Hulda's world

Cute art, nice music - wouldn't have expected it to be so damn hard though! I think my brain just isn't compatible with this... in 100 % of my attempts I always ended up getting caught off-guard when the "walls" of single-coloured fish started spawning, killing me >.<

Oh, also, arrow keys + mouse control is pretty awkward, would've been better with WASD

First of all, the graphics were soo nice! Looked really pleasent and polished. I also liked the sound, especially the music. How it's progressing with the game is such a nice touch and really stood out. The gameplay was also very good! I had a lot of fun, tried a lot of times to beat my highscore. It gets quite difficult fast, but you always feel like you learn to manage everything better than the last time. The concept was also something I've never seen.

A few things I didn't like: -The text after you die is pretty hard to read, especially if it's in red. A little ourline or other type of background would have done a lot for readability. -If I'm playing with the mouse in one hand, it feels unnatural for me to use the arrow keys, my hand posture feels somewhat wrong. Since you didn't need WASD for anything else, I would consider adding it as an alternative input. Also, the "R" would have been easier to press for restarting, without moving the fingers away from the movement controls. -The pop up windows were annoying. Everytime I misclicked one popped up and interrupted the game flow. This would have been better solved with just a message inside the game in maybe a little box. -Switching to fullscreen. I know a lot of people would rather enjoy their games in windowed mode, but a lot, like me, enjoy it more if it's fullscreen. I like to not be distracted, and it happened a few times I clicked outside the window. So why not just leave "Allow fullscreen toggle" on? Is there a downside to it I'm not aware of?

Other than that great game! I didn't encounter any bugs. Nice job :)

I really liked the sound and graphics! The concept was good too. I just wish the sequence of the fish attacks was kinder, and there was more time to react to the oncoming fish. There wasn't really enough time to build much of an island, and that was what I was most looking forward to. Very cute game though, which fit the theme well, although the juxtaposition of a tangled garden and the ocean was a little strange! Maybe if it were clearing away tangled overgrowth to expand a little garden out of the jungle, and the enemies were maybe wasps or bees, it would have felt more cohesive. On the other hand, taking very different elements and putting them together makes for something more unique, which isn't a bad thing.

I like the artwork, especially of the main character! The tile placing is nice.

It felt like the pacing was a bit too fast at first. Maybe try ramping the speed up a little after the player has a better handle on what's happening?

Maybe instead of dragging, let scrolling the mouse wheel or using different keys to switch between tiles and using the mouse button to click placing? I dunno, just a thought, mostly because I found it a bit tricky to juggle dragging a tile while also worrying about dodging fish!

Really neat little game. The graphics were fitting (and cute), and the music was some of the best I've heard this jam.

The control scheme took a little bit of time to figure out (even after reading the instructions a few times)...but once I realized what I was supposed to do, I really enjoyed it.

Maybe a bit could be done to spruce up the pop-up menus, and I seemed to have run into a few hit-box issues during my play-through, but nothing major there.

Nice work overall!

This game looks and sounds soooo good. But it's as hard as it's cute. And it's very cute.

One thing I noticed is that my brain just didn't work :D Like, if I want to try and switch color to catch a specific fish, I'll do it in reverse, say from blue to red and end up trying to catch a blue fish. I think that's because I need to physically move to a tile, and by that time fishes moved too, but my brain still thinks I'm the previous color.

Anyways, I though it was interesting. The game was extremely nice, so that's what matters.

This was a cute and charming game. I don't see any reason to place more than 1 type of each block, though. The whole 'worldbuilding' aspect isn't very enforced by the gameplay. What I would suggest is to add rewards for exploring outwards, so the player will be incentivized to place more blocks.

I love the music and the art! Would love to see more sprinkles of the art around the game. I kept playing and made it into the 4000s enough to last through the music change. I definitely could see a bullet hell/crafting vibe from this project.

The dual controls of using a mouse and keyboard did take some getting used to. At first glance I was under the impression it would be keyboard only and am curious how this could map to a controller. Controls and movement felt right with the character. Having the popup happen during a misplaced tile is a momentum stopper for now and look forward to whatever the workaround is. Accessibility and onboarding wise, i'm wondering if the speed could match the music, with a buildup in speed to with the tempo change.

