Not my cup of tea gameplay-wise, but I admire the amazing art, sound design and unique idea! It seems very deep and complex, crazy amount of work and dedication for just a week. Great job!
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SpinChestrion's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity & Theme | #28 | 4.524 | 4.524 |
| Overall | #173 | 3.987 | 3.987 |
| Audio | #280 | 3.730 | 3.730 |
| Enjoyment | #289 | 3.873 | 3.873 |
| Seriousness | #442 | 3.841 | 3.841 |
| Visuals | #459 | 3.968 | 3.968 |
Ranked from 63 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game Engine
Comments
It never clicked for me. I played around with it for maybe half an hour, also in the sandbox, but I'm still confused about how it works. I tried replicating the setup with the clock from the tip, but I didn't understand how to place them without breaking. I'd have loved a few examples on how the various pieces are meant to be used.
We know that the communication about the base mechanics of the game currently isn't the greatest, you're not the only person who's had trouble understanding how the game works at all so don't worry about it. A more interactive tutorial with a better explanation on what to do and not to do when building a mechanism is gonna be added if we'll push this project further.
Having a few basic examples on how to use each piece (at least some of the more basic ones) also isn't a bad idea, so we'll keep it in mind! :)
We're sorry you couldn't enjoy the game much, but we still appreciate the feedback! <3
YES this idea is very good! very cute, enjoyable, satisfying compared to lots of incremental stuff out on the market cus i am doing something i am placing stuff on a chessboard to get max result and most importantly i recive the result by watching a show!! i think it's really hopeful if you are to push this further. very good job!!
As someone who loves incremental games, they do sometimes tend to feel too... Automatic?? I wanted to make sure the player actually felt like they are playing something, rather than just watching a number go up, and when said number goes up I wanna have them go "wow, that number went up thanks to the strategy I used!"
At this point I can almost confirm we'll push this further in some way due to all the positive feedback wanting us to do so :)
Thank you for the review!! <3
Very creative! It definitely took some brain power but I really like the concept. Great submission!!
NICEEE! First of all, I really respect that it's a very "smart" game. Honestly, i had a headache playing it, but the rules were well-defined, and I'm sure with more time and reading I could really get deep into it.
I liked the music! It wasn't tiring, which is a common problem with looping music. In general, all the SFX were well-made :)
The visuals were tricky. I think they start a bit weak, but by the time I opened the shop, they became not just good, but outstanding! I assume the menu design wasn't as much of a priority? A more polished menu would definitely help with that first impression, though. (Or maybe removal and add the options in-game?)
I'm surprised by how complex the systems are, but my personal favorite is the subtle humor and the character design. <3
Thank you for the review!!!! <3
We're glad you enjoyed the gameplay, despite it being a bit complicated, and the audio!
As for the menu design, we wanted to make something a lot more well-designed, but we spent a lot of time making sure all the in-game stuff looked good and worked well enough that we ended up having no time for a good menu (it was in its placeholder state up to the last day, in which we made something extremely basic but less of a placeholder.)
We still wanna keep the menu around since you can access sandbox mode from there as well, but we'll make sure it pops out a bit more if we expand on the project. Also having options be accessible in-game is just a good idea overall.
Thank you again for the kind words!! :D We're glad you enjoyed the silly aspects of this (very serious) ballet show, as well as the character designs!! <3
Very beautiful game! This type of game is not something I usually play, so I unfortunately do not have much insight on whether mechanic X or Y is fair or not. This might speak to my lack of creativity here more than anything else, but I found myself making similar formations each round, so it would be useful if you kept the same pieces on the board each time, so you don't have to click and drag dozens of pieces over and over. Granted, this strategy did not pan out for me in the end (turns out you can't mainly use the receivers in a single chain and expect to win), so I like the idea of tutorial stages that force you to use more pieces (the instructions at the start are quite charming, though). Maybe another way to achieve a similar reduction in building time is to force the player to start over each round with limited receivers or limit the number of pieces they can move to the next round (before the shop).
