The new batty vamps model is great, it finally looks like there's real continuity between human and bat form now. The humans feel a lot livelier too, I think they have new animations?
Knockback from fireballs feels janky and always throws me off.
The mission trophies are ball-bustingly hard. Maybe that's intentional, but I thought I'd let you know because we tend to underestimate difficulty and all.
Some flight rings will appear red even though they were not next on the queue. Going through them did not do anything.
Flapping by tapping is really slow now. I like that you can hold space to accelerate at what seems to be a cumulative increasing rate, but I miss the old flapping rhythm. It would be nice to have it back since it seems the aerodynamics of flapping are different to the one you get from holding anyway. Maybe an initial speed boost on pressing space, followed by a drop and then a slope back up as you hold it for longer?
Echolocation cooldown is so quick it's like it's not even there...
A quick restart button would be nice.
I like this mission structure, it's nice to see this going from prototype to a full structured game. Good job.
The humans feel a lot livelier too, I think they have new animations?
New models actually! Just some crap from opengameart.org.
The mission trophies are ball-bustingly hard. Maybe that's intentional, but I thought I'd let you know because we tend to underestimate difficulty and all.
Not intentional, none of the difficulty in the game has ever been intentional it's just so hard to scale... Well the gold trophies are supposed to be quite hard. I only expect players who go all in to get gold. I was hoping bronze would be something anyone could get on a relatively mistake free run and silver would be someone who's pretty good.
Some flight rings will appear red even though they were not next on the queue. Going through them did not do anything.
Is there any condition you saw this bug happen in? Restarting maybe?
Echolocation cooldown is so quick it's like it's not even there...
If you get to later waves it will lengthen but that was something I did to try to reduce the difficulty.
A quick restart button would be nice.
For sure, it's necessary with the missions.
I like this mission structure, it's nice to see this going from prototype to a full structured game. Good job.
Thank you and thanks for playing! It's good to have someone play it at multiple stages of development.
I'm just poking fun. I really liked the original Batty Vamps as it played a lot like the original Chopper(mac). And the first time BattyVamps was submitted to DD/agdg halloween jam 2021 was also the same time that I submitted Hidden/ShadowStalker for the first time.
Playing on the controller, and had no problems with it.
I like the character model, and the arcady idea of the game. Took me a while to get used to the controls. Got to wave 4 of the endless mode.
It was fun. The ecolocation was a nice idea. I ended up using it quite a bit near the end of each wave.
Make it clear that you can hold A to keep flaping your wings and gain speed. At first I thought I had to keep pressing the button.
I don't like how I gain height when I flap. I would rather just gain speed, and manually aim up if I want height as well.
Expand on the menus and visuals. Make everything as charming as the main character. Also give me more opportunities to see the untransformed version. She's so cute :D
ok now it works played it on keyboard you HAVE to let people select if they want inverted view or not. for many, a game becomes completely unplayable with the wrong camera rotation. i can personally adjust easily, but it was disorienting for a few seconds. the sound effect when you get hurt is pretty annoying you can honestly get rid of the "follow the circles" mode. nobody wanted to play superman 64 back then and nobody wants to now, either. aside from that it's similar to previous builds, i appreciate the more polished models and textures
you HAVE to let people select if they want inverted view or not. for many, a game becomes completely unplayable with the wrong
Press "i" to invert. I have it on the main menu screen and the help screen. Let me know if there's another place you were looking for that option. Someday I'll make a real UI for this game.
you can honestly get rid of the "follow the circles" mode. nobody wanted to play superman 64 back then and nobody wants to now, either.
Can't play the download version, crashes on startup. Odd since I remember that working, web only now? Playing with controller.
-Enemies seem a bit more lively and I like this new-to-me speed up button over the pure gliding of yester year. Adds more control.
-Enemies have almost no sign of powering up a shot at the player. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. For example I got shot mere inches from eating the guy. Maybe it should be color coded? Like the vamps can see the guy is wearing garlic from the aura or something lol.
-Beat first mission. Shooty guys are easier when you approach fast and low. Also, it was slightly distracting how as my orientation changes, the clipping of distant building does too. And, at times it seemed like enemies teleported/turned invis between echos, maybe I was seeing things though.
