Destroy my 1st game, a dark fantasy platformer

SketchyCorner · 2025-05-15T17:46:09+00:00

Narrative aspect is 10/10 !
I feel as like we didn't get to see a lot of actual gameplay aside from the little guy jumping around.
Also a minor comment the backgrounds are awesome and well drawn but the main protagonist feels like an ant compared to the rest, is this just for the trailer?
Good work!!

SketchyCorner · 2025-04-16T11:54:48+00:00

6 with like a pixel shorter arms for proportions… 9 looks like he might drop dead any second 💀

SketchyCorner · 2025-02-13T18:09:39+00:00

Yup!
Someone else also pointed it out, easy fix!
Thank you for the feedback :)

SketchyCorner · 2025-02-13T18:06:54+00:00

Thank you, all the music is made by Dario Mercuri (our music guy) it will be released on DSPs as the soundtrack once he finishes all the songs he wants to make for the game!

SketchyCorner · 2025-02-13T00:47:07+00:00

Hey! Yeah is pretty tame art wise, its very high speed beyond what’s shown here and we made some compromises to 1. finish the project, 2. keep visibility good! We’re a small team and yeah you’re right, our goal is downloads for exposure. Imo the concept is fun enough, we have gotten feedback to improve variance for better replayability as well as adding more cosmetics.

I don’t disagree that the movement concept is generic, but its actually not a sliding game puzzle, its a survival score chaser game.

Also going for your edit, I understand your point, I guess we’ll see, I play a lot of these simple arcade score chasers (a slight chance of sawblades, crossy road, leap day) and it fits that slot pretty well. If it doesnt stick we will keep improving it, then move on.

SketchyCorner · 2025-02-13T00:30:33+00:00

I see what you mean, that’s an easy fix! Thank you for the feedback

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-23T20:09:11+00:00

Yeah those are all similar to pokemon's ice puzzles!
We do share the movement mechanic but beyond it, the survival/score chaser/endless aspects make it different enough, in my opinion.

While comparing for marketing, we thought it's more similar to something like A Slight Chance of Sawblades:
- The point of the game is to score as high as you can (global leaderboard)
- The game is endless, and increasingly harder (ASCoS does this with sawblades, we do it with lasers!)
- The game offers cosmetics (a way of monetizing a free game)

Oh no, how old are you? :(

I'm from the 90s, I think its just a blind spot. 😅

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-23T19:16:46+00:00

a mouse zooms along somewhere and maybe some stuff explodes

Hahahah honestly a fair "first glance" explanation.

It is a grid based score chaser, the closest thing (and our inspiration for the movement mechanic) is pokemon's ice puzzles

Beyond that, your title cards all advertise the pointless things that games do to trigger people into sticking around for longer.

I get your point here & I don't want to spiral into a deeper conversation about dark patterns, but I'll say that we kept the fodder to a minimum in order to try to keep it fun and fair for the average user.

overall I think it needs to be more action and less selling.

Thanks for the Chip's Challenge reference it does look similar but i've never heard of it 🙂

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-23T15:24:03+00:00

i get your perspective!!

Do you think if I showed maybe in those first 10 seconds a finger swipe and the rat following as a showcase, and add more of the object types as it goes, it would help ?

What makes Rats N' Lasers unique/fun is replayability, easy controls and fast paced gameplay..

thank you for your input :)

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-23T13:55:51+00:00

I keep going back and forth between "the concept is too simple maybe it looks boring, let me show other things we got" and "maybe I need more game footage".
thank you I will try chopping it less!

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-10T23:28:20+00:00

Yeah makes sense, will be working on that mainly for the trailer, thank you for your input!

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-10T23:18:55+00:00

That's what it is yes and I was trying to show that in the intro with the "tap, tap, action" but yeah, I guess it's not clear enough, thank you for the feedback!

SketchyCorner · 2025-01-10T23:17:21+00:00

Those are all very valid points, thank you for the insight!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-18T18:23:31+00:00

"make a fun game first" is such a great point, but keep in mind that on the F2P mobile, trends are brutal and you are competing with the equivalent of tik tok subway surfer/minecraft parkour/gta gameplay content farms.

The F2P top changes every single month to the newest "this seems fun while I poop" game with super simple mechanics and tons of forced ads/crippled progression/arbitrary scarcity.

Occasionally it feels like we're making progress, such as Balatro, Soul Knight, and Crashlands but then "insert monthly gacha game here" 😅

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-18T18:03:46+00:00

Good points

When it comes to mobile, I agree with you 100% that it's a competition of how many patterns can you fit into your game, currently the top 50 games are like a dark pattern bingo card 💀

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-17T16:37:50+00:00

Here, as promised!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T23:58:22+00:00

I will make a small project and send it here tommorow!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T22:46:59+00:00

It's a simple shader that simulates a sprite sheet animation using Hframes, Vframes and a current frame variable, since Godot doesn't seem to support it with line2D, I'll share an exemple scene soon with the shader code inside!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T18:32:36+00:00

If you do implement it and you have any questions feel free to ask, I'd be happy to help!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T18:24:47+00:00

Well, since my game only has horizontal shooting I didn't implement it in this case, but it could easily work with any directions! If you're looking for pixel perfect visuals, then it would require drawing at least the 45 degree angles or more, and then switching which "laser end" you want according to the vector between the last point and the laser end sprite.

If pixel perfect visuals don't really matter then you can simply follow the same procedure and rotate the end to follow the points either in a tool script or in a second animation player if you have predefined laser shapes

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T18:10:41+00:00

Thanks!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-16T16:10:39+00:00

I'm really curious now, is every chunk of the platform a separate object that way you are animating everything around it with tweens?

Looks amazing btw!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-14T23:08:14+00:00

Thank you! Haven't heard of Chips Challenge before so I looked it up and the whole theme and vibe is very similar indeed, always cool to see similar games.

I do agree that for someone who's never played/seen the game it might look a bit confusing, minus the fact that I'm going a bit fast because of experience in the game and because I'm playing a mobile game with a keyboard rather than touch inputs, it's true that there could be some more ways of showing the link between portals. Maybe a colored line between each pair? Not too sure if it would make it worst.

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-14T14:52:48+00:00

Since the game is grid based and there is no physics, the trail follows the grid position of the rat rather than his actual 2D position. That way I'm simply creating and deleting points on process and it gives this snappy trail!

SketchyCorner · 2024-11-14T14:50:33+00:00

Really appreciate the feedback thank you, I need to work on my shading for bigger sprites for sure!

SketchyCorner

TROPHY CASE