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A jam submission

Commander Tiberius TroublesonView game page

An unforgiving handcrafted action roguelite were secrets abound and death makes you stronger.
Submitted by jos_an_bu (@jose_antonini_b) — 6 days, 8 hours before the deadline
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Commander Tiberius Troubleson's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Sound/Music#14.0004.000
Art#44.0004.000
Overall Fun#83.8573.857
UI#103.4293.429

Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

(+1)

Hi I was part of the Feedback Quest. The VOD of me playing this game is up if you are interested.

First I'd like to apologise that I personally didn't play this game for long. The reasons for that are simply, that the look of the game really made it hard for me to play. Everything is tiny, microscopic to my eyes. The text, the UI, the enemies and character. The travel time between my eyes to key information like the health bar and such is significant enough that I'm taken away from the game itself. I'd consider adding UI Scaling or overall just zooming into the character itself. 

Positive though, aside from that critisism, I find it VERY hard to fault the game for anything else. The combat was solid, the effects were good, I felt the weight of the game despite the visual aspect being quite hard to enjoy. Please keep up the good work. 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Hello! Thanks for the review, I found your vod. There was definitely something wrong with the resolution, it is small but not that small, specially the ui. What resolution is your monitor? Probably more than 1920x1080. I don't have access to a large monitor but it's something I knew might happen.

Controls is another thing I'm fighting about, I been trying to figure out the right keyboard layout but preferences vary wildly. With Xbox 360 controller it plays much better.

Thanks again for the feedback and please do tell me your monitor resolution so I can start addressing the issue.

(+1)

actually my monitor resolution is 1920x1080 but even for that, I stand by what I said. It feels quite small along with the UI. Perhaps its more personal preference when I play these types of games. Still as far as the game itself is, its very solid regardless. As for controls, I didn't consider trying it with a 360 Controller but if I could then yeah it would be pretty awesome. Personally, I think letting the player decide the best keybinding woult resolve the control issues but I can imagine that might be a bit hard to implement at this point.

Still I also stand by how good the game is. Please keep doing your best. 

Developer(+1)

Thank you again for your time but yeah seeing your vod I think there might be some bug with the ui, it should be bigger, I guess I'll need to do some digging. As far as keybinds they can be rebinded but I still need to find a better default layout.

(+1)

Hello! I was one of the streamers who took part in Feedback Quest, and I'm here to leave some comments I had while playing. You actually were at my stream while I was playing it, so you know some of my thoughts. I'll instead express ones I didn't give at the time or I feel I should expand upon.

This game was generally fun and challenging. I like it for the challenge (except those damn missile launchers, ahhhhh). I do feel the game would benefit from a closer view to the characters. You explained the reason for why it was out so far. I would like to recommend finding someone to work with who can help with sprites that are animated, since this was what you expressed as the problem. The terrain sprites and the UI are fine. You also know my opinion regarding default keybinds, though this is more something you'll need to figure out.

One suggestion I'd like to make is to either change the keybind for repel OR to make the player do an auto-repel after getting off the top of a rope. The reason I suggest doing one of these is that the key to repel is ALSO the key to go down a rope. It can be frustrating to try and get a repel off once you get off the rope, only to have hit it too early and instead go back down the rope. It can also be frustrating to try and go down a rope, only to repel instead. Changing the keybind fixes both issues, though it adds a new keybind. An auto-repel would make it that you don't need to worry when you're getting off the rope, and a change to default to going down a rope when within a certain number of pixels would correct the other half.

Developer

I said it in the stream and I'll say it again, thanks a lot for playing! And for the awesome feedback!

Submitted(+1)

This is a great game, good job!

Developer

thank you!

Submitted(+1)

This game feels really polished and has a lot of life to it! I was confused tho when I picked spells during my playthrough and i couldn't use them. Are they supposed to be equipped? I was using a controller. Besides that, I think the only real issues I had was maybe the camera was just a bit too far away (maybe you could make this adjustable?). Servelat gave all the good feedback to give so I'm outta things to say haha.

Developer(+1)

Thank you! yes, I made a silly mistake with the version I uploaded and key-bindings tips were off/not shown.

As I answer below : "New version is already up, with the key/button bindings up, spells are the best part of the game! they do need to be equipped, with Xbox 360 controller you open the menu with the "<back" button, just FYI in, case you have time to give it another try and don't want to download again."

