itch.io

Thanks a lot!!!

Hey again!

Life got in the way, so I only managed to find the time/focus to work on bits which aren't necessary for the beta release (still happy with the progress). But I'll finally have some free time starting October, so I'm currently planning out the work.

Thanks for checking in!!!

Very satisfying!

Jumping/flipping/tricking takes a lot of practice. But first person camera flipping isn't implemented yet?

Don't think I tried everything yet, but I'm looking for more.

Only issue so far was that the menu would lock down after quitting a map, so I had to restart.

Will pass this on to my nephew, he loves computer rage videos, kek.

Player-prev.log https://pastebin.com/ejbKMe2F
Player.log https://pastebin.com/asNxT5xm

This is really an interesting design issue. Reminds me of Bushido Blade, getting thrown in right away. What about some sort of branching prologue?

> You throw the player into a boss fight right away

>> If the player gets stomped, the player goes into a tutorial section

>>> After the tutorial section, the player has to either redo the first boss, or go on with the second boss (with the first boss reappearing later)

>> If the player already has the skills, the tutorial section is skipped (optional)

Or maybe unlocking pratice sessions. After a loss, the player unlocks an optional training session. Maybe based on the performance, like: never parried => how to parry.

Beta generally means feature complete, so I was confused as I thought this was an alpha. Not that it matters ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Visibility is hell. UI and weapons are too big. Weapons, muzzle and bullets cover almost all of the center screen. But fun theme. Why "beta" tho? lol

Ok, this time had the crash when transitioning from the tutorial level. But on second try it worked and could fight Saber Louise. But damn, I hardly deal any damage :o Girl's too thicc

Update: finally beat it. Took me more than 50 minutes. 20 Minutes to reach the Fox. Trying to parry seemed like a death sentence as so many attacks would hail down on me, eventually I'd get hit. Stayed mid range, as this would work well against her attacks.

In the first few attempts, getting her down to the sequence she would lose her jacket. In later tries she kept the jacket?

Didn't manage to parry a single projectile the entire time :(

What's a normal time to beat those bosses? I feel I'm doing something extremely wrong.

I see, yes, I'm on 2 screens.

About the button mashing: I didn't mean to remove it entirely, but to maybe add a more challenging variant/modifier. Can be both fun as a harder mode, but also (for me personally) it helps building better habits. With games like this, I know that if I can cheat my way through it, my brain will eventually go in energy saving mode and I'll end up with poor gameplay habits, instead of properly thinking about I'm doing.

Good luck!

How "big" will be the intro to the final game? Do you want the player to jump right into the action? With this type of game I could see a tutorial like Metal Gear:Solid's VR Training work well, set in a hidden village or whatever. So, rather than funneling the player through a tutorial, you give them the choice to "level up" their skills by fighting/practicing with teachers. Basically what you have now, just more focused on individual lessons.
"All abilities are unlocked from the start, and it's up to you to master how to use them." can be tough to get most players into the game. Personally I like it, but I find it difficult to design well.

With the orange bar, there's a lot going on at once for a newb.

Not sure if there was an actual error message, but after the second enemy appeard (girl sitting in field) it just blacked out and nothing. Where are the error logs located? I'll see if it happens again.

Made me sweat and yell "CAM'AN!" quite a bit. Also, feeling pretty dizzy now. Level 16 fucked. But beat the game eventually. Took me far too long to confirm that my hitbox is indeed the small sphere.

Other than that:

• first 5 or so levels seemed too easy even to get into. Not sure if I like the curve.
• the portals and player death smoke graphics clash with the overall style
• lacking stick control/ I didn't feel like I had enough control about micro adjustmens/tiny movements
• crystals(?) clutter up too much for my taste (I tried to collect them anyways just to simulate what it'd be like in the end)
• auto-shoot would make sense

Overall very nice polish in all fields. Didn't encounter any bugs.

Having a million missiles from the start was surprising. But not bad in any way.

Hmm... Didn't play for long, as the game crashed/locked same as Tada. Maybe I'll try again some other time.

I like both fps and golf games, but the few attempts I made didn't grab me.

First off, something feels off-center with the golf aiming. Not sure if it's the aiming itself, or because of the shotgun, but when I feel like I should shoot straight, the line shows a slightly different angle.

Also, not sure if I misunderstod something about the power, but I don't think I could control the power with left click. Maybe I did, but always shot at max power? Can't really tell.

The dialogue is annoyingly slow. Make it faster or allow it to go faster when holding E.

Info dumping is annoying.

Holding a button (UI) for it to charge is annoying.

When I pressed the button to bring up the game field, the explanation was shown, but afterwards I had to press the button again to finally bring up the field.

Didn't play much, so can't say much.

Forgot about the ability to restart, so I only tried 1 run. Barely killed the first boss on second attempt, got stomped by the chair man (I was too stupid and kept running into the pattern).

