Hey! With FQ9 ending soon, I wanted to let you know that I won't be able to cover your game until after the event. If you're okay with waiting, just keep the game on the event and I'll be getting around to it over the next couple of months or so. :)

I really like the way the movement feels in this game - It took a while to figure out, but chaining together the hookshot and the jetpack with the sandboard feels really nice when you figure out how to properly gain momentum.

I think the biggest issue I have with the game is that we start on top of the rocket instead of inside it - It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that there were upgrades I could buy inside of the ship. When I did figure this out, the game became infinitely more compelling and exciting, but I feel like the lead was bit buried. Part of this is my own fault, I didn't read the instructions on the itch.io page, but it would be nice to have some instructions included within the game itself. Maybe a short playable tutorial would be nice - It could teach the player how to use the movement tech a bit too.

The worm AI is pretty tough, but to be honest, I also didn't see the note about staying on rocky terrain until just now. Maybe that was my problem! Even so, the game was tough in an arcadey sort of way that kept me hopping back in for one more round. It was pretty darn fun! I don't think I successfully collected any ship parts, so I'd be curious to know if the AI or difficulty scales as progress is made.

Overall, though, this game is really fun to control, and the aesthetics are suuuper nice. The worms are honestly really cute in a kind of spooky way and I would love to see someone make a plush of them! Good job!

I played the game here on stream around 2:03:00

DUNE! The battle for Arrakis!!

(How come the Worm can move on a rock in certain situations?)

A fun concept that executed quite well. 

A pleasantly high skill ceiling on going fast, and the grappling hook, jetpack, and snowboard all work really well together to combine into speed and feel pretty good when you're doing it.

I like how the sounds are understated besides the inevitable worm death digging towards you over the horizon. I think the grappling hook is missing that fun reeling sound that most gaming grappling hooks have though.

These damn worms are infuriatingly relentless though. I'm imagining a Devil Daggers like version of this where there's a bunch of smaller, slower enemies to dodge and that worm is the big slow one you're always running away from. Right now it just feels too fast, but of course its purpose is to get you moving and it definitely succeeds at that. 

White ship parts on almost-white sand is a bit annoying to find, and I'm not sure what the purpose of the gems are besides feeling nice to collect, but they certainly do!

I can see this going places with a few tweaks to the feel of gaining momentum, and maybe a few more things to do with your speed. 

I really liked the PSX-era visual style. It gave the game a strong retro atmosphere right away.

One thing that bothered me a little was the camera movement while walking. The bobbing felt stronger than I expected, and it gave me a bit of motion sickness after a while.

The moment when the scene suddenly got darker and the huge Dune-like creature appeared was really fun, though. I think the game did a great job making that monster feel genuinely massive and intimidating.

Overall, that was probably the most memorable moment for me.

This title immediately caught my attention with its art style. I was scrolling past and saw that giant low poly worm and went "woah hang on" and scrolled back up. Visually, this game is extremely cool, I am a sucker for low resolution 3D, there's something about seeing the squares desperate to morph into something resembling a three dimensional object that tickles me.

It took me a few minutes to feel out what the game was, exactly. Right away I noticed crystals that needed to be collected, so I grabbed those, and clicking gave me what appeared to be a completely useless grappling hook. It took me a decent bit before discovering that the hook was to be used on the ground, but this didn't seem to speed me up or change my movement at all, until I finally hooked onto that rocky ground and it all clicked into place. Movement with the grappling hook is really fun, I wish the game had a greater concentration of rocky terrain to play with it, although this would obviously affect game balance.

After that, inside of my little egg rocket ship, I saw that you could spend money on various things, including "board" which I at first assumed meant "boarding the ship" in some way, until I right clicked and uncovered the hoverboard. It was already fun slingshotting myself around the map, but the hoverboard to slide down sand and stone made things even more enjoyable.

It took me a few more minutes to discover that the double jump was a jetpack, and that this was the best way to traverse vertical sand, since the hookshot can't interact with sand. These three are really great movement options, they all have their purpose but they don't step on each other's toes and they all feel useful at pretty much all times.

Honestly, in spite of appearances, I would go so far as to say this borders on a horror game. The movement, while fun, definitely leaves me feeling helpless to the giant worms, and the majority of the game revolves around evading these creatures that will kill you the instant they make contact. The primary emotion I felt the entire time was "tense". When I know where the worm is, it's way too close for comfort. When I don't know where the worm is, it's even more uncomfortable. Finding out there is a second worm was gleefully unpleasant.

With that said, actually dealing with the worms is difficult. It felt impossible at first to evade them, it seems that they do have a sense of awareness of the player and follow you once they notice you, and at that point for a good while it didn't seem like there was any way to shake them. I did find the jetpack allowed me to jump over them, after which point if you can quickly return to the egg you're usually safe, but there were frequent occasions where the jetpack wouldn't cut it, I was surrounded by sand, and left completely helpless. Some of the strategy of the game surely revolves around avoiding this position in the first place, but because I don't know where the worms are, this isn't always possible.

I would appreciate some better queues about the worm's position. There's a sound that gets loud when they're close, but other than that I can never tell when a worm is on my tail, and since you typically move in the direction of the mouse, it's really hard to look behind my shoulder to make sure there isn't a worm, or to see how far away it is. Perhaps an indicator could appear when the worm is especially close, or when it notices me, would help a lot to accurately gauge the danger I'm in.

Most crucially, I have no idea what the mission actually is. The game displays a counter with the egg ship and the number 4, but I don't have a clue what this means. At first I thought there were four ships I needed to locate, but I only ever found one in my playthrough. The "Launch" button on the ship doesn't do anything, and I assume this must be the win condition, but I don't have a clue how to fulfill it. Some direction in that department is essential.

All in all, very cool game with a very cool style. It's simple and fun, perhaps a bit difficult to expand, but there's room for polish and quality of life. I can imagine a game like this being popular among streamers.