itch.io

How frantic was the game?

Overall, once I figured out what I was doing, the game didn't feel that frantic at all with only one plant. Assume you're planning to add more plants in the future, and I feel like that would help a lot in making the game more frantic. But in this state, with only one plant, I didn't feel it was very frantic at all.

Other notes:

• I think you guys nailed the art style. Everything looks cohesive, and all contributes to a nice, vibrant world. There are no textures or objects that look like they don't belong.
• I feel that the plant starts out way too small. I feel like I could barely find it amongst the grass. It became more obvious once the plant started growing, but finding it initially was tough. If the GUI didn't pop up when I looked in that direction, I probably wouldn't have known it was there. I would suggest making the plant a little bigger starting off, so it's easier to keep track of even in its beginning form.
• I don't see the point of the fire spell. My main guess is that it's supposed to do more damage to the bugs at the risk of damaging your plants as well. However, I didn't find it that much easier to kill the bugs with the fire then with any of the other spells, which makes it useless if that was its intended purpose. Plus, it damages your plants which is even more of a reason not to use it. Maybe I'm missing something here, idk.
• I found the aiming to be a little wacky. Specifically with small mouse movements. Sometimes it didn't seem like it registered small mouse movements at all. This made aiming a bit inconsistent, and a bit tough to get used to.
• If you look straight down, you can see right through the grass into the white void below. I'd suggest adding a green texture below the grass to mitigate this issue.

Is the goal of the game obvious? How descriptive of a tutorial is needed?

Honestly, not really. I was able to get some context clues from the on screen notifications, but that was about it. I was able to find the garden and play the harvesting mini game, but I pretty much had no clue what to do after that. There's definitely some direction that needs to be added, either by a tutorial or just step-by-step popup objectives.

How's the minigame? Is it rewarding/punishing enough?

I found it to be a good middle ground. Having to find the sweet spot every time is challenging enough, and it rewards players for practicing and gettign better at finding the sweet spot faster.

Glaring issues with the village?

I think the village was designed very well. Maybe some signs or something to point the player in the right direction would be nice.

Does the music fit the world? Any suggestions for music? (it plays a song from a playlist at random every 5 minutes)

I heard no music.

Anything Else?

The general feel of the game needs some work. For one, the sensitivity was way too low. I know there is a settings menu on the title screen where a sensitivity slider is located, but I found the slider to do nothing. It felt like I had to move my mouse 5 feet to make a 45° rotation. 2nd is the movement. There were sometimes where it just doesn't seem very responsive. For example, sometimes I would let go of the W key, but my character would continue moving for another half second.

Good job guys! Obviously there's still a long ways to go, but I like the direction that's it's going so far. Here are some notes (I tried not to go over obvious stuff, all y'all are probably already aware of those):

• I think the melee attack could use some improvement. My main problem with it is that it only does damage for the very moment that the "yellow lightning" spawns. Yet, the "yellow lightning" still stays on screen for about 2 seconds, which makes me think it'll still do damage to enemies that touch it (but it doesn't). I recommend to either only show the "yellow lightning" for a moment as to not confuse the player, or to make it do damage for the entire 2 seconds.
• I like the projectile mode, although personally I would prefer if you aimed using the mouse instead of having to turn your character in a specific direction to aim. That may just be me though.
• I know you guys are probably using a lot of temp assets, but I would like the game to have a more centralized art direction. With the character being pixelated, the background looking like a Google Image, and the enemies looking hand drawn. It's just not very consistent.

Cool game. I feel like you guys have made some nice progress so far. Here are the answers to your questions:

How "random" does each version of the randomly generated world feel?
Honestly, not that random. Don't get me wrong, the fact that you guys implemented random world generation at all is awesome. However, I don't feel like there's enough unique landmarks to make it really feel special. The best way I can describe it is if you made a Minecraft world, but only with the Forest biome and nothing else. Yes, technically it's random, but it's all the same so nothing generated really feels too unique. The only unique thing I found was a tower with some boxes.

Does the world present a challenge to navigate or explore?
The world wasn't too challenging to explore. It's pretty easy to get around. The only obstacle I really encountered was finding a place to cross the river.

Does the Blood Bear feel challenging to fight, especially the first time?
For me, not really. I killed it on my first play through. I just circled it and spammed arrows until it died. I think it would be cooler if it charged at you and you had to sidestep it in order to not take damage, or something along those lines.

Do the theme and genera of the game match the art presented?
I think the theming is great. The forest-y pixel art with the medieval music. It all matches pretty well.

Did combat feel good and enjoyable? Did the AI feel "intelligent"?
Combat felt alright. Obviously there's just one attack so far, so it's very simple. I know you're planning on adding a melee attack, and I feel like that will add a lot more depth and variety to the combat. The only weird thing I noticed is that whenever I hit an animal (rabbit or bear), the fire rate of my bow seemed to be way higher than if I missed. I'm assuming this is because the game waits for the current arrow to despawn before letting the player fire another, and you make the arrow despawn faster by hitting an animal. I'd maybe suggest making it a static timer instead, so that firing arrows feels more consistent whether you hit an animal or not.

Did you encounter errors while playing? If so what were they?
I guess the only two "bugs" I noticed are the arrows appearing sideways, and the shooting animation playing after the arrow has already been fired. But you probably know about that already. Also you're taken to the same "Game Over" screen whether you kill the bear or not, which makes me feel like I always lost.