Looking back, I think I've misread your thoughts on shops. I think I understand what you were trying to say now.
I know that I haven't exactly answered your question, but I can't/don't want to go to any specifics.
Too early, and I don't know what works and what doesn't (technically), don't want to make promises I won't keep.
But to vaguely answer it, a combat system I made up on my own, trauma(wounds) system, etc, etc.
Basically, I'm "abandoning" this and making an entirely new game with the same concept of lore.
Well, I'm glad there was no need for "a grind". But many have told me that the current game has "too many enemies".
Mainly because the current game-loop is run-fight-trigger_cutscene, and the story/combat isn't good enough to make up for it.
I mainly updated this game, so I had an excuse to have it in this jam. To gain feedback. Now that I have gained said feedback, I'm satisfied and can move on to remaking the entire thing.
I don't regret not touching it for 4 years or releasing a semi-broken update now. Because I've gained necessary experience and feedback.
I suppose what would be best, is to finish the current update so it won't be left half-finished and fix the major issues found with it.
Then I want to move to a new project, I'm burned out with this one. lol?
Well, thank you again for the feedback. It's been thought-provoking and quite useful because of it.
Delayed reply, but no excuses.
Firstly, I want to thank you for hosting the gamejam, and for playing/reviewing my game.
If you have a VOD, as I missed the stream... It will be very appreciated if you can link it to a reply.
I'm going to answer your question(s)/provide context.
Yes, I do plan to remake the game, it never reached what I envisioned for it. The problem was my skill-set and experience with the engine.
But it's already been 4 years, and that's more than long enough to improve on all fronts.
And yes, lol. The difference between "playing a game" and "reviewing a game" is one you play to have fun, the latter you play to find problems.
0. I'm glad you did enjoy the game to a degree, and thank you for the offer. If I ever do need it, I will remember to reach out.
0/2. So, when originally making the game, I did not know what a "generic RPG Maker" was. Everything was "new" and "it's own style" when making it. Until I really got into the culture and can now agree that my game is indeed as generic as it can be (without the story).
0/3. I have everything (mostly) figured out, this update isn't good enough to show my "full power". Fixing a 4-year-old game was way harder than I thought, lol? Can't really know what will break if I touch something, the problem with working on an already "solidified" game.
1. I've never really hard-tested the basic-attack, so I don't have much to say. But it's probably connected to the plugins I'm using, which use Agility for turn-order, and if I remember right. Attack is usually treated as a "fast attack" in vanilla RPG Maker thus giving it a boost of some sort. This problem would lie with unbalanced Agility, something never properly balanced in this game.
2. I do agree with you with the audio-direction. Basic audio-design, lol? I've tried adding proximity to the fire sounds which really fixed that and made the game sound 100x better, but that destroyed the game in framerate, so I decided on the little time I had to just revert back and keep both sounds as they were.
3. "Chests should always be upgrades" is something I've heard quite a bit throughout the feedback period of this game. There are two reasons why the original didn't do it: I didn't want to make the player OP, and I didn't want to make 100 unique items.
The reason why the update did not fix this was: I did not have time, 2 months was surprisingly not enough to finish the update. And I switched the characters starting items to things that "fit them better" but did not rebalance the chests. So, I kind of made things worse in that regard.
3/2. I can't agree with the shop more than I already do, lol. But I slightly disagree, it would be good to keep a small range of "tiers" in case the player wanted to grind or not before the shop.
But I agree that the first shop, has way too much in stock. But the problem is, there's only like 3 shops? In the current game.
4. Random battles are used so when you "touch" an enemy, it uses that to randomly pick a "troop" for you to fight. Problem is, I found no way to disable this. So, I just made it "very rare" for it to happen, by maxing out the maximum steps needed to trigger one (7000 steps), but Vanilla system does it as 1-7000 steps can trigger one, so the maximum was a band-aid on a bullet-wound.
4 years later though, I have a fix. But had too little time to implement it for the update.
But I do agree with you with how it should have been designed.
5. The maze is an abomination. I wanted to rebuild it, but time constraints... The "arrows" was added because people I know got stuck in the maze... A stupid fix, really.
Why did the maze exist in the first place? The original game, I gave myself a strict deadline. And I "had to" follow it. Even if that meant having this abomination exist.
6. I was sure I gave every weapon a description, but maybe when I got into "grinding mode" I skipped over some without thinking.
