WIP [Deadline Runner] 2D platformer

Hello everyone, here is game I'm currently working with called Deadline Runner. I don't have much experience in game development so I would like to get some feedback about this game, what you guys thinking about art/sounds/gameplay/and other stuff.

Game poster is now ready!



Description:
Deadline Runner is an endless 2d platformer with steampunk elements, where you can switch between two worlds to avoid obstacles and pick up crystal shards, don't worry you can also "jump" as in classic platforms. Also, there is a progress line in gameplay process, you can unlock your ancestors from family and tree. Every of them will grant some special powers or even unlock new playable character. For shine crystals you pick up, you can upgrade powerups, buy some useful consumable or get a new playable character.

Gameplay Trailer

Here is some screenshots:
#1

#2



And some concepts:

"Living Armor"


"UR900"


Some parts of characters animation:

"Living Armor" idle animation from character select screen.


"Living Armor" death animation.


Static and rolling obstacle.


One of background animations


Family Tree:






That's not all of them but I don't want to make you scrolling all day )

And some questions that stick in my head:

• First of all what do you think about this game.
• Currently I'm only thinking about mobile platforms and I can't figure out about optimal "Batches" for mobile devices.
• I have power-up that speed you up any ideas how to add blur effect without unity pro?
• I am thinking of making this game less repetitive and boring so I want to add in game bosses like the one on image below what do you guys think about that?
• I got much more questions but I'm already sleeping on my keyboard so ill finish later.

Thank you for your advices and feedback. I'll try to post new content as fast as I can. If you have any suggestions on questions feel free to contact me anytime!

#Update1
For the past few months I made a big progress in this game, solved a lot of "questions" and even released on Windows store!)
First of all I would like to say that porting game to windows store is Pain! Why? Because when you compiling you can get Unknown ERROR with a description like (somewhere something happened)...) After we passed all these steps we got problems with the IAP's and ads implementation. As true power rangers we did all scripts in native and followed all the Microsoft "step-by-step" guide, but in the end we got that: A) IAP's just don't work in test builds, after dancing with magic drums and digging up forums, some lovely person told me that IAP's will work only when your app is already in shop so best way is make your first submission private =) and B) Microsoft Ads SDK after implementation just don't show ads we tried everything including numerous support tickets and live chats, but best answer we got was "Well you did all right we don't know what is going on try to search answer on forums", so now we are setting up Vungle ads).

Ok now after I left all my pain behind ill show you some cool changes and progression we made)

Sound track for one of our Scenes

New Screenshots and Animations​

# 1 Machine PowerUP Animation


# 2 Shielded Character


# 3 Afterlife effect


# 4 Character Shop


and of course Windows 10 Link:
https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nblggh5hql4

 

Visuals are pretty unique and nice looking.
The character animation where he tosses his helmet/head has an unnatural weighted motion which makes it look incorrect. This is also evident on the spear when the character dies. It just doesn't move with the correct weight that kind of object would move. With these edits made the animations will look better.
The portrait paintings are very nice, but it is pretty obvious you have painted over photographs. This is a good technique, but because of this technique, they look a little oddly. You may consider deviating further from the photographs to give the images more of a imagined creation look.
If these images are not going to be full screen, but small icon size - this may be a moot point. If that's the case maybe let us see them at a smaller size to see how they look at the reduced resolution.

Nice work overall.

 

Thank you mate, I know about animation problems currently I'm looking for a solution, but it is thought problem specially for that character. I'm using "Spine" for my animations and with the spine parent system you can't simply divide "head" from "body" in process. But ill try to make it more natural. I see your good in that maybe you can give me some advices?

Also, I changed Ancestor portraits for in-game screenshots that should give more clear picture.

And thank you again for this feedback, it means a lot for me).

 

Hey - those portraits look better imo. They look a lot more imagined and consistent especially at those sizes.

I don't use spine personally, but animation technique is pretty much the same I think.
Can you have two instances of the head, one parented to the character and one not. When you want the head to fly up - turn the head parented invisible, and turn the head unparented visible, (they have to be in the same x,y location) then animate the visible head as desired until it flies back onto the body then swap the invisibility again with the parented head.
Just a thought - that's how I have done this type of switch-a-roo animation in the past in 3D.