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(+1)

Coming back to play v010. I'm going back and forth from the game window to her, so you'll see my thoughts as I'm playing.


First of all, glad to see you're still updating after the jam. True dedication.


Title screen looks great. Settings menu is helpful, the moment I set to "low" I saw the framerate fix itself. In-game, the player and some other objects sometimes randomly disappear.


The dissolve effect to hide obsructive level elements looks like, I believe that's new?


I think the narrator voice is new, I heard a voice say something along the lines of "the burden must be passed on" I think. That's a nice touch, but you should add subtitles as well. 


It was at that point that I got stuck, a long gap that I couldn't jump. The narrator voice clued me in that I was suppose to pass on to another player, but I couldn't see one anywhere. It was when I saw the TINY text that said "Press-E" that I started tying that, and it only worked when I was right by that text. I think there's an invisible NPC there? Maybe a glitch caused by me having to play on low settings? Anyway he just wished me good luck but nothig else appears to have happened.


Another glitch had me fly off that platform and shoot into space. I thought I'd found a hidden jump pad but couldn't recreated it, I think it had something to do with me jumping while bumping into the debris there. 


 Okay, I jumped off one platform and spammed G to throw flames to the next and managed to move on. It seems more like luck than skill that I got that. I was playing with one hand on keyboard and one on mouse, but had to switch to both on keyboard for that moment. That has me thinking about how the controls could be a little more intuitive. Here's some thoughts I had:

WASD to move.

Context-sensitive left-click. If you left-click in front of something that can be interacted with, then left-click interacts. (previously E)

If not, you throw a flame (previously G)

Hold left mouse button to aim, release to throw (previously F)

Right-click to jump (previously Space)

With controls like this, players never need to move their hands mid-game.


The dragon dude startled me. I spent a bit of time trying to defeat him before realizing I should just avoid him entirely.


Moving platforms were WAY easier than they were on my last playthrough, so maybe that was a framerate issue.


I got to the part where the narrator says to "tread carefully", and the wood ramp collapses, and encountered another glitch. The whole game goes into SUPER slow motion. Even after I die and return to the checkpoint by the dragon. still super slow. I had to restart the game.


On restarting, I tried the auto-settings. It put me at settings were I was still getting dropped frames. I manually chose "Medium" and that runs much better. Playing again with the higher settings, game looks a lot better but I think is a little harder to play.


Got past the ramp were I got stuck in slow-mo last time. Immediately got stuck in the scaffolding in the next area. I think this might be an issue with the collision mesh matching the visual mesh when it should probably just be a big cube (which would also help performance).


It's at this point that I'm thinking a "return to main menu" option would be good.


I had some issues with the visibility on the next platforming section so I decided to turn back to "low" settings. This caused the first wooden structure I had to jump on to be invisible entirely.


Guess I need to quit for now. Very nice progress on this. I hope this feedback is helpful.

Holy hell, this is a lot, thank you for taking the time go through it. I will review it tonight and solve. I would be interested to know your resolution... since the "not knowing where to go" is commonly created because I am designing on a ultra-wide ratio. So what I found was, what is barley off screen for me is totally gone for other resolutions. Thanks again for all this testing!

(+2)

I also dev on an ultra wide. I suggest doing nearly all your play testing in window mode with various 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions. Besides that being the way most of your players will experience it, it's also a good habit to make sure UI elements are properly position and scaled.

Other player-guiding things that come to mind are just visual cues. Simpliest would just be different colored parts of the floor that act as a path.

Here's an idea that just popped into my head, since your level is a castle in disrepair, if you player is on a large platform, have a short wall surrounding the entire platform. On the place where you want the player to jump off, have the wall broken up. Players will naturally be drawn there. You can zoom out as they approach to subtly hint to them that they're on the right track.

Another idea, you have large torches that act as checkpoints. When the player lights one of these torches, have a line of smaller torches on a wall light up in the direction you want them to walk.  The player doesn't have to see the whole path ignite, just enough to get them walking the right direction, then they can follow the torches.

Or maybe have a room with rats or cockroaches that run away when they see your light, leading you to the exit.

I'd suggest looking up some videos on metroidvania design and how to guide players.

Interesting feedback. So the teal lights? What did you think those were? Also, the checkpoints are literally braziers. Are you suggesting something else?

(+1)

I was just working from memory and throwing out suggestions that popped into my head.

Like if you manually light one torch, it starts a chain reaction of small torches like a foot apart, leaving a trail along the wall to follow.

Just one of many ways you can visually bingo to the player where you want them to do (or lead them away from secrets)

I don't mean the comment to come off as rude. Text doesn't convey the context, more shock or surprised than anything. Intrigued by the thought process and how what was already placed wasn't enough. So, interesting to look into for sure.