The ground pound as a ball is EXTREMELY satisfying to use. It's instant speed and kinda physics-defying, and you can really feel the force behind it.
Movement in general is pretty nice in this mode.
The jump feels a bit shorter than in human form, which makes some things trickier to get on top of (like the pegs, and the first few steps of the mole mountain). The pegs also can't be pounded in this mode, it looks like.
The pat-pat sound effect of landing from a full-A press jump felt a bit repetitive after a while, since it's exactly the same on each landing from a regular jump.
Hello! Wanted to give some stream of consciousness feedback/notes I took while playing through the build:
-Intro Animation is nice
-Camera sensitivity/speed feels a bit low/sluggish
-Would be nice to have an option invert the camera movement axis in the future
-Character model turn speed/rate could maybe be a little faster
-Character feels a little slow, whether that's a gameplay feel thing or just relative to the models animation is hard to tell
-Character animations and graphics are great! Really captures the aesthetic you're going for, absolutely love the pre-rendered animations for things like the gems and flowers
-The Jump to dive to slide is really cool! The amount of distance from the slide gives it a unique feel. Core movement speed might be fine if using this and the roll are the desired way for players to boost around through a level
-Camera can sometimes lose track of the Player when bouncing on a mushroom/it lags to catch up with them a bit
-The Health UI and the different facial expressions changing is a nice detail!
-Health UI does take up a lot of space when it's not full though, maybe a way for the player to hide or show their health bar on demand?
-Really nice effects on the center tower platforms appearing with the top exploding!
-Is it intentional for the Player to be unable to get on to the logs that can be pounded in with just a normal jump? Ah I realized there's a 2nd better jump after the first one, maybe some speed lines or a similar effect would make it stand out more, not a huge deal either way though.
-Maybe a button prompt notification to interact with the nest instead of an exclamation mark, I almost missed Bulkmo haha. Though if there's a tutorial in the future that explains X/Square is the action button that would be fine too (this is also on me for not reading controls here and just jumping in with no knowledge)
-Crushed effect on portrait when taking fall damage is a really nice touch!
-The unique/contextual thought bubbles are a really cool idea! It's really fun to have a unique comment for each paint brush!
-Was able to get everything except the final Cube Cat and the paint brush on the scaffold above the pond
some polish feedback: playing with keyboard the controls feel a bit confusing. i would have put duck on Ctrl, camera move on mouse move, attack on mouse click, maybe make run a toggle with tab. bazooka controls are likewise confusing, maybe duck to take it out, and attack to shoot it.
needing to talk to the bird to get the bazooka is confusing (maybe gray out the bazooka pad and/or put a bird logo on it).
sound effects are a bit jarring, but maybe with some music will incorporate better. i would have liked a bigger explosion sound effect when the bazooka missile hits.
switches look the same activated or not, so maybe depress them or gray them out when hit.
sometimes the gophers run in circles around you but don't really hit you, maybe they need to adjust their speed so they can make a tighter radius.
Thank you for the feedback. The keyboard controls and sound effects are very much a work in progress and need a lot of revising overall. I'll get down to it eventually.
For the pads - I'll make them semi-transparent without the move, and also put one next to the bird during his speech.
Making the switch icons darker when depressed is a good idea. They are visually lowered when pressed but it might be hard to see for some.
I'll see what I can do about making the enemy radius tighter
Hiya! Likewise I've been following you on Bluesky - you came up in the Discover feed one day and I've been following ever since. Downloaded the demo to play around with on my lunchbreak, and here's my immediate thoughts feedback.
Presentation: Game is extremely colourful, which is great. There's a lot of charm in the style that feels like a throwback to 90s games I grew up with. Big plus.
Couldn't figure out how to destroy the big block behind one of the bazooka pads - shooting it just didn't do anything from either bazooka pad.
As mentioned, the inverted camera controls took a bit of getting used to, so an option to swap that would be just great.
I found the wall-jumping section near the indestructible(?) boulder took a few tries - PG slides down walls quite quickly so you have to be on the ball with inputting the wall-jump, but since the button is shared with the dive attack I found myself diving into walls and not getting the opportunity for a follow-up wall-jump.
Enemies were fun to interact with - they have quite a long leash but they're not faster than PG, so outrunning them is always an option.
The usage of PGs inner thoughts to explain concepts in the world, like smashing buttons or extra height on mushrooms - was really good, just make sure to use them early and often. I knew to ground-pound the posts because I've played SM64 and that concept is burnt into my mind, but it IS a (nearly) 30 year-old game. Maybe a thought bubble from PG saying "Huh, these moles must have pushed up this post, I better fix that!" would be good.
