Feedback & suggestions after a 0.1 alpha playthrough: I tried it. Beat the 1st level 2x. Overall, I liked it. It'll be nice to see where you go with this in the future. Anything I don't mention is either ok, good, didn't mind or didn't notice.
Was a big Mario & Castlevania fan back in the day. Platformers are always fun so long as they don't lag to hell & the player doesn't fall through the world/platforms they land on. No such problems here. A bit raw bones as of now but that's definitely alpha speaking.
The tentacle traps are great. The shadow beast caught me a bit off guard. You may want to put some kind of warning for that type of content. Not everyone likes that sort of thing... I didn't mind it though ;) Nice addition. I approve.
Was hoping the slimes were also enemies. Was a little disappointed to find they weren't... just a little.
Never did figure out what collecting the hearts did though. And it also seems as if there will be some sort of gift feature added in future versions. Possibly for rewards lewd or otherwise... interesting...
Glad to see that you've already implemented a up & down attack. Now you just need a diagonal one... For instance, while holding [W] & [D] then pressing [F] to be able to attack diagonally up & to the right. Of course being able to remap controls would make such attacks easier once they are implemented if they are.
The thing that got to me the most: One of the most important features of any platformer if not the most important feature, The Jump: Not being able to control the height of the jump depending on how long the button was held was a bit irritating.
Definitely needs more of a jump animation so the movement doesn't feel so clunky (No one is perfectly still as they jump and land). Also assuming that's just temporary since it's alpha. At least it made it easy to see exactly where the character model was going to land... Maybe add a shadow later for this.
The player will absolutely need a jump attack as well eventually.
It would have been nice to be able to jump/ fly over the 1st bosses lunge attacks so the player has a little more time to figure out that they need to parry that to get an opening... or perhaps be able to learn an ability just before the boss to get a hint... (she is a succubus after all right?. Don't they have wings?.) Hopefully the future of this game will have some earnable abilities such as a double jump etc...
Also the boss is the only enemy the parry seemed to work against which was odd. Even in Dark Souls I would practice the parry on weaker enemies at first just to get a grasp for the timing. No such luck here...
I also agree that a up-to-date itch.io payable version would be nice. Not everyone likes Patreon. Not everyone can afford a subscription.
As far as lewd content advice goes: Add a button & animation (Masturbate?) like parry to allow the enemies to have their way with her if she's in the mood. More positions depending how they attacked her (From behind, from the front, while she was kneeling/ jumping/ falling etc...) Add a togglable view window for regular enemies as well? Other than that the angles and positions were good for the most part.
What I liked:
- It's a platformer... always fun...
- A very Castlevania style game. A good choice of direction for this game. "An old favorite."
- Her weapon of choice is fitting. Much better than a vampire undead slaying dude using a whip...
- If the player landed on the very edge of a platform, the game wouldn't bug out thinking the player was in a never ending fall. Not letting them jump again. Freezing the game. A lot of platformers have this problem. Yours did not.
- Reminded me instantly of Spawn. (Just from a succubus's point of view.)
- Well, it's lewd. The protagonist is a succubus. Already interesting. Plenty of material to work with.
"Let's face it, I grew out of Mario a while ago, time for something a little more adult..."
- The beginning, I love the way she spawns in from the egg sac on the ceiling. Very fitting for a spawn of hell. Nicely depicted.
Only other way I can think of is if in a future level she is summoned from a ritual portal through a pentagram by some cultists or something like it... there's an idea for you.
- The save system already works. Nice.
- Decent art and level design. The player could travel back and forth as needed. Some areas more difficult to go back than others but possible.
- Some areas required a bit of cleverness to get to.
- Item system being added.
- Good 1st boss fight for the most part
- it's almost giving me that "bloodstained" vibe. Almost... but it's got a long way to go before it's that good...
"Bloodstained is a great gothic horror action side-scrolling RPG game I've played recently. Too difficult though for me..."
What I didn't like:
- The jump still needs work.
- Lack of "Abilities" to try out/ earn. For now...
- The music's too relaxing for hell, needs more of a Castlevania style jam ;) (That's just my opinion though.)
- She doesn't have her wings... yet... maybe learn ability(s) in the future, idk...
- The game over says "death is not the end..." but it takes the player back to the main menu anyway. Might as well just be "game over" then. Needs a continue option. (Probably just an alpha thing.)
- There was no way to move the camera around, zoom in & out or view a map to check the surroundings. Some pitfalls were unavoidable due to this...
- Parry is only useful against the boss.
- The 1st boss is impossible if the player is not aware of the parry system with no time to learn.
- No zoom on lewd scenes.
- Only the boss had an extra view point window.
- It's alpha. "That's a given. No one likes to play a game before it's complete" (You can ignore that last lol.)
Obvious bugs I came across:
- After loading from a save, you could get another set of clothes from Lise
- After loading from a save, Lise doesn't remember that you've already talked to her. Resetting quest progress that the player may have made with her...
"I hope this feedback helps improve the game and thank you so much for sharing your game with us!"