itch.io

Are there any specific puzzles/mechanics you would like to see?

Does these room look like a spaceship room?

Yes.

Does the walking seem intuitive?

It is until you get close to a wall, which will cause the player to stop moving much. However, this may be affected by the fact that I was always able to get my camera stuck. I was able to move it for a time, but if I moved it too far to one side, it would get stuck and wouldn't budge afterward.

Does the spell usage seem intuitive?

For what you were going for, yes. However, it would be easier to just bind spells to a key to use them rather than going into the grimoire inventory and casting your spell. This is especially true because of how much you already have to click to move the character in the first place.

Does the information in the text box help?

Not really, honestly. I couldn't figure out how it worked as well, which made it seem like it just took up screen space.

How does camera movement feel?

It was well done except for the fact it kept getting stuck. I don't really have too much else to say other than that. Once the movement is fixed, life will be good.

What do you think about the levels size/decor/ect.

It was pretty good for what it seemed you guys wanted to do.

Another comment I wanted to make was that I loved the fact you guys have a start screen, but those buttons are too small. They need to be scaled up quite a bit as they are too hard to read at this point.

Eric

1. How does the world feel?

The world feels open but empty.

2. How does player movement and camera movement feel?

Player movement is fine but holding the mouse button down to move the camera was something I had to take a second to get used to. I tried climbing the obelisks Spider-Man style, which worked for the first one, but I wasn't able to get to the top of the second and, of course, the third. I wanted a vantage point. Is that a bug or a feature, or is it just a piece of decoration?

3. General things you like?

I liked the movement speed of the character, though the amount of open space with little to do made it kind of sluggish.

4. General things you don't like?

Again, that there was little to do other than explore. I don't like that I can Spider-Man climb the obelisks but not get far. That's really just a small gripe, though.

5. What do you wish the game did?

Honestly, I didn't see the big bad. I am not sure what I was doing wrong, but it just never showed up. I wish it did because it would have been nice to see if there was an end screen and how the chase worked in this game.

6. General reaction/comments?

It was good, but there was little else to do than jump up the obelisks from what I saw. I think once you add more of your vision in, that will change, though.

Eric

What cards/upgrades would you like to see?

I can't really think of new card ideas, unfortunately.

What types of enemies should be added to the game?

I think it's not about extra enemies, honestly. My comment on this would be more about understanding what you're getting into as a player when going into the different rooms. I got utterly crushed in room 3, but playing through room 1 was a breeze. Room 2 was a Goldilocks balance. While it may have just been coincidental chance that room 3 annihilated me, it was definitely fun trying vainly to come back from my opponent gaining tons more affection than I ever could.

Does the movement of the affection slider feel good?

Yes. I don't have much to say on this one, honestly.

Are there any other additions you would like to see?

Yes. That is where the majority of my commentary lies. When the player opens a menu for either the clothes menu or the food menu, I would like to see the text change to "escape" so the player knows how to exit their menu. Either that or just have the player press p or c (depending on the menu) to exit as well as enter the menus. Also, in room 3 where I got crushed, I, of course, lost the thing but it still gave me the cash reward and win screen. I assume that is just a minor detail that you will change to a loss screen later, but if it is a bug, consider this my report on it. I also noticed in your character model, his belt buckle is missing. I could see right through him to the floor, which I thought was kind of funny. My last comment has to do with the randomization. Because of the fact that it seems like a new hand is drawn every time you play a card, setting up a move comes down to luck of the draw and not strategy. This is massively annoying especially when I would go to prime the audience or set up a distraction and I wouldn't draw the card I needed to get the payoff. This is exacerbated more when the hand I had when I played the prime/distract card had the payoff. It takes away so much from the strategy and I hope you guys change it. The full randomization just was not cutting it.

Otherwise, your game is coming along great! I love it so far!

Eric

Hey all!

I don't know if this is due to no win/loss state being implemented yet, but it seems like the whole of the Saw a Person In Half card doesn't work, which was very disappointing. Then again, I could see it as a cheap instant win condition when the payer's affection is pretty high.

What cards/abilities would you like to see?

