SAGE 2023 - Demo Bub's Big Blowout!

Very very good! I haven't really played much the original series, but I like what I played here. The graphics are really good, and the game overall is charming.
I did encounter the same issue with my gamepad plugged in, I could not select any character as the cursor was stuck in the bottom right corner. Otherwise a very promising demo!

Congrats!

As short this project is(not that i am anyone to talk) it's nothing short of respectable, not only the game experience was great but the game overall is very well done.

For the gameplay I was surprised, because I tend to have a skill issue playing 3d games, so the fact that the game locks directions help me with movement, of course my dumb brain fell a few times but other than that I think I done pretty well. Level design as well is quite solid, it is indeed a 3d version of the og games, even if I didn't play them a lot, whatever it is the game holds to its own merit and it is fun on its own.

The graphics are beautiful, full stop, they might be some of the best cartoon-style graphics I have seen in 3d, on cases like these I will always push style over realism, and this game nails that, they are very appealing to the eye and the particles are used to good effect too, it runs at a solid 60 frames if that helps. One thing I've noticed is that the eyes are visible below platforms, but that's probably deliberate to know your position.

The music uses some top-notch remixes of the originaal songs and again, to good use, because each area has a different variation of the song depending on the situation. I think there's 3 variations or so for each level, that's already a lot of effort and it helps levels feel fresh!

It has been a very fun, very good looking game, you have a good future ahead! Well done, you deserve all the 5 stars!

First impressions:

• Having a gamepad plugged in caused control issues for the menus and in-game. Unplugging the gamepad fixed this
• Emulates the mechanics reasonably well, and the visuals do a great job of capturing the style of the original game
• Enemies are very passive and don't move all too much. Except for Monsta they do not pose any active threat
• I assume later levels would do more with having a mix of 2D and 3D segments
• Camera could be steadier, as having it follow Bob every time he jumps can get nauseating
• The section where it was necessary to bubble jump I thought I could simply build a bridge of bubbles and walk through but walking onto the next bubble caused me to pop them all instead and fall
• Personal observation: Bubbles in the original popped when touching your characters spikes, whereas here they pop regardless of how you bump into them. Is this intentional?

I think what's here is solid so far, I would only mainly want to point out the lack of difficulty in dealing with the enemies. While I think there could be more that can be done with the 3D segments like the Monsta chase, given that this is an early demo I would assume there may be more to do as you progress.

But otherwise this is a good effort, keep it up.

Insanely well done, actually feels like Taito themselves would've made it in the 2010's. The old Bubble Bobble mechanics are very cleverly recontextualized to work well in a 3D platformer! I've probably mentioned this before but it feels like the kind of game you never knew you wanted until you saw someone had made it.

You could've probably fooled someone if you told them this was official!

Really fun and interesting take on a 3D Bubble Bobble, implementing the mechanics of the original 2D games. I did run into a couple glitches, though I was probably playing on a older build, so they could've already been fixed by now.

All in all, super fun little fangame! Keep it up!

I'm 17 and when I was a little kid I used to play bubble bubble a lot. When I saw this game, I screamed! I love how this game takes the old games and literally expands them with a new dimension, but without forgetting its 2D roots. The art style and music are near perfect, and the level design is sold! I've had lots of fun with this!
There are a few things that I would consider problems, though. First thing, the controls. They feel a bit too slippery in my opinions and I fell off a platform a lot of times without feeling like it was my fault, and there wasn't really a lot that put me in danger as most of the enemies are stationary. Another problem is that the controls are connected to the camera angle, but it's always put in a way that if for example you press right the character goes a bit towards the camera and that makes everything a lot less precise. And the way you stand on bubbles is quite inconsistent, I'd suggest making it so that you bounce off bubbles like in some of the old games! There was also the face of the characters that you could see through walls XD.
Despite these things, the game's awesome! The art direction and gameplay are amazing. The execution of the 2.5D parts is perfect. I cannot wait to see what comes next!

Very cute, pretty faithful to the original look of Bubble Bobble! The controls however are definitely the worst thing here, it's veeery slippery and at times feels like you're controlling a weird car that just refuses to stop after the "gas" is released. The character stops quick if you've built only a little bit of speed, buuut if you're at full speed and then let go it takes like what feels like a full second for the character to completely stop. Honestly feels like you're on ice constantly, and makes controlling things pretty frustrating.

The fact that the controller (hitting left, right, etc) orientation within the world isn't global doesn't help either, noticed it the moment I reached the very first little crossroad in the game after getting out of the initial "2D" room, I kept walking left and right expecting the character to walk straight, buuut it didn't, instead kinda drifting towards the edges. The control orientation depends on the camera here which is prolly fine with most games, buuut since everything is so angular here and only built with rectangles it would honestly be much more comfortable to just have it all be global. There's no camera control anyway (unless I missed it), so no need to tie it to the camera really. Not sure if I used all the terms here tbh, buuut what I'm saying is that, when I for example press right, I'd want the character to move right according to the world's shapes/direction, not to the right of the camera.

Speakin of the camera, the little 3D rooms with enemies could poooossibly also use a static camera, like with the 2D rooms, something to show the whole room at once with, maybe with some adjusting to the room layouts. The 2D rooms cooould pooossibly use a strong-ish orthographic effect, would make the retro vibe stronger, that one is really just an idea though, not sure if it would honestly work that well.

Level design wise, uh yeah started nice, though after the first 3D room there was a lil platforming challenge where the camera was a touch too close, especially for the yellow platform you have to do a diagonal jump for. Kept failing the jump a good few times cos of the camera, and uh, also cos of the controlling problems already mentioned. Round 1 as a whole was pretty nice tho, Round 2 on the other hand was very... claustrofobic. I'm also a bit afraid if there will be precision platforming using the bubbles going forward, at the moment it was very difficult trying to jump on em.

A huge shame a 360 gamepad didn't work with the game, hoping it'll be worked in! Whiiiile I had much to say about I'm looking forward to seeing more of this project, hopefully things will improve well from here. The graphics especially are amazing and very nice in this, very cute.