itch.io

Just an update, 

Neurstrike got second place in one of the jams i placed it in citing great soundtrack and graphics.

Now this phase is done i will continue developing this game and i will update you guys when i have something new.

Hi everyone,

I’d like to introduce a game I’m currently developing. It’s a SNES-style 2D Metroidvania set in a dystopian cyberpunk world where AI controls and clones anyone who is augmented.

I’m actively developing this project in my spare time, which admittedly is quite limited at the moment, and I submit progress builds to the SMVM Jam every three months.

I’m looking for active feedback and suggestions to help shape the game’s development, as well as hoping to build a small community around it to keep momentum going.

The game is currently in early development and is still very malleable, so ideas and suggestions will be taken seriously.

A few things I’m already aware of:

• The controls can feel a bit janky for some players. I’ve added a control editor to help mitigate this.
• The save system currently only stores the player’s position, not overall progress. I’m working on expanding this once the core mechanics are locked in.
• The character controller can occasionally behave unpredictably and cause issues.

There is an active demo available on my Itch page. If you decide to try it, I’d really appreciate your feedback. For general impressions, please use the page’s comment section. For specific fixes or suggestions, posting here would be ideal.

This game has been in part-time development for around two years now, so there’s quite a lot already in place. I’ve decided it’s time to start gaining some traction and hopefully build a reputation for developing quality games. With your help and feedback, I believe I can get there.

I’m also open to anyone who may want to assist with development. If that interests you, feel free to message me directly or join the Discord via the link on Neuronet’s landing page.

Heres to the Future

Some Screenshots:

Would you be interested in working with me on my cyberpunk sidescroller game neurostrike, i have already added sounds but im a musician more than an effects sound designer. i am looking to add atmospheric sounds and effects.

if you are interested check out my game library and let me know if you wanna work on something within my game for this Jam

Hi, 

Another great entry from you here, there is some issues with the controls as adam stated but overall a solid entry a couple of issues:-

> When in game over i couldnt work out how to go back to the start
> A little more in game information about controls would be good
> Dodge is not very far

As i said this is another great entry i enjoyed your last projects too and hope that one day i can get more than one project on the jam, no doubt i will see another game from you in the next 3 month jam

Hi, 
This game is coming along ok, there is still allot of work needed in this but overall a solid entry:-

> The fungi idle animation, is it suposed to flip left and right like that, perhaps there is an issue with pivots?
> The feedback for fighting is minimal and this can make the attack less impactful, maybe add an attack sound?
> Due to the short stature of the player and his minimal range, enemies seem difficult to hit
> This might just be me but i found myself mixing up jump and attack allot 

Overall this game has some potential and i look forward to seeing how development goes, however there are still some issues that will need addressing before i can enjoy this game more. I love the fact that you use hand drawn graphics this is very unique and kinda reminds me of my younger years when i started makiing prototype games as drawings on paper, keep it up hopefully i will see you on the next 3 month jam

Charming little game, however there are some issues:-
> There is no visual controls anywhere so i hade to work things out by pressing keys. 
> There are some phyics problems with some of the enemies
> I had no clue on how to move on to the next page of dialog when the Crow spoke to me, this is where I had to stop playing as i couldnt move 
>though you stated in the description, you could really do with some GUI

I like the animations especially the backing away one when you go to the dog, as a cat owner this is pretty accurate. the intro when the cat wakes up is very good, the controls in general are very tight, musically the tune is a peaceful piano piece which is nice but that is the only audio. the graphics are minimalistic which is good for a prototype. Overall a nice little idea here and hope to see you progress further into development and its not bad at all for an early project. Maybe see you in the next 3 month jam :)

Charming little game, however there are some issues:-
> There is no visual controls anywhere so i hade to work things out by pressing keys. 
> There are some phyics problems with some of the enemies
> I had no clue on how to move on to the next page of dialog when the Crow spoke to me, this is where I had to stop playing as i couldnt move 
>though you stated in the description, you could really do with some GUI

I like the animations especially the backing away one when you go to the dog, as a cat owner this is pretty accurate. the intro when the cat wakes up is very good, the controls in general are very tight, musically the tune is a peaceful piano piece which is nice but that is the only audio. the graphics are minimalistic which is good for a prototype. Overall a nice little idea here and hope to see you progress further into development and its not bad at all for an early project. Maybe see you in the next 3 month jam :)

Hi Adam, 

There is a control configuration system inbuilt in to the game, if you enter the options screen you will be able to configure the controlls however you want and this will save for your next play, also there is controller support if you are interested in that (though its quite simple at the moment). The dialog at the begining is a great addition and i can see your frustration with it playing each new play through I will work on something for future builds.

