Pretty neat little game! The level might not have been much to look at, but the movement was nice and the wizard's sprite was pretty cute (although I have to say at first I thought it was a person with a tiny head and arms and giant legs). I managed to find all 10 bunnies, and funnily this was also my 10th game reviewed. Well done!
winterbraid
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Definitely a cool gameplay concept, and the music and artwork are great, but I honestly would have liked it better without the rhythm aspect (or if it just moved the characters in beat increments, but didn't actually require timed inputs).
The grapple has some issues beyond just firing and moving, as sometimes I'd be standing perfectly still but the grapple would fire in the complete opposite direction of where I was facing. And I feel like the retracting mechanic hurt me more than it helped, because I'd often try to hit an enemy but accidentally press the button twice, or try to attack again too soon, and retract before actually getting the hit.
The game might take 11 minutes to beat for the developer, but for me it took several attempts to just get a sense of the game mechanics and the map layout, another one to discover that I needed to actually kill enemies, and several more to figure out some semblance of a route that would let me get enough kills on the way to the exit. So that's already many times 11 minutes, all just to get mobbed in the last room and die every time.
(I don't know if the timer actually means anything, as I reached 0 a few times and nothing seemed to happen, but I sure hope it doesn't because getting through all of that just to get a bad ending would be terrible.)
I can definitely admire the guts to go with such a niche genre, but sadly for me it was too much to go through without a checkpoint. Still, the concept is neat and there's definitely material for a really good game here with some more forgiving mechanics, so good luck if you choose to update it further!
It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but the idea is certainly very unique! The controls were nice and responsive, and the huge hitboxes of the characters took some getting used to, but fortunately the game didn't make it too much of a problem. The graphics, while simple, did a decent job conveying a unique setting for each character, and the music was a blast!
Obviously I skipped the upgrades and played Vert in 1-hit mode like a real gamer, it was definitely a challenge but not too bad with a bit of respawn invincibility abuse. I did go back and played them the intended way after the full game, and I have to say letting the player completely skip those upgrades in the first place is definitely a decision. I would say it's definitely interesting that they can be either the hardest or the easiest journey depending on your choices, but I think a more obvious indication of "you're entering hardmode" would have helped.
(Plus, maybe add a big pit leading back down to the start from around halfway through, so that the player has an easy "out" if they decide they bit more than they could chew?)
Buster was always a nice change of pace compared to the other two when the game switched back to them, but I did feel like the gunplay was missing something. I think instead of the three alternative shots (that I never really used), some kind of an active shield/deflect ability would have been a good match for their more aggressive nature, as the enemy bullet patterns felt a bit cheap at times with how fast they come at you.
Alma was neat but I think they were my less favorite character of the three, they kinda lacked the immediate sense of identity of the other two, and the block puzzles were alright but felt a bit shoehorned in just to give them something different. The puzzle focus in itself is a good idea, but I think some other puzzle mechanic like hacking or gravity manipulation would have been more interesting.
Overall, I think the concept of three unique playstyles is great, but it just didn't go quite far enough. I think in an ideal world, the Vert journey would either go full Celeste with the platform and spike challenges, or full Terraria with the drill. And for Buster, I'd have loved to see it just go all-in on the gunplay and turn into a linear corridor shooter, maybe with a bullet-time effect whenever switching in and out of this particular character to help the player get back into the action. (Since as it stands, Buster's and Alma's areas overall have a fairly similar feel to them.)
More visual distinction between characters would have been nice as well, in particular I think Buster and Vert should have been shorter than Alma since they have to avoid damage, while Alma could keep the giant hitbox since they're the only one who never gets hit.
Of course, all this is a tall ask for a gamejam, but that's kinda something you have to keep in mind when you essentially decide to make 3 games in one!
Still, definitely one of my favorite implementations of the theme so far, I think switching between the three perspectives does a great job conveying the sense of distance and isolation. All in all, nice job!
Cool little game with a neat soundtrack and a really interesting 90s artstyle, and I love the comically large fist attack! Unfortunately, I also found it pretty obscure and difficult to play.
