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The Fight Against The Bomb Wizardess's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #26 | 3.643 | 3.643 |
| Overall | #43 | 2.786 | 2.786 |
| Audio | #45 | 2.429 | 2.429 |
| Graphics | #49 | 2.714 | 2.714 |
| Gameplay | #57 | 2.357 | 2.357 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Hey! I really enjoyed your game! The power up system is very cool and it's fun how it changes the basic gameplay. The cover art is very beautiful, and I definitely loved the music, it's so addictive! Adding some SFX and a visual indicator for the power up effect would improve the game feel even more. Anyway, nice job!
I’m so touched, this is the first time anyone on itch ever said that they liked the music I made. I’m very flattered! Thank you for all the kind words! I agree on the SFX and a visual indicator. One day, I’ll implement those. Thank you for playing my game!
Really cool to see someone who made the art, code and music themselves, well done!!
I thought it was an interesting twist to pong by introducing multiple strategies (should you time the bomb so it explodes on their side, increase the speed to make it harder to catch, etc).
Some more feedback or reminder for which button does what wouldbe good, I had to keep it minimized so I could read what button does what.
Some sound effects for the bounces and explosions would have also been a nice addition.
Cool submission overall! :)
Thank you for your feedback and kind words!! I am happy my soloist dev work was appreciated hahaha. I’m also happy that you found it interesting.
LOL so many people tell me to add sound effects to my games, every single game jam I entered this month, at least one person per game entry has told me to add SFX. I think I keep procrastinating SFX because I don’t want to go through the trouble of finding good free and public domain sound effects. Well, it’s mostly trouble to me since I haven’t done it before… Maybe I’ll finally do it one day (or end up making the SFX myself too lol)
It’s a common feedback to add a reminder or feedback about what the buttons do, I’ll probably decide a way to do it at some point, maybe by the time I add sfx.
One critique for the powerup system: if it had a UI or text popup "+Power" or "-Speed" whenever you press a button, it would help player memorize the buttons faster and be more intuitive. I know it's only 6 buttons to memorize but it's hard to immediately remember everything before you start playing with zero context, so something in the gameplay to help is always welcomed as a new player
Only other note was maybe adding a visible solid barrier for the top and bottom -- the bomb doesn't actually bounce at the screen's edge -- it bounces like 20 pixels from the edge so it actually threw me off a few times not being able to predict the bounce since it's an invisible barrier
My strategy was mostly to increase bomb speed but I think I should have gone full damage instead!! Getting the win was sastisfying though cus it was actually pretty challenging! Great job
Thank you for your kind words and feedback! I also greatly appreciate the YouTube video you included of the gameplay!
About UI or text popup “+Power” or “-Speed” whenever press a button: I agree, I hadn’t thought of that at the time I made the game, even though I was also concerned the players might get confused. Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll probably implement it when I’m free.
About adding a visible solid barrier for the top and bottom: I hadn’t considered that the players were actually going to expect the bomb to bounce at the edge of the screen… I guess I got too tunnel visioned while developing coz I had the visible collisions on the whole time. Maybe on my next update I’ll put clouds at the top and ground on the bottom, orrr maybe just clouds on both.
Actually (spoiler for people playing for the first time PLEASE DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT THE MAGIC TO BE RUINED): increasing bomb speed is the most optimal way to go (though there are instances where the other choices might work better, such as adding time) since the enemy AI is just blindly following the bomb’s y coordinates without any strategy while having a limited movement speed… I was pretty concerned people would catch on quickly since the enemy wasn’t coded to strategize & adapt to the changing bomb variables.
I think mechanics of subtracting and adding bomb timer/damage/speed is super cool idea! I didnt see nothing similar to this and it feels really fresh.
Also i think it should has simple control bindings or mechanic to add a little more casual gameplay, because now i cant win bot with my claws lmao 😭
Maybe i feel that you should adding mechanic that will slow game, when bomb will be near the player character, to give player the time (from 1 to 5 seconds) to choose perk to reflect the bomb with. Even if you add key binding to each perk it will be faster and easier to remember controls. I've drawn the interface, maybe it will seem interesting for you.
I really liked this your game, thank you for done work!
Thank you for checking out my game and giving feedback! I’ll check your game out & reply better tomorrow when I’m not busy. Thank you!
I’m happy that you found my idea fresh!
I think your suggestion is interesting, I like the interface idea. I think that 1-5 seconds might be too long, since it’s more on reaction time or pre-planning the bomb mechanic before it hits you but I’ll consider it since it might actually work well if I try to do it even if I initially don’t think it matches my plan.
Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it!
Super cool, nice twist on the classic pong with cool art. All the unique ideas truly evolve the game past pong, and I'd love to see where it would end up with more additions!
The cover art looks awesome btw!
My only real suggestion: Why not local 2 player? it would certainly fit in with the game and shouldn't be too hard(then again i dont know the code so maybe it is)
Then the controls for swapping are certainly something, not that bad when u get used to them, but number buttons or scroll wheels would be a better choice imo(im sure u had ur reasons tho)
Anyways that's all from me, your game looks awesome and plays smoothly, good job! you should be proud!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m happy to know you liked the art haha
Local 2 player is one of the things I considered actually, I do plan to make some kind of multiplayer possible one day! I think what prevented me from implementing it was that I don’t really have a way of testing multiplayer at the moment & I haven’t implemented multiplayer before.
About the controls, I thought that scroll wheel might be too slow because you’re cycling through every option. Number button on the other hand might be odd without a num pad since you might have to use both of your hands to be able to press all of the options. These aren’t bad suggestions though, maybe one day I’ll make key binding options that could allow for either of those.
Thank you for the feedback!
Pong meets Hot Potato is what I'd call this. Nice interesting twist. I would like to be able to move the paddle a little faster or perhaps with the mouse, but then again, that would probably make it easier than it was on my first try.
Good job coming up with the bomb time changes and things. I like that the different paddle setting operates on the bomb differently. I didn't play long enough to figure it all out, but did enjoy what you put here. When I saw the characters (cartoon witches), I was expecting something different, perhaps with your art skills/ use of art, you'd incorporate characters like that in a future game of yours.
Thank you! Yeah its kind of like pong + hot potato hahaha. I’m glad you enjoyed.
I’m hoping to incorporate my art in future games better, though the limitation of the sprites being so small kind of makes it difficult to make it detailed hahaha.
I’ll think about the paddle speed, I was not sure about speeding the player up because I thought it was already too easy as is. Maybe one day I’ll add a mouse follow option as opposed to W&S. Thanks for your feedback!
I like how you added a twist on classic pong by adding abilities when deflecting off the bombs. The cover page art awesome! Would love to see how to expand this game!
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Hi all, thanks for checking out my game!
I will rate back whoever rates this game if they have a browser version & if you guys lmk through the comments