Snack Tick

Cool game from a South African dev. Keep up the good work, V Master.

this is honestly i really fun yet simple game i would def recommend ppl try,despite the low price it isn't a cheap cashgrab but actually shows effort put into it, multiplayer is a blast and so is single player, any negatives or criticisms i have were already discussed with the creator,nice guy actually took it really well and is promising. overalll great game developped during these hard times and it shows

20.10.2020. [h1] It isn’t easy being an alien [/h1] Imagine that you are an alien and that you travel the universe and stop from planet to planet. Imagine that, during your travels, you really need something to eat so you see this blue planet, mostly covered in water and you carefully crash land with your buddies to find some food. Lucky for you, there is plenty of food where you landed, however, the inhabitants of this planet are giant, and what’s worse, they are very hostile towards you. All you really need are tiny little crumbs of food that these behemoths drop from their own giant portions and not only will they not share, but they will pound their limbs hard at you in order to squish you. What a rude planet. [h1] You are a bug and nobody likes you but you still have to eat [/h1] Despite the game claiming that you are an alien bug, it doesn’t really matter. In this game you play as an insect from a top down view of the entire stage/arena. In each stage (apart from a few special ones) you move around using the movement keys/analog stick/D-pad and you collect food. Collect enough food before time runs out and move to the next level. [h1] It’s so simple, but it’s fun [/h1] I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t have with this game. The first few levels it was mildly entertaining to play as a bug running around, collecting food scraps. It’s kind of like the classic snake game except you don’t grow and you don’t really speed up. The obstacles you do face are huma… oh sorry… ALIEN feet and hands as they try to squish you. You also have to avoid bad food and sometimes manage the weird game’s physics. Just to kick things up a notch, you also have multiple characters, a few different mission types, power ups and even a multiplayer mode. [h1] Let’s address the Alien in the room [/h1] The game looks like … crap. The insect models are just normal insects or blobs with different colors (sometimes they constantly change colors too) and they lack details. They mostly look like play-doh insects. The levels are just plain. You have a few levels where you are on the kitchen table, outside the house, on the street and then you have levels where you are in a weird dimension or something. Food items look ok but aren’t anything special. So, yeah, the graphics aren’t pretty to look at but the weirdest thing is that you have all these advanced graphical options like anti-aliasing, motion-blurr, V-sync, you know, things you wouldn’t expect from such a game and yet, you can’t change the overall resolution nor can you tweak the controls. [h1] So many insect to unlock… but they all play pretty much the same… [/h1] One of the things I was hoping would surprise me was the insect variety. You start the game with just one (or 2, I’m not sure) and each insect has exactly 5 levels to complete. These levels usually last about 30 seconds. Usually you have to collect a certain amount of food in a certain amount of time but sometimes you have to use a power up or just avoid getting squashed. None of these are particularly hard (except a few, but more on that later) and you will easily be able to unlock more playable insects. As hard as the game tries to hammer in that all these insects are different, they really aren’t. The only difference is their looks, size and normal speed. You don’t really need speed as each level usually gives you plenty of time and more to do what you need to do and while size can sometimes help you collect food quickly, it’s also easier to get squashed when you are bigger. Heck, even if you really need a speed boost to complete a level, you will undoubtedly find a power up that will let you do just that. So really, the only real difference was the design of each bug. [h1] Progressing through the game [/h1] Like I mentioned above, each bug has its own 5 levels and once you complete them, you unlock the next bug with its own 5 levels and you keep doing this until you unlock all bugs. Each new bug, while they play the same, has harder levels… I mean… right? RIGHT? No, not really. This really confused me as the levels didn’t really have a pacing to them. I remember I had levels where I was getting attacked by loads of things that I had to restart multiple times before I completed it only to have the next handful of levels be levels without any enemies that I just breezed through. Yes, it really seemed like the next level was selected at random instead of growing in difficulty. [h1] Bad food is bad for everyone, even aliens [/h1] My worst nightmare in this game were levels with bad food items. If you collect these, you lose a life and, more importantly, you lose a lot of food that you’ve collected during that level. So, just avoid the bad food, right? Sure, if you can tell which food is bad! Bad food has a faint light reddish glow to it that is pretty hard to see so I often ended up accidently collecting it. Now combine these hard to see bad foods with a level where you have two large patches of grass where you can’t even see anything and you’ve got the very worst level in the game, oh yeah, there was also a stomping foot in that one. [h1] Multiplayer [/h1] The game also has multiplayer. You can have up to 4 people compete who can eat the most food items, survive the longest or die the least. The game doesn’t have real online play but supports remote play and couch-co-op. I wanted to redefine my keyboard so I can maybe squeeze in a few more players to try this out with me but the game wouldn’t let me. Luckily, it recognized my controller as a separate player so that’s nice. Playing the game in multiplayer is fun for a few rounds but it becomes clear quite quickly that there isn’t much to it. At best, the multiplayer is the equivalent of playing the same Mario Party mini-game over and over again. [h1] I’m sorry but I really can’t recommend this game [/h1] I’m not going to lie, as soon as I took one look at this game, it didn’t seem like I was going to like it. The unappealing graphics, the oversized text, the generic music and the locked resolution, none of it helped. The core gameplay with collecting food and avoiding attacks could have been fun if there was a difficulty spike or if new characters played differently apart from speed and size. I was able to finish all the insect specific missions in less than an hour and a half and the multiplayer mode didn’t provide anything new or exciting. Snack Tick just isn’t a fun game. I would be willing to forgive some of the game’s shortcomings if it had its own style of if it had levels with increasing difficulty but as it is now, it just isn’t that fun. It certainly isn’t fun enough to justify the price of 5 $. [h3]My advice to the developer [/h3]: Put the game out for free. See what people think of it, survey them for ideas for improvements, and create a better, more polished version of it that people will be happy to spend money on. [h3]If you liked my review, feel free to follow my curator group. I’m trying to review every single game in my library. Seeing and interacting with fine folks, like you, keeps my motivation up. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/RevAMG [/h3]