Not being able to hit the first boss when he seems to be the most vulnerable (your fist goes over him when he's on the ground, and you can't crouch or aim down as far as I could tell) feels pretty bad. On the other hand, he always seems to hit me easily even when I think I can jump over or run under him. Coupled with him becoming invisible when I do hit him, all this made for one annoying fight.
(The movement pattern and overall idea is actually very neat, just a bit too fast imo and with too large a hitbox compared to how fast your character can get out of the way, and the invisibility doesn't help.)
After half an hour or so, I was really close to giving up, but I ultimately managed to squeeze by somehow, and the second boss seemed much, much easier in comparison. Though by the time I found the ice key and got to the area with a ton of enemies and acid pits, I decided I needed a break for now.
Still, it's a very neat project with a really unique sense of identity, and I might give it another shot some time!
Thanks for the honest feedback and the video playthrough!
The idea is that the boss has a "last breath" attack where he will fire 20 projectiles before dying for real, but each hit on him will take away one projectile. I should probably have just set his health bar to 20 and make it lose 1 HP for each projectile to have a better visual indicator of what's going on.
Balancing a slow & beefy weapon vs. a weak but fast one is definitely a big challenge. In most games that I've played, usually one of them ends up being better in almost every situation. Personally, I'm always biased towards the slow and beefy weapon, which is why the axe is the way it is.😉
I agree that the axe probably shouldn't have been able to trigger gravestones and campfires. There is a secret in the game that involves NOT hitting a campfire with the axe, but I probably could have thought of a different puzzle to put there.
Thank you for your kind words and for checking out the game! The ability to bypass the boss is something I kinda decided to leave in the game intentionally. I didn't really have time to get anyone to playtest before the deadline, so I wanted people to still be able to see the ending in case the boss turned out to be too hard.
...I totally did miss that. I think I did see a message about the "long-press F to save" in the beginning, but then I got to a bonfire and also saw "press F to save" and I guess inside my head, it just became "press F to save at a bonfire". With that knowledge (and a night's sleep), I came back to the game and managed to get to the end pretty quickly. That's definitely at least partly on me for completely missing that mechanic, so it definitely ups my enjoyment score of the game a couple marks!
Absolutely loved the design for the player and the human characters, as well as the music. The story seems quite interesting, too! Unfortunately the platforming and combat feel very rough, and the level has a big problem with almost everything looking very similar and mostly being big empty rooms with spikes.
I managed to trudge along until I needed to get 4 spirits, at which point I gave up after more than an hour of attempts. On my first try I somehow managed to get the vessel and get down from the platform only to die to rats on the way to the save point, and it only made my subsequent attempts even more frustrating as never again did I manage to avoid dipping my toes into the acid pit of instant death.
Overall, I think the characters and the story have tons of potential, but the actual "game" part of the game definitely needs a lot of work!
I've already shared some of my thoughts in discord, so I'm gonna try to be quick here: Great job! I loved the music and the artwork for the player and the main terrain. The size and amount of content in the game is definitely very impressive for a gamejam, and the world is just big enough to get a bit lost in (yet not hopelessly so). The controls are nice and snappy for the most part, and I'm a fan of the player's speed (although it does make it hard to land some of the more precise jumps at times).
I liked the variety of the bosses, and some of the fights were pretty intimidating at first. The baddies are certainly on the tankier side, and sometimes it felt like they had twice as much HP as they actually did because of the lack of visible healthbars and the tiny range of your attack. Though, it all kinda went out the window when I realized most of the bosses could be brute-forced by standing next to them and using Lifesteal.
I liked the clear sense of distinction and identity between the different color-coded areas. The map overall had a nice sense of flow, being framed by the two tall shafts (one being part of the green zone, and the other connecting gold, green and orange). That said, some of the rooms felt a bit too big, especially when it comes to some of the climbing challenges that were essentially just a lot of small platforms stacked on top of each other.
