itch.io

Nice game.

1. At any point were you confused about what to do next or why something happened? If so, when?

The first time the store pops up there doesn't seem to be a clear hierarchy for the different elements. I think the money in particular should stand out more since it's the most important element.

2. Did the UI ever feel cluttered or hard to read, especially once things got chaotic?

No, I think it's pretty clear.

3. Did you understand what Buzzwords were and remember to play around them, or did you mostly ignore them?

I ignored them completely at first but only because I didn't realize how strong perks could be.

4. Did completing a Buzzword and choosing a Perk feel satisfying and impactful?

Sure, some of the perks are game-ending, but I managed to beat the game without them too. Then again, I might not have made it all the way to the end in the full version.

5. What was the most confusing or frustrating thing you ran into?

I don't remember anything particularly frustrating.

6. Did you find any bugs or crashes? If so what caused them?

I think the game stutters when the music track changes on the browser version.

Keep up the good work.

I'm getting the same warning as Branno, and I'm spooked.

That intro reinforces the negative stereotypes I hold about people who play hard platformers after 2018 so it's not for me, but the target audience might like it.

The spritework is good, and the gameplay is functional although it's much better with a controller, especially because you have to hold down buttons. You should probably have a "real bunny androids use a gamepad" disclaimer.

Keep up the good work.

I think the game is pretty self-explanatory from the perspective of someone who doesn't usually play roguelikes.

My only note is that the resource nodes could stand out more.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for trying the game and providing feedback.

I think those suggestions are reasonable, especially the skill description because otherwise you can only read them outside of combat.

First time playing the game. 

The golfing is actually kind of fun. I sorta forgot I was playing a horror game and that I was aiming the business end of a shotgun towards my face. That might be a bad thing depending on what you are going for, but the golf works.

The only issue I encountered was that the ball clipped through the ground close to the hole in the first round of level one and I got softlocked. However, I didn't have the same problem after restarting and it was only the first hole so it wasn't a big loss.

Someone else already commented this but saving should also save level progress. It doesn't change the gameplay any since it's basically the same as saving the game at the start of the next level.

However, I admit I'm biased because I have mixed feelings on limited saves as a whole. I've always found them annoying more than anything, and anger is an excellent antidote to fear.

Keep up the good work.

I think I had the older version because I downloaded the game again and the sound works fine.

Good game. I like the big selection of sprites and color palettes.

I'm not sure what to comment when it comes to the gameplay because everything seems good to me.

I've found one major issue with the audio. It sounds like some sort of static or perhaps a short portion of an in-game track that keeps looping non-stop and gets worse over time until you go back to the main menu. Dropping the sfx and/or music level doesn't stop the cacophony either. It doesn't sound intended.

I recorded one level to show the issue.

https://files.catbox.moe/o2ucgf.mp4

The game is an effective time waster.

I like the population mechanic but it feels too punishing because you can never get it back and every additional guy costs more than the last.

The only technical issue I encountered is that the tooltips are a bit fickle and would sometimes refuse to pop up. They can also pop up outside the FOV.

Keep up the good work.

First time trying the game.

The hat is a fun idea. Makes the game less punishing since you can take 2 hits and the hat can be picked up again after dropping it.

The portrait does the "you have huge guts" meme pose. Classy.

The game feels quite polished already. I like how the circle around the crosshair represents how many bullets you've got left.

The sound design is good but I think that sometimes the bat will do a metallic sound when breaking something that's apparently not made out of metal and I'm not sure why. 

Parrying projectiles with the bat is pretty cool but melee combat feels very chaotic.

On that note, the later levels get very messy. I take it that's the point but I fear what will happen later on.

Keep up the good work.

I started the game, shot the enemies and lighted the NPCs on fire. Good.

Blond video game women with pigtails remind me of VtM:B so that's good.

How come there are costumes already? That is very thinking emoji.

Keep up the good work.

Great game, looks fantastic.

The gameplay feels polished too. It's quite intuitive and you can discover that some walls can be destroyed or that ledges can be grabbed even by accident.

I did get lost after a while but that's probably part of the intended experience since the environments are so open.

Keep up the good work.

It's been a while since I last played the game. I think it was before the remake.

The biggest issues I found were all UI related I'm afraid. I'm not allowed to equip a 2-handed weapon without first unhanding the shield, but I could equip a shield right away afterwards. Reloading the game removed the shield from my inventory altogether.

I also managed to softlock the game at the blacksmith by buying a weapon, equipping it, and then directly selling the weapon I had previously equipped without placing it in my inventory first. This made it so left clicking did an attack instead of letting me move. Talking to the blacksmith again hid his store and opened my own inventory.