On the other hand, well done with the target gallery section. That was telegraphed so well with the use of camera angles with a level of Rareware polish.
I really like how PG sets off from neutral at a decent speed with good acceleration. There's not much need for build-up which means you can get going sooner!
Thank you for the feedback! Some of these are really good points.
One of the big blocks was bugged and wouldn't break depending on the order due to flags not being set right. This will be fixed in the next version.
Inverting the camera axis will have to be an option down the line once I get basic UI working, since modern and retro games have different standards for camera x-axis inversion. This makes things very confusing since both ways are technically inverted depending on the games you've played.
I'll lower gravity during the wall slide state like the newer Mario games. Gravity is already slightly lowered during a long jump (which is how SM64 physics work surprisingly) so changing it is a very easy fix
Additional context on the pegs - good call, some were already confused about the ground pound to extra mushroom jumps, so I'll add it in.
I have slightly changed how the target test works to be less monotonous to those who already know, while also still being telegraphed decently for newer players - it'll be in the next version of the game.
Helloooo!!! I've been following your posts on Bluesky for a long time now but only this week realized there was a demo for it, so thought I'd give it a try!
My thoughts (played with a controller)
I love the presentation! This really feels like an N64 platformer. Colorful world, goofy enemies and sfx, low-poly style. It's great! Really takes me back. I've played a lot of 3D platformers and yours feels like it has all the fundamentals down. Did not see any bugs at all.
I was able to complete the entire level without any difficulty. None of the gems felt tedious or frustrating. The gameplay didn't feel repetitive either. There's a lot of variety in the stage. It's also hard to get a good view of the whole stage at once, due to lots of verticality and the cylinder in the middle, which means you have to constantly explore and can't just plan everything ahead of time.
The (non-??)-inverted camera-X controls took several minutes to adjust to. I've always played games with it working in the opposite direction. I realize this is still an early build and there's not even an options menu yet, but it did impact my ability to test since my brain was not used to it...
I took damage a few times from enemies that respawned right as I walked by them, which felt unfair.
When walking towards the camera, there's very little room to see an enemy in that direction, and I did take damage a few times because I didn't see them in time.
Other than that, I was impressed by the camera. Some areas had it on a rail to help with vision, and near walls it helpfully shifted upwards. I never felt like I was ever fighting with the camera.
If I tap the joystick in a direction, PGal will start walking in that direction...and continue walking, and walking, even after I let go of the stick. This can happen also when I'm trying to subtly position her for a jump. I'd want her to move slightly, but then she keeps going, and it made positioning difficult.
Enemies cannot be killed by jumping - the somersault looks like the only way to deal damage. However, PGal can't do it without building some momentum first, which makes it somewhat hard to engage enemies if you're not already moving, especially in tighter areas. If I stand still, then mash the controller in a direction and hit X, it's too early and she does nothing, and might walk into an enemy. There's no audio or visual indicator to let me know when I have enough momentum to attack, which would be helpful if that's a prerequisite for attacking.
The midair kick felt a bit perplexing. It gains height, so it works like a double-jump, and there were places where it was useful for platforming, except it's mapped to a different button than the jump, which I think is unusual for double-jump mechanics. (It is the same button as the somersault, the other attack, so that makes sense. No actions mapped to the jump button in midair as far as I can tell). Also, I didn't see any times where I was in midair and in need of an attack (ie no flying enemies yet).
All in all, a fun experience. As I said, the fundamentals feel solid, and there's lots of potential here. Great job!
-For the non-inverted camera controls. I didn't know it was standard until a friend told me about it - I don't really play new games lol. I will make it default the other way down the line since its been really confusing people.
-I'll give enemies a distance check for if they are far away enough to respawn. I feel it can get kinda tricky having them always attacking around you. Same with dealing with fall damage as people have felt it's annoying to get hit right after falling.
-For the camera being too close when at the front I could probably make it zoom out depending on the angle relative to the player.
-Increasing deceleration for more instantaneous movement when stopping shouldn't be hard to implement, I'll see what I can do.
-The slam dunk ground pound works as a midair to ground attack to defeat enemies without much speed It's very cumbersome to use since enemies are always moving, so making a more traditional attack is something I'll do down the line.
-I'm very likely to change the kick attack to the jump button since I'm adding in a midair dive attack soon and I want full control on which move you can perform.
