One more question regarding the difficulty and things dealing too much damage. Did you feel like the player just didnt have enough health to begin with or was the problem not finding enough healing items along the way?
Scewps
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No I don't think I pressed any number key on accident. The problem also resolved itself after a little while. But I tried it again, and this time it was fine, there were no lag spikes. I tested the number keys in the beginning and they worked fine as well. I played it for a bit and the enemies stopped spawning at some point after a wave, is that intentional? Also another thing that I noticed was that the bullets dont spawn directly from the player (which is fine) but that offset means they dont go exactly to your mouse pointer but are slightly off. Maybe you could take a look at that
Hey, so I played your game and I think the concept is nice, the movement and shooting feels very juicy. However after killing the last enemy of the first wave, the framerate drops very drastically to 2-3 fps for about 10-15 seconds, and then normalizes again. This happened multiple times after killing certain enemies. I'm not sure what could cause this. I don't think it's my machine, it should easily be able to handle a game of this scale. If you need more info on this let me know
Hey, thanks a lot for the extensive and honest feedback! It's definitely helpful. I think you're onto something regarding the difficulty, I'm so used to the movement and mechanics myself that it's hard to judge what feels fair and what doesn't. I will try to rework some of the things you mentioned.
I'm down to play your game as well, I'll give it a try in the next few days and let you know on the game page :)
Hi! I’ve been working on a small hardcore roguelike prototype called Ivory Keep. (Ivory Keep by Scewps)
A single run takes about 5–15 minutes, depending on how far you get.
I’m mainly looking for feedback on the difficulty curve (especially in later areas)
and whether items meaningfully help overcome that difficulty and shape runs.


Details:
- Genre: Roguelike
- Platform: PC
- Status: Early prototype
- Controls: WASD move, LMB attack, RMB shield/secondary, E interact, Tab inventory
Feedback questions:
- Did you understand the core mechanics without explanation?
- Does the difficulty ramp feel fair, even when it gets punishing?
- Do items feel impactful enough to influence how you play a run?
- Did you get stuck or confused anywhere?
- Would you play more of this? Why or why not?
Thanks for your time. I’m happy to return the favor and playtest your game as well.
Thank you so much for the nice comment! Appreciate your feedback and I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Good call on the crossbow, it does work but I never properly explain how to use it. You need to load it with an arrow first by using "Attack Secondary", which is the right mouse button by default. Maybe I should include a short description on how to use certain special weapons in the future. Also you're right about the theme haha, the game got further and further away from it as I kept working on it.
About making a custom engine, I hope it goes well! It can take some time to build your own tools, but there is something satisfying about knowing every puzzle piece inside out. Also being able to tailor your workflow perfectly to your own needs is very rewarding. Don't be afraid to reach out in case you ever need help :)
Thank you for the extensive feedback!
Thats a good call on the contact damage, I originally added it when I was working on the first few basic enemies but now that you mention it, it might be better turned off for some. I'm not sure if that would make the game too easy as a whole, but maybe it could also shift the focus more towards the bosses attack patterns themselves, so its worth a shot.
About the spell select button, you're right! I completely forgot to add it to the options. In case it still helps you, the default is either Mouse Wheel Up or I. For the time being you can also change it in the settings/InputBindings.config file. Will update the build when I can too.
Also dual longswords sounds pretty sick ngl, might try that myself later :)
Very cool game! The overall vibe was very interesting. I liked that there was some exploration but for others it might be a bit too much to get to the boss. If there were multiple bosses you could find in different parts of the level the exploration would be a really good addition. It does seem like more was planned in terms of bosses, judging by the different buildings, multiple checkpoints and the cat statue. But only so much can be done in a month, so it's totally fine. The boss itself was fun to fight, even though it only had 3 attacks.
Saw this last feedback friday and wanted to try it for myself. The game has a really well done atmosphere, especially in the office. The tracking on the melee attacks of the bosses is a bit sharp, I got hit a lot of times by the second swing after dodging the first one because they did a 180 degree turn towards me. But other than that very cool entry :)
Thank you for the kind words!
Development is paused at the moment because its currently too big of a project for me to finish but I'm planning to get back to it when I can. I have a lot of ideas for this game so I hope I will find the time to work on it again.
I'm glad you're enjoying it for the time being:)
Thanks a lot for the feedback, much appreciated :)
Noted, I'll look into the shield hitboxes and attack animations!
You parry with the same button you use for blocking but while holding Ctrl. It's also called the "ActionModifier" key in the InputBindings.config file. You're right, maybe I'll add a readme file or something that can explain the most important things.
Jerry is a homie for sure.




