Goldheart

//Spoilers//

My thoughts on Goldenheart.

I really enjoyed this game, mainly the challenges of the gameplay. Although I had a few issues with it.
One of the main issues I faced through my first playthrough were enemies "jumpscaring" you. In many parts of the game the enemy spawns were... A bit too harsh. Many times while crossing between rooms, in a room with fixed camera and in other situationsm high speed enemies come out of your screen and hit you hard, In some cases, I lost about half of my health bar... Although this might have been a skill issue of mine than anything lol. 

But my main issues with the game are the plot related ones, being the main reason why I'm even writting this. To be honest, I am really into writting and I really liked the characther designs and the overral world (and also because I totally don't have a bias for a single characther).

- "Not Enough Info?"

This is like, the main issue with the game's plot.
The game manages to give you too little info and too much info at the same time, and here's how:
There's a concept in writting called "Setup and Payoff", it's very simple and intuitive. First you Setup something! Like for example, a characther, a creature, whatever you want! Just foreshadowing it! And then you use that again later on. But the thing is, the game just setups a whole bunch a things and never pay'soff.
The game gives you a bunch of info and genuinely interesting characthers, but never elaborates on it.
Of course, you can setup something and never elaborate on it, creating a mystery or something... Or just do weird shit for the sake of it but ANYWAYS! 
A good example of this issue in the game is the Spider in the wall. You walk in a cave and in the first second you enter a giant spider comes out a hole in the wall just to say "hi lol" is never going to be used ever again? This shit literally jumpscared me in both of my playthroughs because I just started blasting at it the moment it left the wall. This is a cool setup, but again, it does nothing and you never see it again... Unless it does on the backtrack because if it does I'll be really angry since I didn't do it and I just deleted my save file lol.
And all of this keeps happening over, and over, and over, and over again. Another example, the Hero statue in the sand town and a bunch of people talking about the old Hero and stuff! Where Is this information used again? Nowhere! But there's still a chance that it has a purpose on the backtrack! So more minor worldbuilding information that I'll never use! :D

- The MacGuffin Orb

I know it's just a 1 hour game, but damn i didn't even knew why I was after the MacGuffin (desired object trope) that Lavka stole from the player's village. The only moments where is explained something about it is that scene with Lavka in the bridge which he basically says: "Yeah it does cool stuff" and in the end which is revealed that it was messing with Lavka's mind.
Anyways, the intro goes straight to the point and throws you into the gameplay, but to be honest, I wouldn't care that much if it had extra steps. For example, first you would wake up and train some dodging with Sentry and then Lavka would burst in and steal the orb. It would be enough time for you to talk with some villagers and even the elder. Just a little bit of depth, enough to make someone care a bit for the village.

- "Things just happens"
Literally that, things just happens.
Again, it's just a 1 hour game, but the characthers that popped on your way could had something for them.
For example, Silvia and Ribbon.
To be honest Silvia is my favorite characther of the game, Not because of her design but the concept of a demon messing with a writers dream not only cool asf, she her whole damn section of the game is really challenging and interesting.
But, because the game is so short, things... Just happens.
You just enters her house, enters in her mind, beat the demon, they drink coffe and you keep going. And something that really got me confused was... Why the hell the Green Knight boss was there? Like... He's literally just there and managed to jumpscare me on the first AND the second playthrough. Anyways back to Silvia!

. You enters in Sylvia's house pretty much waking her up.
. She asks if you're just passing by her house or if you're a fan, since her house is literally the only way between two main sections of the game.
. She thinks you are a fan and offers you a coffee, she talks a little bit and gives you a autographed book.
. *Joke about the fact that she is only staying in this house because the people that want to go to another part of the map keep waking her up.*
. She gets the key to the exit door and when she's in front of it, she falls asleep.

And this whole section could had like 4-3 minutes and it would be enough for me to make a crusade for this characther.

Anyways, to not expose my bias towards Silvia, I'm gonna also talk about Barry.