Also, a small nitpick that's more of a Godot/Windows issue than a fault of your own: If you export the game as a single executable (just the .exe, without the .pck), Windows will get confused and show a warning before running the game. Even though a single .exe is obviously more convenient, it's still safer to export normally with a separate .pck.
Regardless, I had a lot of fun and ended up beating the game twice to see both (some?) of the endings. Well done!
For an unfinished demo, this was actually a lot of fun! I loved the music (especially the ending theme) and the controls were nice and snappy. I actually liked that both you and enemies die in one hit, it made for a fast-paced gameplay loop. I do wish you could lightkick in midair, though. Still, good job so far and good luck with the full version!
Thank you for giving the game a shot and for the honest review! The boss does one final attack at 0 health, so maybe that's why it looked like you couldn't kill him? While in that state, he will shoot 20 projectiles before dying for real, but you can reduce the counter by 1 by hitting him. In retrospect, I probably could have communicated that better by setting his healthbar to 20 and reducing it by 1 for every hit or fired projectile.
The boss does gain armor during the "top" phase and the later "side" phases, meaning you will deal less damage in those phases. I wanted the axe to feel powerful to where it'd one-shot or two-shot all regular enemies as well as the early phases of the boss, but I also wanted to encourage the player to dodge a bit more in the later phases of the fight. I agree it might be a bit counterintuitive; there's a different hit sound when you hit an armored enemy, but it's probably a bit too subtle since I didn't have much time to spend on audio balancing at all. (Introducing another armored enemy somewhere earlier in the game probably also would have helped.)
The game's length (and probably some of the other issues) is partly because I made it in a week after dropping a previous project that got way out of hand. That said, I personally think it's a pretty good length for the amount of enemies and upgrades I had. I'm also used to there being a lot more entries in the gamejam, and I feel like a lot of people tend to tune out when a single game takes too long.
(That's probably not as much of an issue in this gamejam due to there being fewer entries than usual, but that's something that was hard to predict until the submission period was over!)
A very intriguing game! The story and cutscenes had me hooked, and the early area with the town looked very nice. The music was quite beautiful and haunting, especially the songs playing in the introduction and the town. The design and animation of the protagonist was adorable and definitely my favorite part of the game, especially after unlocking the wings! The artwork for the enemies and terrain was nice, but the bright gray edges looked very out of place.
Moving around felt nice and responsive, especially after unlocking the wings. The area of effect of the absorb ability was hilariously huge and made dealing with enemies fairly easy, considering it could hit most of them from outside their aggressive radius (the only ones I took damage from for the most part were the rolling rock enemies). The "Kirby" mechanic definitely has some potential for environmental puzzles and decision-making based on what abilities are available in an area. But as it stands, I only ever used the wings once I'd unlocked them, and the only other ability I was able to find (the projectile) felt a bit unnecessary compared to just using absorb.
Aside from the town area, the rest of the map felt a bit empty and redundant, and I feel like some of the time spent placing those empty rooms could've been spent polishing other aspects of the game. Still, I had fun exploring around and uncovering the map. Good job!
Pretty neat little game! The music was cool and the art style had a nice cartoony vibe. Blasting through waves of enemies was quite satisfying, although the primary pistols could have used a bit more "oomph" in terms of sound effects. I also wish it was possible to look ahead a bit with the mouse.
The turtle boss was very cool and had some impressive attack patterns, but got stuck in the wall towards the end. Otherwise, the only major issue I had is that I'm not sure stamina and energy bars really count as "side effects." Still, very nice job!
Very neat little game, I liked the "Kaizo-lite" difficulty! The graphics are very nice and the protagonist is adorable, and I think using transformations as powers is very clever. The controls are a bit floaty, but I guess it fits the "ragey" gameplay - the gliding ability was a lot of fun to use with some practice.
The behavior of the enemy cats was quite relentless and believable, and I think they were by far the hardest enemy type - the game got quite a bit easier when they got replaced by other enemies.
I feel like the difficulty level could have gotten annoying in a bigger game, but thankfully I never got stuck long enough to really get frustrated. Overall, very nice job!
