Angry Boulders

Hello there HandCraftedRadio!

I played the game for a while and here are my thoughts.

You cooked up quite an interesting, yet difficult to play, game there. The concpet is quite interesting. You cannot defend yourslef alone, you must rely on something under your control to do it for you. At the same time, you only control one aspect of your defense, making it very challenging.

I feel like I'm I ahve to take care of too much things at once. First of all, I have to watch out for the bugs near me by moving around. Second of all, I have to check the all of the bugs positions in order to squish them. Thrid, I have to watch myslef form killing myself. All of this trying to synchronize my left hand occupied with dealing with three buttons and my right hand dealing with the movement of the avatar. Lot's of things at once.

The concept is great but maybe you should simplify by focusing on one of your 2 main aspect (dodging and squishing). This would add some challenge to the desired aspect and make the game less frustrating and more challenging.

One alternate way could be to control all blocks with only one button. Each time you activate the block, they smash into each other one row after the other. This way you can control when an attck will occur but you still don't control every aspect of it. Also, you have to time yourslef even more efficiently since you don't control every row seperatly.

ANother one would be a bit different. Blocks smash into each other automaticaly every 5-10 seconds. 1 second before they go off, they turn red. Bug don't kill you but slows you down, other block your path, some push you. With one button, you can taunt the row of blocks your in to smash into each other. This way, you focus on timing and spacial movement around. The challenges comes from the fact that bugs interfere with your movement in various ways but you can get revenge by taunting two blocks and dodge them. This could also bring a learning curve to the game and add a difficulty curve and the possibility of different types of levels. You'd still get points if bugs are squished but you get triple the score for a taunt squish. If you want you could also attract bugs by taunting them too. This would add a new challenge to the palyer and the ability to risk more for a better score. It would also get rid of an exploitation: if you place your red bug under one block, on the far left or right, and you press all buttons at once, no bug can reach you if you have correct timing. Why? because if one bug is about to get you, it will be pushed away from you or it will be squished giving you good scores. I got something like 700 points in only 2 minutes of play with this "strategy".

Anyway, the game is actually very nice. It needs more addictive spices to it, but its already promising a very unique and interesting falvour. I say, keep workin' on it and you might have a very special game.

Take care!
Guert