The cutscenes are a cool idea, I think the movement in this game already shines this early on. Is there any reason you take damage when you dash? It's such a core mechanic that it seems weird to punish the player for doing it.
I had to reboot the game a good ten times before the character stopped blinking out of existence after one frame. Any idea of what could be causing this? Curiously, the game still lets the player scroll the screen when this happens.
I... really love the 2.5D graphics. This is a very early build, I'm aware, but for me, the models are already on point. Comfy textures and color scheme too; the blue light lining the underside of the platforms, particularly, is pure aesthetics. I heard some anons say the protagonist needed a color change, with which I mildly concur. You probably don't want a blue main character, kek, and considering he uses a blade, I think a pastel red would fit him and the rest of the ambience well (I'm not a color guy, though. Don't mind me). The enemies are literally the Pantheons from Mega Man Zero, lmao! The boss battle, though a bit rough, was engaging enough. Its angled punch attack is hectic! I can already see it as a solid intro stage fight, continuing the Mega Man X tradition of pitting us against a huge but easy boss at the start of the game. The animations, on the other hand, will need some work. As I've said before, the models are amazing, but the rigging alone can make or break a 2.5D platformer. Try looking into the intricacies of CAPCOM's spritework on the various Mega Man entries and translating that into 3D! Also, though I know you'll likely let the player rebind keys at some point in the future, I'd suggest you let the player attack with the keyboard in these early builds too. How about it? Personally, it feels a bit strange using the mouse only to attack when there's no directional aim or camera look function that makes use of it. I'm used to play Mega Man games on the keyboard already (and I couldn't do this on a gamepad to save my life): Z-dash, X-jump and D-shoot in the SNES games and A-dash, Z-jump, X-attack for the GBA entries. It's ultimately your call, but consider grouping the action keys together if you ever do this :) There are also a few clipping/physics issues common to early builds of platformer games present, but I think you got this covered. READY! Do what Mighty No. 9 couldn't!
Thanks for the feedback. I have no idea what exactly could be causing the character popping out. One other anon mentioned this as well, but I can't seem to replicate the issue, I'll definitely do a deeper dive into the issue since I do, do some weird shenanigan's at the start of the game to initialize everything, obviously something happening there doesn't work on every system. I might go study up on color theory, the colors on her were picked arbitrarily at the start (I thought it looked ok-ish) so I'm not shocked to hear that it doesn't agree with a lot of people. I do intend to use the mouse to aim some future abilities which is why I defaulted to the mouse, I don't know if I'll get that far for next DD, but I'll add keyboard only bindings regardless. I agree in that it's probably a good idea to have as a temporary solution until I add rebinding. I'm glad you like the models, I never worked on humanoid models before so making them for this game was my first time. They were the first thing I worked on (I know it's stupid but I felt pretty strongly about making a "character" first) I ended up spending 2 weeks on the main character model lmao.
Thanks for checking out my game. The thought process behind dash costing HP is that the "HP" isn't actually hp. I called it that for simplicity in this version but it is supposed to be an F-zero style shield/energy bar. You die when taking a hit after reaching 0 shield. There is also a plan for you to be able to recover "HP" when hitting enemies and using the dash and any future abilities will cost this resource. I definitely want to try making this system work but I'm not dead set on it. I'm going to do a trail hopefully ready by next DD and see if it works or not. The deadzones were actually added in last minute so there wasn't much testing going around there. I'll definitely look into improving that. Admittedly the megaman inspiration is very loose, it was what got me started on this game but I don't want to strictly be a "megaman" inspired game. I'll probably just drop that note since I do seem to be deviating quite far from those game already.
Played it, not at a lot to say but I liked it. First time I started it the character did not spawn, it worked on the second attempt though. I think having some speedrun sections might be cool in the future, holding down dash and moving around showed some promise, transition such movement into new attack combos that create more momentum when slicing up an enemy and you got something special.
Thanks for the feedback & bug report. I'll definitely be experimenting with the things you mentioned as they are mostly things I was already thinking of doing.
Character animations are great. Enemies are a bit of a mixed bag. I like the slashing death animations, though I wish their upper body would have a bit more momentum when being slashed. Dashing into the heavy enemy is very, very satisfying. Shooting animations though are a bit lacking, and there's not much in terms of receiving damage feedback.
Boss is fun, and the MGR-style cutscene is soooo good.
