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Despite all the times seeing it, this is the first time I got around playing Dirk.

Nice opening art, though was confused that it has its own custom cursor, it it looks like something to be used, but the menu cannot be clicked, and only be navigated via keyboard. The ability to set custom keybindings is nice, because I was disagreeing with the default binding set. Would be nice if the in-game dialogue would adapt to the choices.
Now, I've noticed that the dialogue window adapted to my choice of "Next" button, but the dialogue still mentioned X as the attack button. Also I wanted inventory in "i" but something else is also bound to it, and conflicting opens both.

Combat scene's music is nice. Never got distracting or annoying. Admiral mansion's music is a bit too repetitive, grinds your nerves with that annoying sound after the strings.

Wasn't 100% sure when an item is part of the background or the foreground. The barrels and the wooden fence in the beginning for example. Trial and error works though.

Bouncing off from the top of the level made things harder when jumping around there. Not sure if it is intentional or not.

Not sure if the caged old man is supposed to yell at me for sneaking around him. Also found the tutorial message for the wall jumping somewhere mid-air in the section.

Despite all the rummaging about, I've only managed to do escape the crude way via the roof, as I got stuck trying to get an instrument for the "bard". In general, a well-done demo though.

Wandering around a drab dungeon getting jumpscared by rats every other step. The OG dungeon-crawler experience. Nice and functional skeleton, considering everything. Found no bugs whatsoever. Great mood.

Was a little confused by being able to set resting actions without some resting interface, but worked out. Not gonna list all the things you can put into this game, you likely have a list already yourself. Looking forward to seeing more.

Neat little game. Navigation would be easier if half as much time time passed between the party moving from one square to the next. It is always hard to find the balance between too slow, and easy to do accidental inputs, but this is definitely on the slower side. Traversing is also more of a chore because the layouts are pretty simple, no decision making is involved.

I would appreciate if Backspace/Space or Enter would be added to the controls. On some keyboards the XZ are not beside each other making the controls uncomfortable, it's also like second nature to try those other buttons. Also not having an extra step between pressing continue on the "Want to use X?" and picking the option would make things smoother.

I've picked a random name, and one party member also got that same name. Not necessarily a bug, but might be an out come you haven't considered, so I thought I'll tell.

No real bugs found.

Your initial hook is great; you're an amnesiac vampire in 50s Hong Kong just promoted to a missing person, and fate brings you together with a triad boss. If that doesn't hold attention, nothing will.

Just after the bodyguarding relationship was established, I was stoked to set out into the city, but we had to chat with Saan, and gripple with our vampiric nature first. Which again I understand is a necessary step, but some interactivity wouldn't be remiss between the two story beats.

But plot is always a very subjective thing, so I leave you to it.

I always find it impressive when someone makes a game with proper mechanics using Ren'py. 

Expected her hair to be more red when Saan commented on it being red by default. I see you've been told that the hair dying event can be played indefinitely, and aware of the demo getting stuck at the first feeding.

In my opinion I think it leads you on a bit too much on a linear path, then pretends to give you the reigns only to be able to pick two side-paths, and then back to the linear main plot a bit more, but I understand that storytelling is often a matter of preference. But I figured I should say something.

Music loops well.

Spider-Mech
Spider-Mech
Does whatever with Spider-Tech

You didn't have to go that hard on the presentation in the beginning, but you did it anyway. Very impressive.

Should really have 1980x1040 as the default resolution, then people would have an easier time changing it to their preferred version than when it opens in 640x480. The interface that gets yellow is a little bit too much in your face, especially in the darker areas in the beginning. I know it is absolutely vital to know which way is up and which way is down in a game like this, but it should be toned down a bit. 

After the first big fight when you have to go on the rails of the megatrain, while being shot at, is the real test of skill. Before that though that the game taught me I can climb on white walls, and not climb on dark ones. In this area I felt like that didn't always hold true? Or maybe the walls were too far for my grappling hook? Some sort of distance measurer might help. Knowing that my grappling hook can hit to 100m and seeing that the wall is at 120m. I know you already have the red reticle to show when you can grappling hook something, but knowing whether I can grab it by scooting a little closer or I shouldn't even dream of getting that surface, would help figure things out for the player.

