itch.io

Revised opinion with the hotfix to the aiming issue.

Swap is still my favourite ability for fun factor, but I think orb might be better at dealing with Greg. I'm still bad with vortex, but that's a "me" problem, not an issue with the controls.   

Nice, thank you for a quick fix! And immediately after the fix, I won for the first time with an ability other than swap. The ability to aim it properly makes orb really useful! I can confidently say that my issues with using vortex are purely my own, it seems good but I'm bad with it xD going to need practise on that one!

And this one just because it's a cool pic lol

And I got a new high score...

Sample of the spawn locations being spread apart more than usual, with a bonus of Greg moving during cutscene:

ok... so... with new control remapping, I felt more confident trying out the other abilities. I still have the original build too, so I can compare the changes between the two.

In both builds, the "release to throw" input on the blue orb throws you in the current movement direction, and releases the orange orb to drift based on its direction when you release the button. When holding the orange orb though, the "release to throw" input used to always throw toward the cursor, and now it doesn't. If there's no button mapped onto a mouse click (or if the "ability 2" button is the only one, since it doesn't seem to function yet), it throws in the direction of movement, and with at least one mouse button mapped, it usually but not always throws in the direction of the cursor. Makes me wish this behaviour was consistent about aiming at the cursor, or customisable on whether it fires in movement or cursor direction.

Also, the orb ability has issues after the update. Before, it was awkward because it required me to hold my finger down on the touchpad for a mouse click input, while also holding the ability button. Being able to remap the buttons so I can choose which to hold should have fixed this, but now I have to aim with movement inputs, not the cursor (and unlike the basic orb throw, doesn't fluctuate with input changes). It also has a default drift to the right, aiming that direction by default. Requiring up to 4 buttons being held at the same time is... problematic. Was awkward before, but much less so than the updated version.

Swap remains my favourite ability, with orb being my second pick in the old build and vortex in the new build. If I had cursor aim of orb with control remapping, it would definitely be a more viable option.

And finally, Greg seems to have changed slightly. Sometimes the player orbs spawn further apart when facing him? Not sure what causes this but it's not consistent. That said, the game's framerate doesn't appear to break on the death screen any more, which is a good improvement.

After taking 2 weeks to get 3 wins without remapping, I've just got 2 wins out of my first 3 runs with customisable controls. Can confidently say it's an improvement! Thank you!

Yay remapping! O_o

And immediately after getting to remap the controls, I managed to win my first run. I feel more in control now than I did. That said, default controls with the new build have "A" mapped to 2 things xD might want to reset those at some point? Nice to know the game lets you do that, though, a surprising amount of games won't!

Third win! (Would definitely feel more comfortable with the ability to move the left and right click inputs off those buttons)

This is fun so far. Hopefully when the full game is ready for launch, you publish it here too, not just Steam. Great work already though!

Thank you for making the game fun enough to keep playing! Looking forward to control mapping options still!

Same issue here with the downloadable version. Seems like the current build of the game is broken. My web based version is still running with the tutorial already completed, but the downloaded version has the same issue you mentioned.

Finally! O_o good times!

ok I got worse xD kind of annoyed at this one...

SO CLOSE!

So... I'd love to try this out, but the first instructions are "hold LMB" then while still doing so, "hold RMB" and...

I was trying to play on a laptop touchpad so... that doesn't work lol. Would be nice to have actual keyboard inputs for the keyboard controls...

Well, this is... better than I expected to be able to do without having customisable controls... Not quite there but close!

I fought Greg 5 times last night, only had the game-breaking bit once (the framerate issue happened on the "you died" screen so I don't count that). Not entirely sure of reproduction steps, but hope my info helps?

Also thanks, game is awesome!

And after coming back for "one last run" before heading to bed...

Apparently Greg only breaks the framerate on the "you died" screen if you die at the start of the fight. If you get far enough before dying, he doesn't break it.

Oh, and... definitely want the ability to remap the mouse clicks onto the keyboard. And preferably also to move the Q key to something else. it's not a bad spot for it, but not great either.

Second encounter with Greg:

Figured out how he works and did about 1/4 of his health worth of damage. Didn't manage to recreate my "turning invisible" glitch this time, but suspect it might come from landing multiple hits on invulnerable targets while using the swap ability.

Also, death with non-Greg enemies on screen hasn't caused the framerate to die, but both times I died to Greg, the framerate crashed to less than 1fps after a few seconds on the "you died" screen. Not sure why, but restarting or quitting to main menu fixed it instantly.

And I found Greg and he broke the game -_- good times.

I didn't know how to fight him, but also, after trying to swap through him, I got stuck invisible and couldn't see either of my orbs, and just randomly took damage a few times then died. Then the framerate tanked so hard on the "you died" screen that it should be measured in seconds per frame instead of frames per second. Kind of impressive for this art style to chug that badly on my PC xD but also probably not working as intended... Still super fun though!

This is a really fun demo. Hopefully, when you update it, you add control remapping options. I'm trying to play on a laptop and being forced to use touchpad left and right clicking is atrocious. The option of a pure keyboard control scheme, preferably with the ability to remap the inputs, would be much better.

