"Final Exam" Game Devlog

Hi!

I again didn't want to do a post about Final Exam today. However, circumstances are again such that I am writing an article for the new publication.

This week I received several messages at once on a similar topic. Users write to me that the Final Exam game is too hard.

To be honest, I was always afraid that I was making a game that is too easy. I always want to make a game more hard.

I easily get through the demo version of the game without losing lives. Sometimes, very rarely, I lose health, but I regenerate it by breaking the appropriate block. In doing so, I destroy all the enemies and break all the blocks in all the locations as I go through...

Maybe it's so easy for me because I'm the developer of this game... Or maybe I was raised on completely other games.

My childhood was spent with a 16 bit Sega Megadrive console. And the games of that game console have forever left a mark on my heart. Most of the Megadrive games I had were platformers. And those games were pretty hardcore!

There were no saves! The narrative was minimal, and I had to figure out most things on my own. Enemies gave no mercy from the very first level, and as I progressed, they got stronger and stronger.

There was not a single game that I could pass from the first time. Only training allowed me to pass this or that game to the end.

I think those who played games from old game consoles from the 80s and 90s will not argue that those games were much harder than modern games of similar genre. Maybe that's why I want to add hardcore to my game. The very first version of the game (still on another engine) had a pixel art style in general. It made the game look as much like old 16 bit games as possible...

What's my point? I want to make a game that I enjoy, of course. But I also want other users to like the game as well.

I want to find out exactly what kind of difficulties a player faces when playing Final Exam. Please, if possible, describe your problems in as much detail as possible. I will try to take everything into account during development.

Please note that I do not consider the case when a person simply does not like platformers as a genre. Here, unfortunately, I can't do anything. Final Exam is a platformer.

I would like to hear the opinion of people who like platformers. What could be simplified in gameplay? What could be changed? What could be improved? I would like the answer to be as detailed and objective as possible.... Again, this game seems very simple to me, and I have a desire to make it more hardcore... But this is my personal opinion.

Answers are best written to my e-mail helengiantesspost@gmail.com. If you are my subscriber, you can specify your nickname.