Colornaut

Very sleek, well made game! I included it in my GM48: Colors are Important compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/pzo4of_gRdw

I really like the aesthetic and 'painting' things with my bullets. Some interesting mechanics and a pleasing palette to stylize it. Some audio would be great to give this some punch. You've created a great basis for a game here, and it will be interesting to see what you come out with as your game maker skills develop. Great work!

Hey, considering you are new to game maker this is pretty good.

There was some good bullet patterns that would be at home in many bullet hell games.

Clearly you already know it, but I'll say it:

• it would have benefited greatly from having sounds, a good site to make your own free sounds (within the rules) is https://www.bfxr.net/

I found I could keep the game running forever if I just keep swapping non stop as it'll give me health until it maxes out at 10, I ddn't have to avoid bullets or do anything really.

I also fought that bullets that are yourships color wouldn't hurt you, like in Igkurgi but they do?

My advice is to use that site to make some sound effects and to keep advancing further with game maker, if you are this far in so quickly you'll be an ace within half a year.

Well I turned on the Touhou 7 OST on YouTube and fired this up. It was a great call! Never played Touhou, but it really set a good mood for the gameplay. So much so, that I was confused when the music didn't stop as the game ended!

I think the idea behind your game was pretty interesting. It reminded me of my entry in a lot of ways, and I share a lot of the sentiments of Croaks feedback. Though I would say that I wanted to understand what was happening a bit better, and I was trying to figure if there was a optimal time to switch colors. In the end, I swapped colors as frequently as possible / needed. It gets really intense toward the end, and I got down to 2 HP at one point!

I enjoyed the minimalist style and the graphics, albeit it simple, were pleasantly cohesive. It was fun and I appreciated the variety of enemies you added. Given that you've had GMS for less than a month, I'm really impressed! I hope you keep participating in the jams and I want to see what you do next!

Hey, it's the first game jam for both of us! And yeah, we need to talk about Colornaut. I laughed reading that the theme did nothing for you, because I can relate to that, but then you took an inspiration like Ikaruga and somehow turned it on its head. This is a completely different game.

My understanding of Ikaruga (one of my favorites) is that it's a bullet hell that uses color switching for damaging enemies effectively, safety by absorbing like-color bullets, and charging up power blasts. This doesn't do any of that.

Instead, the loop here is using a color switch to find enemies, see (and dodge) bullets, and heal. This game isn't about being smart, it's about survival.

Can we take a minute to appreciate the incredibly smart design decisions you made?

First off, the color switch cycle being one-way makes it so that I don't worry about what color should come next. I'm told what will come next and I just have to deal with it and focus on surviving.

Second, the walls do double the damage of bullets. That tells me not to focus on enemies, I can afford to fire a bit blind as long as I'm dodging walls to survive.

Third, that I heal by switching. That encourages me to not think, just switch. I already can't control what color comes next, I'm firing blindly, and now "oh great, the only way to heal is to keep switching colors." So I have to just keep mashing that button and praying I can SURVIVE the chaos that ensues with a hit box that is the ENTIRE SPRITE OF THE SHIP.

And then that enemy type that's invisible in every color? Genius. Now I HAVE to care about the bullets to find that enemy in order to, you guessed it, SURVIVE.

This game is smart and I'm so impressed with it, and you, and the way I feel right now. I put on a little Touhou music (as inspired by your description) and wow, I was sucked right in.

It's so fitting that you close out the game at the end with an auto-close mic drop.

Amazing.

I love the bold use of color in a way that you rarely see. However, I found the game play somewhat confusing. I found it hard to tell if I was doing well or very badly.

It's a cool concept, but there's no way to lose and you don't really need to switch colors to do well. The ship's controls are good and the different enemy types make the gameplay interesting.