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Stopsignal

26 Game Reviews

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Hello! DaShahRach00 asked for a review, so il go a little bit in depth!

I see this as some kind of I wanna be the guy-esque lite game (a simple game with easy rules with high difficulty and lots of "gotcha" moments)

First, the positives!
I really like the art, and the weird theme in general. The main character looks great, and every sprite has a good size for this type of game and convey good character! I even think it should have been pushed a lot more.
I also liked the variety of obstacles, and how well timed some of the traps were, even considering that the enemies are always consistent to their rules (though sometimes these are kinda broken, like the enemy hiding under the stairs, it's just for a gotcha that only works once). It felt satisfying to beat some of the levels!

Now, the negatives! (and this will probably be long, but don't take that as a negative, just giving feedback! Can't give much feedback about the good things, they are already good lol)

First thing that I realized is that it seems some of the art wasn't made with the camera resolution in mind, and therefore some pixels are missing sometimes, specially in thin stuff, like vines or character's hairs. Something to consider for next game!

The next point is, ironically, feedback: I think the game lacks a lot of it.
Starting with the main character, i think an important part of a game must be that just controlling the character must feel good. Things like squashing and stretching the character when he jumps or lands, giving him an extra bouncy/satisfying animation when moving or with any interaction, maybe even dust when he jumps, whatever to make him feel more grounded In the world of the game, and responsive to the player.
If I'm hit, I need to feel like it, the camera could rumble, there could be a loud punching sound or a scream, the character could flash white, and become transparent while invincible. Thinks like that would add a lot already!

Enemy feedback could also help. I think shooting enemies, if they don't shoot every 2 seconds or less, should have a windup animation to their shots (I know this is subjective). I think it's a good opportunity to add character to the enemy and also give information to the player.
Spikes rumbling before going up, to signal the eye better, a warning before an enemy spawns on the side of the screen, a rumble before shooting, stuff like that helps!

Some gotcha enemies were too annoying. The birds spawning on the side of the screen felt too assholeish. I can see it's one of this game's traps, and I know different people like that sort of gameplay (I mean, IWBTG, kaizo Mari, stuff like that has its audience). Personally I don't vibe with that kind of stuff, even If I know how tempting it is to do so as a designer. I try to balance having fun myself with how fun it will be for the player. If I sense the player will think "oh, this designer definitely thinks they are clever" I try to avoid it. (unless the result is not that severe, but in this case it kills you, so it is)
The tendril of the final boss, the king, was that kind of annoying too, personally.

About the design, I liked the coins and how it was a challenge to grab them, but I ended up seeing it as a losing proposition, I'd die more grabbing the coins, and I would end up losing them all. It was faster and easier to just go up and ignore them after a while.
Also, some better sound and feedback to grabbing a coin could be nice. They *must* feel satisfying to grab! Make them make a satisfying sound, fly up faster, then slowly stop, and probable flash white while doing so, or something like that!

I guess I would forego shops and just make a few items a pickup? This could also give you more space to make puzzles. Maybe make coins just an achievement thing.

Checkpoints were a bit far apart, it was kind of annoying. I know it's the genre, but I would have appreciated longer single levels with a checkpoint between each, rather than a checkpoint every three short levels or so. With maybe, "boss" longer levels for every end of a segment?

Also I think you should leave the screen completely before appearing in the other side, as to not make the teleport obvious

Also, in a game that you'll be dying a lot in, I'd like deaths to be more fun! Make some particles fly, make the guy fall down, make the whole screen rumble and stuff! And don't even bring me to another screen, just let me press R to restart really fast, because again, I'll be dying a lot!

Commenting about art, I quite liked it! I wish there was more and more polished animation, showing more character and personality.
Also I think I would have made the floors black, and most units dark, while leaving the backgrounds bright. That along a really limited palette could have emphasized the tone you guys are going for, imo!

Sound design could have been a bit punchier IMO, but I don't know much about the topic so that's all I can say!

I think that's it. I liked it! Specially the art and tone. I'm glad the visual character of the game was emphasized because with games that are short and simple it's what will stick in your head the most. I'd wish there was a lot more polish in the feeling and feedback of the game, but it still works!

I'd focus on more art and animation for the next time, and polishing that feedback.

DaShahRach00 responds:

I thank you very much for having done such a long review, the points you raised are very interesting. The game-feel in terms of the character is not very good, you are absolutely right. And in fact all the sprites were made to fairly random sizes !
I understand that you find checkpoints annoying. I actually thought about doing as you said, I don't really remember when I changed my mind about that.
I will pay attention to making better visual effects for the next games! Even if my own animation skills are very limited ha ha
And you understood very well my sources of inspiration, I am a big lover of i wanna be the guy and syobon action ah ah
Enemies with a design and patterns as special as the burnade (the bird) will be much less punishing, but I think there is something to playing on enemies with "impressive" patterns!
In any case, thank you for everything, I'm glad you liked the game despite all these flaws :)

Awesome stuff, always love to see people using the Vampire Survivors mechanics for new ideas, this was fun
cool stuff as always dude

ohhhh yes i love this

EDIT: though using the little dude to build the machine feels quite cumbersome! i wish i could just use the mouse instead! It's extremely hard to choose what to place if there are many things together.

I did end up being able to deliver the cake with a flying machine so i feel pretty good though, hahahah
I think the mechanics weren't really built for that? The umbrella feels quite weird, does it only lower your falling speed, or something?

Frogrammer responds:

thanks! yes if we release an update in some future, it will have mouse controls instead and umbrellas activate on a key

hot indeed

Extremely charming!

Extremely charming, as always! Helped gooby sit on his throne next to his dad!

Guy-Unger responds:

thank you stopsignal <3

despite the extremely "sweet bro and hella jeff" artstyle i quite liked this, it's fun! a fully fledged version of this would be great.

Playing as yourself! Hah, that's really cool! Thanks!!!
Cool game as always (;

This is really cool! Specially the vibe, art and animation. The controls are really weird though, hahahahaha. I'd go for J K and L for different shooting, jumping and rolling respectively (but leave the original controls usable too, so you could use both)

Very alien hominidish! Again, i really really liked this!

Another recommendation would be to shoot automatically holding down the fire key (but having to press it again for the melee attacks), though that's a bit on me, my wrists are kind of effed up, hahahaha

This is oh so wonderful!!! Love it, lots of charm (:

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