Hey, thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback.
Too much grenades thrown at his second phase, his ground pound shouldn't be that powerful I think
I think a bigger arena with an extra row of columns will be enough to make him a more fair fight, also I need to find a way to teach players that "ground slam" type attacks can be avoided by jumping.
but normal shielded enemies were almost immune to the explosions
Unless something is broken they take two nades, which yeah I'll bump it down to one.
I didn't like the animations for human enemies too, they're very basic
They're the first enemies I made so it's good to hear I've gotten better. I'll make a note to redo their animations.
Pickups are very bright which on one hand makes them easier to find, but they also stand out from the surroundings a lot.
I've gotten some feedback about that, but I like having something that I can use to guide the player's eye towards secrets or the way forward. I guess they are a bit jarring. I'll have to think of a substitute if I do end up making them more plain.
Regarding lore
I didn't want to explain too much for the demo, I was thinking of adding an intro level down the line that would explain things more clearly.
Basically the idea is that, while rapid mutations caused the collapsed of modern society, by the time the game takes place contamination can be treated and most of the danger is from the mutated creatures themselves. Mutagenic serum is not the same as the industrial contaminant, it's meant to be stable and controllable so people can use it to give themselves useful genetic mutations. I understand that this might be counter intuitive, there's a chance that I might scrap the mutation system in favor of various equipment that does the same thing.
And since people devolved why they managed to form tribes and even cooperate with other animals?
The tribe you fight are more like dumber aggressive humans than feral beasts. They are capable of having language, a social structure and even domesticating animals. Lore-wise the big fishmen enemies should be fighting with the tribals in the chieftain level but I didn't get infighting ready in time for the demo. Speaking of domestication, there's a pup that you can adopt in the lair level, it's right before the bossfight. Rags has unique dialogue if you bring it back before doing the chieftain level.
As a linear game it might not be as fun and replayable.
I did toy with some procedural generation but I found that it cheapens the exploration and it's a pain in the ass to set up. I'm definitely going to add more things to find in levels, and the mutation system could use some more depth yeah.
I just don't think this game can be anything more than a linear game, I'm hoping that a complete mutation system will give player different enough playstyles that replaying levels with different ones will be fun.
Anyway thanks again for the comment, much appreciated!