Thank you very much for the long video! I got a lot of ideas on how to improve things just from seeing you play and hearing you talk about it. Nice too see you're getting better too. I gave the imps a small jumping animation when they start going fast, I was a bit surprised by how much livelier they felt just from that actually.
A figurine sounds fun, of anything is fine by me. You should probably choose something you'd think be the easiest to make as I know the sprites are pretty small.
For future reference; the game sound was very low compared to your mic but its fine. Thanks again.
Oh and when the portal is up you won't use up any ammo so you can try out the weapons. Tooltips need a lot of improvement too, for Fraggo for example it doesn't really tell you at all what it does. It would've been really good for that run.
Yeah the jumpy imps are adorable.
I made multiple figurines based on other pixelart games, so I should be fine.
the game sound was very low compared to your mic
yes, I am actually not able to boost my output audio any launder without using gain filters and making it sound really bad.
Oh and when the portal is up you won't use up any ammo so you can try out the weapons
That is a very important piece of information. Reloading was still using ammo, no. Like if I equipped a weapon that was half empty, and pressed the R key, and then equipped another weapon, wouldn't that still waste some ammo?
Yes sometimes it was hard to judge which weapons are better, but that's also something players can find out by trial and error just like your runes on the map screen.
I suggest putting tips on a loading screen. I had no idea shooting slowed me down until the right level up popped up. I also didn't think to use shield gun for digging until your own recording last DD, so if you got more things like that, maybe you could share them with players.
yes, I am actually not able to boost my output audio any launder without using gain filters and making it sound really bad
I see, could maybe lower the mic volume a bit then and then you can just increase the volume when watching.
That is a very important piece of information. Reloading was still using ammo, no. Like if I equipped a weapon that was half empty, and pressed the R key, and then equipped another weapon, wouldn't that still waste some ammo?
When you drop a weapon you empty it into your inventory as long as there is space for it, remaining bullets remain in the gun. So you shouldn't waste ammo like that. I need to show that you don't lose ammo somehow I think because most people didn't notice, and its not intuitive.
I've thought about putting tips on loading screens too but I don't think they are long enough for people to read tips there. Some things like finding out that you get slowed down while shooting from reading a skill description I think is fine. It varies from gun to gun too so for example the Devastator, which I don't think I've seen you get, slows you down very noticeably while others like the pistols don't do much at all. I used to have absolutely every stat a gun could have on the statscreen but it was just information overload so players ignored it entirely instead. I got a bit jealous of Necrovale's tooltips that are so concise and to the point, would love to streamline them more in that direction somehow.
I fixed an unintended behavior for the shield gun this patch where it would keep pushing enemies for a few frames after it stopped damaging, but I'm not sure I like it actually. I noticed you couldn't quite use it like you used to before either.
Also I think I'm caving in and putting tooltips on the map for everything...
When you drop a weapon you empty it into your inventory as long as there is space for it, remaining bullets remain in the gun. So you shouldn't waste ammo like that. I need to show that you don't lose ammo somehow I think because most people didn't notice, and its not intuitive.Does that mean I should be equipping and dropping every weapon I see, because I can gain ammo from it?
I've thought about putting tips on loading screens too but I don't think they are long enough for people to read tips there.
If text is shorter, the players are more likely to read it. If you worry about empty space, then adding an artwork would be nice.
I noticed you couldn't quite use it like you used to before either.
I thought maybe the AI just got smarter, or it was due to imps now jumping.
Does that mean I should be equipping and dropping every weapon I see, because I can gain ammo from it?
No when you jump into the portal you'll get all the ammo from weapons on the ground.
I thought maybe the AI just got smarter
Uh yeah that's it, they're totally smarter of course that's what I meant.........
No when you jump into the portal you'll get all the ammo from weapons on the ground.
This kind of info is another potential loading screen tip.
Uh yeah that's it, they're totally smarter of course that's what I meant.........
Ha ha, well I nearly got to the boss, so I definitely feel like I got better, so if you made balance changes, I think they worked out well for me.
Thanks for playing and all the feedback!
I think you make a lot of good points, I am constantly trying to improve the balance and difficulty so I really appreciate to hear peoples' thoughts about it. It was all a lot worse in previous versions though I think. My Nuclear Throne inspirations should be pretty clear if you've played that game yeah. The game won't be quite as hard right of the bat as NT though (and hopefully longer eventually), I'm thinking about it a bit like in Slay the Spire where there really isn't any danger to die really early; but you're gathering resources. I don't think I'm there yet and I need to start just pumping out more content.