Very nice and polished game, though a bit difficult and slow-paced! I had to look at the video guide in the comments to find the yellow gem, which was definitely a very big brain puzzle. Over the course of a bit more than 2 hours, I managed to find 23 out of 24 coins and 1 out of 2 stars, as well as a smiley room.
The graphics are simple but pleasant, and both the artwork and the soundtrack are a good match for a puzzle game. My only complaints are that the green and teal blocks are a bit too similar, and some sound effects for the player jumping and landing, as well as blocks being created, pushed, and destroyed, would really complete the game.
The movement is nice, though I wish both the player and the blocks were a bit faster. I often found myself using the anti-softlock feature simply to go back to the beginning, since it was faster than running all the way across the map.
Still, I had a lot of fun solving the puzzles, and the game overall feels very complete for a gamejam project. Excellent job!
Thank you for giving the game a shot and for your valuable feedback! It's definitely a tough balancing act making a game where you essentially play as the final boss.
I knew I wanted the player to be the one dealing contact damage, but coupled with the fact that dashing gives you iframes, the game definitely ended up on the easier side. I did give the drone boss itself a lot of iframes just so it wouldn't get obliterated too quickly, which is another design choice I'm not too happy with. At some point I gave up on trying to make the game balanced and just put out whatever I was able to finish.
I do plan on adding another boss after the gamejam who I hope might be a bit more challenging, though I'm not yet sure how this will be done in practice without either nerfing the dash, or introducing a new category of enemies who don't take contact damage.
Pretty nice little demo! The side effects were a pretty clever implementation of the theme, though the screen glitch when getting hit was a bit excessive (fortunately, it seemed to turn itself off after getting the AI update).
The basic pistol was quite satisfying to shoot and I liked the feeling of making it more powerful with upgrades. I don't know if it was intended falloff from the bullets or just the pistol being inaccurate, but the enemies often spawned so far away that I couldn't seem to be able to hit them, yet their projectiles had no trouble reaching me. Also, some of the waves seemed a bit excessive and some of the enemies were really bullet spongy.
The level design and graphics were pretty basic, but had a few interesting moments. Unfortunately, it was very hard for me to navigate the level and I gave up some time after beating the first boss and finding the carbine. I kinda wish that instead of moving the platforms around freely, they simply moved along predetermined paths, and that it was clearly shown where each platform is able to go. Having to stand under cranes to attach to them was also a bit counterintuitive at first, since I expected to be able to latch on to them by aiming at them.
Still, good job getting the demo out!
Pretty neat little game! The level was a bit basic, but the animations had a good sense of feedback, and the enemy variety was pretty nice as well. I quite enjoyed the soundtrack, especially the music change when obtaining the jetpack.
The controls worked well, although the gun felt a bit wimpy due to the slow-moving bullets and lack of feedback when firing. On the other hand, the fact it could shoot through walls made the game a bit easy, which I'm not sure was intended.
The story was pretty interesting and I liked the wife(?) being the final boss. That said, I think I cheesed her by getting stuck outside the invisible wall that was supposed to lock the boss arena, and shooting her while she couldn't reach me. Still, it was a neat fight and she looked cool and had cool animations. Good job!
Very nice game! I really liked the theme of 3 defective robots working together to overcome their flaws. The graphics and controls were very basic, but did the job well. It took me a while to figure out I had to press a button to switch between the robots, since I don't think it was displayed anywhere on the page or in the menu. The main song playing throughout the game was pretty nice too. Good job!
Very nice demo, I managed to find all 5 flowers! The music, artwork and animations were gorgeous, especially for the main character, but the terrain could have used a bit more variety. The controls are generally nice, but the jump feels very floaty, and I think it might benefit from a "glide" effect where you fall slowly while holding the jump key, but faster when letting go. Being able to attack enemies would have been a great addition too, of course, but overall, I think there's a very solid foundation for a full game. Good job!
Very neat game! I enjoyed the soundtrack and the graphics a lot, especially the backgrounds - it's certainly not common to see so much detail in a gamejam. The UI was very polished as well, and the map and objective markers were a welcome addition. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of the dialogue was a bit unnecessary and the story might have worked better if shrouded in more mystery.
