Space Dive

This was a nice platformer with a clear homage to the famous doodle jump. Nice usage of the pixel and space themeing. In my view I think you could compliacte the levels a bit more as I felt they were easy to solve. Maybe you could alleviate this by adding longer maps or more levels. I concur with Chloe's statement on making player health reset at the beginning of each level as well.

This game is very cute and has an interesting story / level progression for being a smaller game. The pixel art is clean and well done. I would suggest more details to the background because I want to see more of this pixel art style but either way the level designs are very good. Most platformers tend to keep the same look or style for the different levels but I like how it changes to the astronaut using a parachute to fall. I would suggest adjusting the camera's position so that the player is more centered, but other than that this is very nice work!

Playtester Name: Chang

Developer Name(s): Caitlin, Alexia

Playtest Date : 11/20/2020

What were your favorite moments of the game?

I really liked the different scenes with different atmospheres. It's fun to play in a different way. Especially, it was funny that cows were flying at the end. I enjoyed the last scene a lot.

Where do you see room for improvement?

When it changes from space to normal sky, it would be good if the scene does not change and the mood is converted smoothly.

When did you stop playing and why?

I stopped when I touched the first switch of the door. When I first played, I didn't know there was a door on the map. Therefore, I didn't think I had to go back the way I had been.

Was there anything related to the interface or controls that was hard

to understand?

UI and texts are a bit small for me. Maybe that is because I’m using a 4K 15” display. 

Overall, it would be nice if the size of the interface was cut. I like the controls being kindly explained.

Was there anything related to the mechanics that was hard to understand?

It is my personal preference but I don’t prefer the game to ask me to go back the way I came. I would tweak the position of the door so that it can be placed after the switch. 

Was there anything related to the art, or sound that was hard to understand?

All the characters look so cute. The aliens are so cute that they don't look threatening, but I love them! Before jumping in the parachute scene, an alarm in red in the spaceship seems to convey the situation visually very well. I want to hear an alarm sound, too. In addition to this, your team really well directed a short story in visual: spacecraft, space, sky, and earth(ground).

  There was no sound when I was playing. It would be nice if there was an unlock sound when the player approaches the switch.

Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

Since the last scene was my favorite stage, I wish it was a little longer. Other than this, I really enjoyed this game.

Comments:
- Such cute pixel art!
- The parachute scene was a really nice surprise and instantly made the whole game a lot more memorable
- I decided to hold down space the entire first two rounds and I completely got the doodle jump reference!

Suggestions:

- I would either give players a way to regain health or restart players at the levels they died at rather than the entire game

- I would tweak cinemachine numbers so that the camera is lower in the y axis because I couldn't see the platforms a lot of the time