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Professional Game Dev plays YOUR indie games | Game Design Feedback — Transcript

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0:00I'm Shuffle and I'm a professional game
0:02developer. And for this video, I asked
0:03you to send me your indie games so that
0:05I could provide you some valuable
0:07feedback. And you all sent me hundreds
0:09of games. For this video, here are the
0:11four I'll be playing. First, I'll play
0:13through the game and then I'll do a game
0:15design breakdown, and there'll be
0:16timestamps for everything, so you can
0:18jump around however you want to. All
0:19right, first game, the Tethergeist demo.
0:23Oh.
0:27Aha. I've discovered jumping to the
0:30checkpoint.
0:32Oh, that sound is so satisfying.
0:35You hear that? You hear that sound
0:36designer there? Oh, clean.
0:44Oh, I have to collect the flower.
0:47Aha. Gaming.
0:54Nice. Oh, look at the little bird. Oh,
0:58so cute. Dang, the art in this game is
0:59incredible. Holy smokes.
1:04Nice. A lot of leniency on that hit box.
1:06Appreciate that. How do I get through
1:08here? Ah, I have to wiggle around. I
1:12see.
1:15Okay.
1:17Ah.
1:22Okay. I can walk through those, but my
1:23spirits cannot.
1:26Nice. We
1:31moving platforms. Oh, it moves while I'm
1:33ghosted. Oh, that's sick.
1:37Now watch.
1:39Do I ghost? Just ah, [laughter]
1:42that's a fun that's a fun uh way to use
1:44that mechanic. That's cool. Okay. Okay.
1:52Yeah, this is a great way to continue
1:53exploring this like um
1:56teleportation ability
2:00and we game. I have to start from back
2:04here. Oh, or I could do like a midair
2:05jump.
2:07Adri say it's fake.
2:12Gaming. Dude, this game feels like it'd
2:14be very fun to speedrun. Ow, my toes.
2:23Dude, I love the the effect right here.
2:25You see how there's like the little
2:26hole? Oh, nice. You see the little holes
2:29in the the background here? It's like
2:31there's the foreground assets in the
2:32background that um are like the the moss
2:34and the roots and stuff and then there's
2:36the little holes in them that let you
2:37see the parallaxing in the back. I love
2:39that effect.
2:41Oh, and nice. I like this this like
2:43foreground stairs to tell the story of
2:44the environment. It makes it feel a lot
2:46more alive.
2:47That's cool.
2:49It's just like that one Silkong moment.
2:51It's true. We're halfway home. I just
2:54need to get back and rest. Then I'll be
2:55ready for it to Oh. Oh, it hasn't been
2:57this painful for a while. We can't let
2:58the elders know about this or they're
3:00not going to let Dude, it's so funny. Oh
3:04wow. Oh my gosh. Not so funny anymore.
3:06Oh, I'm supposed to be pressing a
3:07button.
3:12Okay, this is bad. Let's hurry. Maybe I
3:15should stop doing the tether thing.
3:16[laughter]
3:17Maybe it's not good for me. You know
3:18what I'm saying, dude? I bet this game
3:20is so polished like that. I'm assuming
3:22it's been in development for a while.
3:24So, you must have like been so sad when
3:26you saw Hornet do the exact same thing
3:29in Silkong.
3:31[laughter]
3:32Every time I saw a mechanic or idea in
3:34Silkong that I had in Isidora's Edge, I
3:36was like, "God damn it, they beat me
3:37there, too."
3:42Oh. Oh, no. I'm dead.
3:45Oh, I never should have smoked that
3:56Hey, it's the character sprite that I
3:58really like.
4:01Oh, damn. She's strong [music] as hell.
4:07Or maybe I'm very light. Perhaps I'm not
4:10a dense person.
4:12The shroom's hitting real good.
4:16Ah, I love the the little statue, dude.
4:18The art in this game is so clean. Holy.
4:26Nice.
4:28Mom, what happened? How long was I
4:30asleep? May dear, how you feeling? You
4:32were found unconscious in the woods. I
4:34hate to think what might have happened
4:35if that stranger hadn't found you. I
4:37didn't sleep through the binding, did I?
4:39Not quite. It's happening right now. B,
4:43I'm sorry. after what happened last
4:44night. The elders. No, not again. I'm
4:48sorry, May. You You have unique needs
4:49and we just want you to be safe. I know.
4:52I'm sorry. You can go through the temple
4:54and speak with the elders. They will
4:56explain themselves. So, you can tell uh
4:59they didn't watch my short about um
5:01conversation systems. They're doing the
5:04like a midword wrapound.
5:08Very small detail that's not that
5:09important, but can be pretty easily
5:11fixed depending on the game engine this
5:12is. Dude, I love that I can just
5:14platform around on the roofs here. This
5:15is so cool, dude. This is clean. This
5:18area is sick. Holy smokes.
5:23I like the way you handled this ladder
5:24in pixel art. These dude, a slightly
5:26diagonal ladder in pixel art is like
5:28[laughter]
5:28one of my worst nightmares possible. Oh.
5:31Oh. Oh. Hey, we up on a house for real
5:34this time. Clean waterfall.
5:38Hey. Oh, people around here really do
5:40just move around using their spirit,
5:42huh? Hey. Oh my gosh, I want to learn
5:45how to do that.
5:48All right, tag yourself challenge.
6:03Nice
6:07timing. The explosion of the pedals on
6:09beat.
6:12>> Thank you all for attending the start of
6:14this year's binding. We shall reconvene
6:17in two days to welcome back our
6:18village's newest souls.
6:23>> It's good to see you're up, May. How are
6:25you feeling?
6:26>> Why can't I do the binding? [laughter]
6:28>> We're truly sorry. We will double our
6:31efforts to heal your body and spirit so
6:33that you can do the binding next year.
6:36Please, for your safety, stay within the
6:38city walls until this year's ceremony
6:39has ended. No, [laughter] absolutely
6:42not. You cannot confine me. I will live
6:44I will live free and be myself. We're
6:46not waiting until next year, Ba. We're
6:48going to go do mischief and crime. But
6:50what? But I want to leave. Oh, a
6:53midnight walk sounds great and all, but
6:54I just want to leave these gates and go
6:56explore.
6:59May Wait. Oh, is that my mother soul?
7:01May wait. Keep an eye out for the red
7:04atropa blossom. The right amount can
7:06soothe aliening spirits. Okay. Thanks,
7:08Mom. I love you. I love you, too. Aw,
7:13mom gave me a hug.
7:16Is that like a a alligator squirrel?
7:18That's so cute. We in the Avatar the
7:20Last Air Bender version. Video game
7:22protagonist was supportive of parent,
7:23right? Isn't she supposed to be dead by
7:25now? How else am I going to find the
7:26motivation to continue?
7:29Oh, this is a little tricky. First, you
7:31wall jump. Boom. Grab this. Make your
7:33way up to this one. Grab this one. And
7:34oh, we're gaming.
7:40Oh, I see. Do I need
7:43Oh, where did I get another one from? Am
7:44I dumb? How did How did I get a second
7:46blossom?
7:50Oh, when I use it, it comes back. Oh, so
7:54by using it here, I picked up another
7:56one. I see. Okay. Okay. Little bit
7:59tricky. A little bit tricky. Kind of
8:00figured that one out by accident.
8:05wall jumps.
8:08Oh, secret
8:17weeho.
8:24Feels like there could potentially be a
8:26way to get up there, but I'm not seeing
8:27it.
8:33Oh, another alligator squirrel.
8:42Ow. Ah, so it's also like the it's also
8:46like the Celest Strawberries in that you
8:48have to collect it and land.
8:59A a mother trucker. All right, you all
9:04saw nothing. I made that first try. H
9:06Why is there a moving platform here?
9:10Makes me think.
9:17Oh, am I supposed to get here with
9:19[laughter]
9:21with some flowers? Huh?
9:28Can I
9:31think I have to use this, right?
9:36It leaves me one flower. And I guess I
9:38can go down here and see what's up.
9:42Aha.
9:45Let me nice, nice, nice. We're gaming.
9:49John shovel in and out.
9:52Weho. Ow. Not quite. Weeha.
9:56Guess the way to do this is here.
10:01Ah, I see you. Pit in the ground.
10:07Right here. Then we wall jump. Nice.
10:10Across. Boom.
10:18Hell yeah, gamers.
10:20Wow, your level design is so good. All
10:23of the secrets are so satisfying to to
10:25solve. Oh, was this the way I was
10:26supposed to go? Dang it. I thought this
10:28was the secret path.
10:37You haven't played many platformers
10:38besides 2D Mario?
10:41Ah,
10:47I don't have any left. Doesn't matter.
10:52Doesn't matter when you're built
10:53different. Okay. Uh I mean I guess I
10:57could try. I'm already up here, but I
11:00think Yeah, I think I needed to get
11:01through that with a single flower. Yeah,
11:03mom knows best. Grab those flowers.
11:04Yeah, I need to come through like this.
11:08Ah,
11:12let me in. Let me in.
11:14Oh, saved.
11:16Back in.
11:29Nice. Got it.
11:32Then I need to like
11:38Oh, why did I fall so quickly? Did you
11:40Did you all see that? My fall speed like
11:44massively increased. Oops. I forgot what
11:46I'm supposed to do here. Mom says to pay
11:48my taxes. Well, okay. Moms don't know
11:49everything.
11:52He said as a joke, Mr. IRS. Oh, I
11:56already got it.
11:58Did you see that? My fall speed when I
11:59came over here like
12:02went like skyhigh.
12:11I almost touched that. [laughter]
12:13That [snorts] would have been brutality.
12:16Ah, I need to go up a little bit higher.
12:17Be basically the same if the player had
12:18a stamina system.
12:21Oh, well, one thing you need to do is
12:23make sure you pick up the
12:26the flower. Oh,
12:30y'all didn't see anything. Wait. Oops.
12:32Oops. Oops.
