It works, kinda? The character models are cute, but the gameplay is very clunky. Companion AI is dumb at best, and having to wait while everyone takes their turn is very annoying and breaks the pace - especially when it's kinda hard to understand what everyone's doing. The fog of war is very wonky and a bit annoying at how it works.
The premise is fine, it's like an old school dungeon crawler, but I dunno. Lacks a lot of meat on the bones.
I climbed up to the 5th floor. After I got the hang of how the game works, I liked the idea.
I like how the game focuses me on managing my movement, to minimize the damage I take from the monsters, and that If I position myself eficiently, my allies will follow up with atacks of their own. In my opinion it shows promisse.
I was a bit confused about the weapons. At least up to floor 5, they seem to deal the same damage, and there is no durability, so I did't see any reason to pick new weapons up, or scavenge. But that might be something that changes on higher floors/ with more development.
the bump traps also consfused me. I think they make me drop stuff from the inventory?
I didn't find any major issues. I think you should keep developing the idea, at least a bit longer.
The farting is dumb but it seems interesting as a base for a dungeon crawler. I like how the party members can get separated from the player to act more independent. Maybe you could focus on this individuality a little more. Has promise.
At the start of my first run I lost 2 of my allies because monsters spawned around them, and didn't really know what to do. So I restarted.
Second run went better and I got up to floor 5, where I got flooded by spiders that just kept on spawning. I was a bit confused about that, and why there were so many spiders.
Things that I would love to see get improved:
Better starting zone - As I said I got obliterated in my first run
Display allies health even when not selected
Display allies equipment
There's something about the damage text and the "Level Up" text that doesn't sit right with me - maybe it's because of the clipping or it's too big if it's right under the camera - can't really explain it
If I open the ally interaction UI and hit ESC to go to the main menu it stays open overlaid on the main menu
Minimap is good, but I feel like it gets in the way during combat - maybe reduce the opacity - or just use an outline of the explored areas instead of drawing the full tiles
It was a fun experience overall, for a game in this state, and I think the direction you seem to be going is good.
I tried my hand at it, the only game I've played similar to this are the Pokemon ones. The 3D text was really jarring especially when i first encountered a trap it was hard to tell what was even going on. I'm not sure if there was a way but maybe some special skills to use in combat would be nice, i kind of felt like i was just mashing space.
I got a few floors in, I was a big fan of the pokemon mystery dungeon games when they were coming out so i thought this looked tight
the map overlay is appreciated but i feel like the opacity is too high, much higher than other games with a map overlay
traps did by far the most total damage to my party, doesnt seem like theres any counter play to them and maneuvering the AI around them is kind of annoying
Moving around killing enemies is pretty fast and making progress is fun
wish there was a bit more chunky visual feedback on hitting an enemy to make it more satisfying
Maybe if i played more i wouldve seen more of this but there didnt seem to be any party building strategy beyond just putting the biggest damage sword on each guy. maybe im missing something here
i dig the sound effects, neutral on the music
I like the enemy models and thought it was cool to see 2x2 enemies
angling towards diagonal enemies to attack them with WASD is extremely finicky
menus overall could be more intuitive but understandable for a prototype
controller support is much appreciated, didnt have mine on hand to test though
I ended up casting the explosion spell to see what would happen and killed both my allies. leveled up though which was cool
I think its a solid mechanical base, but personally i wish it had more satisfying visual feedback or encouraged more strategic depth. IMO the old pokemon mystery dungeons still hold up partially because just running around mindlessly killing things is fast and and has good feedback.
I don’t know… personally would have enjoyed this a lot more with classic ASCII style graphics or at least anything basic 2D. The traps are really annoying to walk over with all three dudes in a row.
I had a bug where my beloved offhand sword disappeared while I tried on other weapons.
Had a weird bug on floor 7 or so (towards the end) getting catapulted out of a bad spot and my party member was somewhere else entirely? Not sure if intended.
I think the whole point of classic Rogue-likes is skillfully setting up encounters in hallways and such, as well as "walk into enemy to attack them." You’re throwing these concepts out the window, I wouldn’t say that’s bad per se, could be interesting.
thanks for playing. I guess I could make the gameplay entirely on the minimap and tun off the scene? lol
The teleport at the end was an enemy that casts warp. I should make it more apparent. I thought positioning yourself and allies to face the incoming enemies would be more fun that people seem to find it.
>I guess I could make the gameplay entirely on the minimap and tun off the scene? lol
Have you ever actually played Rogue? >_< (Me neither, but I did grind some DCSS and Jupiter Hell.)
