Hello,
Thank you for playing the game and taking the time to give me some feedback!
Yes, it seems that the first level is hard and need to be simplified. I guess I just didn't realized it in my tests. There is a video with my playthrough on the game page. It is certainly possible to do, that much I can guarantee. 15 tries is a lot, I am really sorry about that! I did not expect people to take more than 3 tries for each level.
I know the death is a bit too punishing, going back to the start feels a little bit wrong as well. It resets the timer so it feel more like you restarted the level (made no progress) instead of continuing it.
Glad you didn't have problems with how the movement works on slope. Some people do not like the current way it is done.
I am still new to game development, this was the first attempt to make a more complex 3D game. Since the UI is something I keep redoing for each game, I am starting to get a better feel for it. I am working on a UI template to reuse on all my games so when I join jams I wont rewrite the same code over and over again.
I did not expect the animation for the 3D character to be so hard to set up. So far is been quite an unpleasant experience. I guess that finally I am starting to reap a little bit of the benefits after forcing myself to do 3D games in the latest game jams. I can see that now is much easier to set things up.
I do admit that mechanics is something that I do not really get into as much as I should in my games. It is something that is becoming more and more apparent in Jams as well. Usually the idea and gamefeel have a consistency to them but when it comes to mechanics they seem a little bit absent or at the very least lacking.
No, you do not sound judgemental, or at least I don't mind it =), compared with the feedback I get on regular jams this is 100 times better. I like to think that I am thick skinned when it comes to feedback but when you give yourself your best shot and people dismiss your game. That is something I struggle a little bit with even if I can understand where they are coming from.
I am not sure if at this point that is procrastination, it kind of feels more like I hit the point where everything is new and don't really know what to start learning first or where to find that information.
I also was not able to team up for jams, part of me was hopping to meet with more experienced people and pluck at their brain. After a recent short and unpleasant interaction with a 3D artist I am starting to think that is a good thing I didn't team up...
Collaborating with others seems to be the hardest challenge for me yet.
I can't seem to come up with simple responses, here I go again with half a page of text XD.
Thank you for bearing with me and for the invaluable feedback!
Have a wonderful day!
Viewing post in Hasten (alpha) jam comments
It's nice to see your reply, I don't mind reading long responses!
Sorry I just assumed that was procrastination. Now it makes sense that if you have a more polished UI if it was re-used from previous projects. If you are new to gamedev, welcome! 3D is truly a beast and I respect your attempt at it. I dabbled for a bit in 3D then never got into it after learning about all the complexities :D But I do want to get back at it some day
Yeah, collaboration is very tricky. Experience varies from people to people. But if you do it right, you may create games that you would have never created by your own. It might be easier if you start collaborating with someone you know on a short limited term, just my 2 cents.
I wonder what made you think working with a 3D artist made you unpleasant though?
I didn't work with the 3D artist. Things went south unfortunately even before that had a chance to happen.
I simply entered a game dev discord server hoping to relax and mby exchange some ideas about art and even find someone I could collaborate with. In that channel was a 2D artist practicing his art, it looked interesting so I hopped in.
At the beginning it was ok, exchanged a few words and things progressed as you would expect.
A 3D artist joined and on hearing me cry about my lack of art skills took it upon himself to teach me that it is "easy" to do 3D art.
I have to mention that I did not ask him for this.
And well, long story short, he added me to friends on discord and for the next days he sent me impromptu calls in witch he held 30/40 min monologues presenting his ideas and skills. I tried to go with the flow and be respectful. The 3rd monologue extended its advice to game development and here I felt like I have a right to at lest question the advices I was getting.
While 3D/2D art is something I do more as a temporary thing until I find someone to collaborate with and have no experience with, game dev is something I take seriously and try to read about it when I have the time.
The discussion ended with a dialog that sounded like this:
Him: You shouldn't do game jams because bigger studios will steal your ideas.
Me: Yes, but big studious can steal my ideas even if I publish them.
Him: Ah yes, you know better. You have more experience than me.
Me: No, you know thats not what I mean...
[he left the call while I was saying the last line]
I will say this, I did not feel like he was ill intentioned and I understood where he was coming from. He seemed to have an agenda on convincing me to ask the 2D artist to work with me and stop doing 3D games.
The reason behind that being (or at least on of the reasons I picked up from him) that many artists in the industry don't make it and at this moment both the 2D artist and me are not progressing to the next level.
And I agree 100% with this, and told him that as well. But the road I choose for myself is mine =).
He question my motives of why I was hesitating to team up and upon trying to explain he disagreed with my reasoning. Implying that teaming up is "simple".
Instead of a normal relaxing conversation it ended up kind of ruining my day.
These small petty interactions only reinforce my hesitation to team up I guess.
Yikes, he definitely has some agenda behind. From the way you describe him, sounds like he is a publisher or a head-hunter trying to find a team and getting commission put of you.
You dodged a bullet there with that guy.
But I hope it won't dissuade you from teaming up with someone down in the future though!