Thanks for the feedback. I definitely plan to go back and polish up the animations, most of them were kind of hastily put together to have something for this demo. I'm happy you enjoyed the boss fight, about half of the development time so far was spent on the boss/cutscenes. Glad you see the MGR inspiration in the cutscenes
Thank you for playing, glad you had fun. Spamming dash shouldn't be faster than holding it down, I'll test it out but I'm fairly certain that's not the case. How dashing currently works is that it increases your max speed and slowly decreases the max speed back down to the default value when you let go, and acceleration is set to some arbitrarily high value so you always move at max speed. The final cutscene is supposed to be a quick time event, so I'll change up the required button press to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Thank you for the feedback
Because left click is used for melee, I ended up clicking something I didn't see and that's how I got the endgame cutscene (Which looks animted in a cool way).
When you jump and touch the side of a platform, the character sort of shakes a bit.
There's a lot about this that seems rough but there's still cool stuff in here.
Like dashing to enemies and crushing them, even if using a wall.
Thank you for playing! That seems to be a common issue, its supposed to be a quick time event but using the attack button seems to be a mistake since people are clicking it a lot anyways. I'll switch up the required button press and maybe make it a combo of buttons you need to press instead. Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for the feedback. I want the dash and all future abilities to be a risk/reward system. The intent is to make it so that you regain HP when you hit enemies to counter this loss in health. Hopefully I can have this implemented by next DD to see if this system would be fun or not.
Standing still, holding up and clicking fast will get the character stuck in the attack animation until you move again. You can just hold in dash all the time, while it drains your HP it never actually kills you itself. It made the boss very easy because it seems like he couldn't hurt you at all then. Nice QTE animation. Good start.
Thank you for the feedback & bug reports. At least for this demo the ability never killing you was intentional. I never want the ability drain to kill you but maybe for next DD I'll change it up as to not trivialize the enemies. I'll either change the dash hitbox size or prevent usage once HP is at 0. The idea was that you're rewarded with infinite ability use by playing risky (at 0 hp, you'll die in 1 hit). But it seems that it wasn't well balanced.
Comments
The cutscenes are a cool idea, I think the movement in this game already shines this early on. Is there any reason you take damage when you dash? It's such a core mechanic that it seems weird to punish the player for doing it.
I had to reboot the game a good ten times before the character stopped blinking out of existence after one frame. Any idea of what could be causing this? Curiously, the game still lets the player scroll the screen when this happens.
I... really love the 2.5D graphics. This is a very early build, I'm aware, but for me, the models are already on point. Comfy textures and color scheme too; the blue light lining the underside of the platforms, particularly, is pure aesthetics. I heard some anons say the protagonist needed a color change, with which I mildly concur. You probably don't want a blue main character, kek, and considering he uses a blade, I think a pastel red would fit him and the rest of the ambience well (I'm not a color guy, though. Don't mind me).
The enemies are literally the Pantheons from Mega Man Zero, lmao! The boss battle, though a bit rough, was engaging enough. Its angled punch attack is hectic! I can already see it as a solid intro stage fight, continuing the Mega Man X tradition of pitting us against a huge but easy boss at the start of the game.
The animations, on the other hand, will need some work. As I've said before, the models are amazing, but the rigging alone can make or break a 2.5D platformer. Try looking into the intricacies of CAPCOM's spritework on the various Mega Man entries and translating that into 3D! Also, though I know you'll likely let the player rebind keys at some point in the future, I'd suggest you let the player attack with the keyboard in these early builds too. How about it? Personally, it feels a bit strange using the mouse only to attack when there's no directional aim or camera look function that makes use of it. I'm used to play Mega Man games on the keyboard already (and I couldn't do this on a gamepad to save my life): Z-dash, X-jump and D-shoot in the SNES games and A-dash, Z-jump, X-attack for the GBA entries. It's ultimately your call, but consider grouping the action keys together if you ever do this :)
There are also a few clipping/physics issues common to early builds of platformer games present, but I think you got this covered. READY! Do what Mighty No. 9 couldn't!
Playthrough: ~10 minutes. Beat the boss.
Thanks for the feedback. I have no idea what exactly could be causing the character popping out. One other anon mentioned this as well, but I can't seem to replicate the issue, I'll definitely do a deeper dive into the issue since I do, do some weird shenanigan's at the start of the game to initialize everything, obviously something happening there doesn't work on every system. I might go study up on color theory, the colors on her were picked arbitrarily at the start (I thought it looked ok-ish) so I'm not shocked to hear that it doesn't agree with a lot of people. I do intend to use the mouse to aim some future abilities which is why I defaulted to the mouse, I don't know if I'll get that far for next DD, but I'll add keyboard only bindings regardless. I agree in that it's probably a good idea to have as a temporary solution until I add rebinding. I'm glad you like the models, I never worked on humanoid models before so making them for this game was my first time. They were the first thing I worked on (I know it's stupid but I felt pretty strongly about making a "character" first) I ended up spending 2 weeks on the main character model lmao.
