If its writing, though im no experts, I think there could have been some intro for the characters. Can be some backstory, some traits, anything to help the player relate to or remember with (also visual wise). The story was basically too abrupt for me, so I was basically spamming the next button.
Personally for me, for audio and visuals, it feels as if theres no consistency (cartoon style in dialogue, creepypasta in the back, cheerful music, and weird jokes from banana). Although there is a style where different style mixed together to create unique experience, its kinda hard to pull off. If its intentional then nice that you tried making it work.
This art is great! I agree with DustoTail that the story is a bit abrupt. I would add that the player character has only the basest reason to stay in this situation (the gun), and would, I imagine, be looking for a way to get out. Maybe pretending to drink the wine, attempting to overpower the banana and flee early on. We need more of a reason for them to go along. Maybe more choices would help. We're only two at the very end, and one of them has no bearing on the story. I think making this more of a conversation where you as the character get to try and talk the banana down would be more interesting and believable.
Hope that helps!
The riddle and parkour, maybe reduce the difficulty a bit unless you want suffering (literally a death counter to tell how bad i am). The riddle, maybe because me dum dum, but hints are always welcomed for me (maybe make it optional or after some time). The parkour, very punishing for small errors, AND there is a time limit for certain part. Having one is ok but both is a bit too much i think.
Music sounds good. Nice transition also.
Man, these puzzles are brutal. I think the hit boxes on the spikes could be a little more obvious, though I love when you surprise me with a death, like when jumping over a certain spike patch. I agree with Dusto that difficulty could be tweaked, though I respect it. The riddle has me stumped, and hints would be nice; just don't give it away. The music's hilarious (in a good way), though it would be nice to have a volume control.
The problem of your game is the gameplay; it is quite boring because the bunny is really slow and there aren't really many of things to do. However the idea and the story is really good, and the game makes you really curious about the ending (I achieved the 1st and the 3th ones). I think the camera is a bit too high, and sometimes that creates some bad optical effects (for example, sometimes it looks like the bunny isn't moving). The visuals are good, especially the bunny design and the flowers. The 2d artworks are great too. The audio is fine. I think you can give a better sensation of "lostness" by making the forest darker and the light sources more bright. (Sorry for the bad english)
Ye, the only interaction available rn is just hopping around, eat the suspicious flower and avoid spawning enemies. So my endings were based around that. I actually planned the game out to be bigger with more enemy types in different regions (basic enemies in the fields, huge one with long legs in the trees, and maybe some humanoid), and more gimmicks to interact with rather than just the flower, but was pressed for time so decided to scope down.
For camera, tbh, I just picked up cinemachine. I played around with it but not sure between dolly track and just simple tracking. Forgot to turn off the cinemachine collider component too for the trees since i made them transparent when bunny is occluded. Just not good at cinematography rn.
I actually planned to make the scene lighter just to make the navigation slightly easier. But I may keep it that way, or making the contrast bigger like you suggested if I implement some directional hint in the future.
Thanks for playing my first complete game!
I did endings 1 and 3, and I appreciated your game!
I think the concept is good and easy to understand, like the story.
For visual and audio, I find that it fits perfectly with the atmosphere and I like the creature's cute design. Also, the introduction is nice.
Without enemies I found the game a bit empty, you could add little flowers in the grass to add color for example.
I also think that the addition of several levels can be a good idea, with new mechanics to avoid monotony.
A pause menu to retry or quit the game can also be a good thing to add to your game.
Aside a strange camera behaviour when you walk under trees, I didn't encounter any problem.
Sorry if I was too severe and I hope that my feedback will help you! ^^
Thanks for playing!!
Environment wise, ye I could have added more. First time using Unity Terrain system, so I just painted the same old texture everywhere lol. I will probably add more gimmick, enemy types and levels, when i have more time.
UI wise, like you said. Just a little bit pressed for time :))
For the weird camera behaviour, I think it would be the Cinemachine Collider component working with the trees. I will fix it or adjust the cinematography.
Thanks for your honest feedback, much appreciated!
Dusto! Great to play your game!
It's a cute little story, and I love the concept. Your little character model is amazing, and I love all the animation. I do think it could use some complication. At the moment, it seems like there are two states: hopping and at rest. Maybe the addition of an "ability" or two, like a sprint or springy long jump, could add to the intrigue. Also, the flowers and fireflies are very pretty, but a little change in scenery might be nice; the top down view isn't bad, but it doesn't really let us see our surroundings that well, which means finding anything can be difficult, especially with how dark it is.
I think this is the start to something really nice. You have a lot going for you already, and I think with some work this has legs, as they say.
Thank you~~~
Glad that you like the concept. I will probably add some more gimmicks and enemy types depending on the region on the map (couldnt this time due to time).
Camera wise, I havent done any cinematography before so thats that :)) I planned to use dolly track cinemachine but I am not how to deal with the jittering when the camera goes around the corner due to auto distance calculation. That would probably be better for atmospheric game. But I just opted for good old tracking. Next time i guess
Thanks for your feedback!
