Reviews for PACO-PACO

[TheDevilsPet]

There is a lot of issues with this game that when ironed out, will turn it into a fairly good runner.
As said below, the terrain randomization is a good concept, but has been done poorly. It's a hard thing to get right, but it needs to be done if you want your game to be fun. Too many times did I get stuck on terrain with no hope of ever moving again.

Another thing. The jumping sound. When you have a game where the mechanic is to jump over obstacles constantly, please for the love of gaming DO NOT make it annoying/repetitive. It gets highly irritating and makes it hard for me to enjoy the game with that sound always going off.

[FrenjaminBanklin]

Art style reminds me of Limbo, which is all right. Premise isn't bad. Gameplay leaves way too much to be desired.

I feel as though the vast majority of the deaths I've seen in this game were out of my control, and that's not acceptable in a skill/avoid game. Randomly generating terrain and randomly placing enemies is fine until you get into a position where there's just too much stacked against you to do anything.

My last run, for example. Got to 15k, a few close calls, doing pretty well, suddenly I encounter an uphill segment with a spike above and three bats crowded at the top. I'm screwed. There is literally nothing I can do to get past this. And if it isn't this it's a long stretch of grass with spiders in it, or one terrain segment not meshing into the next properly and letting me clip through it. I've also seen plenty of occasions where there'll be a cliff with a boulder hanging off the left side where reacting one second too late means you're trapped and there's nothing you can do.

Another thing that annoys me is how meaningless movement speed is. Whether the monster gets you depends on how many things you bump into in a row, not how fast you're moving. If I can run for a straight minute without hitting anything it makes sense that I should have more than two seconds after tapping a patch of grass before the monster catches up to me, doesn't it? Not the case.

Also, running uphill slows you down. Which I don't mind so much, except if you run into anything while you're going up a hill you will slide backwards down that hill. Usually right into the monster.

[Ericho]

This was a better weird game. There were no instructions or anything. I was able to figure most of them out, I think. I was also confused as to when you went to a stalactite. For some example, you couldn't squeeze between it. I'm thinking it could have just been some button I wasn't pressing.

The environment is great. Is there any way to kill those enemies? It seems like you just had to avoid them altogether. I wouldn't quite recommend this. It seemed too difficult to care for that much.

[Dragonauta]

The game is fun, but it's filled with so many bugs it can be frustrating. So far I've encountered invisible walls, obstacles so close together that completely block the way, and the character losing its acceleration mid-jump for no reason at all. The idea is good enough to deserve more stars, but so many bugs make the game feels incomplete and that ruins the experience for me.

[Tamagakure]

...Meh

The Upside:
Style - The presentation very much reminds me of Limbo, and that's a style I really like. It was done well, and performs smoothly.

The Downsides:
Sound - The character's voice annoying to start, and this factor is multiplied by repeating the same sound clip every time you jump. My recommendation would be too lower the VO volume, use a sound that doesn't cut in so sharply, and have it only play every few jumps instead of every time the button is pressed. A variety of sound bytes would help immensely as well.

Soundtrack - While the upbeat and fast-paced tone of the track definitely works for this style of running game, it contradicts the gloomy and ominous atmosphere of the style. Something sounding a little more desperate and/or ominous would play to the advantage of the atmosphere as opposed to working against it.

Procedural Generation - I can commend you for taking the risk of trying procedural generation, so I want to let you know that it needs a bit more polish; on my first and third attempt a stalactite was hanging all the way into the floor, making it impossible to pass, and cuing an inescapable failure.

Speed - The running speed doesn't gradually build up, and instead will suddenly catapult the character to maximum speed from almost standing still. The time of pause between the loss of speed and then regaining it also tends to get you caught and irritate the player. I can see that there was good effort, so don't think I'm riding this one. This is a really crucial factor to a running game.

It was worth playing and getting a little frustrated with, but its most glaring points are its lack of tutorial and context.
"Why am I here?"
"What am I supposed to be doing?"
"WHAT THE F*** IS THAT?!"

This little game would be much more appealing if there were some answers to these questions, and could even shine with enough development put into the lore and setting. Don't stop now.