Some more feedback

Preface: In an effort to remain transparent in the development of this game, I will respond to feedback provided by players in devlogs tagged with the Game Design post type.

Note that some potential features I've discussed here are extremely experimental, and may or may not make it into the final version of the game. Whether or not they make it depends on YOU, the player, providing feedback and letting me know what you enjoy and what suits the game. One man cannot run the world.

31 plays and 50 views, this is amazing! I never expected so many people to try my game and I wholeheartedly thank you for this! This is something I'm working on out of my passion for game design and development, along with me putting the skills and techniques I've learned during my programming history and studies to the test.

However, this post isn't just a thank you (as you can tell from the title of the post). I got some more feedback from a friend (can I say this? I don't keep in contact as much as I should) of mine who's undertaking/finishing up on a game design course at my uni so I thought I'd take the time to respond to the points he's made and open a discussion with the wider community.

It's not really my type of game, I'm not really a fan of platformers, however it's shaping up quite well.
-I was a little confused about the screen shaking, I didn't like that the boost was bound to the same key as movement it felt a little odd particularly as there were no instructions or UI to explain what it did, maybe have some key press text to the bottom of the screen to show what buttons do as well as what the goal is.
-I noticed that pressing S when in the air did some funky stuff, it felt a little wrong as I'm used to it cancelling velocity as opposed to moving backwards
-The camera felt a little too constrained, I would've liked the ability to either look around my character whilst moving or even just zooming in and out. I sometimes struggled to see how far away from an edge I was which fixing this camera would fix.
The level design was fun though, perhaps you could add multiple routes to make it to a single point, or add abilities like a grapple or something to change up the dynamic. Moving platforms are fun but to an extent a little generic

Preface: Even though it's not your type of game I really appreciate you taking the time to give it an attempt. It means a lot!

Point 1: I'm not sure if binding it to a seperate key would be smart here, as the direction the players moving is decided by the directional key they use (QE/WS). I do need to add some UI into the game, I'm going to revamp the original part of the game to make it a little bit more intuitive soon. I'm also thinking of adding some kind of on-screen ui element to show how much you've charged the boost outside of the screen shake as it's not quite all the information you need.

Point 2: I've gone back and forth on using S to halt movement opposed to moving backwards. I recently changed it back to moving backwards from a system where it significantly reduced how far you moved. I'm considering adding it such that you can always halt your movement (or significantly reduce it, maybe to a factor of 0.05 or 0.1) by tapping S. This is a very valid point in which the exact implementation is still up in the air.

Point 3: I'm currently working on adding more degrees of freedom to the camera. It's a little bit more complicated than just allowing the player to adjust pitch and yaw though. I found a really nice GDC talk (50 Game Camera Mistakes by Journey's John Nesky) the other day which I'm working through and figuring out which tools are suited to my game. 

Closing: I've tried to make it so that the levels aren't so standard. I'm glad that you've enjoyed it. Maybe I should make it a little clearer that currently there are two routes through each of the paths once you reach first non-linear part. The alternative route unlocks once you beat one of the other paths, to increase player agency. In the next part of the game I'll be looking at what abilities I can add to the game, which you'll obtain around half way through each major section. There's going to be extra routes the player can take through each of these sections which allow you to utilise one or more of the newer abilities introduced.