MartinJacob's Reviews

[Bomb Factory]

This is a really cool and juicy little game, really addictive and unnerving :) There is a nice balance between gameplay, art and music, which is impressive for a 2-days solo game. Congrats !! :D

[Shamaniac]

This is a beautiful and creative game (especially for it was made with Construct..!). The puzzles are simple, and I like the observation aspects. I found it overall relaxing. The style reminds me of franchises such as Rayman or Picmin.

A few remarks :
- Some elements (stars, butterflies, bubbles) react to clicks, but don't seem to have any function within the puzzles or objectives. This can be misleading. If these elements do help towards completing a secret objective, some indication of this should be somewhere.
- Some elements (the fisher, the pumpkin house) have no function despite holding other objects. Thinking they may have further utility, I tried to interact several times with them, in vain. Maybe that elements that are no longer useful should disappear altogether ?
- Some sounds are way too loud and can distract from the music, or be unpleasant. (I'm thinking especially about the "lil'bush"...). The music tend to change abrubtly between some places and different camera dezooms, which broke immersion and confused me.
- After returning to the game, the object on the bottom left (with the three blue buttons) seems to have acquired new functionalities... This object hasn't been useful in my first playthrough, and I still can't seem to how it comes into play.

I may be missing a lot of hidden content here.

These are really small downsides, that have little impact on an overall wonderful short experience :)

CrounchyBrothers responds:

Hi & thank you for your feedbacks :)
Remarks are useful to us ;)

[Survival of the Fetus]

This is really good as a standalone demo. Graphics are nice and simple, everything feels good and the central mechanic is well used. The music reminiscent of Isaac is a real plus, and I like how the cutscenes introduce new game mechanics while pursuing narration.

A few downsides :
- I spent what seemed to be too much time in the interface, menu, tutorial, or watching a cinematic, during my overall experience. The game may generate more retention if one could get to the next gameplay sequence faster.
- There is a somewhat disturbing contrast between the cartoon style inside and outside the womb. This doesn't work as well as in games like Isaac because here cutscenes intervene between each level, causing a constant change in style of graphics. I feel like this prevents a true immersion in the otherwise appealing womb graphics.
- Some levels are very short, or easy to accomplish, making them "filler" levels between interesting ones. This shortness also prevents from exploring the new mechanic that's introduced to its fullest, and therefore from completing a satisfying difficulty curve inside a level. This left me with the impression of not feeling rewarded at the end of some levels.
- The powerup mechanic is a bit confusing at first, it left me wondering for some time : can I use it on every kind of enemy ? can I strike normal enemies with my fetus directly ? do I deal more damage to pill clusters while being powered up ? how many "beeps" do I have before the powerup stops acting ?
- Sound Design may be enhanced by raising the volume of sounds emitted by enemies, and lowering the ones emitted by the fetus.

I hope to see this in a fuller form in the future :) Congratulations !