Very fun chaos game. The jump height being random here certainly turned out to be an interesting challenge, think it took me until the ghost castle to fully realize that was the gimmick. After having played Cactus Block, that game helped me to realize the fun in an intense RNG factor like that. Sometimes I'll boss through a level and sometimes I have to fight sylvie's legs to survive, and I thought that was somewhat engaging!
Most levels use predetermined enemy patterns, but some, especially some secret levels, have random patterns as well, contributing to that theming well, Volcano Hellcavern being an early test of RNG endurance (and special for showcasing sylvie's incredible feat of lava swimming (or, is that water framed at sunset?)).
As another commenter pointed out, each level needs to be tackled in it's own way, some you gotta be fast, others you need to wait for the right opportunity, some you gotta go fast then wait, and some are about survival, it's a decent blend for the short runtime, alongside the variety of visual themes, particularly in the secret levels.
The Sylvie Shop is a fun and very welcome inclusion, including the incentive to grind harder levels for the things you need. It steers the game more towards being fun and trolly rather than frustrating. I ended up clearing most levels without items, but Castle In The Sky, Dive to the Utmost Depths Extreme, A Lovely Flower Field, You're a Fish Leaping At Me Extreme, and One Last Summer Finale Extreme ended up a bit too extreme, so I used them, with hearts definitely feeling the most worthwhile of them due to deleting foes.
The sounds all being self-made (I presume) vocalizations is something I've done for one of my projects, and it's delightful every time I see a game utilize that modus of sound design. This game is top tier in that regard. My favorites here include "sylvie!" "thanks!" "melone!" "ooooooooh!".
(also, it's a little thing, but the protagonist/developer thanking you for buying her items made me feel a lot less bad about buying them, good positive reinforcement!)
My final thoughts are; very silly summer game, me enjoy :). Thanks for all the fish.
After I beat it I also found the secret message! I was frustrated with this game at first but then I came to enjoy it :) Once I read about its approach to "bad" game design I had a lot more fun :)
Extremely fun, and not as hard as it might seem, but you've got to approach it differently than you would a normal platformer I think. The puzzle of "how do I win" is more important than execution here.
It's got potential, but I see a couple of areas that could use improvement.
First, jump height varies, but it's not at all clear to me what causes that variation. All I can tell is that sometimes I can make a jump, and sometimes I can't. That's especially frustrating when jumping to escape a crab.
Second, in "Dive to the Utmost Depths", you've got a crab that kills the player in what seems like less than half a second after the level starts, if they don't move. It's easy to get dozens of deaths here before realizing what's happening. Maybe start the level with the game paused, and have everything start moving when the player hits a key? Also, it seemed like the motion of the fish wasn't the same every time, which makes it hard to learn how to avoid them.
Maybe I'm just not the intended audience of this type of game? It's definitely cute. I hope you get a lot of useful feedback!
Everything you've identified here is very much an intentional feature. Jump height is explicitly randomized, being killed instantly upon level start is a hilarious joke (and doesn't really impede you in any way; dying 10 times is essentially identical to standing still for 5 seconds), and fish speeds are also explicitly randomized, presumably for the exact purpose of making it harder to learn how to avoid them.
Thank you for the comment! The game is supposed to feel a little strange and different from other platformers. You might just need time to adjust to it, but it's also possible you just don't like this unusual type of game. The intended audience is probably people who want to experience a New Summer Feeling.
You're welcome, and thank you for being gentle in pointing out where I'd gone wrong! This isn't the first time I've missed the point of a work.
I'm definitely going to take another look at the game. It's possible that it's just not the kind of thing I like, but it's also possible that if I can see the game for what it is instead of what I think it should be, that I'll like it better.
In either case, I have believed for some time that artists do better work when they stop striving for mass appeal and instead make something true to their vision, trusting that the right people will get it, and not worrying about the opinions of people outside their audience. I can't reasonably complain if that leaves me on the outside from time to time!
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One of my first sylvie games, very glad I finally went back and cleared it. Really really delightful from top to bottom
Very fun chaos game. The jump height being random here certainly turned out to be an interesting challenge, think it took me until the ghost castle to fully realize that was the gimmick. After having played Cactus Block, that game helped me to realize the fun in an intense RNG factor like that. Sometimes I'll boss through a level and sometimes I have to fight sylvie's legs to survive, and I thought that was somewhat engaging!