Just gonna throw this one here but you could had just made the whole sequence where you cross the desert with him just a cutscene where he talks a bit, it would honestly be 10x better than what it is now in my opinion since the only thing you do there is follow him for a few seconds before going to the next section... To be honest if you removed this section the game would literally be the same but with -20s~30s of gameplay.
He could literally talk anything about himself and the place he lives in this sequence, damn he could even talk about how hard he is into the mushrooms in the cave, even foreshadowing the next box since he could say: "but i've been kinda worried recently... There's been some weird sounds on the deeper parts in the cave...".

Anyways... That's basically it I guess.... I think you got the point.
I'm really tired since I've been writting this for like 2-3 hours by now I guess.

Again, I really enjoyed this game, but I think the points I made here could had enhanced the experience.
I'm looking forward for the sequel!

i love this

Nice 1 hour adventure... it's creepy and psychedelic, and the shooting is pretty good. I liked that the game mostly didn't waste my time (more on that below). A lot of different settings are packed into this, which were all interesting to discover and gave a sense of traveling a long way despite the game being relatively short.

Here's what I think could be improved in the sequel:

- Parts of the artwork felt unfinished to me. Some of it could be intentional, but in any case I felt that the red spirit gun-thing as well as the bullets would be nicer to look at with some sort of texture to them, even just pillow shading. Another thing that stood out to me was the blue village houses.

- Most of the game flowed along nicely, but a few spots kinda stopped the momentum. The first was the "obstacle-course" area where you dodge patrolling squares and spinning fans. It wasn't horrible but I would rather have been shooting stuff than waiting for the squares to go by. Also a couple of times there was a save point right before a mandatory dialogue. Again I found myself waiting for something, when I'd rather be playing. Thankfully these cutscenes were never super long anyway, but perhaps a "skip all" button or something would help to get back into the action.

- The shooting was good, but there wasn't enough to shoot at! I honestly would have been happy with some of the areas just going on a bit longer with larger groups of enemies. I appreciate that the bosses never overstayed their welcome, but the rest of the game felt like it wasn't providing enough resistance.

Well I think that's about it, nice job and I'm looking forward to the sequel!

// if you have not play the game, and want to play it anytime, this comment is not recommended for you //

So.. I finished the game after an hour of gameplay, actually enjoyed it. What interest me to play it is the color palettes used. Level designs are decent, yet able to pull me to play and to know more about the story. Characters are cute and lovable!

~ Some explicit words are used in the game. Those who are into my (qatoqat's) art/content (which are rated pg-13), this game might not be suitable for you.~

The intro screen was simple and straightforward. I did not spend like more than 10 seconds looking around, immediately started playing. The walkable paths are not too distanced. Placement of objects are neat and tidy. Rarely, but sometimes, objects get in the way.

Dialogues in the game are clean and fine. I was able to read them quickly. Characters/objects that required extra walking and stopping are skipped as I expect them not to affect the gameplay. I might have missed secrets in the game by doing so, who knows.

As for character movements, not much issue! (good job!) Key controls used are common. No/not much difference/effect on the character if the left mouse button is pressed or not. So, one can just hold the LMB all the time.

RMB gives a charged fire. I found it to benefit the most when there are many enemies at once. Other cases, LMB seems to benefit more. Suggesting that the charge time for RMB is reduced or damage of RMB fire is increased (up to you).

Boss battles are unique and entertaining. I had to guess the attacks and move patterns when they appeared (well done!). Suggesting that there would be something that notify the player that the boss battle has started once a pre-battle dialogue has ended. 

Default playing mode is windowed. For some games on windows, pressing ALT+ENTER enters full screen. I played in this mode till the last boss fight since my screen's DPI is high. To defeat the last boss, I used windowed mode as it's easier to move the mouse.

Few of my thoughts, not too much ^-^

3.8/5.0 well done!

I haven't had a chance to play your game yet, but I'm very excited to check it out tomorrow (unfortunately I found your game just as I was about to go to sleep)

The screenshots here make the game look like a really fun adventure title! I'll be sure to come back and comment again after I play it!

Marvelous work, Jawi! I played it all the way through and I love the whole thing! Can't wait to see what else you work on in the future!