12:34I'm donezo. And I can just land here,
12:37too. Okay. The way those spikes come up
12:38just when I'm um just when I'm
12:40channeling was a little bit hard for me
12:42to grasp there. Maybe this part should
12:44be a little bit more um tutorialized so
12:46that it's clear how it works. Maybe some
12:47puzzles specifically around having to
12:49land on these after a channel so that
12:51you ingrain it in your player's memory
12:53because this was this was the first
12:54piece that felt a little bit
12:55unintuitive. And the rest of the game uh
12:57game design has been so intuitive that
12:59this it just stood out a little bit. Let
13:01me in. Let me in.
13:05Nice.
13:07Hey,
13:08it's my strong friend.
13:12Well, how about that? You're the last
13:14person I expected to see out here
13:15tonight. Um, do I know you? No, but
13:18we've met. I'm foiled. I found you face
13:21down in the dirt yesterday. [laughter]
13:24Naming the like main secondary character
13:26of the game, Foil is definitely it's
13:29definitely on the nose. I'll say I'm a
13:31historian. The Fountain of Souls is the
13:33source of some very fascinating
13:34accounts. It's said to be the dwelling
13:36place of the mountain god and that the
13:38surrounding shaman tribes travel there
13:40to commune with it and are granted all
13:42manner of blessings,
13:44including miraculous healings. I intend
13:47to see it for myself.
13:49Oh, well, the binding is a ceremony
13:50that's all about healing, but I think
13:52it's more metaphorical than literal. Oh,
13:55well, that may be, which is why I intend
13:56to see for myself. So, this this has
13:58happened a couple times, and it's also
14:00not a big deal at all, and in fact
14:02almost doesn't even need to be mentioned
14:03as something to be fixed. But this is a
14:05thing called an orphan where you have a
14:08single word of a conversation speech
14:10that shows up on the second line all by
14:13itself. [music] So the word myself here
14:15has been orphaned. Um and generally it's
14:18better to not orphan the words. So here
14:21you could kick for myself to the next
14:23line. So it' be which is why I intend to
14:24see for myself on the next line. Um it's
14:27a small thing that mostly only I noticed
14:30because I played a lot of Hearthstone
14:32and they had very specific orphaning
14:33rules. It makes the the words feel a
14:34little bit less they they flow a little
14:36bit less well. It feels like just a
14:37little bit less professional. [music]
14:38But I think it's really not a big deal.
14:40It's just something I noticed that it's
14:41happened a couple times. I'm glad to
14:43have properly met you, May. I'm sure our
14:44paths will cross again.
14:47She kind of tall, too.
14:50[laughter] I just fell asleep.
14:54Oh, that's funny. Yeah, she just
14:57crashed.
14:58Oh, nice. Oh, I can hold the mouse
15:01higher. Look at that animation. So clean
15:04and pixel perfect, too. Love to see it.
15:09Hey, a target dash.
15:12Feels pretty good.
15:15Clean.
15:18Ah, and these are spikes presumably. But
15:20if I hold here, I Yep. Great
15:22tutorialization here to force me to know
15:24that I need to tap it.
15:28If I Oh, is this like a big one?
15:32Oh, this is like a repulsor shroom or a
15:35repulsor jellyfish
15:40queen. Oh, kind of sent myself lying
15:42there.
15:49Queen,
15:52let's go. A secret here.
15:57Well hidden secret, too. like well
15:58hidden in that. It feels satisfying to
16:00notice it even though it's pretty
16:02noticeable.
16:05Oh, there's a secret up there. End me.
16:14Yeah, you thought I wouldn't see that.
16:19Oh, [laughter] oops. Okay, I have to use
16:22all three of the jellyfish charges. Hold
16:25left.
16:31There we go. You need to eat mushrooms
16:33to use the jellyfish. Yes. Ow.
16:37Ow.
16:42Wait. Oh, I need to go to the right a
16:45little bit more there. I see. Here.
16:51Boom. Nice. Nice. Nice.
16:55I I want to go the upper path here cuz
16:57I'm guessing that's another secret.
17:00Yeah, let's go. Let's go.
17:06Ah, do I go up? Right.
17:13Ow.
17:19Let's go. Nice.
17:23I think um because it's consistent, it
17:25works. It's like all of the
17:27interactables during a level
17:31require you to pick up the thing that
17:33you need to use them. So, all of the
17:35levels have the same sort of flow to
17:37them.
17:41Oh, do I need to wall jump from higher?
17:42Maybe if I don't clip the corner.
17:48Nice. Hey, it's my friend. Listen. What
17:52do you think, Bal? Do you know what to
17:53do?
17:56Yo, come on, Bow.
17:59Clean.
18:02Okay, Bow. I'm trusting you. Let's do
18:04this.
18:07We all
18:10Oh my gosh, look at those little spirit
18:12animals chilling. I love the little I
18:14love the little crocodile squirrel.
18:16That's so cute.
18:19Oh, I didn't listen.
18:28Okay. Oh, now I need to plan out the
18:30level. So first I need flour shroom
18:33shroom
18:34flower shroom
18:37flower shroom shroom flower shroom.
18:50Nice. Okay, now I need troom troom
18:55flower.
19:01Wait a dang second.
19:05Maybe I don't actually need to double
19:07shroom here.
19:10Ah.
19:13Ow.
19:17Okay, this is my chance. Don't bungle
19:19it. Okay.
19:23Oh.
19:28Ah, I can activate the door on this
19:29side. Let's go.
19:31Tethergeist
19:33wish list on Steam. Thanks for playing.
19:35Hey, thanks for the game. All right.
19:38Incredible. [music] And then wish list
19:39after the stream. Um, usually what we do
19:41after we play through the game that's
19:43submitted on Showcase Saturday is we
19:44give feedback. First off, I think the
19:46most obvious uh thing about this game
19:48that stands out is that the art style is
19:50incredibly gorgeous. Is really, really
19:52good. It looks super appealing. The
19:55other thing that I think really stood
19:57out to me about this game is that the
19:58gameplay itself is incredibly strong.
20:00It's really really fun. The gameplay is
20:03really satisfying to like hit the hit
20:05the jumps and it feels very smooth. It's
20:07not your standard platformer move set of
20:09like hitting the jump at the right time.
20:11It's a much different type of
20:12platforming which is cool. I don't think
20:14I've done much platforming of this kind,
20:16right? Um,
20:19and it's like timing your like soul
20:21tether [music] so that you barely avoid
20:23hitting the spikes because you like fall
20:24in slow motion and comboing your soul
20:26tethers together to get like a nice
20:28sequence and using [music] the like
20:30jellyfish burst between the tethers.
20:32Really satisfying stuff. I'd say the
20:34weakest part of the demo to me was
20:36definitely in the soul door, like
20:38needing to grab the power-ups in the
20:40right order. There wasn't much of a
20:42puzzle element to it. I just had to go
20:45and like remember the order, right? I
20:47was like, "All right, first there's a
20:48crystal, so I need the flower. Then
20:49there's two mushrooms, so I need the
20:51mushrooms. Then the next one's a
20:52crystal, so I need the crystal." It's
20:53like the puzzle element to it was
20:55realizing that I needed to skip the
20:57second mushroom. But even then, it was
20:59like once I saw that there was another
21:00jellyfish I needed to jump off of, then
21:01it's like, "Okay, well, I have to end on
21:03like the shroom powerup." Yeah. I didn't
21:04have all that information at the start
21:05of the puzzle. And as soon as I saw that
21:08there's like an obstacle at the end that
21:10I can't get through without the the
21:12jellyfish room power up, I knew I needed
21:14to end with it. So, it was like then I
21:16just have to get through it. So, neither
21:17of those felt like a very satisfying
21:19puzzle to me. And because you have to
21:21like pick the order ahead of time and
21:23store up all of your boons before you
21:25can start platforming, it also didn't
21:27have like the super satisfying
21:28smoothness that the rest of the the
21:30gameplay had. It's like the rest of your
21:32level design was truly truly great
21:35stuff. All of the secrets were so
21:37satisfying. Every time I got one of the
21:38flowers, I missed 17 flowers. Yeah.
21:40Also, that's another thing. I would
21:42absolutely be playing this game over and
21:43over and over and over again to get 100%
21:46flowers because that's just what I do.
21:47Like I got I think I got every
21:48strawberry in Celeste. I loved Celeste.
21:50Celeste is one of my favorite indie
21:51games and I think that the the flower
21:53collection in this was it scratched
21:56exactly the same itch that it scratched
21:57when I was collecting strawberries and
21:58Celeste. Like those seemed very very
22:00similar amounts of fun to me. So, I mean
22:02that's a that's a great sign, right?
22:03Celeste is an incredible game. It's just
22:05the puzzle design with the the selecting
22:06boons that I was like a little bit less
22:08excited about. And I think you've also
22:10done a great job on Steam showcasing all
22:13kinds of different environments and
22:15biomes and stuff in here. Like these
22:17screenshots really give the idea that
22:19there's like a lot of content in this
22:20game, right? It's like clicking through
22:22all these, it feels like almost nothing
22:23is repeated until you get to that pipe.
22:25Might even switch this out for something
22:27else, but it feels like nothing is
22:28repeated. Um, and it feels like there's
22:30going to be so many levels and so much
22:31gameplay, which is great, right? gives
22:33me the idea that I'm going to definitely
22:34get my money's worth. Right. On the
22:36actual Steam page itself, during the
22:38trailer, watching the trailer before I
22:41played the demo, this did not look that
22:44satisfying. And I think it's because I
22:46didn't I couldn't tell how it was going
22:48to feel to use that ability. I don't
22:50know what you can do about that off the
22:53dome. Ah, okay. I think this is what's
22:55happening. So, when I'm watching the
22:57trailer, I don't know how the tether
22:58mechanic works, and I haven't felt how
22:59the tether mechanic works. So, when I'm
23:01watching this, I'm focused on the
23:02player. And when I'm watching this this
23:04moment, it looks to me like I'm not
23:06really doing anything. There's a lot of
23:07waiting and then I end up here and just
23:09teleport. So, this section feels like
23:11nothing's really happening because I was
23:13just kind of like watching myself and
23:14trying to figure out what's going on.