Sticking to the theme, maybe a guess my card/drawing/poster etc card? You know the ones where the magician gets an audience member to come up and guess a thing and lo and behold, there is a thing! It's a cool trick and I feel could be worth a lot due to the audience's engagement, but the problem with it is that it can only be used so many times before the audience affection gained from it begins falling off.

What types of enemies would you like to see?

An enemy that knows tricks you do not, which would eventually (when you figure out how to beat them) show you the tricks they did, granting you new cards. I don't know if you guys thought of that sort of progression, though, so if you have, then it is a great idea!

Does the movement of the slider feel good?

Not going to lie, it does not. Every time I felt like I was making progress towards beating my opponent, the bar went right back down to the middle, though it never seemed to go lower. I hope this changes, because it was very frustrating to play against. In terms of the fluidity of the slider, though, that felt fine and the bar looked like it worked properly as I gained and lost audience affection.

Other additions?

Animations, even small pixel art animations, would be great. I don't know if you guys plan to add them in, but it would make the game more visually appealing if you did.

Good job on the first draft of the game, guys!

Eric Hillmeyer

I will answer questions but I have two bug reports. One I can tell you how to replicate, the other I have no idea what I did, so I can't exactly replicate it. Both have to do with detaching.

I also wanted to mention I kept seeing lines on a few of the frames of the idle and walking animations. Definitely sure those are not supposed to be there.

The Dial

The dial definitely feels intuitive. I actually liked how easy it was to use compared to other quick choose dials I have used in the past.

Arm Throw

It was alright, I just really didn't know what to do with it. If there was supposed to be a puzzle to solve with the hand, I didn't know. I did like the speed of the throw, though. I really wished there was some sort of tutorial on how to throw it, though. I got stuck figuring it out until I had someone help me with the solution.

The Scenery

The scenery was well done. Of course, I wish it was animated and there was more in the foreground where the player actually is, but the background parallax was well done and all the background elements were really nice.

Now for the bugs.

Bug 1: No animation after quick swapping

This one is simple and easy to replicate. When I begin to throw the hand, keep the hand in a throwing position, then use the dial to quickswap to the feet, I then press E to drop a foot. The foot drops and I am still able to throw the hand. After I throw the hand, the dude loses all animation and just stands there. I think this may have something to do with the sprite being stuck between animations.

This is what happened after I did this bug. The dude is stiff and apparently has 3 feet. You can still drop the other foot, so technically he has 4.

Bug 2: Three feet

I was unable to replicate this, but it happened right after I figured out how to throw the hands. From what I remember, I pressed E to throw the hand but never pulled it back to slingshot it, walked a little bit, switched to the feet with the quick swap dial, then pressed E to drop the foot. Of course, it dropped, and this time it switched to just one foot. Then, I pressed E again, dropped another foot, but it did not switch to the no foot animation (The one where he is rolling on his pelvis). I then pulled up the dial again, switched to the pelvis to try to drop that, which it did, but it still would not switch from the one foot and one hand animation. Same when I dropped the other hand and the torso. I was unable to replicate this one, I apologize. That's as best I can remember what happened. Oh, and the full animation, including the walk and transition to and from idle, along with the idle animation still worked just fine. It was just the wrong animation.

This is just after this bug was found. As you can see the dude is not stiff like in the last photo. I don't know why the animation worked here and not in the first bug.

I hope y'all are able to get the bugs squashed. Your game looks fun so far, and the animations are well done!

Eric Hillmeyer

Pacing:

I feel like the game's pacing is alright, especially with how quickly Ernie moves about the map, though it does get a bit stale after some time just repairing the same thing. Plus, some of the modules went way too fast for me to keep up with, which slowed down my pace much more than it helped me speed up. It seems to be what you're going for, but make things too fast and you'll lose your players.

How to improve challenge?

I think simply adding in different modules/things for your player to do would definitely make it much, much harder. Also, there is a lack of walls within the walkable area, which makes it super easy for the player to finish one module and bolt to another. Adding in walls will make that not an option, slowing down your player naturally and force them to strategize more than now, which is just walk up, complete module, walk to the next. That gameplay's gets really stale really fast.

Do I like the current module?

