itch.io

I have some feedback about the mechanics:

• You are missing a level triggered action
• It's a fun idea to use stability to resist a potency, but I think slowed is way to strong to give just like that: most monsters won't have more than 1 stability in E1, and any melee focused monster will be turned off by that condition
• Seize the Moment is good I think, but I fear teleporting an enemy with you will open up to so many shenanigans (teleporting straight into the air to drop the enemy for example)
• Grasp the Echoes is pretty cool!
• Back With A Vengeance's first sentence is a bit weird: "An alternate future you appears in an unoccupied square within distance"
• On the same ability, it feels like it is doing way too many things. Saving you from death is already pretty good, even more so given that you will gain a Victory at the end of combat most likely (or you'll just be dead anyway)
• Knocked Into Next Week is very flavorful and fun

I think the abilities and the class overall is very flavorful, but I don't really associate that flavor with fury. It feels very Null, but I see why you would do it on a Fury as Nulls already have Chronokinetic.

The write up is on the itch page, but it's not more than  "celebrate one year of Draw Steel with a bang" :D

Oh, I think I misread the d10 chance being only when you spend a respite activity there, I thought it was when you were working on the project. It makes way more sense this way

Does "the eve of their birth" means their birthday, or the day they are born? If it is the later then the fact that they die one year after the Candlemaker's visit is pretty grim 😅

Some other feedbacks:

• It seems you forget to find a name for the third malice feature
• The Wax Demon Meltling is missing characteristics
• I think the fire weakness 5 on the Meltling is way too strong for a minion, even more so given that they deal fire damage when they take fire damage. I think a lower value, like 2, will already be a significant amount of damage dealt to the PCs
• Burn, Oh Wick of Life's name is on a different column than the rest of the ability

You managed to fit so much character and personality on those two pages, it's amazing!

Evovling titles is a neat idea! Here are some feedback I have after reading:

• Petal Dancer seems significantly stronger than the other Spring bonuses
• Heral of Dog Days' last sentence is a bit weird: "This stamina loss is but can also only be reduced by an enemy's fire immunity"
• A Change In Color is straight up less good than Budding Talent. Maybe it should give an edge on tests made with the new skill? Or give two skills instead of one?

If think this ancestry is already usable as is in game. One thing you should consider is to give it 1 more ancestry point if the previous ancestry is 1S. I am worried that Temporal Anomaly might be a bit too strong, on par with classes triggered actions while ancestry triggers ususally are a little less powerful.

I understand and agree with all your points. I will however double down on damage weakness being really really strong (we obliterated a solo with my group yesterday with just the damage weakness 2 from the Warrior Priest kit), so I would at a minimum make it save ends. For the insta-death ability, many people in the community say that YAAD is way too strong, while Censored's condition to work (hitting the target just before winded to make it winded) makes it way less strong than the other one. 

It's really nice to have new downtime activities, and the four you propose are good. Here's some feeback:

• I don't like the d10 events on the gardening project every time you do it. Extremes might happen where you never get an event or you get one every time, which might be really tiresome
• On revelry: I think players should be able to use other characteristics than Presence (Intuition and Reason at least). Using wealth as a bonus is super smart. Gaining a free follower seems really really strong. The title is super cool!

All in all it's a pretty solid entry, with some cool events and benefits that really convey the theme of each activity.

I had a hard time reading through the whole entry, but maybe it's because I'm tired x)

The montage seems fun though, and it's really nice to use the phase of the moon to change the way the challenges behave.

A very good entry, that really look ready for the table! I've noted some feedback:

• Having suggestions for names is really cool and useful
• I think Infernal Ichor is too strong. The damage immunity is already good (and a signature trait of another ancestry by itself, the Dragonknight), but the damage dealing in a 1 burst is too much. I think it could be a 1-point trait that deals damage to one adjacent target once during a round, and it would be more balanced
• Honor Bound is very flavorful, I like it a lot
• Your Weakness, Your Undoing! is basically doubling the chances of getting a crit (from 3% to 6%), it's might be a bit strong even for a 2-point trait

I think it's nice to use the retainers as more fleshed out characters who grows with the players. The level 10 ability is very neat.

