Damn dude, super well polished and intuitive. I really have no constructive criticism because you are doing everything right from my perspective, you are a pro. Well done :)
Play game
AGE OF BRASS (prototype)'s itch.io pageComments
The video of me playing your game can be found at https://mega.nz/folder/WQ91HBxL#X4-j8Mj7H30Ai3aevWFEmA
I am happy I was able to play your game on linux
Submitted
Goblin ResortThanks a lot for the video! You might be the first person I've seen actually learn the ground dash and find the second minigun.
God damn, I wish I had the time to add error logging on linux because that crash was weird.
I'll do something about the bullet form practice. The mechanic requires good grasp of the physics and both hand coordination. Without learning the wall jump bouncing it's currently a hell to go through.
Bit of a snag on Arch Linux. You are linking to a shared system library.
./AGE_OF_BRASS: error while loading shared libraries: libFLAC.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Arch package
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/flac/
provides libFLAC++.so=10-64, libFLAC.so=12-64
There probably aren't a lot of people playing this on Arch kek.
Willing to bet this is a Debian build. Am I in the ballpark?
Submitted
10th Labyrinth (Discontinued)To be honest this is the first time I'm distributing a linux application, so I don't know what I'm doing. I thought I screwed up badly, updated libraries, rebuilt everything but it still links libFLAC.so.8. That seems like a common problem on arch and can be circumvented with a symbolic link (it's not like I'm actually using FLAC files anyway). I'm building from ubuntu.
Thanks for trying it.
-Tutorial feels a LOT better, pacing was good and it was engaging. It also showed off several secret coin which is neat. Also I never realized how 3D the level geometry is until this time playing, unsure if you added that or if I just wasn't as observant last time.
-There doesn't seem to be a way to view previous scores from the main menu outside of the letter grade. I would think that people that want to engage with the score system would appreciate being able to see that in detail.
-Background grab points is actually a great idea, it lets you keep the level of destruction while still having footholds to climb up.
-I like how the boss got a new red phase where he's extra fast, adds a bit to it.
-Doing the speed tutorial, it's still a bit difficult but at least this time I was able to complete it in one go. At this point I just don't think the mechanic is for me, despite playing several times I still have trouble getting the drill to activate consistently. I rarely if ever use it in the real game mode.
Looks like good progress to me, keep it up.
Submitted
EtherwestThanks for playing again! I didn't realize the previous tutorial was that bad but I did somehow intuit that it goes about it the wrong way. I stretched the Z axis slightly and remade the side faces properly so 3d is more noticeable now.
Good to see that someone actually cares about the scores as it's usually not the case. I'll add that once I remake the UI.
If it's a problem with basic momentum buildup maybe I could explicitly show it off, although my final goal would be to have players to discover mechanics and physics on their own.
Really cool concept. I was very impressed by the way the bullets pile up and are usable as a platform, that is a very cool mechanic indeed. I found some of the movement - with regards to wall jumping/climbing - to be a bit janky feeling. Not exactly sure what, but maybe it would benefit from more of an outward velocity when breaking from a wall? Not sure. The art, music and vibe is all very cool as well, and the floaty mechanics when shooting downward was fun to figure out. Jump + kicking is very subtle and I think you need to make it more obvious or add in a separate kick button, I could not tell what was happening as I repeatedly tried to kick the shielded enemy. Also, jump invulnerability is a very odd choice.. makes more sense to have a dash or shield or something (just my personal opinion). Also, I was able to trigger the centipede boss without entering the room, and thus was able to stand in the doorway and shoot it from safety.
Overally, very good work + progress!
Thanks for playing! I really need to close in on the wall jump issue, as I'm getting mixed feedback into both extremes between good and bad. Are you doing long wall jumps or do you release jump button immediately?
Jump invulnerability is similar to DMC. In this game it has a niche in avoiding damage when you are on the ground when parry is hard to do (and you can follow up with a kick too).
