Hey, this may seem like a dumb request... But on a laptop/touchpad, clicking just isn't fun. Any chance I could hit space or something to start an attack and my mouse just be tracked?
Tbh, I only made it a couple levels in, and I don't see why (so far) that the mouse just can't be constantly tracked for movements, since you get that with the PC. Maybe that affects scoring, though.
well some attacks are actual clicks, not just swipes
Not bad! Once again, really great that you put heart into this. I like the keyboard controls and that I don't have to click through everything (with the exception of menus). That makes things easier on my life .
The fact that you have multiple medals, decent animations and sound effects, keyboard shortcuts for attacks, etc. makes me think you're well on your way to becoming a grand game developer some day!
Btw, I couldn't find the credits while playing. Shame!
Thank you :) It is actually really nice to hear someone mention that they liked, let alone used, the controls. I was worried people would just be lazy and just use their mouse. Glad you liked the game and used the controls :)
The credits button is rather small and appears when the title screen first shows up.
I liked it. I like the fact that heart was put into it. That's what matters and is largely missing from a lot of games in this time :)
I have a pretty powerful laptop and the dog slowed down significantly as the levels progressed. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. Maybe your filters (or however you make the dog progressively more blind) are a bit CPU intensive?
Anyways, good job! Thanks for supporting both arrow keys and WASD. I know much larger projects which forget about that kind of thing :)
The gradual reduced speed by the dog was intentional. Thank you for the kind review and also for taking the time to check out my other game.
lostabyss777's math is completely off.
I measure ~10 seconds per round at 500 points per round. That's 500 points / 10 seconds, or 50 points / second. 25,000,000 points divided by 50 points / second = 500,000 seconds. 500,000 seconds / (60 * 60 * 24), or a day's worth of seconds, gets you 5.78 days of continuous play.
That's really not bad at all! Something either a hacker could do (by fudging numbers) or an automated program could do fairly easily.
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Back to my review...
I understand that you guys wanted to create the feel of an actual standoff, but it's just not fun. There's sadly no benefits to pressing anything other than "down" because the margins for error are just too small (or take too much time to discover). That means you end up with a constant difficulty and almost no learning curve (which gets boring if you succeed because there's no progression, or frustrating if you fail because there's no apparent reason as to why).
I get that it was a side project, but if you guys are going to go Pro, you need more than just polished aesthetics! You need to study the Theory of Fun!
That's some sound advice! Thank you =)
Great game! If this was a full-on, story-involved, multi-level adventure, it would be an AMAZING game!
I feel like a lot of love was put into making this balanced, and the patterns subtle, but interesting.
The graphics are plain, but have enough interactivity/juiciness to feel very satisfying.
The soundtrack is great, too.
The controls aren't flawless, but they're close. (Flawless is hard to achieve with keyboard controls.) I think they're fine, honestly. Some hint of perfection is missing, however.
The upgrades are nifty and well-balanced.
The rewinds keep me from hating the thing for being so hard.
And yes, it's hard, but in the strangest way. The patterns don't appear difficult, but it's easy to make a mistake if you're careless.
Great job! :)
Thanks! I would love to make a bigger game based on this, maybe someday :)
This game is beautiful! Radial-controlled games are normally AWFUL because of the springy nature of controls being really difficult to use, but you did a great job countering that with very responsive "overriding" of the ball's momentum.
The controls are definitely what made this work. I love it. It was really fun. For 48 hours, absolutely amazing.
A+++ will play again. Will also play the expansion pack/sequel if it comes out. Btw, I have no idea how to vote in Ludem Dare for this entry. I am logged in and everything :(
Wow! *Manly tears* Thanks so much!!! The fine tuning of the spring physics wasn't too bad, surprisingly, but I did know what kind of feel I needed to achieve to make it least annoying to control. :D
Hm, that's very weird about the voting. It looks like you ended up figuring it out, but all I could really recommend is CTRL+F5 on Ludum Dare.