I need to update the tooltips that popup as these are confusing, i will be working on implimenting the inputs data with these so they change based on what has been configured. its V by the way to climb down ladders.

I hope you give it another go knowing this information and llok forward to hearing further feedback 

Hi I have discord, i dont use it too often so heres my E-Mail

msgseurope@gmail.com

I am looking for a pixel artist who can expand the kit i use for my game, if you think you can match the art style and animation i will be glad to have you

Hi there

Dont quote me but im sure that this Jam allows any engine as long as it meets the theme, so cnat see why it wouldnt be allowed

Lots to love with this game, I love the puzzle aspect the atmosphere is great. Controls are responsive and there seems to be an interesting story so im definately keeping an eye on this. However I find the shooting mechanic a bit tedius as there doesnt seem to be some indication that you are out of ammo other than looking at the magazine and unless this increases later just 4 shots against a sponge and remembering to reload is in my opinion tedius but that could just be me. 

in short, great game with some work this could be fantastic

Hi thank you for your honest feedback, the jump precision has been mentioned a couple of times and of course I will polish this part of the game when I have finished building out the first area . (so far I'm about 40% through) I try to add new parts and enemies per major build.  Allot of what's on there at the moment is being iterated throughout my development and is currently on its fledgling phase so all controls will be iterated upon as I progress. 

Regarding the projectile issue, personally I don t mind how it works right now as I haven't implemented the shield mod yet and this will be the defense our player needs against projectiles. Your player will also become less squishy as you progress with health boosters etc 

Thank you and hope you continue to follow the progress , 

Hi it was when the smoke was rising as this is the longest time he cannot see you based on getting caught many... many times, its likely my slow reactions is why it keeps failing so i think just slightly longer for people who are not super snappy anymore :D. I will keep this game under my radar and look forward to playing more

Stunning Game, the fluidity of the movement is buttersmooth there is some really nice set pieces on this game too. a very clever use of sneak mechanics and a snappy responsive ai love it, however if i was to critique anything without spoilers, there is a certain coal area that i just cannot get passed no matter how hard i try or how well i time it. is this to keep the game within the confides of a demo or maybe this needs a little bit more time to allow players to get there, keyboard controlls feel great no complaints there but i had to knock 1 star off enjoyment due to said area. 

love this game however and look forward to seeing how it progresses

Thanks for the great feedback as always i take all feedback in and i add as much as i can to my builds. I am having allot of fun working on this game (though there have been life things slowing me down) and when i read comments like "I played this for quite a while" and "Theres allot to like" it makes all the work feel worthwhile, also i really dont mind long posts. In fact this is great beacause being a solo dev on this project the more in depth a review is the more notes i can take and ultimately the better the game gets. So lets go over everything 

1. The jump mechanics
   1. This has been a particular problem area i wanted to make a jump controller that feels more like classic snes games and for the most part i achieved this, but i do get feedback allot on this so maybe i will look into an alternative algorithm for this
2. Key Bindings / General control:
   1. *facepalm* This is the other ongoing issue, i can only appologise, as i am a controller player (I use a ps4 controller) i often forget to consider keyboard controlls. I often tell myself "Dont worry when i add a keybind editor this will be no longer a problem" and i end up putting it on the back burner and not giving it any love, however logically i like the keybinds that you suggested and il test it out on the following builds
   2. The ladder climb key, i appreciate the feedback on this one and previously i have toyed with this idea however as stated the directional shoot would cause problems if i did this and as the enemies are often very mobile and having the player sudenly start to climb a ladder when when aiming at an enemy this could cause more frustration. If in future i can work out a good solution for this then i would certainly add this in
   3. Sliding is another facepalm moment for me, I cant seem to work out why this is happening i have tried multiple solutions and hacks but still seems to happen, its probably something simple and im just making a mountain out of a mole hill but i really want to squish this bug as boy is it annoying
3. Coyote Jump
   1. thanks for this suggestion I will look into impementing this as i think it could be very useful for certain puzzles
4. Empty Spaces
   1. in short absolutely these are work in progress areas for this zone, the multifloor elevator area is a new area coming soon which enables the player to acquire the dash ability, and the lower area is where the player will acquire another Mod (Sorry Spoilers)