Hmm on another playthrough the wall jumping isn't so bad. But the jump + kick functionality is really really janky. I tried to kill the shielded guy multiple times using the jump + kick and I couldn't get it since I did it the first time.. there doesn't seem to be any animation that shows you doing a kick.. its quite confusing.
Excellent progress since last time I played (4-6 months ago I believe). The game already has a really strong perspective, which is awesome. That's often the hardest part for most games to develop. You very clearly know what the game is trying to be about, and lean into it. That's perfect. To get from where the game is now, to the finished product, I think there are a few questions that need to be answered.
Firstly, what is the actual play pattern you want for someone sitting down to play your game? Currently, when you die you just go back to the menu. To compensate, it seems like you've given the player a huge amount of health, relative to the damage you take. I think this is really the major piece that needs to be figured out. There are so many options here, and how you answer the question will really be what ties the game together. If it's going to be a linear set of levels, there needs to be a lot of messaging around what level you're on, when you complete a level, where you are trying to get to, etc... And then the death system should really tie into that. You could also do a sort of hub area, with spokes you complete.
Second, I feel that there is a bit of a mechanical hodgepodge going on. Which for a game with this level of chaos happening, isn't great. Things like levitating while you're shooting something are cool, but when lots of things are happening, it kind of gets lost in the mix. My hunch, correct me if I'm wrong, is that these sorts of mechanics are added when it feels like "something is missing". But generally, the missing part is more related to point #1, rather than any problem with the movement mechanic itself.
Personally, I think a more clear and simple relationship between the player, the gun, and the walls should be established. Once those three things have a well defined, easily parse-able and learn-able relationship, you can start playing with them to find the depth. The pattern for ascending in a level is currently somewhere between MMX wall climbing, shooting enemies (potentially above you), shooting the ground, jumping, and creating a pile of shells. Basically, I think some elegance is in order here. There is a mismatch between the pacing of the game and the complexity.
Also, I think the camera could be improved. It has a lot of "discontinuous" movements, like every time you jump. It jerks and jitters around quite a bit. A smooth continuous lerp towards the player would be far better, I think, because the movement is generally quite slow. Every discontinuity in the camera displaces your aim and your visual comprehension of the scene.
Anyway, it's great work overall. I think if you get the play pattern sorted out, refine the mechanics a bit more, you will have an awesome and successful game. All the other pieces are in place.
Thanks a lot, those are great points. I even forgot that I can die in the game because of how rarely it happens.
For the second point taking levitating as an example it's trying to unify two contradictory playstyles - shooting from distance and close combat, where both are undesired when overused. It's a mechanic that requires practice to fully utilize, but I want to be sure that everything key press reliant is mentioned in the first stage.
Do you think I could solve the pacing problem by stretching and smoothing out the mechanic introduction over more levels or it's a core design problem?
I suppose I consider it more of a core design problem. But not a major one, rather a very fixable one. The odd part about it now, in my opinion, is that the natural inclination is that shooting down will make you go up. But in this case, you shoot up and that prevents you from going down. It kind of breaks the mental model of "the gun has force that pushes against my character". I would try to hold that concept as a central premise, and then build upon it. Imagine if shooting an enemy below you pushed you up more than shooting the ground. That is the sort of thing that can really emerge, and the player can add it on top of their understanding. Like, "ok my gun pushes me away. lets try shooting down. oh cool, that makes me go up! now let me try hovering with it and shooting an enemy below. oh wow, that makes me really go up!". That is the type of coherent system that is fun to experiment, and learn the nuances of.
