itch.io

Response:

Thank you for your time, I appreciate receiving your thoughts and feedback. It was very important that I made a game that feels evocative of the original CV games, while still reducing some of the friction those games offered to less enthusiastic players. Elayne is little more resourceful and quicker than those classic heroes, and that extra empowerment should feel good to players while still preserving elements like the fixed jump arc and what not. I think the game's a little too boring right now though, so I definitely need a little bit more friction and reasons to encourage players to think and make mechanically interesting decisions. Currently, you can just walk right and whip for long stretches of time without much issue. 

Re: Positives

• Sub-Weapons: I was recently considering this sub-weapon drop feature, but worried it would make what is already an easy game even easier. With players having two slots, picking up the "wrong" sub-weapon is much less of an issue, and there's already not a lot of diverse sub-weapons to begin with. I'm still thinking about it, but I think it will largely depend on the game's overall balance and sub-weapon variety. 
• Falling off Stairs Immersion: Mostly a coincidence, haha. You just happened to fall into a teleport zone overlapping the stairs, so it won't always occur.
• Cross MP Gain: This is inspired by Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon's take on the weapon. I don't use it often, but it's a cool detail.
• Skeletons on Motorcycles: !!!

Re: Negatives

• Lack of Music: I have, unfortunately, not been able to dedicate enough time to learning music. It's difficult to accumulate those skills, many online resources aren't very ideal for learning, and it's difficult to find free music that fits the desired tone. Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest obstacles for me to overcome as a solo developer.
• Sub-Weapon Button: I had no plans to include this (Up + Attack) because I always found it to be an unwieldy limitation from the earlier games. I also suspect most prefer having a dedicated button. Perhaps there can one day be an optional toggle if I don't need the command for anything else, like whipping upwards.
• Invisible Floor: These pitfalls are actually communicated and reward observation, but I think I can still do a better job with them (hence why they are harmless in the demo). I feel they were one of the more cool elements of Simon's Quest, but that game never made them very interesting or fun.
• Waterfalls: There are actually two different routes in the level connected to the waterfalls, but this is largely just a gimmick to feature more diverse room designs and a way to experiment with a more open-ended level without going full-on Metroidvania. I wouldn't expect it to happen too frequently, but I am mindful of the potential problem in future level design. The basement route is pretty easy to breeze through though (it's also very pretty if you haven't seen it yet).

Re: Extra:

• Unlimited Lives: Whether I include something like this will likely depend on how difficult or engaging the overall experience is. Still, I'm going to save that for a time after the "engine" is finished, as that's definitely an easier decision to make once there's an actual game to consider.
• Non-linear: A more open world approach is being actively considered, but it will be further down the line. I'm sticking to the scope of a more linear game to keep the first project easier to work within. I don't know if I'd feature very many RPG mechanics though because that can lead to numbers and bloat and stuff.

I did initially plan to include one (that fourth screenshot), but I soon learned bosses are quite challenging to design since you can't just create behavior and drop them in a level - you actually have to create an entire puzzle and sequence of events around them within a specific space, so it was much harder to squeeze into the final month of development. 

Unfortunately, I don't think I can really afford to work on a game that isn't helping to pay my bills, so it actually might be a while before there is any meaningful update like a boss. Therefore, a boss might not be the next thing I focus on - as it might be more efficient to work on other features that are smaller in scope so that I can accomplish more within a specific period of time. I'll have to think about what's next on the agenda when time permits.

That's less likely. The protagonist, despite their rather revealing choice of apparel, does not have any active interest in sex. This is a generally consistent aspect across her various portrayals within my larger body of work. She is more likely to be the unwilling receiver of sexual activity (as is typically the case for game overs), or such scenes would instead focus on other characters in the setting (in which case, those other characters would more likely provide that specific fetish of becoming a futa and then engaging in sex with a guy).

The setting of Elayne Beaumont does feature sexual content in its general tone and lore, so it may one day include sex scenes. However, it is not a primary goal that I am focusing on right now, and if it does ever feature sex scenes, I don't know to what degree that will be -- it may not be at the same level you'd find in porn games, and thus may not be strictly treated as a goal or collectible as is often the case in those games. I'm still early in development, so I haven't properly decided on that aspect.

However, if sex scenes are eventually included - futa is very likely something I would feature.

The player's score is already being tracked internally with every kill and money bag acquired, so it is something I've planned. I'm not sure if it would be anything more than a method to simply gain more lives. But since the demo does not feature a lives system, I didn't feel a need to showcase the score for now. I have no plans to have an RPG level-up system along the lines of Simon's Quest or Adventure of Link - as EXP-based level means that balancing the game could be trickier and may encourage grinding (which I'm not a general fan of).

But I do plan to feature a wide variety of other kinds of features that are not currently expressed in the demo. My general inclination is towards features that can provide intrinsic value, like certain types of collectibles that expand the world or provide more diverse content and promote exploration -- but I don't want to get ahead of myself with how early in development I am. Just starting small for now.

The narrative approach is handled differently, but I did create another story in this setting a few months ago. Might be within your interests.

https://brellom.itch.io/beaumont-short-wet-woman

Ideally, yes. I would like it if there was more to read. I don't know exactly when that might be though.