Hello DustoTail! You were supposed to pass near the litbuoys to activate the dialogue, You cannot activate lets say, buoy 3 without the dialogue of buoy 2. I've getting some feedback that this was a bit confusing for some players, did you experience this? or was it a glitch I'm not aware of? Thanks for playing!
silly me... didnt notice some buoys were lit. So the entire time, I was just sailing non stop, not strictly following the path as long as im in the correct direction. It might have been due to the same hue with the background, and too many of them, some even not lit though also on the track. But yes, like you said, if one miss just one buoy, one would miss out the rest. So making the the interactable buoys more obvious would be great.
The music is gorgeous, and the writing is thought-provoking, if a little unfocused. Or maybe it's a little too focused. Instead of having a single path, it might be nice to have multiple, give us different perspectives. One thing that might be nice is a story, a fictional (or not so fictional) narrative, or some sort of gameification, a struggle to overcome. That could help with engagement. But as is, it's very relaxing, and I enjoyed my time with it. The visuals are stunning, the music is beautiful. Nicely done.
The animations and design are adorable. Really impressed with the visuals here. A feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.
It's a simple point-and-click, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Maybe some complication could be fun; as is, most screens you have to select everything. I'd say you could build on this. Give us days, or more. Build a story around it: why are they eating this today? Maybe there could be a seasonal aspect, maybe people bring them things, maybe they explore new areas and find new foods/flowers. Maybe there's an experimentation aspect, where you have to pick the right things, or you could unlock new recipes.
Honeslty, your art style will support a lot. This isn't gonna make any sense, but check out the Artful Escape. That game doesn't do a lot besides its art style, but it might give you a jumping off point.
Game Title / URL:
Pitch/Information: You're a healer, so all you can do is heal! In battle yesterday, your party was overwhelmed, and without the ability to defend yourself you fled into the dungeon in terror, abandoning your party members. Now you must solve the dungeon's puzzles and find them, and escape together!
Version Notes: There's no enemies in this version, but it still functions as a mild first level of a narrative-based dungeon-crawl DND-esque kind of thing. Eventually, there will be enemies that spawn after certain actions, and an end-level boss.
I'd Like Feedback On: Looking for bugs right now, but would also take any constructive criticism / ideas for future iterations. As far as bugs go, I know that if you have yourself (and possibly something/one else) targeted when you go through a door, the targeting system will get stuck. Also, some typos.
Other the bug that you mentioned, I only find a bug there you press E fast enough at the orb statue to make it so that the text box appear twice.
Gameplay wise, so that its easier to be played, I think turning of the collider between allies would be a good idea. Sometimes, your allies would just body block you in the corner and get in your way. Additionally, currently the controls are very focused on the left hand, whilst the right hand only be used for clicking UI. I think it would be nice if you can either balance it out between the hands, or just remove the mouse controls completely and focus solely on keyboards (just odd that you need to use mouse so little just to move on the gameplay and not used again until the next UI buttons). Maybe making targeting the mouse job (using ray casting)? It would make it easier to target too, since right now, you would need to start from the first character (aka you) and press Tab until you reach the one added the last.
Very good points. Initially I had planned to use the mouse for targeting, but tabbing turned out to be easier to implement at the time. Now that the jam is over, that should probably be my first fix. Also turning off colliders between allies is a brilliant solution, and seems so obvious now that you say it. Thanks!
I didnt dive too deep in the game, but I would say the concept itself is ok. Though it would be more fun and/or interesting if you can add a twist, that would add your touch to it. Can be sth dark, sth fun, sth competitive, sth atmospheric, depends on you. I see that you do have the day-by-day shopping / living expense system. Maybe you can make it a challenge for the player (like in "Paper, Please" or "Passportout") and sell that idea also?
As of now, the game is too difficult to make sense of what the player should be doing but I think you will add how to play soon enough. The latin naming may turn some people (including me) off. I didnt understand what the seeds are and what it would do in simple English. So I was mostly clicking randomly hoping it would work. Maybe adding hints or simple dictionary so that player can fall back to when not sure (tho that may lower the risk of killing people down)? Your call
Bug wise, not sure if it is one or not, but i can use my mouse scroll wheel as if it is LMB. if it is not a bug, then it would be very confusing.
Lastly, for a first game, it is impressive that you managed to make all those systems in game. Hope you learned a lot and had fun.
Thank you very much for playing and giving your feedback!
I'm not sure I understand what do you mean by the "Papers, please" like challenge, can you describe it more precisely please?
The objective of the names in Latin is to force the player to do some trial-and-error, so a dictionary would make the flowers' effects too easy to understand, even if that's a good idea.
I'll correct the mouse bug in the next update, thanks for the report. We also plan to add achievements to give the game more interest.
Again, thanks a lot for playing! I effectively learned lots of things, and we had a lot of fun creating Herbarius.
