Verwelkoming!
What are the odds of two tactical-advance-wars-like games in one week? I dunno but it happened! Both of those games were really fun. The one that caught my eye right away was Ianis Materia. Something about gelatinous main characters like Gish or super meat boy that really draw me in. The tactics games were really quite good but something about the character and art directoin of Ianis Materia really vibed with me.
I was a bad little streamer and kinda dropped the ball on this recording... I think... twice? :D anyways, it'll be a bit choppy on the actual playthrough because video wasn't on for some time.
This weeks games;
- Ianis Materia - by XCronos
- Tactic Legends - by Cameron Wills
- Endless Tactics - by The_Procrastinator
Inanis Materia #
Play In Browser | XChronos Itch Page | Johann Fowl
Ianis Materia is a Puzzle Platformer. In a society of alchemists a master alchemist creates the most basic of all matter and it is deemed heretical! This alchemist throws the "Inanis Materia" over the city walls and that's where our story begins. There is some really good lore on the Itch Page if you'd like to read more!
Now... the age old question; Is there room for another puzzle platformer?
WHO CARES!
Gameplay and art direction are all that matters. There are no "hidden gems", quality work paired with quality marketing = $$$. Will Ianis Materia be the next Super Meat Boy??? Probably not. However, with more content at the same level of work and the proper price point this will be a successfull game to launch. Don't ask me what that price point would be I've no expertise in this ;)
The Good
Overall the gameplay matched the fantastic animations and art direction. Some of the mechanics felt a little clunky. This may just be a UX / controls issue. To me this is very... very impressive for a game jam that took 2 weeks. Always blows my mind when this kind of quality can be achieved. It's good enough that I will be doing the normal game feedback format on this – which is probably the highest praise I can give a game jam game.
Holy crap. The animations were smooth AS BUTTER on this one. GREAT job Johann. How has this individual not been snapped up by some studio and been given huge sums of money to make pixel art? He's open to collaborations so someone looking for this type of assets should go reach out. Even the freaking torch flames are fantastic. Incredible work.
The puzzles were also fun and interesting to figure out! I think the concept is sound and there is an infinite number of ways you could make these elements interact. Very great foundation for a puzzle game.
The Bad
The overall sound was pretty good, however, there was no music so at times the soundscape was a little barren. This is the kind of thing that, if you don't have someone composing music for your game jam, just go find some royalty free music or even better... go to a site like Noiiz and purchase something that is just right.
One thing that I would consider redoing is the posters in the background. Not a really big deal for something like a game jam but going forward these should be redone to match the quality of the other assets in game, they do not really fit.
The Ugly
Really the only thing that added a lot of friction for my gameplay was how to swap through elements. It could be an issue with controls, or UX or design... but it was not a smooth experience. I believe this can be reconcieved to be more intuitive and not be an impediment in gameplay.
Conclusion
Overall the quality of this game jam is truly fantastic. Great foundation for a really fun puzzle game. It EVEN HAS A STORY! The concept is sound and I would love to see this made into a full release. Gosh that little blob is just so cute.
Tactic Legends #
FULL DISCLOSURE: this is one of the first games to disclose the use generative AI for assets. I found this very interesting because the art direction in this game stands out. This is not something I've come across, most of the games w/ generative AI look mediocre. Here is the thing; the artist came first and then these high quality assets were used to generate variants for the website. The UI is also AI generated.
Now for the feedback...
Tactic Legends is a cross platform, player-vs-player, turn based tactical strategy game. It is currently on Steam w/ a demo version does a great job showing the initial game play loop and how fun it could be to play against others. I feel like its a really well thought out and well produced game. Very... VERY complex. Always a challenge to do multiplayer, I would love to give this another try with a friend at some point and test that aspect of it.
The Good
This one had really high quality assets. Better than most, really. Unique characters, great animations, pretty decent environment. The overall direction of the art was very established and felt very consistent.
The tutorial did a great job of introducing several of the basic mechanics. It's really hard to grasp too much more about the core of the game and how it's balanced, but the initial game play loop was solid.
I think the introduction does a great game of showcasing the complexity and would definitely peak the interest of a player who makes it through that far. I can tell a LOT of TLC and hard work went into this project; it shows.