The movement was nice, although the combat felt a bit weightless and spammy. The focus on deflecting projectiles was a cool feature, but it also felt kinda broken since you could just mash block and pray. I think it might have been more interesting if enemy bullets were slower, but blocking was more deliberate in return. The bosses were pretty simple, but the "Rude Buster" juggle with the final boss was a neat touch!
The constant equipping and unequipping of the weapon was a bit annoying and got me hit a few times, especially since I'd often teleport or enter a new area and immediately get shot at by enemies. I also think I got softlocked in the first area by killing all the enemies and not having anything to throw at to be able to reach the upper platforms.
Overall, I think the game definitely needs some polish, but it feels very extensive and complete for a gamejam project! Good job!
The Little Nameless Journey jam comments · Replied to K16EPKOTJIETKA in The Little Nameless Journey jam comments
Very nice and complete-feeling game, definitely one of my favorites in this jam so far! The implementation of the chosen theme is perfect, the soundtrack is great, the main character looks amazing, and the pixel art is super detailed in general. The different colors and unique enemies in each area helped avoid getting lost, and in general nothing seemed particularly unfinished or placeholder-y in terms of presentation, which is a big accomplishment for a gamejam game!
The movement was reasonably quick and responsive, although I do wish the jump had a teeny bit more height and the gravity didn't pull you down so quickly. It felt like dashing was required to clear even seemingly small gaps that looked like they should be possible with just jumping, and I'd often end up missing ledges by just a few pixels. While the cooldown on the grow ability is reasonable since it acts as a damage buff, I feel like having to wait for your shrink ability was a bit unnecessary and it felt like something you should just be able to toggle on and off at will. Also, I got stuck for a very long time since I couldn't figure out that I had to use the Attack+Shrink ability to get past the blue wall.
Combat felt pretty nice and snappy, though grounded enemies being launched up on hit felt a bit odd, considering your character seems to be swinging downwards - I think it might make more sense if they just got pushed away horizontally instead. Some enemy placements felt a bit unfair, since ranged enemies could often shoot you from off-screen while trying to jump onto platforms or ledges, and sometimes you'd enter a room and have an enemy almost directly on top of you.
The bosses looked very cool and had some neat animations, and I liked how some of them had hidden ways to deal more damage. That said, most of them kinda boiled down to hitting them a few times and running away (or in the case of the final boss, waiting for him to throw his spear, then increasing size and attacking). The one flying boss could also be exploited by keeping him inside the central platform and running left and right, since the platform destroyed his projectiles as soon as they spawned. So, I think a bit more variety in boss attacks and movement patterns would definitely be nice! That said, every boss having a phase 2 was definitely very appreciated and impressive for a gamejam!
As others have mentioned, health can sometimes feel a bit limiting without an ability to restore your potions, but at the same time, I spent a lot of time stumbling around empty rooms while trying to figure out where to go. I think the game might flow a bit better if enemies respawned when leaving a room, but killing enemies slowly refilled your potions. I was also never able to figure out the purpose of the big blue orb next to my health - I thought it was attack power, but having it at MAX didn't seem to kill enemies any faster.
A few more issues I noticed: I died on the first boss after getting him to phase two, and after coming back, he died as soon as phase two started while still having half his health left. After dying to the scissors boss and coming back, he was waiting for me outside his arena. I also couldn't figure out how to get back from the west area without dying, since breaking the wall with grow+dash only seemed to work when entering the area from the fountain room.
That said, while I did have a few gripes with the combat and movement, that doesn't change the fact it's a great game with very solid atmosphere and mechanics, and feels almost worthy of a finished product in terms of music and art. Overall, outstanding job!
Very nice little demo! The idea of playing as a pigeon and using various eggs as abilities is really fun and interesting. For such a short playtime, I feel like there was already quite a lot to do and it did a good job showcasing what the full game would look like.
