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OrbWeaver's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mechanics | #425 | 2.665 | 3.125 |
| Story | #450 | 1.919 | 2.250 |
| Fun | #497 | 2.345 | 2.750 |
| Theme | #529 | 2.452 | 2.875 |
| Aesthetics | #665 | 2.025 | 2.375 |
| Overall | #670 | 1.919 | 2.250 |
| Sound | #734 | 1.173 | 1.375 |
| Music | #776 | 0.853 | 1.000 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
no
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Comments
I would have had more fun playing this if there was more clear control over Bruce. I think there is really great concepts here... like, really cohesive and engaging mechanics. With more polish and different options for controlling the character, this would be top tier!! XD I enjoy games that implement a first person type view experience so I would come back to play this with better control and interaction mechanics over the Derrick and Bruce. If this had controller support for all the movement and mechanics over Bruce = #WIN!!
I noticed that when Derrick and Bruce met at the middle, I was still able to used the WASD to move throughout the entire time. I am assuming this is intended but then trying to use Bruce to continually project to surfaces and grapple to the middle points while using the WASD felt a little bizarre.
I kind of liked that the environment was dark but only because for me when I started playing, I'm thinking.... okay, so Bruce is this light that I need to use to explore the environment (is my first impression). Then I'm like okay... I can use him as a sort of grappling hook, but we meet at the middle, which is definitely something to grapple (lol!) with, in terms of mastering control over the character. I think using Bruce as an exploration mechanic in its own, can be fun and useful for different kinds of intended exploration if it does not conflict with trying to engage enemies at the same time in areas of darkness.
You will definitely need more information and logic regarding the enemies. I had no idea I was getting killed but because it made me panic when this creature was on top of me and blocking my view, my instinct was to sic Bruce on it, which I learned could kill it. But since there was no kind of feedback between Bruce and hitting the Enemy, you may not make the connection to continually force Bruce to collide with it in order to kill it. Which I found using Bruce to hit and damage the enemies was also pretty engaging.
Bruce is used for all the things!!! The lighting needs to be adjusted though because I definitely am like... what door is supposed to even be open right now? Having gone and grappled up to that green obelisk key, I back tracked figuring maybe I had missed something in the beginning, which the path was there (not sure if there had been a door there though because if there was, I had missed it the first time around, being drawn to the lit area in front me after following the hallway of text).
The environment needs work the scale and lighting (but obviously part of the point is to use Bruce to traverse a lot of the environment) and guiding the player to an area that may potentially be available. There should be some sort of indicators for the distance you can project Bruce. And also better communication for if Bruce get's stuck somewhere, you can't retract him back to you and Bruce will be forever lost. This did happen to me~ where I had unlocked the at the Green Key Obelisk. I didn't realize I left Bruce up there and by the time I go to the Spider Queen area, I kept calling him. And when he was not coming I went to go look for him. The only way I found where he was, is because his lighting effect was clipping through the wall so I went back to retrieve him. So Bruce's pathing needs some love. Or control over how he works if you become too separated in the ginormalous level.
Eventually the Spider Queen killed me after I sic'd Bruce on her dozens of times.
I didn't hear any volume? No music or sound effects...? Nothing obvious anyway... ::shrugs::
I am also interested to know more of a story background for this.... like we know nothing about Derrick or Bruce and of the magic involved. So those would also be some fun things to explore too.
I really like the concepts here, I would come back to play this if it continues to be developed and grows. There is a lot of fun to be had with all of the concepts if they get refined and polished.
Thank you so much for the thorough review! I really appreciate the insights into your thought process while playing.
The concept was originally about using Bruce solely as a light source to get around the map and solve puzzles (hence the darkness). In fact, the NPCs were originally designed so they couldn't enter Bruce's light radius. I ended up changing a lot of the original premise due to Web limitations (I couldn't run more than 4 real-time lights at a time without massive frame drops) and time constraints. Having never done a game jam before, I wasn't sure how much scope people were looking for or interested in playing, which is why I held back on including my story elements.
