surprised me: you did a blind jump properly. When doing the third level, you have that one fall where you can't see what's below you. However, you designed the fall where the only way for the player to die is if they're being in too much of a hurry. Even when I used the red platform and just ran to the left as fast as I could, I run into the wall of that one platform with spikes and come to a stop, so it's just not possible. Thank you for that!

Unfortunately, you did the rarer yet just as problematic problem of "scroll hide," where you clearly have the terrain set up like it's supposed to be one long screen but then you don't scroll the screen over until the player's at the edge of the previous screen. Yet unlike in old retro games, where these screen scrolls take control away from the player for a moment and thus give them a moment to see what's coming, you have it set up where momentum carries over, so an ill-timed use of dash can guarantee death. I always will argue that this is just a cheap tactic that shouldn't be done; if you want a hard game, there are always better ways to do it than this sort of trick.

Speaking of momentum, I noticed that when you die, your new body can still carry whatever momentum it had before which can often result in a quick and silly death. This is especially true if you're on level 2 or 3 and are past the first screen but die before hitting the checkpoint, which sends you back to the first level. Oh, and while I'm at it... why bother with checkpoints if you're going to do that? I feel like you'd be better suited removing the checkpoints and making it that each level is a checkpoint, since the game's design seems to be to keep building upon whatever the previous level was.

Otherwise, it looks like it can be fun and I hope to see more of it!

Hello!

Overall I had a good time with this demo. I like the main gameplay gimmick of having to master the level as you go with checkpoints and recursion flags. If the game was longer I would probably want more of this format with three recursion flags making up a level and intermittent checkpoints. I think that will allow a good difficulty ramp without making the levels too arduous to complete. The player controller was good for this format of game. It might feel a bit sluggish if you weren't trying to get a good 'flow / line' going with the run but if you are pushing for speed it felt okay. 

I might look into changing the dash key as Z and M felt a bit awkward for my hand position, otherwise UI and controls seemed fine. Maybe consider putting them in the background of the first level as I had to look at the controls menu to discover I has a dash mechanic. I am generally not a fan of un-skipable stuff and you intro sequence was quite long as was the menu scene transition on restarting after I finished the demo. I would either make those shorter or skipable in some way. Maybe a way to fast forward the text scroll in the intro?

I liked the art and music. The music was very nice and the sound effects were good. The player idle and run animations were nice. A background plate with some dark grey texture could make the environment feel a bit more finished.

Our team have submitted an action-oriented platform runner if you'd like to check it out (Link below). :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

These are some of the thoughts I had while playing:

-The intro text was really hard to read. And it ended the instant the text stopped typing, and I didn't get to read the very last portion.

-The stage music is pretty decent. It reminds me a lot of Mega Man.

-Contact with spikes feels very unforgiving - slightly reducing the hitboxes at the edges would feel a lot better IMO, as it almost felt like I would die just being next to them rather than actually hitting them.

-Controls feel good. The inertia in the character felt just right.

-I don't like how if you die in Stage 3 before hitting the checkpoint, you have to completely start over at Stage 1. It wasn't too big a deal in this game given that it was so short, but if you decide to make this game longer it would be a major source of frustration for players.

-----

Overall, this was decently fun and challenging. Too bad there weren't more levels - I would have played through them.