Talked a bit about this in a stream chat, finally played it.
Feedback:
Movement is a *bit* slow, but this could easily be fixed by levels or pickups
Some spells seem very week specifically entangle, fireball and steam burst. Entangle hits on enemy, fireball same issue with weak damage, and steam burst puts you in melee. Entangle should hit at least 5 enemies, fireball should be a big explosion with knockback, and steam burst should be more of an escape.
The game got really hard really fast. I'd love some kind of upgrade system similar to VS or Halls of Torment.
Encountered a bug where enemies could push me into the walls. Then they couldn't reach me, so I could easily farm them forever.
Really fun base, especially with elemental weaknesses. I think you could turn this into a fun VS-like with some cool spell specific upgrades and stuff like that.
The game feels good. I agree with others about the late-game spawns being too close to the player.
Also, I got pretty far using the fire-light spell (everburn?) and eventually there was a large lag spike whenever enemies spawned in.
The spells themselves are neat, but as others have said at present there's not much incentive to switch. More enemies with elemental variants could obviously force the player to switch around, although I've always found the standard 'array of elemental resistance %es" a bit boring... One thing I couldn't tell was whether spells interacted with *each other* meaningfully. Like, what would get me to switch between spells would be sick combos of different spells together, but because of the casting time I don't think this actually works at present. In principle, everburn and entangle have synergy, but in practice I feel like right now I'm better off just casting everburn twice.
hi wizardgamedev i will have a real project name soon lol
very good point. between elemental weaknesses, variance with enemy type (single target threats), or spells reacting to other spells, I agree i have to decide on ways to incentivize actually using each spell.
Come a long way since the last demo, becoming cooler and cooler. Magic system is fun to use. I have one suggestion if you want to add more to it. The charge to release now works so that once the chargebar is finished a spell is released. Make it so spells instead have varying degrees of power depending on how long you hold it down and also so that you can charge a bit longer. Think it will add some more coolness.
Looking forward to hopefully see some snippets of a story next demo, since Adventure game seems to be where you are going. Arena is good for testing the combat system though, if you are going adventure just slimes approaching is not going to cut it.
Think oldschool zelda is useful as inspiration. Would be cool to see some kind of town are with associated mechanics, wilderness and a quest.
Thank you for playing and the kind words. efficacy proportional to charge is a neat idea that would definitely add variance to casting.
As I make this, I'm feeling like I will just expand this type of survival mode until I have a good foundation of assets and tools to undertake the adventure mode. I've got a few map generation scripts unused so far that can make for something neat later if I can tie it all together.
Pretty cool, I'm not the greatest fan of these kind of games but the magic system is fun.
Probably needs some incentive not to spam the same spell over and over, maybe elemental enemies or priority targets that require single-target oriented spells.
Agree with single targets, a few boss mobs could change a lot. I hope for this aspect to be a lot better when enemies have more robust behavior than just approach. I believe elemental weaknesses will do a lot more than I previously thought, thanks to all this feedback :)
Cool magic system. I wish the enemies wouldn't harass me while trying to read the tutorial. Enemy spawns are way too close, feels completely unfair late game when they constantly spawn in your face. Its a bit too easy to get stuck in between enemies. I think melee should be an auto-attack, or at least an option to set it to, there's enough things to keep track of with all the spells you can cast. Sometimes when spamming melee and channeling a spell at the same time the channeling gets stuck. Some spells do not have a name. No way to heal? I think there should be more utility spells like the steam burst, like an ice wall to block enemies for example. It takes quite a bit of time to actually die after hitting 0 HP.
I feel like the magic system is wasted on a game like this though, I think it would be a lot more interesting as a more linear level based game. Like Magicka for example.
I agree with all of this. collision needs quite a bit of work - getting stuck between walls or multiple enemies happens. I agree with needing more utility in the spells. utility will also be necessitated through a more complex world later, with enemies that actually react to you.
The game will be a much larger sequential adventure, but that does not exist yet. For now I'm happy to hear feedback about the micro level since that's all there is at the moment. Thank you for playing!
Comments
it's probably for the better that now it's more arcade high score rather than puzzles.
i also got the stuck in a wall bug. i became basically immortal and i was able to just rack up score infinitely because enemies were unable to hit me
Talked a bit about this in a stream chat, finally played it.
