itch.io

Thanks for playing. Glad that despite the crashes, elements I've intended stuck out. Good catch on the sprites, I'll fix that along with the UI celarness. Been playing around with colors and transparency a lot so they are readable, but the sprites behind the UI stay visible. I'll get to polishing by next DD.

Yes please. From what I can tell, there is some randomness as you try to catch the fish in the minigame, that I am not sure how to calculate with the save editor.

Thanks for the thorough testing. I'll try to refine the tutorial further. Making sure people get the gist right away is really important in turn-based games.

I unfortunately chose the city as my title and setting, and the city has to have many things so it can feel it like one. But now I think I have plenty, and should really get around polishing the heck out of it for next DD.

For the art style, I originally planned it to be fully pixel art, but then it turns out that at the size of the battlers, it gets really complex and expensive, to the point a normal animator being allowed to draw at a normal resolution is much better. But now I got two styles not usually shown together.

Thanks again for playing!

I like the gimmick. Though the browser-based option is a little wonky for me, as it doesn't cover the full screen, but the usual ctrl+scroll down option messes up the game, then I exit, but cannot return control as it used to be. I think the texts are also harder to read, because my viewing surface is not the intended size.

But back to the game. I like the shotgun gimmick. Little disorienting, because I've only shot with a double-barrel before (maybe a future update, eh?), but works great. Can't wait to try to operate it under stress.

Well this game proved me that I am not as good at following instructions as I thought I was. Still, I'm at awe.

I know you wrote that you just did it to learn making games and use GMS2, but I am still really impressed. Making a game inside of a game, writing a whole manual, telling enough, but still leaving things to figure out. The way the little game boy's buttons are pressed, all really nice.

Didn't quite figure out how to get the Chromatic version of the fish, but I am the second strongest trainer on the island. Cool game.

The game warns me that it is pre-alpha, and it can be full of bugs, but I couldn't find any obvious ones. 

That is some really high-effort menu screen, though it is not the game I would have expected from the description. 

This game could have easily gotten away with being completely 2D, as the movement is like that. So I was really surprised when I managed to be obstructed by debris from my fallen enemy. Hope you will do other cool stuff with it. Boss had a great entry, but went down like a lead balloon.

I was wondering if you could start a game without any engines or weapons on your ship, and you can.

Is the music original? Because it is really great, and I couldn't Shazam it. I say it passes the pre-alpha prototype test very well.

Windows 11 Home 25H2 apparently

Sorry! It is up now. (Until you tell me something is broken again, and I'll drag it back to the lab kicking and screaming.)

Nice and polished. Thought the cleric would be OP because he clowned on those skeletons, but then I've met a golem who wrecked me. Finished the level after the third try, and without a cleric even, so that is definitely not the case.

Everything seems to go smoothly, and is not overstaying its welcome. You got the core down to a T.

If I alt-tab out, I cannot tab back. There is also a 50-50 chance that the game starts tabbed out. Maybe there is some problem with GMS2's full screen mode.

Otherwise, pretty clever. I fought the cutest ghost ever at darksouls bossmusic. It's ability to randomly rearrange the placed pieces, was more of a helpful boon than an issue. The transformer randomly changing my pieces was far more painful. Found no bugs, and it seems to be able to go for a while.

No problem. I've dug a giant hole around the clanking sound until I've ran out of ground, down to the bedrock. Not 100% if it works as intended or not.

You got excellent presentation. I really, really, hope we aren't getting trapped the a cycles of guilt this time.

Would be nice if SPACE could advance the conversation too, not just ENTER. Since the left hand is closer to the number keys, that can be used to make dialogue options faster. A half second buffer period between dialogue lines wouldn't be amiss. Accidental double-click makes it too easy to get lost.

I am asked whether I believe in our expedition, but only learn what the expedition is about later.

A bit too much happens without interaction. 80% of the dialogue options are just asking for more information. Not really deciding much of anything. I know branching dialogue can be a real pain, but once a while the ability to just express opinions goes a long way. We also don't know enough about our protagonists before we get swept up by the plot.

Told Massieu to give back Ceo's clothes, and he did. But then Ceo a scene later says he has been naked for a whole day.

Looking forward to where it goes.

Started as a brunette, ended up as a redhead. Game lives up to the name. Got the chaingun at the end. Corinn should be thankful, animating melee is not easy.

Ammo seems a little sparse, compared to the enemies you have to walk through. I thought I would be safe while shopping, and I was, because I was immortal, but not because time stopped.

Pretty great, looking forward to more. 

Dag around for a while where X marked the spot, but didn't find anything as far as I can tell. There was a point though where the dirt dug up made clanking sound, but then I ran out of them. As far as I can see nothing is broken, though once fell down the island, there is no way back but to reset.

Thank for playing. Fixed the tutorial 10 minutes before the review, lot of it wasn't what it should have been. if you want to see what it is supposed to look like, but glad to know the gas station fight works as intended.

Thanks for playing, and always testing my crap. That game-breaking bug is because I've accidentally left in the 2nd main quest, which was not done, so I've cut it out in a way that causes the game to crash. Got a quick fix.

Also broke the tutorial, so your lock could be because it is a restriction there (Need the player to use a specific attack for a single turn to demonstrate a point real quick)

Enemies are a bit dumb at the moment, so the demo can be completed with minimal issues, but smarting them up will be next.

Damn it, right before the tutorial!

Immediate quickpatch have been applied. Thank you very much, you have salvaged my Demo Day!

