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ANTiDOPE's itch.io pageJudge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- The idea of the game is really interesting. In this set up I liked playing the villain. The art is very cute and together with the music, creates a great environment. The story is kind of hard to relate to, and throws me off a bit. I understood that the main character got very angry but these many swear words just left bad after taste. There are many other ways to show that someone's getting mad. The music is really good, but it can get muffled with charterers' talking sounds. It would be great to have a volume slider for music and voice separately. The game is missing a bit of optimization. The platforms set up for the first level seems to be quite difficult for the player who hasn't yet got the good grip on mechanics. For the first runs, I would advise to make it easier. Game design document - it is visible the game was very well though through and how much work you guys put into it! Over all, this is a great attempt for the game jam and I am looking forward for more!
Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17GImcB5Pr2sV4B9zqhIN8PpOySFFqHGfamKFuTMYKaM/edit?usp=sharing
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes
Summarise your game!
ANTiDOPE is a surreal story-based 2D platforming game. The player follows Jackie as she uses a biological weapon of her own design on her friend to prevent him from ever being happy again. The game largely centers around speed, and finding smooth paths through terrain to go faster, while dealing with damaging enemies. WASD/Arrow keys to control the character. ZX /JK for attacks. Enter to progress cutscenes, and Escape to pause the game
Please explain how your game fits the theme:
The player character is quite literally a biological weapon designed and used to hurt others. Additionally, the game is designed in a way that's meant to make you feel destructive, and like a quick-moving weapon.
For some reason, Construct 2 doesn't load the title music until you start it once and then reload the page.
Other than that, this is our first game and game jam! We had a lot of fun, and we hope you have fun playing our game too!!
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
Controls, Music, Art, Story. Our hard work and effort ;)
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Comments
Neat concept! The animation timing with the momentum movement was nice. The music is excellent!
Not sure I appreciate the language, or using a biological weapon against a friend, but the game is solid. Great first jam!
Congrats on finishing the jam! I think the art is very nice and the little character designs were good. I like the UI in the top corner and the art itself is very clean. It certainly looks like a brain!
I had a lot difficulty playing the game. For example I think I ran into a bug where if you died and got reset I would no longer be able to jump with wasd and needed to use the arrow keys.
I didn't really feel "Sonic" from the game. Although it's true that you needed to go fast, you almost always needed to have the spin key pressed down otherwise you would just take damage - maybe that should be the default. I also didn't enjoy the white blood cells - when I was going fast I would not see them and run into them and then get damaged or die. I think it may need more of a warning that they are coming up.
The jump boost was nice but they looked like an enemy so they were easy to miss and it would've been nice if they didn't disappear on touch - I had to wait around for them to respawn. The placement of the blockades and the jump boosts were a bit strange - sometimes the jump boost would require the player to stop and turn directions because the boost would fling the player into a wall. It also would've been nice if the checkpoint had a larger hit box - I missed it a couple times because flinged over it.
I found myself having to stop a lot when the game is about going fast.
I didn't get to the outro but I don't think the intro really resonated with me story-wise. I was a little confused on what was going on - that they were playing cards - and Jackie's attitude was strange. Maybe that was the intention?
One thing to keep in mind is that it would be nice if the title of the game was following the rules a bit more.
Otherwise great job! I think some tweaks here and there could be made but it's a good base to start off with!
wow this game was sick, very challenging , and a very nice art style,
For the old manuscripts say REVenge devours minds and yet... The brain screams "C-C-COMBO!!" as it tosses it around inertly vivid externally beautiful imagery. And yet persistent mind behind killjoy's eyes still starts and starts again, still rolling from previous failures. Still trying to push that [J][J][J]oke in time or to catch a bloody breath or waiting to get out of the well. For the mechanical voices scrubbed its mind to leave only violent bliss. As organic voices babble time curls into its bizarre villainous shell. As they, as manuscripts, as the universe, and as this everything ends with "Go FISH!"
Thank you, kind patient. Your thoughtful words ring throughout my being in tones and colors that sate my mind. We hope you had a quality time with our Special project.
The tutorial is really nice, as well as the characters. I’m glad you gave the option to skip the dialogue as I had to sit through it for most other games so that’s a great thing to have. Music felt really fitting and it visually looked good.
My first issue was the “J” key to attack, the swing felt really hard to hit, and when I’m going at a high speed and pressing it, more often than not I miss the swing as it basically needs near pixel perfect timing. When failing, it also makes the game extremely frustrating as you lose all momentum and basically have to backtrack and redo it again. And with how slow the momentum is to buildup, it basically meant running, gaining speed, hitting a wall, then having to build up speed again. I definitely feel the attack should be more forgiving, as even at times I hit the blood cell and still get damaged, losing all momentum.
