River Race

I really like the subdued artstyle. Picking up speed in the river is fun. (Didn't even bother me there was no sound somehow, like silence fits the game.) I had a bit of a time adjusting to the controls, since my own game has some similarities but a completely different control-scheme.

Boosts are well balanced, in that you can shave off more than ten seconds if you go for them, but going out of your way to grab every one of them is not practical.

I assume that the hardest part (the enforced jump) is in the beginning so you can reset and/or need to learn how to boost? (Though it's possible to go over there without boosting!)

The ghost is a really nice touch!

A nice title screen and slightly more juice around the hi-scores would really tie this together.

this is very cool. I like the minimalist style, it works nicely here. I'm a bit niche but I'd really appreciate non arrow-key controls, i don't have any and it's hard for me to play games that require them and use the other keys like boost at the same time, but that's my fault not yours.

There's a good variety of obstacles in the river and leaping out of the water is fun. This would be a great alakajam tournament game

Great entry, lovely art style with great controls and physics.
Kept me entertained for a while trying to lower my time!

Good game, very fun and engaging. The simple, minimalist graphics are quite pleasant and consistent. Although there was not sound, that didn't take away from the gameplay. Its unfortunate that there is no sound though as solid sound design would improve the game and make it feel more polished overall.

Well done. The control scheme was hard to get used to but eventually it became easier. I can see this one being a nice entry to try to speedrun in an Alakajam Tournament. Awesome art style and the feel of speed you get is terrific.

Beautiful, minimalist art style, with nice attention to detail on things like particles and the water surface.
Great level design, kept things interesting but is also learnable, which is critical for competing with oneself in such a way.
The ghost mechanic is really nice.
As others have mentioned, the control scheme felt off at the beginning (I would have expected steering mechanics rather than directional controls) but felt smooth once used to them.

I think there is a type of person to which this game will be very appealing. I'm not that person, but I think the game is pretty great regardless. The minimalist art style reminds me of Vib-Ribbon (another one of those games that I like conceptually, but just weren't for me) and it works very well here, much better than e.g. plain coloured polygons would have.

Sound would have been nice, but if you spent that time polishing the controls, physics and level layout, then that was time well spent indeed.

Great job on this one! The artstyle is awesome and the gameplay feels natural. Really nothing much to improve here. I could imagine that this would play very well with the stick of a controller, as you are not limited to 8 directions. Other than that, this would play well on a phone or in an Alakajam Tournament.