Hello, Hey, Hi!
This week was a fun one. I had more luck than ever canvasing for submissions! I've connected with 6 or 7 devs via the pirate games discord. Several of them were not ready... yet. I had one dev just add me as a friend, which I assumed was acknowledging they were interested.
I had only one game jam this week, the rest were presumably more long term projects;
- Frog Lake - by Jalecko
- Space Onslaught - by Deebo
- Chaos Kart - by Baka Bros Entertainment (Patreon / discord / youtube)
- Endless You - by Aurora Storialis (x / youtube)
Frog Lake #
FULL DISCLOSURE: I recorded a full play through on this one without it actually recording so I did this play through twice. whoops.
The Good
I really enjoyed this one. The music was 10/10 for me and was an unexpected gem here for me. The world building, graphics and game play were all great but man I was vibing to the music. This was a polished demo that felt like it would captivate anyone who played it through to the end.
The Bad
Needs a boss
The climax was... not exciting. One shotting an out-of-control fire was a bit underwhelming. Turning this into a challenging fight would be beneficial.
- Let the fire attack
- Don't let the player kill them in one shot
Boomerang is weak
The Boomerang was under powered and hard to use. The delay coming back made it not ideal and hard to time. I think it just needs to do more damage.
Animation
The walking animation slides and needs a vertical variant
Combat
The combat was fun, but I want a 'quick select' for just redoing the same actions. I think it needs a liiiitle TLC to feel smoother and I think adding multiple enemies to be engage at once. I'm not sure how well that will scale... spending time addressing how the game play will get more difficult and really figure out how to make it fun should be a priority. It was pretty fun once I got into a groove, I can just see it getting repetitive without more challenging and unique monsters.
The Ugly
Demo Breaking Bug
There was a really severe save bug that prevented me from continuing. To replicate;
- Go past the bouncer guy who makes sure you have a weapon
- die
- save game didn't have a weapon in my inventory, cannot continue
T-pose
In combat, when you land after jumping there is several frames of T-Pose
Conclusion
Once the game breaking bug is fixed, I can definitely say this demo is quality and represents a clear and concise vision. Bravo. It has personality and I think the mechanics are interesting and have a lot of potential. Great work, game has spunk.
Space Onslaught #
The Good
I like these games, so I enjoyed it, despite it's simplicity. I think the pixel art carried this one. The game play loop was satisfying enough for me to want to see how far I could get! The animations were really smooth and the aesthetic was very established on this one for a month long game jam.
The Bad
Weapon Scaling
It got too good too fast. Making the base gun shoot a little faster while making that power curve a little less steep would make the game more fun.
Music/sound
The music was too loud and a bit much. I guess more than anything the music just wasn't for me, but that's pretty subjective I wouldn't worry too much about my opinion on the tunes... but there should turn it down a bit / add volume controls.
Damage
There was no feedback or sound when damaged, and it seemed random. I saw one hit chunk out 10hp and then at 90hp I died to the next bullet. Also just make the bullets more visible.
The Ugly
No bugs. Bravo!
Conclusion
I had fun one this one. This was a month long "retro" jam where participants were given a strict set of rules, namely, the game should play on any device. I think given the constraints and the month long period for this one the dev should be proud on this one. I enjoyed it and it was a satisfying game. The aesthetic was top notch for a game jam.
Chaos Kart #
So... I need to preface this feedback session with the fact that the dev simply added me as a discord friend. I took that as a green light to play the game on stream and give them some feedback.
I would also like to take the time to make sure everyone understands that my critique was not aimed at the concept or the project as a whole. I was quite interested in the description. However, the demo fell flat. I feel strongly that a demo should represent a complete idea and really be a section of game play that is DONE. This did not feel done.
The Good
I enjoyed the really high quality models and the UI was very good. It's easily the most thorough options screen I've seen yet. This is not an exaggeration; I envy the options screen and as a fellow Unreal dev I would absolutely love to have that quality of a options screen.
The Bad
Visual bugs in the character select;
- Looks to be designed for wide screen. My 1080p monitor looked "squished" in the character select
- The UI is confusing and doesn't give the user feedback.
No controls listed / no introduction to mechanics
I had no idea what I was doing and couldn't look it up.
The ugly
On stream I probably came across harsh. My game play experience was driving around a single track guessing (and never remembering) what the controls where. This is a really bad experience for any new gamer and will 100% turn users away from your game. It's genuinely hard to launch a game that requires multiplayer. The top priority for this project needs to be to make a fun and engaging single player mode. Nothing else matters.
Conclusion
Polish the demo, nail a single player game play loop. I would actually recommend taking this demo down immediately as it will hurt wishlists. The concept is great, but it's a chicken or egg thing with a multiplayer game like this... without players the single player mode is what will allow players to judge if they think it would be fun with the homies or not. Great idea, not great execution for the demo.
Let me be clear; This game seems like it was SLAP... I just didn't get to experience that solo. I would love to see this game come to life.
Endless You #
This was a fun one for me, Queen_An marks a milestone for me in that they were actually watching live. This experience lead me to realize I need chat replay on my video for clips etc. I also didn't write down any of my feedback so this one is probably best experienced via the vod.
The Good
Music was immediately catching, soothing and fit the overall aesthetic. I found the animation of the main character satisfying. Queen_An let me know in her submission that there were a lot of placeholder assets, and to focus on game play/music... WHICH WERE GREAT! This was pretty easily one of my favorite submissions so far. I love me some puzzles. The little character was endearing and time well speant. I can tell some real love went into those animations. Super cute.
The Bad
- The puzzles ramped up a little slow in difficulty.
- I would like to see a little more attention paid to the picking up / dropping of a corpse.
a) When I'm against a wall, drop the corpse put it under me.
b) When I'm on top of a corpse I should be able to pick it up
The Ugly
One of the puzzles was artificially difficult due to the portal being too close
Conclusion
Truly enjoyable puzzles. They were thought out and even if they were a little slow in the beginning the difficulty ramped up in really creative ways. The music is perfect, I want more of it, great job on the composition here. I think as an MVP is concerned you should be proud. Keep going!
Check out Item Collector Ball on steam!
I do more than just feedback! I am a little bit of a game dev myself. This project actually started because I found it genuinely hard to get feedback for my games, so I started "tricking" people into it by giving them feedback first... now I just do it for fun... BUT...
Please, if you are so inclined, check out my demo and give me feedback.
Next Week
I have one game lined up that looks promising, Crete, assuming me and their sound guy can figure out how to get me access!! I also have several others who are future applicants... but if you are reading this and would like to apply, please do not hesitate.
I will also be trying a new time slot; Fridays @ 1700 GMT. I think it will give both devs in the EU and the Americas a better chance at watching the replays live.
Cheers – Keep on creating