itch.io

Hear me out

*Glitch Pitch*

"Castella is a type of Japanese sponge cake and is known for its sweet, moist brioche-style flavour and texture. It is based on cakes introduced to Japan by Portuguese merchants in the 16th century. To suit the tastes of Japanese people, mizuame syrup was added to the sponge cake to make it more moist, and zarame was added to the bottom to give it a coarser texture."

I didn't play the game but I have to know why Castella

Got to level 4 and dropped it there.

It's clearly not for me, thinking that Golfball can come any second stresses me out too much to aim and think. Level design for him seemed good.

+Shotgun UI
+Smokes look good
+Being able to shoot the turret
+Ball reflecting indicator
-Menu's UI's, they need some work
    -Buttons (text) gets gray on hover, instead of being Chosen it looks disabled, would consider some other color that fits your game, can be dark just would avoid gray.
    -I have to hold "Close" instead of click it (why?)
/When resolution scaling was set to 50% the grain in darkness looked eye soring (2560x1440, 27inch, up to 144Hz), at 100% it was acceptable
/hit direction is calculated based of my rotation, imo it should include also my position. (But I would assume we always aim in the middle of the ball as it is now)
/In the beginning being unable to reload with keyboard and be allowed to aim just to be forced to reload was really annoying. I don't know which way you would like to take it but at least reload on left click down than up would be my wish, or an auto reload after shot (but it does'n solve shooting 1 and than wanting to shoot 2).
    /Shotgun UI could indicate in some way if it's loaded (I can left click to check it but if there was ammo means I have to left click again and than again, it's inconvenient)
        /I just read your comment that this demo added "You can now see if the shotgun is loaded or not", at no point in game I noticed
/Got confused what to do if I want to change my mind after aiming (later figured I can reload and change aim by shooing "in the air", some players will think they will lose 1 "chance" just for shooting)
/I clicked F multiple times and nothing happened, idk if tutorial told me to hold and I misread but animation of raising a cig to mouth play even if I just click would be nice (current hold mechanic may stay but show that clicking F does something to inform me I have to hold)
/I don't know what crouching does
/When smoke reaches 0% and I don't have any more it should stop (Maybe I got unlucky but if felt like I could smoke that 0% for hours)
/When talking to guy that gives you second shotgun pause the Golfenemy and let people go through text manually. After each sentence I was thinking "I that it? Is he done?" and wanted to walk away, while if it's too fast some won't be able to read it.

I really liked it. Fnaf market was saturated but partially because of animatronics+cameras being used everywhere. Style is great. Finished both days.

+Looking for ingredients and thinking what to do with them tickles my brain in a good way
+Scare amount seems right for me
+There is a lot of mechanics and I liked it
+Really good audio
+Cooldown between customers (they wait before approaching) - nice
+News papers
+Different locations for each day(night?)
-Remove sliders from tutorial (completely missed them the first time) - whole text has to fit in the box.
-Pause screen needs "Continue" button, I know I can press "Esc" again but some people will reset the day(night?) by not seeing any other option.
-Honk should be before lights in tutorial (if we zoom to light switch we can't reach steering wheel)
/I would suggest drawing custom cursor (Mine for example doesn't fit the style
/Should cigarettes filter grow smaller with the cig? I get that you just scale the object down but it stood out to me, like I'm sucking the cigarette into my mouth (It's minor thing so idk)
/It was not clear if order of ingredients added matters (I would assume that not because of the game's theme)
/I was disappointed when I saw 2 dogs waiting and I couldn't honk at them to reset them
/Shotgun mechanic is great but even without time pressure I'm not sure if I can distinguish all bloody and non bloody NPC. I like that it's subtle, so I'm torn here, but technically punishment for confusion is not that high for that one.
/I wasn't sure what's the punishment for not making it on time (despite failing to make on time)
/After dying game seems to keep playing (?)
    /At the end of day one I got caught by corn but I saw cutscene (Thought to myself: cool that cutscene starts playing if I spend enough of time of death screen) but than I started day 2 - Is it supposed to be that way?
/If I hold A or D button I would like for my character to keep rotating (for example every 0.5s)
    /Never clicked S (it was not shown in tutorial but also would consider removing it and keeping A D movement)
/Switches didn't go off a single time (I was also wondering what's the difference between clicking one switch off and light off
/Managed to figure out all enemies by myself except for
    Whispering figure (I would just ignore him, can he block food station that I have to use?
    Jumpscare from above - I tried to avoid it but seems to me like "can't do anything in your face"
    Does clicking radio do anything ?
/Normally it's clear you have to last till 6am, I assume I have to last 6hours - Maybe tutorial guy could tell us shift length