23:16But now that I've played the game, I
23:17know that while she's like this, I'm
23:19doing some other nonsense, right? I'm
23:21not her. I'm like my spirit, right? So,
23:23when I watch this, knowing how the
23:24mechanic works, my eyes and focus shifts
23:27to something else entirely. When I watch
23:28When I was watching it beforehand, I was
23:30entirely focused on her and I was like
23:32maybe not confused, but it just felt
23:34like there wasn't much action. See, this
23:35right here is a good sequence because
23:36she's moving. So, it feels like oh, very
23:38platformery. But then this here, I was
23:40focused on her again, even though
23:41there's like this spirit thing. And so,
23:43then she teleports up here. And I It
23:45wasn't clear to me how I'm controlling
23:47this section, if you [music] know what I
23:48mean. Maybe zoom in on the spirit. Yeah,
23:49I think you might want to do some camera
23:51tricks here. Like you could even change
23:54the way the effect looks a little bit to
23:55make her like more the center of
23:57attention and like even fade her out a
23:59little bit or put something over here
24:00that makes it clear to the viewer that
24:02this becomes the the focus of the
24:04player. Yeah, because that is that is
24:06something that is very very clear to me
24:08is when I first watched this trailer, I
24:10was like the art looks incredible but
24:12the gameplay here does not look as
24:13appealing to me but you know I'll give
24:15it a try and see how it feels. And then
24:17how it feels is very satisfying. The
24:19actual gameplay itself is extremely fun,
24:21but I think you might need to do some
24:22trailer magic here to really convince
24:23the viewer that that's the case. If I
24:25imagine for a second that I'm not
24:27streaming, I'm not a dev, I'm just
24:28looking for a game to play and I
24:32downloaded this demo to try it to see if
24:34I would like it, I would have played all
24:35the way through the demo, enjoyed it the
24:36whole time, watched this trailer, and
24:38been convinced to buy it. This trailer
24:40works to convince someone who played the
24:41demo to buy it. In my opinion, when I'm
24:43looking for a platformer to play, I want
24:44to look at the trailer and think, "This
24:45motion look, this game looks smooth. The
24:47motion looks really clean and I'm going
24:49to feel good pulling it off. When I
24:51watch the trailer, I can imagine myself
24:52playing it, hitting that sequence of
24:54inputs and being like, "Yeah, I'm pretty
24:56good at jumping and wall climbing and
24:57also throwing myself around the map."
24:59So, I think that's what the trailer
25:00needs to to to sell the idea of. And I
25:02think that you're very close to doing
25:04that. Tether Guys didn't win the jam,
25:06but it got 10th in the popular vote. We
25:07were shocked over 5K Games Jam was GMTK
25:092021. Oh, nice. Nice. That's sick.
25:11That's sick. Isn't that the case with a
25:13lot of uh a lot of games that started as
25:15game jams and expanded is they did
25:16surprisingly well. It's like I think
25:18Isidora came like 13th in the Vim jam
25:20and I was like oh 13th let's go. So also
25:23it's taken us four freaking years. I
25:24mean this with the amount of content
25:26you're showing off in the screenshots
25:28and in the trailer and the polish level
25:30on the game right here. Four years is
25:32like nothing, you know. Yeah, GMTK top
25:3410 is crazy by the way. Just [laughter]
25:35just PS. Let's play the game jam version
25:38of te Tethergeist to see what it was
25:40like. We can see the differences in the
25:43game jam version and how they expanded
25:45it to a full game.
25:48All right. Press any key to start. Wow.
25:54Split or rejoin is J. Oh, can I use the
25:57controller for this?
26:00Nope. Okay, we're stuck on keys.
26:04J.
26:08Nice. Watch your diamond count. If you
26:09run out, you can't split. Classic
26:11[music]
26:12machinery is only active while you are
26:13split.
26:15Ah, this mechanic still works.
26:19Oh, and then you have to press J a
26:20second time. I see. I see.
26:25Oops. I feel like you were uh the full
26:27version is a lot more lenient on the
26:30position there.
26:34Nice, nice, nice. 48 hours for this is
26:36crazy, right?
26:39Oh, oops. You guys can't hear the game.
26:41[laughter]
26:42That explains it.
26:44The jam version seems more puzzle
26:45focused than the full version. Yeah,
26:46true, true. Okay. Yeah, but you're
26:48right. We can actually navigate all the
26:50way here.
26:53Then what? Then what?
27:02Oh.
27:04Ah. And then we come up here. Then we
27:07navigate all the way up. Ah, I thought
27:11we could just barely make it.
27:19Right now we can come here. Oh, now we
27:22can jump here,
27:25which lets us jump here, which gives us
27:28a jump
27:30here, which gives us a jump up here.
27:33Nice. Okay, that that one was wild.
27:37I was like [laughter] from right here I
27:39was analyzing. I was like there's one
27:41crystal on the platform and two crystals
27:42up next to the little nib.
27:45Okay.
27:49Well, that was a pretty bad jump, huh?
27:51But I mean, if I just keep falling.
27:55I'm shocked that that [music] worked.
27:56So, can I do this?
28:00I see the problem. I see the problem.
28:05The UI in this version is cheeks. I
28:09mean, honestly, it gets the job done. It
28:11just it's the exact same sprite as the
28:12one you can collect. So,
28:15that's all that was giving me. All
28:16right.
28:36>> [laughter]
28:38>> Ah, yes.
28:42Gaming.
28:48Hopefully, I don't actually need all of
28:49those. If I somehow need to collect all
28:52of those, that would be shocking. Thanks
28:54for playing. Final time, 28 minutes 44
28:56seconds. Let's go. We're gaming. As far
28:58as feedback for this version goes, I
28:59think like the puzzles were pretty fun,
29:02but some of them the solutions weren't
29:03like um intuitive. It's like you
29:06generally don't want a puzzle to feel
29:07super intuitive, but you also don't want
29:08to feel like well, how was I supposed to
29:09figure that out? Um and it's like that
29:11one where I like landed and it just like
29:13pulled me into the crystal. I don't
29:14think I would have considered doing that
29:15for a long time. So, I sort of just like
29:17lucked into it, right? But yeah,
29:1828minute game in 48 hours is crazy.
29:20True. True. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I think
29:24a lot of the like controls, the the
29:26stuff with like controlling the
29:27character that I would have like given
29:29feedback on like um, you know, when you
29:31collect a crystal, there should be some
29:32slowdown so you have time to like
29:33recontextualize the situation you're in
29:34like when you're in the middle of
29:35falling and having like the terminal
29:37velocity in the full version is very
29:40very generous. Like you fall very
29:42slowly. And um, and that's really good
29:45for a game where you spend a lot of time
29:46falling. Um, also I think the spike hit
29:49boxes in the full version are a little
29:51bit cleaner.
29:52Um, in this game I felt like the spikes
29:54were a little bit too aggressive in some
29:56places. Um, but yeah, overall and then
29:58also the UI change to make it very clear
30:01that the
30:03amount of tether jumps you have in the
30:05UI is not a part of the level design and
30:07then obviously the glow up in terms of
30:09like art and animation. It's really
30:11really an incredible difference. So, uh,
30:12that's sick. That's sick. All right,
30:14before the next game, I need to take a
30:15second to thank the sponsor of this
30:16video, Liberovo. I've been working on my
30:18indie game and sitting at my desk for
30:20long periods of time. And over the past
30:22few months, those long sessions had
30:23started to feel increasingly
30:25uncomfortable, especially around my
30:26lower back. Then, Liberovo sent me the
30:28Maxis, a chair specifically designed for
30:30larger people. It has a supportive back
30:32rest, highly adjustable headrest, wider
30:34armrests, and a deeper seat. Everything
30:36feels designed around someone of my
30:38size. And also, the construction feels
30:39quite premium. The moving parts seem
30:41like they were carefully engineered to
30:42stay stable while still allowing the
30:44chair to adapt to different working
30:45positions and reclining positions. The
30:47back rest uses an electric lumbar
30:48support system that lets you dial in
30:50that support very easily. And instead of
30:52relying on a fixed [music] pad, the back
30:54rest moves to meet the curve of your
30:55body. It also offers five clearly
30:57defined reclining positions. You have
30:59105° for locking in, 115° for a balanced
31:03working position, 125° for focused solo
31:06work, 135° for a soft recline, and 160°
31:10for rest and relaxation. And on top of
31:12that, it has an automatic back
31:13stretching mode called Omnisttch. to
31:15take advantage of that 160 degree
31:16recline. Once you're laidback and
31:18relaxing, the electric motor moves the
31:20back rest through a stretching cycle,
31:22which relieves some of the tension that
31:23builds up during those long sitting
31:25sessions. After using this chair, my
31:27longer work sessions have felt much more
31:28comfortable. The larger back rest,
31:30adjustable lumbar support, and ability
31:32to change position throughout the day
31:33have made a noticeable difference for
31:35me. Another feature I've grown to love
31:36is the active airflow seat ventilation.
31:38It doesn't blow air upward at you.
31:39Instead, it uses a suction based system
31:41to draw air through the seat, helping it
31:43stay cool and dry on hot days. The
31:45battery lasts 24 hours on low and more
31:47than 9 hours on high. Obviously, the
31:49chair has huge benefits like the
31:50generous fit, deep seat, wide adjustment
31:52range, responsive electric support, and
31:54ventilation. But the trade-off is that
31:55it takes up more space than a standard
31:57chair. And if you're a smaller person or
31:59below the recommended height range, you
32:00might want to check out their Omni Pro
32:02[music] model. But if you're between
32:035'10" and 6'7", want more room through
32:05the shoulders and torso, and need a
32:07chair that supports up to 399 lbs, then
32:10I highly recommend checking out the
32:11Liberovo Maxis. And thanks again to
32:12Libernova for sponsoring the video. Now,
32:14let's get back to the games.
32:17Lumina Noctis by Denji. Hopefully it
32:20doesn't blow out your eardrums. If you
32:22see a cauldron, please light it up so I
32:24can follow your path. I'm pretty
32:25impressed that for a 3D game jam entry,
32:27there isn't very much foot slide. Foot
32:29slide is such a common problem, and it
32:30doesn't exist here. So, nice job. Ah,
32:33right here. This is a great
32:34tutorialization. There's just a mouse
32:36click button here. I click it, which
32:38makes him throw the potion and destroy
32:40whatever that blobby was. And this is
32:43probably some kind of healing thing or a
32:45checkpoint or something. But I fully
32:47understand the throwing potions
32:48mechanic. And it nice. It destroys
32:50stuff. That's great tutorialization.
