This one's tricky for me. I'm not a very patient gamer, and I don't enjoy platformers or 'skill based games', which is the direction that Glitch seems to be aiming for. But I will review this objectively, with the perspective of whether I would recommend this to a friend who I know enjoys this type of game.
In the time I spent playing this game I could see that a lot of work went into it. An impressive amount actually - it really feels like a proper fully fledged game, not something frantically assembled while racing against the clock. It has a cute aesthetic, it has music, a unified feel (even the UI fits the theme), it has unique gameplay mechanics and it's engaging enough (if you like this genre) that you kind of forget about the whole 'Minetest is an engine' thing and just think of something as a game in its own right. Arguably, I think that's the most important thing. Too many games rely on the 'strengths' of the engine, e.g. that you can play tons of other stuff too, instead of just standing on their own right. With some more development after the Jam ends, this could probably be one of those rare titles worth playing even if you don't know anything about Minetest as an engine.
That being said - some very minor critiques: I found it very hard to tell when an ability had recharged (like the sliding mechanics). The stopping distance also was quite hard to judge. Lastly, I feel like maybe the game could use a tiny bit more personality and liveliness of the kind you would find in nostalgic 3D platformers. Maybe little emotes over the characters heads, occasionally changing expressions to emphasise events, a tiny bit more humour, maybe some secrets to find, etc.
Small factual correction (since you implied this game has no secrets): This game does have a secret level (you need it if you want all electrons), and a small easter-egg.
Thank you. Yes, this is the point of this game jam, to create something new and standalone. :-) I am working on a few other standalone games as well, but they are more close to the sandbox genre.
The powerslide controls clearly are the most common complaint, I really need to make this more reliable (and understandable). Sadly not as easy as it sounds ... Hint for now: Hold down Aux1 pressed BEFORE pressing forwards (but even this does not work 100%).
As for the story ... Yes, I do plan to improve it a bit post-jam. Because I did plan to add even more characters, but time was running out. I do plan to refine the story post-jam, but no radical changes. The emotes idea is nice, I also had a similar one (by animating the faces directly or something). And yes, more secrets, I wanted to add more secrets to the levels, but again, time. :D
Check out the forum thread for updates.
Version 1.1.0 is here, and an ability status indicator now shows when you can powerslide (or launch), this hopefully should it make easier to understand.
The stopping distance thing is a trickier business but I decided to leave it at that for now as I don't really have an idea how to improve it without redoing all the sectors.
Rating Scale:
1-10 for each of the 6 categories, 1 being a thumbs down, 10 being a thumbs up. Max total being 60.
Gameplay: 7 | Innovation: 9 | Graphics (Content): 9 | Music & Sound (Content): 9 | Theme: 9 | Stability: 10 |
Total: 53
This one's tricky for me. I'm not a very patient gamer, and I don't enjoy platformers or 'skill based games', which is the direction that Glitch seems to be aiming for. But I will review this objectively, with the perspective of whether I would recommend this to a friend who I know enjoys this type of game.
In the time I spent playing this game I could see that a lot of work went into it. An impressive amount actually - it really feels like a proper fully fledged game, not something frantically assembled while racing against the clock. It has a cute aesthetic, it has music, a unified feel (even the UI fits the theme), it has unique gameplay mechanics and it's engaging enough (if you like this genre) that you kind of forget about the whole 'Minetest is an engine' thing and just think of something as a game in its own right. Arguably, I think that's the most important thing. Too many games rely on the 'strengths' of the engine, e.g. that you can play tons of other stuff too, instead of just standing on their own right. With some more development after the Jam ends, this could probably be one of those rare titles worth playing even if you don't know anything about Minetest as an engine.
That being said - some very minor critiques: I found it very hard to tell when an ability had recharged (like the sliding mechanics). The stopping distance also was quite hard to judge. Lastly, I feel like maybe the game could use a tiny bit more personality and liveliness of the kind you would find in nostalgic 3D platformers. Maybe little emotes over the characters heads, occasionally changing expressions to emphasise events, a tiny bit more humour, maybe some secrets to find, etc.
Small factual correction (since you implied this game has no secrets): This game does have a secret level (you need it if you want all electrons), and a small easter-egg.
I might give a longer response post-jam.
Here's my long response:
Thank you. Yes, this is the point of this game jam, to create something new and standalone. :-) I am working on a few other standalone games as well, but they are more close to the sandbox genre.
The powerslide controls clearly are the most common complaint, I really need to make this more reliable (and understandable). Sadly not as easy as it sounds ... Hint for now: Hold down Aux1 pressed BEFORE pressing forwards (but even this does not work 100%).
As for the story ... Yes, I do plan to improve it a bit post-jam. Because I did plan to add even more characters, but time was running out. I do plan to refine the story post-jam, but no radical changes. The emotes idea is nice, I also had a similar one (by animating the faces directly or something). And yes, more secrets, I wanted to add more secrets to the levels, but again, time. :D Check out the forum thread for updates.
Again, thank you for playing.
Version 1.1.0 is here, and an ability status indicator now shows when you can powerslide (or launch), this hopefully should it make easier to understand.
The stopping distance thing is a trickier business but I decided to leave it at that for now as I don't really have an idea how to improve it without redoing all the sectors.