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Ad Wars's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound/Music | #2 | 4.636 | 4.636 |
| Art / Graphics | #7 | 4.636 | 4.636 |
| Overall Fun | #8 | 4.545 | 4.545 |
| Controls / UI | #16 | 4.273 | 4.273 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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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
Hey there! I got to play this game on stream and overall this was a really great start to the game (as I mainly played the demo)! I appreciated the diversity in gameplay, the graphics were fun in a classical pixel adventure, and the music was a bop to listen to in every level! I did run into a few issues with the UI though-Mainly in the second section where you're running around with your blaster, it was a bit difficult to control and the inability to shoot backwards made it difficult to interact/shoot a majority of the enemies in some of the areas during the "simulation" section.
Also when I went into the Fitness area, there was a glitch that caused the constant increase in my energy coins (which made a very loud constant ticking sound) and got me up to 42k by the end of it? The wall jump was also difficult to control only thrusting me backwards-which made some of the platforming in that level difficult.
Otherwise the RPG element and the Galaga style fighting at the beginning was probably my favorite and the most fleshed-out of the sections. Great job capturing all those styles and definitely a fun time!
Hey Faux! aGlitch here. Thanks for playing :) The timing of your post is super funny, because I just fixed the demo builds.
It appears that something in the upload process caused that audio glitch that you mentioned, as well as another bug in the overworld menu that prevented access to the last 2 levels of the Demo.
I'm really really sorry for these issues, they've been fixed now. Hope you can finish your playthrough now.
Thanks for the kind words and the feedback as well! I'm writing down everything so we can fix it in the Early Access builds. I'm super happy you enjoyed our game. We really have a ton of fun making it :)
Hi, I was part of the Feedback Quest. The VOD is available if you are interested in watching.
LINK: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1821909169
I would like to apologise in advance for some of the things I might have said in the VOD. I was being very critical of the game and am fully aware that the Demo likely doesn't reflect the final game.
That being said, I have some Feedback on the demo I played.
For the Bullet Hell shooting section of the game. I found it was very fun but visually it could use some contrast between the player, the targets and the background. It is subtle but a lot of games in this genre use contrast to let the player see the key visual elements easily which is super important.
There's also moments of absolute silence in the game where light music could be used. Its a small nitpick but it does take me out of the game.
A minimap would be very convenient in some sections if it could be implemented especially during the dungeon shooting section.
This is where I have to be a bit critital and again, I apologise wholeheartedly if I say something that is offensive.
First major issue is a bug during the platforming section where the coins generate infinitely and my ears just blew up from the sound alone. I could find no way to fix it without entirely restarting the game. Not sure what happened there but its a big issue.
The second major issue is entirely subjective and can be argued but I feel is my biggest gripe with the game. Controls and execution. Its easier explained in the VOD but to put it into words here, the controls for some sections do not feel intuitive. In fact this is a recurring theme in the entire game thus far. Where I feel that the controls were made to be a wide blanket that none of the game genres got done properly and don't meet the standards set for each individual genre of game. To name a few, the run and gun section had terrible WASD and Arrow Controls which isn't intuitive when you wanna play that style of game, the Contrast in the Bullet Hell opening sequence made it hard to see and play, the Platforming section had a floaty character that slipped and slided with no balance, the RPG section felt clunky even by the standards of its predecessors. All of these things add up.
I respect what was being done in the game. I love the concept of Mix Genres but if its not done properly, it will fall flat equally. I still would like to see something like this to succeed. I can also tell a LOT of polish went into the game itself that I feel the quality of it. Its polished to a mirror sheen. However the Concept and its Execution is lacking for me and puts me off from loving the game.
Personal Rating: 2/5 Its well done but how it was done didn't work for me.
I also would like to add that the characters and their personality really shine. The cute Ghost girl is nice.