Most levels use predetermined enemy patterns, but some, especially some secret levels, have random patterns as well, contributing to that theming well, Volcano Hellcavern being an early test of RNG endurance (and special for showcasing sylvie's incredible feat of lava swimming (or, is that water framed at sunset?)).
As another commenter pointed out, each level needs to be tackled in it's own way, some you gotta be fast, others you need to wait for the right opportunity, some you gotta go fast then wait, and some are about survival, it's a decent blend for the short runtime, alongside the variety of visual themes, particularly in the secret levels.
The Sylvie Shop is a fun and very welcome inclusion, including the incentive to grind harder levels for the things you need. It steers the game more towards being fun and trolly rather than frustrating. I ended up clearing most levels without items, but Castle In The Sky, Dive to the Utmost Depths Extreme, A Lovely Flower Field, You're a Fish Leaping At Me Extreme, and One Last Summer Finale Extreme ended up a bit too extreme, so I used them, with hearts definitely feeling the most worthwhile of them due to deleting foes.
The sounds all being self-made (I presume) vocalizations is something I've done for one of my projects, and it's delightful every time I see a game utilize that modus of sound design. This game is top tier in that regard. My favorites here include "sylvie!" "thanks!" "melone!" "ooooooooh!".
(also, it's a little thing, but the protagonist/developer thanking you for buying her items made me feel a lot less bad about buying them, good positive reinforcement!)
My final thoughts are; very silly summer game, me enjoy :). Thanks for all the fish.
I hate summer, sylvie, and this game is late because it is the fall now
if you make falling fall sylvie i will be a more happy person but now my life is ruined forever!!!!
10/10 game would (and have) play(ed) again
Extremely fun, and not as hard as it might seem, but you've got to approach it differently than you would a normal platformer I think. The puzzle of "how do I win" is more important than execution here.
Hot Summer Sylvie tried to kill me.
I was going to stop, but then I remembered the shop.
It's pretty hard, so I had to use some stars.
Deaths: 1674
Level Playtime: 1h 93m 50s 6f
Overall Playtime: 1h 105m 32s 21f
Coins Collected: 359
Coins Lost: 1040
Hearts Bought: 22 (good for A Lovely Flower Field and some others)
Feathers Bought: 2 (immediately wasted)
Stars Bought: 8 (good for getting secrets in the later Extreme levels)
Levels Cleared: 12/12
Secret Levels Cleared: 6/6
Bars!
It's got potential, but I see a couple of areas that could use improvement.
First, jump height varies, but it's not at all clear to me what causes that variation. All I can tell is that sometimes I can make a jump, and sometimes I can't. That's especially frustrating when jumping to escape a crab.
Second, in "Dive to the Utmost Depths", you've got a crab that kills the player in what seems like less than half a second after the level starts, if they don't move. It's easy to get dozens of deaths here before realizing what's happening. Maybe start the level with the game paused, and have everything start moving when the player hits a key? Also, it seemed like the motion of the fish wasn't the same every time, which makes it hard to learn how to avoid them.
Maybe I'm just not the intended audience of this type of game? It's definitely cute. I hope you get a lot of useful feedback!
Everything you've identified here is very much an intentional feature. Jump height is explicitly randomized, being killed instantly upon level start is a hilarious joke (and doesn't really impede you in any way; dying 10 times is essentially identical to standing still for 5 seconds), and fish speeds are also explicitly randomized, presumably for the exact purpose of making it harder to learn how to avoid them.
These features are all there in part to push on and play with standard ideas about "bad game design"; you can read some things sylvie has written about this e.g. here http://sylvie.zone/posts/2021-02-15-Sylvie-A.html and here https://twitter.com/sylviefluff/status/1282834519880544256
Thank you for the comment! The game is supposed to feel a little strange and different from other platformers. You might just need time to adjust to it, but it's also possible you just don't like this unusual type of game. The intended audience is probably people who want to experience a New Summer Feeling.
You're welcome, and thank you for being gentle in pointing out where I'd gone wrong! This isn't the first time I've missed the point of a work.
I'm definitely going to take another look at the game. It's possible that it's just not the kind of thing I like, but it's also possible that if I can see the game for what it is instead of what I think it should be, that I'll like it better.
In either case, I have believed for some time that artists do better work when they stop striving for mass appeal and instead make something true to their vision, trusting that the right people will get it, and not worrying about the opinions of people outside their audience. I can't reasonably complain if that leaves me on the outside from time to time!