itch.io

Hey, Dasius, really enjoying your work! Really happy to see there are still fresh minds willing to explore other avenues, and I'm not the only one who can see you've got something great here :) I apologize for some of my bullets that I know others will have mentioned before, but I wanna be sure to hit all the check boxes

• Forge
  • The simple design is effective, and with a bit more modification I think you can make one of the most important parts of blacksmithing more fun :)
    • Quenching metal! Definitely seen this one mentioned! And I was very curious about the concept of it myself, and I'm sure you've got something in the works, but I'd also like to see different kinds of quenching, like doing so in water, or oil, or other methods I know exist to maybe strengthen the blade in different ways? You could refill the substance in the basin next to the forge (the one with the blue crystal within), and when placed in water will sizzle, when in oil will make brief flames, and if you've got magical sand or stuff, you could get really creative with what it can do
    • Introduce a bellows! Keep it pumping every now and again to make your flames hotter, maybe? Extend the life of the flame so the igniter button doesn't have to be pressed in intervals, or possibly just cosmetic and fun to play with as a little side. Maybe make wood a fuel?
    • Also something I'm sure you have ideas for: combining metals! Having separated ingots is awesome for variety, but there's a depth of challenge that can be added by forcing us to discover and explore how mixing and combining metals can work. Definitely some more weight on your end for something like that, and I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't be slipped in until later, but definitely an idea
    • Different shapes of metals! I have to assume you have some degree of knowledge when it comes to blacksmithing, so we can perhaps see more that just ingots to use as a foundation for our weapon metal in the future? It'd be more of a challenge to shimmy around our forge and figure out how and where to put our blanks, and ultimately more fun. A surprise shipment with a railroad spike? Bam, free ingot, or two, of iron
• Anvil
• The sound of the hammer blows in the updated version, especially when working three ingots, is so damn satisfying. I am happy with its utility, but I think the breaking feature could be moved to another blacksmith tool, which I assume you also are working on alongside things like tongs for managing the ingots, perhaps.
• The placement is a bit wonky with the physics, but I know quite well that's just the nature of the engine and alpha games :) Something I'd like to see, if this framework is being kept, is after smacking a bunch of ingots into one solid shape after a couple swings, we should have to start aiming at the rear or the front of the ingot, or perhaps towards the sides to start making the edges of a blade, or a hammer based on what we need. In my opinion, shaping the metal is every bit as important as smelting it
• Kind of a continuation off a note in the last bullet (that doesn't really have to do with the anvil..): a tool belt/apron with belt! Being able to look down at our feet is perfect opportunity to give us a belt to look at too, to switch between all our crucial blacksmith tools on the fly
• Since chipping away and losing material is a concern with real projects, maybe after each ingot has been pounded out a bit of soot collects around the floor? Don't clean up after yourself enough and eventually catch fire, losing some stock and a customer who runs away in fear/on fire?