Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

KristinTaylor

141
Posts
2
Topics
2
Followers
A member registered Jul 25, 2020

Recent community posts

You aren't redundant.  Your ideas still deserve to be expressed by you personally, no matter if others have said them before.  It also helps flesh things out further, in case the first person to suggest it doesn't phrase it quite right.

*nods*

BehindHazelSky's and I share some suggestions, it seems, but I'd also like to echo the ones here that I didn't list previously, HVDR02.

I don't know how committed you plan to get to this project, but I think it would be very cool to see your design documents, if that's something you're ever up for sharing.  I really think you've got a winner on your hands here, and you may want to consider balancing between project scope versus bringing other devs into the project to help you achieve your goals.  Maybe make a "Chapter 1" playable demo, and then turn to crowdfunding?  Maybe even reach out to FourQuarters at that point and see if they'd be willing to help with cross-promotion or other forms of cooperative development.

There's just enough jank to break the game in really interesting ways.  This could become a REALLY interesting speedrunning game!
For example, if you extend your ears in a narrow passage, you no longer hop, but instead move at a slightly faster speed.  This can allow the player to double-move in certain conditions.  I managed to squeeze into an out-of-bounds state doing this close to the end of my run, sending me almost all the way back to the start of the game with a key.
Sequence breaking tech for this game has a lot of potential!

Tutorial images below.  If they're not enough, please let me know, and I can give a more in-depth explanation and/or post more images.

Wow.
Based on the comments section here, this game has really blown up in popularity!  So many positive comments.
Congratulations, Noel Cody!
If people want to support you, how can they go about doing that?

Jump to the ceiling above where your Mosslet is, then dash to the yellow orb.  Jump again and finish dashing across the ceiling.  You'll stick for a few seconds.
When you fall down the hole on the right you'll get the second yellow orb automatically; change direction and jump again to stick to the new ceiling, then dash along that ceiling to make it to the white bunny-root.

uhhh . . . 



I think I was able to bug it out.

Fancy seeing you here!
Much gratitude to all you Pico-8 developers who create games that bring me back 35 years in the best way possible.

My first time, and playing the game completely blind:



I usually don't enjoy playing games where I have no idea what I'm doing, but this one was so well made that it genuinely felt like I was discovering something.  Well done on designing a truly solid experience!

"Left dropdown menu?"  There's a what-now!?

OH!  And most important suggestion of all:  Make sure the full version is available here on Itch and GOG without exclusionary deals, regardless of whatever other platforms you may choose to release on.

(1 edit)

Alrighty, so, I don't know what you already have planned, so I apologize if any of these fall into the "too obvious" category, but ...

UI/UX
- basic stuff:  title screen, more options/settings, dedicated option/settings menus (including independent volume control for music, cursor ping, and other sound effects), world map for story mode
- endless mode
- more tooltips and ability to pause to review tooltips at player's leisure
- highlighted border around stained glass window(s) when the Tile's Resource requirements are met (the bright/dark highlight isn't clear enough for me)
- specific Resources-per-Day GUI element and/or tooltip in the Resources bar
- hit-points as discreet numbers (on cursor hover tool-tip and/or "learnt" from defeating an enemy X number of times or unlocking "library" entry for enemy type)
- add Achievements which unlock small passive stat boosts (ie:  such as those in Mass Effect 1), ensuring that Achievements are tied directly to the game, and not just an API thing for Steam/Galaxy launcher platform software (also, please be considerate to players' time when designing Achievements.  ie:  Don't make a “deal 1,000,000,000 damage” Achievement if that's going to take a player 100+ hours of idle farming.  Achievements should be achievable and bonuses should be suitably small-but-enticing as to incentivize without players feeling forced to “grind”)


Art Direction / Aesthetic
- perfect.  No notes.