Thanks for giving it  a try and your feedback, I'll be able to play yours and others in a couple of hours!

Submitted(+1)

Oh sweet!! Will give that new version a try. 

Lemme know whatcha think of my game, I'm in the middle of revising the mechanics, gotta know if it's going in the right direction or not haha

Developer

Will do!

Developer

I can't run it on this pc, c++ runtime issue. I'll try later from my other pc.

Submitted

Lemme know if it runs okay on your other PC 👍

Deleted post
Developer (2 edits) (+1)

Oh god! I did some last minute changes when I uploaded the version for the jam and the key/controller-binding tips were turned off!

New version is already up, with the key/button bindings up, spells are the best part of the game! they do need to be equipped, with Xbox 360 controller you open the menu with the "<back" button, just FYI in case you have time to give it another try and don't want to download again.

Thanks for trying the game! and sorry, It's been a crazy week!

Bests!

Deleted post
Developer

Thanl you, I will, I'm finishing setting up the steam account, BTW the spells are equipped with ">start" not the "<back", I don't even know the buttons names! LOL

Submitted(+1)
  • Looks really good
  • Feedback on actions is very pleasant
  • There is a slight lack of air control and tiny little things that make controls themselves unresponsive at times (like getting off the rope after climbing up). 
  • Played with a keyboard, it took me several minutes to figure out how to jump :) The default mapping does not feel comfortable for me personally - I would go with Space Bar or W for Jump and Shift for Dash. Jumping on J is the last thing I would think of, no way of "getting" it without checking out key binding settings.
  • First ever options to purchase fron the "shop" were costing around 12500 - 16500 coins. It's a minor thing, but it's much easier to perceive and compare smaller numbers
  • "Always Run" option could be useful, since walking is rarely needed
  • It gets repetitive after a first couple of deaths on the second level - I have to solve same problems on the first level again with mostly the same tools
  • Turret's targeting algorithm is not very clear, I took me some time to figure out that I shouldn't be dodging the rocket itself, but the point where it would land.
  • There seem to be a number of limiting factors on casting the abilities (number of uses, mana, life cost, cooldowns) but I can't see the reason why all of those should be in place, since casting abilities is one of the coolest things in the game, and switching abilities requires you to spend some time in the menu). Even though I have enough uses of abities available, I still feel like I'm pressured to preserve them and use the main weapon more oftern.
  • There seems to be a lot going on with ability colors, since "multicolored" was mentioned in the intro, and all abilities are color-aligned. However, during an hour or so of gameplay I only encountered "Affinities" that slightly decrease mana usage, that stood out to me in terms of synergies and builds. Overall, it feels like the game has a lot of awesomeness to offer later on, but the player has to persevere through the repetitive stuff in the beginning in order to experience it. The first thing that is offered to a new player in the first level is basically recolors of the same abilities. It does a disservice to a variety of abilities you actually do have in the game - I only got to the third level and I've seen there's actually much more than I initially expected, after playing through the same first level with the same abilities over and over. Something tells me that I haven't got to the best part of the game yet - in this case, it might be a problem to keep players interested long enough to get to the most fun stuff. 

Overall, all theese are QoL issues, the game itself is quite interesting and promising. Reminded me of Unepic and Iji. Graphics are nice, shooting and using abilities feels satisfying. 

Good luck with this game!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Awesome feedback! Thanks for your time!

- Keyboard layout has been worrying me lately, I have doubts about the W becouse it's use to climb, but I'll keep testing. 

-Repetitiveness is the first thing I will focus on, I plan on doing more level variants specially for the first 3 levels and I've been thinking about adding new spells and adding more spells to the initial chests pool to make it more engaging.

-Turrets targeting needs work, I'm thinking about adding a little indicator where the missile will land, and test that.

-Casting spell limitations is a tricky one, I been constantly trying to push players to use them, but they keep hoarding them, however, limitless quantities forced me to made them less powerful, which in turn made spells less fun to use. There are also many secrets in the game (did you find any?) and behind them there are many chests with spells. I don't want to get rid of those secrets (for a better balance) but maybe I should increase the amount of spells the player finds in the first levels to avoid making them fell they must save them.

 Again thanks a lot for your time and thoughts! I need a better "first half hour" experience, that is key and with your feedback the game will be better!