Found you through Net.Attack() back when it was still on here.

Sucks to see it disappear and you moving it to being Steam exclusive instead of supporting fans who have good reason to avoid that storefront (there are a lot of reasons someone won't - or in some cases, can't - use Steam).

Hopefully, you'll start making your games available in places that aren't actively trying to be abusive enough to lose more than a decade of goodwill. This looks cool too, but if it's going to go to Steam and become unavailable here as well, there's no reason to give it another look.

Stylish art and seems like a fun game.

Shame you've decided to lock access behind Steam exclusivity though. Would be nice to actually play a less-outdated build.

Thanks for making the demo available here too! Been a lot of fun digging into it. I'm losing a lot, but I can tell it's my own fault xD Reminds me of a few other games I love, but with more spaceship, which is always a good sign!

"When the full game comes out, it will also be available on itch, in case Steam does not work for you"

Thank you! Definitely going to be picking the full game up here.

Kind of disappointed to see that this is abandoned. Looks really cool but 7 years without an update? Bit of a shame. I'm liking what's here so far, but the May 2019 update has some really promising ideas in it and I'd love to just see more of this. Having a lot of fun with it anyway, though, so thanks for a fun time!

Just ran into news about this and it looks fun. Hopefully the full game doesn't end up being Steam exclusive, and finds its way here (or somewhere else) as well. Seems great so far, definitely a game I'd want to play if it's not locked behind an abusive platform that's given me reason never to give them money even if they one day fix their broken trash heap of a launcher app.

Yeah, small  and solo projects make things a lot more complex, but I would love to get a chance to try the game before buying! Thanks for the active responses, btw, always appreciate when a dev engages with fans (even if they're only potential fans like me at this stage).

Considering the level of abusive conduct I've seen from Valve (which puts even the worst false allegations I've seen against Epic to shame), availability of your demo somewhere other than Steam is the only way I'm going to get a chance to try it. And the ability to try it is going to be necessary for me to pick up a game like this at full price.

The game looks like it's probably worth it, but a lot of things look worth it without hands-on playtime. While a demo exists and is being platform-locked, that's a problem. "Valve is basically coercing us into providing a demo" isn't an argument in defense of the demo's lack of availability on other platforms. If anything, it's an argument in favour of providing the demo elsewhere as well.

Any reason the demo is Steam exclusive? Seems unhelpful when your game is available on 3 stores but you only provide a demo for people who use one of them. I'd love to try it out, but Valve are abusive trash who have spent the past several years proving they don't deserve the goodwill people are still holding onto from when they used to be competent.

Glad you're back! I don't (can't, because Valve are abusive trash) use Steam, but I respect why it's a huge benefit to devs to have access to the platform.

This is a really fun game. Hopefully you can make a downloadable version!

So, after some more playtime...

The defensive deck feels non-viable against the enemies with escalating damage per round, because it doesn't have enough block (while having slightly too much healing) to compensate for its lack of damage output. A little more damage, a little more block in exchange for some healing, or a few of the + modifiers on a couple of the cards, and it'd feel like it's up there with other decks.

Or you could give it one more lifesteal attack and the first level of the relic that adds block on lifesteal...

So I'm able to reliably win Emperor with the default or high nodes decks, but defensive just isn't quite keeping up at that difficulty. That said, I think it's my own playstyle holding me back, more than the deck itself not being good enough. Good times!

Sounds great! I look forward to it! O_o

Just finished a run on Emperor (still working to get consistent at beating it before moving to God).

I had a build full of upgraded cards with special properties, so having cataclysm seeds, sundered stone, parasitic leech, and echoing crystal made it into an insane run.

That sucks. DMCA is still a stupidly-structured law that needs overturning, but it's what you have to work through for now. Hopefully you can go through all the relevant steps to get this cleared up (and if it's not actually from GW, hopefully whoever did it gets in the appropriate amount of legal trouble for filing fraudulent claims).

In the meantime, glad to see you're still here, at least?

Well, GOG has recently been realising their abusive support practices have been alienating customers for the past few years (which is a few years faster than Valve, who have been continuing the most abusive examples of bad conduct they've managed to reach for over 6 years and still showing no signs of stopping). So that's nice, but at present, I'm still hoping the game gets a decent discounted price at some point.

Even with a game priced as reasonably as this one, I'm not really keen on supporting a storefront with a history of failing to release games on a previously-agreed schedule and repeatedly cancelling support for games by blocking updates without notifying the devs that they're doing so. I don't trust that their recent support turnaround times are going to be maintained long-term either, since they also have a history of literally 4+ month wait times to contact their support (with those wait times happening to devs with service-breaking issues as well as end users).

At this point, as crazy as it sounds, Epic is looking pretty good by comparison with how atrocious the alternatives are, and really, just releasing the full game on here would be the best option - and the one most likely to see me buying it immediately.

I personally dislike long-term meta progression for the same reasons, which is why I leaned into suggesting something less aggressive in terms of power creep. A single item slot with progression giving horizontal expansion (more options) instead of a direct boost to your power makes more sense to me.