First impressions:
The camera angle used for the forward sections make gap sizes and jumps too ambiguous, and as a result I would die from undershooting or making bad predictions for moving platforms. Either being able to slightly adjust the camera or changing up the angle would help a lot.
The Flow mechanic is rather unwieldy. I understand what it's meant for but considering you immediately lose it upon stopping on the ground or in the air, you're typically given an all-or-nothing scenario when jumping on a series of enemies/balloons trying to make it to the next safe platform. This has caused unintended drops into pits due to not having the speed to make it to a platform or balloon. I think giving the player a brief moment to adjust before losing it would help in that regard.
On top of that, when trying to hop over a series of platforms that need Flow to make it to, you run the risk of running yourself off and falling. The slower steadier option of stopping on every platform, charging Flow, then jumping to the next one feels like I'm playing the game incorrectly instead of being presented as an alternative. Generally speaking, there haven't been cases where Flow could have been used to save a bad jump or loss of momentum from my experience.
As mentioned in my impressions I do like its presentation in terms of visuals and character designs, however. I wish you luck as you continue working on your game.
- Presentation is nice, characters are expressive and have appealing designs
- Being able to adjust the camera would help a lot
- Level designs suffer from a bit of "precision platforming", with some tight jumps and little margin for error
- Flow mechanic could use some work
- Checkpoints would help especially if you are going to introduce larger/longer stages
- Audio feedback for taking damage would be nice
- Music was incredibly repetitive for the first 8 stages, I was relieved when a different track played in 1-9
- A tally or something showing the rank I earned upon completion of a level would be nice instead of seeing it handed to me upon returning to the main menu
The camera angle used for the forward sections make gap sizes and jumps too ambiguous, and as a result I would die from undershooting or making bad predictions for moving platforms. Either being able to slightly adjust the camera or changing up the angle would help a lot.
The Flow mechanic is rather unwieldy. I understand what it's meant for but considering you immediately lose it upon stopping on the ground or in the air, you're typically given an all-or-nothing scenario when jumping on a series of enemies/balloons trying to make it to the next safe platform. This has caused unintended drops into pits due to not having the speed to make it to a platform or balloon. I think giving the player a brief moment to adjust before losing it would help in that regard.
On top of that, when trying to hop over a series of platforms that need Flow to make it to, you run the risk of running yourself off and falling. The slower steadier option of stopping on every platform, charging Flow, then jumping to the next one feels like I'm playing the game incorrectly instead of being presented as an alternative. Generally speaking, there haven't been cases where Flow could have been used to save a bad jump or loss of momentum from my experience.
As mentioned in my impressions I do like its presentation in terms of visuals and character designs, however. I wish you luck as you continue working on your game.
No audio feedback? Did you toggle "shut kila up" without noticing?
I ran out of time to implement the end result stuff yeah. The 1.2 update i'm about to push will add at least one of them.
I can see about making adjustments to it especially on less vertical levels like 1-2. Generally there seems to be concerns with judging depth when playing the game which may have many different factors but I'll see if simple camera adjustments will do in this regard
flow buffer has been brought up previously, so that's something that will definitely be added in the next demo/ version 1.3 of the SAGE demo
Adding more forgiving mechanics to the game is a major priority right now for sure. In the 1.2 update i'm about to push, coyote time and double jump mechanics have been added. Hope this makes playing the game a bit more forgiving.
Nice to hear that ya like the idea of the game so far! Hope i can present the game even better next time!