The Breakout

Because you did not participate 27th jam I decided to play this game instead, as I tried to play everyones game, who had given me feedback.

Game mechanic was good on paper, and fitted 26th theme well (on practice it was too hard to control). It took me a while to understand how the ball reacted, and I kept killing myself, but I found the best strategy by myself, which you did also mention here in feedback. I liked the music, and although game graphics were simple, they worked. Gameplaywise, the ball hit myself too easily even when I tried to walk slowly (snapped to player if you went even slight too fast). If ever you want to continue with this idea, give player option to grab the ball and carry it, making player vulnerable and more slow.

Too bad I did not participate last jam or wasn't rating back then, this was good and I see you also got good result :)

Challenging and fun 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

Pretty much one of my fav games of the jam, as usual for your games there's insanely good gameplay with average art and sound, the difficulty curve was actually really balanced and while the level design wasn't necessarily great in all the levels it was still pretty good.

You threw me a curveball (hah get it?) at the end tho, that level was so hard T_T

Gawd, I had to give up on the last level, this is harder than the spelunky run with ball&chain D: I think everything has been said before, but yeah, even while taking my time to move I ended up hitting myself, it was really infuriating.
I ended up using the same strat you told kwis, but the problem is level are so big towards the end (and require backtracking) that small mistakes add up really fast. I mean, you can literally die on the way to the exit in an empty level!

Anyways, this is a really cute and fun game nonetheless, and the idea is pretty nice, even if it's more "harmful but helpful" than "helpful but harmful" :D

Usually with your games I try my best to get until the end but... I really had too much troubles with the controls :/

I hit myself with the ball way too much. the way it handicaps my basic movements is what makes it frustrating. Generally with handicaps like these, you should try to avoid getting too deep into the basic expectation of interaction with the player; I mean that you should have some kind of set ground to normally move. For example, you could have a walk mode vs run mode, where the run mode activates the ball's mechanics. I think it would have helped, especially when you destroyed everyone and just want to safely get back everyone. I was just tapping the button at that point, which was annoying, but far easier to deal with than the "running in circle" trick (that is also not very fun imo). You should have a way to safely move (but not attack).

That said, pretty cool idea and wow, again lots of content!

Theme is on point! As was I when the goblins shanked me. I didn't manage to finish the game but that is probably my ineptitude when it comes to games. The core mechanic of the ball was great fun when I got it swinging, and holding the ball in place helps allot with the mechanic, otherwise the ball is to hard to get swinging around you. Very solid game.

Nice idea, but I feel like this could've been done a lot better. It is too easy to hit yourself with the ball.

As other said this game need a gamepad to be enjoyed.

I reached the last level with the keyboard before surrend and use joytokey.

However the ball mechanic is brilliant, first levels are really fun, sound and music are good too :)

Perfect use of the theme!!! Holy crap that game was super HARD!!!!!!! I'm glad for your tips but I still was not able to beat the game. I'm going to try again tomorrow when I've had more sleep. I was trying to find a good pattern to use besides just running in circles but I just could not find anything better than running in circles. aaaaaaaa.. lol Nice job!!

EDIT HAHA just watched your walkthrough and wow that is lot of levels!! Every time I kill the bad guys I would walk SUPER SLOW so that I could get all the prisoners and get to the next level and get my health back. I am going to have to figure out how to move fast without getting hit!!!!!

Great use of the theme! It was fun, but a little frustrating. I am keen to try the post-jam build, since you added controller support. Where can I find it?

I found that I tended to die while walking around, as I couldn't find a comfortable way to move. This was really interesting at first, but started to wear me down as I would often die on my way to the exit after clearing the level.

Great use of the theme and nice character design! The mechanic was unique and it was fun to play. I didn't manage to make it to the very end but enjoyed the levels I got to play.

I second the toning down the ball hitting you in the back when you walk slow.

Nice job! I think its a cool addition to any game library!

The mechanics are fantastic for the theme, very clever. The graphics are nice and actually a bit cute. Sound is nice but the bgm got a little bit grating by the end. All is good on the technical side.

I don't think it would have been possible for me to finish this game without using joytokey with a joypad, using the keyboard to swing the ball is very painful after a while. I think the game should have native gamepad support.

For gameplay, the first half was great. As the levels got a little too long it became quite tedious to play, I was inching to the end to avoid killing myself after everything was finished. I think the last levels are a little too long for their own good.

Minor criticisms. Camera moves too much too fast, which made me a little ill by the end, maybe a slight follow delay would've helped? The game freezes on an enemies death, This might have been added for an impact effect or a bug, but I wasn't a fan.

All up, fantastic idea, good game, marred a bit by a frustrating end.