I mostly use Epic and GOG (There are some issues for me with the MS store, but not anything like the issues with Steam).
And the point of posting here was that this game hadn't been confirmed to be coming to any store other than Steam. Saying "just use other stores" doesn't help when the game you're asking to be released on other stores hasn't been confirmed to be coming to any other stores yet.
It's funny, because the control scheme had nostalgia feels for me xD I can see why others would dislike it, but didn't think of it myself, because it's still a somewhat familiar control scheme to my ancient brain.
Some systems have issues with installers for various apps for various reasons. Steam isn't installable on every PC (and that includes not working on some modern hardware, not just that your system specs are too low or something). Some people have issues with Steam for other reasons as well (like the fact that Valve has been knowingly refusing to fix issues causing their launcher to be a health risk in some cases). Plenty of reasons to be glad that the game will eventually be coming out elsewhere - it has a store page on Epic (yes, Steam is actually bad enough for some people to make Epic look good by comparison).
When using 16:10 resolution, the game uses 16:9 and cuts off the edges of the screen (so I only see "credi" instead of "credits"). Would be better to letterbox it, kind of weird that doing it wrong was even an option in Unity?
This might get more attention if it was... like... playable? Maybe?
Right now, it's literally a non-interactible menu. Click play? Nothing. Press any key on the keyboard? Nothing. Plug in a gamepad? Nothing. It's a nice menu apart from the whole "doesn't work" thing, and the music isn't bad. But it's just music and a non-functional menu. That's not even worth the 26MB download.
Yeah, at the moment, it feels like a more involved tech tree would be nice (it's not bad as-is, but more would be nice), and more varied factions would help change things up without adding to the length of the game too much. Sounds fun! And thanks for sharing those plans!
This game is a lot simpler than most strategy games in this style, but that makes it a fun game to pick up and play for a quick run, instead of becoming a slog over the span of several weeks to get to an endgame point.
-Dismemberment: Oooooh I really like this! Very cool that you can take both arms and inflict wounds all over! The kick makes them drop faster, which is helpful sometimes. I think the time the bodies stay "active" for this might need tweaking slightly (it's just a tiny bit too long rn), but it's a very fun setup! -Archers: *YES!* these are scary, but not OP! Very cool! -Air teleport/catch: Nice! Feels much less jank when you teleport to the sword after a bounce, you can transition directly into an attack instead of having to wait for your feet to hit the ground! -Parry buff: Small bonus, but feels like it makes the perfect parry more rewarding. It was nice to catch occasionally but didn't feel as important to aim for as it probably should. Nice! -Recall sound bug: Didn't see this often anyway, but cool! -Control direction: This is unfamiliar but I'm starting to get used to it. More control is nice here! -Revive costs all fireflies: This is a nerf, but feels like a needed one. And you can still only use 1 firefly to revive, if that's all you have. Very happy to see this! -Kick bug fix: Yay!
Everything about this update is good times. Thank you! (if I run into any bugs, I'll let you know, but haven't so far)
I'm about 70% sure after seeing this twice in similar circumstances, that it's caused by colliding with a boss inside a black hole. Boss + singularity + my ship = crash.
Realistically speaking, this is a minor issue, but the game only has dedicated fullscreen, no borderless mode. I'd love to see the options for display to be expanded for this. If you have to choose one (some engines make it hard to include both fullscreen options), borderless is much more friendly to modern PCs, and has been for most of the past decade. Also, game's not easy on a new player, but that's a skill issue, not the game xD
From various users I've seen discussing the issues, there's been more than half a dozen separate specific problems identified, but also a few instances (like at least 1 of my issues) where the details are harder to pin down in a definite way.
The most obvious and easily tested one requires a relatively large library, when it gets into the range of 50+ (depending on screen resolution and zoom settings), scrolling through your library can cause very obvious visible flickering effects as the app re-loads already-loaded assets instead of just keeping them in memory while off-screen. This behaviour in several parts of the app is also responsible for memory leaks which can in some instances result in entire system crashes if you leave your PC running with Steam in the background for long enough. That's extremely rare, but the app eating upwards of 4GB of RAM is fairly common on PCs which are left to run for longer periods of time without restarting.
One of the (very) few issues they actually did fix was that many game icons were animated, and there wasn't any way to disable those animations. So they added the option. Except not really, because when they first added the option, it didn't work. So they "fixed" it. And it only took about 6 months of them "fixing" it repeatedly before it ended up actually getting fixed.
I was about 90% sure the reason for the spinning was that the animations didn't exist yet xD good to have that confirmed, and glad to hear the other feedback is being looked at too! Keep being awesome!
Enemies have animations for blocking and dying to attacks from behind, so it works when you block and spin past them, or otherwise get yourself behind them. If your sword is behind an enemy and you throw it at their back, they instant-spin to block it as an attack from in front, though, and a lethal hit spins them just before the sword hits too.
That said, very cool new feature, and got more chances to test bugfixes from previous updates and all seems good. Also, really liking all the new sounds. The one thing about the audio which feels least good to me is that the kick sounds the same even when you're following up the body split attack. That one seems like it probably deserves a different sound.
