Hello cousin! I really really like your game. I know it's early and I only tested ~ 20 games, but so far this is the best I've played at FQ9.  Great vibes, loop, graphics, sound everything - I followed ya and I'll be back another time for a shot at the leaderboard. GG!

2 minor things, both controls wise. Please put pause on TAB for embed browser game, since ESC will get you out of FS. And also the upgrades between each round, bind them 1-2-3-4 or smth. I want to be able to sit back and not touch the mouse if I don't have to.

Anyhow, great entry. 

The purple graffiti-style cover gives Bounce Back! a strong arcade identity, but the page does not clearly show how its Pong and roguelite elements connect. One gameplay GIF, a one-line explanation of the run loop, and the basic controls would give visitors a much stronger reason to press Play.

I really love the style and art direction, and it is impressive that you already have global rankings and leaderboards working. The enemies look great, the presentation is cohesive, and the concept feels unique. I am not sure whether BALL x PIT was an inspiration, but you could lean further into that kind of escalating chaos while preserving what makes this game distinct.

My biggest request is mouse control for the paddle. This is both a comfort and accessibility issue. I have carpal tunnel, so repeated keyboard inputs can become painful quickly, while mouse movement would let me play much more comfortably. It seems like a relatively small addition that could make the game accessible to more players.

I enjoyed what I played, and I would absolutely return if mouse control were added.

If you’re a fan of bouncing into things, give BEAT BAES two minutes for a chaotic physics-driven mech clash. Build something busted, hit the arena, and tell me if it slaps.

Smash into your first match · Score the collision

Hi I'm LatinaStrike a streamer. This is my feedback about your game. If you would like to watch my stream where I played your game, I will leave the link below.

VOD Link on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2864977399

Timestamp for your game starts at 11:58

Bounce Back  Gameplay Feedback

Overall Thoughts

I honestly don’t have anything negative to say about Bounce Back. I enjoyed this game from beginning to end!

Right from the start, I loved the retro vibes, the music, and the overall feel of the game. It reminded me of a game I’ve played before, although I can’t remember the name of it. There’s something about the style that feels nostalgic and familiar while still being really fun to play.

I especially loved the power-ups. They added another layer of fun to the gameplay and kept me wanting to continue playing.

What really surprised me was how much more there was to the game than I initially expected. At first, you might think a game this simple would just be a simple, casual experience. But then you encounter a boss and things start shooting back at you, and I was genuinely surprised! I wasn’t expecting it, and it made the game so much more fun.

What I Loved

• The retro style presentation and overall vibe.
• The music really fits the game.
• The power-ups are a lot of fun.
• The boss encounter was a great surprise.
• Having things shoot back at you made the gameplay more exciting than I expected.
• The game is very easy to get hooked on.
• The intro page does an amazing job explaining the game and providing information for first-time players.
• The leaderboard adds even more motivation to keep playing.
• The simplicity of the game makes it easy to understand, but there is enough challenge to keep you coming back.

The leaderboard is honestly one of my favorite additions because it gives you another reason to keep playing. Once you see those scores, you naturally want to try to beat them and make it onto the leaderboard. It keeps you hooked and makes you want to improve.

Final Thoughts

This game really does what I think it is supposed to do — it keeps you playing.

I couldn’t put it down! I genuinely wanted to continue playing, as you’ll be able to see in my VOD, but unfortunately I had other things I needed to take care of. 

I can tell that a lot of love, thought, and attention to detail went into this game. What could have been a very simple game has enough surprises, challenges, power-ups, music, and competition through the leaderboard to make it something that you actually want to keep playing.

I really enjoyed Bounce Back, and I think you did an amazing job. My community also loved it. I was able to involve my community during stream in my decision making of which power ups to choose.

Disclaimer

I’m providing this feedback from the perspective of a regular gamer and streamer. I’m not a game developer, so I can’t provide in depth technical feedback about the game’s mechanics, development, or programming. I’m simply sharing my experience as a player and streamer and giving feedback based on what I noticed while playing.

I’m also using voice-to-text/speech-to-text to write this feedback, so I apologize in advance for any grammar, spelling, punctuation, or wording mistakes. I wanted to provide my thoughts as naturally as possible based on my experience playing the game.

Hello and welcome to Feedback Quest 9! My name is Hythrain, and I'm one of the hosts for this lovely event! I'm also one of the streamers, so both the game and this feedback are being done live! If you want to see the see the VOD, let me know and I'll link you to it when it's uploaded to YouTube!

This is a great way to reinvent Breakout (it wouldn't be Pong as Pong would have you play horizontally rather than vertically)! I honestly found this a lot of fun to play! I could see myself getting addicted to this. There isn't even a lot of feedback I feel I could give for this, but I'll try anyway.

So first, I think everything should start smaller and balls should move slightly slower. The reason why is because otherwise this game can get very crowded very quickly as new enemies and effects and projectiles are added in. Doing this you make the arena "bigger" and leave yourself more room to prevent clutter. If you want, you could do boss fights zoomed back in to make them more engaging and challenging.

Other than this, I have two recommendations for changes to relics. My first recommendation is that you should remove relics that increase your main ball speed. To me, these feel like nerfs instead of buffs as a faster ball makes it more likely you're going to miss the ball and thus take damage. Instead, any relics that increase speed to balls should only do so for extra balls as you can't get hurt for not bouncing those back with the paddle (which I'm very glad for. Otherwise, extra balls would ALSO be a huge nerf).

The other recommendation is that you should make it that relics that only affect other relics should require having at least one of the relics they affect before they can show up. For example, any relics that specifically affect extra balls should only show up once you have a relic that gives you extra balls, whether these are fragile balls or solid extra balls. That way, the player can't get relics that they can't make use of until they have the required relics.

The last thing I can suggest is to have a means for the player to heal themselves without needing to get just the right relics to do so. Right now, you either have to get a relic that heals you every 3 levels or just get one that restores your health. While I think you should still keep the heal every 3 levels relic, I would say you should instead put in a currency system (either enemies can sometimes drop the currency and you have to try and catch them much like the power-ups in Breakout, or you get a set amount of currency for each level cleared that increases by a small amount up to a certain level) and a shop where the player can purchase temporary upgrades that last for a set number of waves and the ability to heal themselves. You could even make it that the player can purchase permanent upgrades to increase their max health while that the cost of healing increases with the player's max health.

I hope this helps you out!

I enjoyed it! I would love to see this as an app to download one day. I could see myself playing this on break between work and such