Played Web (Firefox)

+Moving boxes in basement was intuitive
+Moving boxes and Security on/off prevents us from going back - it's nice subtle way of telling player he is supposed to keep going (Maybe a bit overused, but no complaint from me).
+Elevator was useful for testing
    -It really needs some animation or *ding* sound or anything
-Options.Controls - Remove word "Action"
-Load Game - Column with pages for saves should be moved to the other side - it's really easy to hover over them by accident and be switched to wrong page.
-Going back in dialogue with arrow up or scroll wheel would be appreciated (additionally VN's tend to have "transcript" showing all dialogue that happened)
-Cade and Cass swapping places in dialogues gets confusing - I know There is name and color on it and non speaking character gray-out but Cade being always transparent doesn't help. (If you keep their positions constant should be fine)
/First room has overwhelming amount of intractable objects (and some can be interacted multiple times for different texts!) - I would rethink if you have to let player know that something that looks like a cardboard box is in fact a cardboard box. Most people will interact once, some will do twice with some objects, doing 3+ is waste or your time and overwhelming for player. Later amount of objects was fine.
/Second basement level (Lab) - first room - I have to approach standing barrel from right side (not left) - I can tell it's for Ice tutorial mechanic but most people will not approach it from right side (rather the closest side they are to), see they can't interact and ignore it. I would suggest adding 1 ice tile on each side of the barrel (possibly even add diagonals and 2-length in cardinal directions to make sure player slides on ice). Unless that barrel doesn't matter that much for tutorial purposes (player will see Ice mechanic going to the next room anyway), then I would consider making that barrel interactive from all sides.
    +Ultrasound later in lab being intractable from one side was cool.
/Lore: Why computer turn on/off the security is right next to security (Needing to find/guess a password shared later among all computers would excuse it.)
/There is a lot of "DO NOT ERASE" on whiteboards
/Log in lab one time says "Placenta" other "Placental"
/Walking sound on planks feels heavy and empty, like there is nothing below the floor (just long hanging planks)
/I completely forgot about sprinting being a thing (adding Cade prompting Cass to run in tutorial would be appreciated - I'm blank for plot reason)

Thank you. When playtesting I noticed enemies instantly running to you was a problem, so I added a small cooldown on entry, but clearly it's too small.

No, no, I noticed that. I am asking about Icon and word "Heat" on cards and in tutorial. Both Heat and Draws are different shades of blue.

After palying a bit more I:
    Figured out that token placement indeed matters for it to switch back
    I can hover over NPC to see their ability (Was this in the tutorial?)
    Music is calm (nice) but a bit of a downer (Like I'm in debt and my life is spiraling away)
    No Exit button i menu (Is this part of addict expearance?)

Did one run so far.
Idk how to feel with winning on first try.
On one hand it's demo on other I feel like I don't have mechanics 100% under control.

Characters and cards look cute.
Card shake is nice help (at first it seemed really subtle, but almost instant got used to it).
I would consider making "draws" and "heat" colors further apart (why heat is not a warm color btw?)
If I have more than 25 HP my hearts disappear to start filling bar again - I can tell it's intended and I don't know how to solve it it seeing having half a heart when I just had 5 is confusing. The simplest way would be spawning charts of different color on top of red ones (so at 30HP there is 1 gold and 4 red for example) - it raises a question how high HP limit is...
I understood some of my simpler items but suits and item colors and enemy passives were completely over my head on first try.
I don't know how many items are there but being able to manipulate the cards with some items would be nice. Both in a way like: Picking up a specific card heals you (boss mechanic but for player) but also stuff like "4"'s don't spawn or J, Q and K cards are more rare or Hearts are more common and such - maybe it doesn't fit the game completely but I didn't feel too many brain juices invested in picking cards, sure order matters but rarely it gets crazy or feels like a choice.

