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.