Post by CraftedCircuitry in The Harbinger of the Deep Alpha jam comments

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CraftedCircuitry5 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

Thanks for the wonderful feedback!

For the combat, I will look into ways to make it more clearer. The idea was for the icons on the Action HUD beside the buttons matching the icons on the Beings would show what Action you needed to do to befriend them. I initially thought that would be enough. I also forgot that I didn’t explain that making 3 mistakes of choosing the wrong action will lead to them being angered, and only allowing Slice. I think I’ll look into adding some text to quickly explain those as you go out of the starting forest. There’s a lot of space before getting to the first Being anyway.

(EDIT) I’m also gonna add some more effects when one does get it wrong and make it more apparent one got it wrong. Like a scaled angry version pulses quickly, sound effects, and all that.

The indestructible rocks needs a nearby Boss Being to be befriended or slain at least once. The first one in Dead Clearing has a very different sprite, and are north of those rocks. I think I will keep this implied for now, but maybe I can think of an easier way for players to know. Maybe some particles leading to the boss or I don’t know.

I think I will remove the Toggle Hold setting entirely and make it where toggling instead of holding is the default. I honestly find myself defaulting once I implemented it too, and see other feedback also struggling with the amount of inputs needing to be held to press.

I’ve added some more information when shopping, adding the experience needed to the side of the item (like Plate (2)), as well as showing the remaining XP available once the shop options appear during dialogue. I think I had that thought at the back of my mind, but I kept forgetting to write it down and actually trying to rectify it so thanks for catching that. I’ve also added some more translucent panels to make the text read better in the Pause Upgrades screen.

Thanks for letting me know on the sound issues and clipping issues on the Remaining Text. Clip Content is enabled by default and the outline went over the boundary of the box so it was a quick fix.

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Dragon's Isle Software5 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

After reading your reply I opened the game in a Private Window to try it fresh, as I did not see a reset/start new game option, and didn't feel like clearing the files manually. You may want to add a new game or reset somewhere for testing like this.

Looking for it, I did see the symbol and was able to befriend the first being. I think the issue is that there is a lot going on with the being's art, and everything overhead. The icon blends in with everything else, and is hard to notice when it appears on screen, especially since you are suddenly being attacked before it is clearly visible. With the B&W art style you have created a limit for yourself. You don't have as large of a pallet to work with to differentiate the icons from the beings. I don't work in B&W myself, so don't know what to suggest, but I think that for the system to work, you will need to find a way to make the icons stand out more as something separate.

I went to the next one and befriended them as well. Again, knowing how it works I was able to do it, but even knowing what to look for, it took time to process what the symbol was and what it meant. Over time I could see getting used to it and it will be easier, but for new players, they just blend into the rest of the being too much for the fast paced attacks coming at you. I died once and was close to death a second time when I befriended it. Thinking on it, the thing that most stands out to me is the exclamation marks above the head, the symbol to befriend, and the head/hat are all close together and slightly detached from the main body. They all kind of blend together as part of the being. I think if the head/hat was more attached to the body, that would help. The double exclamation marks could be reduced to a single one, and possibly moved a bit further away. The other option would be to make all of the befriending/action symbols have something about them that really sets them apart from everything else. They need to be recognizable at a glance, both as different from anything else on the screen, and from each other.

I like the art style, and think it works well for the game. Now that I know how the befriending works I really like it, and that you created such a system. I think it just needs a bit of tweaking of the display a bit to make it easier for new players.

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