What would you have thought about this game if you had stumbled across it on a regular day? -> I liked reading the background story of the game which gave me some meaning to play this game. I found the controls a bit difficult to use, as the bubble was too bouncy inside a small bubble which could be bigger in the first round. Regardless it was fun to play :)
Play game
Bubble Invasion's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals(Graphics) | #11 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #16 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Sound/Audio | #17 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
| Fun | #21 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Overall | #21 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://sourstone-srl.itch.io/bubble-invasion/devlog/1065468/improving-a-game-jam-submission
Developer Feedback Questions
What would you have thought about this game if you had stumbled across it on a regular day?
Comments
I managed to wave 29. Arrgh! Rage quit!
Visually it's beautiful. I liked all gameplay elements and I really wanted to unconditionally love this game. But something won't let me. Every gameplay aspect is good but it also comes with a minuscule annoyance of one kind or another. When all those itsy bitsy annoyances add up, it leaves you with feeling of frustration. As a bubble, I never felt powerful. Maybe that was the point. I'll still give the game high grades though. There's a great game in there that wants to be freed. And you're very very close to doing so.
Let me try to address some of it, in no particular order. Well, the first thing may be the most important.
It's too bouncy. Everything is so bouncy. I know it's bubbles, but it's too bouncy. Whatever you touch, you bounce, often times the bounce speed is insanely high. Coupled with very strong controls inertia, it sends you into a cascade of uncontrollable bounces that end up with inevitable death. Things that deliver damage, punish you additionally by - bouncing you. The edge of the arena bounces you. The use of bounce needs to be more - measured. The only way to play in a more calm way is to get the heavy modifier. The default controls should be like for heavy. The feel of the game may still be very bouncy, but that doesn't mean that a literal bounce is scheduled to happen every half a second. Give it some solidity so the bounces may shine in contrast to it.
All enemies always fire at the same time. Not sure if this is good or bad.
There's no pronounced feedback when you get hit. Because of that I had hard time learning what is dangerous to touch. Often times I still don't know if I've been hit or not.
The enemy explosions should be audiovisually juicer. Let them pop with gusto. Maybe introduce some tiny, pixel sized "aerosol" particles. Make everything explode immediately without that pause. The enemy rebound strictly in the direction of shooting may be better than "realistic" circle-to-circle collision resolve (or dare I say it - bounce). It's perceptually too random and makes almost impossible to fire a satisfying burst into an enemy.
Some good remarks on visual design have already been given by others so I won't repeat them.
There's a dominant strategy I think and it's mostly focused on minimizing getting - bounced: Get heavy as soon as possible, just circle the edge of the arena and fire into the center. When all enemies are dead, clear the red things. Repeat until wave 30.
A few more enemy types would be cool.
So what to do? Gather a couple of sharp testers that are not afraid to say what they think, weed out all those micro annoyances and you'll have a golden game on your hands.
Submitted
ShutThank you very much for playing and good job getting to wave 29!
It's unfortunate that you didn't get to wave 30. If you remember, I would have loved to know how many attempts did it take to get there.
After the first game jam, I added the "heavy" upgrade as a test solution to the bounce problem. Unfortunately this upgrade was so very op that it would crush all enemies without much effort.
As a solution to that I added the "leftovers". This makes it harder to just rotate around the margin as pushing leftovers towards it makes the player risk getting damaged.
While the game is more balanced now, there is still much space for improvement indeed.
"All enemies always fire at the same time. Not sure if this is good or bad."
=)) Yes! I hated this when I first created this type of enemy. In the first jam there wasn't enough time to address it. Now, I do not know what to do with it. I looked at other games as well and it doesn't seem like they "fixed" it, its just that the player has so much to focus on, that it is not really observable.
It will probably stay how it is...
On top of being hard to balance, the game has a sound problem as well =). There isn't that much variation that can be added for sounds.
Pop pop pop... , did considered to add screen shake when player gets hit. Tho I do not like screen shake that much, and with the current bouncing trouble it could end up really shaky as well =D.
"Make everything explode immediately without that pause."
Ah, yes. That is a "bug" in the sense that I know why it happens, it was not really intended and I had to settle with it.
I would argue there is a better dominant strategy than the one you mentioned. I do hesitate to say it, as it makes the game a little bit too easy.
Here is a useful tip in case you give it another try sometimes: always get the damage upgrade.
Thank you again!
It took several runs to get to 29. Don't remember the exact number, but not that many. I was actually surprised that I got that far, The arena bubble was quite small for at least 10 last waves so I guess there was not that many enemies to deal with. I probably got lucky. Will try this other hinted dominant strategy :)
Hit response doesn't need to shake the screen. A particle effect or a color flash and a subtle sound may be sufficient. Currently it looks like there is nothing.