32:52Didn't need to tell me what to do. It
32:54just worked.
32:56Maybe those crystals are checkpoints.
32:57Not clear about that.
32:59All right. Not bad. up, man.
33:07All right.
33:09So far, the tutorialization is very
33:10good.
33:12Oh, very generous jump there, too. I
33:15thought I wasn't going to make that.
33:21All right. Oh, and then a midair throw
33:23to bounce on that. Nice. Clean. I love
33:25the way this is building on itself.
33:36Nice.
33:43Did
33:47clearing that checkpoint.
33:53I'm tell Okay, so this is the starting
33:55room. Oh, this is almost like a Metroid
33:56Vania.
33:58By going around the back path, I cleared
34:00out some stuff that was blocking me from
34:02going left and right here. Okay. Okay.
34:05Nice. Some
34:07crossing paths here. That's cool. Love
34:08to see that. The pants on this guy go so
34:11hard, right? Dude's got a flare for
34:12style. Don't exactly see where to go, so
34:14I'll just jump down. No fall damage.
34:17Love to see that.
34:20What are you doing, bud?
34:22There's an enemy up there.
34:26What is
34:29ah that jump didn't make it.
34:33Nice. Okay.
34:37Got him. [laughter]
34:39Oh my gosh.
34:43Got his ass, bro.
34:49That laugh tells me there's an enemy
34:50nearby.
34:53Oh, they're throwing the little vials
34:55that create this the jumping goo.
35:02Okay.
35:04Are you going to throw one at me over
35:05here?
35:08Yeah. Maybe I can't snipe him. He's not
35:09Do I need to like bait it out? I do need
35:12to bait it out. Hey.
35:16Okay, that's pretty fun.
35:20Cooked him. Pretty
35:23smooth to walk over there, bait him to
35:25throw the potion where I need to jump.
35:29Okay, there's a guy up there.
35:34I need one right here.
35:38Nice.
35:40Oh, no. I'd recommend using a weapon
35:43that's much less helpful to me.
35:47Do I need him to bait one here?
35:50Nice.
35:55I don't know if those even hurt me.
36:01Okay. Need one right here.
36:06All right. One more. Hook me up, bud.
36:10Thank you, pal.
36:15All right. You've been such a help to
36:16me. As a result, I shall eliminate you.
36:19[laughter]
36:22Oh, that's a
36:24that's a huge jump.
36:27We're gaming.
36:30Nice. That's sick.
36:32Oh, thank you.
36:37Interesting. You can only seems like you
36:39can only defeat them from a close range,
36:42which is probably smart. [laughter]
36:45Nice. We're getting more treacherous on
36:46the platforms, which is great.
36:50Does feel like this is what I'm supposed
36:51to jump to. Did I just like fail an easy
36:54jump or something?
36:57Oh,
36:59no. That's not just an easy jump.
37:05There any other way to get there?
37:08Oh, maybe I need him to boost me up onto
37:10this ledge.
37:12He got me. Ah, he got me. Nice.
37:17If no one got me, I know little potion
37:18throwing goblin got me. Oh, and then I
37:20can bounce across here. Let's go.
37:23What? Why' I lose my momentum? Send
37:25help.
37:28Well, that's unfortunate.
37:32I just don't lose my momentum.
37:35Okay.
37:37Ah, which gets me, I think, to this
37:46Uh, another checkpoint. Let's go.
37:48Perfect timing, too.
37:54Bro, you got a lot of smog up here.
37:57Aha. And I see the path forward.
38:09Bounce house. Woohoo.
38:12like the fever dream aesthetic. Yeah.
38:14Yeah. I love the like pools of smog on
38:16the bottom and the fact that like, you
38:19know, it makes her a reason to be Okay,
38:21let me do a second bounce here on the
38:23edge. I feel like I was losing a little
38:25bit of momentum with each bounce.
38:26Where's
38:28Where's my next goal? I have to like
38:32Wait, I don't think I can make that. Can
38:33I?
38:39Well, nothing left to do but try.
38:43Okay, just barely.
38:55Nice.
38:58Hell yeah, we're gaming.
39:09Oh my gosh.
39:11Fight the fall, [laughter]
39:12dude. That uh the fact that the it's so
39:15far down that it's blurry is such a
39:16great touch.
39:21Nice. That felt quite dramatic.
39:32Oh,
39:37turn on all the potions.
39:46Is there a puzzle? Okay, feels like I
39:49need to activate these in a specific
39:51order,
39:52but maybe I need to go figure out what
39:53that order is first.
39:56Maybe it's explore and come back to
39:57this.
40:02Nope.
40:05Although I did break my way into here.
40:16Ah, okay.
40:19Feel like I haven't really been able to
40:20clean these off. Okay. Moon is first.
40:23Psychic is third. Fire is fifth.
40:27Emerald is fourth.
40:31Emerald, fire. So, lightning. Okay. So,
40:34it's it's moon,
40:38lightning,
40:40psychic,
40:42emerald,
40:45fire.
40:48I'm gaming.
40:52Oh.
40:54I can throw my own goo.
40:58Pause.
41:05Hell yeah.
41:10Now this is what I call gaming.
41:17Real G's brute force every combination.
41:19Couldn't be me. Oh no, my momentum. Send
41:22help.
41:23I think it's cooked. Oh. Oh. Oh. Maybe
41:25not cooked. Oh, no. It's cooked. It's
41:28cooked for sure. See you later, peeps.
41:31Do that death pose. [laughter]
41:38Nice.
41:41Who needs to jump when you can goo
41:43bounce yourself?
41:46Ah.
41:52Oh, wrong one.
42:00We're goo bouncing.
42:04Hell yeah.
42:06All right.
42:11Oh, I kept canceling my
42:25Nice.
42:27Now, where are we?
42:29H. This looks extremely familiar.
42:33I don't know why that goo didn't work.
42:40Have I been here before? Oh, is this
42:43where the Yeah, I think here the the goo
42:44goblin was helping me.
42:47I was getting the goo goblin to throw
42:48stuff.
42:51Ah,
42:53and that is it for this game jam. Thank
42:55you for playing. Enjoy unused red speed
42:57potion. It combos well with the blue
42:59one.
43:00Oh, dude. Yeah, I feel like the the red
43:02potion would be the obvious next
43:03improvement. All right, so now that
43:04we've played this game, let's give some
43:06feedback. Honestly, I think the game is
43:08very fun. There's a lot of stuff in this
43:10game that works really well. Um, first I
43:13think the way the mechanics build on
43:15themselves again very very good. I think
43:17that's like a super underrated part of
43:19like starting games off strong is
43:20building mechanics on each other really
43:22well. And this game does that extremely
43:24well. You start with just one potion and
43:26all it does is clear your path from like
43:28the the gas. But as you continue going,
43:31you have the goblins that you first
43:33there's goo that just exists on the
43:34ground, right? There's just some goo
43:35there. You use it to bounce up. All
43:36right, cool. Goo gives me a little
43:38bounce. That's nice. Then you have
43:39goblins throwing goo at you and you need
43:41to like bait them into throwing it to
43:42the right spot.
43:44Um, and when the goblins goo you in the
43:46right spot, it lets you get access to
43:48these areas that you wouldn't be able to
43:49get to without them. So that's cool.
43:51There's like an element of like get to
43:52the right spot, make sure the goblin
43:53throws it, then you go. Um, then you get
43:55access to your own goo bottle. Now, the
43:58unfortunate part is this was a game jam,
43:59so you didn't really get to explore the
44:01self goo that much. Like I feel like
44:03there's lots of cool puzzles you could
44:04do based on like needing to keep
44:06momentum and throw your your bounces in
44:08the right spot, but the idea is there.
44:10You know, I can see where where this
44:12would be going, right? If you were
44:13turning this into a full product, I can
44:15see how you would continue being able to
44:17build levels out that rely on this
44:18access to your own potions.
44:20Additionally, I think for being a 3D
44:22game in a game jam, the camera controls
44:24are pretty smooth. Um, and the character
44:26doesn't really have foot sliding, which
44:27is nice. One thing that I did notice
44:28immediately is like you see when the
44:30character like they run to the to the
44:32right and then they run to the left. The
44:34animation like is very jumpy like it
44:37cuts between the animations rather than
44:39blending between them. And so if you use
44:41a blend tree for your character's
44:42animations rather than like insta
44:45switching to the other animation, you
44:47can tween a blend to the other animation
44:49which will make it move smoothly between
44:51the states. So instead of having this
44:52like very, you know, uh, jittery feeling
44:55character controller, it would like move
44:57subtly between the different animation
44:58states by blending the bones positions.
45:00I think that like that's a very small
45:02change that will have like very big
45:04dividends in how smooth the character
45:05controller feels. Additionally, one
45:08thing that is very clearly missing from
45:11this game is that this is a 3D
45:14platformer, right? And in a 3D
45:16platformer, it's very important to have
45:18a shadow on the ground that shows where
45:21your character's going to land. Like
45:22when you jump like this, it's not super
45:24clear where exactly I'm positioned in 3D
45:27space to land my jumps. Right? If there
45:29was even just a perfectly circular
45:31little shadow that got cast onto the
45:33ground from where my character is
45:34jumping, it would be a lot easier to
45:36position myself during this aerial
45:38movement. Additionally, so much of the
45:40game is built around there's a thing
45:42there, I need to jump on it. So being
45:43able to see exactly where it is with
45:46that like circular shadow that gets cast
45:48down to the ground would be huge for the
45:50controllability of this game. Now I
45:51think you did a good job with the hitbox
45:53on these goo. Like look how generous
45:55this hit box is. You see where I'm
45:57bouncing right now? My character's
45:58control like really isn't touching it at
46:00all. But it's extremely generous. And I
46:02think that extreme generosity is hugely
46:05helpful when you don't have the pristine
46:07understanding of where you're supposed
46:08to be. Now there are a little some
46:09animation bugs that are very like
46:11obvious if you watch someone play the
46:12game. And it's like occasionally when
46:13you bounce off of something, you like
46:15are essentially a posing, right? Which
46:17if you don't know, T posing is when your
46:19character stands with their arms like
46:20straight out in a T. And a posing is
46:21this. Like when you're just standing
46:22with your arms down at your side. Like
46:24this is a classic A pose.