I both agree and disagree with you. I believe there should be at least 3-tiers available for purchase (all being an upgrade of some sort), so players who did want to hoard gold before the first shop, would have a little more options.
6/2. The story is what is called "lightning-fast" at its current state. The good? It's not dragged out at all (except a few scenes I can think off...) while the bad, no character development, nothing...
The Queen has then come off as the way I wanted then, so I'm glad I did something right.
"Need to be intimidating, and authoritve as a political leader." is what I imagined her to think.
---
So, I do want to know if a VOD is available, if not. I would like to know where you stopped, I want to know what reaction my "plot twist" gave people, if they get that far.
Thank you again for the review, I hope my reply was informative and helped provide context and/or answer questions.
My wishes for a good day to you.
Firstly, I want to thank you for playing the game and writing a review!
Now...
I don't recommend 1.1.X, but what could you do when newer versions didn't work?
1.1 is the most stable as it is the "original game" and was before I started changing things.
Reformatting the text-box style is something I want to do, so making so it would have name-boxes would be doable and a nice touch.
People before have said the very start of the game was a strong-point until actual gameplay slowly pulled it down. I do agree that the current story-format moves too quickly for characters to "live a life".
I'm leaning closer to just starting from scratch since I have wanted to remake the game for a long time and working on an already "solidified" game is just causing more issues than I am fixing.
Thank you again for the review.
Firstly, I want to thank you for playing the game and taking the time to write the long review.
The review has not come across as a roast, even though it is on the negative side it is still valuable and only stated facts that I agree on.
The current update 1.3.X was worked on for approximately 2 months on a 4-year-old game, the longer I try on this game the more I realize it would be much easier to start from scratch then work on something already "solidified".
Now to answer your questions/provide context:
1. I do agree that the intro has lost an opportunity, I do know how to draw but time was the issue. Also, in regard to my art-style it would be best to redraw all the assets, since the game currently is using default/free-assets.
2. Yes, there are many ways. But I never touched on them yet. People change a lot in 4 years, so unlike when I first made this game. I know how the engine works, and how to get what I want. The second half of what you said is very valuable, coming from someone who never experienced the world/story before, the game does move very quickly which ends up leaving for no room for the characters themselves. This can only be fixed by rewriting everything, which I will come back to later.
3. That is a problem, in the original the enemies' hits do so little that phrase would be valid. But in the current, everything was rebalanced and that text-box was unchanged. Having it give off the wrong impression is something that needs to be fixed. The first battle can be lost but it doesn't give a game-over. The tutorial in itself is not very good in its current state.
4. The keyboard part of the game, was mainly because I always played these games with keyboard. And at the time I did not know the engine had default gamepad support, there is nothing in the game that prevents the gamepad from being used but the tutorial was never adjusted. There is nothing in the game yet to cause key-rebinding to break anything, so that would be something to consider adding.
5. Pretty much all the soldiers have the "triple-attack", so it was "pure luck" that the intro one has been using it but the others rarely? So, far there is nothing in the intro battle to keep Eliza from dying off immediately. I'll look into it.
6. The only reason the skill has a chance, was to keep the items useful. I had other priorities to worry about than reworking the cure-skill, but it is a useless-skill since no player I know of has ever used it.
7. Yes, that was mentioned before. For whatever reason, only Taunt is insta-cast. It would be because of the characters AGI that heal seemed to be insta-cast, which that is something that isn't yet rebalanced properly in the current game.
8. Magic doesn't do fixed damage; the descriptions just haven't been reworded to make it clear. Which is a problem on my side. It's just the base damage, and Magic-Attack is added to the formula.
9. Leveling is something I couldn't rebalance safely. To change how quickly players level up, would break the fragile balance of the entire game. So, it is something I didn't want to touch when I had so little time. But I do agree that it is just too overpowered, and happens too often.
10. I do find the fire-damage interesting, throughout the development of the game. Ryoma always ended up as the one who tanks damage, but outputs the most. This is a problem with class/character balancing.
11. Enemy detection is very much broken. I do have a better method, but I haven't been able to implement it yet.
12. That text-box was added due to poor level-design. In the old game testers had trouble finding the passage, and that was "the fix". And this was a big issue that remained. Having something to stop movement of enemies during text was mentioned before, but also. Something beyond my skill-set of the time and was not implemented.