Submitted(+1)
  •  Adding indication for turrets would be great, that's what I thought, too
  • I found two, but could only access one (at the edge of level 2). I noticed a door on Level 1 but haven't been able to get there.
  • As for the spell usage - it indeed seems like a tricky thing to solve. The way I see it now - I'd like to get a certain "build" and focus on it, while discarding/selling/dismantling abilities that don't fit the build I'm going for. Some sort of progression for abilities could be interesting - turning unnecessary abilities into materials for the ones you need. If you have mana/health costs or cooldowns - I don't think you have to limit the ability quantity, since you have tools to prevent abuse already - you can't use it indefinitely without fighting or opening chests, which is exactly what you want your players to do. If it's too powerful - you can increase the cooldown, so you can only use it so many times per fight. Or, you might want to introduce "colored" mana/ammo that fuels abilities of the same color and is easily collectible, while abilities themselves just use the variable amounts of it - kinda like guns in Gunfire Reborn. However, mind this: right now ability charges fill a lot of space as rewards. If you take them out and make them rechargeable or permanent, you might need to put something in reward pool to compensate. Or, you can go the same way Dead Cells did - each ability is an "item" with its own modifiers
  • This is of cource my personal opinion, but as a roguelike/RPG player I like sick combinations that ruin the game's balance :). Or at least find items that perform together better than they do on their own. If I want to create a build that relies on Projectile ability - I'll have to find a way to keep that ability available to me when needed - and I don't feel like I can restock it controllably to rely on using it in every combat. This is fine if you want the player to "juggle" abilities and switch from one to another throughout the run. In that case, however, there might be another problem - a player has to regularly break the game flow to get into the menu and select another ability. I personally find the idea of switching from one ability to another very compelling if there's a fun way to do it on the fly during combat.

Or maybe I'm making this whole thing up and that's not the problem at all. It might as well be how you envisioned it. It's just one player's opinion, anyway :) It all depends on how you want the abilities to be used, what is their role. There are multiple ways to do it, the solution to go with would depend on the emphasis you would like to put into them - are they an addition to the gameplay or a main part of it? What is the prefered way for player to attack in any fight? Start with this, it might show you the way

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

"In that case, however, there might be another problem - a player has to regularly break the game flow to get into the menu and select another ability. I personally find the idea of switching from one ability to another very compelling if there's a fun way to do it on the fly during combat."

Yes, this. I was thinking about your feedback and an idea occurred to me, maybe I can increase the slots for abilities/spells so that player can quick change them without going into the menu.  So you`ll have your two spells equipped and say a secondary quick slot on each spell that you can quickly switch to, this way there would be potentially 4 spells you can access.

I want the player to use as many spells as possible, this way I can do some awesome ones (I don't know if you used hyperspeed for example) without fear of them breaking the game, since they have a limited uses. BTW spells don't have cool-downs, unless the spell is actively running (i.e. the ones that have an effect on player for a certain amount of time) as soon as the animation is finished you can cast them again immediately, uses, mana and life are the limiting factors.

I'm also improving the tutorial area to show players can: 

a- Jump in mid air, no need to be on the ground

b-chain dashes and jumps to reach very far away platforms (ie dash, jump, dash, jump, dash, jump, dash, dash)

Submitted(+1)

I actually did discover chain dash! That's an interesting one. I can't say I like the fact that last jump lacks inertia and animation-locks you, but chaining jumps and dashes is kinda cool!

About cooldowns - you may consider introducing them, specifically for balance purposes, if that's your biggest concern. As for slots - switching might complicate things, but increasing the number of those could be an option. Or, you can allow to pick up abilities only into the slots. This way, you won't be able to hoard anything, and will be forced to pick up and use whatever gets available to you, and keep it in in your arsenal until a better option is available or until it's all used. You might also give enemies specific drops when they are hit by an ability of certain color, to encourage the use of abilities over the main weapon, making it preferable to always attack with spells. Wold be kinda hard to explain it, though

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Lots to think about! thanks for the feedback. BTW I already downloaded your game, I can't try it now but I will!, I was actually just watching one of your youtube devlogs, it looks interesting and I really like the crab theme!

Developer

oh and also, i did a silly mistake and because I wanted to improve a few things for the jam, I uploaded a version with the key-bindings tips off, there were supposed to be key-tips in the tutorial area witch should have helped with the "J incident" :)