46:26Yeah. Like there where I was like doing
46:27the walk animation even though I was mid
46:29jump. Like little little details like
46:30that are really not that critical,
46:32especially for a game jam. If you were
46:33polishing it, you can always clean up
46:34those slight animation bugs, but that's
46:35not really a big deal. Additionally,
46:37there's other little 3D character
46:38controller stuff. Like I already
46:39mentioned the twins, but you see this
46:40where the the character's feet just
46:42slide on the ground as you turn. Um, you
46:45can also fix that with like some subtle
46:46rotation animation. But again, these are
46:48all like if you were polishing this game
46:50up for a full release, you could do it,
46:51but for a game jam, really not necessary
46:53because people are um very good at just
46:56like forgiving those kinds of small
46:58mistakes, especially in a game jam. Um,
47:01I even though I was playing it and I
47:02noticed it, it wasn't a big deal to me.
47:04I still had fun. Anyway, from a design
47:06perspective, I think sort of need to
47:07figure out how to get where you want to
47:09go. It's like once you've reached a
47:11certain elevation, you have access to
47:13that elevation if you can find a
47:15bouncing pad. It's like, you know, now
47:16that I'm that high up, I can stay that
47:18high up as long as I find a place to
47:19bounce. Like from here, I know that I
47:21can't get up there, but I can get there
47:22if there's somewhere to bounce. And
47:23there is somewhere to bounce.
47:25you have this like sense of keeping your
47:26elevation that's very satisfying
47:29especially because as you get higher the
47:32tension kind of ramps up where it's like
47:33okay now I really need to make sure I
47:35make this jump because I've already
47:36gained so much height I don't want to
47:39lose it so then you make your jump and
47:41okay that bug very annoying I don't know
47:43what causes the player to sometimes lose
47:45all of their momentum but that's
47:46something that would be absolutely worth
47:47fixing [music] yeah when you like fail
47:50something die or lose progress and it
47:51feels like it's not your fault that's
47:52like the most frustrated a player can
47:54Oh, did someone ask what foot slide is?
47:56So, foot slide um there there are lots
47:59of that's one thing with game
48:00development terms is like the meanings
48:02can jump around a lot. You know, it's
48:03hard to find a consensus on what any one
48:05particular term means. But in my mind,
48:07foot slide is when when you're running,
48:09but the character's feet don't really
48:11match the speed you're going. And so, it
48:13feels like your feet are just like
48:14sliding as you're moving. It's like this
48:16could be considered foot slide because
48:17the character is the feet are moving
48:19even though they're not moving. But to
48:21me, that's not really what I mean by
48:22foot slide. foot slide is like if the
48:24character is playing this like huge
48:25sprinting animation or playing this
48:27walking animation and just like
48:28absolutely gliding across the floor. One
48:30thing that is a little bit unclear to me
48:32is it's cool to have to like jump to a
48:34platform with mist in it and throw this
48:36as you're jumping to land in a safe
48:37zone. Like that's pretty cool, but the
48:39idea didn't really get expanded much
48:41more beyond just clearing some smog so
48:43that you can jump into the smog, right?
48:45It's like I have this light potion that
48:46protects me, but I don't really use it
48:48for all that much. I use it to clear the
48:50smog around a pad I want to jump to.
48:52Okay, cool. Now I can jump there or I'm
48:54gonna land in smog. I throw it so I I
48:55don't take damage. That's basically all
48:57it was, right? But I feel like there's
49:00lots of ways you can use this sort of
49:01like protection zone, right? You it can
49:03be a timing thing where there's like a
49:05smog cannon that shoots through on a
49:07timer and you put this down so that you
49:08can run through it when the timer comes
49:10or you need to stand on a moving
49:11platform so you have to time these and
49:13there's like stuff shooting at you from
49:14multiple directions so you block them
49:16off or um just like any different way
49:19you can make the player think about
49:20their tool set. It's like a tool is
49:23satisfying to use when there are a lot
49:25of different vectors for using it and
49:26you get to figure out the way you want
49:28to use it, right? But this only really
49:31has the one way to use it. It's like
49:33even with the bouncing goo, right? This
49:35has the obvious way of using it where
49:37you throw it down, you jump down onto
49:38it, boom, you bounce, and now you can
49:40keep your elevation. But it also has a
49:41use case of you just throw it in front
49:43of yourself to get a big bounce. I don't
49:44know why that bounced me so high, but
49:46where you just throw it down where you
49:47get a big bounce for yourself, right?
49:48So, even for the bouncing goo, instantly
49:50I can see two cool ways to use it. And
49:52immediately I identified enjoying the uh
49:55the like self bounce where I was like,
49:57you know, who would jump when you can
49:58just like bounce yourself with the goo,
50:00right? And like that is very satisfying
50:02to me. Thinking this through and doing
50:04like that is so much more satisfying
50:06than, you know, just getting like a
50:08super jump. Um, and so I think that like
50:11you need to think in terms of that sort
50:12of design with like the different stuff
50:14you can do using your light potion. What
50:16else can it give you? Right? Maybe there
50:19are doors that open while there's like a
50:21light on a switch, right? So, you have
50:23to like throw through a goal and then
50:25make it through the jump before the door
50:26closes, like before your potion runs
50:28out, you know? I think that that's like
50:29a pretty clear one, you know, giving
50:30more uses for the potion and making it
50:32feel more uh multi-dimensional so that
50:34you can get more satisfaction out of
50:35using it. I think on a similar note, the
50:37goblins like they worked pretty well,
50:39but it was it was a little bit pnicity
50:41to like, all right, come on, throw it at
50:42me now, and then they throw it. Um, I
50:44wonder if maybe it could be something
50:46that you activate with your potions
50:47where it's like you throw something at
50:48the goblin so they throw it at you, like
50:50you get their attention. That would make
50:51it feel a little bit more like I was in
50:54control of what's happening. Um, overall
50:55I thought the goblins worked pretty
50:57well, but they could be enhanced to be
50:59even more fun from a design perspective.
51:01I think that actually their level design
51:02did a great job guiding me along the
51:04path I was supposed to follow. These
51:06cauldrons work as a great breadcrumb,
51:07right? I see the cauldron. I know that's
51:09where I need to go next. So, uh, yeah,
51:11really, really fun game. really great
51:13job. And yeah, I think that you could
51:15totally make a 3D platformer built
51:17around this sort of like alchemical guy
51:19that throws his potions and uses those
51:21to do his platforming. I think it would
51:22work great. A lot of people were in chat
51:24saying that some of the mechanics
51:25reminded them of Portal 2, which is I
51:27mean, Portal 2 is a fantastic game. So,
51:29if if anything, that's a really good
51:30sign for the quality of the game. Um,
51:32but yeah, great job. Great job.
51:35We have one mistake by Lizard Light, the
51:39community award winner of the Shovel
51:41Jam. So, we've got a very special entry
51:43right here. One mistake. Press enter.
51:45Got it.
51:48Uh, okay. I aim my jumps.
51:53Ah, I have like two jumps. Jump in a
51:56direction while aiming down to perform a
51:58small jump. Dude, I love the way the
52:01background the the clouds look in the
52:02background. That is that is juicy. The
52:05clouds are crunchy, but they work well.
52:07Yeah, the the crunchy vibe to the clouds
52:08is nice. Honestly, it's like giving them
52:11an like a cloud-like vibe, if you know
52:13what I mean,
52:16because clouds in the sky aren't like,
52:18you know, perfectly outlined. So, the
52:21the way the game works is you get two
52:22jumps and when you start your momentum,
52:24you keep going in that direction,
52:27but you can jump off the ground to
52:30cancel your momentum.
52:34Nice.
52:37Nice. Wow. The controls are so good. I
52:41really want to go in there. [music] If
52:42you hit the ground too hard, you won't
52:43be able to jump until you stop moving.
52:44Oh, okay. Yo, look at that shadow.
52:48That's so nice. The my player character
52:50is casting a shadow based on the sun in
52:51the background there. What is that level
52:53of polish lizard like in a week? You're
52:56crazy. This game looks fabulous. Yeah.
52:59And like one of the things that makes
53:00the game look so good is like the amount
53:02of polishing details. the shadow that
53:05the the box casts based on the sun,
53:07these little animations that the box has
53:09as it moves, the particles that shoot up
53:11as it rolls. It's like when you really
53:13look at the individual elements, like if
53:14you just stop moving and look at the
53:15screen, there aren't that many colors
53:16here. The main character is like a box
53:18that's essentially a 3x3 pixel grid,
53:20right? But the individual elements
53:23themselves aren't complicated [music] to
53:24make, right? It's like the tile, the
53:26grass tiles, it's the same tile
53:27everywhere. Uh and then the background
53:29tiles are like a one single color. um
53:32[music] you know it's just the shadow.
53:34Uh but like that's a great use of
53:36values, right? It's like you know
53:37exactly where the platforms are. They're
53:39just a flat color and second they are
53:42the value is much is a lot more faded
53:44out. So they are clearly in the
53:46background. Then you have some crunchy
53:47clouds moving in the background and
53:49suddenly when you put everything
53:51together the game looks amazing even
53:53though the individual elements aren't
53:54that complicated. Everything in it is
53:56really really well done which makes it
53:58feel so visually nice. Even though it's
54:00very simple, it's like I feel like if
54:02you're watching this and you're like a
54:03beginner developer or you think you're
54:05not that good at art, like Lizardike
54:07should be your inspiration because this
54:09guy is incredible when it comes to
54:13making a game look good through simple
54:15elements that are like polished
54:17perfectly. They're doing a lot with a
54:19little. You don't need to make that many
54:20assets to set up the scene. You just
54:22have to really think about what are all
54:24your different elements doing. Do you
54:26think 2D pixel art or 3D modeling is
54:28more difficult? Um h
54:32the actual 3D modeling I would say is
54:34harder. I'd say pixel art animation I
54:37think is harder than um than 3D
54:40animation at least for like simple
54:41character animations, right? I'd say um
54:44pixel art animations like handdrawn
54:46frame by frame and 2D handdrawn frame by
54:48frame animations are tough. Um whereas
54:503D like for a rigged character animating
54:52those has always felt fairly easy to me.