Hey Luna Aurora. Just watched your stream and I can't describe how much I suffered while watching it, it felt like one of those nightmares where you studied for a test but you still get a bad grade somehow D:
First of all let me say I'm sorry, I really, REALLY don't know what happened to this build. I don't know if it was something in your files, the build itself or maybe something in the upload process (I just released a new update on Steam and it works like a charm). I think the files broke when uploading because I fully tested the Demo before uploading it. So I'm baffled at what I just watched. I removed the build here and I'm re-exporting, re-testing, and re-uploading the entire Demo again, because I really don't know what happened.
As for the other things, I totally understand. I'm a gamer first, and I'm passionate for games, so I take your criticism about the controls. Each update I make to the Early Access I try to improve them. I'm planning to add mouse shooting to the roguelike, because I think the WASD controls don't work for everyone (the game has been praised for the controls thus far) but I wanted to add more options. On a gamepad, the game is meant to be played with the second stick on both roguelike and bullet hell, which makes things smooth / easy to use.
As for the Bullet Hell contrast issue, I was thinking on adding a contrast option just for those cases. I asked once a long time before if it was needed, and none complained. Now I know we totally need it.
The game shouldn't be silent at all. The only silent part is after you beat Level 1, which I'm currently fixing because I know it needs some time of noise there.
Yes, minimaps are needed. I agree. They're planned to be added in the game sometime soon.
How was the RPG clunky? I'd need more details about that. We're actually adding more things to the RPG right for the current update we're working on.
If you have any specific ideas on how to improve the current controls, I'm open for ideas! That's why the game is in Early Access in the first place :) We love listening to feedback and improving the current experience.
Also, thanks for the drawing, I love it! Go Magna <3
To start, I must apologise sincerely for my harshness. I tend to not mince words but that is no excuse for rudeness. I would like to still emphasize that your game is still very solid and I feel is the polish all games should strive for because I FEEL that quality and effort you put in.
Anyway to give a proper response, I rewatched my own VOD to regather my thoughts.
I think the bug might be entirely the demo so I feel that I could disregard that money and sound but entirely. An oversight? maybe a build issue but regardless, its nothing a bit of debugging can't fix.
Now to the crux of it. For the controls, I recommend you do away with the WASD + Arrow keys and instead opt for WASD being the control, space bar to jump and the mouse as the key "attack" function. Left click to shoot and such. Maybe map some other buttons to do other things that are convenient like Q and R. I feel that this would do your game a lot more justice since you can just use the mouse to click during the RPG section, to attack during most of the games and such. However, I understand it'll be an insane programming feat and if you feel its better to stick to WASD as the interaction buttons and the Arrows and movement, I recommend the ability to remap it. I think this could mitigate a lot of issues but I feel like its not gonna do much cuz I feel that games like these should be simple-ish and let me get right to it. Alternatively maybe you could also had a huge "Play with Keyboard or Gamepad" option. As mentioned, I feel that would be a good indicator, I could easily get my XBox controller to play. Still something to consider.
As for the RPG section being clunky. I gave it a lot of thought as to why and how to fix it. The why is a bit vague but it feels like an old FF game interface or something you'd see from an RPG maker game. Feels classic. However, I looked back at it and functionally it was perfect, I even praised it for being perfect. I feel that the issue was the pace change. You started off with a Bullet Hell, then to a Rogue Shooter, then if I picked the other side, a Platformer, so to change the pace to RPG... it would slow down and make the experience clunky. My solution to this, is fairly simple. Give the main character, AOE spells right off the bat and have MP be refilled per hit rather than through potions. Small changes BUT I feel that this would speed up the RPG sections without making it too easy. Consider this, that each monster requires 2 to 3 hits to kill, You drop anywhere between 2 to 3 monsters and that means 6 hits in total if its the best case and 9 to maybe more hits at worst. So an AOE spell that early helps. I also saw the trailer and guess that, maybe, the companion girl would be the AOE spell caster? I might be wrong but still waiting to that point, might be too late to establish a pace and my mind just went from "gotta go fast" to "I've just been glued to the floor"
Overall I think that if you do that for the RPG section it might keep the pacing consistent enough that no one gets taken out of the game while playing. Make the blaster or sword AOE and maybe add a super strong attack spell for all the marbles. I made a comment about how there should be one major element to the game despite there being multiple genres. I think keeping a somewhat consistent pacing between genre changes is the key to solving your problems. I mentioned No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Back as a good reference. So maybe something there can help you.
