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Chroma's Curse's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #6 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Visual | #8 | 4.220 | 4.220 |
| Fun | #10 | 3.854 | 3.854 |
| Theme | #11 | 3.805 | 3.805 |
| Audio | #21 | 3.463 | 3.463 |
Ranked from 41 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Are you using any third party assets?
Music/SFX were sourced through commercial licenses. All visual art made by wife.
Are you using any AI generated assets?
No
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Comments
Somehow managed to clear and reach #1 spot on my first attempt... No idea how scoring works and whether it's deserved but I'll take it.
Lovely hand-drawn style, reminds me of CryptRat's submission, though the gameplay loop is different. Overall - plenty of interesting ideas, having to "protect" the page is a neat mix-up mechanic and having multiple tools for this makes it fun. Two thoughts though - I wish the enemies were more aggressive in applying colors (in a harder difficulty setting maybe), and also it felt unnatural that you can't shoot down the blots of paint before they apply, considering how long they can linger on screen (if you don't want them getting shot, how about dashing to destroy them instead?)
In terms of abilities, the shrink didn't feel relevant at all, save for one of the patterns of the first boss where the passage between bullets is tight enough that dashing was too dangerous and precise to try. I never used the shrinking afterward, the tradeoff of losing power is just too unappealing, and the patterns were spacious enough that it wasn't necessary.
The charge shot - I think it's overpowered but in a fun way, the damage you can deal with it seems to be way higher than normal shots, and since the last boss is very mobile it's preferable to use it since you can charge the shot during moments where the boss is not aligned with you. Only thing is that it made dashing mostly irrelevant for page discoloring since it's weaker and doesn't cover as much range as charge. If the enemy was more aggressive with coloring and/or the dash had some utility like the "dash to destroy blots" suggestion - I think it would make it more useful, and also fun due to making the two mechanics interact more deeply.
Other than that, solid work overall. Thank you for sharing!
Sorry for the late response! I was on vacation during the last couple days of the voting period, so I wasn’t able to be too active with replies.
Congrats on the clear and the #1 spot! Whether the scoring was deserved or not, the leaderboard has spoken lol.
Seriously though, thank you for such a detailed write-up. This is super helpful feedback. I’m really glad the coloring mechanic stood out, because that was the main thing I wanted to feel different from a more standard bullet hell loop.
I think you’re right that the enemies probably could have been more aggressive with applying color, especially in a harder mode. The coloring mechanic was honestly a tough thing to balance, because I wanted it to matter enough that players couldn’t just ignore it, but I also didn’t want people who were already struggling with the bosses to get completely overwhelmed. So I tried to find a middle ground where ignoring the color would eventually fail you, but keeping up with it would still feel manageable. That said, I definitely think it could have benefited from more fine tuning, especially for more hardcore players or a harder difficulty setting.
The blot feedback makes a lot of sense too. Funny enough, at one point in development I actually had it where charge shots could take out the blots, but I ended up removing it because I was worried it might make the cleaning side too easy. In hindsight, I probably should have kept some version of that interaction, or maybe made dash destroy them like you suggested. That would have made the blots feel less like untouchable hazards and given dash a much clearer utility outside of just avoiding bullets or cleaning the page.
Totally fair on shrink as well. I wanted it to work more like a focus / precision mode for tight patterns, but I can see how the power tradeoff made it feel not worth using unless the pattern specifically demanded it. That’s something I’d probably rebalance if I revisit the game.
And yeah, charge shot probably ended up being the star of the mechanics lol. I’m glad it felt overpowered in a fun way, but I agree that it kind of overshadowed dash for cleaning. Making the enemies color more aggressively, and giving dash or charge shot some extra interaction with blots would probably make those tools feel more evenly useful.
Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write all this out. This is exactly the kind of feedback that helps me see what worked and what could be pushed further in future games.
Loved the art style and the "keep the color removed" idea! The patterns are fun and diverse. Thanks a lot for the tutorial - especially for the explanation of the color removal part, I feel this made the game feel a lot more polished. And in general, polish shows!
Need to keep playing to beat the game :) Congratulations on the submission! And the leaderboard is a nice addition too.
Sorry for the late reply! I was on vacation during the last couple days of the voting period, so I wasn’t able to be too active with responses.
Thank you so much! Really glad you liked the art style and the color-removal mechanic. That was the main idea I hoped would make the game feel a little different, so it makes me happy to hear it stood out.
