Hat Cat

[T-Bone]

After three years of hard work, my (and my close friend Gunkmeister's) game Hat Cat and the Obvious Crimes Against the Fundamental Laws of Physics is finally done! You can check it out at http://tboneiss.itch.io/hatcat

It's a strange spatial puzzle game with charming childish graphics and catchy chiptunes. The gameplay is a bit tricky to explain, so just like on my itch page I refer to this gif:



Drown us in money!
the game is free though

[Helvecta]

My body is ready.

The .gif looks freakin' incredible. I'll be having a go at this right now!

[T-Bone]

My body is ready.

The .gif looks freakin' incredible. I'll be having a go at this right now!

I just noticed I uploaded the wrong version! If you downloaded it before I posted this post, just redownload it (that version contains a game-breaking bug).

Everything downloaded after I posted this post is fine.

[Helvecta]

Welp, that was addicting, getting all the coins is incredibly difficult. I'll finish up tomorrow, but I don't need to wait to tell you that it's obvious you put a lot of time and love into it. I really like how each area has its own unique trait about it, mixing up gameplay and frustrating me along the way. Also gotta love the hat changes, and the (spoiler?) "lol who needs paths" glitch! (everybody jelly of my trackpad mouse skills)

Great work!

[T-Bone]

Haha, I remember when I wrote the "path finding" "algorithm". It was so long ago, I could have done that way prettier now. It's fun enough to keep though

[WetDesertRock]

Haven't played it all the way through yet, and I think its good, I really liked it.

Couple things though:
1) Your music is cool, and fits the style. My main problem is that when you change menus and game and whatever, it seems to switch music too much and too suddenly. IIRC one such example was on the instructions screen, it had different music, and switching between the two musics was kind of odd.
2) Your world screen seems a bit busy. I almost wonder if you could automatically move your character when you complete an area, and only have one place to go. If you have two places to go you could highlight each one more than you already do.


I like it a lot, good job!

[Karai17]

This game looks nice, the music is fun, and the gameplay is quite intriguing! I have a few minor UI qualms, but other than that, top notch!

1) There should be a more obvious indicator of which levels you have beat, and which levels you have gained a coin on, I suggest: Gold box = coin, green box = beat but no coin, blue/white box = playable but not beat, red box = not playable. I also think movable paths should be a different colour, too

2) When you beat a level, I feel like the cat should automatically move to the next level, or there should be a visual indicator that you can press on such as changing the colour of the path.

3) It would be nice to have a "restart level" option in give up instead of returning to the map

Those aside, very good work! Congrats on your release.

[T-Bone]

This game looks nice, the music is fun, and the gameplay is quite intriguing! I have a few minor UI qualms, but other than that, top notch!

1) There should be a more obvious indicator of which levels you have beat, and which levels you have gained a coin on, I suggest: Gold box = coin, green box = beat but no coin, blue/white box = playable but not beat, red box = not playable. I also think movable paths should be a different colour, too

2) When you beat a level, I feel like the cat should automatically move to the next level, or there should be a visual indicator that you can press on such as changing the colour of the path.

3) It would be nice to have a "restart level" option in give up instead of returning to the map

Those aside, very good work! Congrats on your release.

There is a "try again" option which restarts the level But your other criticisms are valid. If I ever make an update I'll fix some of those things.

[Robin]

There is a "try again" option which restarts the level

I kept missing that too. I only discovered it when I wanted to quit the game.

I'd suggest you re-order the items in the in-game menu. The order I expected was:

1. Continue
2. Reset level
3. Return to map
4. Exit game

What was really there: (with other words)

1. Continue
2. Return to map
3. Reset level

So when I got to the second item, I saw the "retry" option I expected was missing, so I assumed there was no button for it and that the last of the three would be "Exit game". So I suggest putting "try again" between "return to game" and "return to map", which makes more sense to me (and perhaps rename "return to game" to "continue", because I actually first thought the first item was "return to map" and was forced to reread both items).

UI design: it matters.

[Helvecta]

I feel kinda sad now that I've beaten it, after having spent so much time on it (hatsnake)

Anyways, after having played it all, here's some pointers!
1.) final boss takes at least half an hour to complete legitimately. Make it to where the puffball enemies fade away after a while! It becomes impossible to dodge the boss for so long when every wall is lined with stuck puffballs!
2.) your teleportation (for lack of better word) range is infinite, which makes it easy to beat the final boss if you feel like playing cheap. Make it have limited range so that you can't abuse the ability to kill the final boss (by teleporting incredibly high into the air and letting the boss slap himself to death with his own puffballs)
3.) There are a few bugs in the game, the first being that you can run into blocks and turn around when you're not supposed to be able to (I assume), and enemies can pop out of place under specific conditions, and the third being that you can move horizontally while falling vertically. It's hard to explain these so (spoiler) check this video playthrough of a level to see what I mean (on a side note I have no freaking idea how on Earth you would play the level correctly).
4.) DAT DIFFICULTY CURVE, HNNNNG (spoiler! This isn't a bad thing, the difficulty is what interested me enough to keep going! )

Your game has some issues, but I think that's one of the reasons I like it; it reminds me of older games that didn't focus as much on plot, instead making sure there was a feeling of progression and that gameplay stayed fresh and challenging. Again, kudos, and very nice work!