Trapy Jumpy

Here are my thoughts:

1. Would fit the hyper-casual theme better if it was a one-button game. So for this your player would always move forwards and you would just control when you jump. Would change a little but would keep the same platforming, trap dodging them.

2. I think it should start harder. These games you want to keep replaying over and over to get a high score are more fun if there isn't a boring slow period at the start. You should die quickly on your first few attempts then get further as your skill increases.

3. As I just said, you want to play over and over to get a high score. Very addicitve little game, it's great!

4. You should store high score so you can see your previous best.

5. I think it would be better if the player started on a platform in the middle of the screen. Can be a bit frustrating trying to get upwards sometimes and I think that would be better as a punishment to people for falling down.

6. I like the coin multiplier but it makes the score a bit crazy. Mayba have the coins fill up a bar that takes you to the next level of multiplier so that it gets harder and harder to reach the higher multipliers. It's a good mechanic though, it's just that in my high score I didn't get far at all I just got lucky and found lots of coins.

7. The visuals are cool, perfect for a hyper casual game. I also like the music and sfx they are all well done.

Overall I think it's a good start for a hyper casual game that could be very good with some improvements. Definitely would suit mobile gaming if you tweaked it to a one-button game.

@Ztuu

Thanks for playing! And for the helpful comments.

I admit, I think I misunderstood the meaning of "Hyper-Casual" as I don't really play too many of those games. I agree with the one button aspect and I'll keep that in mind in future projects!

Like @Ztuu made a list I will stick with it for my review ;)

1. Sorry but I don't really agree with that. The mechanism are very simple and feels right for an hyper casual game
2. A little harder at the beginnig would be cool and some more plateforms at the start so you don't have to wait 5/6s that the game really start
3. It's addictive, good job ;)
4. Same here, Hight Score is great for casual game (ok for mine the hight score is reset if you close the game but I'll try to fix that ^^)
5. Started on a plateform can be cool but I don't feel like falling should be more of a punishment, there's already traps on the ground
6. I like a lot the coin multiplier. Why not filling up the bar to go to the next level. It's still feels right for me like that.
7. Thx a loot for the comment on the music, I forgot to put the sounds on the the first time and it's really good ;)
8. I would made the ground move like plateforms. It's really doesn't feels right having the player moving differently on the ground than on plateforms.

For a mobile version you could check this tuto to keep your characters controls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp2PiFC9sSs

Overall good job for the game. With a little polish and better graphism that would be even better ;)

@Thrainsa

Hey! Thanks for playing, and for the link to that Mobile tutorial. I might look into turning it into an app!

I think from yours and Ztuu's comments I can see there's an issue with the pacing of how difficult it gets; something I can tweak for sure.

As for the coin multiplyer, I am a bit on the fence about it myself. I considered doing it in the way both of you described, in having the multiplyer increased based off of how many coins the player had collected, but the way I did it was to try and emphasize a risk vs reward kind of deal, that the multiplyer would disappear if the player didn't collect coins fast enough, forcing them to choose whether or not to play it safe or risk braving sets of traps to keep the multiplyer going.

In hindsight, it might have worked better if the difficulty from the beginning was much more difficult, but I'm still not sure.

Good sense of inertia makes you consider your movements, spinning blades of death coming at your face insist that you hurry up and decide what you're doing. Basic presentation but communicates very clearly to the player what is happening and how you're probably about to die. Good entry!

Minimalist graphics are all the rage, but I feel that this could use something more. Right now the traps are more visually interesting than all the rest together.

The multiplier effect is great and encourages taking risks. Same for the blue coins (diamonds?).

The jumping doesn't feel quite right. Maybe the "holding down space bar" period is too long, resulting in a sort of jetpack effect where you're clearly accelerating upwards after you've already left the ground.

I would personally like it if you could jump through platforms from below. No idea if it would make things too easy, but it would feel more fluid than being dragged backwards by a platform that you've hit your head on.

The bfxr sound effects are rather jarring compared to the lovely background music.

@thomastc

Fair points. I appreciate the constructive criticism!

I feel like I kinda struggled on the art style of the game. I was going for a minimalist look, but I feel that I might have neglected to add enough detail as a result.

I think you're right about the jumping. In early development I thought the same but opted to fix it later. I guess I pay tested it a little too much and got used to it.

And yes, the sound. In hindsight, a chiptune might have fit better with the over all sound theme, but I wasn't really thinking about it at the time. I'm not much of a musician though, so I worked with what I could find :(