A bonus for not talking any damage is a good idea too, I'll try it out. Tried halving the size of the first level too, feels better. Been trying out removing the health node from the map entirely too, having you buy it from a shop instead. So yeah, there are lots of improvements too be made!
Thank you for playing! Nuclear Throne is my main inspiration for this game yeah.
Only minor complaint is that sometimes at the end of the level items would get stuck on walls trying to get closer to the door, but it wasn't really a problem.
I tinkered with it a bit right before DD but didn't really get it right - will fix.
Another thing is that the map screen could auto-scroll to were you are
Yeah good suggestion.
Thanks for playing!
Only thing I couldn't figure out is if there's any way to get health back at all
I hear you, you heal a little bit after every level and going to the ᛞ on the map will heal you to full. But I will make it more apparent how to.
one thing I wish the game had is being able to reorder you guns without having to juggle them with an extra one on the ground.
Yeah I do need to put that in I think. Its just changing two values code wise, just need to figure out an elegant solution on the UI/UX side.
GRIM looks cool, too bad I don't have a headset...
Thank you very much, even telling other people about it! Means a lot.
Yeah I think you're right about all the feedback. Having the amount of runes needed for the next level somewhere all the time is a good idea I think. And the whole level up screen is pretty much a place holder still. I've been struggling a bit with making the stats screen for the guns be both concise and informative, but yeah I'm not really happy with it either they way it is right now - will think of something.
Also, make a damn Steam page. It is way past time, this game is ready.
Oh man I know, I even have all the Steamworks stuff set up. I was just gonna make it a bit more presentable before I make the trailer and then suddenly over a month had passed.
Thanks!
Thanks for playing, I'm sure you'll get to the boss some time! The map is meant to be the first of 2 or 3 areas, so there'd be more bosses if I can get to that point. But having the difficulty at a reasonable level is pretty hard when I've played it so incredibly much myself, I find it too easy now.
i'd say the current one is much more fun since there are now outright silly combinations, which i think you should focus on and expand.my favorite combination was quadzooka + wild at heart, which would make 3 rockets whiff entirely. it was hilarious. that and wild at heart + the laser weapons. having super silly combinations such as this is what makes games interesting.
Yeah you're definitely right about that, there's a million things I'd like to do I just need the find the time to do it heh.
some weapons (namely satellite) are still much weaker than before. the difference between getting a super-spreader shotgun (which is really good with wild at heart) and a satellite as your first drop is night and day. i mentioned this before, but perhaps droprates can be tinkered with a bit more, since my run quality was noticeably different depending on what dropped. i could get something that immediately clears rooms without me having to move, vs something like a basic rifle which requires a lot of movement, skill, accuracy, etc
Always trying to improve the drop rates. I do want a bit of randomness of course, so every run won't start of as easy/hard. But you're probably right that it could be flattened a bit in the early game. Satellite for example is a lot more situationally good, might be better to not have it spawn at all early.
some sounds are a bit weak. the fire laser reminds me more of a printer than a deathray.
Needs changing yeah.
some small issues with music in menus. in the main menu, starting pauses the music abruptly instead of some fadeout effect of something.
I find everything to do with loading stuff really annoying in Unity. It was a quick fix I did because if you didn't mute it the music started lagging, but I'll make it a fade out.
pausing the game keeps the music, but only in my right ear? thought my headphones broke for a bit there.
The short explanation for that is that its playing sounds through a 3rd party library for DOTS (there's no official audio support) which only has 3d sound, so the music is playing and constantly getting shifted to the audio listener. Pausing can cause it to get out of sync. However, music can just as well be played the normal Unity way; it'll be a bit convoluted and annoying with two ways of playing sounds but it might still be better.
Thanks for the encouraging words!
2 weeks later, i'm back
7 or so tries, 1 final level reached, 2-3 2nd to final level
jesus christ it gets tough. i was determined to try and beat it but it seems i'll need more practice. i have a few additional notes - i'm sure a few are outdated, but it doesn't hurt to share
>i switch guns when i empty a magazine if i'm fighting and i don't feel like waiting for the reload. switching back to the empty-mag gun will do the switch, and my character won't react until i click to shoot, at which point he reloads. it would be nice if the game would automatically trigger a reload if i switch on an empty mag gun.
