DownGrade by barkergames
One Definition of minimalism is a work which is set out to expose the essence or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts.
In that spirit, our game, DownGrade, follows a protagonist (subject) who has been assimilated by the Cyborg Nation, and is attempting to reclaim his humanity (essence or identity) by ridding himself of his cybernetic implants (non-essential forms, features and concepts).
Ratings
| Coolness |
100% |
1 |
| Overall(Jam) |
2.66 |
452 |
| Audio(Jam) |
2.11 |
408 |
| Fun(Jam) |
2.24 |
487 |
| Graphics(Jam) |
2.35 |
489 |
| Humor(Jam) |
1.96 |
316 |
| Innovation(Jam) |
3.20 |
202 |
| Mood(Jam) |
2.78 |
317 |
| Theme(Jam) |
3.22 |
283 |
Feedback
The game however starts quite hard and confusing, you die and spawn someplace different feels weird
Good concept though.
Personally, though, I found the level design to be too cruel to actually be much fun. There are lots of unavoidable hits and very difficult precision platforming segments. In the end, it's not a very fun game, but the concept behind downgrading as you go was a clever one.
Maybe if the levels were done differently, it could work really well.
The levels felt like they were made for a slightly smaller character, but overall they worked well enough. Some levels are hard or even impossible without certain upgrades; good thing the game generates a new stage each try.
The game is very enjoyable with quite a lot of content already considering the LD timeline, and is very scalable; by adding new levels, new implants, and a layer of polish, there's not really much of a limit to how good this game could get.
Sadly we didn't get enough time to play test as much as we would have liked :(
I agree that the levels and a bit of the game play need some work.
Music needs to be added as well.
I didn't quite understand the level generation and re spawns. The difficulty tended to fluctuate a lot.
It was really hard to make a choice about what to downgrade. I liked that mechanic a lot.
The sound effects were obnoxious at first, and the whole way through really. Definitely the weakest point of the game. I also sometimes clicked outside the window when trying to aim down really quickly, confining the mouse to the window would have helped.
The level design was challenging, especially with the very stiff controls, but it was hard in a good way. Kept me trying to get better at it, trying to master it. Having to downgrade a component was really cool, if a bit of a nail-biter decision (which is good!).
Holding down shift and having the power drain while not doing anything was a tad annoying but I got used to it pretty quickly.
All in all, great game! I think you've got something really cool here and you should definitely keep polishing it! :)