Here's my gameplay critique video for Transilio! It's a long one... haha!
Overall, I really liked it; a very odd and unique movement mechanic. I think the core skeletal of the game is strong, it just needs some tightening up, especially in terms of teaching the player. I feel with explanatory mechanics like the signs from the first level (which should be improved to be re-readable and optional and not halt your progress against your will), and with improved level design, the player can be taught each new mechanic more slowly and deliberately. Signs like that are a crutch, but crutches are not inherently bad, sometimes necessary.
Puzzles games are tough and I commend your effort. The ideal with a puzzle game is to make the game not too difficult so as to be frustrating, but still make the player feel smart. I would recommend breaking down the level design for Portal Portal 2, Braid, and Baba Is You; see how they slowly introduce new mechanics bit-by-bit so the player can follow along. Portal is 70% tutorial but it doesn't feel that way. Baba Is You (I think) is a bit harder than the previous three, but there's a lot to learned there. I actually think Transilio has a lot more in common with a sokoban puzzle game than with a more typical puzzle-platformer. The clunky, chunky, grid-based movement and resultant level design is much more reminiscent of a sokoban puzzle game to me. It's like a sidescroller sokoban game to me, and I think that's really cool and interesting. There are great lessons to be learned and copied from previous sokoban games, such as the inclusion of an undo/redo system, which I think this game is screaming for.
Conveyance needs improvement all-around, which is a totally normal problem, especially for puzzle games. As game creators, we know exactly how the mechanics work and how to play the games, but that isn't true for our players. It's difficult to impossible to get in the mindset of a player totally new to our games and see their perceptions; that's why playtesting is so important. Online playtesting is great, but I encourage you to do some in-person playtesting as much as you can with friends, family, and strangers if you can wrangle them. The trick with playtesting is just to hand them the game and say nothing. Don't explain anything about the game, particularly the controls and mechanics, as the game should be teaching those by itself intrinsically. When you have a doe-eyed player seeing it for the first time, those fail points of conveyance become obvious. Again, I'm not disparaging y'all, this is a completely uber-common and normal part of development, we all have to do it, especially for puzzle games.
The presentation was pretty good, I liked the art and music just fine, though they didn't blow me away if I'm frank. I really liked the neat little low-tone background pattern with the square dots and boxes. That was rather lovely. The rest of the art is fine; could use some more juice, a bit more energy and bounce with animation perhaps, or some procedural spice with particle effects. The art for the mechanics might be changed to become a bit more clear to the player what's happening, explain the mechanics better intrinsically as I discuss in the video.
You did a wonderful job with the itch page here; great use of color, background image, semi-transparent background 2, explanatory text, logo, and screenshots. This is a pretty 100% itch page with everything included, which is a big deal! Your game pages are really important and you did a lovely job. The only additions I could say would be: marking everyone as a contributor as the game so you all show up as authors for the project, which Bricks already did after we discussed this in Discord; listing the credits on the itch page text itself, not just in-game; and setting a video for the game, but that's low-priority. The fact the game is playable in-browser is hugely important; that lowers the barrier-to-play tremendously, so everything else marketing the game matters much less. If this was a downloadable game-only, then I would say that a video is much more necessary, but here you're all good.
Awesome job to everyone who worked on the project; I look forward to seeing your progress on this game and future projects! Cheers!
Gunnar - Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up. I will cherish this feedback and read through it each time I make a game going forward! Haha. Generally I agree with everything you said. You have a really good eye! A lot of the things you call out we wrestled with / went back and forth on so I am not at all surprised! We especially knew there were big gaps around player instruction / clarity. We actually did have in person playtests but just didnt have time to implement. Hopefully we can keep in touch for future projects! Now im off to play your games!
Haha 😅 thank you, Drake. My itch games are kinda meh in my opinion; mostly 3 hour game jam projects and old student games. My favorite is probably Doppelgate, which was a six-hour project. It's much easier to give critique and advice than to do it yourself! As I always try to repeat haha... Hence why there a lot of film reviewers and less film makers...
I'd recommend trying to do similar stuff to other games! Playing other people's games and reviewing them, breaking them down, seeing what you like and don't about them is a wonderful exercise, as again, it's easier to pick apart games than to build them! We don't have our ego attached to other people's games like we do our own, so we can see it with fresh, honest eyes. I think it's one of the most effective ways to learn.
With my Itchy for Jam series, I'm largely trying to give to others what I wished someone could have for me when I started with game development, offering feedback, attention, and encouragement. But, it's also for my own benefit, as playing and actively studying / critiquing their design reinforces both good and bad practices I observe to mimic or avoid in my own work, and I hope that can be shared with a general audience as well. I think it's an invaluable exercise.
Got stuck as seen in the image on a level after button mashing asdw & asdf arrow keys together because I couldn't remember how to restart a level. Maybe keep those commands close by in game or in the comments below it. I also got stuck on the level because there is no way to jump up that I can see. I also don't understand the different tile types and why some you jump to, others you ignore and other you jump below. Very confusing. The jump/move mechanics were a bit of a turn off for me. As I got into more of the puzzles, I can see that it made sense but it still feels a bit low-class 2d to move in such a tiled fashion. I have no idea what all the gold blocks do and why there is is groups of them together.