-There doesn't seem to be a way to quit the mode, which is especially annoying when you mess up in the race. Maybe I'm just bad, but it felt like I went though the hole but wasn't credited some times, primarily when going faster. Maybe the flapping moved me out of the ring before I can notice.
-Not interested in the endless mode. So I guess I'm done.
Game is still rough, but I had some fun. Good luck with it.
I forgot to package the json files, my shame is immeasurable. Fixed.
-Enemies have almost no sign of powering up a shot at the player. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. For example I got shot mere inches from eating the guy.
I give basically no indication of this which is my failing as a game designer but they hear and see Batty so they turn and attack when they hear your flapping. I'm planning on making this more clear to the player and a progressive thing where they hear first and then look to see Batty.
Also, it was slightly distracting how as my orientation changes, the clipping of distant building does too.
Raylib has a ridiculously small draw distance by default, I'll bump it up.
-There doesn't seem to be a way to quit the mode, which is especially annoying when you mess up in the race.
Fair, I'll add a restart or a pause or something.
Maybe I'm just bad, but it felt like I went though the hole but wasn't credited some times, primarily when going faster.
I expect the player to try to go through the circle rather than skim it, but you're the second person to give this feedback so I enlarged the hitbox.
It's interesting, but the camera starts to feel quite disorienting after a while. There also isn't really much variation between the levels or enemies, so it's not really interesting past the first 15 minutes of playing.
Hitboxes are also a bit too stingy, especially for the rings. I managed to figure out the stealth part of it when I realized flapping seemed to alert them, but it was a lot easier to just fly straight at them than try to go around the buildings. Voice acting made me laugh when I first heard the "I hate vampires so much it's unreal" line though. I think leaning into that kind of tone would be good for this game.
I think it's more on how the camera rotates around Batty? There's some movements that will whip the camera around in a bad way. It does feel a bit too close at times, and I'd also like to see the FOV/camera distance adjust further to convey a sense of speed when moving at faster speeds too.
Once I got the hang of flying its pretty fun but I feel like it's missing something to spice things up after awhile. I played a bit of endless mode and by wave 6 it didn't feel like much has changed between waves to get a sense of progression. Perhaps you need more enemy types? I know batty targets only people but maybe if there was stuff in the air to target as well gameplay could feel more varied.
The help menu extended off the window in fullscreen for me so some of the information was obscured. You should probably be able to scroll with it if it's going to be that long.
The hitbox / hurtbox feels a little wonky? Sometimes I would fly over the heads of enemies when I feel like I should've hit them. Almost as if batty's hitbox extends only above her model's body and not below it at all. Also it's really hard to dodge the enemy that shoots orange balls at you.
There should probably be some sort of invisible wall at the bounds of the level. For fun I tried seeing how batty far can fly away from it but since the render distance is really small the level disappears from view pretty quickly and it becomes really hard to orient myself without any reference to try and get back.
Voice acting is pretty funny. I enjoyed the overall lightheartedness of the game. Music is comfy.
I know batty targets only people but maybe if there was stuff in the air to target as well gameplay could feel more varied.
I definitely want aerial enemies so that the flying mechanics can be explored more. I may even add enemy bats or vampires, I'm open to seeing what's fun.
The hitbox / hurtbox feels a little wonky? Sometimes I would fly over the heads of enemies when I feel like I should've hit them. Almost as if batty's hitbox extends only above her model's body and not below it at all.
This is a common complaint. I think it's a perspective thing. I might help the player cheat and extend the hurt box lower, a coyote time hurt box I guess.
Also it's really hard to dodge the enemy that shoots orange balls at you.
I'll try slowing down the speed of the balls. Later I want to introduce a barrel roll dodge like in star fox which would make them much easier to manage.
A mechanic of the game that's not made clear to the player at all right now is that you can sneak up on humans. Once I explain that better and give the player better abilities to fly silently, the gameplay hopefully will shift more towards not alerting the aggressive humans in the first place.