13. Eliza's solo battle is a favorite with others as well, I'm glad it was enjoyable. But the issue that Ryoma isn't there to carry the team, kept the battle from being the best it could be. An issue with enemy/class balancing.
14. Blacking out the screen was indeed used too often. If I were to have made the game much more recently, cutscenes would have been much more fleshed out. But sadly, with the time constraint of this jam, I didn't want to use too much time with cutscenes that "aren't broken."
15. So far, the games level design is: Run, fight, trigger-cutscene: Which is not at all fun, if the story or combat isn't good enough to make up. I've tried to rebuild the worst of the interactions, but there are just too many to fix in 2 months.
edit: Yes, I just realized the mistake with the shields.
I hope my reply was informative/useful?
Thank you again for playing the game and writing out the review. It was thought-provoking and very informative.
I'm leaning much closer to just starting from scratch, I've been wanting to remake the game anyway, and the changes I want to do will be too big for a simple update.
First off, let me explain my rating system:
1 star = Bad enough it can't be saved
2 stars = Really bad, but interesting/good concept
3 stars = Was good but problems/bugs are in the way to make it fun/better
4 stars = Really good, but I still found things that can be improved/fixed
5 stars = I found no fault with it
I collected 60 pages, obtained the block-form, and opened 2 locked doors, with around 1 hour of gameplay.
Overall Fun - 4/5
Very simple gameplay, and the precision-platforming mechanics are quite fun (and frustrating).
The shapeshifting was really cool, especially when needed to be used to get past a "watchtower/spotlight" not trying to spoil too much.
Collecting pages, finding keys, and opening doors was interestingly fun.
The game was easy to pick up, but with the lack of tutorial or explanation the game was difficult to start.
I found the "Fools-Trap" really funny. Thank you for that.
Art & Graphics - 3/5
I understand the art style but...
I found it difficult at first to know, what is a passable wall? What is a spike? But this took time to get used to.
But the usage of only two colors, and low resolution shows how well you know your pixels.
Controls & UI - 3/5
I had no way to know the controls, I first thought this was a controller only, until suddenly a key started the game.
I had to spam my keyboard to find out what key did what.
I found it understandable but also slightly painful due to gamer-habits where I couldn't jump when holding a key and pressing space-bar. I could only do one. And this caused many unintentional deaths.
I found the block-form controls slightly confusing when I press space+W to jump "up" but nothing happens, and when I let go of said keys, I deform and die. This is also connected to gamer-habits.
Sound & Music - 3/5
All audio was quite well-done, and I only had one issue.
The high-pitched 8-bit noise hurts my ears, and the nature of the sounds made it feel like I was going to get a headache from it.
Other than that, there was no issue.
Closing thoughts -
This was a nice game, and I hope I would be able to download it for offline play.
I see this game as a casual-precision-platformer.
It wouldn't be something I would actively play, but it would be something I want to revisit and play casually.
I do hope this review was helpful in some way and I wish you good luck on the game and that you have a wonderful day.
First off, let me explain my rating system:
1 star = Bad enough it can't be saved
2 stars = Really bad, but interesting/good concept
3 stars = Was good but problems/bugs are in the way to make it fun/better
4 stars = Really good, but I still found things that can be improved/fixed
5 stars = I found no fault with it
I have only gotten as far as when the games map looped back to "the hub", thinking this was a good stopping point which took me about an hour and 14 minutes.
Overall fun - 3/5
Like any RPG, the beginning and such can become tedious with tutorials and "learning battles" but are necessary.
The introduction was quite long, but established everything needed to be known, letting me remember what character is what, except the girlfriend is who obviously had to be more mysterious. I was able to understand each character's personality this way by their speech and animations.
I was disappointed that in the bedrooms, I can't interact with anything.
The Battle Ranks is a really nice touch for perfectionists, but I don't fully understand how it ranks my battles except by assumption from previously played games with a similar mechanic.
I was confused that I could walk on a chair, but not small-trash. This also made it more difficult to decide what path I can actually take in the future.
Major complaint was, I did not remember if at all. I was explained that I could attack my own people. I used the arrow keys to switch to the "next enemy" but instead it went to my party and I already pressed Enter before I could cancel. Causing me to make a "stupid mistake" I never thought possible.
Having a system so I can change battle difficulty for only that battle when retrying, would be really nice. Also having something to let me know how much of a change -20% would do without needing to do a battle and feel the difference.