Yes. It is easy to understand, fluidly implemented, and quite a challenge to fix sometimes. Well done. I just would like to see different modules for players to fix.

Abilities/Upgrades for Ernie?

Well, no actually. I am sure others answered yes, but I don't think they're necessary for two reasons. One, it would break the pace of your game. I assume the way you would implement upgrades is through a menu, but going in and out of a menu gets tedious and slows down the playthrough, sometimes quite dramatically. I feel like it would be like adding lore cards to Doom. They're nice and give players more things to interact with in the game, but they slow down the pace pretty badly. However, and this goes into how you might improve the challenge, you might add parts to a level Ernie must collect before handling a particular module. Like a wrench for the current module with leaking water. Of course, that would force the room to spawn a tool with the particular module, but I don't think that would take away from the random feel too much.

Bugs and Glitches

N/A. I didn't find any.

QoL Improvements?

Also N/A. Ernie was responsive when I pressed the button to move him, I liked the pace he moved at, and other than maybe turning the difficulty dial on some of the modules down, the game felt pretty good to play.

Liked what you guys have so far!

Eric Hillmeyer

Before I get into answering your questions, I wanted to mention something. I really loved the tutorial! It was beautifully done and gave me exactly what I needed to begin playing the game. However, it has a few typos. Double check that.

Music Volume:

The volume was actually perfect in my mind, and totally fit the vibe y'all seem to be going for with your game. Can't say too much more on this.

Dislikes?

I will start by saying the enemy drop spread was fixed for the most part. None of the drops were getting caught on invisible hitboxes like last time, which allowed me to pick all of them up. Plus, the screws and springs in my inventory incremented properly. Really good improvement! However, the spread felt a little unnatrual because of how far some of the drops went. I also want to mention here that, even though it is the opposite of a dislike, I really liked how your artists have beautified the game. I noticed that even when I pressed both up and left, there was a sprite for facing diagonally up and left. Nice attention to detail! That's not normally seen in these types of games.

What was missing?

Adding a small walking animation to the little dude's feet would be nice but isn't 100% necessary if that's not the aesthetic you guys are going for. When it comes to the radiation, I did not have a sense of urgency while standing in it. I feel like it could damage the player faster to give the sense of urgency standing in radioactive green goo is supposed to. What did, however, increase my sense of urgency was the timer at the top. I didn't even realize it was there until there were 30 seconds left for me to complete the mission and I scrambled to find the last terminal to fix. This lack of urgency from taking damage honestly applies just as much to enemies. On top of that, the game is missing pathing for enemies. Again, if that's what you guys are going for aesthetics wise, dope, but if the enemies pathed toward the player, I feel like it would make things more hectic and fun for them.

Tried to do something and couldn't?

Open the vault door by the upgrade station, though I assume that is just a prop. There was no explanation for it at all, nor did it seem to be part of the level. If I am missing something about that door y'all are hella sneaky.

Clear Objective?

Yes, though the objective was a bit linear. I won't hold that against the game, though, because I still had fun while testing it. Plus I have no ideas on ways you could improve on it.

Controls and Feedback

Yes! Absolutely the controls feel natural. It might be nice to be able to free aim the weapon with the mouse, but otherwise I think the controls felt great. When it comes to feedback, that is where I have some issues. While I feel like I was able to control the robot just fine, I was not able to fire as quickly as I wanted to. Of course, I still never felt like I was in danger, so it wasn't that big of an issue, but I feel like the cooldown on the firing could be a bit shorter. Responsiveness to my inputs, otherwise, felt great.

Good second demo guys, overall I really enjoyed it!

Eric H.

Hey guys!

1. What upgrades/weapons would you like to see in the game?

One upgrade I would like to see is something like thicker skin or better wiring that allows the character to take less damage and lose less health. Maybe an upgraded weapon would be nice, or one that extends and brings enemies to you.