Also, when you teleport to the sword after a bounce, teleporting into the air locks you into your grounded stance, and you can't attack until you land. Also, if your sword is on the ground and you try jumping over it, you get pulled down onto the sword instead of being able to continue over it. There's no way to get past your sword without retrieving it. Feels fine in other interactions, but weird on the jump.
It's also fun if you throw the sword and it lands on the ground, then you hold the throw button for a half second, and the sword does a little flip and bounces towards you xD
Did a quick run through things and... feels like it keeps getting better! O_o Some weirdness with holding the attack button to spawn enemies after summoning the level 3 fire god ability, but it's cool enough that I'd argue it's an accidental feature and not a bug.
After reinstalling (which I did to see if it would fix some of the audio troubles), the level 2 attack still fires off with a quick tap of shift+enter, but only if I have at least 2 fireflies. Still working correctly in survival.
Did a quick test and found a solution. Apparently, the install had bugged on my end. Re-downloading the file and reinstalling the game fixed the issues with the clash sounds playing every time. Only partly fixed the problem I reported with the phoenix fire attack being unavailable in training area though. (posting more info on that on the update page)
Regardless if I have 1, 2, or 3 fireflies, if I fire off the level 1 shift+enter, it consumes 1 firefly, but fires the level 1 attack. As mentioned, works correctly in the survival mode, this is only a bug in training.
-Heartburn hit sound doesn't play consistently, and when it does, it sounds like a hit with a sword, not like a heart ripping punch (I think it's the same audio from the focus thrust).
-The beheading strike, the split attack, and spin attack, all have clash sounds which play no matter what. Hit the enemy guard? Sounds normal. Hit their flesh? Sounds like they blocked, even as their death animation plays. Miss completely? Still sounds like someone blocked it.
-The sound effect for a kill with a basic attack (combo or aerial) sounds more like paper being torn than flesh being cut. This is oddly, slightly less noticeable in the survival mode than in the training area (because of how the sound interacts with the music).
-Obviously, some things are still missing sfx. Kicks, level 2 flame,
-The hit sounds for the focus thrust, running slash, and anything but the first hit of the spinning slash, are really good. So are the blade clash sfx, when they play at appropriate times.
That said, I feel like "attack = interact" will cause problems. Like, for example, when you've spawned an enemy in the training area, and want to attack them, but are still standing on the "press space to spawn enemies" area... Oops, more enemies!
Couple of things: 1. "Demo is now live" - no it's not. No option to pick it up here. 2. Please *DON'T* make the game Steam exclusive. You've done that before and it's unfortunate. I have good reasons to avoid anything that's locked behind Steam, and there are others who avoid it where possible for less extreme reasons than mine.
Update feedback: I like the music! Indoor music sounds chill and thematic. The survival music is a bit rough around the edges. It feels like you could do with volume control though (more important once there's sfx to go with the music, so you can balance them against one another).
Also, there's still a bug where you use 1 to pause then hit escape and it unpauses.
The best place to contact me in private would probably be my Discord account (it's the same name I use here). When it comes to keys, Steam has been a non-option for me for a long time now, for reasons it's probably sensible not to go into detail about on here. Long story.
2nd attack bug: Fixed! lvl 3 interrupt bug: Fixed! lvl 3 infinite duration bug: I had it happen once randomly (the first time I launched after installing the new version). Isn't reproducible like it had been with the interrupt bug though. So fixed-ish?
And the ghost hit bug is also less consistent now, but still sometimes happens.
From my testing so far in the new build, the bug never triggers when the combo includes: -a missed attack. -a hit which breaks an enemy's guard. -a hit which kills an enemy. It also only triggers on an enemy who got a knockback effect from the attack that hit them, which usually comes from the final hit of the combo. It won't trigger every time those conditions are met, and I don't know what, if any, other conditions might be relevant. When I knock an enemy back and they end up next to a second enemy, sometimes the ghost hit will stagger both of them, but that's not consistent either.
So... more desktop version weirdness. Both of these, I've tested on the web version and confirmed they're exclusively happening on desktop.
-The 2nd attack in the combo still passes through 0-block enemies without killing them. This was an old bug, still happening consistently.
-If you land all 3 hits of your own combo on an enemy, and it doesn't break their guard, there's a 4th "ghost hit" on them after they get knocked back. Sometimes, it hits multiple enemies if they're close together.
And a fun one which happens in both versions: -Activate level 3 divine flame, while at least one enemy is still in a death animation, and get a firefly. -Get killed while the ability is still active, which makes it vanish. -Resurrect, because you got a firefly. -When the timer should run out on the level 3, you collapse as if it's still going.
I also had it glitch out once after triggering this bug on desktop, where the next time I summoned the level 3, the timer didn't trigger. Doesn't seem consistent on this, though.
That makes sense. If you can only counterattack off the final hit in an enemy's combo, that's already consistent. It's just consistent in a way players will learn over time. A lot of games have mechanics like this, or ones where you can counter some enemies anytime, but others only off certain attacks.