Also really glad the tutorial helped. I spent a good chunk of time on it because I was worried the color-clearing mechanic might be confusing without some explanation, so it’s awesome to hear that it made the game feel more polished.
Happy you enjoyed the patterns and the leaderboard too. Thanks a lot for playing, and good luck if you come back to beat it! :)
Fun game with very nice cute art style. The colour part of the game was great idea and fun to see. Tutorial very helpful and explain the gameplay well. Despite it cute art style, it rather a hard game but still fun to play, I like try get better when I got more time to do.
Love the erasing canvas idea and worked very well in the gameplay and shrinking while simple work well too. Overall had alot fun with this and great seeing the art base on mythical animals. Great work
Really appreciate the kind words! Glad the erasing canvas idea worked well and that the tutorial helped.
And yeah, the cute art style is definitely hiding a harder game underneath lol. Happy it still felt fun enough to want to come back and improve.
My wife gets all the credit for the art, so she’ll be happy to read this. Thanks for playing!
I liked the idea of erasing the canvas and keeping it clean. The gameplay is fun, and the tutorial explains everything before you start. Well done!
Really appreciate the kind words! Glad the erasing mechanic was fun and the tutorial helped. Thanks for checking out the game :)
Clear with score of 11524!!!
I liked the theming of the bosses being mythical creatures.
The "walls that stop" attack was probably the hardest of the set for me, I kept getting hit here due to the shmup cardinal sin of "player ship having inertia" please consider not doing this in future bullet hell games. (surprisingly, this is the only game I've played so far with inertia, there's a reason it's much less common for precision dodging type games)
The cockatrice boss was a standout hit for having fun to dodge patterns, but kelpie's bubble dodging attack was a pretty close 2nd. Kelpie was the hardest boss for me by far because of the walls attack, but I seemed to have encountered a safe spot at the back on one of my attempts? (the bullets despawned before reaching all the way to the back of the screen, unsure if it consistently happens)
The charge shot felt very clunky to use because the DPS wasn't that notably higher but the punishment for releasing too early was that you don't get any shot at all. It kind of worked together with the cleaning mechanic decently well though.
The shrink maneuvre came in pretty handy for the first boss's walls with gaps attack, this felt well implemented and fit the jam theme well, but I don't feel like the iframe dash was very well implemented - most times you'd use it, you'd either run into another bullet as soon as it ends, or you're better off not using it at all and just dodging or shrinking. It's like conceptually OP so it seems like you felt the need to balance it this way, but the end result is that there are almost no actual use cases for it in the game. The only use case I found was to skip the last wave of the "walls with gaps that stop periodically" attack.
Overall super fun and pretty engaging experience though. I liked the sprites.
Congrats on the clear and the score! That's awesome.
Appreciate the detailed feedback too. The movement feel point is fair. I wasn't specifically aiming for inertia, but if it came across that way during precision dodging, that's definitely useful to know and something I'd pay closer attention to in future bullet hell-style games.
Good catch on the Kelpie safe spot too. That definitely sounds like something I'd want to look into, since I didn't intend for that attack to have a free safe zone.
The charge shot and dash feedback make sense as well. Charge was meant to be more of a timing/cleaning tool than pure DPS, but I can see how the early release punishment could feel clunky. My wife actually shared a similar critique lol. Dash distance/timing was one of the things I wanted to revisit before the final build, but it didn't quite make it in.
Really glad the Cockatrice patterns and Kelpie bubbles stood out though. Thanks for taking the time to clear it and write all this out. Super helpful feedback, and I'm glad you still had a fun time with it! :)
That was a surprisingly challenging game despite its appearance. I gotta practice some more and beat the chicken already :)
Patterns are very interesting to dodge, some of them, like the bubbles, are very hard to micro-dodge even with shrinking, died several times to those until I figured out that you had to move with the flow.
Art style is incredibly charming, and inclusion of leaderboards was a huge incentive for me to keep playing.
Thanks a lot! Yeah, the cute look is definitely hiding a little bit of pain underneath lol.
Happy to hear you found the patterns interesting. The bubbles were designed so you can squeeze through some of the gaps in a pinch, but moving with the flow is usually the safer play. So it's cool you picked up on that.
Also, really glad to hear the leaderboard gave you a reason to keep coming back. Thanks for playing, and good luck taking down that chicken :)
I just love this game. The game’s balance is incredible. I love how, as you get smaller, it becomes harder to move around. But the best thing is the idea of clearing the colours from the map. It gives you that extra incentive to keep playing forever. As for the art style, there’s nothing to say – it’s just brilliant.