Comments
The new batty vamps model is great, it finally looks like there's real continuity between human and bat form now. The humans feel a lot livelier too, I think they have new animations?
Knockback from fireballs feels janky and always throws me off.
The mission trophies are ball-bustingly hard. Maybe that's intentional, but I thought I'd let you know because we tend to underestimate difficulty and all.
Some flight rings will appear red even though they were not next on the queue. Going through them did not do anything.
Flapping by tapping is really slow now. I like that you can hold space to accelerate at what seems to be a cumulative increasing rate, but I miss the old flapping rhythm. It would be nice to have it back since it seems the aerodynamics of flapping are different to the one you get from holding anyway. Maybe an initial speed boost on pressing space, followed by a drop and then a slope back up as you hold it for longer?
Echolocation cooldown is so quick it's like it's not even there...
A quick restart button would be nice.
I like this mission structure, it's nice to see this going from prototype to a full structured game. Good job.
New models actually! Just some crap from opengameart.org.
Not intentional, none of the difficulty in the game has ever been intentional it's just so hard to scale... Well the gold trophies are supposed to be quite hard. I only expect players who go all in to get gold. I was hoping bronze would be something anyone could get on a relatively mistake free run and silver would be someone who's pretty good.
Is there any condition you saw this bug happen in? Restarting maybe?
If you get to later waves it will lengthen but that was something I did to try to reduce the difficulty.
For sure, it's necessary with the missions.
Thank you and thanks for playing! It's good to have someone play it at multiple stages of development.
No idea, sorry. I am almost sure I did fail the mission several times before getting to the point I saw it.
Flying feels good. The sound of the "urrrngg" gets annoying after bumping into the ground or a building after the 100th time.
I liked the voicelines from the humans.
Wish there was more to do.
Decent prototype.
>Decent prototype.
>more than two years into development
It's completely true though kek
huh second time I've gotten this feedback this DD but I've never gotten it before. Guess I'll have to look into voice acting..
Thanks for playing!
I'm just poking fun. I really liked the original Batty Vamps as it played a lot like the original Chopper(mac). And the first time BattyVamps was submitted to DD/agdg halloween jam 2021 was also the same time that I submitted Hidden/ShadowStalker for the first time.
Oh man the memories. Can't believe it was 4 years ago now
Tried the browser version.
Playing on the controller, and had no problems with it.
I like the character model, and the arcady idea of the game. Took me a while to get used to the controls. Got to wave 4 of the endless mode.
It was fun. The ecolocation was a nice idea. I ended up using it quite a bit near the end of each wave.
Make it clear that you can hold A to keep flaping your wings and gain speed. At first I thought I had to keep pressing the button.
I don't like how I gain height when I flap. I would rather just gain speed, and manually aim up if I want height as well.
Expand on the menus and visuals. Make everything as charming as the main character. Also give me more opportunities to see the untransformed version. She's so cute :D
Thanks for playing!
High on my todo list is making her "Vamps" form playable.
ok now it works
played it on keyboard
you HAVE to let people select if they want inverted view or not. for many, a game becomes completely unplayable with the wrong camera rotation. i can personally adjust easily, but it was disorienting for a few seconds.
the sound effect when you get hurt is pretty annoying
you can honestly get rid of the "follow the circles" mode. nobody wanted to play superman 64 back then and nobody wants to now, either.
aside from that it's similar to previous builds, i appreciate the more polished models and textures
Press "i" to invert. I have it on the main menu screen and the help screen. Let me know if there's another place you were looking for that option. Someday I'll make a real UI for this game.
:( I guess I'll turn it into a race mode.
Thanks for playing!
damn i keep missing basic info like that. i shouldn't playtest late at night
crashes on startup for me as well.
Christmas and Demo Day are ruined.
Hotfix uploaded!
Can't play the download version, crashes on startup. Odd since I remember that working, web only now? Playing with controller.
-Enemies seem a bit more lively and I like this new-to-me speed up button over the pure gliding of yester year. Adds more control.
-Enemies have almost no sign of powering up a shot at the player. It feels like it comes out of nowhere. For example I got shot mere inches from eating the guy. Maybe it should be color coded? Like the vamps can see the guy is wearing garlic from the aura or something lol.
