Its hard but fun
Reviews for "Brood"
promising game, but made frustrating by an absolutely obnoxious mechanic and a game destroying glitch. Having to hatch and then hold space again to slow down felt so needless. If sitting it an egg served an actual purpose in most situations, then I'd get it. Maybe the egg hitting a death zone should crack and bounce off, giving you a moment to recover. All the current version of the mechanic does is cause you to double tap spacebar constantly which makes it feel annoying. The glitch I've had several times is that the keys will just fly and fly and fly after I've gotten them, leaving the door open. This means that I end up dying and having to hope that the keys don't do that again. I understand the idea behind the egg from a narrative perspective, but it serves almost no purpose. I am very disappointed because I have LOVED some of your other submissions. This one feels so off the mark for you.
couldn't you have programmed it so that a hold on the button hatches you and then slows you down? Sometimes the egg also just seems to bust mid air without colliding with an obstacle, so you end you dying because you click+click(hold), but because you've already hatched, you launch into a death obstacle...
(edit in response to response) I think having the ability to fly at full speed while in egg is fine, I just think having to hit the button twice is what makes me so angry, it causes so many issues when you're flying around fast when you don't know if you need to click and hold or click-click and hold. being full speed in egg mode is fine, but there shouldn't be a "hatch" button. The button should just always slow you down and if you are in an egg, it immediately hatches and slows you down. basically, the button should only be ever used as "slow down and letting go launches you". So you could still fling off of stuff in "alien" mode while at full speed, but you don't have to visually navigate if you are in egg or alien mode. Having to double click so often when one click+hold could always work would make it so much less frustrating.
bokononyossarian responds:
Thanks for the feedback!
Not sure about the key glitch, to be honest, I’ve not encountered any key issues yet. they are supposed to orbit the player and fly around after they are collected and if you have all keys orbiting and you hit the locks, you’ll be able to go through the keyhole blocks, so I’m not clear on what you’re describing and I think this may just be an unclear mechanic instead of an actual glitch, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Also, I hear you regarding the instantly-hatching-after-laying optimal strategy, I felt mysef doing this when creating the game so in later levels, to combat this, we have a gas mechanic that forces you to be in egg form or else it kills you.
And about your suggestion about hatching and going right into slow-mo: it started out that way!! But I found myself having more fun being able to bounce off walls and stuff so I made it a discreet action with more controls; but maybe not the right decision!
Appreciate all the feedback though, and I’m glad you enjoyed our other stuff! Always happy to engage with constructive criticism, so thank you. this was definitely an attempt at exploring a one button mechanic, for better and worse
i like it
hard
bokononyossarian responds:
hard!
This started off great, but it did get annoying. It's mostly because of the obstacles. At least there's some easy medals! I do really like this concept. I just wish you didn't have to start all over. You could have at least started back from before you died.
Well, I'm just being whiney. This was still a pretty interesting game. I forgot it came out of your butt at first. I thought it was just a standard launching game. At least you could freeze while in mid-air, not that it ever helped me.