I recorded a video but it just felt really whiny and not very constructive so i'll refrain from posting it unless you want it. I'll try to type it out a bit more constructively and less critical.
I finished the tutorial levels and stopped playing.
I think the game has a particular charm and the mechanics themselves might be very satisfying when put to good use.
Blorb jump is interesting to a fault but the means of access are very clunky. I don't think it should be on down and that it should be on a different button so that you can better access momentum and movement. Going from left/right into a jump is very awkward because of this. Also, the timing window is nice QoL, but implemented poorly. If you miss the window, your character will just sit there for a long time, punishing you when you already get punished by missing the jump. It feels like a double down. Also not sure if it's a glitch but when you are in those "punish frames" your character stays completely static, sliding off of moving platforms and plummeting to your death. Probably a bug, but that's 3 punishments wrapped into one thing. Awful.
The roll being on down is not bad, because you just have to tap it and it feels good. Removing the charge jump on down will also give it tons more room. There's some inertia quirks but it's a solid idea.
Most critically is the level design. It's the hardest thing to do when making games like this, but essentially, your levels leave little room for error just within the tutorial section alone. As the developer, you're going to be the one playing your game the most so keep that in mind to new players. An easy jump for you, someone that has tons of experience with the controls and the levels could seem insanely difficult to an average consumer. It's a bad case of "I played my game too much and its tuned to my difficulty level". Tutorial 4 and tutorial 5 would've been impossible if I didn't really have patience. If you want to make a rage platformer, go ahead, but this game doesn't strike me as the type. If you are not going to make a rage platformer, keep things simpler and not as challenging, you don't want your players to get frustrated and quit and refund, you want them to have a good time.
Other than that I think it's great start for a starting project with some cool ideas and i'm excited to see where they go.
Thanks for playing, and don't worry about being too critical! I actually just replayed super mario world and have become blackpilled about making a good full-length 2d platformer--it's way too hard for the amount of demand (essentially zero).
Good point about level design, it's not supposed to be a rage platformer, but it definitely plays like one. That's another problem with platformers, you can spend hours making a level that the player blasts through in 20 seconds. And I feel I've run out of ideas for levels that aren't just sadistically precise jumps.
The stick controls is a bit wonky, going into "down mode" when I'm pressing right or left. And I already complained about being able to go out of the "down mode" mid-jump.
But otherwise - a really good demo. Some levels need to be a bit less precise, but the controls are fairly good!
I ended up beating all the finished levels, played on BS5 Blorbtroller
Blorbing around is fun and feels good
the controls felt good by the end, but initially really threw me off and have a weird learning curve. The arrows really helped, I dont think i ever would have figured out you need to hold up while charging to get max height
tapping jump gets you ~80% of the height of holding a jump, personal preference but id prefer it either make a meaningful difference or just be a constant height
Maybe Blorb charge could be faster? I feel like in any given level a lot of the time is spent waiting for the blorb meter to fill
the way sideways momentum works while blorb charging is interesting, im not sure i totally figured it out. It seems like if you try to hold sideways on release, you either go nowhere at all if you were stationary, versus if you initiated the charge with sideways momentum you end up being able to jump really far. I like this as a mechanic but it felt kind of unpredictable so i ended up mostly just jumping straight up wherever i could since it was safer
I wasnt a massive fan of the later level design being lots of single floating blocks, i thought the ramps and jumping were more fun and interesting
Camera sometimes is too high, cant see the platforms i need to land on next.
Rolling, jumping, and then blorbing to fling yourself really fast is really fun, but 90% of the time in the level design doing so is straight up suicide
Moving platformers are probably the hardest part of the game. Overcharging on a moving platform will make Blorb stop sticking to the platform which can result in the platform just sliding out from under you during the animation
I like the atmosphere of the secret level and the touch of the sky getting darker every level in the first world
The best rank i got on any of the levels first time was a C... I'm an absolute blorblet
Thanks for playing, lots of really valuable feedback, seriously
-You are correct about how sideways momentum works, when you write it out like that I realize how strange it is, for the first time.
-The blorb charge meter is actually not a charge at all, which is super confusing. It's just the window you have to press bounce, but it 100% looks like a charge meter, so its confusing.
I liked how the levels slowly went through the day and night and the more complex movement and the vibes the game has, I was dying a lot and was starting to get anoyed at the little dance blorb does on respawn
played with keyboard, I liked the UI and soundtrack, I feel like it fits the overall look of the game
Inertia feels a little inconsistent, it's easy to stop mid-air at low speed, but the blorb feels heavy on the ground
I couldn't finish the last tutorial level, felt impossible to me because I couldn't see what was happening on the right side of the screen (where the traps are basically) and the sawblades aren't synced with the platforms, which makes it really hard to plan any jump (might be a skill issue)
The character doesn't follow the platforms when the bouncing animation is playing, and jumping from a platform sometimes makes you follow the platform (cave level), sometimes not (last tutorial level)
I sometimes had trouble interacting with the world/menus, wasn't sure if I was supposed to press space, E or W
Thanks for playing! If I'm understanding you correctly, blorb turns around too slowly on the ground?
I see what you mean about the bouncing on platforms, and I think I know the fix. I'll have to check the cave platforms again, because they are different from the other ones.
Yeah that's kind of what I mean by inertia, blorb feels heavy when he's on the ground, but very light when he's in the air (you can stop him mid-air very fast)
Movement feels pretty good, couldn't finish the last level because of skill issue.