-Beat first mission. Shooty guys are easier when you approach fast and low. Also, it was slightly distracting how as my orientation changes, the clipping of distant building does too. And, at times it seemed like enemies teleported/turned invis between echos, maybe I was seeing things though.
-There doesn't seem to be a way to quit the mode, which is especially annoying when you mess up in the race. Maybe I'm just bad, but it felt like I went though the hole but wasn't credited some times, primarily when going faster. Maybe the flapping moved me out of the ring before I can notice.
-Not interested in the endless mode. So I guess I'm done.
Game is still rough, but I had some fun. Good luck with it.
I forgot to package the json files, my shame is immeasurable. Fixed.
I give basically no indication of this which is my failing as a game designer but they hear and see Batty so they turn and attack when they hear your flapping. I'm planning on making this more clear to the player and a progressive thing where they hear first and then look to see Batty.
Raylib has a ridiculously small draw distance by default, I'll bump it up.
Fair, I'll add a restart or a pause or something.
I expect the player to try to go through the circle rather than skim it, but you're the second person to give this feedback so I enlarged the hitbox.
Thanks for playing!
It's interesting, but the camera starts to feel quite disorienting after a while. There also isn't really much variation between the levels or enemies, so it's not really interesting past the first 15 minutes of playing.
Hitboxes are also a bit too stingy, especially for the rings. I managed to figure out the stealth part of it when I realized flapping seemed to alert them, but it was a lot easier to just fly straight at them than try to go around the buildings. Voice acting made me laugh when I first heard the "I hate vampires so much it's unreal" line though. I think leaning into that kind of tone would be good for this game.
Was there something about it that feels disorienting? Does it move too quick? FoV too big? Too close to Batty?
I'll try to make them a touch bigger for the rings.
Thanks for playing!
I think it's more on how the camera rotates around Batty? There's some movements that will whip the camera around in a bad way. It does feel a bit too close at times, and I'd also like to see the FOV/camera distance adjust further to convey a sense of speed when moving at faster speeds too.
Once I got the hang of flying its pretty fun but I feel like it's missing something to spice things up after awhile. I played a bit of endless mode and by wave 6 it didn't feel like much has changed between waves to get a sense of progression. Perhaps you need more enemy types? I know batty targets only people but maybe if there was stuff in the air to target as well gameplay could feel more varied.
The help menu extended off the window in fullscreen for me so some of the information was obscured. You should probably be able to scroll with it if it's going to be that long.
The hitbox / hurtbox feels a little wonky? Sometimes I would fly over the heads of enemies when I feel like I should've hit them. Almost as if batty's hitbox extends only above her model's body and not below it at all. Also it's really hard to dodge the enemy that shoots orange balls at you.
There should probably be some sort of invisible wall at the bounds of the level. For fun I tried seeing how batty far can fly away from it but since the render distance is really small the level disappears from view pretty quickly and it becomes really hard to orient myself without any reference to try and get back.
Voice acting is pretty funny. I enjoyed the overall lightheartedness of the game. Music is comfy.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
I definitely want aerial enemies so that the flying mechanics can be explored more. I may even add enemy bats or vampires, I'm open to seeing what's fun.
This is a common complaint. I think it's a perspective thing. I might help the player cheat and extend the hurt box lower, a coyote time hurt box I guess.
I'll try slowing down the speed of the balls. Later I want to introduce a barrel roll dodge like in star fox which would make them much easier to manage.
A mechanic of the game that's not made clear to the player at all right now is that you can sneak up on humans. Once I explain that better and give the player better abilities to fly silently, the gameplay hopefully will shift more towards not alerting the aggressive humans in the first place.
My most recent devlog summarizes what's new: https://frenchfriesguy.itch.io/batty-vamps/devlog/892104/your-missions-should-yo...
Would love feedback on the trophy difficulty.
The next planned feature is a way to 'dive' at humans so you can silently and quickly attack them.
Edit: Hotfix: Fixed Windows build. Make ring hitboxes bigger. Made projectiles move slower.