With all that going on, how on earth did you even find the time to include a tutorial?!
Wow, thank you so much! This seriously means a lot to read.
I spent a lot of time trying to make the balance feel challenging without being unfair, so I'm happy it was appreciated. The color-clearing was a big thing I hoped would give people that "one more run" feeling.
And yeah, the tutorial took quite a bit of development time, but I felt like the game really needed it. There were enough unusual mechanics going on that I didn't want players to bounce off before the fun parts clicked.
My wife deserves all the credit for the art style too, so she'll be happy to read this. Thanks so much for playing!
amazing entry, with great mechanics and concept. i really like that the gameplay is giving me some extra task other than dodging the bullets and autofire on the boss and that task is a very visual and fun one! for the jam's sake i would've loved if the shrink theme was addressed a bit more creatively, it felt a bit of an afterthought but tbf the game itself is great as it is, huge congrats!
Thanks a lot! Happy to hear you liked the page-cleaning mechanic. I wanted there to be something extra to manage besides just dodging and dps, so it's awesome to hear that felt visual and fun!
Totally fair on the shrink theme too. I tried to make it matter through the focus movement and tight bullet gaps, but I can see how the coloring mechanic ended up being the bigger star.
Really appreciate you playing and the feedback!
This was so much fun!! I loved the Lisa Frank like characters, and it all almost reminded me of an opposite version Kid Pix studios. Super nostalgic, absolutely loved it!
Thank you so much!! The Lisa Frank-inspired look was my wife's idea, so she'll be really happy to read this. Really glad it gave you that nostalgic feeling too. That means a lot. Thanks for playing!
Super colorful, cool music, great mechanics... very good job on this game!
Thank you!! Really glad the whole vibe came together for you. We had a lot of fun making the visuals and music fit the mechanics, so that means a lot.
Thanks for playing!
This game was so fun, I could beat the game in 1 hour and it was nice, the time flies playing this one haha
It’s difficult enough to keep you engaged without feeling unfair and feel “one more time” when you get game over, the learning curve is nice and it doesn’t feel overwhelmed when the screen gets painted. I think the attack that got me most of the time was the barriers of heart bullets with a gap because the gap was difficult to reach between each wave of bullets even with the dash
The art is good and everything feels nice together, I like how it looks with no color and in some way I feel like the bad guy, everything is colorful and the character you control is stealing everything haha. The selection of songs really fits the visuals and that’s nice, I really liked the 3rd boss and I think if I actually would clean the screen more, maybe I would snatch the 1st place but maybe I’ll try again another day
About shrinking, here it feels great and smooth, you can really go through rough positions with no problem and makes you feel more powerful, the charge attack is a great implementation in this game, feels better when you time it to clear paint and hit the boss and not just to make damage. I also like that the game shoots for you, it really reduces the mental load of pressing 1 button all the time and helps to pay attention to the safe areas you can go
I’m thankful you can play with control, it’s easier for me to play with it, just I would liked that you could go through the menus with it, just to only use 1 “device” at playing.
I think that’s really the only observation I could give, and that you are able to send the same name with different scores showing all and just not the highest to avoid someone filling the whole board, like me I put my score 3 times xD, but those 2 don’t affect the gameplay
I really had a very fun time playing this game, amazing entry! ^^
Wow, thank you so much for such a detailed comment! It seriously means a lot that you played long enough to beat it and still felt that "one more try" pull. That was exactly the feeling I was hoping the difficulty would hit, so hearing it didn't feel unfair is really encouraging.
The heart barrier attack is good feedback, too. I can definitely see how that one could feel rough if the gap moves a little too far between waves, even with the dash. Honestly, I wanted to tweak that specific pattern more, so I definitely know what you mean.
I'm also really glad the shrink and charge felt useful without adding too much mental load. Autoshooting was a big choice for that exact reason. I wanted players thinking about positioning, cleansing, and survival instead of constantly managing a fire button. Making the player shoot manually would either add another button for charge or force them to tap-fire so they don’t accidentally charge, and that felt like extra input noise.
And yeah, totally fair on the controller/menu support and leaderboard duplicate scores. Controller gameplay was important to me, but I didn't quite get the menus fully there in time. Same with the leaderboard; definitely something I'd want to improve.
