Splash Candy

Interesting game so far!

The variety of abilities is interesting, and the effects and flying numbers make them all feel good to use.

I have a few comments on the main "dodge to refill" mechanic.
I like what you're going for, but as I advanced through the game, my playstyle became this: Use up the HP to attack a big group, then find an isolated enemy, use it to recharge HP, then go back into the big group and go ham. This made it feel like I was playing two games, an action one where I'm beating up lots of enemies, and another one where I need to time my dodge. I noticed that I was playing like this because in a big group, it's impossible for me to dodge without getting hit anyways.

I think my main issue is that I must find an isolated enemy to recharge, but at the same time being in the middle of a group and spamming abilities to get all the numbers is a highlight of the game. Also, dodging an isolated enemy is not difficult, meaning the game might as well just refill my HP when I'm out of combat for X seconds.

I'll suggest some things that I think will make the game more fun for me personally:

• Limit crowds of enemies. Maybe have screens have more platforms, and have each platform have a maximum of two or three enemies per platform (Like Maplestory)
• Make the boss fights play into you main mechanic, I'd have the boss on the screen with no (or few) other enemies, it has some attack pattern. The boss fight will need players to dodge the attacks and attack the boss. This way, the process of refilling will fit more organically into the gameplay, instead of requiring me to find an isolated enemy to refill.

I did complete the game, and I did enjoy it, but I think the levels and enemies should be designed in a way that makes the dodge-to-refill mechanic shine.

Good luck with your projects!

Interesting game, not a style I've played before, and I have to admit the controls were slightly confusing at first, although I feel like I got the hang of them by the Electric boss enemy.

The graphics are great - they're simple, look good, and make sense. The enemies have their own personalities which I like. The sound effects were good as well.

A bit of constructive feedback:

• I found the enemies respawned very quickly, which at times made it very hard, and at other times it was easy to farm coins and shards.
• What are coins used for? So far, I haven't found a use for them, and as some fixed spawns appear every time you die, it's easy to farm.
• The game crashed twice, the first time with no error message, the second time with a very confusing traceback. I lost my progress both times (2nd time was just as I almost defeated the Electric boss enemy).
• The tutorial did not explain the different attacks and how to move/double jump - I had to guess/watch the video and then guess in order to work out how to get jump up the steep cliff just after the first checkpoint.

In terms of experience, it was at first confusing, then engaging, then I realised if I just move left and right while mashing WASD (while fighting the boss) it was rather easy and I never died. I think the controls could do with tweaking slightly.

I think, with a bit more polish, and maybe a slightly more in-depth tutorial, this could be a very popular game, as it is, I found it fun once I had worked it out, but for the first 10 minutes I had very little clue as to what I was meant to be doing - I didn't even know you could double jump, so I got stuck trying to use jump+dodge to get up a platform.

Keep up the great work - I look forward to seeing how this develops!

@atayif
Thank you for your great feedback! The point you made about the dodge mechanic and what your playstyle came to be is interesting, I'm glad you shared that with me. I also felt the same about it, but didn't realize until you brought it up! Perhaps I can actually use that for the design-- try to dodge weak enemy attacks in a mob though it may be unpredictable, or seek out a lone elite enemy to dodge; they may be more predictable but also more powerful and faster. I'll play around with it.

Also greta tips for the mechanic! I will definitely be refining the mechanic more and making it shine. Thanks again!

@IronScorpion
I'm glad you liked the art and enemy personalities! I was aiming for some zelda-style kind of enemies, that have their own kind of personality so that's great.

I agree about the respawning, i'll likely make it more like hallow knight. Currently the coins do not have a use, I was planning on being able to purchase skills and upgrades with it but wanted to get feedback on the gameplay first before I go and build off of it.

Do you remember how you crashed the first time? So sorry about that! I don't have save systems set up yet.

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm happy to hear you think it could be a great game, I will definitely be making more progress on it and hope to show it off again soon :)

Really nice game! First of all, I just wanted to say that I really like your art style - it's very original and refreshing. As for the game - I managed to finish it, and it was rather nice once I "got" it, even though took a very long time (more than half my play time) to get there. I liked the concept of dodging to heal, and the constant switching between helpless, frantic dodging when at low health and slaughtering all enemies with ease when at full health.

I think the weakest point in the game currently is how hard it is to understand it, so I'll focus my feedback on that. The main problems (at least in my opinion) are the lack of a tutorial and the huge amount of mechanics from the very beginning. The first problem is rather easy to solve - I assume the giant info dump at the beginning is temporary - but I think the bigger one is the second.

