I am the music designer of Past of Faberville, an entry into the Winter Flowjam 25-26. However, I do have experience with developing on the platform. My friend, Test_Games, developed the main combat mechanic, and we talked frequently about developing the game. Here is what I observed during the review and what I think happened with the programming.
- The action selection, I will simply say “The Arrow,” is separate from the main action menu window. The enemy selection is part of The Arrow’s programming, but there were issues with the Destroyer and Spawner. It not spawning and being destroyed softlocked the game a few times for Sup3r87’s reviews. It was a lot worse when it kept spawning multiple arrows.
- We did NOT intend for the boss to be fled.
- There were issues with granting stamina when using Focus or Rest actions.
- Trying to grant balance changes to player leveling was difficult, we decided not to add it. Balancing the Boss was nerfed hard for this, only needed a Soul Eater and a few basic attacks was all you needed. But the stamina not working for the game review, makes me think we were better off that you could flee from the battle.
All of this would have been prevented if we playtested and reviewed the game for ourselves. We neglected to do that, and therefor making the game underdeveloped. We learned from our mistake, and hope to use this learning opportunity for Flowjams to come.