It's an interesting concept, but I feel that it could have some room for improvement.
I liked the premise, but it felt like the choices were split between choices that raise CP and choices that lower CP, and that the game penalizes the player for trying to make interesting choices that could be funny instead of having Harold always play the role of the passionate, slime-killing crusader that is destined to bring back the light.
I'm not sure which choices are meant to lead to alternate outcomes given the negative audience reactions and CP losses.
The Pyro points idea was interesting, but I found that it was much more straightforward to conserve Pyro points and rely on regular attacks, especially during the final boss given that the final boss drains Pyro points and the damage difference isn't very impactful, even for Marsha's fire and staff attacks.
I also felt that the auto scroll text was very slow and not fun to sit through. I would have liked to have the option to advance the story at my preferred speed.
I appreciate your feedback. With the CP choices, I wanted the player to feel like they were creating a new, better script when everything goes off the rails, but I can also see why some players would want to spice things up. My assumption was that the player wouldn't want to make Harold too goofy or self-deprecating, so I apologize if some of the later choices confused you. I did want to ramp up the difficulty of those choices near the end, but I could have also taken time (which to be fair was practically non-existent by the end) to make things a little clearer.
I think shared Pyro Points would have flourished with more magic on hand, but when replaying this game I did find out Harold's Spark is very weak and in most cases you'd just be better off using Sword Slash anyway. Likewise, I find Marsha's Cane Twirl and Fire do about the same damage as well. Balancing definitely went down to the wire and I definitely feel like I could have done better. Maybe for the post-jam build.
I'm kicking myself for the auto-scrolling text in the replayability sense. I was quadrupled down on the stage play idea and dead set on having the dialogue and music line up. However, it didn't hit me until after the deadline that while the game encourages replayability, most players wouldn't want to sit through the same long cutscenes they already sat through waiting to make that right choice. And what if they're wrong? Big time waster. Considering this was my first time attempting to make something replayable, at least now I know to look at replayability from an overall gameplay experience view instead of how your choices slightly affect the ending.
Thanks again for the more critical take. Jams are a great way to experiment and learn, and I'm definitely coming out of here with something to know for next time.
I'm glad I could help with the feedback. Your entry could definitely use some more polish, but I greatly enjoyed the experience and I'd be happy to see what you create in the future, if you desire to do so.
Definitely! I really love Harold Jam and I look forward to entering the next one. There's also that bigger RPG where you change colors and stuff; glad you like how that's coming along too.
I meant to make the tag play and for some reason Itch made it playdate. Forgot to change it, my apologies. IDK what playdate is and frankly I don't think I want to know
Playdate is a new handheld console made by the publishers of untitled goose game and firewatch. No worries, was just curious , there isn't a need to be rude about not wanting to know.
I thought it was gonna be some really messed up fetish thing for some reason so I apologize. Did not mean to come off as rude at all. Curiosity got the better of me last night so I looked into it. I'm familiar with the console and the way you crank it, I just wasn't aware that's what it was called. Looks really interesting tbh
What fetish thing were you picturing, exclusively asking out of curiosity xD I understand now where your "frankly I don't want to know" came from. I interpreted it as like, oh yeah I'm sure it's something but I don't care. Gotta love misinterpreting text statements on the internet lol
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It's an interesting concept, but I feel that it could have some room for improvement.
I liked the premise, but it felt like the choices were split between choices that raise CP and choices that lower CP, and that the game penalizes the player for trying to make interesting choices that could be funny instead of having Harold always play the role of the passionate, slime-killing crusader that is destined to bring back the light.
I'm not sure which choices are meant to lead to alternate outcomes given the negative audience reactions and CP losses.
The Pyro points idea was interesting, but I found that it was much more straightforward to conserve Pyro points and rely on regular attacks, especially during the final boss given that the final boss drains Pyro points and the damage difference isn't very impactful, even for Marsha's fire and staff attacks.
I also felt that the auto scroll text was very slow and not fun to sit through. I would have liked to have the option to advance the story at my preferred speed.
I appreciate your feedback. With the CP choices, I wanted the player to feel like they were creating a new, better script when everything goes off the rails, but I can also see why some players would want to spice things up. My assumption was that the player wouldn't want to make Harold too goofy or self-deprecating, so I apologize if some of the later choices confused you. I did want to ramp up the difficulty of those choices near the end, but I could have also taken time (which to be fair was practically non-existent by the end) to make things a little clearer.
I think shared Pyro Points would have flourished with more magic on hand, but when replaying this game I did find out Harold's Spark is very weak and in most cases you'd just be better off using Sword Slash anyway. Likewise, I find Marsha's Cane Twirl and Fire do about the same damage as well. Balancing definitely went down to the wire and I definitely feel like I could have done better. Maybe for the post-jam build.
I'm kicking myself for the auto-scrolling text in the replayability sense. I was quadrupled down on the stage play idea and dead set on having the dialogue and music line up. However, it didn't hit me until after the deadline that while the game encourages replayability, most players wouldn't want to sit through the same long cutscenes they already sat through waiting to make that right choice. And what if they're wrong? Big time waster. Considering this was my first time attempting to make something replayable, at least now I know to look at replayability from an overall gameplay experience view instead of how your choices slightly affect the ending.
Thanks again for the more critical take. Jams are a great way to experiment and learn, and I'm definitely coming out of here with something to know for next time.
I'm glad I could help with the feedback. Your entry could definitely use some more polish, but I greatly enjoyed the experience and I'd be happy to see what you create in the future, if you desire to do so.
Definitely! I really love Harold Jam and I look forward to entering the next one. There's also that bigger RPG where you change colors and stuff; glad you like how that's coming along too.
Why is this listed as a Playdate game?
I was gonna ask the same question.
I meant to make the tag play and for some reason Itch made it playdate. Forgot to change it, my apologies. IDK what playdate is and frankly I don't think I want to know
Playdate is a new handheld console made by the publishers of untitled goose game and firewatch. No worries, was just curious , there isn't a need to be rude about not wanting to know.
I thought it was gonna be some really messed up fetish thing for some reason so I apologize. Did not mean to come off as rude at all. Curiosity got the better of me last night so I looked into it. I'm familiar with the console and the way you crank it, I just wasn't aware that's what it was called. Looks really interesting tbh
What fetish thing were you picturing, exclusively asking out of curiosity xD I understand now where your "frankly I don't want to know" came from. I interpreted it as like, oh yeah I'm sure it's something but I don't care. Gotta love misinterpreting text statements on the internet lol
The internet is just like that