itch.io

Thank you so much for taking the time to play and give such detailed feedback, I really appreciate it. Happy to return the favor if you have any projects you're working on. 

The yellow stamina bar is for heavy melee attacks. If you played just the browser demo it does not do a great job of introducing that feature, i'm afraid. A sprint mechanic is an interesting idea. Did you happen to try double rolling or triple rolling? I know the demo doesn't explain that but just curious if your feelings of the movement would be altered any by the triple roll speed boost. 

Ah right -- dying and no longer having any food or potions is a real drag! I will try and think of something that can help alleviate that frustration.  Just to quickly clarify, the boss you're referring to is the cultist leader, not the ghostly spirit, correct? 

Again, thank you SO much for your incredibly feedback. I will directly take your comments into account and think about how your feedback can improve the game!

Hi everyone, happy to return the favor. I've had many users try the browser demo (vertical slice of combat). Looking for play testers for the opening act of the game (~15 minutes of gameplay). If anyone could make it to the first boss, feedback would be so greatly appreciated (and I would of course be happy to return the effort for your project). 

https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

Thank you for the feedback! Keybind remapping is in the works, and eventually, gamepad support <3

LOL, I never thought about it in those terms before, that's awesome :) 

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to Itch, and this is my first indie game as a solo dev. I was hoping to get some feedback on my project page and the browser demo! The name of my game is Benson N Bones. It's an action-adventure RPG with Zelda and Darksouls-like mechanics. I've been developing the game for about a year now -- would love to get some outside perspectives, even if they are negative.

The browser drops you right into the action, the first dungeon. No long introduction or dialogues -- I wanted this version of the game to get you into the core mechanics as fast as possible (with some very lightweight assistance from some in-game signage). Here's the link to play it in the browser: https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

I thought the idea of fast-paced jumping and shooting to race to the end of the level sort of worked well, if that was intended. I definitely got overwhelmed quickly if I tried to stay and shoot enemies -- they just sort of overwhelmed me at one point. So my best bet was to just run and jump and shoot to get to the end quickly. It's hard to really say what is lacking in this early prototype build -- I'm sure you want to add in visual effects for when the enemies are shot, maybe blink them white before dissapearing them. That's a good trick to make the combat feel more impactful. 

Thanks <3

Any way you could convert it into a browser build for early play-testing? 

Hiya! I gave it a try. I think there's alot of potential to the art style you chose, really neat. As for game play, I'm not much of a platform-type guy but maybe this is helpful feedback anyways. I thought the default keybinds were a bit hard to reach (J and K) when move is WASD. Didn't feel very natural. Maybe you could try moving them to Q and E? Also since alot of people don't scroll past "Run Game" sometimes, you could try starting the game with a little panel that shows the controls briefly. Put a little close button at the top right of the panel, so when they close it, then the game begins. Or alternatively, have a little title screen with it on the side. I know this is just an early test so you probably had all of that planned -- just thought it would be helpful to add to help play-testers properly test the game with minimal friction. 

Looking forward to replacing my old in-line status effects with these wonderful ones!

I think the video works very well. It’s long enough to clearly show the gameplay—which is the most important part—but still short enough to hold people’s attention (especially in the era of very short attention spans). Nicely done.

Totally understandable. Sure, I think I must have been browsing the itch.io page for 2d tagged games and scrolling through the pages. I was most drawn in by the cover art, which I think did a good job of immediately communicating the genre. This is something I am trying to figure out for my own, newly released game. The cover art is quite tricky!

I very much enjoyed the gameplay! I had a few points of feedback: The laser is so fun to use I wish it was a lower CD (even if less damage).

For the fire ball projectile, sometimes it felt a little delayed; but I wonder if that could be because its starting position looks to be the center of the player sprite. What if you offset it in the direction of the player's mouse vector? Just to give a bit of space. 

Hi everyone! I’ve been working on a 2D pixel-art action RPG called Benson N Bones, and I recently managed to get a short browser preview running using love.js, which was a fun technical challenge.

The preview is intentionally short (~8–10 minutes) and drops players directly into a dungeon to showcase the combat system.

You can play it here: https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

If anyone has a few minutes to try it, I’d really appreciate feedback on a few things:

• Did the controls feel intuitive when you started playing?

• Did the opening encounter teach combat clearly?

• Did the difficulty feel fair for a first-time player?

• Was anything confusing or frustrating?

• After finishing the dungeon, would you feel curious to download the full demo?

Also happy to return the favor, if anyone like me is in need of some new player feedback! 

Thanks so much to anyone who takes a look!

Hi there! I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful GUI -- they worked perfectly for my needs in my latest project: https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

Wave 5, 1300 lol. I wasn't always sure what was causing my bullets to not connect with the planets, though 

Benson & Bones 

https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

A Top-Down Pixel Adventure RPG

Benson n Bones is a top-down pixel adventure RPG centered on exploration, combat, and progression. The game combines classic adventure-style exploration with checkpoint-based progression and lightweight RPG systems.

What to Expect

• Hand-crafted pixel environments to explore

• Checkpoint-based progression

• Melee and magic combat with timing-based attacks 

• Character progression  through item collection and spell unlocks

• Dynamic boss battles 

• Built-in speedrun splits panel

About the Project

This project began as a long-term goal to build the kind of RPGs I grew up enjoying. Development has been ongoing for about a year, mostly in evenings and weekends as a solo project.

If you decide to try the demo, thank you — feedback and impressions are always helpful.

Play the Demo

You can download and play here:

https://ironshock.itch.io/benson-n-bones

Looks fantastic! I'm excited to try it out.