54:54So I think that's where like two of the
54:55big difficulties go. Every medium has
54:57their own individual challenges. Uh, so
54:59I think like the difficulty conversation
55:01is like not that relevant. Like having
55:04worked in all the mediums, you know,
55:06Halo Infinite is like a first-p person
55:073D game and then I did like a low poly
55:103D Unity game.
55:14See, they all have their own
55:15difficulties. No,
55:20that looks like it's some kind of binary
55:21decode. Luckily, I played Biscuit
55:23Dungeon on stream, so at this point
55:25nothing else can get to me.
55:28Come on. Just keep going. Just keep
55:30going. It actually doesn't matter. Just
55:32keep going.
55:43[screaming]
55:44WHOA. LET'S GO. I'M THE BISCUIT MASTER.
55:48I Yeah, sure. Whatever. Whatever, man.
55:52[laughter] No.
55:54Oh. Oh, if you fall for a long distance,
55:56you explode. Okay. Well, well, well,
55:58well. Did I lose the music?
56:01I've lost my music privileges. Chat
56:04quick. Make music to fill the void. All
56:05right, everyone. Start singing to
56:06yourself. What you got for me, lizard?
56:08One mistake and it's all gone. Well, you
56:10hate to see that sign when you're so
56:11high up, don't you?
56:14Pretty big fall, don't you think? Nah, I
56:16would simply not fall. The sign of risk.
56:20Now, this is a very effective lizardike.
56:24Uh,
56:29no. Because they're worth it. We do
56:32things because they we can. Oh,
56:34Kill me.
56:36Nope. That was wrong.
56:48[laughter]
56:49You actually did it. You've reached the
56:51sign of risk. Now go back. We don't do
56:53things because we're easy. We do things
56:55because they're worth doing. Imagine if
56:57it was blank. Actually,
57:00no.
57:02[laughter]
57:03All right. But we got the sign of risk.
57:05So now we don't need to do that anymore.
57:06Nice. Okay.
57:11[laughter]
57:12I see what you're doing here.
57:18I think you're trying to train me to
57:19when I see one of these cog wheels, I uh
57:22I spam jumping and then you're going to
57:24use that tendency to punish me later.
57:34Remember, don't spam cog wheels.
57:37Don't do it.
57:46movement. What do you think of the
57:48difficulty so far? Oh, I think it's
57:49really good. It's like Lizard like is
57:51pretending like this is a rage game, but
57:53a lot of the design choices are like
57:55look how hard it would be to actually
57:57fall from this part right here.
58:00It's definitely possible, but there's a
58:02lot of protection built in. At least on
58:04the right side, you know, where the side
58:06where you're making this difficult jump
58:08off of this cog wheel is pretty
58:09protected.
58:14>> [laughter]
58:15>> How many times I fail on this part? Like
58:16two or three, I think.
58:20Well, now I need to get up there.
58:24Close one.
58:26Nice. Okay. All right. Sorry, I got a
58:29little bit locked in. Sort of forgot I
58:30was streaming. Dude, what is that jump?
58:32Oh my gosh. Okay, I see it. I see the
58:34angle. We back up.
58:38We slide back a little bit.
58:41No. Okay, let's go.
58:48Okay, these jumps are getting tight.
58:51Okay,
58:54maybe I'm crazy. I don't think I can
58:55make that with a regular jump. I think I
58:56should do this.
59:01Nice. Furthest we've been.
59:08I'm sorry. Oh no.
59:13You hate to see a message that says I'm
59:14sorry after you get past the difficult
59:16part. Not quite. Need is reaction time
59:19to jump as soon as I hit that. Yeah.
59:20[laughter]
59:22Hey, what is this? What is this part
59:25right here? I need some explanation. Oh,
59:26but I got the idea.
59:40Let's go.
59:43All right.
59:45Got to be careful with this.
59:50Okay.
59:53Nice.
1:00:01Ride this.
1:00:07Okay.
1:00:14Oh, there's another another mechanic I'm
1:00:17not familiar with. Let's [sighs] go.
1:00:20That makes sense.
1:00:22No.
1:00:24Okay. Recovery. I I didn't do my micro
1:00:27adjustment. I did big hop. Okay.
1:00:42Okay.
1:00:48Can I ride that thing up? Maybe. But it
1:00:50looks dangerous. But the right side
1:00:52looks dangerous, too. So, which danger
1:00:54do I prefer?
1:01:02This way. I said that way. Okay. Whoever
1:01:05put you here clearly doesn't make any
1:01:07logical sense. Whoever put me here
1:01:09doesn't make logical sense. But I put me
1:01:12here,
1:01:17bro. What is this? [laughter]
1:01:20Okay, I need to push the top of that
1:01:21really hard. I think lore. Yeah, I think
1:01:24so.
1:01:29Really takes a double punch to get those
1:01:31guys moving.
1:01:36Okay,
1:01:44bro. What is this ladder?
1:02:02We're locked in.
1:02:06Okay,
1:02:11that little micro adjustment there felt
1:02:13very dangerous, but we get it done. We
1:02:14get it done. Okay. Will he ever gain
1:02:16music rights back? [laughter]
1:02:18True.
1:02:23No. No.
1:02:25Uhoh. I don't have my jumps back.
1:02:28Okay.
1:02:31That could have been really bad.
1:02:33>> 15 minutes later.
1:02:39>> You're really close now, but there's
1:02:40something I've been meaning to tell you.
1:02:42What is it?
1:02:44You don't win when you reach the top.
1:02:45You never do. The game just resets and
1:02:46you get nothing out of that. I'll get a
1:02:48sense of pride and accomplishment. You
1:02:50know,
1:02:56I was hoping you'd understand what I
1:02:58meant, so I created this tunnel for you.
1:03:04A choice.
1:03:09If you jump down here, I'll give you a
1:03:10crown and you'll be remembered as the
1:03:12king of this deteriorated world. But if
1:03:14you continue up this path, the game will
1:03:15reset. We're resetting, baby.
1:03:20I can't really direct you or blame you
1:03:21since I was never really here. You're
1:03:22just reading a bunch of scribbled
1:03:23letters. Well, who left the letters,
1:03:25bro? I was once sorry, too.
1:03:31I think that's the highest block.
1:03:34The end.
1:03:36All right. And we reset.
1:03:39Nice
1:03:40peak. [laughter] Obviously, incredibly
1:03:42well-designed game as far as feedback
1:03:44goes. I almost feel like there's no need
1:03:47to even give feedback to Lizlike because
1:03:49this game is pretty incredible as it is.
1:03:52Um,
1:03:54the mechanics feel great. Everything's
1:03:55incredibly welldesigned. Like the level
1:03:57design is like extremely good. All the
1:04:01polish is really good. I actually think
1:04:02the main feedback I would have for
1:04:04playing this game is that if you are a
1:04:08new developer, right, if you're not that
1:04:09accustomed to pixel art and like your
1:04:12pixel art is still very rudimentary, if
1:04:13you're still getting started on this
1:04:15whole like game development journey,
1:04:17what I would recommend is you play
1:04:19Lizard Likes games and you study them.
1:04:21[laughter]
1:04:21you should be studying all of the
1:04:23decisions that this guy made because
1:04:27this game is incredibly well-designed
1:04:29and like we said at the beginning that
1:04:31this game is doing a whole lot with a
1:04:34little. Uh, and it's like
1:04:38figuring out how Blizzard was able to do
1:04:41so much with so little will help you
1:04:43tremendously in making your own games.
1:04:45If you're trying to like make your
1:04:46movement feel better, take a look at
1:04:47everything that's happening here. Like
1:04:49when you jump, look, there's like the
1:04:50little circle that plays. There's like
1:04:52instant feedback that lets you know
1:04:53you're hitting buttons. The shadow that
1:04:55dynamically moves as you're jumping
1:04:57makes all the action feel more
1:04:58impactful. The little like rotation on
1:05:00the character as it does these little
1:05:02micro adjustments is great. Look at the
1:05:03the way when I'm jumping on the tile
1:05:05sets that the tiles that don't have any
1:05:07grass, nothing happens, but then when
1:05:09you touch the grass, little bits of
1:05:10grass pop out. Little details like that
1:05:13go a long way to making your game feel
1:05:16polished. When you dash along this
1:05:19grassless tile, there isn't any grass.
1:05:21And also, there's no sound effect. If
1:05:23you listen,
1:05:26I'm I'm just gliding, right? It's just
1:05:28nice and slidy. But when I slide along
1:05:30the grass, listen.
1:05:35You hear that? There's a little sound
1:05:37effect of the grass getting like ripped
1:05:39up by me sliding along it, right? So,
1:05:41that makes it feel incredibly juicy. And
1:05:43then also, I feel like one underrated
1:05:45thing that Lizard Light did that's an
1:05:47incredible tool is paying close
1:05:49attention to the values of your
1:05:50background. It's like, look how his
1:05:52background is one color. Even with such
1:05:55a limited color palette on his
1:05:56background, it feels so good. It's a
1:05:58very common thing when you're making
1:06:00your art in the beginning to make
1:06:02everything super detailed, right? But
1:06:04you don't need your background to be
1:06:05detailed. And in some places, having
1:06:07your background be detailed can be
1:06:08distracting. It makes it like visually
1:06:10cluttered. But that's another thing
1:06:12that's great about the design is like
1:06:13the level design is so good and you can
1:06:15tell exactly where you're allowed to
1:06:16jump to to take a lesson directly from
1:06:18Celeste. When you run out of jumps, you
1:06:20turn red. That's so nice for the player.
1:06:22Like I know that I'm cooked there.
1:06:23[laughter]
1:06:24Let's fall from here if I if I can pull
1:06:27it off.
