Not the kind of feedback I was looking for, BUT definitely the kind that I need!! Very valid observations of issues that I failed to notice. Much appreciated!
Much appreciated for trying my game on stream and leaving such detailed feedback! I've checked out the stream and it was really helpful to actually see live reactions to the game mechanics (this is my first experience with streamers jam).
Very cute and fun puzzle game! I really enjoyed my session. Noted some of my observations below:
To me, isometric perspective make it hard to follow for "diagonal"/"cardinal" orientation. Honestly, when I see the grid visual for brown cat, my brain was registering as cardinal, given the isometric-like perspectives of the boxes.
Black cat: the distinction of "new" neighbor was not clear to me on first glance. Since "cardinal" was colored that was what I focused on, following from brown cat. Maybe can color or bold the word "new", also maybe the lighting indicator of the affected boxes can have a different color than the red of existing neighbor.
Similarly for any new mechanics like loneliness. I feel color coding could aid player cognition, but lighting vfx in the affected boxes, and in the grid instruction on top left
You could consider adding visual warning for black cats already placed in boxes, when player is holding a new cat, like a danger zone.
I noticed that holding the undo button can either undo multiple moves or reset stage. It didn't feel natural to me when I want to undo more than 1 move but not reset stage. Hard to control exact number of moves.
Overall, keep up the good work! It has great potential as a cozy puzzle game!
On a different note, would much appreciate if you could also check out my game and share your thoughts :) It features a Tetris-like combat system that also rewards well-planned placement of pieces. Jam page
Interesting twists on a classic! Noted a couple of observations below:
Not sure if intended, but the fact that enemies mostly follow the player plank (left/right) give me some level of control over combo-ing off the top of enemies.
Seems to have performance issues, with some input lags. This gets noticeably worsened with the lightning powerup, lagging every lightning chain.
The short pause every time the pong hit the plank doesn't feel satisfying. For me it reduces smoothness of the gameplay
The laser weapon provides some visual cue before actually shooting. But the window is too brief for players to respond to and try to lure enemies into the area of damage. Maybe that's your intention, but I feel allowing players to respond that way can give them more agency.
HP dropped by 2 when player blue pong hit screen bottom. 1 hp drop is more intuitive.
Your black background aesthetics is good, but I'd suggest some additional glow on your sprites.
At the start of new wave, I'd suggest giving a 3-2-1 countdown, can be quite abrupt and cause players to drop ball right from beginning which can feel bad experience-wise.
Overall, lost of potentials!!! Keep up the good work!
On a different note, would much appreciate if you could give my game a try :) It's a twist on Tetris, turning it into a turn-based combat system, and rewards well-planned piece placement over speed. Jam page
It is an interesting puzzle mechanic which has quite a lot of potentials. However, the game in its current state might put people off before they get to actually learn about the game mechanics and enjoy it. Noted a couple of observations below which I hope would be helpful:
Not sure if it is system compatibility of my laptop, but the responsiveness of inputs and sound effects were highly disjointed
In Tutorial stage, whenever i move into the tile in front of the NPCs, I got stopped half-way, then teleported to a random adjacent tile which was visually jarring.
When I got "killed" by a trap, my game state got reset to a way earlier checkpoint, which introduces unnecessary backtracking and does not seem to have any benefit to player experience
Overall, the game mechanic has potential! Keep up the good work!
Also, would appreciate if can also try out my game and share your thoughts :) Jam page
I've already tried the game and left my feedback on the jam page. Hope you guys can give my game a try also.
It is called "Gloopers, Assemble!", an early prototype of Tetris-like turn-based combat mechanic. So far it only has 3 enemies but should offer good diversity in mechanics. Please try the tutorial first :) Jam page
Interesting twists on tactical RPG! Noted a few suggestions below:
I couldn't view the move range of enemies, not sure if this is intended. Enabling such feature, like in normal tactical RPGs, would allow for more proper planning by the player.
