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Thank you for playing and the detailed feedback!

About the shooting while spinning/dashing: originally I didn’t allow shooting during that state mostly because of animation limitations, and then I started designing around that restriction intentionally. My thinking was that there generally shouldn’t be situations where you need to shoot while mid-air spinning, and that sometimes trading combat options for mobility could add a bit of decision-making during fights, along with the fact that some things can only be damaged with the spin. That said, I do understand your point about it sometimes feeling like the game is ignoring your input rather than challenging your execution. Even if the mechanic ends up staying the same (I'll keep thinking about it) I'll at least add stronger feedback when a shot is buffered/blocked so it helps communicate what’s happening better.

As for enemy readability and interaction rules, my reasoning so far has been that some inconsistencies are acceptable if they don’t meaningfully punish the player or create situations where the “correct” interaction is unclear in a high-pressure moment. For example, with the mining penguins, I mostly treat them as movement tools/trampolines rather than combat targets (you could even sort of softlock yourself if you kill some of them). But I do think your point about clearer visual language is fair, especially regarding what is hazardous, destructible, or intangible at a glance. I have tweaked designs before because of this and will continue to do so in the future.

On the difficulty side, you're right that the goal was never really “Kaizo” in the hardcore romhack sense. I mostly wanted to make something challenging for myself and a few friends who already play a lot of difficult platformers, while still being below the level of stuff like high-end SMW hacks or extreme SMM levels. In my head it’s closer to something slightly above the harder DKCR/DKTF content or more recent indie games like PsiloSybil, Zexion or UFO50. The in-game difficulty ratings are also relative to the rest of the game, not to platformers as a whole. So a 1 star stage isn’t meant to imply “easy” universally, but I can see how that could be misleading.

I have used the term “Kaizo” in some places because that’s how a lot of players ended up describing it (and I don't think it implies unfairness), but I’ve also tried to make the descriptions clear enough that people can gauge the type of challenge beforehand (now I'll add 'precision-platformer'). If I don't end up making it easier my hope is that the free demo at least communicates the experience more accurately than trailers or wording alone probably can, so people don't spend money on something they wouldn’t enjoy.

Anyway, I appreciate the thoughtful critique.

fair. You can also use [wasd + shift + space + left click] instead of zxc by the way

I’ll add remapping eventually, I’ve just been lazy. Though I don’t know what else you’d put on a platformer besides WASD + Space / arrow keys + Z

Guessing you mean the inertia and gravity and not the key mappings... Git gud

I appreciate the feedback, your thoughts on the difficulty are valid, but it's definitely possible to go fast. I like placing obstacles in a way that lets players 1-cycle sections if they know what they're doing, so I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "punishing me for going fast." That said, the pacing is definitely different from a traditional run n gun since the main focus is really on the platforming.

By the nature of cycle-based obstacles, if you miss your window you'll have to wait, but there are also situations where there are other opportunities that you may not have considered at first. I do think I need to get better at subtly hinting at some of those so players can have an easier time. For example, some players never realized you can do a charged shot, or that certain platforms are semi-solid, which can let you skip cycles you might have thought were mandatory. Hopefully in the future I can get the game in a state more people are able to enjoy.

Thank you for playing. The only reason I’m hesitant to add something like that is because it could tempt someone who’s just on the verge of being able to do it, but I think it could work if I make it clearly separated somehow. People who like the grind will do it regardless, so hopefully by version 1.0 or sooner I’ll have a decent solution for everyone

Thanks for checking it! and sorry it frustated you, I'll be more upfront about the challenge

• I had an issue with the lighting that made things much darker but I still managed to reach the end of the demo, though I don’t think I did all the fights. I left my specs in the video description in case it helps
• After beating the Pseudoscorpion Q, the fight in the room right before became inaccessible (maybe intentional?)
• It felt too easy to almost get softlocked when walking around tight spaces with Katrina
• The AI pathfinding seems a little too cheesable, like with the audience at the beginning getting stuck at the firepit
• I personally thought the difficulty was ok, maybe even a bit on the easy side since I didn't need to learn that your accuracy increases when attacking from behind or any other deeper mechanics. And the only other game like this I've played is Phantom Brave

Overall I enjoyed it, good luck!

Thanks for playing and the feedback! difficulty is very high indeed but I do try to make it possible to 1-cycle most obstacles and go pretty fast, so it might be the strategy at use. Older versions were even harder so rest assured I'll keep tuning things further

Thanks for playing on stream and for the feedback, really helpful!

Ty for playing, and yes I'll add an option to disable it

Will do, good idea and thanks for playing!

About the telemetry idea: I think it could be cool to do for a more casual oriented game but this one is very much intended to be niche (but fair) so I don't think it would be that helpful. Also idk how to do that on a technical level lol

The platforms are not supposed to drop you, it seems the game might have been filtered by your pc. Did it feel like it was running at 60? I think the collision might get wonky at lower framerates. Thanks for trying it!

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Remo...
yea that section is when it gets tuff, thank you for playing!

Understandable, thank you for checking it!

password: choroy

page isn't fully public yet because the current version of the demo is still somewhat unfinished.