I can only speculate but it seems to me like you are flipping a bool to open/close menus and this might be causing the issue.

You should consider implementing a button that closes all menus at once. I recommend ESC.

Keep up the wood work.

Thanks for the feedback.

The targeting system works much better with an analog stick, that's true. Regardless of that, I ought to come with some kind of auto-aim. Speed settings are also something I should add at some point. A lot of quality of life mechanics from Afterlife Gladiator are still missing despite the fact that the codebase is already significantly larger even at this stage.

I'm not sure what I can do with the UI. I've made it big because I like big UIs that are easy to read, but because of this it also needs to be semi-transparent in order to not obstruct the playing field. Then again, it's all the same color so I could add a setting to it. I have a lot of settings to implement.

Thanks for playing.

I could make the turn queue a bit bigger. Also, other encounters won't have 8 of the same enemy and I'll try to come up with a way to differentiate better in the future. Maybe a number/letter next to their name or something.

The number on the lower right represents the turn order so if it says "WT 3/8" that means that the unit will take the third turn that round out of 8 turns in total. Units only take one turn per round. I stole this from Final Fantasy tactics but if I could make it clearer that would be great.

I will keep up the good work.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm still learning to animate and I'm hoping to improve over time. I realize the game is lacking juice at the moment so any juice related advice is appreciated.

Your impressions about the characters are surprisingly accurate.

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Potions can only be used in combat by characters with the logistics skill. I'm planning to add more items in the future and potions will have a particular advantage over magical healing too so I'm hoping this limitation will make more sense in the future.

Adding tooltips to skills is a good idea. I can't expect everyone to remember what every technique does. A button to highlight all hp bars is good too. 

Your interpretation for all of the characters is pretty off the mark but that's ok too. 

It was a physics issue. 

Thanks, man.

Alright, I know what's broken then.

I'm not sure why it's broken then. It's the exact same system the player units use. 

Thank you for the feedback.

So I take it the enemy aims but never resolves the attack, is that it?

Thanks for trying.

And the game gets locked? The timer should kick in and end the turn right away.

Thank you.

What's new this time around?

This time I've elected to submit a short combat oriented demo. Just talk to the snake at the store counter and she'll give you the details.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes and I hope to finally iron out the basics of the combat enough to start making some proper content.

Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts about the game with me.

Thanks for playing.

I forgot to add the mule noises.

Good atmosphere, very Dark Souls 1/Demons Souls-esque, down to the sound effects. The armor with the armet/shawl combo vaguely reminds me of the Alba set.

I defeated the doppelganger at the church. He had it coming. 

I think what you need the most in terms of gameplay is a lock on feature. You can totally play the game without it but the sword has a 3 hit combo and I think you need a lock on in order to connect that last hit.

Keep up the good work.

I'm afraid the game is getting stuck for me too.

Nevertheless, I think the issue might be the framerate because the 120 cap doesn't work (the fps counter shows around 300) and I even managed to load in the first mission once after capping it at 60.

Sadly, I restarted to confirm my findings and couldn't get it to work again because the framerate cap in the settings gets reset every time now and there's no appy/save settings button.

I wish I could be more helpful but that's as far as I got. 

Thank you for playing. You actually reached the end of the demo. Next time I ought to have a message there but I don't even have a game over screen yet.

I hadn't thought about input buffering, that could be good. From the feedback I've received I think it would be safe to make things faster in general. I was afraid to do that before having some sort of tutorial and a proper combat journal.

There will be more consequences for losing a fight later, but I haven't quite figured out fights yet...

Also, there should be a doorway at the smithy just like in every other building. That is a bug so thanks for telling me.

Thanks for playing. 

Your feedback does echo a lot of the same issues other people had. At this point I'll have to nail a sign that reads "beware the pathfinding" to my wall.

I need to come up with more ways to subtly guide the player in the right direction. In particular, because I'll open up the environment more later. Currently the only indication that a tunnel is near are the wooden beams and the light rails.

I wasn't sure what to do with the skills if the player has the wrong weapon equipped. If they got unequipped automatically I think that would be annoying but maybe the problem will fix itself once there are more reasons to visit the stats screen.

Thanks for playing.

It's a pathfinding issue that I overlooked.

You actually screencapped another bug I hadn't seen before too.

I think I could get gud given enough time, but I'm still at the point where I need to take attention away from the action in order to swap elements, and I did much better after not worrying about it and using the default non-elemental attack instead.

Thanks for playing the game again.

Enemy AI is shaping up to be the biggest issue I'll have to deal with, at least in the short term.

