Quaffy's Last Swig

Neat game! I included it in my compilation video series of all of the GM48 games, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/3epPRcwgayM

Love the little characters and animations!

The screen gets cluttered really quickly and it's not too clear what the player should do, other than the really good sprites there's not much polish into the game, but it was still fun overall.

It's a pretty simple game but I really liked it, visuals and sounds were pretty fun and really added to the atmosphere of the game. The potions with various effects were a good idea, and just the fact that both types of enemies have different patterns helped a lot. Most of the time in jams for this kind of game the enemies just run at you and it's too easy to cheese the game.

Is Y on the controller supposed to give you all potions? i assume it was a debug/test command and you forgot to remove it :p

The game feels fast! Maybe too much. You barely have time to kill the four first enemies before the next wave comes, making it rather busy pretty quickly. The screen easily gets filled by enemies and you barely have room to breathe! Would have liked if there was a way to pause for a second or two. That said, the potions idea is fun, though I would have liked a few more feedback from it (like, the weak potion showing you it refills your life) Also, I think the potion should be named by its benefit rather than its drawback (weak is the side effect of regenerating life, rather than regenerating being the benefit of consuming a bad item)

EDIT: about rogue likes, keep in mind they're rarely pure action action games, you're not pressured all the time and have time to breathe or test the effects; in your game, it's constant action, so it's a bit harder to figure out.

This game is so much fun! Comboing enemies is cool, as the music is too. I quite don't understand very well what some of the potions do but I liked what the game have to offer. Really nice job!

The variety of potions and effects are really impressive.

I like that spears run through more enemies at once making them explode. Maybe let the player shoot backwards while run could be a nice improvement.

I think you forgot to remove a debug control on the gamepad.

Having the potions have heal you and provide a negative effect is an interesting idea and a good use of the theme. I really like how there are so many varied effects that can happen and I enjoyed playing the game just to see all the different kinds of potions.

It doesn't seem perfectly balanced though. The spear throw is way more useful than the basic attack, and I found the best strategy was just to run around the edges and bunch the enemies in the middle so I could take lots out with one throw. I think this could be solved by buffing the normal attack and having enemies with different movement patterns so they don't bunch as easily.

The graphics are simple but effective. I like the combination of the black background with the vivid colours of the enemies and obstacles. It looks good and helps everything to stand out. The music and sound effects are solid butthe music does seems to start overlapping itself once you die and restart.