Summary of changes since DD65:

• Faster respawn
• Slightly easier level 1
• Save system
• Misc bug fixes
• Added level 2
• Partially added sex

I’m not very familiar with similar games, but I had fun. The easy difficulty was appropriately easy, by the end I found myself wishing it were harder so I’d be forced to engage with the mechanics in a more deliberate and strategic way, which is probably a good thing. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the monochromatic art style, but I’d say it’s well executed. The music and sound effects were also good and everything seemed really polished.

First time playing. I think I got softlocked at 13:15 when fighting the boss. Movement feels really good and all the art and music are beautiful. I’m guessing you probably need all the spiral coins to get Doctor Paloo, but I only found one... Also, if you do a long fall after bouncing from a shotgun blast you get 'stuck' in a smear frame. It looks fine if you fall a normal distance (16:27). It's probably just unfinished but mentioning it just in case.

I think using fighting game-style inputs in a game like this is definitely innovative, that said, my experience with those is mostly just button mashing, so that might explain why I got filtered. I managed to pull out the gun a few times, but then couldn’t when I actually wanted to use it to break a box. That might be because the timing on the button presses feels pretty strict. I also noticed that sometimes I tried to do a high jump and it just wouldn’t come out (whereas the dash for example felt more forgiving). I'd also tone down the screen flashes a bit or at least add an option to do it. Overall though, it’s really promising so far and the presentation looks great. I downloaded yesterday’s build, so that might be why I avoided the slowdown issues other people mentioned(?

Thanks for playing and for the interest! and that's fair, but let's be honest here, even if there was a big reward you'd probably just watch it on youtube.


Hopefully, by next update, when I add saving and tweak things a bit, it'll be a *little* more approachable.

Thank you for playing! and sorry it frustrated you. Thankfully, I managed to get a lot of feedback with this release, so by the next update it should be a little more manageable. That said, I won’t heavily compromise on the difficulty, but I’ll do my best to iron out anything unfair or inconvenient to minimize frustration. I think that if you managed to reach the avalanche section you definitely could’ve finished the demo. You should also consider that by that point you’d probably been playing for a while, since there’s currently no way to save, coming back to it later might make it feel easier.

I'll look into it when I'm closer to release. It shouldn't be a problem performance-wise

I’m dumb, I thought I got lost because I didn’t walk far enough in Marble Oasis to trigger the end screen lol. Other than that, I managed to navigate smoothly. I liked how the map lets you look ahead and is detailed enough so that you can plan where to go without actually having to walk there. I’d say the pacing is perfect as is, but maybe it’s true that zoomers need action to appear faster or maybe closer save points. I also thought for a moment I found a way to cheese the boss (46:29) but he was dealing damage after all, so it seems fine. I played on controller and adjusted the button mappings so I could keep both thumbs on the analog sticks (by jumping with LB and dashing with RT), it was weird doing super metroid wall jumps on stick but it worked. Loved it.

1. Yeah that's my fear, I'll lean into one direction later on.
2. I'll have a level/checkpoint select for future DDs so that people can check out stuff even if they can't beat the game.
3. There are games that have auto charging (e.g. Zexion) but personally that's just not the direction I want to go in, I'll tweak values so that it's not really necessary to use the charge shot and maybe later on there'll be parts with less emphasis on the platforming where it'll make more sense.
4. That's why that's the only part where I had to put text explaining it, still thinking on ways to improve it, but only being able to dash on the ground is an important part of the design (similarly to games like megaman x1/2 and dkc), an air dash would be a whole other thing imo.
Thank you for the feedback!

I'm terrible at FPS games but still had fun. I'm extrinsically motivated, so I need something like a ranking system or score goal to care to improve. Looks, sounds and feels good, didn’t notice anything wrong.

First time player, only thing I found is that when you beat a world and go to the world map, it still says “unfinished” while showing how many stars you got. It displays the time correctly if you select another world and then go back. Extremely polished, with unique and well-executed gimmicks, impeccable flow, and the juiciest UI in gaming. I usually prefer slower games (I found Pizza Tower, for example, too fast for me), but this felt great, the character’s size and the way the camera moved made the speed not a problem. I also managed to get all stars :D I feel like I stole the game with how much content there is in this demo, so you’ve got my purchase guaranteed.

The buttons didn’t show up correctly when first opening the menu, and the stealth worked a little too well (10:40). Other than that, everything felt and looked great.

Fair point. It’s mostly meant for things that hit you on the ground, which admittedly doesn’t happen that often in this level. Even though the knockback is big, I think I was fairly generous with the invincibility frames if you manage not to fall, so I’ll try to further adjust the knockback force and duration (it’s also tied to how fast you were going when hit) Thank you for checking it out.

Ty for playing! And yeah, it’s not for everyone. It’s my autistic vision for the game to be this difficult, I just don’t want it to feel unfair. I’ll probably add things like a quick respawn like in some SMW hacks or a low-effort assist mode with save states.

Thank you very much for playing and for the video! I think the issue with bouncing off penguins is that some players think you need to time your input to bounce higher, when you actually just have to hold jump. I had a hard time making things like that clear, and I’ll definitely try to improve it. I agree about the input leniency, and yeah, for future DDs I’ll add a level/checkpoint select since this demo didn’t save progress.

I meant the jump at 45:25, looking again at the footage it might just be a skill issue

the camera worked well on my controller, by 'analog input' I mean having the camera move slower when the stick is closer to the center and faster when it’s pushed further out. Not a necessity by any means, just a nitpick/personal preference.