Thanks for checking out my game. The thought process behind dash costing HP is that the "HP" isn't actually hp. I called it that for simplicity in this version but it is supposed to be an F-zero style shield/energy bar. You die when taking a hit after reaching 0 shield. There is also a plan for you to be able to recover "HP" when hitting enemies and using the dash and any future abilities will cost this resource. I definitely want to try making this system work but I'm not dead set on it. I'm going to do a trail hopefully ready by next DD and see if it works or not. The deadzones were actually added in last minute so there wasn't much testing going around there. I'll definitely look into improving that. Admittedly the megaman inspiration is very loose, it was what got me started on this game but I don't want to strictly be a "megaman" inspired game. I'll probably just drop that note since I do seem to be deviating quite far from those game already.
Played it, not at a lot to say but I liked it. First time I started it the character did not spawn, it worked on the second attempt though. I think having some speedrun sections might be cool in the future, holding down dash and moving around showed some promise, transition such movement into new attack combos that create more momentum when slicing up an enemy and you got something special.
Thanks for the feedback & bug report. I'll definitely be experimenting with the things you mentioned as they are mostly things I was already thinking of doing.
Character animations are great. Enemies are a bit of a mixed bag. I like the slashing death animations, though I wish their upper body would have a bit more momentum when being slashed. Dashing into the heavy enemy is very, very satisfying. Shooting animations though are a bit lacking, and there's not much in terms of receiving damage feedback.
Boss is fun, and the MGR-style cutscene is soooo good.
Great demo, had fun.
Thanks for the feedback. I definitely plan to go back and polish up the animations, most of them were kind of hastily put together to have something for this demo. I'm happy you enjoyed the boss fight, about half of the development time so far was spent on the boss/cutscenes. Glad you see the MGR inspiration in the cutscenes
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2078089011?t=0h8m23s
Nice approach to the visuals. Combat system is obviously unfinished, but is already reasonably fun.
One thing I noticed, it seems spamming Shift as fast you can is actually faster movement than just holding down Shift.
Like EyeBall Tank I kind of ended in the final cutscene without knowing what happened.
Thank you for playing, glad you had fun. Spamming dash shouldn't be faster than holding it down, I'll test it out but I'm fairly certain that's not the case. How dashing currently works is that it increases your max speed and slowly decreases the max speed back down to the default value when you let go, and acceleration is set to some arbitrarily high value so you always move at max speed. The final cutscene is supposed to be a quick time event, so I'll change up the required button press to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Thank you for the feedback
Because left click is used for melee, I ended up clicking something I didn't see and that's how I got the endgame cutscene (Which looks animted in a cool way).
When you jump and touch the side of a platform, the character sort of shakes a bit.
There's a lot about this that seems rough but there's still cool stuff in here.
Like dashing to enemies and crushing them, even if using a wall.
Thank you for playing! That seems to be a common issue, its supposed to be a quick time event but using the attack button seems to be a mistake since people are clicking it a lot anyways. I'll switch up the required button press and maybe make it a combo of buttons you need to press instead. Thanks for the feedback.
This was great for a protoype, the boss battle was especially cool. Also love the MMZ style you are going for.
Not sure why dash needs to hurt you though, if you don't want players to spam it, I'd just add a cool down or something.
Still great progress, can't wait to see where this goes next DD!
Thanks for the feedback. I want the dash and all future abilities to be a risk/reward system. The intent is to make it so that you regain HP when you hit enemies to counter this loss in health. Hopefully I can have this implemented by next DD to see if this system would be fun or not.
Ahhh that makes sense, can't wait to try it!
Standing still, holding up and clicking fast will get the character stuck in the attack animation until you move again. You can just hold in dash all the time, while it drains your HP it never actually kills you itself. It made the boss very easy because it seems like he couldn't hurt you at all then. Nice QTE animation. Good start.
Jumping into the side of platforms does some weird stuff: https://files.catbox.moe/0ykkza.webm
Thank you for the feedback & bug reports. At least for this demo the ability never killing you was intentional. I never want the ability drain to kill you but maybe for next DD I'll change it up as to not trivialize the enemies. I'll either change the dash hitbox size or prevent usage once HP is at 0. The idea was that you're rewarded with infinite ability use by playing risky (at 0 hp, you'll die in 1 hit). But it seems that it wasn't well balanced.