2. What was your favorite mechanic? How can it be improved?

My favorite mechanic was the one where if you stood too long in radiation it would deplete your health and the enemies could spread the radiation. However, I was able to get to negative health values. There should definitely be a game loss screen when health gets to 0%

3. What did you dislike and why?

I disliked the fact that there seemed to be no end goal at all. There was no goal for me to get to, and what I was supposed to do was very confusing. As previously mentioned, my health/battery going to 0 didn't net me a game loss. I didn't figure out that the spacebar was used to shoot until I accidentally hit it while running around the arena, so there's another thing I didn't like. I also didn't like that upgrades didn't seem to do anything yet and getting upgrades would consume both types of upgrade material (spring and screw) even though it said it would only consume one type. It really hurt my resource management. Then again, the pickups worked the same way (picking up a screw or a spring picks up both a screw and a spring), so it is balanced that way. I would like to see enemies do something more than just roam around, but if that is what you are going for, then it fits. The most egregious thing, though, and something that has to be fixed, was the misdone bounding boxes on the walls. It really sucked that there were springs and screws on the ground that I couldn't pick up due to the fact that an invisible wall seemed to stick out from everywhere. This game would definitely be much more enjoyable if the bounding boxes were put in properly, allowing me to move throughout the map a lot more freely. I mean, it's so bad that a lot of the enemy robots would get stuck on some part of the map because they ran into a bounding box that was way too big for the item it was on.

4. What did you feel was missing and why?

I mentioned this before: some form of end-of-game and a goal to achieve. I feel like there should have been something that I could pursue while avoiding the ever-expanding radiation spots that would tell me when the game was over. As it is in its current form, unless I am missing something, the game is nothing more than run and gun over and over and over.

5. Was there something you wanted to try but couldn't?

The various lockers around the room made it seem like I could interact with them, maybe get some loot. Of course, that was not the case. I kept running around trying to find something. Again, maybe I'm missing something, so I don't want to seem too harsh, but a few lockers with hidden secrets would definitely add to the game.

6. Was the aesthetic cohesive?

This was most definitely the most enjoyable part of the game! I loved the vibe you guys went for. The way the robot turned and had different, unique faces was amazing! For the most part, everything definitely felt super clean. I admire your ability to use pixel art to capture the vibe you were going for with your aesthetic. So yeah, short answer is yes, the aesthetic was cohesive.

7. Did the controls feel natural?

Honestly, not fully. I was confused at the use of spacebar for shoot when it's usually left mouse click.  I also didn't like the lack of the ability to aim, but that's really just a nitpick. I liked the use of WASD to move, but the problem I found was that I feel like how far the character stepped was tough to figure out. Sometimes I would be able to move and pick up a drop just fine, other times I could not, even if I barely tapped the key to move the direction I wanted to. C to interact was actually quite nice, I have rarely seen it before. It was a good transition from spacebar to WASD, which I will admit seemed pretty natural.

I'd love to see the improvements you guys make to the game, it looks like it has a good start! Just needs a tweak or two.

Eric Hillmeyer

Hey guys!

1. Does the character feel sluggish? Is it ok for the character to feel that way if there is the option to upgrade that later?

Yes, the character absolutely feels sluggish. It has nothing to do with the framerate of the animation as others have said, it just feels terrible to try to move the cat around. The animation needs to be fixed and you should be able to move a little faster. Only then should movement get better/smoother/faster. I will be honest the slow movement utterly took me out of the game.

2. Do you see the game becoming too difficult? If so how do you think we should balance it?

Yes and no. Tying into the movement speed, if that was fixed life would be much better. As it stands, the arena is much too large to move around that slowly with as many enemies spawning as you have. Another thing that would make me feel like the game could easily become too difficult is the lack of defined areas for both the enemies and the player. Usually in TD games, you will see some form of path (even if it is just a simple perimeter around the arena) that signals to the player that that area is where the enemies are coming from. Having that on the screen might help make the game a lot better, but will definitely keep it from being too difficult. I also had no idea what each of the sliders were supposed to really do for myself or the enemies even though I kept adjusting them, so I couldn't give you feedback on how that will help with your playtest. Having different abilities, especially the ability to upgrade towers and movement, will probably be the easiest way to balance the game. I do like the addition of the moveable, interactable cat, though. However, I can actually see the game becoming too easy when towers are super upgraded and the player can go around killing stray enemies that the towers cannot kill. There you might want to add more enemies, or enemies that can only be destroyed one particular way (like only the player can destroy them or only a tower can destroy them). That would be a decent way to balance that, but I can't think of anything else.

