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The Chain

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Help Starfleet Mac protect The Chain in this endless arcade shooter!


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Cool concept very original the graphics were solid same with the animation good difficulty as well

Interesting but really, start easier and then work up the difficulty.

Creative concept, and it looked like you put a lot of time into aesthetics, as this game looks put together. The character designs are have been done well, and the animations are smoot.

Some problems with this is that the chain pulling can be quite a tedious process, as it is very slow compared to the player and enemies. Shouldn't the difficulty increase as the player progresses instead of completely depending on the chain? How come only your own bullets move the chain and not the enemy bullets?

For now it just seems like an arcade where the only goal is to get as high a score as possible (I believe that is why you chose the screen to be shaped like that). Unless you want it to stay like that, it would be cool to see a level system. I suggest an option to choose at the start to play in either level mode or an infinite arcade mode.

Overall, it has great potential and I hope you will continue to work on this.

PaperCookies responds:

Thanks for trying it out and writing your review!

This game was definitely aimed to be an arcade game. The difficulty does progress, with enemy speeds increasing and waves sizes/speed in-between them. So it's definitely not just the chain! Sorry if that was confusing. You make some very good points, though!

The game is very well made, and is entertaining. I have one issue, though. When you pull back the chain, it doesn't really seem to be that helpful, as the chain just starts moving upward faster than it was before, fast enough that there's no good reason to do it. The difficulty needs to increase more gradually, as well. You also need new music for the game, as it wasn't very good. Besides that, it's a clever concept and a well-made game.

The idea of alternating between shooting and pulling back is quite a creative and unique. Having two elements tied together elegantly can be good design so this drew me in. However, I'm not sure it works too great here. Rather than creating a combo of mechanics that aid each other, they feel at odds. It feels quite awkward to go between combat and slowly and tediously pulling back the bar.

Not personally a fan of the controls either. I'm guessing the heavy floaty feel was intentional but I'm not sure why, feeling so tanky doesn't flow to great with fast paced shooting. Additionally, the slide-y movements make it hard to be accurate which feels rather obnoxious when not wasting shots is so important here.

Whilst I focus on mechanics, there's clearly a lot of effort been put into the art and feel. The way the monsters jiggle and explode feels very life-like but when combined with how floaty/slippery everything is it makes the game feel jelly-like; everything's so wobbly and wavy that I feel like I have so little control in a game that demands a lot.

All in all, whilst there is smart design on play I don't think it's used effectively or appropriately. A lot of elements just feel contradictory, which may work in a different setting where creating a struggle is intentional, but when trying to create something fun it feels jarring. It highlights an important point that you can throw in interesting design ideas and lots of juice but it won't necessarily create an experience that's good if the elements aren't carefully chosen/curated.

PaperCookies responds:

Thanks for the write-up and honest review of my game! I really do appreciate it. I have a tendency to make things jelly-like. The impact this gives on the feel of the game is indeed quite backwards with the gameplay elements, I'd agree. It's definitely something I hadn't taken into consideration as of now. I am very passionate about game feel so I can't stress enough how much I appreciate your feedback.

Credits & Info

Views
1,527
Faves:
2
Votes
98
Score
2.83 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 8, 2018
4:25 PM EDT