Also, because it is a side-view game with gravity, going upwards is an extremely common need. It really should be quite simple and smooth to happen, and be easy to accomplish almost immediately for any reasonable player. That's because it's simply not fun to be floundering around trying to "move up". Mastering that doesn't feel good, because it's not cool or flashy or that interesting. Imagine in a 3D game, if climbing a ladder required some timing mini-game, and if you messed up a little bit, you crashed back to the ground. On this point, I would honestly consider just making it so that shooting down make you move up. There is a lot of play in such a system, because when you are trying to "super jump" with your machine gun, you're not shooting enemies. Also, it leans into the theme of "never stop shooting". There could be a lot of play and nuance in such a system, like, at what point after you jump is it optimal to start shooting? How little time can I spend shooting and still get to where I am aiming?
Thanks, that's a really good explanation. Levitating not being consistent really got me thinking.
I won't agree on the climbing though. If you meant wall jumping then it shouldn't be a problem on its own (or at least I'm getting mixed feedback now) and there is a lot to master on top of being flashy. Over-reliance on shooting to move up is exactly what got me negative feedback and for a good reason.
Fantastic movement system, not too much to comment on because it does feel fully polished. I can't imagine how much work went into this to get the art looking as good as it does currently as well. Bullets piling up was fun, I was worried at first that it would be annoying to move around in bullet piles, but it never was. It was always fun to see the spectacle of the bullet piles. I do agree with mohagged that the levels felt cramped sometimes, which forced me to be in close combat with enemies, so I ended up focusing more on jumping than shooting. The miniboss was definitely when the shooting felt the most satisfying, possibly because the space was more open, and I was able to focus more on shooting without worrying about platforming. If you do end up making levels a bit larger in terms of area size, I can see the addition of a faster run option being helpful, maybe it could work like the rodie run in gears of war.
Submitted
Fairmount’s Dutch Vacation [DEMO]Thanks for playing!
I can't imagine how much work went into this to get the art looking as good as it does currently as well
Not much to be honest. I'm avoiding making assets like fire. It does have quite a bit of rendering, particle and lighting effects though.
which forced me to be in close combat with enemies, so I ended up focusing more on jumping than shooting
That's actually a good thing I guess, but I need to make it less overwhelming for players at the start. For a skilled player tight spaces turn into an enemy meat grinder.
I can see the addition of a faster run option being helpful, maybe it could work like the rodie run in gears of war.
There is a mechanic for "running", but it's easy to miss it in the tutorial because it's very subtle.
Pretty fun!
Love the style, though the separation of enemies & objects (crates) from the background was a little flat.
The movement possibilities are amazing, though there's too much going on at once in the beginning. On top of that reading the tutorial text which I missed entirely in the beginning. Plus getting shot at while reading, and trying to get the hang of the controls... it's just too much. I was just spamming all the buttons to get through the first level, then did the practice level. The practice level was fun enough for me to try the second level as well. Had an intense boss fight, only surviving with a single bar. Sadly, when I tried to take a screenshot, I only got a black screen. Standing on the pile of cases reaching up to the light was pretty kino.
The level space feels kinda crammed and small for how fast the movement can be. The second level feels better than the first in that regard. Also, there are a lot of low ceilings, which are somewhat annoying not being able to jump through as a bullet, because the minimum jump height is too high for them it seems. I wished for more open movement space.
The weapon doesn't feel very impactful or enemies felt like bullet sponges instead of getting shredded, so I'd just jump past them if possible - it was more fun jumping around than fighting enemies. Also, the feedback on damaging enemies isn't entirely clear, like the swarm that's circling on the spot can't be shot? Can't recall right now. I didn't try to get the secret weapon, maybe that makes a difference.
Becoming a bullet is fun, but from my initial impression in the first minute I was looking for more bullet shredding type of gameplay. Seeing the bullets piling up is a lot of fun. Is there a mechanic to jump out of the pile? During the boss fight I'd climb up and bullet dive into the pile. I was expecting to somehow burst/explode out of the pile into the air.
The climbing mechanic (W) and the blue platforms weren't enjoyable at all. Climbing feels unnecessary when you have all the other movement options like wall jumping, ascending by shooting downwards, etc. (There was also some sort of air dash? Not sure, I just spammed jump in the air and would gain height and a red circle popped up.) Also, the blue platforms were hard to see.