Omg, using the ground pound on enemies never crossed my mind. 😅 I remember trying to use it on the crate at the beginning and failing (because it wasn't unlocked). And after getting it I guess I just latched onto just using it on that crate, and also other crates. Ground pound for crates, somersault for enemies.
Re: For the somersault - a slower version for when you're not at full momentum could work too. Anything's better than getting hit by something I tried to attack.
The controls feel like a perfect combination of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day with just a smidge of Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time. For lack of a better word, they’re very crunchy and tight where Mario 64 is a lot looser and more freeform. There’s no doubt in my mind as to where the character will be when I do what I need to do.
The camera controls are impeccable. Obviously, being able to invert in the full game would be ideal, but as they stand, well done.
The enemy respawn timer is a bit quick for my taste and I would also suggest not allowing them to respawn while the player is in their respawn zone. That’s something that gets very frustrating in both Banjo-Tooie and Donkey Kong 64.
The roll ability feels good to use and connect with an enemy, but I’d give the player a bit more control of it while moving like in the Banjo games because there were times where I thought I’d connect, but the Mario 64 Goomba-esque movement of the enemies caused me to miss.
If you’re going to do fall damage, go for it. But don’t let enemies damage you while you’re in the squished state because then you’re taking damage on damage and can’t defend yourself, so it feels unfair.
“Ah! Context Sensitive! Clever!” I *love* the inclusion of the Context Sensitive Pads and the Bubsy-eque “!” above the character’s head is fantastic. I can’t wait to see what they do as you go forward.
A way to make the camera snap behind the player would be very helpful.
Some of the sound volumes vary wildly. Make sure that their waveform files are similar volume and then set the sound effects volume globally in the engine. Trust me from experience: do this sooner than later or you’ll have to go through and set it manually.
Signpost the bouncy mushrooms with a little arrow pointing up on a wooden sign next to them.
In retrospect, it feels obvious that you can bounce on them, but I’ve learned to never underestimate the player’s ability to just not even consider stuff.
A ledge grab move would be great unless you’re specifically building the game to not have one.
Which I’d get, but be sure to make that decision before you start building more areas, not after.
The writing and how it offsets the cuteness of the art is especially enjoyable.
I love the CubeCats and I want a plushie of all five of them yesterday.
The 3D audio on some of the collectables is a bit far-ranging. I can hear gems basically all the time. I’d suggest making them louder as more of them are collected so that it becomes easier to find them with the audio cue.
As an accessibility feature for deaf or hearing impaired players, you could also include a toggle-able arrow pointer or maybe something on the HUD like a treasure compass.
The swimming controls are really good. Definitely a good call going for different controls between the surface and underwater so you don’t have to keep spamming the swim button to not drown.
Thank you for not putting a timer on the switch on the paintbrush on the mountain. Donkey Kong 64 used timers WAY too often when just having to hit the switch to activate a platforming challenge is plenty. I’d suggest using timers sparingly.
The juxtaposition of the art style and the rocket launcher is really funny as is the crates exploding with their eyes going everywhere. You have a strong style here and I really enjoy it.
The ground pounding posts should be a bit wider than they are. It was easy to miss them when trying to pound them into the ground.
That said, the enemy AI chasing me around it when I tried running in a circle around it worked great and was really funny.
I didn’t experience any major bugs! Everything worked great.
The art direction in general is fantastic. I can very clearly see what you’re going for here.
I’m always interested in new 3D platformers, especially sandboxes and open worlds; they’re literally my favorite genre. If I had the skills needed to work in 3D, I would be making basically nothing but them. If you need any additional feedback, advice, or anything else I can help with in the future, please feel free to contact me directly. Great job on this! Can’t wait to see more!
Thank you for the feedback! I'm very glad you've written such a large and thoughtful list of feedback points.
I'll add a check for if the player is far enough or out of camera and double the enemy respawn time, as those are good points to reduce feeling overwhelmed.
For the roll - I'll give it some horizontal movement to allow for better control.
Ledge grabbing is down in the to-do list. I just haven't gotten around to it. Same with having the camera snap behind the player.
I might make the posts a bit larger in diameter in general, people have had trouble hitting them and I already made the hitboxes larger. I think guiding the player to trying out things might be a better idea.
About signposting - I wanted to make the player feel rewarded in discovering new things as a kinda puzzle problem solving mentality.
Giving the player Iframes while having fall damage is a good idea as I watched a friend play and they landed on enemy while falling and got hit twice basically instantly, which I feel is unfair.