Every vote counts <3
Boss 101 feels like a game written for kids, by kids. It's not that challenging, is tedious, and its in-game dialogues are neither funny nor witty. It's a good time sink, full of repetitive goodies where the biggest difference between the previous and the next are going to be graphics.
The positive side is that there's some heart in this game. Some love was put into making it a polished product. That much can be appreciated for sure. However, there's limited if any replay value and anyone with gradeschool education should be able to easily plow through the levels.
The character development is kind of cute. I'd like to see more of this game's universe in the future. I just hope with writing done by someone wittier, and with game play more diverse or refined.
Thanks for the play and the comment. I'm glad you see the potential in it 'cause I do plan on making more games in this universe. I can 100% agree I am not the wittiest guy around but I did my best. The writing is not for everyone that is for sure. Look for more and perhaps they will be more to your taste! Thank you again! Best, -Tim
Better than any party I've ever been to!
When are you guys planning to release the soundtrack?
Coming right up!
This game is so close to being perfect!
So many good things to say. The controls are fluids and feel very natural. I love the upgrades, voice actors, animations, script, art, etc. The music is perfect, too! I mean, so much love was obviously put into this thing. I really appreciate being able to play something like this.
It's so easy to point out flaws, but let me give a little extra space for the good stuff because I tend to be really detailed in my critique. Awesome. Great job, guys. Please know that I really enjoyed this game while I played it. To each and every team member, thank you for giving me such an enjoyable thematic experience.
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Okay, now onto things I didn't enjoy as much (relatively few):
* Upgrades. Except for a select few combinations, game play was slow, especially in later levels. Most upgrades were interesting in theory, but the majority of combinations were underpowered. For example, I found myself practically requiring candy magnet, improved speed and the mask in later levels. With only three equipment slots, that left me with little variety in play.
* Lack of (entertaining) variety. The introduction of bullies, the vast number of candies required to beat a level, the slow game pace and the relative uselessness of the hiding mechanic made other play styles far less entertaining. Maybe overlapping upgrade stats (ex: an upgrade that boosts more than one stat) would have made different combinations more useful?
((I can tell you guys put a lot of effort into the different NPC responses and whatnot - there's a ton of subtleties I'm not mentioning - and those make things better, but those only add value to what's already good about the game. Unfortunately, the less entertaining bits of a game always stand out in their own right.))
* Some mechanics underutilized in design. Once again, the game plays slowly, and due to the nature of kids always moving from right to left, and the later introduction of bullies (which can smash pumpkins), the game's design begs you to play the game quickly.
((Granted, I was going for perfect scores in levels, only because it was so easy to do up to a certain point that I became used to it. Perhaps this is a flaw in how I was playing. This makes hiding behind bushes not-very-useful. I kind of wish more was done with the concept.))
I really think that's it. This game could use one or all of the following:
* Put additional effort into where the focus was expanded - more useful upgrades, better use for hiding mechanics, some variety in play/game design to better utilize additional features
* More mechanics - trick or treating for real, vandalism, other stuff, I don't know, adding new mechanics could make things either way more fun or way less fun.
* Narrow and hone in focus - limit upgrades to a select few more useful ones, focus on other aspects of play, maybe focus on things such as timing, combos, or other things that can be made fun once the focus has been narrowed, eliminate unused mechanics, etc.
Overall, though, excellent experience. I hope this game or concept is worked on more in the future. Unfortunately, I got to the third zone and bored'd myself out of the game. Surprisingly, though, I feel as though a little additional effort would bring this game from a B+/A (on my personal scale, however valuable that is) to "I can't believe this is free! A++++ would play again!".
Thanks again! Keep on making awesome games!
Thanks for the in depth and respectful review, that's a breath of fresh air next to a bunch of rambling idiots. I will say this, a game is as good as it's worst flaw, it's a saying in game design and it's very true. We were on a tight deadline to deliver the best game we could and I totally agree with most your points. We're planning a non holiday sequel to this game which will be a bigger, fuller more varied game. A full platformer with a lot more meat. This was a mere little halloween game, the best we could do in the limited time we had. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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