Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(+2)

thanks for this. AA still has alot of development ahead of it and this is the first build. I'll take all of your feedback seriously

(5 edits)

Thank you. Heavy Hearts isn't a game for me, but It definitely has a certain fire/charm in it's art style that tells me you put a lot of heart (heh) into it and I imagine you'll do similar with AA.

I saw on the discord that AA was 90% complete in 2022, if that's the case it's very easy to forgive the numerous issues.

A lot of this is just me trying to further elaborate on some of my previous points, as I felt I wasn't too clear on them, so sorry if this reads like a repeat, I just felt like it was needed. I might post a bit on the discord channel, but I don't want to become a nuisance there.

One of the primary issues IMO is the fact that the game calls itself "tactical" right off the bat. Now, when I hear tactical, what comes to me is "I'm going to have to aim and control my shots, avoid getting hit, and watch my ammo", I don't think "I'm going to jump around and shoot red bees to restore my universal ammo and avoid getting crushed by a teleporting spider-lady"

You were probably just doing a reference to Metal Gear Solid's "Tactical Espionage Action", but it gives the game an unnecessary identity crisis that it doesn't need.

The game is too early to really get a clear picture on whether it's better to lean more into the tactical part, or just go full arcade. Though I think the oppressive environment is definitely leaning towards the tactical side of things as the more organic of the two.

Whether the game ultimately becomes more tactical or arcade-y, I cannot stress enough how awful and unfun it is to tie all of the weapons to a single shared ammo pool. It sucked in Invisible War, It sucked in Dead Space 3, and it sucks in this. And that's only with 3 weapons present—imagine how awful it'd get with 5 or 6!

I didn't mention the enemies in my first post since I was already so critical, but I'd definitely say they're uninspired—aside from the boss—she's a pretty decent/fun fight. What can I say, zombies are very played-out, and with how dark the environments are you might as well be shooting the scenery. The drones/flyers are a little better, but honestly not by much, they feel like they're there simply so you aren't only shooting left or right.

The environment and character art is the best part of the game by far. The city ruins feel amazingly oppressive and the lightning reflected giant monster is great, especially if it's hinting at a future confrontation.

the current Mission structure unfortunately might hamper the exploration of the world to a large degree.

My main problem with Anthro MCs (though this applies to anthro characters in general too) is the fact that for the most part they never justify themselves in either writing or gameplay, and end up just being a weird looking human.

Take for example Dirk finding the injured rabbit girl. This dude has ears bigger than his head, yet he can't hear her still breathing while standing right next to her in a tiny room? That's not even factoring in a rat's natural affinity for detect vibrations. Another example, rats are extremely social, yet he gives what amounts to no shit about meeting a fellow rat soldier who apparently works for the same organization as he does, in fact the other rat dude doesn't at all seem pleased to see him. The only thing that fit the rat theme was the jumping and the climbing/clambering, but that could easily just be played off as part of the arcade feel.

Obviously there's logical limits to this, but I think any writer can get a feel for what will work and what won't once they've put this into practice enough.

And yeah, if you're reasoning for this is writing/lore reasons, or "I want an anthro MC because I want an anthro MC" then I can't argue against that without being a jerk, but if it's solely for marketing/theme reasons, then I'd say a human option, or hell, a choice of characters with different abilities/interactions depending on their species would be neat to see.

My critique really comes from the fact that I see a game with a lot of potential here. H-Games with actual gameplay are somewhat of a rarity. I saw on twitter that this is apparently designed to be more of a short game, I assume you meant in comparison to Heavy Hearts?