At its core I do like gameplay of puzzle building mechanics while avoiding objects. Based on the current UI, keeping my eye on the tileset and the playfield, I started to wonder if my eyetracking started to mimic the eye tracking from an FPS!

Would love to see where this goes if you all continue development. Great job!

I had fun with this! I got hooked enough to try to get my score as high as possible. I managed about a 4.1k (a little past the music change).

I can't say for 100% certain if it was an original concept but I don't recall playing anything similar, and I enjoyed figuring out little strategies to optimize my play. Trying different things is neat.

I'd like if the controls were WASD instead, as it requires you to use the mouse, which can get a bit cramped.

The controls were as responsive as I could ask for

There is a little bit of a bug (?) that happens with the colour switching when moving from one coloured tile to another; you can sometimes get hit in the brief window before your colour actually changes, or (depending on the colour of the enemy) you can sometimes get a gram and get hit simultaneously by the same enemy, but it's hard to reproduce. I tried a few different ways to exploit colour swapping and couldn't perform anything consistently so I'd say it's not a huge issue. I don't know if the game checks for collision every frame, but the enemies could disappear if they hit you or something?

Overall I really like the game, it's a neat idea in a cute world. I would definitely play more.

I liked the art and music, game itself was bit on difficult side if playing alone. The game had similiar idea with mine, but brought more elements there, as in resource handling . Pop up messages were off, didn't with overall game unfortunately. When picking up some 'blop' sound and letting go in wrong place somekind of error sound, could have worked instead. Something that tells you need to hold it, not just click. I don't think this games needs 'juice' as Eric stated, as this was visually pleasent already. Maybe more animation for Hulda, but it doesn't need screenshake, and with particles need to be careful to not clash with overall art. Now about the Hulda, is he/she looking down on ground and it's his/her front hair, or is it beard and eyes are hidden under the hat? :D

My high score was something over 4000 points.

I really like the art direction in the game with the soft color palette. Text is also appropriately colored for the game while at the same time contrasted enough so you can read quickly what's going on. Base gameplay mechanics are great with a really fun gameplay loop. Still trying to get a good high score lol. Music is also fantastic.

A few things I'd improve on are the UI components. The mouse to drag to build the tiles is a little clunky and needs some looking at. It's difficult clicking and dragging while you're busy dodging so many fish.

I'm also not liking that huge pop up message when there's not enough resources. It really interrupts the flow of the game. Maybe have this be an ingame message instead that doesn't stop the game? I see that this was a leftover from when it was a TD game but just figured I'd chime in here also.

Difficulty is quite challenging at the start as the fish just start flying at you and had a hard time getting my bearings even after a few playthroughs. Not a good or bad thing but just an observation.

Much potential to be had here, great job in only two days!

Current score is 4528! I'll beat 10238 yet...

I think your game has motivated me the most to reach for high scores. The idea is very nice and I like how the tempo is already fast in the beginning.

There are some usability issues related to UI components: the amount of the material is hard to see it being so light. It's also located in a hard spot since your eye focus is so busy with the actual action. Maybe observing it would be easier if it was located next to the tile store? The "not enough material" pop up also made me always feel like the game had crashed.

If you end up developing this more I definitely want to play the next versions: like said, the actual gameplay excites me a LOT.

Edit: Oh I forgot to mention that the music was dope!

A fun and well thought out game. It is entertaining, easy to learn, yet has an appropriate amount of difficulty keep you playing and wanting to beat your previous score. I enjoyed the clean layout and the integration of planning/strategy by moving tiles of specific colours to specific locations. I also really enjoyed the fun music, and that it progressed as the game intensified. Overall, it was an engaging and joyful experience!

The music was awesome and fitting for the game. The pop up messages were a little jarring but it's good that they were there for guidance.

Love the style of this game!

It's definitely very challenging. The highest score I could get was 4062, but once I've reviewed all the other games I'll surely come back and try to beat my own score! I still haven't gotten enough resource to build a hot spring, I'm curious what it does.

