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Department of Gravity Management Demo's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound/Music | #23 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall Fun | #35 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Art / Graphics | #37 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Controls / UI | #79 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Genre
Puzzle
Mystery | Advenure
Rating
Family Friendly
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Comments
Hey, I played your game! I made it to the "Three Body Problem" level, might play a bit more if I can find the time. I like the core concept and the mood of the game, it seems like an interesting mix of Portal and automation puzzle games. The biggest issues that stood out to me are:
A few other minor things:
Cheers!
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 is a great idea for a puzzle game. I can see a lot of potential for it. That said, I worry about how overly complex it can become. For example, I felt like the Eye level had far too many panel choices. It honestly felt overwhelming. While I did manage to get past it, I also didn't feel like I understood how I got past it. Given how insanely complex this game's concept can get, in terms of level design you should try to make it simpler to ensure the player can't get overwhelmed; create a set solution to each puzzle, only have panels that help solve that puzzle. If a player needs to make their own panels, then you just ensure it's obvious where those panels should go.
I'm also concerned about this control set up. Everything is derived from having to first hold left click before pressing a button to activate something else. However, there's no feedback on any of these commands and thus you have no idea if they're going to work once you let go. The only thing you have feedback on is when you're making your own panels, since the moment you right click it places the panel down.
When it comes to the whole "inverse gravity" thing, I think it'd be a better idea if instead of you holding left click and pressing C, you instead just press C to put the wrench in "Inverse" mode. The glowing parts of the wrench would then turn red to indicate this mode. Now whenever you use the wrench, it sets up an inverse first and then turns them off and on. When you want to switch modes back, you just press C again. This would simplify it and allow the player to set a bunch of panels as inverse if they want instead of needing to left click, hold, then press C.
Hello! Thank you so much for playing my game, and for the feedback. You are spot on in terms of the complexity of the puzzles, and I've actually cut a lot of puzzles for that reason. I really love the visuals of the eye puzzle, but you're probably right that it needs a major rework. And that is actually a really good idea for the reverse mode. Based on some other feedback I had actually made it a little easier, but what you're saying makes a lot more sense! I'll also try to give the player more visual cues about what is going to happen when they let go of the trigger.
Sorry I missed the live stream (was coaching kids flag football game). I would love to be able to watch your VOD for the live reactions whenever you get it posted. Thanks again!
I played your game and my gameplay was in slow motion due to my potato laptop not being able to handle even the lowest of graphics but the level design is insane. I had fun playing the game and solving the puzzles. This might be similar to portal but I can't tell because I've never played it before but have seen other play it.
I do think the AI talking to you through text is not my favorite. Probably a robotic voice over would be better. I guess you can do voice overs when it comes to exposition and storytelling but when it comes to tutorials like displaying UIs and what to press things then visuals would be better.
Overall, fun game. Great puzzles and level design.
Hey!
This is a serious project, that has a clear direction and has clearly been worked on and matured for a while. Great job really.
I love Portal and Half Life so these inspirations are very clear but still you managed to make this stand on its feet.
Things that stood out to me:
1. The menu is a little bit cramped, especially since there is really only one game mode, I think you could try to condense the options a bit.
2. Of course a big part of Portal and Half Life is the lore. Perhaps you're still working on the writing since you wanted to get the concept going, but a sense of history or purpose or where exactly are we going with all of this would make it feel like we're not just solving puzzle after puzzle to reach to the next one.
3. Art style is great and things feel right a cohesive.
4. I played with a controller, I would maybe do a bit more of fine tuning with the controller. Diagonal walking could respond a bit better to the left stick position.
Anyway, I bow. This is super solid already.
Cheers
Thank you for the kind words! And that's good feedback on the menu, and I'll definitely do more testing on the controller.
Regarding the lore, you are 100% right. It's funny because I feel like I have the story down in my mind. And in an early version I just had a lore dump for the first five minutes, but that didn't go over well. So I scaled that back, but I still haven't figured out a way to integrate the story into the game in an engaging way. Turns out that's really hard, even though Valve makes it look easy. I guess they're pretty good at making games over there!
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to play the game and give feedback.
Hi and thanks again for reaching out to me about this game! I'm glad I didn't miss it.
Over all it very much gave me Portal vibes with the gravity elements, but it also stood out with its own aesthetics and the way the gravity elements work. It seemed to run smoothly and it felt like the opening bits were leading me through the various elements nicely. I didn't notice any bugs or issues while playing it.
I do apologize that I didn't get to play it as much as I hoped, and I may try to play some more during my Monday stream or for my YouTube. I wasn't feeling well near the end of my stream, so had to cut short my planned time. But here is the VOD from around when I started https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2547217425?t=03h53m17s
Hi! Luckily I was able to catch the stream after putting the kids to bed. I really appreciate you taking the time to play my game, and it was definitely helpful! I want to make sure the opening part goes smoothly for players so watching you gave me some ideas on how to improve. I also realize with all of the gravity switching it can cause motion sickness for some people, so the game isn't for everyone. And also it probably is hard to play when you have a headache, so sorry if it made you feel worse! I wanted to say I also had fun watching the stream in general, and didn't realize there was that kind of twitch api the chicken game had. Very cool! I might try that in one of my games someday. Anyway, I might try to stop by on Monday if I have time. I'm relatively new to Twitch so your channel seems like a nice place to get my feet wet! Thanks again, and good luck on your car buying adventure (i guess going on right now).
Thank you! And yes, we did manage to successfully get the numbers we wanted and my parnter now has a new car and the lemon is off to another life :D