Basic premise is great.

Aiming at mouse cursor is weird.

Didn't grasp the combo/weaving system with the special attack.

Not sure what feedback you're looking for.

I think I played a version of this last year?

Don't like the game-feel at all. But a bigger problem is, trying the demo is just a pain. Add a level selection option and add some checkpoints for quicker tests.

But back to the game-feel: It's just boring at this moment. The movement is not enjoyable. No sense of speed, no way to accelerate or control speed. No feeling of weight. I don't think I played the game you based this on, so I'm not sure what kind of gameplay you're going for.

Also, the steering just feels off. Maneuvering through the obstacles is weird, because of how quickly I turn.

Not sure what kind of feedback you're looking for, but the base movement needs a lot of focus.

Almost didn't try the game. On first start the window was completely fucked ("fullscreen", but only half of the screen was visible). Couldn't get to any options menu to reset fullscreen/windowed to maybe fix it. Tried to start the game, but only got a black screen (couldn't see the loading text, and loading took forever).

On second start everythig was working fine. Loading was quick, too.

Windows/fullscreen option would've been nice. Not sure if I missed it.

Directly went to story mode as I expected the tutorial would be inside there. Was confused about getting shown "Episode 4" right away (only read your changelog after), after which I was brought back to the main menu. Went to solo mode, expecting a tutorial there. Played the challenge mode the first time, which I didn't enjoy without wrapping my head around the movement first.

Finally found the How To Play section. Expected/would've liked to have an interactive tutorial, not just explanations, but was nicely done otherwise.

Tried the challenge mode again. Slowly got the hang of it. Even got a kyubu-kyubu-niceu-diceu-lucky-whatever-quad-combo. Around level 30 it got too fast for me, while still trying to wrap my head around the movement. Forgot to hit record before, but you can see me button mashing.

I don't like the controls. Right for down-right and Up for up-right, etc... I'd either prefer to play with the numpad (1,3,7,9) or have some sort of indicator which button corresponds with which direction on screen (preferably on the dice itself). At least to internalize the controls.

The #3 needs more contrast around the dots.

Also, when I "exit" the game from the menu, please don't take me to another exit screen.

Fun game with fantastic level of polish and juice. Gameplay gives me a feeling of Tetris when the speed gets fast. Personally I could see myself enjoying the puzzle mode a lot, challenging friends.

Will there something that "punishes" button mashing? Like a harder mode where you lose lives when doing a wrong move or puzzles with limited moves? When I'd hit a combo I often just button mash in the hopes of hitting any correct number.

Niceu desu.

Haven't played Sekiro ever or any game of that kind a long time, but it felt very easy to get into.
However, the tutorial was too text heavy for my taste. Also, I wouldn't always lock on to the dummy? Not sure if I missed something (would've to check the vid), but I expected the slide tackle to hit the dummy (it later worked when trying it on Jin).

Fighting Jin was fun and intense, as I expected him to be "dead" when down the first time (I didn't pay any attention to the bars - what's the orange bar for?). I also thought I could down attack him somehow?

Learning to parry projectiles while fighting him was interesting. However, reading the info text while fighting is sucky. It took me out of the fight. Just took a glimpse of "projectile, parry, RB", only later trying to read the whole text to make sure I didn't miss any information while dodging his attacks. At the very least I'd highlight the keywords red (if not shorten the text altogether).

The combat severly lacks feedback over the amount of damage I took or how much HP I have left. During my first fight I thought I had him in the back easily, but was surprised how low my HP was. The healthbar isn't really eyecatching enough for me. I'd prefer to have some sort of indicator, where I don't have to look away from the fight.

During the fight I didn't like to heal. Somehow felt wrong. Winning the fight without healing was much more satisfying.

Mid fight, I tried to kick, but forgot I had to switch to that ability. Somehow thought that kicking was a base ability. Or maybe I misremember.

Tried to dodge his grabs, don't think I ever got it.

Jumping onto the lantern was neat.

During the fight I thought I was very much in control of what I'm doing, even though I can't say that I knew what I was doing.

Played with gamepad, but no option to rebind? And obviously needs more gamepad-UI integration.

Also, just noticed looking back at the video, there's an orange bar, too, for myself... Also, didn't see the "Healing" info text at all.

Game kinda crashed after the fight. The next scene would load eventually, but then crashed completely.

That's my first impression. Any specific feedback or critizism you're looking for?

Much appreciated!

Hey Zee! Happy New Year!

I wasn't happy with the state of the "game" parts of the game, so I had to rework some core design bits, which took some time to figure out. But I finally got to the point where I can focus on pushing towards release again.

I had hoped to get an EarlyAccess build out before December, but that was a little bit too ambitious. But (again without making promises) I'm currently aiming for EarlyAccess within Q2 the latest.