>the devastator trivialized a lot of fighting, probably needs a big nerf
>how does the expendable bazooka work? i can't seem to reload it? is it a one-time shot? if so, i shouldn't still hold on to it.
>some weapons (grenades and short ranged explosives) seem weak. i would swap them out as soon as possible.
>i saw that you are revamping the item comparison UI. it could get confusing trying to compare data, especially since there's a lot of stuff to compare. don't have any ideas for this part, but the ones posted in the thread seem to be an improvement
>i don't like that ammo counter is separate from the ammo-in-mag counter. the issue is that i don't like having to look at multiple things to get a gauge of my current standing. a clearer indication of "you are out of ammo, all that's left is loaded in your mag!" would be nice. perhaps the background color of the "fill" that symbolizes current mag ammo can turn red, or something like that. it's not a pressing issue, but i can imagine someone frantically checking their ammo while fighting a group - every second counts! if you save one glance, that's more time to react in the fight.
>special enemies are underutilized. this refers to the green hoppers and the pink crabmen - you could use more of them
>projectiles are a danger, but it feels wrong that a group of 3 plant dudes on the other side of the map still pose a threat to me by firing their red balls
>the laser (especially the 5-shot star laser) is blinding. hard to see incoming projectiles due to how bright the laser is. perhaps intentional design, but worth pointing out.
>would be nice if there was some indication of level size on the minimap, so i know when i am approaching a map corner. this is an issue for me in the lategame pink maps, where i am trying to circlestrafe and accidentally corner myself.
as i said before, can't wait to see more. i'll beat TGIG.... one day..
Hey man thanks for trying it out again! And all feedback is always really appreciated. I haven't actually heard anyone reach the boss, although PATdev was close. Its funny because the game feels way too easy for me now after playing so damn much, so its good to have other players to bring me back to reality.
i switch guns when i empty a magazine if i'm fighting and i don't feel like waiting for the reload. switching back to the empty-mag gun will do the switch
That could probably work.
the devastator trivialized a lot of fighting, probably needs a big nerf
Yeah probably, I wanted to add some really powerful gun that you could find for DD. Its meant to be balanced a bit by having very low armor penetration and high ammo consumption, but I got so many complaints before about high armor enemies being annoying that its not much a factor right now. The balance overall is pretty wonky because its tuned a bit towards being a complete experience for the demo, you get way to many modifications late game imo for example.
>how does the expendable bazooka work? i can't seem to reload it? is it a one-time shot? if so, i shouldn't still hold on to it.
>some weapons (grenades and short ranged explosives) seem weak. i would swap them out as soon as possible.
The expendable bazookas I've realized are a bit confusing yeah, will probably start by changing the name... The exp. bazookas and frag grenades are intended to be a bit more like secondary weapons. They have really fast swap speed and barely any reload, but quite low rate of fire. The idea is that you can very quickly swap to them, shoot, and swap back - but there's not very good feedback especially for the exp. bazookas when the cannot be fired due to rate of fire. You can do some silly stuff like carry 4 frags and constantly swap and throw.
I'm thinking about greatly increasing the amount of guns there are, even if they would be pretty similar - for example a bunch of different SMGs. But not sure yet if it'll be worse or better...
But yeah I am struggling a bit with having the tooltips conveying information and not overwhelming and confusing players, gun swap speed for example isn't shown at all.
>projectiles are a danger, but it feels wrong that a group of 3 plant dudes on the other side of the map still pose a threat to me by firing their red balls
There are much fewer ones on the desert levels now because it was quite bullshitty before. Their main purpose on cave maps is to force the player to move and not camp, but it is possible I have gone a bit overboard with it heh, they should be able to shoot over the entirety of every level now so.
>i don't like that ammo counter is separate from the ammo-in-mag counter. the issue is that i don't like having to look at multiple things to get a gauge of my current standing. a clearer indication of "you are out of ammo, all that's left is loaded in your mag!" would be nice.
I was thinking about that earlier too, I'll try some stuff out.
>the laser (especially the 5-shot star laser) is blinding. hard to see incoming projectiles due to how bright the laser is. perhaps intentional design, but worth pointing out.
Its.. half intentional. It also drains so much ammo that holding the trigger down might not be a great idea. The lasers right now have to much effects going on right now though I think, I'll tone it down.
