At long last! This was outdoing most full-price games imo when I joined the alpha almost a year ago. This has some real substance behind it. And it was all done by just one guy, to top it all off! Also, whether you've played the first or not, the trading/economy here will probably be more complex than what you're used to. Remember that you can have an impact, and sometimes you ARE the supply of some good. Now get caravaneering - may the Man of Zinc/Nariz/whoever else watch over your travels :)
So it's finals week, and I literally have no idea what's going on. I'm just clicking on stuff, watching the explosions and Santa do his ladder climb, and getting upgrades on stuff. 5/5 for successful procrastination.
In terms of suggestions, a lot of people seem to be offering new things to do, but I'd just like to offer an alternate perspective: this game does a lot of stuff great already. Hopefully the best things - great level design, relatively original enemy patterns, and so forth are prioritized in the next one too!
I like this game! I've heard the term "Hedgehog's Dilemma" used to describe this situation. Also, I'd be interested in one that has variable instrumentation. The current version is fine, but it's all chords on the same (or similar) patch(es)! It wouldn't have to be real fancy or anything, but some method to have, say, a stringed instrument play and then a marimba or something plays along with it would be sweet!
I would like a little bit more control, possibly some "advanced" mode or something where the actual music creation part allows you to create your own riffs, ala the piano roll from FruityLoops. I found myself coming up with great stuff, but unable to implement it because of the game's restrictions several times.
On another note, it was difficult to get things figured out properly because the game struggles to even chug on my computer which, while not brand new, can still run most feature games on high settings.
I'm confused. Between clues and exploring every part of the city says 100%. I also picked up all of the supplies and all of that. Never saw an Anna... I take it this is the bug you said you made "really rare?"
2 words: content filter. I spent too much time looking for user-made levels that would be good, but ended up playing stuff in the same realm as dental surgery. At least have a sort by rating... Otherwise, the game is pretty good. The leveling system needs two fixes: one, it needs to be transparent, as I had no idea when I was leveling, how far I was, or, crucially, what even counted towards upgrades. Second, the gun points system needs to work better. As it is there is little point in making a heavy tank as you take so much more damage due to slowness, with the extra HP only slightly offsetting this. Other than that, the only benefits I saw were the extra weapons available, but they weren't that great and didn't even approach making up for the loss of speed. In short, bigger bubbles get bigger guns. It's completely logical.
I'm not entirely certain why people are questioning whether this game is even classifiable - it's a side scrolling shooter. It just has the stones to do what modern FPSs don't: admit that it has no story or writing, instead of trying to implement some sad attempt. The game itself was fine, although I found myself all too frequently dying because of an obscured chasm or something. 4/5.
There are enough comments talking about the sponsorship so I'll just ignore that part.
Basically, it is completely average. It looks good and is solidly built, but nothing beyond that. It wasn't particularly compelling - I never found myself thinking "this is getting interesting!" or "crap I lost! Let me try again..." Unlike better puzzle games which engage you with lots of possibilities, all you do is put the same four different sized rings in six empty spaces, repeat forever. Also, most of the time it felt like my loss was because of bad luck and an inability to move more ring at once instead of a lack of thought of skill.
It's fine for a first game. It's not going to be overtaking any professional games any time soon, but hopefully you didn't think it would. You have potential - 3/5
Too many of the levels are about getting the EXACT trick, sometimes it seems like practically down to the pixel and millisecond. That's not good or challenging design, that's just artificial difficulty in the same vein as the old "pixel hunt" adventure games. 3/5.
Cool game, but it didn't have the "zest" required for a 5... The power reel mechanic is also kinda screwed up, it had the tendency of messing up what I actually wanted to do.
Thanks for playing :)