Hard to add anything after Dusto, but I'll try. I think the concept here is great. There's a lot of places you could take this, whether that be the Moonlighter / Recettear route, or a more straightforward shopkeeper sim. What I'm trying to say is, this is not new territory you're entering here. The shopkeeper genre is, if not mainstream, then at least well-established.
The game itself is a good start, I'd say. As Dusto said, a bit of expansion in the book tab would be nice, and maybe that could be gameified. Games like Moonlighter and Recettear have a dungeon-crawl aspect; yours could be more research based. You could gather notes from your fellow herbalists or through trial and error about what plants work for what. I'd also say a bit more room would be nice. Three pots is a good start, but the ability to expand your shop would be pretty cool.
As far as replayability, I would say another gameplay loop would be good. Stardew Valley has the farming, but you can also fish or mine or fight monsters or romance people. The shop maintenance is a good base, but maybe expand a bit so the game isn't quite so one-and-done. I like how focused the game is on herbalism; maybe the introduction of a narrative would help us as the player learn the art of herbalism with the character. They're obviously pretty new to this since only know what one plant does. This could both expand the gameplay as well as to give people a reason to get invested.
As Dusto said, the amount of systems in here is impressive. Great job so far, and keep up the good work!
I like the concept. basically Tower Defense and Vampire Survivor combined. And also a high score system to make it worth the grind. I had fun trying to reach the desired average playtime u wanted (but failed).
I am not sure how much it would affect gameplay but making the camera FOV a bit bigger would be nice, too actually see whats in front when the gunner started firing.
Currently, since everything is basically sprites on a mostly solid color background, things seems kinda flat, would be nice if u can add shadows.
Balancing wise, I dont have much experience, but currently, either enemies grow too fast, the power up too week, the power up frequency too low, RNG sometimes just harsh. Maybe you can somehow convert these things into some value point and use them to decide the stats of enemies and power ups popping up.
i love all the art and character design, its super creative and funny. the little role call with descriptions was a good touch, they're all very interesting and made me laugh. its a good concept, and i also like the upgrade system. i think it would be a lot more fun if there was more to do than just heal your allies. like maybe if another way to heal them besides just shooting them. or like the ability to make force fields to block enemies or somethin. it might also help the pacing if the enemies were more organized, and like came in waves or something.
The tutorial is hard to read on the game's title screen. Maybe give it a solid color background, or a window.
Character design is great.
The gameplay itself is impressive, and actually I played a game kind of like this last night called Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. For me, two things stand out to fix. One is that the game, at least initially, is so easy for the fighters that your healing isn't really necessary, so some game balance would be good. I see that balancing is an issue, and part of that might be that you spawn with all your allies. The game I played last night made unlock your allies as more enemies attacked. Just a focus on pacing in general (maybe start with one ally and one enemy type, and ramp it up) could help.
Second, I think the visual space could be somewhat better designed. The background could be upgraded (not really sure what we're standing on), and the camera could be moved back a bit so we can see more what's going on. I don't really know where we are or why these people are attacking, so besides the phenomenal jokiness of the character design, I'm just never really sure what's going on.
But I do think as sort of a prototype, this is pretty cool. Maybe focus a bit on what you want the experience to be, what you want the player to get out of it, and I think you'll have a pretty successful thing. You've already got the basics down.
I played until the second boss, which I didn't defeat.
I found the second floor enemies easier than those of the first floor. Maybe you can adjust the game's difficulty.
The game concept is fun and original, I liked it!
The music and sounds are ok, but maybe the death sound effect is too intense, dramatic?
Another thing: I think the character design can be misinterpreted like a nazi salute, so pay attention to that.
Hey really fun game!
The design so far from what I saw was great. I'm terrible at your game apparently and could only get to the 2nd boss on 1/10 tries ha. I love randomness of the levels, you have a good depth of enemies from what I saw and every little section was challenging.
I'd say add a level selector, but that's only because I sucked at your game and wanted to see more hah. I'll give it another shot soon!
Great job :)
Hi 馃槂
-Does the game feels fun?
Yes it's fun!
-What do you think about the game concept? Do you think there is something here to pursue?
I like it, I didn't make it to far - but I think there is definitely enough to expand on.
I don't know if the "no shooting" will carry it all, because I think the fun in roguelike comes from all the different item combinations you can get. But maybe you are more creative then I am 馃榿
-How does the gameplay feels? (in particular about the available evasion moves)
Cool game congrats!
Hi! thank you for playing and the feedback! The most important thing for me it is the fact that the game feels fun. So, I'm happy that it is the case. I will take your feedback into consideration, I think I still need to balance some aspects of the game as you have stated.
Thanks again for your time!
Tried out your game and thought it was really cute! The dialogue, story and music were great.
I loved how the ghost moved as a character without items and thought it was cool the ghost lost those powers when they picked up an item. I noticed the ghost wouldn't jump though and I couldn't get that 2nd green arm to open that jar!
Super cute though and enjoyed it :)