3. Are there too many enemies? How many unique enemies do you think there should be?

This is another yes and no. Because there was such poorly defined paths for the enemies to follow, I could not quite get where the enemies were coming from and going to until the end. What I really didn't understand was the incrementing "Count" that kept following me around, which I think was keeping track of the enemies that got through my defenses? Since I was so confused, I can't really speak on that. Unique enemies would make the game really, really interesting. I think it would also help to balance the game. I mentioned what I think those unique enemies should be earlier, so I will elaborate in saying that I like the idea of one or two variations of unique enemies would be best.

4. Tower/Turret side

Honestly, I cannot speak much to the turrets. I already found it easy enough to destroy all the enemies with my machine gun once I figured out how to use it. I only had my turrets down because I could. I would say look to other tower defense games for upgrades. Glue, multi-shot, quick fire, hyper rapid fire, constant laser fire, etc I guess. Otherwise, I was super confused at why I even had turrets that I could use in the first place.

5. Enemy Pathing and Improvements

Again, I don't have much because I was completely confused on the pathing. I feel like if I knew where the enemies were going and supposed to end up in the first place, and knew when it was game over for me, I would be able to give more ideas. What might be fun is to add an enemy that will randomly stop at a turret that is on the path and try to destroy it, making it imperative that the player go repair the turret. Just a thought I had while writing this that I felt could fit here.

6. The Kitter

To start, no. That kitter is not chonky enough. Not like "you cannot ever have enough chonk" level of chonk, but more along the lines of we definitely need more chonk. I cannot stress this enough. The next part of the question confuses me, and I do not have a real answer. I can see the player being able to improve the cat as they go to make it more fun, but I can't say anything more, I apologize. No, the cat's movement is not coherent. The animation for it definitely needs to be fixed and they need to move a bit faster. I understand how to move it, though, with WASD and I figured out how to get the kitter to shoot, though, so that is coherent.

7. Gold, Bosses, and Items

Definitely fix the issues before adding these things, but after you do, those are great ideas. All of them. Adding items that are presumably dropped by enemies randomly that the player can move toward and pick up that are then used for upgrades and the like would make the game pretty interactive. It may also help with balancing since you could work drops however you feel works. Bosses are expected and fun in games, and resource management helps game engagement immensely.

Other than the answers to your questions, though, I don't have more feedback. I think the concept is actually super innovative and fun, it just needs some more tweaks. Can't wait to see the final product!

Eric Hillmeyer

Hi guys!

1. How do you feel about the brief puzzle mechanics?

I liked them. They were a tad odd to figure out at first because it was for some reason not clear to me that the green boxes were buttons that would get rid of the walls. Only through deduction and reading other comments did I get this, but the puzzles were easy enough in the end when I did. That pit puzzle was clever, I have to admit.

2. Were you able to figure the puzzles out relatively quickly?

Yes. However, even for a simple game, I feel like the puzzles could have been less obvious or overall tougher to figure out. They felt similar to something a kindergartener would do. As previously mentioned, that deceptive pit puzzle was fantastic. It took something I was familiar with and didn't generally favor me in platformers (pits) and made it into the solution. Very nice. If you guys implemented more puzzles like that, I feel it would make your game much stronger.

3. Did you get an understanding of the physics of the current body parts that were present?

At first no. I had no idea what was going on. There are some games where the tutorial is written on the wall of the map/arena at the very beginning. Think Cuphead's tutorial. I feel like the addition of this in your game would make it much easier for the player to figure out what they're supposed to do. I understand that we have limited time, but something as simple as a sentence that says "Detach (image of body part) to (insert what body part does)" would make things really simple to understand and get the player started. Now, after I looked at previous comments and saw what they had figured out, understanding the physics was easy. I just feel that little push would make the experience much less frustrating to the average player who doesn't know what is going on.

Though you didn't ask this, I will mention that I did find some bugs. As others mentioned, between some of the green buttons and the yellow walls, if I pressed the button, I would get trapped between some invisible walls. These walls did go away after a few seconds. Not sure what's up with that, I just wanted to let you know.

Eric Hillmeyer