Hope this coveres everything, I am really glad you like my music and how its themed this is a boost to me as i really struggle with synthwave music as it tends to sound to happy which is not a good look for a gritty cyberpunk style world, indeed it is themed as this is a way of making it identifyable with this game and less generic. I like how you find the enemy controllers work well and that their behaviours of each one is different, this is exactly what i am going for each enemy type has its own challenge to overcome making gameplay varied and masterable (probably not a real word) 

I hope you stay with this project and watch how it continues to evolve over the coming months and hope I can cover your suggestions for future builds, also if you can get hold of one i highly recomend the ps4 controller to play this game, thanks so much 

I do Indeed, as im solo dev in this project i just havent created a page in there for this project, I can set one up if you want though if its easier to get in touch

Thank you for your feedback, I am glad you like the presentation and the overall feel of the game. I would like to set your mind at ease regarding the jump. Originally the jump mechanics were quite rushed and as time went on i just stuck with it, however as i have been adding enemies that are of different heights I too realized this feels unnecessarily difficult to hit those guys as well as the shot delay so after the rating session i will have fixed this problem I have also made it possible to move in the air, I am working round the clock on increasing the variety of graphics (lots more BG animation) new cyberpunk characters and enemies. I have also been producing more music, I have 6 new tracks coming soon as well as a new boss tune for main area bosses. Again thank you very much for your feedback

Thanks for the feedback, in all honesty i agree with the fixed height on the jump this is something i should be able to fix by the next builds. The controls are still very controller centric as i was planning on adding key config screen. Regards to the save points they do work but i have given the wrong control in the level it is in fact hold space to save again this was just a time issue and plan on getting a hotfix up as soon as the judging is over, but thank you for the feedback

A beautifully executed frustrating game, I love the music ambience in this and the colour palette is easy on the eyes

Fun little game, there is some issues with frames throwing me back to waypoints, your choice of midis was well random, but it did make me want to go on and find some more. Unfortunately after onion man I found my character was being sent back to what seems like a desert waypoint which inevitably made me quit. 

I will be following this just to see how it develops.

Thats great news,, I fully get it life can sometimes get in the way and cause all of our plans to be uprooted, but soldiering on is what we do and a little positivity goes a long way. I look forward to seeing how the next 3 months play out, I'm hoping to improve upon some of my poorer ratings this time and have a much more fleshed out game. Hopefully i will get to see your game flourish like i know it can

I got it :) it is funny and unless i get to many others complaining i will have to reduce it :( but I am very excited for what i have in store for you guys and look forward to receiving critiques and compliments

Thank you for your Review, i will cover each of these issues in detail 

• you can't move while jumping until player reaches max height
  • Thank you for pointing this one out, I will see if i can make the jump movement more responsive, on occasion i find this annoying also so this is most certainly going to be looked at

• Shooting while running will give the player momentum that will persist for a good couple of steps
  • I believe this issue has been mitigated in the next version which i will upload as soon as the voting period is over, if i still find this happening i will see what might be causing the problem and fix it

• shooting at the top of the jump consumes 4-5 bars instead of 1? Is this a bug
  • Ahh yes this was 100% a bug, in fact there was allot of issues with firing and i have since recoded the entire system, you now have a faster fire rate, jumping and shooting along with running and shooting is fluid you can now shoot multiple times in the air as i have also increased its speed, the player does shoot slower when running however, this is due to an animation issue, but its still fast enough. 
  • *hint* The Cannons that are over the map have a limited shooting range but Blaze has a further shooting range, so if you can make this distance then destroying these is not to hard, each successful hit also resets their fire timer.
  • I have increased the shot count to 6 

• Using shift to climb ladders is a tad annoying as others pointed out.
  • I see this one allot, this is a deliberate feature and as the game develops you will see why this is the case, However i might set the climb button to something different