My main feedback would be that it could use more juice. Things like screenshake, particles, variations on the sound effects. When you have a game that will be played repeatedly that kind of stuff adds a great touch. Also, not being able to fullscreen it (as far as I know) made the game kinda hard to see for me, but no big deal.

Art and music was great, especially love when the music becomes all intense and the full line waves started appearing to match.

Overall very good! Congratulations :)

Pretty neat game. I really like the art. All the leaves and grass and stuff gives the game a nice soothing sort of style. The music helps to give the same vibe.

The controls are a bit awkward with requiring use of both the mouse and the keyboard. At the very least WASD should be able to be used for movement. I also dislike the pop up messages for when you don't have enough material - they're very jarring.

That said, the gameplay is pretty unique and interesting. I like how you have to plan out where the different colours will be placed to give yourself the best chance of having access to them when you need it.

Really nice light bullet-hell/tower-defense game. The music + art elements really adds a nice aesthetic and I think its needed for easing players into the game.

I think the controls need a work-through; the arrow keys + drag and drop is slightly counter-intuitive. Would love to see more control options such as mouse 1 + mouse 2 for movement and tile creation or settings keys on the keyboard for tile selection/placement.

I think this game has a lot of potential to bloom once its given some more time to sprout. Great work considering this was done in such short time.

Quite fun for a time. It's like Frogger with some unique building mechanics. The art style and sound direction is endearing, and fits the playful tone of the game. The core gameplay is nice and simple, so it could get pretty addictive.

Main criticism: after you get your tiles set up, you basically just dodge and place heals. I definitely suggest going nuts and experiment with building mechanics, power ups, game modes, etc, although I'm sure you guys already have a bunch of ideas.

Other suggestions:

• Add a tiny input buffer to provide some leniency to a player mistiming rapid consecutive inputs.
• Having to click on the tiles is a bit disorienting. You could implement a radial menu, right-click to cycle, or keyboard inputs. This way you could instantly place some clutch tiles to save you.
• I don't know if it was intended or a bug, but if you time your movement correctly, you can move past a fish. I just picked blue, filled the entire stage with white tiles and just dodged the vertical waves. =)
• I noticed that the music changes as the game progresses, so it's a shame that players who lose early won't experience all the content you've created. One way I've seen this handled is you get to continue, but your high score stays. Or you could sit at the game over screen to hear the entire track :)
• It'd be pretty cool to visually telegraph the big spawns like the vertical waves. It'll be impactful and give the player a brief window to avoid getting overwhelmed by multiple colors.
• Is it just me or do the blue fishes spawn more?

Very interesting stuff, keep it up!

The art is vivid and simple, which is accompanied by the right kind of music that changes as the game progresses. The game mechanics remind me of classic 2-D arcade games and kept me engaged, trying to get a higher score each time I played. The only thing I would like to see in the future is volume control, as the music was just a bit louder than I would have liked. Although it is not necessary, perhaps some people would like to see a visual of the key binds.

Very cool game, I really like the background music as well. The art is cute (I especially like the vegetation) and the concept is very unique and compelling in its implementation! I'm not very good at it though... lol.

Fantastic, fun little game. Very addicting - like the games from the original flash era. Mechanics are simple, but trying to figure out the best strategy can easily suck you in for hours. Excellent background music!

A few suggestions:

• Insert a pause button (with a countdown resume) so that players can place tiles, especially after things become hectic!
• Allow lives to be given greater than the starting number of lives - ie, getting a hot springs when you are at three hats brings you up to four hats
• More different fish attack patterns!

A wonderful and addicting game. There is a nice learning curve which challenges you to improve on your approach. I've enjoyed coming up with new strategies to improve my score. The art style is beautiful and clean which greatly adds to the experience allowing you to clearly see and plan your next move. I really like how the music ramps up as the game difficulty scales and you can use the music cues to assist you in remembering the patterns in the game play. Managing resources to build the island while simultaneously dodging is a nice twist on the genre that makes it very fast paced and exciting. Overall, a very fun experience!