So, yeah, I'm happy with the current state of the game and I'm pushing towards a release asap.

Thanks for your interest, really means a lot <3

Heyo! Not making any promises, but hopefully within the next 3 months.

Thanks for your continued interest <3

>all of them

Noted!

>shift the level design to be doable with player's current momentum and position

That was originally the case, while the speed was constant, lol. I'm working to get there again. Thought of a L4D style director too, that would make the game more or less intense periodically based on how you play.

>As in the car making sound while player inputs direction change

I think I get what you mean.

Sweet! Thanks for the feedback and the video!

It's just meant to mean 出口  Exit, but the extra bars were meant to make the 口 look like a garage door.

Looking at your video, the cones at the beginning shouldn't be like that, lol. Neither should the traffic be so tight. Somehow the time is sped up by factor 2 or 3... Thanks for the video, that's veeeery important feedback lmao. Oh my...

Yes, it's completely exaggerated on purpose to see how much is too much.

And the UI... blergh, yes. I just put everything on there I could think of. Half the stuff doesn't even have a purpose yet.

Appreciate the indepth commentary!

For now I'm just happy that the health system actually allows to finish a level. Without it's even more of a mess.

And nice that you tried it without the effects. That was my first goal of the entire project, to see how effects can affect gameplay and how much is too much. You mean all of the flashing freeze frames or specific ones on your own car or on other objects?

I'm not sure yet about the burnout effect. At first I just wanted to see if I could. I'm thinking about turning it into an ability (haven't worked on that part yet) that would deal damage or cause confusion or something, but only available to drift-style cars. The bike and porsche don't have the effect if I'm right. But yes, right now it's just of a punishment for hectic steering.

The lag issue has been on my mind. Definitely a big problem.

Kansei Thefto was a port from a previous game that a friend asked me to implement because he likes to driver over pedestrians, lol. I haven't yet implement more police/heat variations that would appear.

I appreciate the commitment to beating it! The vertical slice right now is more or less a "throw everything in there" type of deal. Your experience matches my expectations. It's far too messy and too much "meh, can't do anything about it". I'm not sure yet in which direction to go, I might just split it into multiple different games.

Rapid panic clicking could make the lateral momentum stabilize for a short while as a crutch and for squeezing between cars.

Interesting. I've been experimenting with a slowmotion effect already for a way to deal with this.

Could be cool to have a drift change sound to vibe to the music through the drift rhythm.

I'm not sure what you mean with drift change sound? But having the music somehow interact with the game in multiple ways was on my mind as well, similar to Eternal Climax. No idea how to work with music though.

What if driving into other cars from the side was more generous and you could push them aside to actually be able to intentionally affect elements in the level with explosions or road blocking?

Yes, that's something on my mind as well. For now I have a small mass system integrated, which determines (extra) damage based on speed, and speed loss. For instance, the truck has enough mass that you won't loss speed when hitting pedestrians.

Thank you very much for the feedback and ideas!

• thought the experience bar/half-orb/half-ring was missing health that I couldn't recover
• the characters should have nice round butts
• fighting animations look like rock-paper-scissors (which is funny)
• couldn't get the wand to work
• Escape keeps throwing me out of fullscreen when I want to just pause
• too many shortened words without enough explanation, like SpR I thought was spell resistance not SP(?)-regeneration?
• I keep pressing escape to close windows (inventory, attribute window etc)
• only saw the ability tab at the end of my play session, still haven't quite figured out how to unlock any ability

Overall the combat and movement could be faster, maybe 10-20%. Great foundation. Not sure why I got melted the first time around. Forgot I had to save. But there's decent amount of progression already, got me hooked a little.

Nice foundation.

No commentary video. I could've sworn I played much longer than just a few minutes, but I had to go.

I won. It's a little laggy. Also, digusting flesh potion.

Haha, I see! Best of luck then. I'll keep an eye out.

I can't give you anything specific, but I wouldn't shy away from giving the eye more character and personality. Eyes like that can be cute and expressive. Maybe some simple emoji-like reactions. Depends on what you have in mind for your game.

Oh my, haha. If you want to go down that route, I probably wouldn't start the tutorial level with such a tough approach. I mean, I didn't even know how anything works yet, what my options are, etc... After dying there was not much of a learning aspect. I just thought "Ok, I died fast. No idea why or how... guess I'll just skip everything then." Then I died again. And I was out of options, lol.

I did make use of some power up ring that would empower my next attack I think. And the health potion. The ring of frost spell I didn't even had a chance to use. At least not in combat, because I died so fast.

The bats I thought would be easy, because they were the second enemy type I encountered and generally bats aren't something I'd expect to be tough opponents.

I guess high stakes can make sense, when you know what you're doing. But it can be equally annoying depending on what you want your game to be. For instance, I like games like Dungeon Siege, Divinity or the WC3 Rexxar Campaign. But I'd save often because losing a lot of progress would be a chore. However, repeating a single encounter could be enjoyable. Then again, sometimes I'd want to play hardcore for the higher stakes and permanent decisions. It all depends.