Thank you for the review!! <3
We're glad you were able to enjoy the game despite it not really being something you're used to!
We have already discussed the possibility of "saving" your previous formation so that you don't have to place the same formation over and over again, as well as some ways to make gameplay more varied and not have the player always use the same strat/units, so expect that to happen! :D
This is probably my favorite out of all the games I've played in the jam. The mechanic is simple yet complex at the same time. It feels like there's so much room for different designs and expansions on the mechanic. Like challenge mode to get the most quota, or maybe change it up earning the most money. Puzzle mode, where the player has a bunch of pieces and must create an infinite loop or whatever. Even player made challenges would work. I really like it a lot.
I only have 2 gripes with the game.
The first is the tutorial, but I'm guessing the tutorial is like this because of time constraints (mine was the same tbh). Aside from that, I think it would be nice to have an option for a more standard font for the text in the tutorial, as it was actually a little bit difficult for me to read the tutorial.
The second is the sound effect of the explosion when I accidentally made the same rotation adjacent was a little too loud. It kind of jump scared me. It seems to be because each spinner destroyed produces the explosion sound. When multiple of them go off, because the sound is the same, it just gets amplified. I tested it in sandbox and it seemed to be the case.
Overall, I really like this game.
Thanks for your review! :D
The idea of various different challenges is fun, we were thinking of ways to vary the gameplay and that's a solid idea we could implement alongside others!
You guessed right on both cases, the tutorial is like that because of time constraints and the explosion sounds plays for each instance of explosion happening at once, which ends up being very loud in some cases, which I now realized isn't the greatest thing lmao.
If we'll expand upon the game we'll keep this advice in mind, thanks again! <3
Great take on the theme! Love the variety of dancer options, both in ability and appearance! Would be nice to have symbols or icons for certain concepts in everyone's description to make it less wordy. And maybe would benefit from a "reload" option to auto-put down what we did last level, since there are a lot of dancers and I end up repeating my configurations a lot. I think a smaller arena, at least at the start, would be more fun, so players really have to weigh which dancers to put down. Also, Idk if it's just me but I really wanted a pause button during scoring to make sure I understand the points haha. Totally understand that core gameplay was the main focus in the jam though! Anyways, really great and enjoyable game! (sry for unsolicited advice)
Interesting little entry with beautiful graphics!
Keep up the good work!
This is a great take on the theme! Honestly, the most fun part for me was finding out as many infinite loops as possible, even if it gets me to -1000 spins real quick haha. It was a bit hard to keep track of which dancers would go which way and the tutorial was a lot to ingest in one go. Also, I think a great background to go with this is if the hexes were the base of an open music box. The music was very nice to listen to and I think the different types of dancers were very creative design-wise.
Hi! Thanks for the kind words and review! <3
We originally planned to have an actual background but ended up cutting that due to time constraints :(
Yeah, the tutorial is a lot, but again, due to time constraints we didn't have time to do something more interactive and simple, but we're glad you enjoyed testing all the dancers and different configurations! :)
Thanks again!! :D
I got all the way to performance 10! Absolutely amazing game, fun mechanic, the prices in the shop are a little expensive in my opinion, or im just bad at the game, but I had a blast! one of my favourite games for sure! One thing that could be added is an overlay of some kind over dancers to tell you what kind of spin the dancer will get, and a more detailed explenation of some dancers like the one that eats others, so the player is more prepared, as there was a lot of trial and error I had to do to understand HOW they functioned. All in all, a 10/10 from me.
Thank you for the kind review! <3
We originally wanted to have the dancers have some sort of overlay on their spin direction before you started the performance, but with the way we coded the game it was impossible for us to do so :(
I do think that not being able to see that adds some extra challenge though, being able to constantly see it might make the game a bit too easy perhaps? Idk, we'll evaluate on this topic as we go further (if we do end up expanding upon this project, as it's getting reviewed very positively, with a lot of peeps wanting more.)