Art & Graphics - 4/5
Everything about the art is amazing, and I really liked the CG.
I think it might look better if the enemy-fog was animated even if only slightly.
Or that the floating objects would also be animated and not static.
In the battlefield, the enemy-fog made it difficult to see if a rock is under it or not.
Doors are missing an open-door animation, and that really bothered me each time. lol
The electric-guitar looked like it was floating until I actually focused on it and saw it had a barely visible stand.
I recommend having the TV have a bit of space from the floor, so it doesn't look like the screen is directly against the ground.
Having the console/controllers have wires would be a good touch, the time period the game seems to be inspired from didn't have wireless consoles/controllers from my knowledge.
The memory-living-room animated background was hurting my eyes due to the pattern, it wasn't because it was "bad" but more that it kept giving me an "illusion" effect that made me feel slightly blind.
Controls & UI - 4/5
Controls were very simple and I had no trouble with it.
I would like something on the equip-screen to immediately tell me if a Cards EP usage is too high for a character.
The games Font made it difficult to read some words like "Winklemo" which I could easily see and read here, but not in-game.
Sound & Music - 4/5
I understand the sound-effect direction you are going for but...
The high-pitched sounds hurt my ears, and because the intro was so long I had to have the entire game quiet before I could finally adjust the audio-settings.
The Game-Over screen had no audio(BGM), and this was disappointing.
Other than that, Audio was pretty good and satisfying.
Music was not intense, and did it's job. Setting the proper atmosphere.
Closing thoughts -
Overall this was an interesting game, reminds me of similar games of the past but doesn't share enough similarities to be "a copy".
It would not be something I would actively play but would be something I would want to revisit.
I do hope this review was helpful in some way and I wish you good luck on the game and that you have a wonderful day.
V 1.3.1
1 - Removed unnecessary BGM commands, patching audio bugs.
2 - Rebalanced the economy.
3 - Fixed unoptimized events, and removed ones that are not being used.
4 - Fixed typos, grammical issues, reworded sentences, and reformated some
text boxes.
5 - Overhauled the Rat enemy.
6 - Updated credits.
7 - Fixed the gameover screen.
8 - Rebalanced when specific skills are given to characters.
9 - Added new early-game-low-level-crowd-control-skill.
10 - Removed some player skills.
11 - Saria now starts with a Tech skill.
12 - Edited Terence's class.
13 - Guard is now more effective
14 - Rebalanced all enemies.
15 - When stunned, the victim will gain 60% stun resistance for 2 turns.
16 - Updated used plugins.
17 - Added Q-audio plugin for "3D audio".
18 - Added new music.
19 - Randomized the sword clanking in the intro and final battle.
20 - Fixed a loading error at the ending scene.
21 - Ryoma no longer gains Heal skills besides First Aid.
22 - Permanently Fixed possible bugs present/fixed in old versions.
23 - Updated the boot-up screen, and made it slightly faster.
24 - Updated the nw.js.
25 - Rebalanced the weapons and armor.
26 - Descriptions added to all items!
27 - Fixed a graphical bug in the first cave.
28 - Updated the games pixi.js.
29 - Changed what the preloader preloads.
30 - Capped the game to 60fps.
31 - Frazzled is more effective, degenerates MP and TP by 8%. Victim has 10% more chance of being Paralyzed and Unbalanced while Frazzled. Decreases Agility by 2%.
32 - Resorted skills.
33 - Reformated all skill descriptions.
34 - Readjusted characters starting items.
35 - Readjusted the Swift Dagger.
36 - Fixed the gameover screen.
37 - Added Yanfly's equip_core plugin.
38 - Made enemy attack sounds more accurate.
39 - Rebalanced all classes.
40 - Changed the kingdom-soldier-enemy graphic.
41 - added quit confirmation.
42 - added equipupgrade plugin.
43 - Recatogorized some skills.
44 - Added smoothscroll to the camera.
45 - Overhauled visual transitions.
46 - Overhauled audio transitions.
47 - Added simple map interactions.
48 - Edited some maps.
49 - Rebalanced skills.
50 - Adjusted menu/text box color-tint to better fit the games overall style.
51 - Changed how the pathfinding in the final battle works.
52 - And probably things I forgot to list.
This is a very late review, but it is something I have to do regardless.