Some feedback I had while reading:

• Revengeance is way too powerfull IMO: removing an elite or platoon enemy is already too strong, but damage weakness 5 for the whole encounter with no possibility to remove it is just broken
• I think Cleanse is too strong too, I might be wrong there though
• Rejuvenating Blast says "Each enemy in the area takes the damage of Hurl Magic": which tier are we talking about? Do you have to roll for each enemy? Once? 
• I understand this is due to the page limit but the way the Scout abilities are displayed is a bit confusing
• Dampening Field is similar to the Null ability Absorbtion Field, which costs 7 and only affect enemies in the Null Field (so 2 aura), so it feels a bit strong comparatively

I have already given you a lot of feedback on the mechanics, but what I didn't tell you is that the layout is pretty good! Good job overall, this is a very solid entry

I like the concept of insect people for Draw Steel, I think it fits the world perfectly, even on Orden. I noted some feedback I wanted to give you:

• "You can use the Claw Dirt maneuver on solid stone to erode the stone": this is a bit confusing, because it used a very specific gameplay vocabulary ("you can use the Claw Dirt maneuver") for an effect that is purely flavor. I think you should describe in game terms what "eroding the stone" means
• "Flash Shaper" is it a pun or a typo (flesh shaper)? x)
• Tunnel-Canny is a bit weird I think, I don't see were it can be applied
• You have a lot of 2-points ancestry trait for only two 1-point traits, usually it's the other way around. I think Eusocial could be just 1 point, and maybe Flash Shaper too (Remember Your Oath from the Dragonknight is just 1 point)

I'm celebrating one year of Draw Steel by being loud! I know it's not the most theme oriented thing I could have done but I didn't have another idea to go with and I quite liked this one anyway 😅

Damage is what I was going for. Chrono is all about movement and speed, cryo is about defense and grabs, and meta is about forced movement. I could have gone with a more control vibe but I felt that putting conditions on enemies while being safe at a distance was a bit too convenient. Also damage fit well with the fantasy of being loud that I wanted.

Thanks! Happy I got this out of your hands!

I think there is a mistake on the Weasel preview image: the signature trait is the same as the hedgehog.

Really good idea. The controls are a bit cluncky and the mutations not that interesting, but with a bit more time I think you can turn it into a really fun game.

Pretty good atmosphere, graphics are nice, sound is good. The level feels a bit empty though, and the samey corridors make it hard to know where you are. A few points of interest in the level would have helped.  I wish the monsters were a bit more aggressive.

I think you have a good idea, but I couldn't test much because I couldn't leave the arena after winning a fight, so I wasn't able to mutate my turtle :(

The concept of showing different level elements depending on the selected color is interesting, but I don't think it works as it is right now. Once you're out of the tutorial levels where all the colors are explained, most of the time you end up going up to a point where you can't continue, then try all the colors until you find the right one. It's made even more of a pain by the inclusion of color combinations. Which also means the player has to remember 6 colors and what they do, which is not super easy for most people to keep in mind, even more so when you have to learn them all at the same time.

It could be made to work with more time, by teaching the colors one by one. But I think what I would do is keep only three colors, place clear indicators in the level of what color is needed to make the elements appears, and make levels where the player has to switch colors mid-jump.

I would take your game in a slightly different direction though, which might not be what you're looking for.

The controls are good. I think you should focus on adding a clear objective, it's kinda hard to know which way is the right way. With just a clear finish line and a timer you would have something good in your hands!

I can see the vision, but man is your game hard to understand. Why can you click on humans if you can't do anything to them? Everything I'm going to say here you might have wanted to implement but did not have time for it: you should limit the number of mutation available at the start, and leave only those that really do something for you at the start, and unlock the others as the player progresses. An integrated tutorial would do great for such a complicated game would be great too.

I really think this game is something special though, and could be expanded into a fully fledged proposition. 

I'm a huuuuuge fan of Nuclear Throne, and I think you nailed the feeling. Some weird things: I couldn't kill the birds most of the time, I think I got some but I couldn't understand how (I used kicks and weapons, none seem to really work).  There are other enemies who seem to avoid my shots (like the drills), but it felt less abnormal.