• does the game have checkpoints?
  • Rightfully so, there will be checkpoints and in fact as i saw this message take a look:-

• I got hit by the enemy carrying a bat and i got shot into orbit. This reminded me of getting hit by the giants in Skyrim, 10/10 would get hit again.
  • Yeah he hits a home run with you, originally i was going to fix this but i kept it for comedic value, however if this becomes too annoying i will reduce the force

• I also didn't see any indicator of which movement mod I have equipped
  • This is because we are not meant to have it this early in the game this will be a mod you get from one of the mech bosses of this zone 
  • This is the journey I'm hoping to take the player on for the next SMVM.

Overall allot of things are being polished and in 8 days i will upload the latest dev build and continue working on it throughout the next 3 months jam hopefully with a far more complete project. I really hope you guys stay with me during this development as with myself i will continue following all your work, I really want to be part of a great MV Community

Ah this game looked so promising, nevermind the next smv jam is coming up hopefully you will be able to get a feasible game out, unless this is a wrong upload. Good luck next time

Thank you for your honest review, though this was a 3 month Jam, there was allot i wanted to get done before the deadline and in most cases i did get the majority of what i wanted done. as in my dev logs during this development stage i have been contending with the jump and enemy issues and i promise when the lock down is finished and the results are in I will be making allot of changes to the way the game controls, in short I am completely in aggreance with your critique and i made the decision quite early on to focus on getting a playable game up on to the jam and possibly resubmitting it in the next extended jam, my game is playable throughout the jams and all feedback during development is taken into consideration. 

Yeah the controls issue again 😅 this game is controller playable. However I do agree, when I was developing the game I didn't pay too much attention to the controls scheme. In fact just used unity's default system. For future versions I am going to switch to unity's new input system for a more customized experience. overall I'm glad you like it and blazes journey has only just began

A great start for a platformer, there are a few things to consider the first is Graphics consistancy, throughout this demo your players pixels are unfiltered as well as enemies but some of the tiles for the castle were bilinear filtered which is quite jarring against the crisp pixel based tiles this made some of the areas look blurry, the boss of this level was far easier than the smaller enemy counterparts in the level i believe this is to do with the boss being so big and its attack check being small perhaps adding obstables to the fight or giving the boss multiple phases could aleviate this and make this a satisfying final battle

overall your use of combo skills makes the player feel good in fights and overall the enemies are pretty satisfying to fight

A beatiful looking game, the use of 3D makes this one stand out over many of the others the search and collect idea makes this a very good MV Game, wish you the best

Yes the game is controller compatible, i will be playing more in to this as i develop the game further. I just wish i could upload a bug fixed version as today i have resolved the jump shoot problem and now the game plays as expected (somewhat). 

I fully am devoted to developing this game further i have a lot more features coming and the all important narrative element which is demostrated slightly on the opening cutscene

so stick around as soon as voting is over i will be updating the online version and soldiering on with development. This game has proved to be quite popular and look forward to continuing on with it

I love this game, I enjoyed playing this one from the very first time i saw it. I really want more of this game but there are some critiques one as mentioned in a previous post was there is no visual effect when hitting enemies this could add more impact to the game I also find the music on default overpowers much of the sound effects (but this may be a speaker problem my end)

Otherwise a solid entry and i am following this project to see where it goes

A Fun little submission, the idea of a drunk hero was quite amusing and i was belly laughing at the intro cutscene overall great game, look forward to seeing more 

Nice addition, Was set aback initially with the super pixelated closeup but i got used to it, I concer with Straz the desktop version is much better as all of you ui is displayed and its not super filtered like on the web version, overall great prototype look forward to seeing how it develops over time

this game is also controller compatible if you have one, that will help with the control problems unfortunately I'm using unity's old input system so its very much default keys sadly

ahh yea the controls are something I didn't get round to improving, in order to use the grenades you needs to defeat the rat boss who gives you this upgrade when it is defeated ,you will find hin on the far left of the map, I was meant to put some narrative in game but time constraints meant I had to put this on the future build,  the idea is to continue development after the ratings are finished

Hey guys I done it, there is 2 versions now the online demo and the offline SMVM 23 version

Thank you very much i do like these sets allot