Here is my written review of the game, if you want to see the video review it would be at the end:
I want to say that this very much felt like playing a prototype, but it is an Alpha game so it is very understandable.
Many of the things I list may have been fixed by now, but I will put my experience with the game from when I originally played it.
The settings seemed to act strange, they applied to a degree, but it looked like it sometimes would not work, and most importantly it hasn't affected framerate at all.
In "past" settings was named "setings" so a typo in there, and the "quit to desktop" quit to the main menu so I count it as a broken button.
The biggest issue with the game is the framerate but polishing and optimizing and the such are for beta.
It was fun to kill off the hordes of zombies in future, and the animation looked really nice, but the zombies would be good to have variety in animation.
The unequip knife was broken.
There was an occasional visual bug where the future MC's skin comes through the clothing, around the shoulder area.
I would have liked if honking the horn attracted the nearby zombies.
Driving the car was smooth, understandable, and quite fun. My only issue was the weird "car jump"? Just because I didn't understand what it was and what I'd use it for.
There has been some weird physics when bullets or even when MC touches the car corners, ragdoll breaks for player when dies and breaks for zombies when the Car's minigun fires at them also giving them zero gravity.
I really liked the SWAT as they changed up some things, so it wasn't only zombies. And I really liked that they fought the zombies as well.
Past was very confusing, but I understand that you are going for multiple genres and themes in one game.
Past was way too dark, but maybe it was my monitor? And the AI would "swing" but stop midway and attacking them made them freeze up. So Past was confusing and not playable to a degree.
I find the lore of the game intriguing, but I worry about the multiple genres.
Thank you for reading through, and I wish you a good day. Hopefully this review has been useful to you in some way.
Here is my video review: An entity tries to trap us, so we travel through time - Awaken the Time demo - YouTube
If there is a better way to report bugs, please let me know.
I have been playing the new demo for Backpack Hero when it updated, and I encountered a "major" bug.
So, what happened was I woke up one of the enemies that chase after you, and they eventually caught up, but it was on a tile that had another enemy group.
The battle started with one of the groups (I suspect the chasers, because when I fought the chasers again it was the same enemy's), so I won the battle, and I had an item that allowed me to duplicate a common, so I clicked a common to duplicate but the game suddenly started the next battle with the second group on the same tile.
And that is where the bug happened, I was stuck, the game was frozen as in none of the buttons worked the animations and audio kept playing but everything else was broken.
I assumed it happened because the game had a conflict of whether to give me items first or start the next battle first and thus caused everything to freeze.
Anyway, thank you for reading and I wish you luck and congrats on full release. It is an amazing and addictive game, and this has been the first bug I encountered since the first demo released on Steam.
One game properly reviewed.
Aeons Present.
Written review only for now, as the video would probably be late.
Written Review: Rate Aeons Present by FrostwaterMedia for Feedback Quest 5: indiegames X indie streamers - itch.io
Before I start with my written review, I want to explain how I rate games when it comes to 1-5 stars:
1 - It's so bad, I can't see any way to save it.
2 - It's not done well, but with work and time it can become something good.
3 - It was good, but bugs or other minor problems kept it from being better.
4 - It was really good, but there is room for improvement.
5 - Done so well, that I can't find any flaw.
With that done, let me get to the review:
Overall Fun - 3/5
So, the world has gotten my interest since it seems to be a Zombie Apocalypse in a "generic" fantasy world. My question would be, are all the zombie's human? Or is it all races? Regardless, it was an awesome concept that I wanted to see for a while. The rivalry between Human and Orc is a classic, but it's the details of the lore that would make this unique. And from what I understand, there is a "Tower" where Humans (Paladins) control and they are a power that has what seems to be some dark corruption and taking advantage of the crisis, they attack their "enemies" to weaken them. The Orc's at first believe they came to help which I found really interesting, but quickly learned that is a false hope.
Gameplay wise, the maps were not simple boxes, I did not find it a bother traversing them even when enemies got in my way. I really liked that enemies only moved if you moved, so you could sit still and have time to think without 50 enemies ganging up on you immediately.
The combat, was basic RPG combat which is completely fine for this genre. But I wished each character had more unique skills, focused more on the Chief and Fighter. I was pleased to see that Guarding actually did something, it not only decreased incoming damage for the turn but also changed their turn order since a lot of RPG's I've played the Guard was utterly useless and only used to kill off my party members. I also really liked that the MP on the "Fighter" class was actually needed, which also in many RPG's the MP in such a class was a useless number.