Music is really fitting the action and aesthetics. You might have heard of the bug that freezes you on the spot on respawn if you die in combat.

Prototype seems to function well. Nothing crashed.

The idea of a dice-mana mechanic isn't bad on its own, but just clicking on it manually to roll at the beginning of every turn is a bit of a chore. Better automate it. Maybe if you had some strategic decision made with the dice, like saving up a pool and deciding how many you roll, or having different-sized dice (like D&D does), and having to decide how much you sacrifice for mana.

Something that automatically ends your turn when you have nothing else to do wouldn't be remiss either, since the card is already drawn automatically at the beginning of every turn.

For the "Roll another dice and draw another card" spell, you should word it again to say "roll your dice again". I thought it would get me another dice to roll, though that might be just too overpowered from a balancing point of view.

Anyway, solid prototype.

Sorry for the late reply, I really appreciate your thorough feedback. Last week I got to the point where I've fixed all the objective ones, and made changes to the more subjective ones. We'll see if they worked next DD. Thank you very much.

Glad to have helped, I've learned long ago that footage is worth than any written feedback that can be given, since you don't just see bugs and player reaction as they occur, but you might also see bugs the playtester didn't perceive as such.

Glad to be of help.  You can also connect things together so they don't spawn until the quest is taken, or yeah do the free-roam approach when the player can come across the object they don't have quests yet, and it will become a personal quest of finding the owner.

Being able to speed up time was a QOL featue I didn't know I wanted until now. Makes going through large distances easier. Even though having some manner of mount to move faster would be really beneficial. Airship travel was cinematic, but I can see how it could become annoying after the first five times. I thought sleeping would let me skip time but it didn't. Generally I like the option to rest during the night when it comes to games with day-night cycles.

It was a nice change of pace to start with nice starting equipment and not having to spend extra carry capacity to have a hatchet to cut wood with. Though I felt like combat was nothing else but to click on things, and hope you got more hp than it? I don't know if there is a death game over or not. My death was pretty magnificent. NPC responsivity is really nice.

Here is my playthrough, maybe you'll see something:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=1h0m9s

Also thank you for the clock back then.

Well it seems like it has been told what I would have said. Solid core, nice pixel graphics (especially the UI), but very barebones. I kept pressing escape trying to leave the menus, even though I've learned it brings me back to the pause menu. Talking does not close you have to leave the conversation behind, which only really was a problem at the shop, making me think that you'll have to buy something, but turns out that is not the case, same rules as conversaitons.

I went south as was instructed, and found a cropse, but couldn't pick up the backpack. Not sure if it is the scout I was intended to find or not. The first fight really surprised me because you start without your weapon equipped.

Maybe you'll see something on footage I've missed:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=0h46m46s

Good luck!

As an avid shotgun lover, I appreciate you buffing it. The real buff to it though is the gravity system. Now that enemies can come from literally any direction, distance isn't the most important value of a weapon. The issue though is the opposite now: The enemies surround you from every direction, so I felt like you no longer have to aim just shoot left and right once a while, and you'll hit something. Maybe that will change when enemy variety goes up.

Not sure if you'll see anything useful on footage:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=0h34m15s

Thanks for playing!

You got me thinking about the artstyle. My biggest bottleneck so far have been finding a pixel artist that can work with such large sprites, and putting together a character's worth of moves wouldn't be really really expensive. Maybe I should give up on having 5-6 smooth animations, and just have a few nicely made art pieces for each attack.

Pepsiman would be proud. I think what really messed me up is that I automatically been pressing W, wanted to go fast, and that made me hit more cars than I should have. Car hitboxes seem a little big, and even touching some (even if they are nearly standing like one after the checkpoint, sends you flying backwards. Otherwise a really smooth and self-contained experience. Looking forward to seeing more levels, and maybe new obstacles.

Maybe you'll see something I've missed on footage:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=0h20m0s

I can see the idea. Blocking takes some time to get used to, but hitting is smooth, and grabbing has a lot of fun. You really have to scrape the office building to get that 10k out of it, and I am not sure yet what it will be like when you have proper opposition. Good luck!

Maybe you'll see something else on footage too
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=0h0m19s

Don't mind me, just uploaded for the guy who he said he might play it. No noteworthy changes compared to last DD.

