Diatris

I suck at Tetris, and I suck even more at Diatris, a Tetris-inspired game. Diatris takes a fun spin on the classic game by taking the iconic pieces and arranging them diagonally for more difficult challenge. The game also has a modernized, minimalist look (which I really love) and features fun particle effects that make clearing a row extremely satisfying. Everything about this game looks great and so does its download page on itch - Rob truly has a keen eye for aesthetics.

The only thing I would change to the game is to add a mechanic for saving a block - like in Tetris. If that feature already exists, it isn’t easy to figure out. I could see why this feature was intentionally left out, but really I just try to have any sort of suggestion for how to further develop the game and this was the only thing I could come up wtih.

This really is a fun game and if anyone reads this, they should check it out - especially if you like Tetris!

Thanks for the game, Rob!

Tentacles

Tentacles is a short 2D platformer submitted to Summer Slow Jams June 2019: Arcade Games on itch.io. The game follows a character in a occult, noire-ish world where he fights his way through tentacle monsters. Personally, I thought the mechanics felt groggy mainly due to the jumping being slow and short. The wall jump mechanic was annoyingly difficult because it didn’t always work for going up the wall, which was integral to the boss fight against a floating eye. I thought the boss fight was a really clever design, but it would’ve been much less frustrating if the jump mechanics were more satisfying. Another concern I had was with level design, because I could just hold down the move right button and maybe jump once to progress to the next level. I think the game could improve by forcing the player to kill the enemies before progressing so that the enemies have a purpose.

The controls took some getting used to since all the input keys were located next to each other and I had to use both of my hands in a small space. It worked fine but hand space or re-mappable controls are something to take into consideration the developers could take into consideration with their next games.

Now it may seem that after what I just said that I hated this game, but I really didn’t. These were just the minor critiques of a perfectionist. I think the game is good at its core, but could use some fine tuning, which I realize it may not have had the time to take care of because it was made for a jam.

Link to the game here.

I encourage all to play it and leave feedback.

Office Basement

 Office basement is a game about some unnamed protagonist who is tasked with repairing a generator in an office building. The player must collect generator parts to repair the generator and find a key to unlock the generator room while avoiding spooky ghosts. The game does a good job of creating a sense of panic when surprised with an attack from a ghost due to the disorienting camera rumble effects and jarring sound design. I truly felt lost in the basement, which built suspense while I navigated the maze-like basement. I’m sure this game will see some further iterations and my recommendations for further development would be primarily in the AI and the implementation of procedural generation of the level. The AI is simple at this stage and just walks on predetermined paths, and I think a good improvement to the game would be the inclusion of a second AI type that chases the player for some time, which is relatively simple in the Unreal Engine which was used to make this game. Also, half of the map (past the boards that get broken down) no AI spawn, which is either a bug or a questionable design choice. As far as procedural generation, the pickups spawn in the same place every time, which doesn’t give players much incentive to replay the game after beating it once, but does encourage players to pick up where they left off on their last run. A big development in the game could be to learn to generate the map, allowing a purely unique experience to each playthrough.

Overall, I thought your game was fun, jbrooks95. I am looking forward to what you do with this game and I hope my feedback was helpful.

Link to the game here.

Please play this game and give feedback