FYI: Never played these games before. Gave up in the first level after I fell down quite a bit (the umbthteenth time).

• initial tutorial window has no prompt to close the window
• Sometimes I couldn't associate the input on the game pad stick with what's on screen. Not always, but sometimes. It felt weird, hard to describe.
• I don't like the look of the eye. It looks boring for something that's at the center for all of the time.
• many many many times I would swing-jump in one direction when I only wanted to bring myself into position, so I had to be extra slow with my input to not trigger a swing-jump

Other than that it plays smoothly.

No commentary video.

I see. Is the first level meant to be that hard? First the bats almost killed me, then the skeleton one shot me on my first run. Taking damage felt somewhat random and extremely hard hitting.

I had some criticism but didn't write it down (was too busy playing)... so from what I can remember:

• When there's a lot of action and I want to click fast, I misclick the wires. Example: there are 3 dudes, I want to connect all of them to each other, so I click on them 1 2 3. Obviously that doesn't work because I have to click: 1 2 - 2 3. Maybe it's in the game but I missed it, but it'd be nice if it would auto-connect to the last "socket" if possible.
• The generators don't look like generators. Was pretty weird in the beginning to understand how a yellow cube represented a generator. Also, shooting the generator was not obivous.
• I hope there will be more gadgets to interact with like phones, lamps, AC, etc..
• Who's the guy in the toilet?

No commentary video.

Died twice on the first mission. Once to the skeletons, once to some undead stag? No idea.

Went alone, because I couldn't figure out how to add people to the party.

I still suck at the bullet mechanic.

• the pipes leading the way in the tutorial are nice
• Still would love to have more horizontal space to get the hang of it. Right now I'm basically learning how to play the wrong way by being thrown right into the action, so I'll resort to what works.
• new enemies are nice
• platforms are now easier to see
• Was struggling with the rope mechanic, having to press W/up to attach. Gave me some cramps.
• I'm still spamming space when jumping
• no idea how to properly fight the first boss without having the bullet mechanic down
• on the final boss, I had sometimes trouble seeing the projectiles, they need more contrast against bright backgrounds
• Can you only ever activate 1 of the upgrades? Or are they all active once unlocked?

I think it's still too tight and cluttered for beginners. With unorthodox mechanics I think it's extra important to give the players space to get used to it. Makes me think of how Portal did it step by step over several levels before you can use both portals.

No commentary video.

• kinda jittery
• fov change when moving seems weird considering you're probably not going fast?
• sensitivity obviously too high
• head bobbing is subtle enough to not get annoying for me
• jumping feels good

Game crashed on the first dummy.

The itch page needs screenshots. Normally I wouldn't look at games that don't have any.

From the few seconds played, I didn't the vibe that the poster image shows (the lack of red mostly).

No commentary video.

Oh Lord... Finally beat the Rise and Shine bonus level. Took me almost 15 minutes to figure out the trick. I thought I had to somehow put the fairy down without throwing...

Also finished the test levels. Works well. Not sure about Ice Trap bonus level. I'd assume it's an acutaly trap with the frozen button block? Anyways, that level was somewhat hectic and I failed once or twice because I forgot to press when standing at the flag.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah, ok. I totally missed the "Setup controls" option. I was sure I had checked for it at the beginning. Now looking at it again I remembered why and I missed it again, because I thought it's the header of the menu and not a button, since the text is centered and the form of the button is the same as the menu box. Also, the other options underneath have the checkbox which make it clear that these are clickable. And also, the controls menu is buried a layer deeper than the other options.
Compared to the Screen option which has a drop down arrow. I'd either separate controls into it's own window (4th option), or set the text left bound and add a button graphic (like the back button) with a right arrow -> to make it clear that there's a submenu.

I'm too tired to get really into it, so I can't say much. It looks cute and fun. Plays fluently.

Made a video - no commentary though. If you have any specific questions let me know.

Got stuck in a menu screen, when researching a skill or something. So, only played the tutorial.

When getting the third character, it wasn't clear at first that I had to do a combo kill. The introduction was too early imo as I didn't even know how the combat works at all.

After that, I think it was necessary to kill all demons in a single turn? That wasn't clear either. I just had to reset because I couldn't proceed while the objective wasn't completed yet. I was looking for a way to end my turn.

Then I played the mission till the end, but it wasn't clear that undoing a turn would result in "time loss". Not sure if I missed it or if it wasn't communicated properly. Anyways, that was annoying.

No commentary video.

Didn't get far before the game got stuck in the first combat.

The initial combat experience is super overwhelming. There are soooo many abilities before I even understood how the basic combat works.

The style and mood is nice though.

No commentary video.