Also, a random thought but may be difficult in RPG Maker. Is a system if several enemies "attack" you, they all join the battle at once, and not do one battle at a time, this would be really cool and add more to the games uniqueness in the RPG Maker industry.
Art/Graphics - 4/5
I assume that you are going for a Retro 2.5D, so far, you've done a good job in doing so including doing some simple effects with the camera positioning. The trees were the strangest thing for me, since they were perfectly aligned with eachother but as a "Retro look" it is perfect, but for a "natural look" it is far from good. The Grass and rocks looked completely fine, and they did not catch my attention which was a good sign since they are not the focus of the map. I have tried playing on Highest graphical settings and Lowest graphical settings. The lowest render-distance that does not make it unplayable I found seems to be 25, anything lower makes it impossible to know where you are going upward, 100 Render Distance seems useless right now, but I did not test to see what was the "best highest render distance". Shadows/Lighting though looked great on all settings and having the game look "good" on all graphical settings is a really good sign and is not easy to accomplish.
Graphics in Combat: The animations were really good, even when speed-up! I only tried "Faster" and not the "Fastest", I was worried that it would cut out frames in the animation, but it did not look choppy and instead looked "smoother"? My only animation complaint would be the "Orc Stab" does not have a visual of them stabbing, instead they are slashing. The background had no problems for me.
The main menu, the leaves looked off put together with the pixelated background. But if you are looking to make the leaves pop up from the background, then maybe try making the pixel effect subtle, possibly even only on the edges.
Controls/UI - 4/5
The controls are generic, basic RPG Maker controls which is not a problem at all and was actually a good thing since you had no special features or gameplay changes.
The UI was unique enough to not look generic RPG Maker, I just kind of wished the enemies "Turn Order Image" was also a face and not a sprite but keeping it the way, it is and only having Bosses or special enemies have a face would have an interesting effect, whichever is easiest and best for you and the game.
A lot of the Objective UI's had a lot of dead/empty space, I don't know if it was intentional but maybe repositioning them and removing most of the dead space would make it look cleaner.
Sounds/Music - 4/5
No sound was out of place, or too loud, and no music track was abrupt without intention, all of this was really good.
The BGS did not kill my ears, and the looping music did not get too "loopy" for me. Even after 40 minutes of gameplay.
Most of the sounds seemed to be built in MZ sounds, which is completely fine as they are good sounds. And they were used well in this game.
Final Thoughts:
The "My Horse!" quest was funny, but I believe it was a placeholder with no meaning, except that a Quest system is planned?
The Demo ended in a good place, can't really think of a better way to end it.
It has a cool concept, and I would like to see where it would go from here on out.
This review was written understanding this game is in development and that the Game's focus was on Mechanics testing.
Once my video is uploaded, I will add it here:
So that is all, I can think of. I wish you a good day and thank you for reading! I hope this has been useful to you and was the feedback that you were looking for.
Hello, this is my really late review:
I want to first list that I misunderstood one of the screenshots making me sure that there would be a walking mechanic. But I was off the mark. And sadly, I have only realized my mistake after the event was over. So, apologies in advance.
So, the overviews did feel a bit long/drawn out. Cecil's accusation helped shake it up, and the doctor's comments as well. The gameplay is like any VN, I have the impression that this would be more reading a novel, and less playing an interactive story. Which is completely fine, as I enjoy both.
The art and image animations were done really well, the bows, slaps, etc. Added way more to the text with visual movements without using "animations".
The backgrounds would look "weird"? at times, but it did have a big contrast with the characters, pushing what needs to be seen forward and the background to the back without the need of "depth of field" effects. Which made this game look unique from other VN backgrounds I seen.
The sounds were panned well and did not sound cheap in any way. Never once did my ears get tired of the ambience or sound effects while playing the game. The music fit the situations they were used for; the transitions were smooth and only sudden when it needed to be. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but I recognize many of the tracks so I could tell that the tracks end was playing, and it always was when I ended a "segment". And since it was not noticeable until I was editing the video, it means it was done well.
The game is something that I would need to take breaks from often, but that is how every novel is to me. lol
So overall, the game was fun to read. But I did get tired when I tried getting to a good "stopping point", I never had any bugs (that I could remember), the game feels like it's era, and that is pretty much all I can think of.