It is a top-down, turn-based, 2D rpg. I understand those are not for everyone, but they are intended features, and won't change. Thank you.

Don't be sorry, honest is good. I've meant when I've said I appreciate the feedback.

Thanks for playing as far as you did, especially since it mostly just frustrated you. Turns out that the tile-based collision system I've tired to implement to make building levels easier, didn't work on all the levels. Hence why you could walk all over the place.

The game holds your hand quite a bit in the first mission. Originally it used to be that you can just wonder around and interact with it when you want to continue, but players never actually got there, and got lost. So I figured it might be better if the quest comes to the player instead, after some time elapsed.

Frankly I am not certain about the pacing myself, sometimes it seems too long-winded, and sometimes it seems too little, leaving people confused and lost. I figured IMMINENT DEATH would be a good motivator, regardless of the personal morality of the player. It also makes sense that most of the rewards be money. In an RPG with no real equipment to buy, or consumables to use in combat.

Transporting to the gym is to introduce the player on how to level up, but not clump it together with all the other tutorial stuff. Which is already a lot to explain how the combat works for a newcomer. It is right after that when the game should have opened up, and allowed wandering. Sorry it didn't work out.

I'm glad you think the combat is decent, it is one of the main cores of the game. Again, thanks for taking the time to play and write me about it.

I really appreciate the thorough feedback, it's the kind of stuff I need to make progress on the project. It pains me a bit that something must have slipped through my radar, and people get softlocked at the end of the linear segment, before the city can open up a bit.

- You mention that enemies have attack patterns and you should look out for them when you fight, but the first fights are too fast and quick for you to have enough time to know unless they telegraph the patterns.

I envisioned the enemy patterns working on long-term; the players noticing that after three punches to the face, an enemy goes for a low attack. I'll check how feasible telegraphing the attacks could be. It would definitely make things more readable, and make mass-enemies a less daunting. Maybe I shouldn't mention patterns right off the bat, and just let it be something that is revealed at a boss.

- What's the use of having two different types of high, middle and low moves from the very beginning? 

Allow me to explain myself there, we got two type of attacks: Kicks and Punches. There would be traits later that one of the two groups. I've built this UI so instead of the oldschool single list, there are 3 columns; Punches, Defensive Options, and Kicks. There used to be far more options unlocked by default, but I've been suggested to lower them to avoid overloading the players.

Still, you got 2 of each height not just because the punch/kick difference, but the more you rely on a single attack, the accuracy of it lowers, as the enemy adapts to it. There is also an increased chance of the enemy picking the defense option that corresponds to that. So I wanted the players to have more than one option for each height.

- The haul system to delay the opponents moves also seems pretty busted from the very beginning

It’s true. I have somewhat under-tuned enemies, so each playeer can cover as much ground as they can, without needing to master the mechanics first. You are right though that despite of that, the initiative system with the haul-shock values, should already be in their final iteration, to give a clear picture about the combat.

Thank you for taking the time to test and write. I'll attend to the QoL tips and bugs. I might even scrub the story and the locations and try over, but we'll see about that once all mechanics are actually solid.

No I switched to a controller after a minute, after I've seen it was implemented. I think it did make things easier, so it's good it was there.

I am not sure if I did anything right. I think this is one of those games where you have to know the subject IRL, knowing how skateboarding tricks are done. Maybe you can figure out more with footage.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505146609?t=1h12m49s

Had fun, good music, but the guns are just not created even remotely equal. Which is fine when the gun is good, but not so much when the gun is bad. Shotgun needs a big buff. It is a bit of a weird choice to make dropping a bomb SHIFT and running as right click. Thanks for the submission, have some footage.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505146609?t=1h2m15s

Some sign that I am moving down or back on the map would be nice, and it also felt like I have no way of taking advantage of the events. No hints whether any events will occur anywhere. If a place needed weapons, and I went back to sell some, the event was already over. Ended up on a bug where I had no guards in a combat scene.