Also, I love the "am I the bad guy?" read lol. The wizard definitely makes morality a little gray ;)
Thanks again for taking the time to play it so much and write all this out. Really happy you had a fun time with it :)
im playing for like an hour now still cant beat the second boss ≡(▔﹏▔)≡
but damn the game is soo good. the art work is so unique and well made. its like its made out of love. and the bullets patter was so good and fun. the shrinking mechanic was so great. and very cool of you to make the game playable with a controller XD.
also why i am a pale wizard who likes k!lling the vibes lmao
An hour?? That honestly means a lot, thank you for sticking with it that long ≡(ᗒ﹏ᗕ)≡
Really happy you dig the mechanics and the art. My wife put a lot of love into the artwork, so "made out of love" is probably one of the nicest things we could hear. Also glad the controller support helped! I really wanted it to feel comfortable for people who prefer playing that way (I, for one, am one of them).
And yeah, the wizard is just out here committing vibe crimes lmao. Thanks so much for playing and for the super kind comment!
Honestly, really really fun, very polished, the tutorial helped quite a lot to get into the game, the shrink player mechanic is nice, but the painting mechanic was even better, it seems to me like another way of shrinking, the art is also very ell done, the bullets white painterly-looking, still were very visible, which is impressive. The game was quite balanced too, I will probably revisit this again to beat it.
Thank you so much! That really means a lot. I'm especially glad the painting mechanic came through that way, because I wanted the theme to show up in more than just the player physically shrinking. Also, really happy to hear the bullets stayed readable with the aesthetic. That was something we were constantly trying to balance with the art style.
Thanks for playing, and good luck if you come back to beat it!
honestly, the bullet visibility surprised me because it is very hard to make it visible with your theme, because of the bright background, but you used colorful contrast which worked really well.
I couldn’t get very far, but honestly the mechanics are really well put together. The color changing mechanic made it feel like a completely different take on the theme, and the shrinking mechanic added a lot to the gameplay too. Really cool idea overall!
Thanks a lot! Really appreciate you giving it a shot. I know it can get tough, so I'm glad the mechanics still landed for you. I was hoping the color mechanic would make the theme feel a little different, so it's really encouraging to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks for playing!
Fellow press button to shrink mechanic! Really loving the aesthetic of the game, though admittedly im not the best at playing said game lol. Really like how you have to balance around 3 things (clearing the page itself, dodging the boss projectiles and the platforming/wall sections) it adds a very unique challenge where you have to consider what position to be in, and where to use your dash.
Also really love the tutorial, Its a very important often underlooked part of game jam games, very appreciated! All in all a very unique and fun game. Gratz on the entry!
Fellow press-button-to-srink devs unite lol.
Thanks a lot! Really glad the balancing act came through. This was one of the trickier parts to design around because I wanted it all to matter without making it pure chaos. Also, really happy to hear the tutorial was appreciated. I spent a decent chunk of time on it because unusual jam mechanics can get confusing fast.
Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
Neat! Interesting premise and great use of the theme. I found the contrast between the black and white background and colorful attacks to be a clever way to have visual clarity.
Thanks a lot! Really glad the theme came through. The black-and-white page vs colorful attacks was one of the first dieas we locked in, so it's awesome to hear that it helped with clarity too. Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
Really fun, great bullet patterns, and damn is that coloring book style cool
Thanks a lot! Really glad the bullet patterns felt fun. I spent a good chunk of time tuning them, so that means a lot. And yeah, my wife gets all the credit for the coloring book style. She really nailed the look. Thanks for playing :)
Incredible-I'm in awe that you made this in 10 days! Great job!!!!
Thank you so much!! It was definitely an intense 10 days, but I'm really happy with what we were able to put together. Really appreciate you playing and leaving such a kind comment!
Amazing game, the coloring background mechanic is so smart and unique, I love it, you did so well good job !!
Thank you!! That honestly means a lot. I was really hoping the main idea would stand out a bit, so it makes me happy to hear it came through. Thanks a lot for playing!
Solid entry. Really the varied but well balanced patterns of attack and the gameplay revolving around cleaning the map itself. Felt real refreshing.
Also, good job designing the tutorial, it was short and simple while explaining all the relevant mechanics.
Good job !
Thanks a lot! Really glad the patterns and map-cleaning stood out to you. I definitely spent a good chunk of time tuning the fights, so it's awesome to hear they felt varied but still balanced. And happy the tutorial did its job without dragging on.
Thanks a lot for checking out the game!