>I thought positioning yourself and allies to face the incoming enemies would be more fun that people seem to find it.
Honestly I think it can be fun, but the whole game feels so jank right now it’s hard to tell. But I can tell you the ideal strategy, as is, would be to have a beefy dude in front and two archers/mages behind him, then do the usual hallway grind. I guess Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one Roguelike where you have a party, but I forget how that worked. Looking at screenshots now, it seems you only have two ’mons and there are some interesting aoe attacks.
Comments
It works, kinda? The character models are cute, but the gameplay is very clunky. Companion AI is dumb at best, and having to wait while everyone takes their turn is very annoying and breaks the pace - especially when it's kinda hard to understand what everyone's doing. The fog of war is very wonky and a bit annoying at how it works.
The premise is fine, it's like an old school dungeon crawler, but I dunno. Lacks a lot of meat on the bones.
I climbed up to the 5th floor. After I got the hang of how the game works, I liked the idea.
I like how the game focuses me on managing my movement, to minimize the damage I take from the monsters, and that If I position myself eficiently, my allies will follow up with atacks of their own. In my opinion it shows promisse.
I was a bit confused about the weapons. At least up to floor 5, they seem to deal the same damage, and there is no durability, so I did't see any reason to pick new weapons up, or scavenge. But that might be something that changes on higher floors/ with more development.
the bump traps also consfused me. I think they make me drop stuff from the inventory?
I didn't find any major issues. I think you should keep developing the idea, at least a bit longer.
The farting is dumb but it seems interesting as a base for a dungeon crawler. I like how the party members can get separated from the player to act more independent. Maybe you could focus on this individuality a little more. Has promise.
btw I have not received anything for the smelly butt fart messages as of now.
At the start of my first run I lost 2 of my allies because monsters spawned around them, and didn't really know what to do. So I restarted.
Second run went better and I got up to floor 5, where I got flooded by spiders that just kept on spawning. I was a bit confused about that, and why there were so many spiders.
Things that I would love to see get improved:
It was a fun experience overall, for a game in this state, and I think the direction you seem to be going is good.
Keep up the good work!
thank you for the play and feedback.
the spider have a chance to multiply when hit.
I tried my hand at it, the only game I've played similar to this are the Pokemon ones. The 3D text was really jarring especially when i first encountered a trap it was hard to tell what was even going on. I'm not sure if there was a way but maybe some special skills to use in combat would be nice, i kind of felt like i was just mashing space.
thank you for playing and recording.
combat skills could be interesting yes.
I guess there needs to be a "team builder" + "pick abilities" layer to this somehow.
I got a few floors in, I was a big fan of the pokemon mystery dungeon games when they were coming out so i thought this looked tight
I think its a solid mechanical base, but personally i wish it had more satisfying visual feedback or encouraged more strategic depth. IMO the old pokemon mystery dungeons still hold up partially because just running around mindlessly killing things is fast and and has good feedback.
Keep up the good work
thank you for playing and the feedback.
I am trying to figure out what would be make this game more strategic.
I might try the old "flash white" and "burst particles" on on hit.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2503613281
I don’t know… personally would have enjoyed this a lot more with classic ASCII style graphics or at least anything basic 2D. The traps are really annoying to walk over with all three dudes in a row.
I had a bug where my beloved offhand sword disappeared while I tried on other weapons.
Had a weird bug on floor 7 or so (towards the end) getting catapulted out of a bad spot and my party member was somewhere else entirely? Not sure if intended.
I think the whole point of classic Rogue-likes is skillfully setting up encounters in hallways and such, as well as "walk into enemy to attack them." You’re throwing these concepts out the window, I wouldn’t say that’s bad per se, could be interesting.
thanks for playing.
I guess I could make the gameplay entirely on the minimap and tun off the scene? lol
The teleport at the end was an enemy that casts warp. I should make it more apparent.
I thought positioning yourself and allies to face the incoming enemies would be more fun that people seem to find it.
>I guess I could make the gameplay entirely on the minimap and tun off the scene? lol
Have you ever actually played Rogue? >_< (Me neither, but I did grind some DCSS and Jupiter Hell.)
>I thought positioning yourself and allies to face the incoming enemies would be more fun that people seem to find it.
Honestly I think it can be fun, but the whole game feels so jank right now it’s hard to tell. But I can tell you the ideal strategy, as is, would be to have a beefy dude in front and two archers/mages behind him, then do the usual hallway grind. I guess Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one Roguelike where you have a party, but I forget how that worked. Looking at screenshots now, it seems you only have two ’mons and there are some interesting aoe attacks.