Contrast - WIP

Very elegant presentation and cool level design. I got through the first 18 levels (got to 19) and you managed to keep the gameplay somehow fresh. I think there is a lot of potential for more, although this is already a great game!

Yeeeah, a playable thing! Was waiting for this!

To begin with general remarks, I don't know if the main mechanic is really intuitive. I think it is, but I'm not sure.

The thing is, I knew I was going to be able to reverse the screen before I started to play the game, so I looked for the good control for it. But I feel like a random person might be lost at the 2nd lvl without indications on the controls... I don't know. You should try to get random people to play your game and do some playtesting to know if this is intuitive

Also I feel like the level design might feel "forced" sometime, like, when I was playing the first level, I didn't feel like "Oh I learn that I can jump!" but more like "Oh the game designer want me to learn that I can jump". There is really good things too in your level design (I'll talk about it later), but sometime it made me feel like "forced", like a direct application of game design theories.

Oh and the bottom of your levels feels really weird! (How can I explain that..?)

In level 10 for exemple, when I was on the to left of the screen (after jumping in the first 3 boucing things.), I was thinking that I would fall in the void and died if I jumped. You would need some border, or indication that you can't actually fall and die because you're out of the layout. See what I mean?

I didn't experience any special problem (frame rate or bug) =)

Here's feedbacks on some levels:

I really enjoyed the level 13's puzzle, with the ennemies. The fact that the player have to jump above the first ennemy and then reverse the screen, because else if he reverse the screen before passing the enemy, he would not be able to jump. That was good!

level 16 was really repetitive I think. It's not 4 time the same thing, but almost, it bored me a bit (specially because I died dumbly at the end.). It's long and not really fun. It brokes the rythm a little bit.

The thing in the level 17 that makes the platforms destroyed by the keys is really good! Enjoyed that!

Specially because you used this again in level 18. Which makes the 17th level really useful for the player!

Great to see you used the level design of level 13 again in level 19! This is a clever thing that surprises the player! Good game design here )

level 20 was super cool! Great use of all your mechanics here!

Okay, I think that's all I have to say for now.

It has been fun really! I hope you'll keep working like this on the game! And I hope my feedbacks will be useful :)

Can't wait to see more of this

PS: I attached the stars I got at first try. Thought it might be useful for you to ballance the game

regisRquoi

Thanks,

I will be adding tutorial text to the 3rd level where you need to flip sides.

Yeah, I really don't like level 16, but I had mixed feed back on it from my friends that tested it. I think the decision is final now, it has to go.

I had mixed feelings on 17 and 18, but it has been the favorite of most people, so I think I might continue that mechanic a bit more in later levels.

Level 19 is stupid hard for its position in the level order. I am thinking about setting it further along in the game, maybe 25-30ish

Thanks for the feed back!

Just saw the note on the stars,

How did you feel about the difficulty of them?

mh, I think the stars difficulty are fine, I mostly had 2 at my first try, which mean I still have to re-do them if I want the max score, but I don't feel like I'm a bad player So that's nice!

I dont know how many levels you plan to have, but it might be good that it get more difficult at the end (like, I would get 1 star at the end and I will feel like "oh my god it's a damn hard level!", ahah! ^^ )

I don't know if level 19 is hard because of the order of the levels or because of level/game design (not enough room? enemies too quick?). But maybe. Try that and we'll find out!

You're welcome

Update:

• Changed level 16 to not be so god damn boring
• Fixed title screen hotkey to play
• Added some text to clear up the level unlock section
• Fixed an issue with the progression system when replaying a level
• Added some tutorial text to the third level
• Added a restart level hotkey
• Changed the next level hotkey to just the space bar
• I believe I fixed the initial load issue. Give me a heads up if the game does not load for anyone.

Thanks for the feed back, any other thoughts?

Why are you changing the key for next lvl for just spacebar? I used to press Return actually ._.

Also, forgot to say earlier, I think when you die, you respawn too quickly (the animation for dying could be longer, or it could be "touch [Key] to respawn" I think. Feels weird for me now.

Hm.. The new 16th level is not in breaking the level order I think. It should be after 17 and 18, where you learn about keys breaking platforms, I think. I found that lvl 17 was a great way to make the player learn!

(btw, couldn't lauch the game in browser at first, had to refresh it)

Well I wanted to make sure that there was a key for replaying the level, I'll add return as an option for the next level though.

Yea, it looks like I am still having issues on the initial load, I need to scrap that code and start over on it, it clearly is not going to work.

I am going to scrap / combine some of the first levels to speed up the game-play a bit, so I'll resort some of the levels around when I do that.