Ranked #451
350 Points
The objective of the game is to shoot asteroids while still being within the ring of the saturn. If you step outside of the ring, the game ends. Every time, the ring will change its angle so not only will you have to move carefully but also shoot the asteroids as well.Controls:Arrow keys: MoveSpace Bar: JumpEsc : QuitEnter: Restart the game
This is a wacky bot. Help the bot pass through obstacles as much as possible.Left click: JumpEnter : Restart (when getting a game over)
I played the game and right now...the game needs a lot of work.
Firstly, many of the platforms are hard to reach meaning that you either need to increase the jump distance for the double jump or make the jumps more floaty.
The second problem is that enemies..atleast the first ones you come across with take too long to get killed. On top of this, even if you touch them upon killing them, you still die which shouldn't happen but seeing this is a beta, I'm positive that this is something you'll work on eventually.
And lastly..the art. Now look, I get it. This is probably the best you can draw and do but the art looks rather sluggish and disorienting with nothing standing out. Best to find someone to draw for you if you aren't skilled in arts.
Apart from this, I can't really say much because its still work in progress.
I played upto level 3 and I got too frustrated from level 4 onwards...feels like a Super Meat boy vibe only nowhere as violent or graphical as said game.
Pros:
1. Great controls for a game like this.
2. Getting four key items to complete a level gives a clear and a simple goal.
3. Nice music.
Cons:
1. Ok look..the visuals need some serious improvements. A lot of your platforms are just gradients that can easily be done using just the game engine's sprite editor(i'm going to assume that you are using game maker studio for this game?). This also applies to the enemies themselves. I understand that this is an early version and all but the problem is that the main player is well thought out but the other aspects aren't which made me head scratch a bit.
2. The level design while nice so far is not quite fleshed out. The third level has platforms that are way too high and you can't jump freely as you would normally on the lower platforms when it comes to those platforms. Some platforms are too thin making it difficult to jump on. If you must have those thin platforms, I suggest adding some floating mechanic inorder to land on such platforms much easily.
3. I hate that one hit kill start over mechanic. Its done to death and in this game, it needs to be balanced. Since you require four shapes to complete a level, why not add a checkpoint for each time you collect one shape? Or even better, how about spawning all the four shapes at once instead of spawning them one by one whenever you collect one? This will give the player the freedom to collect whichever one instead of the more linear approach.
This is all I can come up with so far from what I played.
I played the whole game and honestly...your game needs a LOT of work.
1. Your game needs game feel: Now when I say game feel, I mean the feelings that your game can give to the player when they play your game. Think of any RPG game that you've played or heck...play Cave Story for that matter. Any RPG would have characters that make you feel for them and anything that happens gives you feeling about them.
This isn't necessarily only on RPG games but this also applies for any game. In this case, your game feels very static and characters hardly do any animation. Even the main character does only one animation throughout the entire game. Why not have portraits for the characters when they talk just so to make them look lively. Again, look at Celeste and Cave Story for the idea here.
There are so many things that are really odd for your game. The one that comes to my head is how a crate appears out of nowhere to kill the big slime? And also, where's the last petal? What happens when you get them all?
In short, give your game life. A lifeless game is a pointless one.
2. GET RID OF THE ONE HIT MECHANIC!: Your game is infuriating for the simplest reason that every thing kills you in one hit. For a game like this, it doesn't need to be some masochist game like Super Meat Boy for that matter. Just because games like Teslagrad or again Super Meat Boy do it doesn't mean its good game design. If anything, its a bad one simply because you force the player to replay the part from the very beginning and in your case, it happens a lot. You don't even have that much of checkpoints for the levels and only few of the sections have it or have it but can only happens when you beat one chunk of the level which drags very often. Have checkpoints and health. It doesn't matter how short the game is, the point is to make players want to play your game.
3. Do better art: The art that you have done is nice but I feel it is best that you do it better than this. This one is the same thing as what I said in game feel.
4. Fix controls: Now you made up to jump and for some that might not be a good idea. Instead, have a different button to jump.
5. Fix the technical issues that your game has: For some reason, when you jump and land, the game kinda tears the screen a bit and does not make it natural. Some of the sections have bugs that need to be addressed. If you move and press the pause screen, the movement animation still plays. When you meet Leon's mom and if you move as soon as the scene happens, they kinda disappear like that and only reappear when the dialogue is done.
Also, give a full screen support! Its a stupid idea to play it on a small screen.
That's all I have to say here. I could say more but it all depends on you if you want to work more on it. It looks like you have finished development of it which is good because you in your efforts made a big game that I haven't made it yet. But improve on it because you have come this far to make it a game, give some polish and it might end up being better than what it is now.