1:06:29Like there
1:06:32you turn red. The music like slows down
1:06:34and stops. There's like a some
1:06:37distortion filter on it. It's like it
1:06:39really makes you feel the impact of
1:06:41falling. It feels like I'm being
1:06:42punished for my mistake and it's being
1:06:44punished in an interesting way because
1:06:45all I did was lose the music, right? But
1:06:47it makes it feel way tenser, right? And
1:06:49it's like you by adding the tension to
1:06:51like getting through an area. It's like
1:06:53I've already beat this area, right? So
1:06:54going through it again, it's going to
1:06:55feel less tense. It's going to make me
1:06:56feel like, oh, let me just get through
1:06:57it. But by cutting out the music, it
1:06:59feels much nicer, right? It feels like,
1:07:01oh man, there's like a lot of tension
1:07:02here. Can I make it back up to where I
1:07:03got before? And you get your music back.
1:07:06It's like, "Oh, I'm getting rewarded for
1:07:08making it back up." You know, I don't
1:07:10need to worry anymore. What you could
1:07:11even do is lean into that even further.
1:07:14Is like when you fall, you take the
1:07:15damage. It can like um cut out your
1:07:17music and you could even like vignette
1:07:19to like mess up the screen's vision a
1:07:21little bit. You could make your like
1:07:23your jump counter get like a little
1:07:24messed up. Like you could look damaged.
1:07:26Little details like that go a long way.
1:07:28So, when I say what you should do if
1:07:30you're a new developer, study these
1:07:31games. That's what I mean. play through
1:07:33it and like look at all the decisions
1:07:34that were made and what are all the
1:07:35little details that make something good.
1:07:38Oh, also this is another great thing to
1:07:40to talk about. If this sign is just
1:07:42there, right? Imagine it doesn't say the
1:07:44sign of risk here. Imagine it's just a
1:07:46sign over there. How incentivized am I
1:07:49as a player to try to grab it? I mean, I
1:07:51want to read the sign, but it looks
1:07:52tough. So, I might be like, "Ah, that
1:07:53sign's not worth it." But by just
1:07:55scribbling the sign of risk [laughter]
1:07:59on the tiles here, suddenly you're
1:08:01challenging the player. You know they're
1:08:03going to read that and think, "Well, I
1:08:05can I can read that sign." Someone in
1:08:07chat just pointed out like the jump
1:08:09counter doesn't follow you strictly. It
1:08:11like tween behind you a little bit. And
1:08:13that's like another great detail.
1:08:14Something I didn't even really pay that
1:08:15much attention to or notice, but it does
1:08:17make it feel way more reactive in like a
1:08:19good way, you know? And also the way the
1:08:20the background like changes in color as
1:08:22you keep going up is a great detail so
1:08:25that the atmosphere is also reflecting
1:08:27the fact that it's getting more
1:08:28difficult. Uh but yeah, so that would be
1:08:30my advice to anyone watching. And to
1:08:31Lizardike, my only feedback for you on
1:08:33this game is that uh you could put it on
1:08:36Steam. You could either put it as is on
1:08:38Steam for $5 or you could add like a
1:08:40couple more levels that like are harder
1:08:43than this first one so that the game
1:08:44like has a couple hours of length like
1:08:46so that's like four or five hours. But I
1:08:48mean you you made something really sick
1:08:49here. And the fact that you did in 7
1:08:50days is crazy. If you spent a full month
1:08:52on this game, uh men made a full release
1:08:54for Steam. I I think it could get some
1:08:55traction for sure.
1:08:58We got Yurava Pathforggers. First story,
1:09:00a call to arms. The Naga cult is getting
1:09:02bold with their newfound army. A
1:09:03campaign to win against them has started
1:09:04to join the hunt. Okay. Naga cult
1:09:07ritualist. You were right about this
1:09:08one. Lord Eula slaughtered 14 pilgrims
1:09:10in his last skirmish all on its own.
1:09:24I can show you the world. Got attack. We
1:09:27got dodge. We can swap our enchantment.
1:09:30Use your three weapons now. My three
1:09:32weapons. Oh, it's not just attack. Nice.
1:09:36Okay, another one. No matter. I'll take
1:09:38your corpse straight to our alchemist as
1:09:40well.
1:09:42Boom. Boom.
1:09:46Oh, okay. I don't think I successfully
1:09:48dodged that.
1:09:52Gaming.
1:09:57Nice.
1:10:01Carry the red projectiles.
1:10:05Nice. Oh, those attacks come out a
1:10:07little fast, huh?
1:10:12his moves are incredible, some may say.
1:10:21Okay,
1:10:26not doing super meaningful damage, but
1:10:31that attack that cast time is a little
1:10:33bit too long.
1:10:38I think I did not parry that correctly.
1:10:41I think I'm going to die actually.
1:10:44Oh, nice. We do that one at least.
1:10:59Okay, close one.
1:11:03Oh, and I'm dead. All right, let's try
1:11:05again. Let's try again. Monstrous
1:11:07mindless immune to life drain buildup. I
1:11:09don't know what that means exactly, but
1:11:15doing some serious damage.
1:11:26Am I hurting this thing? I don't know.
1:11:29Uhoh. Laser time.
1:11:39Okay,
1:11:46maybe I shouldn't be shooting the mask,
1:11:48you know.
1:11:51Maybe that's meant to block for the main
1:11:53guy. I can put that on him. Yeah, take
1:11:55that on for size, bro.
1:11:59Uh-oh, he's doing something. Can I parry
1:12:02this? Nope. The answer to that is no, I
1:12:05cannot. Perfect.
1:12:14No contact damage there. It's nice.
1:12:20All right,
1:12:23he's doing something. Take one of these.
1:12:27Nice.
1:12:36Oh, hey. Is that Is that my bud? Is he
1:12:38here to help me? Uh-oh.
1:12:42Wait. Okay, that didn't work.
1:12:45Pick one of these.
1:12:48Let's go. Let's go.
1:12:56I don't mind the mask being off center
1:12:57here. I saw the chat say chap the mask
1:12:59off center. I don't mind that if it like
1:13:01flipped based on the direction he was
1:13:02going so it looked like he was actually
1:13:04wearing it but
1:13:09since it's static it is a little
1:13:13nice. I don't know what my friend is
1:13:15doing but I appreciate him.
1:13:17Get out of the burst zone.
1:13:20Get one of these in here.
1:13:23Nice. I just need him to not do the like
1:13:27homing attack because that's the one I
1:13:28don't know how to dodge really.
1:13:33Go.
1:13:34Nice. Okay, this one's not too bad.
1:13:40One of these out there.
1:13:49Is the camera reentering to where he's
1:13:51going to appear? I feel like there's a
1:13:53sense of where he's going to be. Maybe
1:13:55it's just like reentering to me once
1:13:56he's gone.
1:14:00I would need to like look at that in
1:14:01depth to tell if it's if it's really
1:14:03happening or if I'm losing it.
1:14:07Maybe it is.
1:14:12Watch the camera. Okay. Maybe it's just
1:14:14reentering to me.
1:14:17All right, we're on health bar number
1:14:18two, ladies and g
1:14:55Okay. Can I like buy some equipment to
1:14:57deal more damage or something? Chalk
1:14:59blocks projectiles or sprays goo.
1:15:02[laughter] Well, I don't know what the
1:15:03goo is, so I'll keep the projectile
1:15:05blocking. Uses special using special
1:15:07gains power guts build up. I don't know
1:15:09what that means. Heals me and cleanses
1:15:10you from debuffs. That's probably good.
1:15:12The heal seems nice. Next guy, the
1:15:14jarant bog. Go. The ritual was a
1:15:17success. Our task is done. Let this naga
1:15:20deal with the intruders. Let's go. He's
1:15:21kind of hitting that pose though. Oh,
1:15:27look at my new projectile. Let's go.
1:15:32Take one of these. Oh, never mind. He
1:15:34doesn't want to take one of those.
1:15:37Ah! Ow! Well,
1:15:43take one of these. And maybe one of
1:15:45these.
1:15:55Nice. All right. And we're out of mana,
1:15:58so let that charge back up, I suppose.
1:16:08I'm out of here.
1:16:20All right.
1:16:23Nope. Ah. Ah. Saw it a little bit too
1:16:27late. Take one of these.
1:16:33That croissant. The croissant is
1:16:35attacking me. [laughter]
1:16:38Oh, I think I took a big hit there.
1:16:41Beware of the croissant, dude.
1:16:44Can I break the croissant?
1:16:48Seems like the answer might be no.
1:16:51Get out of here, croissant.
1:16:55Ah, the croissant has like a gravity
1:16:57pulling effect on it. Brutal.
1:17:04Ow.
1:17:07I don't even know if I can break it, but
1:17:10I sure would like to.
1:17:12I think I can also parry the
1:17:14projectiles, right? Like that might be
1:17:15the the solution.
1:17:18Good.
1:17:29Okay.
1:17:34All right. Good parry. Good parry.
1:17:40Take one of these.
1:17:49Nice.
1:17:52No mana cuz I did a lot of parries.
1:18:08Wrong button, I guess. Thought it was.
1:18:11Oh
1:18:14Well, that came out of nowhere.
1:18:18Take a heal.
1:18:28Well, I'd say that attack might be a
1:18:30little bit too fast. [laughter]
1:18:33Uh, nope. Don't want to fight that one.
1:18:34That guy again. So, I'll go to this one.
1:18:36No, not monstrous mindless again. No,
1:18:38anyone but this guy, please.
1:18:42Okay. Okay. Our scouts spotted the
1:18:43petite legan of yours winning against
1:18:45those path forwarders with more fire
1:18:46than our bravest tribesmen.
1:18:56Nice. I finished the demo. Let's go.
1:18:58With the demo finished, let us think
1:19:00critically about this game and provide
1:19:02some feedback. Okay, so obviously why
1:19:03sorting [laughter]
1:19:05obviously why sorting these sprites
1:19:06would be good because I am currently uh
1:19:09standing on top of them. Um, and in case
1:19:11you're unfamiliar, Y sorting just means
1:19:12like when I'm behind him on the Yaxis, I
1:19:16actually show up behind him. Although,
1:19:18it does look like it's Y sorting
1:19:19properly now. So, maybe that was just a
1:19:20brief bug. So, the first thing that
1:19:21comes to mind is like the story
1:19:22elements. There was a lot of expository
1:19:26like info dumping with lots of character
1:19:27names, lots of factions, lots of tribes
1:19:29and stuff like right at the beginning of
1:19:31the game. Like lots of stuff to just
1:19:32read through which I generally would
1:19:35advise against. I think having some
1:19:38story to the game is good, but you
1:19:40introduced it before I, as a player, had
1:19:43a chance to care about it, if you see
1:19:44what I mean. You know, I didn't know who
1:19:46any of the tribes were. I didn't know
1:19:47what was being talked about. I didn't
1:19:49have any context for the story that I
1:19:50was reading through. So, I was just like
1:19:52reading words that I didn't really have
1:19:53any attachment with, right? You need to
1:19:55get buyin from the player to care about
1:19:57the story, right? And you do that
1:19:59through the gameplay, right? You get the
1:20:00player to care about the story because
1:20:02they're a part of it. It's like you put
1:20:03the player in a situation where they
1:20:05want to save people. They want to help.