The game is not easy, and it is very common to lose momentum from random walls, to blood cells etc. So I feel a way to “reset” instead of having the player walk back would be good. I do know that you reset to a checkpoint after a few damage taken, but I would rather it be like Geometry dash where you die immediately and go back to the checkpoint without delay. This way, you don’t have to feel like you always have to backtrack after a failed momentum jump. As I’ve been “trapped” in areas a few times, where I have to backtrack all the way to a wall, and move forward at full speed and jump in order to just make it over a wall, as movement speed seems to also affect how high you jump.
For a game that is built around momentum and speed, I feel you did a good job making the player feel good going at high speeds, all that’s left is better level design to let the player keep high speeds for longer. This game has great potential though, and with enough polish, I could see people trying to speedrun it.
Thanks! There definitely needs to be a lot of tuning, I made the attack hitbox humongous and thought it'd be enough but yeah I need to watch the timing a bit. I think there is a bit of a design flaw that needs to be worked out with the health mechanic as it's not as fun just to be stunned into a shitty situation rather than restart. Thanks for playing, i hope you enjoyed it!
The characters and writing of this game were really well done, and the meta 'tutorial' conversation with the player was worked well. I also liked that you made it possible to skip the loading of the dialogue for faster readers (/people that want to skip it too, I suppose). The music was great for building the atmosphere, and the aesthetic felt really cohesive.
I got up to a combo of 25 while being bouncing into the white blood cell roof in the section where you need to avoid the bouncy enemies, so that was neat. Think that was the highest I got it!
I'm not really a platformer, so I don't know that it says too much, but I wasn't able to get to the end. I really want to see how the story ended, but I found it really hard to time my swings with the fast-paced movement, camera flipping when turning, and the brief freeze that happened when swingin' the bat. I wasn't very good at preserving my momentum, which I think made a lot of the movement puzzle sections quite hard, I often resorted to trying to 'ladder' my way up, rather than getting the timing right on the jumps.
This is a really slick entry, full of personality, and I can see so much potential in it! Great job to everyone on the team!
Thanks for playing :D nice combo!!! I'm sorry you had trouble with the movement, I think it needs a bit more tuning, especially with the attack timing and the camera. I'm assuming when you mention laddering you're talking about the section with a lot of white blood cells and yeah, that needed more tuning as well since missing some of the jumps would make you do that. I hope you still had fun playing even though you couldn't complete it!!!
No problemo! Yeah, always hard to tell with platformers where the more-tuning-pls situation ends and where the skill-issue begins aha, but hopefully some post-jam-stress time helps get it to a place you're happy with.
I did still have fun for sure, and I did get better the more time I spent with it, landing the movement combos was really satisfying when I got on a roll, I still just found it hard to land consistently.
Thanks for reading and responding, hope some of the feedback was helpful, and enjoy the rest of ya jammin'!
The game has a great sense of style and charm. I loved the characters and artstyle (although there was a bit too much dialogue to spam through for me). The movement seems like it has a very high skill ceiling, and was very rewarding when you build up lots of speed. I think the swipe attack could maybe come out a couple frames faster. Overall really fun entry. Good work!
Thanks! The bat definitely should come out a bit faster, and I definitely felt that too in later testing. I just made it and was never able to get around to changing it by the time the jam was due sadly. Thanks for playing :D
The music and art style go well together. I like the game-play too, but it felt easy to get stuck or the punishment for missing something was too much, but when I was on a roll, it was enjoyable.
thanks for playing! and yeah, I think the level design needed a bit more tuning, but that couldn't really get in before the jam ended. I hope you had fun!!
Rev is threading the limit between cute and menacing and i love it! The feel of momentum is on point. Maybe you could zoom out the camera a bit to compensate for how fast you can go. Also maybe having an extra button for jumping? Aside from that it felt great!
Thanks for playing :D the spacebar could also be used to jump, but I forgot to write that in the page description before the due date so I suppose it's kind of like a secret now. I already had zoomed the camera out a lot, but I wasn't sure if it was enough or too much, so thanks for letting me know :D. I'm glad you had fun!!
Another game about the immune system, love to see it :)
I was really struggling with the controls, controller support would've definitely been nice as the WASD forced my hand into a very uncomfortable position. It helped when I switched to arrow key, but then pressung up to jump messed up my brain. It`s also quite difficult to avoid enemies when going this fast.
I did appreciate the art style however, and the underlying narrative, hope you keep at it!
Thanks for playing the game!! i'm sorry you had a hard time with the controls, it might help that the jump also works with the spacekey, but i forgot to add that to the description until after the game was due. Thanks for playing our game :D
Not really my kind of game so take my feedback with a grain of salt. Idea is neat, the few times i got the flow of the game, it felt really well, but reaching that stage was hard and a little frustrating. I think the difficulty curve could be a little more soft (good players will, advance fast anyway, while we the slowest ones, will have a better time learning)
For MY taste, there is too much text at the start, in general i think that, the more invested the player is in the gameplay, the more lore and text you can push to them, so at the start of the game dialogues and instructions, should tend to be more short, and concise, and once the player is more invested then you can start to unfold more of the story. Again this is just my taste, there is probably people that love this kind of pacing.