Still I dig the idea. Here's the footage.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505146609?t=0h47m50s

Sometimes I got bugs where the combat completely stops and there is no way of progressing only to restart. Charming graphics, and good control scheme otherwise.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505146609?t=0h10m16s

Grenade is a really weird choice for a monster ability. Also using the claws doesn't really feel like an attack at all. The pounce is pretty good, letting your scale things vertically as well. Changing things around a bit, so you can jump into a satelite dish would be fun. Maybe you find something interesting in the footage. 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505146609?t=0h0m28s

Thanks, I appreciate you giving it a shot. I know it is hard when the game is not your style.

Played some, could have sworn it was an older title, but apparently I was wrong. Charming graphics, and chill music. Some map or form of navigation would be nice. Maybe quick travel as well, since it doesn't seem to count the time anyway, and it seemed like I will have to move a lot between the wilderness and my hut with the cauldron. I also forgot my first potion in the cauldron, because I thought it would add it to my inventory automatically. Then figured out I was wrong only when I backtracked to the beach.

Maybe the footage will tell you things I have missed. Keep up!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505092778?t=0h17m35s

I think I got lost during the tutorial. Also the textbox would be better if a click would complete the typewriter text first, and skips only then. Since if you are impatient, or in a hurry, you can just click through to get the info. That's all I can really say, hope the footage will be of use.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2505092778?t=0h3m15s

Hey man, played your game.

Maybe I did things wrong, but I think the new lighter tutorial has too much time spent between the new information and options flowing in. Maybe because these real-time management games have cultivated a "panic if you are not doing anything" feeling in me. If you gonna go that way, I suggest to let the player have a full shift of heroes so he can keep sending them out while he waits for further options to pop up. Not the two workhorses, and the one guy who gets to slack off at night because you are afraid to send a guy alone in a dungeon.

Here's the footage, may it be of use to you.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2504565484?t=0h21m47s

In counter, I think that the shorter, easier, and more linear mission was a good way to lead the player on what the gameplay is sorta like, while still giving them a place to try out things. I've played it on stream later, maybe the footage will be of help to you.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2504565484?t=1h2m38s

Thanks for playing. Think I should cut the whole tutorial-story section, or the part after?

I enjoyed the old tutorial a lot more. This game has a wealth of options to do things, and you need a playroom to mess around in and learn things in it. How the old movement tutorial ended will always be one of the most memorable tutorial moments for me.

Bugfixes, some characters have art now, some UI changes, time spent in the overworld is actually displayed on a clock. Demo has an ending.

Having a tutorial helped a lot, though I have immediately went for the controller, and the tutorial windows can only be closed by a click. During the first actual fight, when I stance broke the guy and did a finisher, we were at the end of the bridge, with me on it, and him being on the shore. When I did the finisher, my character sank into the ground for the duration of the animation.

I wanna be salty and say Loiuse's tackle has a way too big hitbox, but frankly, I am just bat at dodging them. Though it feels like I am doomed if I try to escape, and sometimes I am saved if I remain too close. Still one-shotting is a little unfair. (Salt)
Not sure if it is a bug or a feature that I get to freely wail on her if I catch her in the back. She seems way too helpless compared to everything else.
I am not detecting any of the collision issues I've reported last time.

Sorry I've listed all the shortcomings I've come across, I think you have improved a lot on your already solid gameplay.

How embarrassing, thanks for pointing that out. Seems I did mess up something with the last minute changes. I've got a fixed version up now.

I raised my eyebrows how the "How to Play" menu doesn't actually tell you what is expected of you in the game, but it is pretty straightforward. Though your health level looking like some random number generator confused me, and I thought for a while that it is about timing, and you can cover more distance if you are fast enough. Once I've got everything though I didn't put it down for a while.

I hate sokoban games, and I still played 11 levels of this, because it got me curious, and the investment was relatively little (or so it seemed). So I think that says there is potential in it.

You are going to places. Tight gameplay, liked the combo system. This is is one of those games where you will really need controller support asap.

I discovered a bug though, if you press left click again while the finisher animation is happening, it will start it over from the beginning, ad infinitum. Stabbing the lizard in the neck a hundred times was hilarious though.

Oh crap, I am sorry. I've got fully into working on the feedback I've got, and didn't notice you've left me one too.

I appreciate you taking the time. Some of them area already fixed, others are actively being worked on. I've completely forgot that I didn't put in anything in the case of the player losing that fist fight, but I've meant to.