The Bad
There are some UX improvements to be made;
The UX for the initial booting of the game is a little weird. Unfortunately I wasn't recording properly, but, there is a button that is labeled "Create Account / Login". This presumably logs in with your steam account. It just shot me directly in to the game. Get rid of the button, auto log the user in with their steam account.
The item select UX felt a little odd as well. In the play-through you can see me struggle a little at first. The problem is having to select each slot to fill. To streamline this;
- Game automatically selects the next open slot for the character.
- User clicks item to add it to inventory
- Game auto selects next open slot
- Use can click previous slots to adjust already selected items
This will reduce the number of clicks by 50%.
The Ugly
The only real problem that REALLY takes away from the game is the mixed pixel resolutions, a common problem I run into. Probably my most common critique I've given since I've started giving feedback. In the attached screenshot you can see how dramatic the difference is.
The characters stick out and it shatters immersion. It really looks like the floor and the character are from different games entirely. This is going to be a really time consuming / expensive issue to address and it will require some hard decisions.
The problem transcends into the marketing materials and the character select. It just doesn't match up. The characters just feel so different. A user would never think this game would be pixel graphics based on the marketing materials. Not a good thing to surprise your users. As a developer; you are missing out on those who like pixel assets AND misleading people who do not.
Conclusion
Pixel mixing aside, this is a very high quality project. Game play, pixel aesthetic and overall UX is great. Yes, some nitpicks about the UX, but those are very fixable and don't really take away from the game. There is a lot of depth to this game. Achievements, weapons, abilities, items... LOTS of stuff to get into and learn here. The good aspects of this game far outweigh the aesthetic inconsistencies brought about by the pixel mixing.
It's... SOOO hard to start a multiplayer game. It's basically a requirement for a game like this to come with a Vs CPU + a great tutorial to explore the depth of the game. Users who find this will likely need to convince others to join, so discovering a way to hook users with the tutorial is a very smart direction to go. Great job! I look forward to seeing this game grow.
Endless Tactics #
Demo On Steam | Official Website | Instagram
Endless Tactics is a turn-based roguelite game. Play as the commander of a high-risk planetary mining operation, defend your base from alien creatures while trying not to get overrun. Use resources to upgrade your starship, unlock new technologies, powerups, and deadly new worlds to harvest.
This game hit me righ tin the feels. I used to LOVE advance wars. My brother and I used to play this in the car on our gameboy advances over USB. It was the first multiplayer strategy game I really got into. Endless Tactics has very clearly taken a page out of the Advance Wars book. Overall it was a very pleasant playthrough.
The Good
The UX was very good. I was able to understand the controls almost immediately. There were a couple specific things, like the range of the weapons, and the blocking of line of sight that were very well conveyed. Yes, I was punished for not understanding these things, but it was a very intuitive and clear learning experience.
The overall aesthetic and art direction of this game is really solid. Even the music fit the look and feel. Fantastic cohesion and polish. The pixel art was really unique and the animations where very well done.
The Bad
The economy was pretty confusing to me. I am not sure the best way to convey this better to users. It could be beneficial to have some kind of info-graphic for me to refer back to? This is probably a bit overly critical because I really only did play for 30 minutes and it is a complicated game.
I think the tutorial is thorough enough, but it's not conveyed in the right manner. Conveying the mechanics of this type of game is rather challenging. This is something that I didn't really take note of until revisiting this game just now, 3 months later (OH LORDY I'M BEHIND).
The Ugly
A good introduction to a game will slowly introduce mechanics. Listing everything I need to do before it's actually happening will not work. What's worse is this tutorial is only available on your first playthrough. A player must manually delete the save to experience the tutorial again.
I would recommend breaking individual mechanics into discrete playable tutorial levels. Make sure each level forces a player to learn the mechanic to beat the level. For example, I did not realize terrain could be destroyed until my revisiting of this game. Make one of the levels force a player to destroy terrain to continue in some way. Do this for more and more of your mechanics and drip feed the player information.
Conclusion
Overall this is a really great game. Easily amongst the best I've reviewed. I think it feels very well fleshed out. The problem with any complex game will be introducing the players to these mechanics before they get bored. I think this game has great depth but just needs a better tutorial.
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