Nevertheless, when you get in the flow, the game words, so there is potential here, keep it up, and congrats on your game!
Thanks! I was thinking about making the tutorial more hands-on, but I ended up not having time to implement that, and figured since one of the focuses of the game was banter it wouldn't be too much. Thanks for playing, and for your thoughts :D
Nice game. I like the acceleration of the character and trying to holding the speed. Good idea
Great fun game - it gives me a lot of classic sonic vibes with a bit of Wario Land 4 (even if that wasn't one of your inspirations). I love the art style of the characters and I enjoy the movement! It feels very good to go fast when you get the hang of it, and it feels like a proper platformer.
I think one thing that could be improved is visual clarity and some of the level design.
While I enjoy the character art I think the clarity of the level itself takes a while to get used to. The red on top of dark red background sort of make things a blur to see. Despite the tutorial, it was still hard to tell that I had to run into certain things and hit other things as well.
For level design I think it can kind of rely on funneling players into one straight path that can be hard to do. I do see alternative branching paths here and there, but it never really felt like one was the easier/slower path. I think for inspiration, besides classic sonic, I think you can look into something like Antonblast, which also has a similar "hit objects to go faster" vibe.
Overall though when I was able to get in a flow state and get through a part of the level, IT FELT SO GOOD and I felt really cool. When it clicks, the game really clicks together and it can feel awesome. I love the moveset, in particular how you can do the crash bandicoot dash thing to immediately get speed. It's a cool design choice because it can be risky to do so in a tight space, but it rewards you with a lot of speed. Congrats on getting this game done!
I've not played either Wario land or Antonblast but I've heard a lot of good things about them so I'll be sure to give them a look! I'm glad you enjoyed the gameplay mechanics, it's where most of the dev time went tbh, and as a result, the level ended up being a bit rushed (I had to get the large majority of it out overnight on the last day @_@ ). I'm glad you got to experience the "getting the hang of it" part, i was worried the game might be too short for the player to learn controls well enough to experience some of the included sections.
The movement feels pretty solid. The visuals are really cool, well drawn. The tutorial felt really long (it was mostly text). I'm not sure if that was the intro or not because it took forever to get to the actual game. Good game though! I feel like the hitboxes could be a little better (I feel like I got hit for no reason sometimes)
yeah, the tutorial was part of the intro! I think the thing is just the level ended up shorter than i thought it was (partially bc it ended up a bit rushed) Thanks for playing the game :D
Neat game, well done! I love the player character design
Nice one, momentum feels good. i appreciate option to skip turtorial. only thing I would like to see added is support for controller
Yeah, controller support is a good idea! we couldn't really get around to it in time though :( I'm glad you had fun :)
Awesome game. Chaining together the jumps in the air feels really good! The characters and music was really charming too
Love the music and style, they work well together.
I did have some trouble getting the timing right for certain jumps, and trying to go fast, but other than that its a cool 2D platformer.
Do feel like the art style is not 100% on consistent, cant put my finger on it, maybe the outlines being to thick? Dunno, i'm not an artist xD
Also the camera snaps pretty hard when going from moving left to moving to the right.
But love the idea, the style, and music, well done :D
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm sorry the timing was rough, we kinda ran out of time to give the level design more polish sadly. For the thing about the art style, the art was split between me and our dedicated artist, and the way we did things was quite different which could explain things (I did the player, environments, and boss, and she did the enemies, character profile, and in-game UI). it was hard to get the camera right, so I'll keep that in mind next time because I wasn't sure about the speed!
The art and music were awesome. Getting hang of the controls was pretty challenging for me. The dialog was quirky I think in a good way. Very much giving me early cartoonetwork vibes. I think watching a speed runner run this game would probably be cool to watch.
Good job y'all!
Thanks :D
Everything in this project has a ton of style. The voicing given to the dialogue is very entertaining, the male voice is especially well done. The visuals are very quirky and unique, and they were entertaining to watch. The music was very groovy.
I think there was a LOT of dialogue compared to the amount of levels/gameplay there was. I also found the way the camera flips back and forth based on what direction you are moving very disorienting, i would prefer to stay more centered in the screen, or stay where i was before on the screen (if that makes sense)
Very well done! Solid submission
thank you for the critique :) I did find that the level ended up feeling short, i think i underestimated exactly how fast you go, and additionally how long it takes to design levels with multiple tracks of ways to progress (especially with them being differingdifficulties). I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)