The health bar is too far away for my taste, having the action in the center around the character and the crosshair. While the visual feedback of losing armor bits is nice, the bar could be right next to the character or at least in the center of the screen (top or bottom). Also, I got the feeling that with less health the character got lighter? As if I could jump higher or boost my self easier. If not, that would be an interesting trade off: low health for more speed. Also, not sure if there was a "health tutorial section", but I thought the green health thingies were enemy projectiles or something like that.
The crosshair looks kinda dull and doesn't fit the rest of the art imo. And the camera movement is somewhat annoying when I want to shoot behind me to accel, but the cursor/camera jumps into the room where I just came from.
Not sure if I mentioned it already, but is there a toggle option for shooting? I was just holding LMB the whole time. Is there a reason to ever stop shooting? I guess some passages could fill up, but not shooting feels wrong, especially that it takes some time to get the fire-rate up, lol.
That's all I can think of of the top of my head.
Overall really nice. Great gameplay, art, effects, sounds, UI. And only 75mb.
As a kid I would've played it to death.
Thanks a lot for all the feedback. That will help me a lot with tweaking.
it was more fun jumping around than fighting enemies. Also, the feedback on damaging enemies isn't entirely clear, like the swarm that's circling on the spot can't be shot?
You can do both actually by wall jumping off enemies and then finishing up with the gun. I'm not sure if not having an explicit tutorial for melee kicks was the right choice, but I'm hoping it's a playstyle that gradually catches on in a few levels. The circling swarm is a last minute reskin of a prop existing only for levitating tutorial.
Is there a mechanic to jump out of the pile?
I have this on my TODO list to try out. It's possible right now by abusing physics.
The climbing mechanic (W) and the blue platforms weren't enjoyable at all. Climbing feels unnecessary when you have all the other movement options like wall jumping, ascending by shooting downwards, etc. (There was also some sort of air dash? Not sure, I just spammed jump in the air and would gain height and a red circle popped up.) Also, the blue platforms were hard to see.
I agree and it's more of a failsafe in case the levels become too fucked up for comfortable platforming and for players who tend to play a bit differently. The air dash is the ledge jump since it has a generous range.
Not sure if I mentioned it already, but is there a toggle option for shooting? I was just holding LMB the whole time. Is there a reason to ever stop shooting?
It was requested a few times and I'm considering it but I'm being stubborn about it.
Understandable that you don't want to put a toggle on a shooting mechanic. Maybe have some mechanic that builds around it? From the top of my head:
-> overheat when shooting too long
-> take more damage (or deal less) while overheat is active, but no other penalty that would break the flow of the game
-> while overheat is active, if you stop shooting, you get a "boost" on air parrying/deflect/reflect
-> boost will:
- cooldown (remove) overheat effect quicker/instantly
- increase damage for some time or something similar modifying the weapon
- quickly upwind the gun, to make up for the time spent not shooting and instantly getting back into the shredding
Also, trust in your movement mechanics when it comes to the ledge grab. My frist thought on the wall jumping was "Meat boy", because it felt so solid.
Just my 2c.
Thanks for the ideas. There is a lot that can be done with releasing the trigger and I have to get to it (I have prototyped an air dash recoil by "respinning" the minigun but it was meh). Overheating is in a weird spot because it introduces warmups and cooldowns (no pun intended) that could encourage player to wait which is the opposite of current design. The last point is something I wanted to add for sure for burst damage.
Now that I think about it I can make complex overheat mechanics work through optional upgrades which would help me explain those mechanics.
It's not like ledge grab is required overall, it keeps horizontal momentum and it will have some interesting interactions (ie. swinging around into bullet form killing machine).
This was really fun and looked cool as heck. I would love if shooting down gently pushed you up into the air. Dont make it a mechanic, just a little bit for fun.
Submitted
Dreams of Joy Departed
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