Thank you for the Demo, and I will be back for more.
My VOD, if you wish to see it as well:
Originally reviewed this at 5/23/2023, but today 5/30/2023 was when I finally got it uploaded. I have 10 other videos waiting to be edited, but I won't get them in time. lol
VOD Dross demo: We have to go deeper to escape a Hostile Planet - Dross Demo-Gameplay - FeedbackQuest4 - YouTube
Hello, before I get into the detailed review here's my video on the game if you want to see my VOD:
We have to go deeper to escape a Hostile Planet - Dross Demo-Gameplay - FeedbackQuest4 - YouTube
Now I want to point out that I made this video before your update, so it's slightly outdated. And I had the mindset of "testing" a game instead of "enjoying it" if you know what I mean. lol
I understand that the game is in Alpha, so of, course it won't be a complete game just yet.
During the video, I found a few exploits & bugs with collisions & physics, I was able to get behind things or use the environment to fly up to somewhere I wasn't supposed to be.
The block/parry, I kept mistaking it for some melee attack at first. It just sounds & looks like an attack & not some block.
The reason I accidently threw so many grenades at first, was because gamer habits had me think "right click" = aim-down-sights & not throw grenades. But how the game was designed, something like ads would only destroy the game. So, I'm pleased that ads were not a thing for such a game.
I found the incendiary grenade really cool, a was expecting a generic "Molotov" but instead it was something for driving away the Xenos from that location & kill the ones that didn't move away. I was just confused at why I had every grenade waiting to be picked up before level 1, except the stun grenade. Thinking now, I'm not even sure if they were any grenades, lol. But that might just be my poor perception.
During my video, I did not use the best of tactics meant for the game. I forgot all about the map, & I was not being quiet at all. This is all on me, but something about the game didn't really feel like I was going quiet. Possibly because of the music.
Most of the sounds, did not sound "good". But since this is in Alpha, I let it slide. But I want to mention about the importance of variety in sounds, even if you are playing the exact same audio, changing it each time it plays by a very small amount like the pan, speed, pitch, etc. It makes it less likely to make ears tired because there is variety. The blocking, stun grenade, & healing sounds were the most noticeable sounds that hurt my ears. The healing sound sounded like it was playing several "healing sound" on top of each other & thus it sounded horrible.
The PS4 controls were not easy for me, but that is because I'm a Keyboard-Mouse shooter. But the reason why I used the PS4 controller at first was because the PC controls felt weird at first? There was nothing really wrong with it, it was just my mouse sensitivity was all over the place & it was difficult to get it to work (restarting the game fixed this completely though). But as I mentioned in the video, my mouse wheel is broken so I was unable to switch grenades the way I was supposed to. I recommend in the future to add key-bindings but that is not necessary in the games current stage. I would say that with the controls, everything was natural, if I thought a key did something it did so in game. Same with the PS4 controls, it did everything as expected. So, there was very little need for me to "learn the controls" so I'll complement on that achievement.
The core mechanics of the game are fun, but I can't fully enjoy it in this current stage, but I see the potential. So, you succeeded in putting this in my watchlist.
So, there was a lack of animations, but that is fine in the alpha stage. The game lacks polish but that is to be expected in this stage. So overall the game was fun enough for me to want to play the full game, but not good enough for me to fully enjoy it just yet.
So, thank you for reading my review I hope it was useful to you in some way.
Uploaded a video on Dross, just today. Due to life, the other few videos will have to wait for after the jam. lol
(1) We have to go deeper to escape a Hostile Planet - Dross Demo-Gameplay - FeedbackQuest4 - YouTube
Alrighty, I have some time to try out a few games here. I'm not a streamer, but I make videos around 5-40 minutes long.
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Cootadude
This would be for future reference:
But for "Video Makers", would everything work the same way as with a "streamer"?
I'm referring to videos about 10-40 minutes long, and not something like shorts.
I do understand that despite my "position" I'm free to try the games here & leave feedback for the devs & potential players.
Short & Sweet.
I haven't encountered any bugs during my playthrough, the game was pretty easy to beat & took 2-3 minutes. The Effects & Graphics we're really nice but I did get slightly confused of what was a wall & what was floor at the center of Map 1.
I really liked the 'timeloop' at the end of the game where the credits keep going endlessly, that was unexpected.
I'd like to see more added to this later.