Really nice art! Especially the technical aspect and implementation. The eyes looking at the cursor is a detail that really stands out and adds value (Actually we thought about adding something like this to our game haha). The transition between menus is also very well done, and the gameplay also has some nice effects, not only visual but also how the gameplay and movement feel.
As for the gameplay, I found it very easy to confuse the character with the collectible bubbles and, especially, with the enemies.
I really liked the idea of shrinking the play area, although it took me a bit to realize it was happening haha, maybe you can make it more noticeable.
Regarding your question, if I had come across this game on a regular day (by the way, it's a very good question), well, I guess it depends. I think it would have caught my attention on mobile and I would have definitely tried it. Currently, I suppose it's not designed for that platform, but in my opinion, it could work very well. I don't think there's any reason for the player to stop shooting, so it could just automatically shoot in the opposite direction the player is moving (that would also solve the problem of unintentionally clicking upgrade buttons). It's something I've seen in other games, and I think it would work really well in this one (I wish I could give you an example now, but my memory sucks, sorry).
Overall, very good work! It's clear you're putting a lot of love into it. Keep it up! Good luck and I hope the feedback helps!
Submitted
Gran Fitito1. is smoove (polished and responsive/snappy ui) +++++
credit fonts do not match (it's not highly relevant the rest of the ui is mwah(chef's kiss))
2. should disable clicking or other wise give indicator when about to upgrade other wise in the heat of battle, a choice pops up and i'm still clicking at an enemy and poof
3. the music is good. however, it seems oddly ultra serious for me to be a bubble shooting buttons with more bubbles.
Submitted
SkatterBrainThe menu googly eyes is still so awesome lmao, such a great bit of juice. I think all your iterations on UI were well worth it, the bubble design you landed on works very well imo. Its clean and out of the way, while providing all the necessary info to the player. Using bubbles as the containers fit the feel of the world perfectly. The new music is great and really amplifies the intensity of the gameplay. The wave systems feel timed out correctly and there was a good balance of chaos fighting the enemies and a brief pause to catch your breath after (the pause when leveling up helped with this balance too). I also agree that the colors feel a little off (check out my last paragraph) and hold back the overall visuals a bit. Another critique I had about the visuals was that I wish there was some more contrast between the player, enemies, and collectible air. They are all roughly the same size, shape and color (at least the outlines) and the visual clarity gets a bit muddled, especially when you start getting bounced around the arena. I think changing the color of the enemy outlines to the same reddish/orange of the rest of them that would go a long way to solving the problem.
The roguelike elements are just the thing and turned a fun little arcade experience into a much deeper and replay able experience, that pairs nicely with the challenge of completing 30 waves. I think all the upgrades are great, but one critique is that I wish that accuracy was just set to 100% by default and not something for the player to upgrade. I felt as though not being able to aim exactly where I wanted to was an arbitrary limit enforced on the player and lowered the overall skill ceiling. I would maybe add something like the ability to magnet collect the air bubbles as an alternative. I loved the design of the bubble shield made only of circles, it looks sick, like a proper tank. I was a bit confused on the purpose of it though, it kind of seemed like it just made it easier for the enemies to hit, so maybe some kind of tool tip text for that one would be helpful.
I played your game for well over a half hour, it is a really fun gameplay loop and you've added a lot of polish and juice. The charming story is great, the game is presented cleanly, great job!! Keep up the great dev work!
The develog was a great read!! The lessons learned section was interesting. The do the small things NOW tip is spot on, and I'd say it's a good sign if you like playing your game that much, must mean it's at least somewhat fun. About the colors, I would highly recommend using Lospec to find a color palatte and then use that. Or you could start with a color you like and then use some kind of online Color Wheel Calculator to generate a few other colors that work well with it. As someone who also struggles with color choice, I've had a lot of luck with these two methods.
Submitted
Crop CirclesHey!
Thank you very much for tacking the time to write such a long and detailed response.
I'll give the color wheel generator a try, I have been using "coolors" in the past but for this game I didn't find it useful. Very few colors work with the underwater theme. I had an attempt of adding some corals in the background made out of pentagons but then, the UI problems worried me too much and ended up leaving it aside =).
The idea of changing the outline of the enemies may work, but what I observed that what makes it harder to see the player is fact that the bullets are the same color as the center of the player. When things move rapidly my eyes keep focusing on the bullets instead of the player.
Its probably both the bullets and the enemies that have to many similarities to the player.
I am very glad you liked the updates! Yes the upgrades really need a description. The "heavy" upgrade makes it such that you no longer receive
knockback and move slower (there is another one that makes the bullets bounce it is called "bouncer").
The game could use a lot more work, after this game jam all prepare some notes with suggestions and things that need to be done but who knows when, or even if, I'll update the game again.