Definitely something we are considering! We still have to take a step back based on the feedback we are getting and determine what kind of scope we want the game to be and what our options will be for development, which will inform a lot about the size of team we will need.
Game's a bit too smart for me but the physics and movement are awfully off-feeling for being based all around a physics concept. My failure at it does not make it any less smart a puzzler though -O
Thanks a bunch for playing! Let me know if you have any feedback / thoughts in terms of what about the rules you struggled with and ways you think we could have made it more clear. Definitely would want to make improvements!
I remember playing this game a week back and testing it out. The retinal was a very great idea. Loved this games idea and also the challenge was very fun too. Got a little stuck here and there but luckily with a hint or two was able to make it all the way though the game! Well done :) Here is my video of your game!
@CarbsCode thank you so much for playing, commenting, and even posting your video! Super motivating! Sorry for the bugs haha! Feel free to post any detailed feedback (including criticism!) in the community discord we set up: https://discord.gg/4DHmjCk
I played this on stream a few days ago, and honestly, it was really challenging! the game was really polished, and i was excited to hear the developers wanted to build out on it further! Awesome job to the team, for making transilio!
My one critique is that I wish I knew what level I was on while I was playing it, Lol.
This is pretty good, wish I had the creativity to come up with something like this. Two little things:
- I'd like to see the level somewhere I am at (I was playing from the browser)
- I stuck at the level starting at the bottom and needed to jump 10 step high, but cannot because the mark is only 2 steps above. Maybe there is a trick but it doesn't seem connected to the physics learned from the previous levels. Maybe I am just not clever enough, but I think people give up a game something like this within 60 seconds if they cannot progress or don't see more options to trying with (at least I do), so maybe a hint or more granularity would help there. (that is the level:
Nothing discussed ramps before this and there is no indicator and no amount of button mashing with keys (we were told to use) that do anything as far as I could tell. Towel officially thrown.
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im confused in level 2
Overall, I really liked it; a very odd and unique movement mechanic. I think the core skeletal of the game is strong, it just needs some tightening up, especially in terms of teaching the player. I feel with explanatory mechanics like the signs from the first level (which should be improved to be re-readable and optional and not halt your progress against your will), and with improved level design, the player can be taught each new mechanic more slowly and deliberately. Signs like that are a crutch, but crutches are not inherently bad, sometimes necessary.
Puzzles games are tough and I commend your effort. The ideal with a puzzle game is to make the game not too difficult so as to be frustrating, but still make the player feel smart. I would recommend breaking down the level design for Portal Portal 2, Braid, and Baba Is You; see how they slowly introduce new mechanics bit-by-bit so the player can follow along. Portal is 70% tutorial but it doesn't feel that way. Baba Is You (I think) is a bit harder than the previous three, but there's a lot to learned there. I actually think Transilio has a lot more in common with a sokoban puzzle game than with a more typical puzzle-platformer. The clunky, chunky, grid-based movement and resultant level design is much more reminiscent of a sokoban puzzle game to me. It's like a sidescroller sokoban game to me, and I think that's really cool and interesting. There are great lessons to be learned and copied from previous sokoban games, such as the inclusion of an undo/redo system, which I think this game is screaming for.
Conveyance needs improvement all-around, which is a totally normal problem, especially for puzzle games. As game creators, we know exactly how the mechanics work and how to play the games, but that isn't true for our players. It's difficult to impossible to get in the mindset of a player totally new to our games and see their perceptions; that's why playtesting is so important. Online playtesting is great, but I encourage you to do some in-person playtesting as much as you can with friends, family, and strangers if you can wrangle them. The trick with playtesting is just to hand them the game and say nothing. Don't explain anything about the game, particularly the controls and mechanics, as the game should be teaching those by itself intrinsically. When you have a doe-eyed player seeing it for the first time, those fail points of conveyance become obvious. Again, I'm not disparaging y'all, this is a completely uber-common and normal part of development, we all have to do it, especially for puzzle games.
The presentation was pretty good, I liked the art and music just fine, though they didn't blow me away if I'm frank. I really liked the neat little low-tone background pattern with the square dots and boxes. That was rather lovely. The rest of the art is fine; could use some more juice, a bit more energy and bounce with animation perhaps, or some procedural spice with particle effects. The art for the mechanics might be changed to become a bit more clear to the player what's happening, explain the mechanics better intrinsically as I discuss in the video.
You did a wonderful job with the itch page here; great use of color, background image, semi-transparent background 2, explanatory text, logo, and screenshots. This is a pretty 100% itch page with everything included, which is a big deal! Your game pages are really important and you did a lovely job. The only additions I could say would be: marking everyone as a contributor as the game so you all show up as authors for the project, which Bricks already did after we discussed this in Discord; listing the credits on the itch page text itself, not just in-game; and setting a video for the game, but that's low-priority. The fact the game is playable in-browser is hugely important; that lowers the barrier-to-play tremendously, so everything else marketing the game matters much less. If this was a downloadable game-only, then I would say that a video is much more necessary, but here you're all good.