1:20:07Like, you know, they see someone getting
1:20:08attacked and they fight the monster to
1:20:10save them. Uh they get attacked and some
1:20:12people help them. Then they want to help
1:20:13the people back, right? Your goal is to
1:20:14make the player want to care about the
1:20:16story rather than just having them read
1:20:17a bunch of stuff before they play the
1:20:18game. The current version, there's just
1:20:21too much, right? And then after I fought
1:20:23the first guy and died, I was like, "All
1:20:25right, I want to go fight another guy. I
1:20:26want to I want to give the the gameplay
1:20:28another shot, right? I want to redeem
1:20:29myself. I want to try stuff out." And
1:20:31instantly I had to read more dialogue
1:20:33which like it it breaks the flow state
1:20:36that you are trying so hard to achieve.
1:20:38Right? Your goal with a game like this,
1:20:39it's a boss rush like rogikey type
1:20:41thing, right? So your goal is for when
1:20:43the player dies or beats a boss for
1:20:45their first thought to be I want to
1:20:46fight another boss. I want to do it
1:20:48again. Either I want to get another win,
1:20:49earn more stuff or I lost, I want to go
1:20:51fight him again and win, right? I want
1:20:53to prove myself. But instead, I had to
1:20:55read a bunch of dialogue. And by the
1:20:56time I got through the story stuff and
1:20:58got to this scene, that drive to go like
1:21:00rematch him and beat him this time was
1:21:02kind of gone. So that's like something
1:21:04you really really want to pay close
1:21:06attention to. Make sure you're
1:21:07preserving your player's flow state,
1:21:09your player's desire to continue
1:21:10fighting, continue playing the game. I
1:21:12think what you'll probably want to do
1:21:13for the demo is show some restraint on
1:21:15the the dialogue here and get into the
1:21:16action quicker. Then on the concept of
1:21:19the action, I think the first and most
1:21:21obvious thing that probably everyone
1:21:22watching realized is that boss had way
1:21:26too much HP. I fought that guy for way
1:21:29too long. I think you can have boss
1:21:32fights that last a long time, but not
1:21:34for the first like major boss of the
1:21:36game. Like there was a boss before that,
1:21:37but he felt very much like a tutorial.
1:21:39And um and also it seems like it was
1:21:41supposed to be a scripted boss. Or maybe
1:21:42I'm just bad. Either way, what you want
1:21:44to think about when you're doing these
1:21:45early boss fights in the early levels of
1:21:47your gameplay is give the player lots of
1:21:50early wins. You want to hit them with
1:21:51the rewards for playing the game early
1:21:54on. You can even do a couple like weaker
1:21:56enemies or weaker bosses before one like
1:21:57more challenging boss so that it like
1:21:59has that sort of cadence of like a a
1:22:01quicker win, a quicker win, then a
1:22:02really tough satisfying win, and then
1:22:04you're hooked. Right. Right. You've
1:22:05gotten several good wins and you've
1:22:07fought one really tough guy. I think
1:22:08that's something that you definitely
1:22:10want to avoid though is the super long,
1:22:13super tanky boss fight. Maybe there were
1:22:16ways for me to like use my spells more
1:22:17efficiently to deal more damage, but I
1:22:20don't know what they are. I just started
1:22:21the game, right? And so you want to
1:22:23avoid a situation where your player
1:22:25doesn't know how to deal damage more
1:22:26efficiently and they feel like they're
1:22:27doing their damage as efficiently as
1:22:28they can and it's just not even close to
1:22:30working. That's a big one. And then on
1:22:32the second boss fight, another piece of
1:22:34balance uh feedback for you is you want
1:22:37the uh attacks the boss has to be
1:22:40reactable, right? Um it's like if I
1:22:42pulled up that fight in like Premiere, I
1:22:45would time the amount of time it took
1:22:48before I could even visually see the
1:22:50boss's attack and it hit me. See how
1:22:52long that was? And compare that to, you
1:22:54know, your average human reaction time.
1:23:11because my reaction time is about 200 to
1:23:14250 milliseconds. By the time I visually
1:23:17comprehended there was an attack coming
1:23:18at me, it it had already hit me. um you
1:23:20want to make especially for the second
1:23:22major boss fight in the game, the second
1:23:24fight you really do that even if they
1:23:26have one attack that is hard to dodge,
1:23:27it's at least like it's at least
1:23:29comprehensible. One thing that I
1:23:30definitely felt in that fight was I
1:23:32wasn't under a lot of threat most of the
1:23:35time there were like small bursts of
1:23:36threat in between the small bursts of
1:23:39threat uh it was just like doing this
1:23:41you know so shoot him shoot him shoot
1:23:42him until I lose all my mana maybe run
1:23:44up and hit him with one of these and do
1:23:46like this and then maybe run up and do
1:23:47one of these which isn't the like the
1:23:49most engaging gameplay pattern right I
1:23:51feel like with a game like this the
1:23:53gameplay pattern that's most interesting
1:23:54for a player is to be balancing dodging
1:23:56stuff while dealing damage you know it's
1:23:58like dodging dodging dodging shooting,
1:24:00but you've sort of backed yourself into
1:24:02a bit of a corner here because you can't
1:24:04move while you're attacking. Like I get
1:24:05locked into this and the the animation
1:24:07is quite long actually between shots.
1:24:09You're locked in place for a while. Say
1:24:10with a dodge, when you land from this
1:24:12dodge, you're locked in place for quite
1:24:13a bit. And because of that, I can't
1:24:16really like throw this out and then do
1:24:18like spot dodges, right? I can't twitch
1:24:20react to the boss's attacks while I'm in
1:24:22this animation, which meant, especially
1:24:24against the really tanky guy, if I was
1:24:26doing this and then he decided to laser,
1:24:28by the time I saw the laser come out, I
1:24:30didn't I no longer had enough time to
1:24:31actually dodge it, which encourages your
1:24:34player to have a much more conservative
1:24:37play style. They will go for attacks in
1:24:40less open windows because if the boss
1:24:42starts an attack, they need to be free
1:24:44to dodge. So, you'll throw a couple of
1:24:45these out, then get ready to dodge. And
1:24:47unless they know the boss's like
1:24:49specific timers, which is also not that
1:24:52fun, right? If you know the boss waits
1:24:53for exactly 4 seconds before he starts
1:24:55throwing something, so you can do this
1:24:56for this long to me, I don't I don't
1:24:58enjoy that play pattern as much. Seeing
1:24:59the wind up and reacting to it, that's
1:25:01way more interesting to me. Um, but
1:25:03because I can't move during my attack
1:25:05and I'm locked into these long
1:25:06animations, it encourages me to throw
1:25:08less of him out, right? And then also
1:25:10the play pattern for while he's doing
1:25:12his healing and charge is like really
1:25:13not that interesting. It's like he's I'm
1:25:15under no threat while he's doing that. I
1:25:16can just do this. So, I'm just waiting.
1:25:18And because I have my limited amount of
1:25:19mana, I like spend it all and then I
1:25:22just need to wait and regen it while his
1:25:24bar fills back up. Wait to get my mana
1:25:25back. Throw another one of these out
1:25:26there. Drain my mana again. It's not a
1:25:29very interesting way to fight a boss,
1:25:30right? Doing the same thing over and
1:25:32over again, waiting for the results. So,
1:25:33one thing you could experiment with is
1:25:35how does it feel if you let the player
1:25:37move while they're attacking, right? If
1:25:39this attack, if I can move while I'm
1:25:40throwing it, that will make so much of
1:25:42the stuff that the bosses do way easier
1:25:45to dodge. But when stuff is easier to
1:25:47dodge, you can throw more stuff at the
1:25:49player, right? Give me more agency to
1:25:51dodge attacks and react with Twitch.
1:25:53Give me more agency to play aggressively
1:25:55and then give me more stuff to deal with
1:25:58while playing aggressively. And right
1:26:00now, the game design does not support
1:26:02that aggressive play style. Uh, and in
1:26:04general, playing aggressively is more
1:26:06fun. Another thing which is a more minor
1:26:08feedback, but the ads that were floating
1:26:10on screen, the the croissant and the
1:26:12other like diamond guy, they were I
1:26:14think their movement pattern was a
1:26:15little bit like predefined. It didn't
1:26:17feel like it was reacting to me much as
1:26:18a player. So, it would end up in places
1:26:19where the the diamonds like was like
1:26:21right next to me as it fired. You might
1:26:22want to add some buffer to that so that
1:26:24the diamond is sort of trying to stay
1:26:26around the player and you can have some
1:26:28like distance on it, but make it so the
1:26:29ads are really feel like they're they're
1:26:31trying to take down the player rather
1:26:32than they just like exist on the screen.
1:26:34It's like a minor game feel thing, like
1:26:36changing the way that they move around
1:26:37the screen to react to the player rather
1:26:39than just being a set path, but it
1:26:40actually makes the combat feel way, way
1:26:42more dynamic. So, those are the things
1:26:45that I would try. The art looks great,
1:26:47the animations look great, the particle
1:26:48effects look great, and even like the
1:26:49menu design. I think this looks this
1:26:50looks really nice. You can apply some of
1:26:52those uh game design feedback to try to
1:26:54make the boss fights more engaging and
1:26:56more more fun. Um, it's easy to give
1:26:58in-depth feedback on the individual
1:27:00pieces of game design because you have
1:27:01like a nice basis here to continue to
1:27:03grow from. So, I I would just keep
1:27:05working on that. So, uh, great job.

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