Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Looking for feedback on my first PICO-8 game

A topic by vonhoppdev created Apr 02, 2026 Views: 151 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2

Hello everyone,

I just released my very first game made with PICO-8 : FLESH NAVY.
It's a minimalist shmup that I tried to build with progressive difficulty based on observation and learning.


Even though it's just a small game, a prototype, I want to treat it like a full-fledged game and polish it as much as possible. 
It's currently in a 'playtest' phase and I'm trying to gather feedback to improve the overall feel :

- Are enemy attacks readable?
- Does death feel fair? 
- Are the first levels (kind of tutorial) too boring ?
- How's the overall pacing of waves and levels ?


You can play it here : https://vonhoppdev.itch.io/fleshnavy 

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to try it.

Enemy attacks do feal readable. Death does feel fair. I could not help but notice there are no upgrades. After a while the waves started to blend together. It didn't really feel like anything was changing. I could not figure out what focus did for the life of me. It is a cute game, but it got boring quickly. 7/10.

(1 edit)

Thank you for taking the time to try it and give feedback, it's very helpful.

What you're saying confirms one of my concerns : the feeling of repetition and the potential for boredom, especially in the early levels. I'll think about what I can implement to improve that.

Regarding the focus mode, it reduces the player's movement speed by half, while the rest of the environment keeps moving at normal speed. I'm also considering how to improve it, either through clearer visual effects or adjustments to the system itself.

Again, thank you for your feedback and your time.