Awesome job to everyone who worked on the project; I look forward to seeing your progress on this game and future projects! Cheers!
-Sincerely, Gunnar Clovis
Gunnar - Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up. I will cherish this feedback and read through it each time I make a game going forward! Haha. Generally I agree with everything you said. You have a really good eye! A lot of the things you call out we wrestled with / went back and forth on so I am not at all surprised! We especially knew there were big gaps around player instruction / clarity. We actually did have in person playtests but just didnt have time to implement. Hopefully we can keep in touch for future projects! Now im off to play your games!
Thanks,
Drake
Haha 😅 thank you, Drake. My itch games are kinda meh in my opinion; mostly 3 hour game jam projects and old student games. My favorite is probably Doppelgate, which was a six-hour project. It's much easier to give critique and advice than to do it yourself! As I always try to repeat haha... Hence why there a lot of film reviewers and less film makers...
I'd recommend trying to do similar stuff to other games! Playing other people's games and reviewing them, breaking them down, seeing what you like and don't about them is a wonderful exercise, as again, it's easier to pick apart games than to build them! We don't have our ego attached to other people's games like we do our own, so we can see it with fresh, honest eyes. I think it's one of the most effective ways to learn.
With my Itchy for Jam series, I'm largely trying to give to others what I wished someone could have for me when I started with game development, offering feedback, attention, and encouragement. But, it's also for my own benefit, as playing and actively studying / critiquing their design reinforces both good and bad practices I observe to mimic or avoid in my own work, and I hope that can be shared with a general audience as well. I think it's an invaluable exercise.
I look forward to seeing your future work!
The puzzles were tricky, but my pro gamer brain solved them eventually. 10/10, would jump again.
This review is amazing. 10/10
I enjoyed it.
Made it a ways further. Some good challenges in there. Gave up on the breast level.
First of all, thank you so much for playing and posting! Second, "breast level" made me laugh so hard
Finally figured out how to set jump height to make progress. Pretty tough. I got stuck on this level. No idea.
a a
nm, gave it a few more restarts and figure it out.
Got stuck as seen in the image on a level after button mashing asdw & asdf arrow keys together because I couldn't remember how to restart a level. Maybe keep those commands close by in game or in the comments below it. I also got stuck on the level because there is no way to jump up that I can see. I also don't understand the different tile types and why some you jump to, others you ignore and other you jump below. Very confusing. The jump/move mechanics were a bit of a turn off for me. As I got into more of the puzzles, I can see that it made sense but it still feels a bit low-class 2d to move in such a tiled fashion. I have no idea what all the gold blocks do and why there is is groups of them together.
i really like this puzzle platformer and would like to ask if you want get a bigger team to continue it?
Definitely something we are considering! We still have to take a step back based on the feedback we are getting and determine what kind of scope we want the game to be and what our options will be for development, which will inform a lot about the size of team we will need.
if you every need more members on your team then i would happily help!
Game's a bit too smart for me but the physics and movement are awfully off-feeling for being based all around a physics concept. My failure at it does not make it any less smart a puzzler though
-O
It was a very good puzzle. I had a hard time getting used to the rules.
Thanks a bunch for playing! Let me know if you have any feedback / thoughts in terms of what about the rules you struggled with and ways you think we could have made it more clear. Definitely would want to make improvements!
Also, good job! I'm pretty sure your video is a perfect run / very fast!
I remember playing this game a week back and testing it out. The retinal was a very great idea. Loved this games idea and also the challenge was very fun too. Got a little stuck here and there but luckily with a hint or two was able to make it all the way though the game! Well done :) Here is my video of your game!
Watch Transilio By DrakeAutery & Team from Carbs on www.twitch.tv
@CarbsCode thank you so much for playing, commenting, and even posting your video! Super motivating! Sorry for the bugs haha! Feel free to post any detailed feedback (including criticism!) in the community discord we set up: https://discord.gg/4DHmjCk
I played this on stream a few days ago, and honestly, it was really challenging! the game was really polished, and i was excited to hear the developers wanted to build out on it further! Awesome job to the team, for making transilio!
My one critique is that I wish I knew what level I was on while I was playing it, Lol.
Thank you for playing! Also, thanks for the critique, for sure will add that feature in a later build / improve the level selection process!
This is pretty good, wish I had the creativity to come up with something like this. Two little things:
- I'd like to see the level somewhere I am at (I was playing from the browser)
- I stuck at the level starting at the bottom and needed to jump 10 step high, but cannot because the mark is only 2 steps above. Maybe there is a trick but it doesn't seem connected to the physics learned from the previous levels. Maybe I am just not clever enough, but I think people give up a game something like this within 60 seconds if they cannot progress or don't see more options to trying with (at least I do), so maybe a hint or more granularity would help there. (that is the level:
Thanks for playing! I'll give you a hint: The ramp is important!
Nothing discussed ramps before this and there is no indicator and no amount of button mashing with keys (we were told to use) that do anything as far as I could tell. Towel officially thrown.
nm, figured it out.