Would love to add a boss at the end tho =}...
Thank you again! Good luck your next game jams!
What was the saying... ah I remember "May the bubbles be with you!"
Cute story, and cute art.
Some things to work on:
Upgrades appear suddenly during a combat, and almost always I get hit after I choose one.
Sometimes I would be born after death where there is an obstacle in the middle and I would immediately get hit again.
There some things I don't fully understand, like the different types of enemies and their behaviors, or the shapes I can choose from.
Other than that, fun little game, well done.
Submitted
Win The DateThank you for playing!
I added a few details in some of the previous comments. I'll quote them in this comment as well since they may be helpful in understanding how some of the mechanics work.
Its a bit of a long read...
"When you die the bubble/arena shrinks so it can spawn you again.
Leveling up increases the bubble size there is a "air meter" in the top left corner displaying how much air is left inside the bubble (unfortunately It takes a while to be notices).
There are few mechanics:
There are 2 enemy types: the shooter and the bomber
The shooter shoots bullets (give damage and knockback)
The bomber explodes (gives knockback and then dies)
When an enemy dies it leaves some plastic behind and a exp bubble.
The leftover plastic damages the player if touched and can be pushed outside of the arena by shooting it.
Enemies can absorb the leftover plastic for more health.
The player has HP and EXP:
if it loses the all the hp (gets hit by shots or leftover plastic) it dies.
if the player goes outside of the arena (knockback) it dies.
When the player dies the hp bar gets filled again and the air bar decreases
If the air bar becomes empty the game is lost.
If the player gets to level 30 the game is won.
+ There are upgrades that change the player abilities (shape modifiers)
Only one can be active at a type:
Heavy: is not affected by knockback but moves slower
Bouncer: bullets (player) bounce on the plastic leftovers and arena/bubble walls"
---
"I know of a few cases you can get hit multiple times, tho I struggled to make a decision on them. Some of them are:
Choosing the heavy shape modifier - bombers shouldn't do damage, but they drop plastic when they die, if the plastic gets thrown towards the player, it damages it (it happens to the other shapes as well just less often) . This wasn't really intentional but I decided to leave it for now (heavy is a little bit op).
When plastic is on top of the spawn point, while enemies float toward the margin of the arena the plastic does not. This makes it such that the player will instantly get hit when it spawns. More often then not it pushes the player in another plastic leftover. There are ways to mitigate this situation, you can try to shoot away the plastic when its in the middle of the arena or you can keep the click button pressed when spawning (you will still get damaged but the plastic will be pushed away preventing the situation from repeating).
Velocity - sometimes the player moves so fast that when it hits a plastic "leftover" it no longer gets pushed away. That makes the player get two hits instead of one."
This is a neat little game, it's quite fun to get around once figuring out what to do! Very impressive!
A few grievances, though not that much:
-As previous testers said, the music doesn't seem to fit the tone of type of game this is, it feels a bit too dramatic. Maybe lighten it up a little?
-There's a typo in the results screen, instead of "bubbles poped" it should be "bubbles popped"
Other than that, I really like it! Good job, it was very fun to play!
Very nice game (artistic direction), fun to play!
The game has an impressive level of polish for a game jam game, even improved ;-)
There are two or three details that detracted a little from the experience:
- The music seems too dramatic (thriller, espionage) for the type and artistic direction of the game.
- The tutorial page seems too cluttered to me.
- Like other testers, I click frantically to shoot at enemies and click on the power-up without seeing what I've chosen.
- At the beginning of the wave, the enemies appear but everything is frozen, so you don't know when the wave will start until the enemies start moving.
These are just minor details, but I hope you find them useful. I really enjoyed playing your game. Your work is very inspiring.
I look forward to seeing your next games :-)
Submitted
Loop Survivors - ImprovedThank you very much for your kind words! They are much appreciated.
Your feedback is on point and I agree with it.
The enemies are supposed to appear after the particles have gathered but that is not very accurate and it is also hard to observe.
if everything goes well I'll have a new game ready in 10 days, but unfortunately this time I decided try teaming up. So far its been tough(in the sense that almost no progress has been made)...
The theme is "Adventure!" so... stay tuned =D.
The googly eyes following your mouse on the title screen was delightful. The intro story was well done and the music helped give the game an epic feel. The way the bubble moved when you hit the sides or bounced off enemies and were knocked outside of it was a cool effect and added to the watery feel of the game.
The game play itself, unfortunately, felt unintuitive to me. Sometimes it seemed like I could be hit more than once before respawning, other times it seemed like a single hit would result in respawning,. It's possible that I was hit more than once in those cases, but it wasn't always very clear. It probably didn't help that sometimes hitting enemies caused the player to bounce around while other times it did damage.