I played with a controller, moving with the analog. If it's possible, I think it might be even better if you increase the threshold it takes to enter free fall mode specifically on the analog stick, because I found myself entering free fall accidentally a lot of times during short hops because tilting the stick slightly downwards triggers it, killing my movement momentum
Comments
I recorded a video but it just felt really whiny and not very constructive so i'll refrain from posting it unless you want it. I'll try to type it out a bit more constructively and less critical.
I finished the tutorial levels and stopped playing.
I think the game has a particular charm and the mechanics themselves might be very satisfying when put to good use.
Blorb jump is interesting to a fault but the means of access are very clunky. I don't think it should be on down and that it should be on a different button so that you can better access momentum and movement. Going from left/right into a jump is very awkward because of this. Also, the timing window is nice QoL, but implemented poorly. If you miss the window, your character will just sit there for a long time, punishing you when you already get punished by missing the jump. It feels like a double down. Also not sure if it's a glitch but when you are in those "punish frames" your character stays completely static, sliding off of moving platforms and plummeting to your death. Probably a bug, but that's 3 punishments wrapped into one thing. Awful.
The roll being on down is not bad, because you just have to tap it and it feels good. Removing the charge jump on down will also give it tons more room. There's some inertia quirks but it's a solid idea.
Most critically is the level design. It's the hardest thing to do when making games like this, but essentially, your levels leave little room for error just within the tutorial section alone. As the developer, you're going to be the one playing your game the most so keep that in mind to new players. An easy jump for you, someone that has tons of experience with the controls and the levels could seem insanely difficult to an average consumer. It's a bad case of "I played my game too much and its tuned to my difficulty level". Tutorial 4 and tutorial 5 would've been impossible if I didn't really have patience. If you want to make a rage platformer, go ahead, but this game doesn't strike me as the type. If you are not going to make a rage platformer, keep things simpler and not as challenging, you don't want your players to get frustrated and quit and refund, you want them to have a good time.
Other than that I think it's great start for a starting project with some cool ideas and i'm excited to see where they go.
Thanks for playing, and don't worry about being too critical! I actually just replayed super mario world and have become blackpilled about making a good full-length 2d platformer--it's way too hard for the amount of demand (essentially zero).
Good point about level design, it's not supposed to be a rage platformer, but it definitely plays like one. That's another problem with platformers, you can spend hours making a level that the player blasts through in 20 seconds. And I feel I've run out of ideas for levels that aren't just sadistically precise jumps.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2767018324
The stick controls is a bit wonky, going into "down mode" when I'm pressing right or left. And I already complained about being able to go out of the "down mode" mid-jump.
But otherwise - a really good demo. Some levels need to be a bit less precise, but the controls are fairly good!
Keep it up!
Thanks for playing and streaming! You make good points about the down mode.
(my condolences for the blorb and ball torture)
I ended up beating all the finished levels, played on BS5 Blorbtroller
Keep up the good work
Thanks for playing, lots of really valuable feedback, seriously
-You are correct about how sideways momentum works, when you write it out like that I realize how strange it is, for the first time.
-The blorb charge meter is actually not a charge at all, which is super confusing. It's just the window you have to press bounce, but it 100% looks like a charge meter, so its confusing.
I liked how the levels slowly went through the day and night and the more complex movement and the vibes the game has, I was dying a lot and was starting to get anoyed at the little dance blorb does on respawn
Thanks for playing! Yeah, the animation could be faster for how much you respawn in this game.
played with keyboard, I liked the UI and soundtrack, I feel like it fits the overall look of the game
Inertia feels a little inconsistent, it's easy to stop mid-air at low speed, but the blorb feels heavy on the ground
I couldn't finish the last tutorial level, felt impossible to me because I couldn't see what was happening on the right side of the screen (where the traps are basically) and the sawblades aren't synced with the platforms, which makes it really hard to plan any jump (might be a skill issue)
The character doesn't follow the platforms when the bouncing animation is playing, and jumping from a platform sometimes makes you follow the platform (cave level), sometimes not (last tutorial level)
I sometimes had trouble interacting with the world/menus, wasn't sure if I was supposed to press space, E or W
Thanks for playing! If I'm understanding you correctly, blorb turns around too slowly on the ground?
I see what you mean about the bouncing on platforms, and I think I know the fix. I'll have to check the cave platforms again, because they are different from the other ones.
Yeah that's kind of what I mean by inertia, blorb feels heavy when he's on the ground, but very light when he's in the air (you can stop him mid-air very fast)
feels way better than last time i tried it, good job. steep learning curve but it's really fun!
Thanks for playing, really happy to hear it feels better!
fun and satisfying. skill testing. no bugs found.
Thanks for blorbing! Happy to see you found no bugs (I did test it a lot!)
Movement feels pretty good, couldn't finish the last level because of skill issue.
I played with a controller, moving with the analog. If it's possible, I think it might be even better if you increase the threshold it takes to enter free fall mode specifically on the analog stick, because I found myself entering free fall accidentally a lot of times during short hops because tilting the stick slightly downwards triggers it, killing my movement momentum
Thanks for playing! If by the last level you mean the cave one, that's fair, that level is bullshit and unfinished.
I know exactly what you mean about the free fall on the analog stick, I just need to figure out how to fix it.