Also maybe a weird question but did you find my game from playground.ru and if you did what is it lol. Did someone post my game on there? kinda cool. like a ru kongregate or itch?
wow thank you so much for the detailed feedback, it cant be overstated how valuable this is both for development direction and personal motivation.
The "use" button
E should be using the altar as well but it is using a separate raycast that is probably the source of the issue here. The the logic is am i within range of an intractable -> fire a ray to determine what intractable the player is looking at.
This is basically a legacy system because enemys used to drop guns and ammo that had to be picked up but that slowed gameplay down too much. So this should be an easy fix
Speed kills
I love this idea. I will implement this with the current death effects but I would really like to learn how to make gibs to accompany this. Explosives would really benefit from gibs as well i think. maybe I will do fake gibs for now.
Keybind settings
lacking this feature is pure procrastination on my part and I apologize for that. this is now a much higher priority. I loath GUI design, both system design, and artistically.
Restart button
similar to the use button issue this was puzzling to read since this is one of those "it works on my machine" type of things but ANY mouse button should advance this screen. I should have made this more clear and/or maybe there is a bug idk but would it be better if this was a button on the GUI?
Progression
I have plans to make the map expand each time you kill a boss and I have often thought about how I would incorporate corridors into the level design.
most of my ideas come down to making the player do a short linear "level" of some kind for some reason. like replacing the altar and blood cost with just finishing levels for a more traditional fps style. Or I could make mana altars that would let the player do a short level in the middle of the normal game mode for some kind of reward.
But for more open level design and progression do you think separate maps is better than map expansion or is it ideal to have both?
And i hadn't heard of soulstone survivors but I'll check out that mechanic your talking about. Vampire survivors progression is obviously a big influence on this game already so a bigger well to draw from is always appreciated.
Zapper
I need to rework this weapon to be a lot more like a flamethrower, but hitscan. I want to do some kind of volumetric fire simulation for a flamer at some point but that will be a lot of hours I think.
basically this weapon will not fire at all if the initial raycast doesn't hit because it requires at least 1 target to function, and instead of getting into the specifics of the logic ill just say I'm still learning lol.
This will be a higher priority change as well now.
Honestly a lot of things in this game that are bad I have just gotten used to from all the playtesting its easy to forget how much of an issue they really are
Explosives
All explosives have a timer and several variables that can either cause or prevent them from exploding.
for example they have a minimum number of bounces and a minimum distance from the player before making contact causes them to explode. BUT grenades always explode when the player is looking at there feet as an assist. This is a crutch to solve another bit of bad programming that should've been more similar to how rocket jumping works in quake but I rushed it a bit
This needs to be more consistent and/or explained better but it would probably feel more intuitive if I adjusted some of these variables and fixed the way force is applied to the player
Thank you again and hopefully I didn't forget anything.
level up 5 times -> kill a random boss -> repeat 3 times -> end of game.
My idea of the complete game.
level up 5 times -> kill a semi randomized boss -> unlock a weapon specific to that boss. rinse and repeat until you kill 7 bosses with an 8th "final" boss.
If anybody is playing this game please speak up and let me know what you might want to be in it.
Game development has had to take a back seat in my life for a while. coming back to see this has really motivated me. TY!
I'm going to be working on the UI, probably removing the AI-generated character images, and cleaning things up. I'm also going to add a third-person mode because of deadlock. Lastly (for now), I hope to have three playable bosses in the near future.
thanks for playing. and here's to hoping I get to finish this thing some day :)
as far as the save thing goes I am programed by from soft but I think it's nice to not be put in a position where you have to do a major enemy or a tutorial twice. I don't think you need to save any other data at that point but the significant unlocks. (I believe metroid works this way as well).
The spell crack sounds like it will help a lot. Unless there is somehow a way to make it not a hold and do a combo thing but instead just hold and cast or just do a combo (if that is articulated in a way that makes any sense) but I assume that would go against your vision for the spell mechanic.
Everything feels good and right (besides the look sensitivity but you will have a setting for that eventually I'm sure). The jump is really really good, could be a bit more subtle but it's not intrusive and it has a nice feel.
The only complaint I have with the movement is it felt a bit slow to walk around. But this may be a symptom of the walking distances more than a symptom of the controller speed.
Looking forward to seeing more level design/puzzles.
Im not sure what level of completion you are considering everything to be at so I will approach it from a very late beta perspective since it seems pretty polished.
Great pacing and level design, I could have used a bit more level art just for navigation (assuming it's gonna be metroid level design with backtracking). Overall it felt good to navigate and move around in.
The character controller felt great. Sword combat was intuitive and fun but lacked a bit of meat (I felt you could be more generous with the screen effects like having more things trigger a shake or flash in general).
Magic... I felt like the magic gave the illusion of choice ie. fire was a requirement for defeating major enemies (I think weaknesses are good but I'd like to have more choice). The spells felt good and right outside of the boss fight but it just felt like I was having to re-apply the fire spell more than I was able to use it (Skill Issue :>) ). overall juice/feel on the magic seemed right but mechanically I didn't feel it fit with the souls-like systems and fast-paced boss mechanics.
On the topic of game feel/juice felt it was very well done, the dash and heavy attack feel great to use. The mana gain from orbs felt like it could use a bit more feedback (maybe lerp the bar size up or something) and melee hits felt like they could use a bit more of an impact feel.
