So i just finished working on my first game and I’m in need of anyone willing to give it a try.
Currently its only on windows but after play-testing i will try to get it out for other OS’s
Here’s the link: https://unnameddroid.itch.io/swapper
PLEASE provide as much feedback as you possibly can, maybe include videos or pictures to present the issue/point as effectively as possible. 
Thanks for any feedback in advance
Images of the game:
after watching my friend play this its obvious this game needs checkpoints so I’ve added those and nerfed some levels
Hi there 
I would love to playtest your game, but I am a bit scared to download a binary file of sources which did not build up trust yet. If you could export you game for web to itch.io that would make playtesting easier for cautious people like me.
Judging from your screenshots, a web export should be possible.
Apart from that I recommend getting the exports set up early so that it becomes evident which changes break the exports. Oftentimes when I programmed longer on a game without thinking about exports it made setting them up harder without no reason.
Kind regards 
If you are on windows and get a popup like: “Windows defended your PC from an unrecognized app” this is because i haven’t signed it or anything, not because its harmful to your PC.
P.S.: on the game’s itch page you ask people to circumvent security. I’m sure many people would not care, but especially for more tech savvy people this is a red flag, because that is exactly what someone with malicious intend would do: instructing people to ignore security warnings on one’s machine.
Fair point, I didn’t really think about that while setting everything up. A web export would be hard to do because the way the game handles saving though, and the game is decently long for someone who isn’t the greatest at it
Also I would like to ask, how do I build up trust? Like I don’t exactly have a budget to spend on verifying if it’s anything like Google plays verification.
Thanks for showing interest in my game btw
Trust in this case just means: how do we know that this isn’t a virus? If you had a web build up on Itch, we could see that the game is legitimate. Even without a save feature, it’s a big step in credibility, and people will likely download the game from there.
Yes I meant our trust, but I would also add to this that trust in this day and age also increasingly can be meant in a general sense: a publisher of a software is known over time to be not malicious and security is the default. As game developers this is also a development we should keep in mind, since one thing we do is to put out our software into this world. That means we should make sure that the trust we built up does not get abused and we will have to establish trust over time in order to not run into issues during publication.
One example is said Windows Defender nowadays – and in more and more other places: security becomes the default and trust must be established over time. I think there is some sort of heuristics working in the background how many people already use your software on a regular basis and it works on the level of the executable binary file itself.
For the same reason we see thread actors acquire ownership of established software repositories in order to get into the supply chain. Happens to the best package software repositories and seems to happen very a lot in the web world. In this way bad guys buy themselves the trust needed to spread bad software.
One example which became more popular was the npm package Axios which got hijacked this year’s April.
Ok, I do have a full play through of the game on my YouTube channel of the same name as my account, I’m not free right now to set up a web build just yet atm
Added a web export to the page!
Also surprisingly the saving actually works, even though in a game i made for a jam when i used file access it didn’t so idk how but that’s cool
for some reason the music doesn’t loop tho
I had the same ‘doesn’t loop’ issue with the web version of my Project; I was advised to use a ‘Wav’ file, and re-import the file with the ‘Forward’ Loop Mode; this worked. Worth a try..?
I played the game on my laptop.
What I would improve:
Here would be a nice spot for a checkpoint, since I already made it past the first section and the second section is unknown to me now, I will probably die and have to try again, thus have to redo the second section.
Generally it is nice to have a few levels per mechanic to let the newly learned sink in.
In this screen I learn about 6 mechanics at once:
These could be all introduced in different levels. And maybe afterwards be re-iterated upon, so they can really sink into my slow brain. Brains are slow and try to save energy. Level two is convoluted, especially the bottom left corner had more things that it needs. And the thorns there seem just a bit mean, regarding that they reset you to the beginning.
Especially for little games I think it is nice if they are not too hard and very easy on the brain.
This here (image below) becomes a very hard timing issue, especially when not used to the bounciness of the pads yet. I would just put the spikes into blue or red and allow the player to get past them for free when switching to the right color.
In level 3 I would put a checkpoint here (see below).
Or maybe remove some of the spikes that follow.
Would be nice to have the player’s sprite have a permanent cross on it to mark that it is in the state of not being able to swap colors. Then I would also know that these blue and red color switchers do not remove me from that state.
And again multiple mechanics get introduced in level 4.
I know they play together in this level. But it would be possible to introduce them in separate levels at first.
The spikes (image below) are also mean. Make me redo stuff, if I suck at the game.
After a few levels, when I am more used to how to play I am more willing to redo longer sections, but at first I want to rewarded for trying and not punished.
Checkpoint would be nice here (see below) in level 4. Made me stop playing for now, because it reset me a lot.
To summarize, the mechanics overall are cool and there is a lot which can be useful. But I feel there is a bit of a lack on the story telling and easy introduction side of things. Of course there is not really an actual story being told by a puzzle game, but imagine if it was. Everything unnecessary which is not part of the main level’s theme or idea should be removed. Just like with good poetry a good level is about removing the unnecessary. That’s what needs to be refined a bit, but it can be achieved by spreading out the mechanics introduced per level into several levels and introducing each mechanic in isolation first and then following up with more complex levels which combine several mechanics.
I would love to pickup your game again after a few iterations. Overall a very good game for such an early game with the Godot engine.
thanks for the in depth feedback! very useful.
I think the reason lots of things are introduced at once is because I wanted to fit the game into those 9 levels, as I kinda lost inspiration for the level design past a point (especially noticeable on level 7 imo) and its hard to see how hard something is when you have replayed it many times.
I could maybe redesign some parts of levels to stop them being as compact maybe? more room for checkpoints and to take a breather.
I threw this in last minute just because I felt like it tbh, it’s kinda just to remind you where you are in the game.
Im aware of this but idk how to fix
Yeah, the issue was I had loop disabled in the import menu
for some reason the songs defaulted back to loop = false, dunno why but i fixed it pretty quickly
thanks for the suggestion though!
It’s a great game so far!
My only complaint is that some sudden traps like the one where you fall onto spikes after swapping to go through the floor in level 3, or the row of spikes directly after the checkpoint on level 4 (which keep killing me when I respawn because I reflexively try to move, bonking straight into them), feel a little bit unfair.
The background of the page makes me dizzy 
The game itself is great. Colors are nice. Idea is not unique, but executed well.
Super mario type of games is not my jam. It took me ~20 tries to finish 1 level. I am not doing the second one
Wish you all the best
I wonder who gave you this advice. 