Feedback:
Movement is a *bit* slow, but this could easily be fixed by levels or pickups
Some spells seem very week specifically entangle, fireball and steam burst. Entangle hits on enemy, fireball same issue with weak damage, and steam burst puts you in melee. Entangle should hit at least 5 enemies, fireball should be a big explosion with knockback, and steam burst should be more of an escape.
The game got really hard really fast. I'd love some kind of upgrade system similar to VS or Halls of Torment.
Encountered a bug where enemies could push me into the walls. Then they couldn't reach me, so I could easily farm them forever.
Really fun base, especially with elemental weaknesses. I think you could turn this into a fun VS-like with some cool spell specific upgrades and stuff like that.
Another wizard enjoyer!
The game feels good. I agree with others about the late-game spawns being too close to the player.
Also, I got pretty far using the fire-light spell (everburn?) and eventually there was a large lag spike whenever enemies spawned in.
The spells themselves are neat, but as others have said at present there's not much incentive to switch. More enemies with elemental variants could obviously force the player to switch around, although I've always found the standard 'array of elemental resistance %es" a bit boring... One thing I couldn't tell was whether spells interacted with *each other* meaningfully. Like, what would get me to switch between spells would be sick combos of different spells together, but because of the casting time I don't think this actually works at present. In principle, everburn and entangle have synergy, but in practice I feel like right now I'm better off just casting everburn twice.
I look forward to seeing later versions of this!
hi wizardgamedev i will have a real project name soon lol
very good point. between elemental weaknesses, variance with enemy type (single target threats), or spells reacting to other spells, I agree i have to decide on ways to incentivize actually using each spell.
Come a long way since the last demo, becoming cooler and cooler. Magic system is fun to use. I have one suggestion if you want to add more to it. The charge to release now works so that once the chargebar is finished a spell is released. Make it so spells instead have varying degrees of power depending on how long you hold it down and also so that you can charge a bit longer. Think it will add some more coolness.
Looking forward to hopefully see some snippets of a story next demo, since Adventure game seems to be where you are going. Arena is good for testing the combat system though, if you are going adventure just slimes approaching is not going to cut it.
Think oldschool zelda is useful as inspiration. Would be cool to see some kind of town are with associated mechanics, wilderness and a quest.
Thank you for playing and the kind words. efficacy proportional to charge is a neat idea that would definitely add variance to casting.
As I make this, I'm feeling like I will just expand this type of survival mode until I have a good foundation of assets and tools to undertake the adventure mode. I've got a few map generation scripts unused so far that can make for something neat later if I can tie it all together.
Pretty cool, I'm not the greatest fan of these kind of games but the magic system is fun.
Probably needs some incentive not to spam the same spell over and over, maybe elemental enemies or priority targets that require single-target oriented spells.
Here's my high score just spamming cross fire:
Agree with single targets, a few boss mobs could change a lot. I hope for this aspect to be a lot better when enemies have more robust behavior than just approach. I believe elemental weaknesses will do a lot more than I previously thought, thanks to all this feedback :)
thank u for playing and for the feedback!
Cool magic system. I wish the enemies wouldn't harass me while trying to read the tutorial. Enemy spawns are way too close, feels completely unfair late game when they constantly spawn in your face. Its a bit too easy to get stuck in between enemies. I think melee should be an auto-attack, or at least an option to set it to, there's enough things to keep track of with all the spells you can cast. Sometimes when spamming melee and channeling a spell at the same time the channeling gets stuck. Some spells do not have a name. No way to heal? I think there should be more utility spells like the steam burst, like an ice wall to block enemies for example. It takes quite a bit of time to actually die after hitting 0 HP.
I feel like the magic system is wasted on a game like this though, I think it would be a lot more interesting as a more linear level based game. Like Magicka for example.
I agree with all of this. collision needs quite a bit of work - getting stuck between walls or multiple enemies happens. I agree with needing more utility in the spells. utility will also be necessitated through a more complex world later, with enemies that actually react to you.
The game will be a much larger sequential adventure, but that does not exist yet. For now I'm happy to hear feedback about the micro level since that's all there is at the moment. Thank you for playing!