Shorter review on [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/29442319-Co-Op-Cookbook/]Co-Op Cookbook[/url] This game would be perfectly fine to play, if it were free. However, seeing as it is $2.99 (on sale), you might be better spending your time elsewhere. While the game play is interesting and unique, this is not compensated for by the graphics or the fact that you have to literally use a d-pad in order to navigate with a controller. It's a neat little development from a game jam, however, it should have taken a little more time to develop art-wise and perhaps had a campaign mode that is co-op, as it is after all, advertised as being a 4 player local game.

Its not a bad game The idea is very creative, taking inspiration from bugs and the games becomes more fun trying to complete more frustrating challenges. My only complaints with the game is the bottom character of bugs have a bugged movement in the fire stasge( the last stage). The Stage where there is 2 separate lawns with a hammer or something crushing you, I have a big problem with this. The Hammer descends too fast and the fake/harmful food needs a better visual hint to show they are harmful like a black aura surrounding them. The hit detection of the Hands/Hammers that crush you need to be fixed as being slightly near it can get you crushed, so these objects need to be slowed down, have a better visual guide to show where they are gonna hit and the hitbox needs to stick to it. Can a issue with the magnet ability be fixed where it spawns more in challenges, especially challenges that require you to use it and for it to not attract the harmful food. 7/10, not too shabby.

You are an insect that tries to collect food while avoiding being stomped or smacked. The missions see you unlock a bunch of different insects while introducing different power ups and different mechanics like black holes to make it more challenging. The most fun to be had is in it's local co-op or multiplayer. While it does not have online multiplayer I tried it out via remote play together and it worked really well. This isn't the kind of game that you will play for hours on end but it's ideal to play in short bursts with a friend or two while you might be waiting for other friends to come online for your main gaming session. You also support a developer learning his trade and trying to find his feet in the industry which makes it worth the time and worth the price.

First off I enjoyed the game, it was fun and entertaining and playing with a friend was funny and competitive. Definitely a good start for the developer and a promising future ahead. Now there are a few points that I think should be addressed albeit nit picking: - Firstly the food falling, its hard to tell the distance from the ground as the shadows are too subtle. A good performance and UX tip would be to just instance a circular plane on the ground with some semi transparency that follows the x and z axis of the item and depending on the distance adjust the size. This was implemented very well in the first 3-D Mario games as the player couldn't decipher the characters distance from the ground. This feature could work really well for this type of game and it gives the game a semi nostalgic style to it that works both aesthetically and practically. - The next is the use of the music. I love the idea of adding fun and upbeat music but using a specific genre, i.e tropical house, can cut off a part of the market, as I among a few others can't stand it. So something more casual game orientated rather than commercial sound would be more appropriate but that is a personal preference. - The next is sound mastering. The music and sound affects are near deafening on the lowest setting. Personally to have to lower the games volume in the master volume control in windows after already lowering it in the game to its lowest is very off putting for a game and needs to be adjusted in the engine. - The missions and game modes are fun and there are many to choose from however some repetition makes it feel like a copy and paste but with subtle changes. An idea is taking some scenes and shuffling items around with various obstacles that a bug would encounter like an empty shoe, wrapper, table leg, dog bowl etc, Another idea would be to use things other than a foot stomping like a fly swatter and bug spray that leaves an area toxic for lets say 5 seconds. - Finally UI. UI needs a bit of work as it feels very prototype like and the pickup icons are cool but the simple black and white just doesn't pop. Looking at maybe some complementary colors like green and yellow with a red outline can really make it vibrant. Also adding a kind of size alternation to make it catch the eye could really help draw the eye to it better and a satisfying sound could + celebratory visual cue like a poof or something could make it more addictive to collect them. This could even be implemented with a verbal/visual reward for a combo like "NICE JOB" often used in Nintendo games to release serotonin and make the player feel good for doing well. In conclusion I enjoyed the game but there is still some work to be done. I look forward to future patches and games from this developer!

The game is allot of fun and really makes me ask the question ; " man have i been killing aliens by mistake my entire life?". jokes aside the game is really fun the simplicity is very refreshing. my favourite upgrades are magnet, and speed. but i have one Gripe. The grass man is just too much. it kills my Frame-rate.

A simple yet fun game. Will keep you busy for a while. Has some minor issues but nothing gamebreaking. Worth picking up. Always support your smaller developers