I suggest you introduce the mechanics over time - for example, start the game with only dodging and the main attack - and slowly add the other skills through checkpoints, bosses or permanent upgrades. I didn't use dodging at all until the room before the boss, as I thought it was yet another skill, so maybe move it to a different control (like shift) to emphasize its importance.

The game was rather fun throughout all of it - even when I didn't understand anything, the great graphics and FX carried the experience - so it's definitely a good direction. As for the abilities: the bottle attack was a nice all-out move, although as I said, I believe it should be unlocked later in the game. The grapple was weird - I understand the concept of drawing in enemies in order to dodge them, but it was a bit too weird and unwieldy, so I never used it. Maybe make so it also deals high damage, for a more high-risk-high-reward type of move? Or buff you if you successfully dodge after using it?

Overall, this game has a lot of potential, and is already rather fun - with a tutorial and gradual unlocking, I believe it would be a great game! Good luck with it, and I hope to see a full version in the future :)

@Frogman

Really awesome feedback! I'm actually really surprised you figured out what I was going for on your own, that's really awesome! Introducing the mechanics one by one makes a lot of sense, thanks for that. I plan to create a real tutorial later down the road and introducing things, so for now just a control screen had to suffice.

I want to make the game more readable and understandable, as I know the game is a bit unintuitive, and the abilities don't make a whole lot of sense for the premise.

I'll try out a different control scheme for the dodge, shift does make more sense. I'll also see what I can do about the grapple move, I did intend it to be used as a way to get a dodge off, so I'm glad you figured that out.

Super happy you like the art and sound direction. If you want, you can join my discord to follow updates to it, you'll be the first to know :)

Thanks again! Very appreciated!

Hi @RayFlower
I've been playing the game the last couple of days, so wasn't able to see everythin yet.
First off, I wasn't able to finish it. I got stuck with the "electric enemies" that seem to be able to one-shot me. Is there a trick to defeating those?

Graphics

• I think the game looks extremely good. The style is really original and engaging. The little details like the sweat drops when you are in critical health help bring character to the little character. I also liked the surprise when the pallete suddenly changes in a level screen.
• The actual game looks different from the screenshot on this page. Is that intentional?
• The macOS port does seem to have a graphics glitch: the resolution doesn't appear to scale correctly, showing uneven pixels. Also, full screen mode didn't work. I do understand that macOS is probably not your primary target platform, so I wouldn't waste too much time fixing this.

Sound
Sound effects work well for this game. Music would ad a lot. Chip tune perhaps?

Mechanics

• There is a lot going on at once. This is both a blessing and a curse. I really liked finding out mechanics like the "double jump" for myself. Nice to have a game that doesn't go into full 'handholding' mode. On the other hand, I don't really understand which attack to use when. Although they act very differently, they didn't really feel different to me.
• I like how the game uses screens for levels. This adds an element for discovery/exploration to the game. A bit of mystery about what will be on the next screen.
• You describe the game as an Action RPG. To me, I feel it's mostly a platformer - the RPG part not fleshed out enough. Perhaps because I havent progressed far enough to see more RPG tropes like leveling, new abilities, loot, etc? I found it more Metroid than Diablo.
• Difficulty could use some tweaks. I agree with the other commenters that the respawn time is too short. Especially for weaker players (i.e. me), being able to respawn myself while enemies are still gone will help me progress through the game, whereas it won't detract from the challenge for more serious players. Especially if there is some benefit to or achievement to unlock when you don't die.

Conclusion
I think you have the core gameplay loop down. I also think you have all the elements for a great game. Would work well on Nintendo Switch. The gameplay just needs a bit more balancing and the overall product needs a bit more polish like how you introduce mechanics/abilities. Something like a story/motivation: why am I doing what I'm doing? Especially because you have a likeble player character. And add music. :D

What are your plans for this game going forward? I saw you created a Discord server, so I'm guessing you are serious about this game. Hope you are and we will see a formal release in the future!

@maartene Thanks so much for playing and the extensive feedback! Really, this is all great stuff.

By the "electric" enemies, I assume you mean the new enemy type in the red area, right? They're just stronger but otherwise act the same. The thumbnail I have here is a mockup I made for the game, I intentionally used it rather than a screenshot.

