I am going through all submissions to make all developers aware of an important Google form I've made.

I'm joining the IQ folks to help organize smaller events in between the main FQ event in order to help prevent us from getting too many games in main events. Right now, I have a planned structure for these events but I would like to hear from everyone who was in this event in order to tune things better. The survey is a bit long, but it covers as much as I could think of. If you can take the time to do the survey by June 1st, I would immensely appreciate it!

You can find the form here: https://forms.gle/P9LPYwERhJtpZzteA

I really enjoyed your game. I can tell a lot of love and detail went into this. The opening sequence was well done, and I understood the story without any dialogue. Very solid opening. Now to break it down a bit...

THE GOOD:

1. Combat is fun and attacks seem to connect. I love how there's a horizontal and vertical attack. Monsters were a lot of fun to fight.

2. Love the look of the main character and enemy artwork was done well.

3. Sound effects were timed well and fitting for the actions.

4. Each monster had their own unique attack and way to defeat them. I liked this.

5. Flying mini-boss was a fun battle.

FEEDBACK:

I don't want to look like I'm being overly critical or beating your game up. I think my feedback below could be quick fixes, but these were the parts of your game I found a bit frustrating...

1. The dialogue boxes continuously rising from the bottom of the screen was a bit tedious. Maybe have them rise up for the first box, but then all dialogue after just cycles through in the same spot with the press of a button from that point on.

2. Jumping pits, I feel, could be a bit more forgiving. You have to jump at the exact right moment to get over the thorn bushes and lava. I don't think it needs to be that precise. Maybe shorten the distance of the lava and thorn bushes a bit?

3. I defeated the flying mini-boss and died at the lava (see #2). Save points should always be before and after a boss/mini-boss. Once you defeat that mini-boss, you have to contend with lava, more enemies, the new firing rock enemy, and falling rocks... and then you reach a save. Anyone who dies during all of this has to repeat that mini-boss fight each time, which may get frustrating for a lot of players. Thankfully I only died at the lava once.

4. While I appreciate a good memory puzzle, most players won't know what those signs throughout the cave are for. I was even confused and going... "What is this?" It wasn't until I got all the way to that door I realized I should have remembered all three of those signs. I didn't, so I had to backtrack quite a bit, which was pretty tedious. Maybe hint to the player about remembering the signs, etc. Though... I feel puzzles, in games, should always be centered around a smaller area. Not an entire level with that much backtracking.

5. A roll or dodge would be nice. I always feel those look better than constantly jumping over enemies. Even a parry system would be nice. The knight battle felt a bit clunky. He was always on top of me, and I just kept jumping over him, landing on his head, etc.

OVERALL SCORE

Overall Fun: I did enjoy your game. Despite the 5 suggestions I gave above... combat was fun, animations were well done, and the mini-boss was a great time. The lack of save points after certain challenging sections, plus the memory puzzle that required me to backtrack, was a bit frustrating, though.

Art/Graphics: Very nicely done. Love the level design, character artwork, and enemies.

Controls/UI: I didn't have any issues with controls, attacks seemed to connect, and navigating the level was, for the most part, simple. The only part was #2 above... I never found an easy way to jump the lava... especially that first pit. I don't know how anyone can clear all those with the jump we have... unless I'm missing something there.

Sound/Music: Sound effects were well done, and the enemy deaths were creepy (especially when you killed a flying creature).  The only part... the music got pretty repetitive, with it being the same track throughout the entire demo. That opening scene, outside the cave, maybe should be more ambient sounds or a slower/more ominous track... and then it picks up when you enter the cave, maybe. My personal opinion... exploring the levels and fighting smaller enemies should be softer music... and then it picks up to more intense tracks during mini-boss/boss fights. But overall... sound/music was good.

Hello from tonight's stream!

This was fun to play, but I was utterly confused regarding the name. Still am. Why is this so fantasy or middle ages yet referencing modern dang world? XD

In terms of any issues, there were three things I felt to mention.

First, regarding controls, I'd say move changing your arrow to just needing to press the U button. Hitting an arrow button to change arrows moves the player's hand away from the J and K buttons. Making it U, though, would keep it there. I would also say that any menu with multiple rows and columns should be navigable with all buttons rather than just left and right.

Second, the three signs in the second stage; You should change what says when you read the sign from "!" to "Remember This Sign." Otherwise, players may not pay attention and forget what the shapes are by the time they reach the end. Otherwise, it's just a shape with no meaning to the player until they find out.

Third, I think the game would benefit more from not having to use shift to run. Running seems like it should be the default speed. I otherwise felt like I was just holding shift the whole time because there was no reason not to run.

Hi, I tried it a bit:

Didn't like the way the text boxes (Starting at Chaos Knight) move up making you wait, it's not like I can read them as they move, I prefer fast text boxes.
The tree on top of boulder that blocks you wasn't clear, I think someone said that already.
Cave area said press L to use the ability. If it had said healing I would have understood better since I would know when to use it and when it was unusable.
There is a sign with just !, and others, not clear if it's part of a set of symbols,  later, I stopped at the part that asked you to enter the symbols, couldn't be bothered.
Overall it's good, I didn't comment on a lot of things because they seemed to work for the game. if there's some specific aspect of gameplay you wanted feedback on let me know.

VOD (1:00:38): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1818808215

It's a fun side scrolling action, I did get stuck relatively early at a boulder, not sure how to get around it, the control is a bit odd for me as well on the keyboard especially for shooting high with the JK... part of me almost wish the shooting is tied to my directional WSAD keys somehow consistently. As for running... how about having tap D or A twice to activate run as another option? Just an idea. 

I played till I killed the Knight of Chaos, and got to the caves.

Overall, I liked the graphics of the enemies falling over once they were dead. I found the controls on the keyboard a little awkward. Perhaps in addition to a jump button, the W key can also be used to jump? There were more than a couple of instances where I was trying to jump with W but didn't.

Sprinting with shift was also difficult, so I ended up not sprinting, and tried to jump to dodge attacks, which worked well enough, until I died :)

The knight fight was pretty fun! I enjoyed the fight, and wasn't expecting the second phase and got damaged there but recovered.  I liked that overall there were a fair number of health potions, especially after new mechanics.