For sound - I'll try and make sure they are mixed right down the line as at the moment everything is kinda everywhere since its so early in dev. The 3D sound on the collectibles is highest priority right now though.
I've been following the progress on bluesky with much interest. Played it on my Steam Deck (works wonderfully) and having a lot of fun.
First thing I noticed was that the camera position was snapping pretty nicely for the most part in platforming spots but in the wider "flat" areas it would mostly just be facing the character and not give much visibility on where I'm going. A button to reset the camera to snap behind would be nice in the areas where the camera can be freely rotated.
Is it possible the reach this brush ? I seem to be unable to jump high enough to reach the platform.
That's all I can think of right now.
It has so much charm and personality, so keep up the great work.
Thank you for giving it a try and suggesting feedback!
For the camera I plan to both add a button (possibly R3) that sets the camera behind the player when held down. I also plan to make rotating the camera faster when using the rightmost stick as its something many wanted.
I also want to add a toggle that turns the auto cam on/off, as I know that'll be a point some will be divided on.
As for the brush - it's not suppose to be reachable yet, but I have seen people glitch their way up there.
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Ball Test Feedback:
Hello! Wanted to give some stream of consciousness feedback/notes I took while playing through the build:
-Intro Animation is nice
-Camera sensitivity/speed feels a bit low/sluggish
-Would be nice to have an option invert the camera movement axis in the future
-Character model turn speed/rate could maybe be a little faster
-Character feels a little slow, whether that's a gameplay feel thing or just relative to the models animation is hard to tell
-Character animations and graphics are great! Really captures the aesthetic you're going for, absolutely love the pre-rendered animations for things like the gems and flowers
-The Jump to dive to slide is really cool! The amount of distance from the slide gives it a unique feel. Core movement speed might be fine if using this and the roll are the desired way for players to boost around through a level
-Camera can sometimes lose track of the Player when bouncing on a mushroom/it lags to catch up with them a bit
-The Health UI and the different facial expressions changing is a nice detail!
-Health UI does take up a lot of space when it's not full though, maybe a way for the player to hide or show their health bar on demand?
-Really nice effects on the center tower platforms appearing with the top exploding!
-Is it intentional for the Player to be unable to get on to the logs that can be pounded in with just a normal jump? Ah I realized there's a 2nd better jump after the first one, maybe some speed lines or a similar effect would make it stand out more, not a huge deal either way though.
-Maybe a button prompt notification to interact with the nest instead of an exclamation mark, I almost missed Bulkmo haha. Though if there's a tutorial in the future that explains X/Square is the action button that would be fine too (this is also on me for not reading controls here and just jumping in with no knowledge)
-Crushed effect on portrait when taking fall damage is a really nice touch!
-The unique/contextual thought bubbles are a really cool idea! It's really fun to have a unique comment for each paint brush!
-Was able to get everything except the final Cube Cat and the paint brush on the scaffold above the pond
Overall a really cool mechanics and visuals demo!
very nice animation work!
some polish feedback: playing with keyboard the controls feel a bit confusing. i would have put duck on Ctrl, camera move on mouse move, attack on mouse click, maybe make run a toggle with tab. bazooka controls are likewise confusing, maybe duck to take it out, and attack to shoot it.
needing to talk to the bird to get the bazooka is confusing (maybe gray out the bazooka pad and/or put a bird logo on it).
sound effects are a bit jarring, but maybe with some music will incorporate better. i would have liked a bigger explosion sound effect when the bazooka missile hits.
switches look the same activated or not, so maybe depress them or gray them out when hit.
sometimes the gophers run in circles around you but don't really hit you, maybe they need to adjust their speed so they can make a tighter radius.
Thank you for the feedback. The keyboard controls and sound effects are very much a work in progress and need a lot of revising overall. I'll get down to it eventually.
For the pads - I'll make them semi-transparent without the move, and also put one next to the bird during his speech.
Making the switch icons darker when depressed is a good idea. They are visually lowered when pressed but it might be hard to see for some.
I'll see what I can do about making the enemy radius tighter
Hiya! Likewise I've been following you on Bluesky - you came up in the Discover feed one day and I've been following ever since. Downloaded the demo to play around with on my lunchbreak, and here's my immediate thoughts feedback.
Looking forward to further updates to test! <3
Thank you for the feedback! Some of these are really good points.
One of the big blocks was bugged and wouldn't break depending on the order due to flags not being set right. This will be fixed in the next version.
