Thanks for playing! Sorry about the difficulty. I’m the type of player who enjoys punishing and challenging games like Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, and even some old-school NES titles, so it can be a bit tricky for me to gauge everyone’s difficulty preference. But I really appreciate you letting me know, I’ll consider adding checkpoints after the game jam ends and make some adjustments to ensure a fair challenge.
I think my comment sounds a little harsher than I intended. What I meant was that you have a lot of great ideas in the game, and I just think it's a shame that many players will probably drop out before they get to see much of it. I'd be surprised if more than 30% have even seen Roachmax. If you're going to use Hollow Knight as a comparison, when you look at the chase sequences in Silksong, if you make a mistake, you don't start right at the beginning, you lose a heart and respawn at a nearby point. This makes it much easier for players to learn from their mistakes and it doesn't feel quite as frustrating.
Oh, your comment isn’t harsh at all, don’t worry! In fact, it’s completely valid, and I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game. It is a bit of a unfortunate that some players may have quit before reaching the full content. The game is definitely beatable with a bit of effort, and at the very least, it doesn’t have any game-breaking bugs.
I was aware of the checkpoint issue, but I ran out of time right after I finished designing and adding the sound effects. Checkpoints were also one of the lowest priorities on my list because I was worried they could introduce bugs, so I decided to play it safe and focus on completing the core game first.
About Hollow Knight or Silksong, I didn’t mean them specifically. I was referring more to games known for their punishing difficulty, like classic NES titles such as Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, where failure can mean restarting the level at best and the entire game at worst.
For Level 3, before I received the first round of feedback, I honestly didn’t expect it to be as unforgiving as what other reviews suggested (as I was the only playtester).
For Hollow Knight, Silksong, or any Souls-like game, the respawn system is essential because Metroidvania-type games rely heavily on backtracking and have large interconnected maps. Without frequent respawn points, the pacing would completely break since players need to revisit previous areas to progress. I just meant that their overall difficulty can still drive some players away, since the checkpoints are quite far apart and sometimes easy to miss without a guide, not necessarily in the chase sequences themselves.
Just to clarify, I don’t mean any of this in a negative way. Constructive criticism is always valid, and I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Writing in text can sometimes make the tone easy to misunderstand, so I just wanted to share a piece of my mind. Once again, thanks for playing all the way through!