Very good job anyway, I'm impressed!

You really did it, I was on the edge of my seat for many many races, which made the few (maybe only one) races were my snail was obviously ahead all the more satisfying! You did the right choice to focus on the core loop, it really shows.

I focused on combat, so I don't have any more comments, but I think that as it is the main thing you do in the game it deserves to be improved as much as possible!

Combat feels like a slog, because you end up just standing in front of an enemy and clicking until the enemy dies. The attack animation is way too long, and does not fit what is really happening (damage is applied right away, even though the character's arm barely started moving). I think you can fix combat with a few changes.

First, change the player animation to start on its last frame right away, and maybe add some recovery and a VFX. Then make it so the damage is applied at the end of the animation when enemies attack. This way, the player will be able to get in, hit a couple of times, and get out before the enemy finishes its attack. It will make the combat much more dynamic.

Here's a good tutorial on player attack animation: https://saint11.art/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/#AttackSheet

I think the difficulty is overtuned a bit, there are way more enemies than you can reliably kill with either the shotgun or melee. The mutations are a really nice touch, I was pleasantly surprised to see my character grow a mutated arm to slash his enemies. Environment art is a bit blurry and doesn't match that well with the characters, and the shotgun could get more punch to it. Animations are really good though!

I can recognize that this game is well made, but it is in a genre that I really dislike. The controls feel very rigid, the game feels unnecessary hard, the art and music feel completely outdated... But I understand that this is exactly what fan of the genre are looking for! 

So good job, you really captured the feeling of NES games (I did play the old Castlevania, and you perfectly reproduced it), but it's not for me.

At first I was like "I'm not even doing anything during the race, boring!", but then 20 minutes later I was still buying upgrades like crazy to make my snail (Bob) the best sprinter ever. It's cute, it's funny, it's well made: good job!

Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience with our game! We are planning on continuing work on it, and the mutant is one of our top priority, both in behavior and lethality. 

It's a good beat them up, surprisingly polished for a jam game! I wasn't super happy with the quantity of enemies using projectiles, even more so when they would throw me to the ground (I died because I took a flask in the head as I was getting up, it felt a bit unfair). I'm not a fan of the art direction, but I can recognize that it is well made. Very impressive entry, good job!

Simple but so well made, good job! I don't have nothing to add really, it feels like you took the idea all the way to the end.

Pretty basic survivor-like, but it works well. My 2 grievances are:

• Why limit the time you have to select a mutation? I don't see what it does for game feel, except add frustration
• It seems that your screen shake adds up, and as you get more abilities and there are more and more enemies, in the end the screen is constantly shaking and it hurts my head x)

Other than that, I think it's pretty good. The sprites are nice. I'm not sure what biomass is used for, I was getting more and more and couldn't see any way to spend it.

You really need to add feedback when you shoot. I didn't understand if I was hitting anything at first, and relied on clicking like crazy in the hope of hitting something.  

The controls are really floaty, the character is really hard to control. I don't see the point of using anything else than the rabbit, except when there is a space to narrow for it.

How do you pay for plants upgrade? I don't see a cost anywhere, but I couldn't buy upgrades after a while. I thought it was the purple stuff the enemies leave behind, but it's unclear.

The basic controls are good, too bad you didn't manage to implement at least a basic enemy to shoot at. Better luck next time

I didn't manage to beat the boss but I had fun playing. The simple aesthetic is still nice to look at. Good job!

I wish you had more time to polish. Teleporting to an enemy's space when you kill could be really cool, but in a wave based shooter it doesn't really do much. It would have been better (I think), in levels where you have to use this to progress. Also, instant teleportation is pretty confusing, more often than not I didn't know where I ended up. A smooth transition would be better.

To sum up: I see a good potential, but it feels like that teleportation mechanic is not in the right game.

I'm not used to clickers so I was a bit confused. The lack of clear objectives meant I didn't really know why I was clicking. The zombies looked nice, I loved seeing all the different sorts!