A good game lacking in some features, but showing promise. I don’t like the items as they often cost more than they gain (or feel like it), so making them cheaper or teared in cost and effectiveness would be good. A nice tool to add would be a way to stop a run as well, otherwise you can end up looking at a fish bouncing on the spot for a minuet while gaining nothing. Perhaps the ‘quick stop’ could have a relatively cheap cost attached to it as well. Finally, if the direction the fish faces changes the speed (i.e. facing into flying direction reduces drag or something) then some indication or hint saying so would be good. I was never sure if this did anything and felt bad re-angling (pun unintentional) the fish after each bounce.
Reviews for "Fish Canon (Prototype)"
PsychoGoldfish responds:
I still have a LOT of work to do getting the pickup/store/achievement balanced out properly. Adding that stuff in a game jam game was a bit too ambitious in hindsight, but it'll get there.
I do plan on adding a sort of suicide button when the pause menu gets updated so you don't have to sit through long tosses after you beat your goals.
I just pushed a new build with some better cues to your momentum. When the fish is turned enough to gain or lose altitude you'll see a wind effect that turns as your velocity changes, and a little drag effect when you have turned far enough to actually slow down. Hope that feels better.
It's a solid start. The groundwork's here and everything seems on-point, but there's not a whole lot here.
I'd love to see the view zoom out a bit at high speeds so something like the glider would even be feasible to use and get anything with; as is, I feel like I'm working half-blind and it's not really worth the item cost. Upgrades for something like orb grab range could also help, but in its present state this is really a grind to get anywhere. I finished the demo with nothing upgraded past level 2, and I didn't feel particularly inclined to keep pushing.
Some reward for distance or an orb/item bonus for clearing goals would be a nice touch, and perhaps a little more going on in the game itself. A lot of these sorts of games have obstacles and helpers scattered around the playfield that add a little dynamism to the experience, and you could potentially work that into an upgrade / unlock progression as well to help keep things a little fresher.
I hope you keep going with this and turn it into something special!
Pretty cool prototype that I'd love to see more from! At the moment, the game seems a bit too slow to get going: takes a long time to build-up money to be able to actually have some control over your flight with power-ups, and then they are only one-use and gone, leaving you to build up more, unfortunately slowly and randomly. I like the goal system, but they didn't seem to reward anything at the moment once completed: if they did, that'd be a great way to give the player some orbs and get them to the fun stuff quicker. Having said that, it would be nice to have the player control their experience a bit better all the time: maybe a more zoom-ed out camera when going fast so you see ahead and plan manuevers, along with the ability to always slightly manipulate your movement even without items by rotating in certain ways (or maybe just replenish items for free)? There's a lot of ways this could be built on and I'm looking forward to it: hopefully my suggestions help but it could be the core idea that the game is intentionally supposed to be a bit random and not player skill-based, in which case you can disregard my rambling!
I see some potential for a great launching game. Maybe the fish could react more towards momentum when he's flipped? I request this because of the limited amount of it in this game. And just like Toss the Turtle, some extra things should be added that could help propel or hinder the fish's progress. Maybe even add in a whole fish tank/underwater bonus level? You know, because he's a fish, duh.
Overall, pretty good prototype! We're all looking forward the real deal.
Really wish you worked more on this game! I love these types of games so much lmao
PsychoGoldfish responds:
I do plan on revisiting this game someday and loading it with content. But I say that about every game....