As promised, I took the time to play the two other entries to #steemitjam, and give some feedback!
QWOP-NOE
The game submitted by @seschoscho
Art
I really liked it. The sea creatures all have character and are interesting to look at, the playful dolphin is adorable and the whale is appropriately awe inspiring. The art style is simple, but effective, and feels polished. If you were to add things, I would fancy up the air meter and depth counter.
Sound
I like it too, the whale sounds are great and give a real atmosphere of depth.
Gameplay
I think this is the weakest point of the game, or maybe I just wasn't able to figure it out. It seems I was stuck in large expanses with no bubbles fairly often. I failed to effectively swim in a direction I wanted.
I'm also not sure about the purpose of the rope connecting me to the buoy.
Theme
I think the depths are a fairly obvious interpretation of the theme, and it works, I just wish there was a little more exploration. Maybe a system of underwater caves to explore.
Overall
A great entry that shows a lot of potential. I hope you participate in future jams!
Sailing on the Seven Seas
The entry by @loomy
Art
The shaders you've added make the game look quite good. The different elements on the ship are all very clear, and everything looks good. The sea monsters look really good, even lacking proper animation. My only problem was the rocks in the ocean seemed to be dancing around if the ship was going at an angle, which I'm assuming is the result of pixel art and snapping.
Sound
The responses of the crew to the commands are outstanding, the music is quite annoying though. Sound does add a lot to the game, and definitely shows polish.
Gameplay
OMG this game is hard. But it definitely left me wanting to try several times to improve. However, when I was approached by two red monsters from both sides, I felt like the game wasn't really being fair.
I did like the time management with two crew members, though I feel some actions could take less time, like picking up the spyglass. Having someone at the spyglass station is already quite taxing. In fact, I feel like removing the time it takes to do most actions would really make this game shine.
Theme
I don't really feel it. Without a destination or places to explore, it doesn't feel like exploring the unknown, and definitely not into any unknown. I don't actually have any ideas of how to make the theme more prominent here. Maybe have some islands and make the navigation a more important part of the game. Reducing the difficulty of killing sea monsters, and making it more important to have someone at the wheel.
Overall
The visuals and sound feel very polished, but the gameplay could have used a little more balancing. Overall, I liked it, and intend to play it some more, and possibly get better at it.
Thank you for the great feedback on my game! I tried to put music, but I need to improve on that because I had no clue what I was doing hehe. The theme tried to explore "into the unknown" because the seas were considered "unknown" a few centuries ago. Also the main mechanic of "not seeing where you are going (enemies and rocks)" are supposed to be related to the theme. The spyglass time was meant for you to "climb the mast" which never got a proper animation. You're not the only one that has suggested to remove the task times, mainly because it kills the potential APM (Actions per minute). I still think they should be present but maybe a lot shorter with an animation instead of a loading bar? It's definitely possible to kill two krakens back to back once you are optimizing your actions, but I agree that the game is sometimes unforgiving! My best run lasted 336 seconds and I was zigzagging rocks and shooting in every direction, it becomes quite stressful!
Thank you for the constructive feedback and the kind words! :) You are right - the gameplay is very inconsistent... I probably just didn't recognize it as an issue as I was just used to it being part of the game at some point. The UI definetly lacked some polishing as well. I will definetly
be joining you guys in future gamejams as it was just a lot of fun!