Thank you again! Glad you enjoyed the game! :D
The mechanics are really interesting, fun take on the theme! Took a minute to get the hang of it, but it’s very satisfying when you get a perfect chain especially with the more advanced spinner things.
3 full pages of tutorial hitting me at once was a lot though, and I admit I didn’t read it, I just trial and errored a couple rounds instead >.< I also felt like the visuals and UI were… a bit messy? Incongruent? The art is amazing! But it felt like a lot to take in or navigate at times. Audio was well done though. Different sfx for different spin activations made for a nice rhythm sometimes.
Overall well done :)
The tutorial situation has already been adressed multiple times, we wanted to have a more interactive tutorial but didn't have the time to do so sadly :(
If the game ever gets updated, we'll probably have something clearer to understand and not as much of an info-dump.
Could you specifiy what you think was messy about the UI and visuals? Just so that we can take notes and improve on that for next time! :D
Thank you for your time and your review! :)
Of course! I get that for sure, time is a commodity with these
For the visuals, I think it’s two things. Firstly all the elements (particularly in the upgrades menu for example) is a bit too big, which is exacerbated when I go fullscreen. UI elements need room to breath and not feel cluttered.
The other thing about it for me was that I felt there was too many colors, or maybe an inconsistent/too wide of a color palette. Bright colors and dull colors together. It didn’t really harmonize or convey much visual information to me (like how in most games red = danger, green = safe, just as an example). The background in the main game (and the menu) looked like the default engine dark background which made things feel a little dull? Maybe that’s the intent visually, but it still stood out as off to me.
I’m by no means an artist or expert tho! So take it all with a grain of salt. It’s just my immediate feelings towards the visual presentation. A lot of the individual elements are visually interesting and well made, but put together didn’t feel right, if that makes sense?
I hope that’s helpful!
This was a really unique take on the jam theme! I hadn't seen another game use the mechanic this way, and it made the gameplay stand out. The visuals were really nice, and the audio fit perfectly. I had a great time playing. Great job!
This is the best representation of spin I have seen so far that isn't jus gambling. It takes time to learn game mechanics, but when you understand what's goin on, it's actually quite easy. I love it, it's addicting.
Great game! Really like how you combine the dancers in a sequence and have to take account of the direction they will spin, nice strategy game of buying your dancers and setting them up to maximise your points and different ways and strategies of combing different types of dancers to get points. I had a little trouble picking up pieces after putting them down on the board and minimising the menu so I could see the right edge of the board.
Yeah,this is one of the gems! Great art,sound,idea,details,just perfect!
Wow! I am amazed at how much depth there is to this game in such a short time! Amazing artwork, especially with the different spinner sprites. It was very fun setting up chain reactions and combos. I felt like I was playing for quite a while without losing any lives, maybe some obstacles that interfere with the signal paths would have been interesting to make it a bit more challenging. This was amazingly made. EXCELLENT TEAMWORK!
Thank you for your review!! :)
We're glad you enjoyed the game, and yeah, the difficulty isn't that high up because we wanted to make sure that anyone could play the game for a bit without too much trouble for the jam, but a difficulty increase with more varied gameplay in various ways is planned in case we end up expanding upon this game for a finalized product! :D
One of the best games of the jam. At first it is really hard to get used to, but after getting the hang of it assembling the formations was really fun. The visuals are gorgeous, really good art, specially the dancers. I wish the formation from the previous level was set at the start of the next, so you could keep upgrading your one formation instead of creating it from scratch every single time. That's my only really small complaint, besides that this game rocks, congrats!
Thank you for your kind words!! <3
Yeah, I've thought about formation saving but there just wasn't enough time to implement it in the current version of the jam sadly, as it would've been harder than it may seem to do due to how the game is handled (we'll probably need some major patching up to the game's main code, but that's planned in case of future updates, so expect this feature to potentially exist as a setting if the game gets expanded upon! :D)





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