Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags

Solid style, solid controls, solid demo.

You have heavily referenced Metroid and take a lot of 'the good stuff' but also taken other scifi influences and they are coming together nicely.

Technical notes:

Hooked it up through steam on a windows machine to try out the steam controller and it is pretty good. Takes a few seconds to detect the controller at startup, and if the controller ever disconnects you have to restart the game to get it back. These are pretty common issues with controllers, so are at worst C bugs.

The diagonal angle fire is a little wonky feeling, but I imagine you get used to it with longer play. You might consider keeping the character facing the same direct when moving and holding an aim button so the player can do some backpedal firing and can also target switches a little better.

Less technical notes:

I am interested in what other elements you plan to include. How much are you planning to diverge from Metroid and what kind of story you plan to tell. (I am not asking you to answer any of that, I am just saying those are the elements that would excite me most about the continued dev on the project)

They are small touches, but the reflections on fluids and the little light enemies go a long way to pull you into the game.

Likewise, starting out with nothing instead of starting out all power armored up feels like a better plot piece. Others have already spoken to progression and it sounds like you have some ideas about it, so I will just note that you have made the first part of the game feel almost more like alien isolation and then you get to build up to being a force of your own. It feels good and has a LOT of potential as an immersive experience and I hope you find the balance you are looking for there.

There are also a lot of teases of lore and you figuring out what has happened to the base. That is an aspect I would love to see leaned into. The little bot at the beginning who gets you started is a beautiful little touch and you have other ones scattered about as well(like what appears to be a corpse of another female who looks very much like you as you flee the first section.)

All and all this project feels like it has a great deal of potential.

Hey, glad you like the game and thanks for the extensive comment. :)

Controller issue:

I have pretty much only tested it on two different controllers and both are knockoff playstation ones, pretty sure they don't have this disconnect problem though, assuming you mean unplugging and plugging in while the game is running, so not really sure what to do about that at this moment.

Diagonal fire:

This is something that would definitely improve the game so I've added backpedal aiming to the to-do list, so I'll be trying to add that at some point.

Story:

I have a general story line planned out, but I haven't decided how it's going to turn out yet as I have multiple versions of it laying around. So I'll be combining / choosing among them to make the final story line when the time comes. I know this doesn't exactly answer your question but that's all I got to say about that for now.

Diverging from metroid:

Well, this is always going to primarily be a VERY metroid like game so that is always going to be there. My general idea about the game is something like this - metroid but not metroid at the same time. So if everything goes as planned, I have a lot of non metroid things coming to the game. Not sure what else to comment about this so you'll just have to wait and see.

Other elements:

Well, this can be interpreted as many different things so I'll just say, yes, there will be many different elements added in the full game.

Progression:

Yeah, I have big changes planned for the beginning of the game in terms of progression. Like finding parts of the suit instead of just helmet then straight to full suit, which I'm guessing is what you've already read about. And that is definitely how I want the game to feel - building up from nothing.

Teases of lore etc:

If all goes as planned, then there is a reason for the bodies to be there, let's just stop there. ;)

The bot is going to stay, but I've changed it a bit so it goes offline at the in the first save room as I feel it didn't really do anything after that. It was pretty much always supposed to be a tutorial only thing anyway.

So, I hope that answers some of your questions, thanks again for the extensive feedback. :)

Controller issue: assuming the controllers are connected via Bluetooth, try disabling Bluetooth on your computer while the controller is connected, and the game is running. If you are lucky, it will trigger a similar situation, and you can see what you need to do to continue using a re-connected controller in the framework you're using.


Best of luck!

My controller only has USB so can't test bluetooth at this moment. But I'll add this to the to-do list as a possible scenario, thanks for the tip. :)