Having the identity of R/P/S classes be defined by both attack grid patterns and weakness/strength relationships seem restrictive. But at the same time, some skills seem not aligned with such restrictions. For example, the Scissor 'O Toole guy having a defense buff skill with grid pattern similar to Paper attack instead of Scissors attack.
I noticed a damage multiplier (R > S, etc) which seems to be 2x/0.5x. However there was not visual indicator. Either a text popup or some sort of vfx would be nice. Also, 2x/0.5x seems too harsh a multiplier right from the start.
Limiting units to to only face left or right (to enable distinction between sideway Paper attack and forward Rock attack) seems unintuitive.
Overall, the combat design is promising! Keep up the good work!
Hi Oden, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system and a tutorial, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi ShiftyGameDev, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system and a tutorial, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Plabs, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system and a tutorial, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Pixel, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system and a tutorial, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Mayshing, much appreciated for hosting FBQ! Hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try. Think Tetris-like rpg combat, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system with a couple of enemies, and a working tutorial.
Congrats on the game! Had fun even though vampire survivor-like are not really my cup of tea!
Noted down below a couple of suggestions
Instead of a common currency (such as gold coins), different enemy types drop different ingredients. Given the cooking theme of level-ups, maybe the type of ingredient can determine what kind of power-ups player have access to? Not sure if this has been done before in this genre.
The spawn area of the spicy sauce puddles seem too wide. Initially I could not see any until later. Maybe limit the area of spawn to within player's current field of vision?
Like another post suggests, I found the sfx of the player cries upon getting hurt a bit unpleasant.
Hi lina, much appreciated for giving my game a try, and for the encouraging comments!
In case you don't mind some follow-up questions,
Did you find the tutorial helpful?
Did you find yourself deliberately placing pieces to form equations, or mainly focused on placing pieces just to clear lines?
Was the visual indicator of enemy effect (such as Bat's confusion swapping player inputs) clear or did you feel some text description of the enemy skill is necessary? My concern is whether having texts will be too distracting / cluttering
Hi Zafinyaa, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Ryikaaa, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Mikan, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi PearDoll, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi Lust, hope you can give my puzzle-tactic game a try! Think Tetris-like rpg, but rewards well-planned piece placement rather than speed. Arrange blocks containing numbers and operators, clear lines to form equations, and the result determines your attack or defense power. It is currently an early prototype that focuses only on the core combat system, with 3 enemies so far.
Hi! I'm a solo dev working on Gloopers: Assemble!, a puzzle-tactics combat mechanics designed for a roguelike game. It's currently only a prototype with 3 enemies and a working tutorial. I'm mainly seeking feedback on whether the core combat mechanic: falling blocks contain numbers/operators, and clearing lines forms equations that determine the power level of your attack / defense actions.
I'd especially appreciate knowing what felt intuitive, confusing, fun, or frustrating. Also, whether the tutorial provides sufficient explanations for you to start exploring the game.
A unique take on the tower defense genre! This genre is not really my cup of tea so I mainly tried out only stage 1, but did notice a couple of things which I hope could be helpful
No visual feedback when the tower got hit.
when I entered the shop, I could only pick my purchase using mouse, which is non-intuitive given the keyboard as main form of inputs
After i bought 2 towers they stacked. The 'S' button prompt to move them appeared at the same time, which felt weird
Took me half way through my first run to realize I can climb higher the tower. I ventured up mainly because it felt weird to have enemies dropping from above and not from the sides
Not sure if there is any incentive to move up, instead of just stationing around the yellow tower
Felt weird that enemies do not damage player on touch. Also green slimes hp increased in later waves while looking the same, which felt off (I'd be ok if maybe on top of enemy head there is some sort of Level to indicate stronger units of same species)
Hi, thanks for trying the game. The fish tiles are the animated tiles which look different than the plain water tiles. Perhaps you want to have a look at "How to Play".