All the characters in the game were adorable and really well drawn, and I like the idea of using mixed media with photos for the background and stylized sprites for the foreground, especially if the level itself is also eventually going to use this illustration-like style. The player felt a bit slow, though I guess that makes sense since we're supposed to be injured and trying to heal. For a future update, some effects and animations for eating, laying eggs, and getting hit by enemies would definitely be a big improvement.
Overall, the demo definitely has me intrigued in this game! Good job!
A very solid and impressive action-Metroidvania that I sadly couldn't really enjoy to the fullest due to the constant camera swinging. The soundtrack was top-notch and definitely some of the best music I've heard in the jam so far. The graphics were somewhat basic, but did the job - the player sprite worked well in the simple 3D environment, and I quite liked the use of paintings as a minimal yet effective basis for different enemy designs.
I really liked the way the game communicated the story through a combination of sparse notes and environmental storytelling. Becoming able to see the trapped souls escape from the paintings after the eye upgrade was a really clever reveal and big "wow" moment from me. The little twist regarding the player character at the end was also pretty cool, and the story did a good job building up to the final boss.
One of my favorite things about the game was definitely the sheer amount of mechanical depth for such a relatively short playtime. Every action felt like a tactical choice, from prioritizing enemies to choosing between attacking, kicking or dashing. I almost wished the combat was a bit slower-paced just so I could have had more time to make better decisions, but there's definitely a lot to master (no pun intended) here for speedrunners!
The player attacks had a nice sense of impact, although the hit stuns and apparent lack of iframes meant it was sometimes easy to find yourself at the receiving end of annoying combos from enemies. Funnily, I found the final boss to be one of the easier fights in the game, since his attacks were fairly predictable and he didn't swamp you with throngs of minions like some of the other encounters. On the other hand, I feel like the first boss (the giant painting) was made needlessly harder by the forced camera lock.
Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, both combat and exploration were made much harder for me by the constant camera snapping, as well as occasional bizarre forced angles in certain areas. I often found myself not being able to go in the exact direction I wanted to due to not being able to angle the camera just right. I think the game would have worked better with just a regular free-looking mouse camera, and support for gamepad joysticks would probably have helped a lot as well (or perhaps it's just my gamepad that wasn't supported).
Overall, even despite my issues with the camera, I had a lot of fun discovering the game's story and figuring out the combat. Excellent job!
Pretty neat little game! I liked the feeling of starting out as a broken-down and slow robot and gradually becoming more powerful. Personally I wasn't bothered by the slow pace that much, but perhaps giving the running upgrade earlier on could alleviate the slowness concerns that others had?
The sprite and animation for the player looked great, especially the whip attack, and the art style in general was very nice, although some rooms felt a bit big and empty. The camera sometimes seemed to go out of sync with the player and swing around weirdly. There might not have been that many opportunities to die, but the falling pipe effect when dying was really funny!
The enemies and bosses were simple but effective, though the basic floating drone enemy was a bit too fast and punishing in my opinion. The boss bee was a kind of a one-dimensional fight - much like the regular variant, its attacks were too fast to really punish them, so I found the easiest way to deal with it was to wait for it to float to the bottom level and hit it from behind. On the other hand, the monkey boss had a nice little buildup where he showed up before the actual fight, although the fight itself was very easy (his leaping attack seemed to miss most of the time).
All in all, the game could use a bit of polish here and there, but the story and idea definitely has a lot of potential. Good job!
Very solid and fun little game with a lovely art style and some great music! I absolutely adore the protagonist (totally not biased btw), and the little portrait that reacts to things happening in the game is a great touch. In general, the HUD strikes me as very well made for a gamejam game!
Movement was fine for the most part, though double-tapping to sprint took some getting used to, and jumping seemed a bit awkward at times, with the character getting stuck on walls and ledges. The bite attack was a lot of fun to use, especially with the size upgrade - although I think it'd have been even better if it could also collect shinies for you! I never really got around to using the shield much, but the beam attack was very satisfying to pull off. Also, some way to heal outside of dying would've been nice as well!
