itch.io

I tested the game playing with a keyboard and using A and D to move. Now I've tried it with the mouse and the difference in difficulty is huge, it becomes much easier to control.

Here is the link to my feedback post:

I get what you're aiming for, and if that's your vision, you should stick with it while you gather feedback. If multiple players point out the same thing, then it's worth reviewing, but for now, it was just my opinion.

In most cases, when I hit the green bar, it still kept going all the way to the top in gray. It felt like the actual window for the perfect shot is much smaller than what is visually shown.

I just tried the warrior, and what I can tell you is that the enemies attack really fast and the knockback is pretty strong (my lack of skill plays a part here). But it brings me back to my previous point about the character feeling slow or stiff, whereas the enemies don't feel that way.

Sorry if my feedback comes off as super negative, I'm just giving my opinion hoping it helps improve things.

Hi Lordricker

I playtested the game and wanted to give you some feedback. The game is good, but the controls feel a bit hard, and I think it's mainly because you can't aim your shots.

I also didn't notice any difference between the two types of shots other than the speed of the charge bar (additionally, the 'L' key didn't seem to do anything). On top of that, many shots perfectly executed in the green "perfect shot" area aren't registering.

I think a great addition to the game would be allowing the player to aim and shoot with the mouse, where the arrow follows the cursor. Another alternative could be an auto-aim feature targeting the closest enemy in the direction you are facing.

I really like the game's art, and the animations are good. I think the multiplayer aspect is the game's strongest point; I can easily imagine playing this with a friend, and I believe it has a lot of potential.

Cheers!

Hello Synaut. The game has a fantastic aesthetic that I don't often see; that alone makes it very striking, and it has many great visual and sound design choices that fit perfectly.

The introduction is good. Just when I felt it was dragging on a bit, the game started. I placed all the tiles, but I couldn't find any way to progress. I started a second playthrough, but during that animation sequence, I died and the screen just went blank. On my third attempt, I placed the tiles hoping something would happen, but nothing did. I realized the only alternative was to click "New Game" (which feels weird to start a "new game" when you haven't even really played yet, plus it warns you that you'll lose your progress).

When I finally clicked "New Game," the tutorial started, and that helped a lot—I was able to understand the mechanics pretty well.

In the part where you choose the stone, I think players need to know what they are choosing. Even using the "investigate" action gives no information about it. I thought the idea was to keep it a mystery, but the game explains what the stone does as soon as the match starts. As a player, I don't see any benefit in making blind choices like that.

Later, I struggled to understand what to do when it told me to "close session" (or something similar). I think it would be better if it closed automatically or if it were indicated more clearly.

It would be nice to be able to remove a tile you just placed in an empty space.

During the second choice, I thought having the "identify" ability would let me see what I was picking, but no. It felt worse than the first time because it's still a blind choice. The same thing happens with the instruments you pick up.

Regarding the tools, I had to experiment to figure out how they worked, which leads to consequences like accidentally losing a tile, for example.

Then some orange circles appear, and there isn't any clear information on how they will affect you. The same goes for the bombs.

It's also hard to understand at first what the blue and purple colors on your indicator mean. Only after drawing do you get a rough idea of what they represent.

In the end, I lost because I couldn't understand how the abilities used to "attack" me actually worked.

In summary, the game is good. I understand that old-school games often don't explain things and expect you to learn by trial and error—if that's your intention, keep it as is. But if it's not the intention, I think the game could really use some more explanations, because it ended up being frustrating not understanding why I lost.

Hello Polyspice, first of all, congratulations on the game!

Regarding the feedback: The gameplay is good, but I would suggest starting with easier levels and increasing the difficulty progressively. I had a hard time beating the first level until my brain got used to the ship's controls. That being said, it looks fun and the movement is really well done.

Another detail I noticed is that when you complete a level, there is no option to go directly to the next one; you have to start over from the beginning.

I'm going to drop a follow so I can see when you update the game and give you more feedback then!

Hi Game Tec, thanks for the offer. If I ever need anything at some point, I know I can count on you.

I see you have several games, I'll check them out over the next few days.

Best regards

Hi Smurjo, thank you for your feedback! It's the first one I've received and it makes me really happy to get it.

You are right about that part—you stop just clicking and have to start interacting with the game. I think it's a good moment to explain the interaction mechanics to prevent other people from running into the same problem. I can definitely add the reflection; it's a detail I completely overlooked.

Regarding the second part, I also think I could add a short tutorial when you enter free mode to explain the features, and especially to show the hint menu where you can see how to progress with the quests (inside the phone, on the top right, there is an app where you can see what to do next).

The game does have an English version; I thought it was configured to start in English by default (you can find the language option inside the menu).

Regarding the room layout, it's just as you say: there is no realistic geometry to them. I simply made them functional so players could progress, but it is something I would like to redesign at some point.

Your point about the backgrounds being too clean is a great observation too; adding a bit of clutter will give them more life.

Thanks again for the feedback! I'll be working this week on putting together the mechanics tutorial, and I've taken note of the other observations you shared.

Best regards

P.S. Looking at the screenshots, I noticed that the quest name isn't translated. I'll fix that too!

Hi everyone!

I'm super excited (and a little bit nervous!) to share that I'm currently working on my very first game. It's a project called Japitown, and I'm developing it using Ren'Py.

At its core, the game is a Visual Novel, but I really wanted to step outside the standard formula and add more depth to the gameplay. To do that, I've been integrating life simulator elements and extra mechanics to make the world feel much more alive and give players more agency.

Since this is my first time taking on a project of this scale, I would absolutely love to get some feedback from this community. I want to make sure the project is heading in the right direction. Whether it's about the core gameplay loop, the UI, or how well the extra mechanics blend with the traditional visual novel style, any constructive criticism would be incredibly valuable to me.

https://ahhgames.itch.io/japitown

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this! If you have any general advice for a first-time indie dev, I'm all ears.

Cheers!