I’ve wanted to try this since seeing it on an IGC stream, so I wasn’t going in with fresh eyes. I liked the concept even if I think I accidentally broke the intended gameplay.

I remembered a climbing mechanic from the stream, but I pretty much only used the jetpack. I accidentally upgraded it after my first run and, since vacuuming up the radiation gives you more fuel, spent the next run barely touching the ground. If that’s not the intended way to play then the backpack could be nerfed somehow, maybe an overheating timer or something. I liked the premise and I think the bear theming is fun, though some of the outlines on the paw model could be cleaned up since it was quite noisy.

I liked the small loop of replaying the level to progress. It was fun in a tedious sort of way, like any other cleaning game, but the interactions felt a little flat. The improved sound effects you mentioned will help a lot and I liked the highlight + shaking when vacuuming, but some depth in the feedback might make them more varied. A few ideas I have are popping the little red balls off the cluster or making the radiation shake more violently as you clean them.

The initial roar on the radiation timer confused me too too, I wasn’t sure if 10/50 was good or bad until I stood there for a minute and saw it tick up. I like the limit and that you could convert collected radiation to remove it.

Overall I had fun, I just wasn’t sure if I was doing it as intended. Most of my gameplay was unfortunately on mouse+kb because my bluetooth adapter was acting up, but I recorded it! https://youtu.be/0jtGADQKVdI
And I just did a small bonus because I wanted to see how the climbing worked. I also realized that I pretty much never use dash: https://youtu.be/9A66qqYE8L0

I think the game has potential, unique art style, and a clear vision, but the main mechanic does not feel satisfying and we need more world context.

I would say the onboarding experience is pretty frustrating. The menu being part of gameplay was weird since you can control both at the same time. Also you start facing the end of game where you dump all your radiation? The art style is so abstract I don't know what I'm looking at and where to go first loading in. It was made even harder since we don't any controls yet, so trying different buttons made me zip around a lot confusing me and I actually fell of the map (also did this in the main level) because you have limited boost and lack of collision. The only way to keep playing was to reopen the game. There needs to always be a check in a 3D game to kill/respawn the player if they fall too far past the floor.   It took me a few minutes to get out the staging area and almost quit there. Games like this would typically start you in the first level so you can learn and play the game first before worrying about upgrades and stuff.

Overall, the readability proved my biggest issue. It being so unique and placeholder art made it frustrating to figure out what is going on. I couldn't tell what type of platforms were or what the radiation was. The radiation sucking requires a lot more feedback. It's hard to tell it's doing anything, collecting doesn't feel fun, and there is no challenge to collecting them. This makes upgrades feel unnecessary since they're not needed to make the game easier or solve harder puzzles. 

I feel this game has something to say, so I'm curious to see where it goes next.

Hey, I will drop my feedback below:

• What was the most frustrating moment in what you experienced?
  • The way the hand goes back to place for going idle after moving is annoying. I think it should be animated instead to avoid it teleporting so much. 
  • It won't let you absorb the orbs if you are too close to them.
  • It took a long time to load past the godot game engine logo.
  • The weapon and hand clipped through objects, I think they should be rendered into a separate layer to overlay everything besides UI.
    
  • Absorbing particles feel off, I would expect the particle motion to be in te opposite way since I'm vacumming instead of throwing a thing. I think some kind of motion towards the gun and a confirmation sprite/particles on succesful collection would be nice.
  • Vacum and fly sfx are too similar imo.
  • It's odd that the player moves and interacts while still being in the main menu.

• What was your favorite moment?
  • Flying feels really good.

• Was there anything you wanted to do, but the game didn’t let you?
  • I would like to reliably move faster, the dash is ok but I think it is too unpredictable (burst of movement with not much control)

• If you had a magic wand where you could change any part of the game, regardless of cost or complexity, what would you add/change/remove?
  • I would add some upgrades to how much resources you get from each orb.
  • Besides I would make it so you have to do 3/4 runs max to get to the next level.
  • More levels or a way to generate them randomly in a roguelike fashion.

• What would you say you were doing in the game?
  • I was collecting radiation to feed machines.
    
• How would you describe the game to friends and family?
  • It's a FPS where you control an intelligent polar bear that collects energy orbs for machines.

hey i played this and left my feedback on the discord!

I enjoyed playing, good job!

• What was the most frustrating moment in what you experienced?
  • The dash mechanic felt a bit unpredictable to me. Even on a full energy tank sometimes it would be a short dash forwards other times it would almost send me flying over the edge of the level. I would have used it more if I had more control of it like you do the jetpack.

• What was your favorite moment?
  • Moving around the level with the jet pack mechanic felt fun and intuitive. I also like the art style you are going for here, it feels almost nostalgic but I can't really put my finger on what it reminds me of other than possibly 90’s graphic design trends that I remember from my childhood. Also I have a fairly underpowered pc and a lot of 3D prototypes I have tried to playtest for people have not been optimised to the point that I can play them, so I was happy this ran so well!

• Was there anything you wanted to do, but the game didn’t let you?
  • I would have wanted to have some sort of reason to use the resource while in the level collecting them before returning to the base to upgrade defenses/equipment. As in, maybe a secondary gun that shoot the energy back out to fend off enemies or destroy obstacles in the world blocking the players path forward.

• If you had a magic wand where you could change any part of the game, regardless of cost or complexity, what would you add/change/remove?
  • While I felt the platforming was fun and you are off to a good start. I felt like the game needed more speed potentially. Like possibly some sort of momentum build mechanic. Just a thought I had while playing! another thought I just had was about the blocks that look solid but you fall through. These blocks really only trick the player once and after that they stand out so much that you just treat the like empty space.

• What would you say you were doing in the game?
  • You play as a polar bear with a jetpack who needs to venture out into a radiated tundra to jump around collecting resources to create a safer more radiation proof home for your family while not succumbing to radiation poisoning yourself
• How would you describe the game to friends and family?
  • I would describe this game as a first person 3D platformer where you play as a jetpack flying polar jumping around a world made of ice blocks to collect resource.

Cool platformer idea. It took a bit to understand the game loop, as there is no clear visual hierarchy between the overall map, the upgrade consoles, and the portals, but I eventually worked it out. Integrating the main UI into the lobby area seems a bit messy, especially since you can move the character and the UI simultaneously. Given the complexity of working with multiple consoles, integrating the main menu into a physical console in the lobby might work better, in my opinion. I would advise focusing on the core mechanics and UI before adding new ones. Using the vacuum rifle works ok but is not satisfying enough for a main mechanic, and I can't even tell what the riffle particles are doing, Check out "Slime rancher" as a reference, the frame rate is super low for some reason, If you get too close to the radiation particles it doesn't suck them up, try to avoid the camera from clipping through obstacles. Reaching the top of the purple pillar/mushroom seemed like a satisfying milestone, but there wasn't anything up there and I couldn't stand on it. I couldn't find a real use for the dash, but it might eventually be cool for something. The toxic pools are not visually represented as a danger sinkable zone. As with any game, including mine, getting the game to feel right is super tricky and requires a ton of work, but starting early saves you a lot of headaches later once the game begging to increase in complexity. So keep on grinding and congrats on the project so far! Love the concept and the style!