The main mechanic took me a very long time to figure out, which was probably in part because I'd never heard of the toy before (it does sound very rad though)! I think the part that had me the most confused was that the close-up view just showed the player on every screen - I think the connection between the rooms and the cubes would've been more obvious if the cubes you aren't currently in showed a little preview of their corresponding room instead. Regardless, it's a very cool and unique mechanic that could definitely have a lot of cool uses in a bigger game, and the idea that the whole game world is actually contained within the cubes is pretty neat! (Although, I could also see how moving the cubes around might potentially become tedious with a bigger map size.)
The bosses looked cool and had some very impressive attack patterns, though the wolf's arena felt a bit small for the fight, while on the other hand, the Roc seemed to spend a lot of time off-screen. I had a hard time hitting her with melee without taking damage from the claws, outside a few times where she decided to float just below the central platform and be really easy to hit. In the end, I spent most of the time trying to avoid damage while waiting for her to be in a good spot where I could hit her with the laser, which chewed through her health pretty quickly. The more aggressive second phase was a neat touch, even if a bit annoying to deal with. Overall, a very cool and climactic final boss, although I would have preferred if she spent more time actually being visible on-screen!
One thing that I guess an updated version of the game could elaborate upon is the "flickering screen" issue (glitch? virus? running out of battery?) from the opening cutscene (which was also very cute btw). Since the Roc was just trying to protect her domain from the problem, I don't think beating her up really made things much better? Either way, I had a ton of fun despite a few minor issues, and the story and the world definitely have tons of potential for a bigger game!
WDYM The Mascot Is An Eldritch God? jam comments · Posted in WDYM The Mascot Is An Eldritch God? jam comments
Pretty cute little demo, even if very linear and unfinished! The art style is nice and the premise sounds interesting, I could definitely imagine the different rides as sublevels you can get into, like in Pizza Tower. The funniest bug by far was that you (the player) could actually write on the various placeholder labels throughout the level.
Aside from the obvious unfinished parts, I think the biggest issue is that the player and enemies seem to be a different resolution compared to each other and the background, making the player appear very thin. Regardless, good job getting the demo out, and good luck if you choose to keep working on it!
Thank you for such generous words! I was honestly not confident about this project at all, so I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I think the ping effect can definitely be toned down outside of boss battles (it's actually part of the BGM). I'm also not happy about how long it takes to charge the laser, I think it can definitely be faster, plus maybe the ability to shoot a weaker projectile from a partial charge.
There wasn't actually that much more planned for my "ideal" vision of the game: mainly a few story cutscenes, a second boss, and the player character visually changing with each upgrade. I will definitely try to submit a more finished version of the game for the Super MVM!
(By the way, I'm really sorry I never got around to review you back for Super MVM 31! 😢 It was unfortunate that the vote period overlapped with the normal MVM, plus IRL stuff and me having a near breakdown while working on Magellan.)
Great little game with lovely retro-3D graphics, a fun story, and a super catchy and groovy soundtrack! I absolutely adored the designs of the main character and the ghosts, and the main song playing in the level fit the spooky-cute atmosphere really well.
The controls felt a bit floaty at first, but it all clicked after getting the catalyst; spamming explosions in mid-air to reach sonic speeds was really satisfying. Jumping off climbing vines was a bit awkward at times, and the momentum from the down-blast felt a bit wimpy compared to the sideways shots - although the extra air time and damage capability definitely came in handy during the boss!
The level felt a bit empty and repetitive at times, and it looked like there was a lot more interesting stuff going on in the background than the actual level. On the other hand, it left more room for the aforementioned explosion spam! As far as I was able to tell, some of the pickups hidden throughout the level were health upgrades, while others were simply there to provide flavor text. It was a bit hard to tell the difference between the two, and I missed out on the text a couple times due to moving away too soon.
The final boss looked cool and gave me some trouble, though eventually, I figured out I could beat him easily by standing next to the door and down-blasting him as he passed under me. This made the fight a lot easier, since most of his summoned minions were too far to aggro on me.
Overall, an excellent game that can get even better with more enemy variety and more stuff to do in the level. Great job!