Great job so far for your first game! I lost the will to play during the second stage... 😭
Some feedback on animations:
- 2 frames per animation is well done for the first time, slowly adding more, even up to 4 frames makes a huge difference, to make it feel less snappy
- crouching animation felt like it was a missing a walk, and the tiny rotations is a good workaround to compensate
Some feedback on movement:
- Climbing ladders is slow, it got tedious when I died and had to do it many times, this wasn't a problem with climbing ropes, which were actually pretty fun to use
- Somewhere along the way I realized there was a double jump, this wasn't mentioned anywhere in the description nor in-game that I saw, which would have made it alot easier
- Uncrouching a tight gap instantly kills you, and you can't fight while crouching, I don't know if this is supposed to add difficulty or is a unique mechanic, but it felt tedious, especially in the caves section
Some feedback on gameplay:
- I spent about 30 minutes on the first stage and found the key on accident by messing up my jump, following the arrows and coins helped lead to the exit but not the key. Upon reaching the exit without a key, I thought I had to kill the brown cave bugs, and that took a couple tries with no outcome, maybe have a hint or arrow that pointed in the direction of key when you reach the lock without a key or rename the objective to "find a key" instead of "explore your surroundings", it was especially weird exploring the dead end parts in the top right of the map, there was nothing there.
- For combat, the range felt a bit limited and delayed, I had to attack then wait a fraction of a second without pressing anything else for the hit to register, this was tricky to pull off when the enemy is walking towards you, especially the brown bugs, for that reason it felt easier to run past or even through them
- The exploration felt alot more like a maze, which was very apparent in the second stage in the caves, normally this fine but you have to go back to the start everytime you die and the enemies respawn as well, which are tricky to kill, especially when I am aimlessly wandering and don't have an end goal worth looking for to except for escape the cave, I gave up after getting the two keys and then dying after
I think the main thing to make the game more enjoyable is to improve the combat / enemies. Hope the feedback is helpful! If you want to keep improving, keep making games and I recommend joining a game jam with a group!