The healing spell was intended. It doesn't have animations yet but now I have area targeted area techniques, and that's progress.

First time trying out the game. 

The game is already quite polished so I'll focus on what was my biggest problem while playing the game.

Now, it could be because my brain is broken or something but I couldn't even get past the first level until I started ignoring alchemy. Trying to focus on swapping elements to deal extra damage killed me more often than I care to admit, and dealing less damage is a fair trade-off for being able to move.

Not to mention I'm biased because I already know how to dodge from prior twin-stick shooter experience while my alchemy skills are insignificant. 

I'm also not sure how to fix it (assuming it needs fixing). I see that a radial menu has already been tried before too. I'm also curious to see how this game would play with a gamepad.

Keep up the good work.

Great looking game.

My only notes would be that some of the platforms blend with the background a little bit in some sections and that the combat doesn't seem very balanced between shooting and melee because the latter is simply much better, even if enemies are not paralyzed. The difference in damage is too big and enemies have a lot of health in general so that matters.

Keep up the good work. 

This is truly a rolling ball game. 

I'm afraid that the ball keeps shrinking randomly on restart sometimes. 

Are there any gameplay differences between the characters? I'm also interested as to what the story could be. I suggest adding a skip dialog button because unskipabble story sequences are generally a bad match for arcadey games.

Another suggestion is that it would be cool to have a 3D preview of the level ahead of time.

I'm still too bad to beat most of the stages, and I think they lack an escalating feeling of challenge in general which they should probably have considering the length. 

I like the UI a lot. It looks very SEGA.

Keep up the good work.

Cool game. The presentation is great and it kinda reminds of the animations by Nobey One. As in,  there are cryptids everywhere but they are mostly just dudes who want lunch.

I think the tutorial is quite comprehensive but I still kept getting killed over and over by the corn. Some information in the tutorial doesn't seem to be relevant at all but the little doodles in the notepad were quite useful. Cheesed to meet you too, by the way.

The text box has the scroll enabled. That is very annoying and the text is big to begin with so it shouldn't be a problem if you disable it.

The time management aspect is a little off. Orders have to be made fast, but then the next customer takes their sweet time walking up to the window. I feel like it should be the other way around, more time for orders but a shorter wait between customers. 

Keep up the good work.

I've never played craps before but the tutorial was comprehensive enough. 

On that note, I won in the middle of the come/don't come section of the tutorial and it got interrupted.

The presentation is pretty good from the get go but I couldn't get the game to run on fullscreen. My taskbar always remained visible. Also, the chips on the start screen are absent from the right side, and it doesn't look like it's intentional.

It's nice to have a help tooltips toggle always available, it's very useful, but the tooptip for selling special chips never left for me which is distracting. 

There isn't a lot of strategy at first but I managed to beat the game by picking field bonuses and the highest denomination dice available to stack impossible number bonuses on top of that. Therefore, even a newbie like me can pick up the game right away.

I like that the jannie NPC starts with $0.

Finally, you will probably need more juice for the casino experience. Slot machines in real life are downright sickening so thread with caution.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for playing.

I decided to alter the damage formula for weapons so strength is more significant. Melee damage should be higher across the board.

I removed the battle music for now because I'm not sure if heavy metal is adequate for a nightmare sequence. I'm behind on sound design for sure.

Wearing full armor in bed is something the protagonist would do. I think I know the source of the sound, it's because I'm missing a falling animation so it's playing the walking one instead. Animations are hard.

There will be skills next time, in fact, you can level up some skills already if you were to stall a fight forever with the ridiculous cheap healing spell, but only a madman would discover that. Either way, it's one of the few major systems that are missing from the game but now I have saving so it's coming soon.

Thanks for trying the game.

I'm indeed rough and thirsty, that is, in dire need of polish and juice.

Thanks for trying out the game.

Sorry about the clunkyness. If you want to break the UI at this stage of development, you totally can.

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Sadly, I'm very aware of a lot of the polish issues but the backlog for this project has been brutal. The problems with the enemy AI in particular keep piling on too. I've never seen enemies whiff attacks myself but other people have and that's concerning. Also, there is a timeout but it's not working correctly and that bothers me.

Implementing a save system was particularly important because at least this way the player can restart the level if something goes wrong.

The combat is a little faster than last time but I need to make a setting for it at some point because I do want to have large battles later on.

You also correctly predicted that I wish to implement gamepad controls at one point. Aiming the attack areas is way more precise with an analog stick.

Finally, thanks for the comments on the UI. I never know what to do with that.

Oh man...

Thanks for playing, that is useful information.