Web (Firefox)

I turn on the game and I get Join and New game. What am I joining? Game has settings but they are disabled in main menu (but not in game).
Could spend a lot placing and moving stuff around, feels great, music is nice same as general theme.
Character creator:
    I'm impressed with character creation - a lot of options.
    Character rotation is nice. Instinctively I tried to grab the character to rotate it and than noticed slider at the bottom.
    Hands clip through dresses.
I loaded in, looked down and when jiggling to sides my char's head appeared on the right side of screen with camera clipping through it. (Fine when not looking down and jiggling)
Sometimes I had to fight with camera because it wouldn't let me rotate right (after few tries it lets me but after a bit it locks again), no problems with rotating left.
It may be a lot but some optional grid snapping for build mode would be useful.
Bum needs new sprite (Looks like top of fungus)
I wanted to place item, rotated it, moved mouse to invalid position/out of range, moved it back, rotation reset - remember rotation of currently held item.
After throwing stuff to trash icon of item stays in UI.
At first I didn't want to ask for it but seeing we have movable kitchen cup-boards and shelves it would be cool if we could place items on top of boxes (boxes on top of boxes).
Whiteboard confuses by saying orders will appear on it as customers arrive (it doesn't say I have to take those orders)
I was surprised I put leaves into teapot because there is no indication.
Screen with orders - players camera is too high (played with character height slider maxed)

got 22
Fun, reminds me of dumb ways to die.
Music is great.
Is it possible that nails minigame was impossible to do? I was pressing all the time and run out of it (maybe mistake from me because happened only once).
I was disappointed when I mistimed reaction time and didn't get full loss (just -1 square)
Safe is beyond me. I will prefix this by saying I get confused on which way is left and right but on higher difficulty there are 2 different arrow types, some underscores, colors and small markings in corners and I keep doing it wrong. I could get swapping left and right nail (and showing it somehow to player) but this minigame doesn't need such difficulty spike in my opinion, longer sequences with different symbols can be hard by themselves imo.

NPC look at me when I look at them and nod my head enthusiastically.
Kino?

Hexagons (dodekaedr?/ikosaedr? - hard to tell with this shading) create Circles (Spheres/Balls) in full movement line, seems kinda OP but if we keep that mechanic losing that piece seems to mean you lose because you can't regenerate (and the other guy can keep escaping across all map), unless they get killed one after another, as a trade-off.
Spreading nodes further from each other may make visibility a bit better. With that I would also make the shapes slightly bigger (but not too much because we will loose what we gained from moving things apart).
Few times I wanted to move, I click on unit successfully but it doesn't move because I click on a node that overlapped with the one I wanted to click. There is position display on hover but movement should... feel natural and not require me to make sure "Is this where I wanted to go?" with each step, colors help a bit but it's hard to tell what's closer and what's further.

I would reconsider giving such long titles to the games.
Volume slider is always welcome.
B as a keybind feels criminal to me, I know B stands for bomb but playing with one hand would be nice.

Web (Firefox)
After dropping first guy dame freezes for a bit, after that it's ok, with higher amount of bodies there is stutter on collision.

Music was nice. Graphics way too bright for me. Particles as damage indication were nice.

When I drop body around bottom left sometimes another one is seen falling close to the camera.

I'll refrain from judging movement, camera, shooting because I don't play shooters.
Not sure If it's intended wall piercing mechanic but I was able to shoot those targets through 2 thin walls. (Jumping was helpful to have higher bullet spread and hit them by accident)

Web version
I got really confused not being able to push mine cart *Am I pushing it from wrong side somehow?*. Most people will figure it out but some will drop it and send you a bug report. Showing that you have to have momentum may not be enough here, if you show it some players won't realize anyway, so show + explanation may be needed.

Played first time ever, here are stats:
Game time: 38:33
Deaths: 39 (some are from testing but only a few)
Map completion: 78.1%
Books: 14/16
Longest solve time: 5:38 (Bat Country)
Most deaths: 9 (Bat Country)

On first try gave up on level below AGDG room, booted game again and figured I could place Ice block how i want but I would say it was the hardest one for me. Bat cave took more time/tires but prob because it has more options to consider so amount of time and deaths may not be the best metric to see what's most difficult, instead it shows what's most complex.

Linux (Debian)
After creating/choosing character and clicking start game crashes on loading screen.

First try:

ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'focus_entered', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'tree_exited', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'focus_entered', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'tree_exited', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'focus_entered', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
ERROR: Attempt to disconnect a nonexistent connection from 'root:<Window#29293020431>'. Signal: 'tree_exited', callable: ''.
   at: _disconnect (core/object/object.cpp:1529)
Segmentation fault

Segmentation fault

Tested on Linux (Debian)

+Help button
   -I clicked on it and skipped something in tutorial
   -I hid the shop and tried to use help to see map state but clicking it wouldn't do anything till I close the shop (close not hide)
+Atmosphere is nice, theme is generally a strong point of this game
+Growing numbers on big wins are satisfying
+A lot of chips and some nice dices
-I couldn't find what do my dice do after I bought them (if it's something iconic like 8-sides it's easy but if it's roll frequency not so much)
-Confirmation on buying dice in shop is weird, other items don't have that
-Why can I buy dice I have (Exclude them from the pool until I switch to different one)
-Buying chip items is tool loud/high pitched. There is generally problem with volume normalization
-Upon exiting the game:

