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Not pleased with this.

In Glitch Survival, we guide a character around the map to avoid "glitches", which are little creatures that kill us if they touch us.

The name and the screenshots make this game sound like it could be cool - and it could be too. Unfortunately I will have nothing good to say about it.

This game is standard enough and has been created - in one way or another - many, many times. Simply put, it's not very interesting or fun.

Graphics
Alright, I'll have one good thing to say about this game. The background was kind of cool. It starts out as a standard forest-type background and then, keeping with the spirit of the game, changes over time.


2 out of 3 possible screens.

The backgrounds are made to look glitchy even though they are no glitch. I can appreciate that.

Problems
1: Bad terrain

I am not talking about the background here, but rather the actual terrain; what you walk on.

The first thing I noticed is: it is very tiny. It takes seconds to get from one side of the map to the other. There is no room to run around. Sure, you can go up on the platforms, but the Glitches fill the platforms first.

The platforms are randomly generated so it receives some credit for that: but then again it's not hard when your entire terrain consists of 6 green blocks.

2: No pause feature

Pausing the game should be a given in every game. If this feature exists, I couldn't find it by pressing every key on my keyboard and there is no instructions area. No, minimizing the game does not pause it.

Why should there be a pause? Let's say I am playing the game and I reach over for a soda can and accidentally spill the soda on the floor. Typically, I would pause, clean it up, and continue. With this game I can only die while cleaning it up. This applies to anything you would like to do while playing the game, and would be especially annoying if you were doing well and didn't want to lose.

3: No variety

There is only one type of glitch as far as I saw. It jiggles around a bit randomly then moves, or optionally jumps at you. The way of increasing the difficulty for the maker seemed to be "add more and more glitches".

This leads to a boring game. There should always be more than one type of enemy for a game; even in a game like this, I can think of several types that would make it interesting.

Even enemies with different speeds or behaviors would go a long way to helping the problem with lack of variety, but so much more could also be done with it.

4: No replay content

This ties in with #3 but is not the same.

There is one screen to choose from. There is one way you can play. Games last around 30-60 seconds if you play with average skill. True there is a highscore area but with no variety in enemies there is a definite time when you will lose; when enemies fill up the screen so you can't avoid them.

This is another reason why new enemies > more enemies. With new enemies, it opens the possibility for a higher skill ceiling, more experience with the game, and generally more fun. Just massing enemies makes it annoying.

5: Actual glitches

I want to fight the glitch enemies, not real glitches. Unfortunately there are several.

1: Enemies kill you through platforms (if you jump up)
2: Enemies can jump in midair, often jumping back up after falling
3: Enemies fall down the side of the screen (supposed to be a wall)
4: Jump goes way too fast
5: Gigantic hitboxes

6: Randomness

Glitches fall and jump quick quickly. There is no time to even react to them. Sadly, much of your survival depends on luck which I dislike in a game.

Summary
The idea could work, and the background is cool enough, but that's where the fun ends. The gameplay here is quite poor with no replay content.