>would be nice if there was some indication of level size on the minimap, so i know when i am approaching a map corner. this is an issue for me in the lategame pink maps, where i am trying to circlestrafe and accidentally corner myself.
Well the thought behind the radar is just to give you a very quick overview of where enemies and objectives are (they might still be too small on there though apparently), and the camera is pretty zoomed out to give you a wide view. Other than that being able to destroy all walls is meant to give you a bit of an out even if you get cornered, or phasing through enemies with the perk / try to run through while blasting the shield gun.
Its just a bit of a pet peeve of mine I guess with games having you glance at the minimap every second to see some vital information, like playing Battlefield or something and looking where spotted enemies are all the time instead of looking at the actual game. So I don't really have any plans on changing it now, but then again maybe I change my mind.
Thanks again!
>Its just a bit of a pet peeve of mine I guess with games having you glance at the minimap every second to see some vital information, like playing Battlefield or something and looking where spotted enemies are all the time instead of looking at the actual game. So I don't really have any plans on changing it now, but then again maybe I change my mind.
i understand what you mean and it makes sense. i'd keep it as is.
Thanks for playing, the video is really great too so thanks for that.
The lasers I got felt underwhelming (and lagged my PC badly).
Yeah the lasers are really unoptimized and I haven't fixed it so that's not too surprising. But from the video it looked like the exploding bullets SMG really lagged the game too? If that's the case I need to fix it.
From the vid I think you got too few gun drops in the later levels, I'll look it over. Kinda surprised you seemed to get what to do on the last level instantly, I thought I hadn't made it very clear. In the beginning the shield gun is good if you run out of ammo, need to reload, cut through a wall, taking out close enemies. Later its mostly good for blocking projectiles. Its really fast to swap to, so if you for example bind it to Spacebar you can very quickly and easily block em (very good for the actual boss later for example). Can also push swarms of enemies out of the way, you might have been able to escape where you died if you swapped to it and tried to run through.
The enemies in the last level will spawn endlessly and teleport so if you just try to rush the objectives you can get overwhelmed. They also drop powerful weapons, I saw some that dropped that you ran past; a good idea would probably be to have a very noticeable effect when a gun drops actually.
Thanks for playing and the feedback! Great to hear you find it addicting.
The Optionsscreen Titlefont seems ragged on the diagonal Edges.
Yeah I haven't touched that font since last time, I will fix it I promise.
It says to press Mouse1 to shield, when its mouse2(RMB). Also says Press 'Key:Tab' when on the explosive Pistol/slot 1. Its fine for shieldgun/slot2 tho.
Its called Mouse1 by default it Unity, but yeah its confusing I'll change it manually. I think that Key:Tab thing came up after I fixed a crash before DD, will fix thanks.
I don't particularly like the new Shieldguns fire animation, it feels a lot bigger then it actually is.
I don't really like how it came out either actually, somehow the regular explosion I used earlier felt punchier... Will revise it.
The overarching Map being bigger(?) is nice, but it leaves a lot of Room on the Sides. Maybe horizontal Progression?
Map graphics are bigger but its 2 levels shorter than before. Do you mean the sides outside or inside the map? (if that makes sense)
Still no Idea what the 2 Symbols mean, I keep forgetting which is the Shop and which is the Heal.
I think I'll just give in and put tooltips on everything in the map.
Molniya is missing some Words on the detail Text at the bottom I think. Or maybe they are just off-image?
I'll look into it.
Shops Guns are trash as always, maybe I'm just unlucky.
Its VERY random what guns you get there. I think you're right though, makes it a pretty bad thing to aim for if you have no idea if there's nothing at all of worth.
Loading pops up shortly when it finished loading, not when it actually starts to load over the full duration. Odd.
I think I just missed something, will fix.
I wish I'd be able to check my Guns stats while picking Powerups.
Good point, especially since I added gun specific skills.
Also Rerolling costing as much as a powerup, of which I can afford pretty much exactly one after each level seems useless.
I added it pretty shortly before DD, thought it would be too good if you could reroll too much. But after playing some myself too, yeah its too expensive still and I doubt it'll hurt if you can reroll a few times.
It was mostly graphical, bug fixes, and other behind the scenes stuff for this update. Tried to make the gameplay feel "tighter"; amount of levels a bit lower, smaller levels (a lot smaller for later ones), pretty much removed the Spawner enemy (it wasn't fun), changed spawning patterns and AI behaviors. Thanks for playing.
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