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lenientsy

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4 Game Reviews

Very promising game. It's quite punishing, though the quicker runs make up for it. I was barely able to complete level 1, but I had a decent time doing it. The thing that puts me off are how quickly one dies to circumstances outside their control - touching the dark pits instakills with no warning, and the quick w-face darkness wisps pretty much instakill as well with only very slight warning. You have to play very, very cautiously around darkness wells, which is fun, until you let your guard down and lose the entire run immediately.

The upgrade system is also fun - by having to actively seek out upgrades and pay for them, there can be a sort of grind to go to a well one doesn't have the strength to beat yet and get shards, then buy the proper upgrades to beat it. I think the time to kill should be lower and slower, however, to minimize seemingly random deaths.

Another note - please make darkness wells easier to find past the initial arrows upon spawning! Perhaps a button that, when held, shows those arrows again?

Overall, great game, and I see plenty of potential. I couldn't get very far because I disliked the quick deaths, but that's just me.

shmlalex responds:

Thank you for the thorough feedback and playing the game! I do agree that the game is quite punishing, especially during the first level with not very many items. The game is sorta based around a "light/dark" mechanic where touching the other side transfers its element to each other, and if your element is overtaken you "die". This actually applies to almost everything, even projectiles! This means that you can just walk into things to defeat them, so long as your health bar is bigger than theirs, but if its the opposite you do die instantly! This is likely the reason for difficulty, and I don't think there's an item that improves this tolerance (perhaps that would be a good item to add?). Looking at the item pool, there really isn't much defensive items for combat actually hehe. But yes, I'll look into addressing the difficulty in some way, especially early in a run!

The dark pits are very punishing, but there is the Ascender's Stone item that pretty much trivialize them, giving you 1 second of hover over the pits (+1 second per stack). With one or two of these, you can pretty much just walk over pits! If you can't find one of these in a run though, it can be rough.

I'll definitely add more to help guide players to the wells! Its pretty frustrating wandering the levels not knowing where to go, and the initial arrows are pretty easy to forget.

Again, thank you for the feedback! I'll be sure to keep everything in mind for the next update.

First off - the mobile-oriented controls used for the ball's omnidirectional movement is very fun and fits a marble-rolling game quite well. The level design isn't exactly inspired, but each level does get a bit more difficult and the levels do as much as they can with only solid blocks, bounce pads, and the seldom disappearing block (which, by the way, lags the game incredibly each time one disappears.) Being able to boost the ball mid-air results in being able to rack up some very nice momentum and skip the majority of many levels just by hitting one good bounce.

The bounce pads suffer from an issue, however - sometimes, when triggered, they do not register properly and the ball sails by. I found later on (in the level with two bounce pads blocking the way) this is because of a niche mechanic they have where one can sit just barely inside the bounce pad's radius and disable it briefly. It's a cool idea, but it's not telegraphed well enough in the earlier levels to make it seem intentional nor is it used to its full potential.

There's a surprising amount of levels, and they get quite difficult in the later stages. I often found it easier to take a shortcut using momentum onto the tops of some obstacles instead of going the intended route.

Overall, I think capitalizing on the high-momentum aspect and letting the game play faster-paced (similar to the later levels!) and less precise would result in a more fun experience. Fun game so far! A coat of polish and some more structured and intentional level design as is shown in the later levels would make this even better.

(Also, I wish there were numbers on the levels while playing, so it's easier to talk about each level. Please, also add a level select! I'd like to not have to replay the whole game after refreshing.)

Gussebb responds:

Thank you so much, for such a good in-depth feedback. This is really valuable and inspires me to make an effort in my own reviews if I give one.

Putting numbers on levels is a good idea.

But in this game I've experimented with dynamic level control to try and keep the player in the flow state.

Every time you win a couple without dying it bumps up the difficulty. ( But all levels are randomly picked for the user based on skill-level )

Sorry about the lag. I wonder if you played on mobile - It's easier with arrow key controls.

Again thanks for the great review, lots of good value there.

leni / lewdientsy @lenientsy

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