   WARNING: 60 RIDs of type "CanvasItem" were leaked.
   WARNING: ObjectDB instances leaked at exit (run with --verbose for details).
   ERROR: 31 resources still in use at exit (run with --verbose for details).
/NPC are just there. They do stuff but I didn't feel obliged to change my tactic with them at the table (skill issue?). They weren't annoying.
/Since Come and Don't come are related to Pass Lane I would consider swapping them with Field.
/Console is full of print statements - consider removing / reducing amount
/Consider doing odds as "1 to 1" instead of "1.0 to 1", I know it can be 1.1 or 1.5 and than it's fine but it looks off to me (unless that's some gambler notation I'm not aware of)
/Side panel with 2-12 numbers - It's nice to show If I win or lose - if it marks blue if I can win at any bet it's a no from me. If it marks me being in + or in - from all bets total if a number rolls than it's fine. If you don't want to give clear answer if I win more upon rolling "11" from one bet or lose more from other consider adding third color to indicate "you win some you lose some". Third color could be used to mark number 8 when I bet "roll two 4" because rolling 8 doesn't guarantee a win but is required to win.
/The Point - I couldn't figure out why does it move when it flips, can't it just flip? It it moves to 10 does it change something when I roll next 10? or rolling 8 will have the same effect and doesn't matter where did it move?
/After finding a build I don't have much incentive to change the way I play, maybe it would be frustrating but NPC stealing your dices (or one?) would require to re-adjust build and keep you thinking about the odds

Tested on Linux (Debian)

+For keyboard controls only
+For green money waves, they break the monotony
++For not having to pickup shop when it drops, I would just let it sit until I collect more money
   -For making shop gravitate to me after picking up item that makes stuff gravitate (Running away from it was not fun and felt like I was bound to lose that race before I collect enough money for items
+For music (but I think it can desynchronize badly if I spend too much time in pause screen on picking item
+Pogo with enemy between wall and character is nice
-Items really badly need graphics (even from msPaint, pic attached happend to me and I did not know what I'm upgrading) 
-I'm autistic about numbers but knowing how much +damage is (+1/s or 10/s) or discount is -15% or -50% would be helpful for me
-Drops slowly fade away. If I missed it initially I def will miss it when there is 70% transparency. Make drops catch my attention blinking after some time (like 30s) and than increase blinking frequency until they despawn.
-Char 1 and 2 are really similar
/Spin for boons. I assumed it doesn't do anything yet, allowing me to stop it is nice but if it stopped by itself after some time that would be nice too. Gamba to get the big ones did trigger right emotions in me.
/For first half of my playtime I assumed number on top of a clock is time remaining till next wave, than I realized it doesn't go down with time. I can't tell if it should stay the way it is or not.
/Would suggest adding some variance in speed of enemies
/Sometimes evolutions for items were clear on what changed while others not so much

I played 3 times (1 time each char) and won only on the first one.
There is no punishment for damage to your base early because it will re-heal. Not saying that's good or bad, my expectation coming in was that I will get punished over time for my mistakes, where it's rather about wave of enemies bursting you. Both have upsides and downsides.
Smite - Problematic kind of item. If I have to use it it means I'm in bad situation but long term it will only get worse because I missed out on some DPS by buying one time burst. On the other hand you can make 1 or 2 waves that have Smite mandatory to use to survive just because it's so overpowered (Assuming it would drop on those waves). I get that when you run out of items in pool you have to put something there but I'm not convinced.
I tired starter items and 9 more - balance was off but I had hard time telling if item is early game or late game due to no knowing DPS and such.

When running game on Linux (Debian) I got this error.

RESOURCE GIVEN

RESOURCE GIVEN

WARNING: Discord Activity couldn't be updated. It could be that Discord isn't running!

     at: push_warning (core/variant/variant_utility.cpp:1118)

Initializing State Machine...

