Wow, thank you very much! That is very useful feedback for me! To your points/questions:
- Keys: The problem is in GameMaker that you can not address the keys by location, only by the letter. I have three languages implemented: english, french and german. Now , if you look on a french layout you see the "W" is in an other place. So I looked for a control scheme that would work for all three layouts. And "J" for Jump and "H" for Hover was to tempting, but after the feedback I already got I will take space as default for jump. And I still think about the most elegant solution. (choosing the layout in the first level?, customize the keys when starting the game ? ..)
- The one time Jump: Originally the game was played with one button for Jump and another for Doublejump, after Feedback I combined both actions on one button, because players got confused. But at the moment the old control scheme is still active for now as a pro control. The advantage is, you can press the (one)jump button again in the air and keep it pressed until you touch the floor again and then you immediately jump on the same frame you touch the floor. But with the double jump on the same key you are forced to jump again before using that feature. I use it at the moment for speedruns.
- Performance: The technical side is not my strong suit. I have some things already addressed but I have to look further into this. Good to know.
- Countdown: If you press "Jump" while the countdown is shown it should be a little faster, but yes I'll make starting/dying faster I think.
- Movement: Yes, I know. :) But it is how I wanted to design the game. It is a contrast to the very abrupt direct style of a lot of other games in that genre. It is also due to the relatively big jump height + double jump (gameplaywise).
- USP: Good question. The hovering will be a lot more helpful in higher levels and seem necessary for the average player but I want every level beatable without it. It is a possibility to play the game with it but it should not be forced. (after beating the last level in the demo you see the least used hover time for each level, you get a star if you didn't use any ) I generally tried to make the level design as "flowable" as possible. So I tried to never really force the player to wait. In most levels in the demo you can press right and just have to jump and double jump at the right moments. Unfortunately I hadn't a lot of tester who tried to get S (or S+) time ratings. (I took my own best times for S+) . I have no real selling point besides it is hopefully fun to flow through the levels. A key aspect was also to try to bridge the gap between casual and more "pro" gamers (also the "exchange ink for more jumps"-mechanic) and that the player can choose his own style of playing.
- Typo: I will correct it than ;)
- Positive note: I put a lot of thought into it, so I'm glad to hear that. :D
I take a look at your game in the next days and give you feedback.