I had so much fun working on it that I'm actively developing a proper standalone title for it now. I've already started fixing a lot of the physics jank and have incorporated a basic stand-in UI to help judge cast distance for Bruce. As for the controls, it's definitely still a work in progress lol, but I will most definitely include full controller support in the final version. Thanks again for the incredible feedback!
The mechanic is very nice, it didn’t always work for me, sometimes when I pressed q bruce kept staying with me, I couldn’t fully հասկ what the exact condition for using bruce is, maybe there is something like a cooldown I don’t know, on the other hand I have to say the map is very dark, most of the time I was wandering without knowing where I was going, at one point I was able to swing like spider man by constantly pressing q and e, it turned into a complex game where interesting mechanics come together, thanks for the submission
Yeah, I had a lot of issues with flying out of the map initially and had to restrict Bruce's cast distance. Unfortunately, because of the jam timeline, I didn't get to go back and adjust the environment scale or add in more walls afterward, which definitely led to some wonky guesswork for the player regarding the range!
As for Bruce staying with you, that's a known bug with how the engine joints were interacting under the hood during the crunch—definitely something I'm fixing for the standalone version. Thank you so much for trying it out and for the great feedback!
Its a fun mechanic to use Bruce to swing.
Glad you enjoyed orbweaving, thanks for playing!
This is a pretty cool game, altho I didn't realize until I read it in one of your answers that I can damage the enemies, I thought I had to avoid them
Yeah its something I should have made clearer for sure, thanks for giving it a shot though, I appreciate it!
I had a lot of fun zipping around in the air once I started getting the hang of Bruce, but it was pretty hit or miss sometimes. Definitely difficult avoiding enemies, it didn't feel like I had a means of shaking them off me. I also didn't find any kind of weapon, definitely need a way to defend myself. Maybe I didn't find it?
I'm glad you had fun with Bruce! I had to change the cast distance last minute due to map clipping. Originally, the game played like rocket Spider-Man, blasting you across the map, which was fun, but I was afraid the constant restarts would be more aggravating than the failed links.
He actually is the weapon—when you send him towards mobs, he deals damage and a knockback effect. I originally had a spell-casting catalyst in the game, but I scrapped it in favor of just focusing on manipulating Bruce. Thanks so much for playing!
The idea is super cool! Bruce is MVP! I did get lost a bit at the start as there was a lot of text and it was everywhere so I missed a bunch. A simple tutorial where the player MUST use the intended mechanics to progress but only needs to use one at a time might help with that? Also using colour to match the doors to their keys so I know what opens will help me find where to go everything looked a bit the same :) I really like the idea of such a versatile tool like Bruce it feels like he has so much potential!!
Yeah, I was afraid the walls of text would be a distraction! I added them before I realized I could put the instructions directly under the game in the browser lol. I did want to run a tutorial area, but I wasn't sure how much time people would want to invest into a simple-looking game, so I went for a layout that was as linear as possible. The original setup actually consisted of 4 areas, each with a main obelisk you had to activate to open the final door to the Spider Queen. I originally had a lot more obelisks with real-time lights that Bruce would activate when cast, plus destructible walls, but I didn't realize how limited the web browser option would be. I had to scrap them and opt for a simpler emission activation and disappearing wall section to keep performance smooth.
I'm so happy you had fun with Bruce, and hopefully you'll get to see him again in a much more polished form!
I really liked the mechanic, but when I got to the tree I didn't know where else to go when it lit up.
Yeah, that's my fault! Originally, I had color-coded obelisks and multiple pathways, but I had to scrap them due to frame drops and the final time crunch. After you activate the tree, a wall disappears on the other side of the wall you spawn in front of. Thank you so much for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed orbweaving with Bruce!
This was a really cool take on the theme! It was pretty fun using Bruce to both repel enemies and also traverse the level. I didn't make it very far, and sometimes Bruce seemed to resist getting tossed somewhere, but I enjoyed playing. Nice work!
Thanks so much for playing! Yeah, that resistance is either a range limit I set on the cast (to keep people from flying right through the map walls), or I just missed assigning a layer mask somewhere. Glad you liked the traversal mechanics with Bruce anyway!