itch.io

I think you have a really cool core mechanic in this one! Having each type be a different attack type worked really well. The design of the game gave me a lot of nice Binding of Isaac vibes. Here are some things to consider if you'd like to improve it:

1.  Make the first few levels easier. This is an issue that I think lot of people run into. You play your game a lot when making it and it becomes easy to you. So you crank up the difficulty to make it fun again. This makes the game really tough for new players. Personally, I kept dying on the first level a lot and never progressed much. I think a good first step would be to have one enemy per room in all the first level rooms. Not only does it make the game easier, it also can let the player internalize the rock, paper scissors mechanic a bit better by having to deal with only one type of enemy at a time. 

2. Reduce the number of dead ends in levels / give more thinking time when entering a room. Consider entering the following room from the bottom:

Since enemies spawn in the center and immediately move towards you, you have to attack immediately. There isn't much time to pick a weapon or plan. I usually died in situations like this. I think the player needs more time to mentally process a room before the enemies attack. You can do this in a lot of ways, like by slowing enemies down, reducing the range of enemy attacks, reducing the range at which enemies attack you and/or giving the player more places to move to. I definitely enjoyed the more open rooms much more, since I was able to dodge better and escape from enemies when my mana was low. I think it's also good practice to spawn the enemies far away from the player. Another neat thing you could try is having enemies stop for a second before attacking so that the player can tell an attack is  about to happen. 

That said, I definitely enjoyed the game and I think you have some really neat ideas in there!

Nice attempt at making a platformer! The movement was nice and snappy and both enemy types were interesting. I think if you ever wanted to improve on the controls, the best thing to do would be to add some coyote time for jumps (I often fell into pits cause my jumps were a little bit  too late). I also found it odd that jumping on enemies doesn't make you bounce, especially since you bounce when you jump on the boss. I found the dash fun to use, but there weren't many places where it was necessary to rely on it so I didn't end up using it much throughout the game. That said, this seems like a good first exploration of the platformer genre!

I apologize for the super late reply! I've uploaded the track onto Soundcloud for listening: https://soundcloud.com/user-505251384/snapdragon-theme

By steam release, do you mean taking the current version and putting it on steam for free? Or do you mean updating the game and expanding it a bit and then releasing a paid version?

I'm hesitant to do the former since considering the cost of steam direct I'd net lose money. The donations I got on itch (which I super appreciate!) are unfortunately not enough right now to offset the cost of paying for steam direct.

That said, making a paid longer version is something I've been thinking about. So, if people would like to see that happen, I'd definitely consider that :).

Thank you for uploading a playthrough, it's really cool to see how people approach puzzles! Glad you found it relaxing :).

Thank you, I'm glad to hear you liked it! It's nice to hear it was both meditative and haunting , I tried my best to strike a nice balance :).

Oooh NUTS is super cool! I remember seeing a video on it on Kotaku and thinking that it's a super neat idea and lovely art style :). Can't wait to see the full version! 

I'll definitely look into the weird launching issue once I get access to a Mac I can test on. I'll also be sure to pass on the hi to Paolo ;)

Thank you! The game was made as part of Paolo Pedercini's Experimental Game Design class at CMU. Throughout the class we make about 6 prototypes and then flesh one of them out. The mechanic came from a theme of "Visual Gameplay". All in all, this game took about 2 - 3 months to make (most of the time was spent 3D modelling).  In terms of art, I just early on decided to have pink ground and a purple sky and the rest just came from making zones with fitting color palettes :). Hope you enjoy the game!

Thank you for letting me know! The zip should have the correct files now :). If possible, could you let me know if it works correctly? I don't have any Mac I can test it on right now so knowing for sure the build is not broken would be super helpful.

Thank you! Glad you liked it :). I'd like to flesh out the environmental storytelling in the game a bit, but I don't have any plans to expand out the gameplay right now. 

Best, 

Jan