The player's health vs. the bubble's health was not the clearest. Reading your reply to Dac helped me understand the connection, but it was very easy to miss in game.
It was also really easy to accidentally select a level up bonus instead of picking which one you wanted. Maybe adding a "Level Up" screen first and then the selection screen, or including a continue button on the selection screen could help decrease the chances of accidentally clicking through it.
I enjoyed the overall look and sound of the game, which made it easier to play through multiple times to try to get a better understanding of the game play.
Submitted
Hungry For LootThank you very much for playing!
Would love to know if you managed to beat the game.
I agree that the game has the problem of not being intuitive, this makes the game really hard.
While making the game more intuitive solves this problem it also creates a new one.
After you figure out how the game works the game becomes too easy.
In other words the learning curve is very steep in the beginning and very flat in the end.
I know of a few cases you can get hit multiple times, tho I struggled to make a decision on them. Some of them are:
Choosing the heavy shape modifier - bombers shouldn't do damage, but they drop plastic when they die, if the plastic gets thrown towards the player, it damages it (it happens to the other shapes as well just less often) . This wasn't really intentional but I decided to leave it for now (heavy is a little bit op).
When plastic is on top of the spawn point, while enemies float toward the margin of the arena the plastic does not. This makes it such that the player will instantly get hit when it spawns. More often then not it pushes the player in another plastic leftover. There are ways to mitigate this situation, you can try to shoot away the plastic when its in the middle of the arena or you can keep the click button pressed when spawning (you will still get damaged but the plastic will be pushed away preventing the situation from repeating).
Velocity - sometimes the player moves so fast that when it hits a plastic "leftover" it no longer gets pushed away. That makes the player get two hits instead of one.
Balancing the game has become quite a difficult thing =) and it was supposed to be a small game...
The "confirm upgrade" option is a great idea! Can't imagine why I didn't think of that until now.
I only made it to wave 9. I'm not the greatest at this style of game, though knowing that there is an ending I may try to see if I can manage to beat it.
Thinking a bit more on it, giving a little more details in your tutorial might help someone pulling out the game for the first time understand things better. Along with telling players not to touch the red pentagrams, maybe including an image of the different enemies with a little description of each. I think also more clearly stating the relationship between the HP and air bars in the tutorial would be helpful. It made sense once I read your comment about it, but I didn't figure it out on my own.
And I totally hear you on the challenges of play balancing. That's one of the big things we're working on too.
Thank you for letting me know!
I was surprised to find out that a lot of people are not in this style of game.
There is some information in the tutorial section but I imagine a lot of people skip that.
Wave 9 is pretty good. I would say that the first 10 waves are the hardest (depending a little bit on playstyle/upgrade choices).
Googly eyes, approved! 😉
The menu and intro story are solid, and the dramatic music sets the tone. I managed to survive a few waves.
Since it’s a rapid-click game, I kept accidentally selecting pop-up choices without realizing what I’d picked, it all happened too fast to register. With everything bouncing around so quickly, I wasn’t sure when I was taking damage, and I'm not sure what was going on with bouncing off the side of the bubble, is that damage? did I cause it to shrink?
One suggestion: Godot allows for custom mouse cursors. A large crosshair might help with visibility during hectic moments.
Intense.
Submitted
TrypophobiaThank you for playing the game!
There are a few things that I still haven't figured out how to make more intuitive.
When you die the bubble/arena shrinks so it can spawn you again.
Leveling up increases the bubble size there is a "air meter" in the top left corner displaying how much air is left inside the bubble (unfortunately It takes a while to be notices).
There are few mechanics:
There are 2 enemy types: the shooter and the bomber
The shooter shoots bullets (give damage and knockback)
The bomber explodes (gives knockback and then dies)
When an enemy dies it leaves some plastic behind and a exp bubble.
The leftover plastic damages the player if touched and can be pushed outside of the arena by shooting it.
Enemies can absorb the leftover plastic for more health.
The player has HP and EXP:
if it loses the all the hp (gets hit by shots or leftover plastic) it dies.
if the player goes outside of the arena (knockback) it dies.
When the player dies the hp bar gets filled again and the air bar decreases
If the air bar becomes empty the game is lost.
If the player gets to level 30 the game is won.
+ There are upgrades that change the player abilities (shape modifiers)
Only one can be active at a type:
Heavy: is not affected by knockback but moves slower
Bouncer: bullets (player) bounce on the plastic leftovers and arena/bubble walls
Thank you for playing! Hope you had fun.
I've been thinking so much about the "upgrade"/"lelev-ups" UI, but still, nothing clicked for me.
Was about to make something like a skill tree but I couldn't figure out how to make a menu work with the game in such a way that it would fit.
Will experiment more with VFX, it certainly makes a difference.
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