Yea the Mac version isn't optimized at all currently, I am aware of the resolution issues and not being able to full screen it. I'm currently working on just the Windows version, and will consider a Mac-supported version in the future.

I'm glad you like the art, it seems it's the game's best feature so far! I'm pleased with that. I'm iterating on the gameplay and abilities right now, so I hope to have it make a lot more sense, and have it tie in with "soda" more.

Thanks again for the awesome feedback!

I plan to sell this game, so currently im working on the core gameplay, the loop, and the long term systems. Once I have that figured out I will start content production.

As for right now getting feedback on what I have is important and if you or anyone else wants to keep up with my game you can join my discord, I'll post updates there :)
https://discord.gg/DwFSgDV8J8

Hey! I didn't read everything above, so sorry in advance if I repeat some things :D
So here is my feedbacks:

• Make it playable with a gamepad: plateformers on keyboard (especially with various skills) are very difficult to play with a keyboard.
• For a demo: polish the game first contact. For now you put a screen with a lot to read, and it's not very engaging ^^. I would suggest 5 or 6 room when you discover how to move and then every skill (separatly).
• I was doubtful at first with the dodge mechanic but I think it's a good idea in fact :). It forces the player to take some risk. However, I don't like the fact that you're are extremely slow during this phase. I would suggest keeping the liberty of movement but removing the possibility to attack.
• I don't know if the artistic direction is definitive but I liked the minimalist and purified style you gave to it :).

Good job so far! I hope I wasn't to harsh ^^. Good luck for the rest of the development ;)

@Typyx Thanks for playing! That's some good feedback, I'll definitely be taking it into account down the road. Yea perhaps the slower movement isn't as fun as I was thinking, I wanted to create a "refreshing" experience, so I did it with the idea of beign fast again would feel refreshing. I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Thanks again :)

@RayFlower I've been playing the new build for a couple of days now.
What I notice that the game feels tighter, probably due to the changed controls. I can get through levels much faster.

What I do notice is:

• I notice that I mostly dodge enemies, instead of killing them. Is this by design? Am I supposed to play it like that?
• I get stuck in two red rooms where there are barriers that I don't seem to be able to open. There is no switch in sight. Is there another way of opening the doors? I don't seem to be able to kill all the enemies quickly enough.

Is there anything in particular that you would like feedback on?

@maartene The intended design is that you fight the enemies, so thay's an oversight by me, I'll solve that for next time. Which room exactly did you get stuck in? The first room after entering the red area, or one of the ones past that?

Mostly looking for feedback on just the combat itself right now, but you brought up some good points about just running past enemies.

Hi @RayFlower , I finally finished the game! I now understand that you actively need to kill enemies to level up. I was having too much fun jumping and dodging enemies. And while attacking enemies, I found out that sometimes you get health back.

Having now seen the whole game, I think there are two main places for improvements:

1. Balance between platforming and attacking enemies. Currently, the (double) jumping and dodging feels very good. It feels natural, responsive, sounds nice and looks cool as well. Attacking enemies on the other hand feels a bit underpowered. It takes a lot of attacks to kill an enemy. For me, that makes jumping and dodging more attractive than attacking. And when you don't attack, you don't find out you can level up and open up levels. Perhaps enemies health should scale differently? So the first enemies should take 1 to 2 hits to kill. Then quick level up (so I learn that I can level up). As the platforming feels very good, I wouldn't mind more of it.
2. "Telegraph" mechanics a bit more. For instance, you can level up, what does this mean? I guess I become stronger, but how much? You can get health back from enemies, but when and why? How can I tell? I'm saying "telegraph" because you don't need to spell it out, but a bit more insights into the mechanics between what happens on screen might just be what is needed. Note: after killing the boss, you telegraph the next path very well by adding different colored blocks to a previous screen (instead of just adding a big arrow). It's subtle nudging like that, that I feel works very well and is the way to go.

Other than that, excellent core game. Lots of room for expansion: more levels, more abilities (skill tree?), more enemies, loot?, stats?, …

@maartene Thanks again for the feedback, I didn't realize you played it some more, thanks for going above and beyond my expectations! Thats awesome you managed to finish the game! I know it's quite difficult right now, I haven't balanced the health/damage yet, so I'll keep that in mind as I get more into it.

You are right, the mechanics don't do a good job of telegraphing what's actually happening. You were getting health back by dodging, and this wasn't communicated that well. I want to make things more intuitive and easier to understand so that's great feedback from you.

Thanks again for the amazing feedback!