I still love the look of the game, its concept, the characters. Its a good game with polish but I feel like its bogged down by some fundamental flaws that I feel could be mitigated if not outright fixed entirely.
Please keep up the good work and I hope to play your game again ^^ and I apologise once more for the harsh critique.
Hey there! Wanted to tell you that the fixed Demo builds are up! I'm sorry again for the issues. I still don't know what happened, but I've tested the new builds and they don't have any of the issues you encountered. Hope you can finish your playthrough now.
As for the things you said, it's all ok :) like I've said: I'm also a gamer and I've streamed games as well. I know sometimes opinions can sound harsh but come from a good place (want to improve things). In the end what matters is that you liked the characters, the concept of the game and the world we're building, which is my ultimate goal with all of this.
I'm happy that the quality and polish is there, because I'm very into every detail of what I do. Unfortunately I'm the only programmer and game designer of the project, so I know things can slip away sometimes. But it's important to be open to criticism and be ready to make changes when they're needed.
As for the controls: one of the features that I want to implement for the next update is the ability to fully re-bind the controls. Currently you can rebind most things (like jump, dash, items, cancel, accept), except the arrow keys + WASD. I know that, given que nature of this game, it's hard to adapt the controls to a keyboard / mouse scheme, but we'll find a better solution, I know it. I'll still give that WASD + Mouse idea a shot :) Thanks for the detailed explanation. I also considered the Gamepad sign, because the game feels much better on a gamepad.
About the RPG section pacing, yes. It's really hard to balance pacing between genres. I already added holding down space to activate "Turbo Mode" which speeds RPG battles 4x times the normal speed.
I've also thought of solutions to this problem. In RPG Battles there's an in-battle "Social Media" system which gives you the thing you just said, but it's not fully implemented yet. It will give you special abilities to wipe out enemies based in points you earn from using "trending" attacks (ie using a fire attack when it's trending, trend changes each X turns). But now that I see your idea, I know for sure that we were on the right path with that system. I want to finish it for the new update (v0.4.3). I'll add a task so I also update the demo when I finish that feature.
We're also adding things outside RPG Battles for that section, so it's not all just run and avoid enemies. There will be more ways to interact with things.
And also we're currently working on that big element that ties the experience together for the new update as well. We will also have just one HP / MP system for all genres, so it feels like one big thing rather than separate games.
Thanks again for the detailed explanation and the kind words :)
Amazing game!😁🌟
Amazing cross-genre Ad-venture! Lots of humor and witty dialogs ;)
You like bullet-hells? Check. Platformers? Got you covered. More of a JRPG fan? Yup, it's there too. And more!
Plunge into the depths of the internet to get rid of those pesky ads once and for all!
Amazing! I had a lot of fun playing it. Props to the soundtrack
Really enjoyed playing this the last event https://www.discoverindiegames.com/adwars-review/
Any changes or updates to look for?
Thanks Chef! I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks for your question.
Last time I saw that people really liked the game, but had a hard time with the UI, which was a shame because we were already working on the new global UI (the one with multi-genre items and quests) and we barely missed the window to send an updated build.
That's why we wanted to be back in this event with that update so it's a smoother experience now.
This demo build also includes things like the Platformer sword , the new currency (Tokens) and other goodies that we added for the intro episode in the newest Early Access Update (v0.4.2).
There aren't any major changes beside the UI, as the levels and story are the same, but that new UI improves the experience quite a bit.
A fantastic experiment that I can't wait to see at its completion.