Inverting the camera axis will have to be an option down the line once I get basic UI working, since modern and retro games have different standards for camera x-axis inversion. This makes things very confusing since both ways are technically inverted depending on the games you've played.
I'll lower gravity during the wall slide state like the newer Mario games. Gravity is already slightly lowered during a long jump (which is how SM64 physics work surprisingly) so changing it is a very easy fix
Additional context on the pegs - good call, some were already confused about the ground pound to extra mushroom jumps, so I'll add it in.
I have slightly changed how the target test works to be less monotonous to those who already know, while also still being telegraphed decently for newer players - it'll be in the next version of the game.
Helloooo!!! I've been following your posts on Bluesky for a long time now but only this week realized there was a demo for it, so thought I'd give it a try!
My thoughts (played with a controller)
All in all, a fun experience. As I said, the fundamentals feel solid, and there's lots of potential here. Great job!
Thank you very much for the feedback!
-For the non-inverted camera controls. I didn't know it was standard until a friend told me about it - I don't really play new games lol. I will make it default the other way down the line since its been really confusing people.
-I'll give enemies a distance check for if they are far away enough to respawn. I feel it can get kinda tricky having them always attacking around you. Same with dealing with fall damage as people have felt it's annoying to get hit right after falling.
-For the camera being too close when at the front I could probably make it zoom out depending on the angle relative to the player.
-Increasing deceleration for more instantaneous movement when stopping shouldn't be hard to implement, I'll see what I can do.
-The slam dunk ground pound works as a midair to ground attack to defeat enemies without much speed It's very cumbersome to use since enemies are always moving, so making a more traditional attack is something I'll do down the line.
-I'm very likely to change the kick attack to the jump button since I'm adding in a midair dive attack soon and I want full control on which move you can perform.
Thanks for the reply!
Omg, using the ground pound on enemies never crossed my mind. 😅 I remember trying to use it on the crate at the beginning and failing (because it wasn't unlocked). And after getting it I guess I just latched onto just using it on that crate, and also other crates. Ground pound for crates, somersault for enemies.
Re: For the somersault - a slower version for when you're not at full momentum could work too. Anything's better than getting hit by something I tried to attack.
I love that skill-teaching bird, btw.
Made another video
I've been following you ever since I played your mirror game, just wanted to say your work is cool and I'm rooting for you! Good luck
Thank you. I've been worried from starting from scratch again, but I do believe this will be for the better.
Made a video
I’m always interested in new 3D platformers, especially sandboxes and open worlds; they’re literally my favorite genre. If I had the skills needed to work in 3D, I would be making basically nothing but them. If you need any additional feedback, advice, or anything else I can help with in the future, please feel free to contact me directly. Great job on this! Can’t wait to see more!
Thank you for the feedback! I'm very glad you've written such a large and thoughtful list of feedback points.
I'll add a check for if the player is far enough or out of camera and double the enemy respawn time, as those are good points to reduce feeling overwhelmed.
For the roll - I'll give it some horizontal movement to allow for better control.
Ledge grabbing is down in the to-do list. I just haven't gotten around to it. Same with having the camera snap behind the player.
I might make the posts a bit larger in diameter in general, people have had trouble hitting them and I already made the hitboxes larger. I think guiding the player to trying out things might be a better idea.
About signposting - I wanted to make the player feel rewarded in discovering new things as a kinda puzzle problem solving mentality.
Giving the player Iframes while having fall damage is a good idea as I watched a friend play and they landed on enemy while falling and got hit twice basically instantly, which I feel is unfair.
For sound - I'll try and make sure they are mixed right down the line as at the moment everything is kinda everywhere since its so early in dev. The 3D sound on the collectibles is highest priority right now though.
Thank you so much for sharing an early build!
I've been following the progress on bluesky with much interest. Played it on my Steam Deck (works wonderfully) and having a lot of fun.
First thing I noticed was that the camera position was snapping pretty nicely for the most part in platforming spots but in the wider "flat" areas it would mostly just be facing the character and not give much visibility on where I'm going. A button to reset the camera to snap behind would be nice in the areas where the camera can be freely rotated.
That's all I can think of right now.
It has so much charm and personality, so keep up the great work.
Thank you for giving it a try and suggesting feedback!
For the camera I plan to both add a button (possibly R3) that sets the camera behind the player when held down. I also plan to make rotating the camera faster when using the rightmost stick as its something many wanted.
I also want to add a toggle that turns the auto cam on/off, as I know that'll be a point some will be divided on.
As for the brush - it's not suppose to be reachable yet, but I have seen people glitch their way up there.