STATE: Enter Idle

State Machine Initialized. Initial state:Idle

<Resource#-9223371934413092860>

[<Resource#-9223371934413092860>]

<Resource#-9223371934413092860>

[<Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>]

<Resource#-9223371934413092860>

[<Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>]

<Resource#-9223371934379538433>

[<Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934379538433>]

<Resource#-9223371934345984004>

[<Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934413092860>, <Resource#-9223371934379538433>, <Resource#-9223371934345984004>]

BODY ENTEREED

BODY ENTEREED

BODY ENTEREED

ERROR: Tween (bound to /root/Game_Manager/CharacterBody3D/Camera3D): started with no Tweeners.

   at: step (scene/animation/tween.cpp:355)

ERROR: Tween (bound to /root/Game_Manager): started with no Tweeners.

   at: step (scene/animation/tween.cpp:355)

ERROR: Caller thread can't call this function in this node (/root). Use call_deferred() or call_thread_group() instead.

   at: propagate_notification (scene/main/node.cpp:2523)

================================================================

handle_crash: Program crashed with signal 11

Engine version: Godot Engine v4.4.1.stable.official (49a5bc7b616bd04689a2c89e89bda41f50241464)

Dumping the backtrace. Please include this when reporting the bug to the project developer.

[1] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x3fdf0) [0x7f711e1bbdf0] (??:0)

[2] [0x7f7100009710] (??:0)

-- END OF BACKTRACE --

================================================================

Aborted

Thanks for taking your time to make the video with your comment.
From you and other people I can tell the game is too hard at beginning, you did well despite not using dash (it has I-frames). You feel range really well, while others have problem with Andy and BiBi, so it's good to have more of a sample size.
I saw consternation with camera movement from people but I didn't know if it's first few sec or something is wrong. Addition of dead zones sounds good.
Teleports def need "pickup protection" and can be smaller.

Also will add game start in maximized window per your request.

Also got a lot of erros in console but no crashes:
-Can't add child 'Area2D' to 'EnemyNode', alread has a parent 'EnemyNode'
-Condition "p_elem->_root" is true
-1 RID allocations of type 'N5GLES37TextureE' were leaked at exit
  Texture with GL ID of 15: leaked 5460 bytes.

Had fun. - tested Linux (Debian)
Would consider making game playable 100% on keyboard.

At first I was confused how should I know I'm getting attacked but than I realized that there is indicator at the bottom. People will miss it, idk if you should make it bigger or make a text appear like "new wave approaches" but would def add a sound.

Everything is gray in shop. Mark items I can afford so I jump in and see it, normally I would suggest color but you have limited color palette.
Why those circles around cartridges have collision - it was annoying
When I unlocked Fire as first item I was confused why I can't use it. Than I realized I have to pick it up and keep doing it, I got used to it but can Items regenerate at the end of the wave?
Time pause in shop is nice, pausing fire/enemies/player/projectiles - sure. But letting resources drag into our base without me having to pause/unpause/pause would be nice. Just make resources ignore the pause (or our base that sucks them in)
Tier 3 tree (oak?) - I was not sure if it's a tree looking at the sprite.
I wanted to move like 6 items but got blocked by collisions, so I dropped them and picked some again, for some reason character didn't pick up items that were closest to him, idk what is the rule to choose what item he picks up but I would recommend smallest distance.

After getting 4-6 cartridges I would consider something like compass - shows direction to closest cartridge, when I was searching for the last 2 it got a bit annoying.

Fire item - OP. Didn't realize it has throw range (does it need it?), threw it on the floor by accident and couldn't pick it back up.
Light - Nice

Carry capacity - put only one point into it. Because collisions are so big I would lose blocks if I tried to take more than 5 and increasing carry capacity wouldn't make me route less bc I would take 2 routes for 7-12 items, so to make it worth I'd have to be able to take everything at once.
Rotation speed - 3 levels in I was afraid to put extra point in bc it got harder to aim and rotation 180 deg was fast enough
Vision range - put only one point in it. If it moves enemies further away I would consider it more.
Healing and HP up - If you invest resources into it means you already are losing and you lose even more by taking it than damage and other options. Heal costing different currency was good.

If you're wandering about economy I finished game with a lot of circles, at the end I would ignore them and move as many squares as I can.

Linux VM (Debian)

When I click "New Adventure" I get "Segmentation fault" error that crashes the game

Thanks for feedback and live stream.

I was wondering if you saw mini-map (It disappears during fight but reappears when room is empty), seemed like you didn't know where are room adjacent without checking "manually".
I was also wondering why for the first half you would skip item rooms. Items are divided into small stat-ups (standalone they are whatever) and full items (at least one per item-room)

From my observation locking some harder room layouts and making floor smaller until player beats a boss for the first time would be a good idea. Currently game has no save-file system so I just unlocked all there is.

Added ver with .pck as separate file

Exported again, works on my machine without .pck now. Could get messed up when doing Linux ver. You can check again if it works for you. If not let me know.