Bugs/Quirks:
- Can't drop down through those platforms until you finish with the little float down thing.
- Heal particle effect gets stuck on
- Major enemies and unlocking the dash don't save unless you sit at a bonfire (probably not a bug but it felt wrong)
- You sometimes need to leave the bonfire trigger and re-enter it to save
Overall good job, I'm looking forward to future updates.
Cute art/theme. And maybe I'm missing something but it seems like the gameplay loop is just completing the same note over and over again? Im not sure I get the concept but its well made and nice to look at :)
I really liked the visuals and sound design. It was a bit lackluster mechanically but with a bit more time I'm sure that could ahve been addressed. The damage juice was really good as well.
nice aesthetic and atmosphere but I found the downsampling was making a lot of the text hard to read. Polished point and click aesthetically and mechanically (except for the pathfinding or lack thereof)
TY for playing. I agree it's pretty repetitive, I'd definitely like to add more enemy variety, weapons powerups, etc. (especially a dash since its been mentioned twice now). I would definitely wanna address the map/level too, idk if I should do random/semi-procedural stuff or make a few different arenas to select from if you have any suggestions id appreciate it!
lots of fun. right up my alley mechanically. juice and fun are both an easy 5/5, gibbing furniture was surprisingly satisfying. My only real complaint is I hated the motion blur.
it Would've been cool to have some more weapons but the shotgun didn't get old by any means.
I liked the level design and pace of the game. Great job! Would love to see it get some more polish/time.
Great game! I Iove the art, the sprites low bit sprites and smooth animations are very nice, I particularly like the fire on the altars and the movement of the player character.
I was yearning for a machine gun which perhaps I would eventually find. The grenades were juice heaven, I had a lot of fun using them but the shotgun felt fairly inconsequential in comparison.
Overall polished, and well executed. Looking forward to playing more and perhaps seeing future iterations
I definitely could have made the upgrade system more obvious, it was a deliberate choice to have it be something you discover but I'm not sure it was the right choice.
I'm so glad you like the graphics I was worried it wouldn't look cohesive.
the main movement mechanics are rocket jumping (which ofc requires you to unlock explosives) and bunny hopping which is a bit niche. A dash or something additional is a great idea and if I were to iterate this game further id definitely add powerups or a skill tree to include it.
Thanks again for playing, and thanks for the review!
great art for the character, reminds me of a behomoth game (ie. castle crasher, alien hominid, etc.). In terms of game feel i felt like the character didn't feel particularly good to move around with, however, the shooting and animations are very nice.
interesting concept. Mechanically I felt like I was going to have a choice and maybe have to manage the lives I lose across levels but it was just a matter of guessing who the game wanted me to kill. the game is polished and well made. hard to convert the trolley problem into a game though so I think it's well executed overall.
5/5 Really good game. very impressive that you did all this in the time frame. Animations and tweening on everything were stellar. The game was pretty good at keeping my attention.
5/5 great game, played it the longest out of anything so far, great job. ofc very inspired by paper mario but it was very well executed especially considering the timespan of the jam. Also IDK if it is an issue on my end somehow but the game had no sound for me.
I found it very difficult to survive for more than a minute or two if that. the art and animations/movement of the player fish are nice but I didn't get to experience much of this game due to the difficulty.
Fun little game well made, nothing bad I can really say about it. not particularly juicy but as far as the game feel goes it accomplished feeling like a game boy game and was cute to look at/interact with
the melee weapon felt nice and juicy, I was a bit disappointed by the pistol. I thought the enemies were well done but more variety or maybe less bullet spam (subjective ofcourse) would have made it a better experience for me. the art is very cute.
I liked the art. I found the gameplay to be frustrating. I think the biggest problem was the constant interruptions from the tutorial combined with the slow text scroll speed. Micromanagement games are definitely not my jam but rhythm games typically are so maybe I'm just disappointed I didn't get to be very rhythmic. the presentation and game feel are both very well done.
Really fun, my favorite game so far. I gotta say I felt kinda baited by the art style in the thumbnail not really being the main art style of the game, but the game being fun made up for it. Super cool core concept, it took me a bit to figure out (not entirely sure I get how the weapon selection works in relation to the organ you sacrifice) but once I got it it was a lot of fun. would be very cool to see the game with that art style everywhere but I can see why you didn't do that in a game jam.
Well made! I thought the play area boundary was unclear and I got stuck on the outer wall area behind the devil. But overall the mechanics/gameplay was fun/felt good. Great art and audio design, I liked the enemy design but got a bit tired of looking at the slime sprite. Fun game.
Overall well made, I really like the art/theme. attacking the trees felt satisfying, the fruit cutting was really cool. I felt that attacking the rats didn't meet the standard set by the trees. The fun/game loop was obviously impacted by the lack of a clear goal/ something to spend the fruit on, I take it by the description that this feature was incomplete/cut.
I love how this game looks and will genuinely use it as my typing tutor for a bit. Only complaint I have is I wish I could adjust the font and text size.
Thanks for playing glad you liked it! I was thinking it made more sense for the player to start under the mouse(aka under the start button) but ya I should of moved the start button instead of the player.
Thanks! Would definitely consider a switch to Android for a more full version of the game, and would love to add more polish/feedback fora full version as-well. Thanks for playing.
cute art, cool concept, and well made character controller but the water is way too punishing in my opinion. Should give you a bit longer to change direction in it.