Music / Sound Design
- see about either getting some gothic style organ work (ie:  something between the soundtrack of Crawl and the soundtrack of Warhammer 40K Mechanicus (both great soundtracks, highly recommend regardless)) or experiment with something totally unique and personal (current music feels very placeholder'y, and a signature music style / sound design elevates any game, regardless of the gameplay's merits)
- crunchy compressed sound effects fit pixel art aesthetic pretty well, but more variety in sounds could really help


Gameplay
- switch to hexes rather than square grid for Tiles (further distinguish your game from Loop Hero and adds greater depth of play)
- pre-generate the game map with different terrain classes (plain, swamp, hill, mountain, magma) which are obscured under simplified "olde tyme'y" sepia tone map, and use this terrain to determine which upcoming Resource Tiles will be places on those terrain types (ie:  Towns in Plains, Hills, and rarely Mountains, Mines most often in Mountains, Towers in Hills and Mountains, Mushroom Towns in Swamps, Dragon Nests in Magma, et cetera).  This will allow the player to make tactical decisions on unlocking lower-value Tiles if they lead to unlocking higher-value terrain and add depth of strategy
- change Days to Day-Night cycles, with Servant gaining ability to Heal in exchange for Blood Resource by returning to the starting Castle at Night, reduce other Healing sources to balance, and tie other game mechanics such as Abilities and Tech Trees (see below) to Day-Night cycle
- add Recruit to Army option for Servant at Towns, Towers, Garrisons, Castles during the Day; which generate NPC Armies that do auto-combat against enemies on the map, have greater combat effect during the Day, but temporarily flee any time the Servant becomes Enraged near them
- add a general Tech Tree and specific Tech Trees for each type of Vampire (see below) that persist between sessions

- have three or four different types of Servants to choose from/unlock.  Recommend:
-- Warrior:  focuses on combat and destroying enemies directly (can recruit very few Armies)
-- Diplomat:  raises vast Armies on behalf of the Vampire to fight enemies indirectly (can fight directly with very limited abilities)
-- Spy:  combination of the Warrior and Diplomat, trading raw power for versatility, but can also flee from losing battles (ability on cooldown and/or limited uses per run) and/or simply has highest default move speed
-- Mage:  drops Areas of Effect on the map that weaken, slow, or damage/destroy enemies (weaker than Spy in terms of Army limit and direct combat ability)

- have three or four different types of Vampires to choose from at the start of play (three to start, one to unlock?).  Recommend:
-- Voivode:  starts with Warrior Servant, has combat- and passive-stat-boost-focused Tech Tree, and Servants of all types under this Vampire have shorter Tempers and longer Enraged times, but gain incredible combat abilities when Enraged (creating gameplay tactic of strategically provoking Rage from Servant)
-- Liege Lord:  starts with Diplomat Servant, has Army-and Resource-generation-focused Tech Tree, and Servants of all types under this Vampire have shorter Enrage spans with lower chance to harm friendly Armies
-- Philosopher King:  starts with Spy Servant, has mobility-, Temper/Rage-, and critical-attack-focused Tech Tree, and Servants of all types under this Vampire have much longer Tempers but periodically become uncontrollable in very short bursts even without being Enraged (until late-build Unlock is achieved)
-- Sciomancer:  starts with Mage Servant, has AoE-Spell-focused Tech Tree, and Servants of all types under this Vampire become possessed by Shadow Demons and have unique behaviours if Enraged (Warrior attacks nearest friendly Army or Tile if no Armies nearby, Diplomat siphons Resources of a type related to closest Tile type, Spy literally disappears and reappears on another Tile at random within Y distance after short time, and Mage uses next available Spell/Ability against friendly Army or Tile)
- non-default Servants are unlocked for other Vampires by playing their respective Vampire for enough time or completing Achievement objectives


If you'd like for me to elaborate upon or rephrase anything above that is unclear or feels incomplete, please let me know.  I'm happy to discuss further!

Also, after about 5 to 7 playthroughs, finally got myself a win.