Guards say to report to the boss, but there is no one resembling that description in town. You are supposed to just go to the mines. The first party member, asked  me if I am going to the mines. At this point I didn't know the mines were the only place to go, so I've said "Maybe". I only realized he was an intended party member when I first teleported back and talked with him again that indeed, I was going to the mines. Maybe he could be closer to the entrance of the dungeon.

You are asked your class, but your class has no bearing on how you play until you level up, and get your fist skill. I suggest let the player have a free skill point to start out.

Player rotation is a bit too sensitive, the character jitters left and right as I keep my mouse in one place, and he is doing pathfinding.

Enemies step a little slow compared to how fast they move, and their upper body is really rigid. Making them seem like they are gliding when you cannot see their feet from their position.

Enemies that don't want to stand and fight you (like goblin archers) can run away forever, because your standard melee attack is slow enough for them to move on by the time you finish the animation.

Found two bugs, but could not duplicate them at all. Once the blacksmith allowed me to walk away mid-conversation, making me unable to interact with anything else again or open the menu. I could resolve it with walking back to him and talking again. When I first entered the mines, there were some momentary freezes. Never happened again, even on a new save. Never crashed.

Took me reading the controls and some experimenting, to figure out that what I thought was a huge bullet, was actually my grappling hook (Explaining why it didn't hurt anyone). Maybe you should try to have it ejected from one of the sides, so it's rope-hookness is more obvious to the first time viewer.

Switching between the gun and the hook is unintuitive. Since using the hook is exclusive with the guns, it would be reasonable to assume that you would switch to it the same way as you would with the guns. That said, I am not sure if you should keep the guns and the hook exclusive to each other, and instead not let the player swing and gun and the same time. It is the name of the game after all.

You also need a health bar, because I do not know how close I am to dying, and even need a few seconds to figure out I am dead, as no end screen appears, I only lose control as the fade out is very slow.

You could also do some sort of view of the objective, so the player knows what they are looking for.

Enemies move too much into your face, obstructing your view is their main way of killing you, aside from swarming you.

Your level is nice though. Probably doesn't have the versatility to get through 30 of them without becoming stale, but it is a great start, and adding some color variation should be much easier than the work you've already put into it. Looking forward to more.

The intro needs the same some sort of skip mechanism as the rest of the in-game text. Not because I don't care, and want to skip the whole thing, but because when I've read a line, don't want to wait 4 more seconds for the next one. 

If I'd have to describe the overall vibe of the Story Mode, I would call it endearing. Characters are archetypal, but they are executed well, and got chemistry. You start to care. Looking forward to seeing more, and how the other characters from the challenge screen fit into it.

I have wrote the game off as "not my kind of game", but I swear it's like it clicked halfway through. Then I lost the focus again, and went back to being bad, but that is a really engaging puzzle here, with room for the player's skills to grow. Found no bugs.

In tutorial 2 you can leave the room boundaries through the place where the enemies spawn in.  I admit, it happened, because I was sleep deprived, and didn't notice the real door, only focusing through the hard to reach place, but it happened.

Otherwise no bugs have been found, everything seems smoothly working. Didn't get far as I suck, but otherwise seems like the same competent game as it used to be.

It is nice when a demo has some sort of vibe going on, and isn't just functional. I like the vibe of this roguelike, as we are some sort of experiment trying to delve deeper underground. It's cool to be able to clock on people and listen to what they say.

UI is functional, but needs bigger fonts, or options to get bigger fonts. The pop-up messages are too fast, and the tooltips are to tiny to be comfortable.

Fights often seem simply unwinnable. It might be just the roguelike aspect but so far out of 6 fights that weren't the starter fight, I've lost 4. Your starter deck is really bad, even if we get a card by selecting one of the three options in the beginnig, and easily win the first fight. Like coming across some robot and a nerd that constantly heal each other, and I cannot damage them enough.

Levels often seem too big compared to the moves you can make, and the character and monsters are a little too tiny as a result.

Maybe some quick buttons would be nice to select cards fast. Like press 4 if I want to use the fourth.

Came across nothing that looks like a bug.

Not into porny 2D platformers, but it was funny, and the demo could actually be finished which is something on its own already. The monsters only have one move each, even though they are a little fast. You can counter them to death with no issues, they also just come one at the time. Keep going!

There is a lot to say. Been seeing this game for quitea while, so I'm glad I've actually got around trying it. I kinda wish I would have made some footage, because this is the kind of game where the biggest help for you is seeing how I dick around and whether things work as intended or not. For example, I am not sure that when you can backflip from a wall you are sliding down of, pressing dash right away gets you a little higher than you started. Making you able to rubberband up walls you would fall off of otherwise.

Been a while since I have seen a title where you can do so many things with your action character. (Pretty slick design by the way.) Usually a game would be satisfied with the melee this one can do. Or the shooting this one can do, or the parkour this one can do. This results with the player still finding buttons half an hour later he had no idea of. Not that is a criticism. You are not bound by stamina, so you can mash any and all the buttons, and experiment yourself.

Also amazing particle effect, you really feel the power. Though maybe it is too much power. With the pin-point accuracy of your gun from 500 meters. The near-endless grappling hook is really powerful, on the cursed levels you can really feel it missing. You have really great mechanics, moving fluidly, but this game will live and die by its level design. Also, sound. Can't wait to hear it, if it's half as good as the animation.

The hunt challenge I did the best consistently. The way enemies ragdoll, make it uncertain whether they have been beaten or not. And since they lie down to anything, it gets harder to hit them, as you try to kick their ass. Tougher enemies too, you don't feel like you are hurting them much. 

Had no issues running it

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