Fair is fair.  If you're going to borrow inspiration from a source, may as well be good quality inspiration!  I just encourage folks to cite their sources and credit their inspiration in the creative process.
I look forward to seeing what you do with Bloodbane.  If you'd like some suggestions for features, I've been inspired by your work here to have plenty!

Gives me Loop Hero vibes.

I've made a terrible mistake . . . 



11 Sacred Portions, a Thyme, followed by Mints generated by that Thyme . . . 
Mint 1x Echo (store bought)
Mint 12x Echo (generated)
Mint 23x Echo
...
Mint 177x Echo

Which means that Thyme is going to Activate 794,623,457,926,951,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times.  Even if my computer doesn't manage to slow down, and it can Activate an average of 5 times a second . . . it will still take 5,039,468,911,256,660,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to finish all Activations.
The universe is only 13,800,000,000 years old, according to our best estimates . . . 

Has Markiplier reached out to discuss his plans for the Horse Magnifier movie yet?

Sub-10!   Barely!

Excellent!  Also glad to hear it.

Thanks for the info.

Also, the audio in this game really reminds me of Invisigun.  Same composer?

Will the final release of this game be available here on Itch and GOG?

I turned on 


I am still really clumsy and fumbly, but I did at least get this time.

Adam is kind of legend for PICO-8 games.  Kudos to you, Noel!

Thanks.
Now 15:44.  I'm rather fumbly, so I know I could make some improvements, but I think that I've got the routing figured out, at least.  Haven't watched the sub-9 minute speedruns yet to see what techniques they might use.

20:37 on second playthrough.

Spouse wanted to watch Archer with our son (he's never seen it before), and since there wasn't any way to mute the audio in this game, I had to end my run.  This was the last screenshot I was able to take before I closed the window.


I was hoping to get the display to 30,000,000, but alas.


Aditional game feature request: 
- Volume control.

IT'S STILL GOING!
I got back from my day of volunteering, and low-and-behold:



The game has also completely bogged down and is chugging along at a snail's pace.
I worry that it won't be possible to finish . . . 

Well  . . .  I topped it . . .



and it's still going!
Topmost image is the previous run.  Second image is the uber Ginger I managed to generate.  I started this Drink Shake at 10pm last night.   Third image is after 3 hours of continuous running (1am, when I finally gave up waiting for it to finish and went to bed).  Last image is where it's at now, at 6:45am !
Look at the gold!

Feature request: 
- "finish tally instantly" button
- "total Infinities scored tally" display
- a chart at the end of Customer 10 (or sooner if the player loses) that shows the score for each Customer in a playthrough


And if anyone wants to know how I made this abomination:


Note:  I -thought- Ginger was the last Ingredient I purchased, but apparently it was Pineapple.  Honestly for the best . . . I can only imagine how much longer this loadout would be running for if I had managed to duplicate all 7 Gingers with the ever-increasing Echo modifiers instead.

I used to run into that problem too.  Are you trying to copy and paste the image into the comment?  Try saving the clip in Paint, then using the "Add Image" button below instead.

I can't even any more.




I am done.  How could I possibly top this?

I scrolled through the comments and see other people have gotten even better situations set up.



This game needs the Balatro treatment.

The score was still going up when I snapped the screenshot.

and now I've gone and broken it by duplicating with Rosemary and Thyme multiple times.

Tee hee!

I set up my next run to be extra ridiculous, saving the Skeleton for my last customer.

I'm not sure what caused it, but when I tried to serve, the game siezed up.  I can still move the mouse around, and when I click it plays the sound, but nothing is interactable any longer.  I was really hoping to see what the damage would be with this one, heh.

Two Kiwis with Echo, one without, 15 bottles including the one that grants +3 ingredients, and four Pineapples.
Got over 5,000 on my final customer.

Thanks.  I'll keep trying Level 6 to see if anything shows up.