itch.io

Hi!

Thanks for playing Dogwood again this year! Just got done watching your VOD!

We wanted to have a shorter demo this year, focusing around QoL, onboarding, and combat, based on the feedback we got from FQ8. However the old version is still up for download (Archival-Alpha-Ver, which includes an early version of the restaurant / cooking).

Regarding the ammo: enemies do generate ammo, but it works through an absorption mechanic. You have to get hit by the bullets of the same color for more ammo to generate, so if you play the game like a bullet hell and dodge the bullets, you'll get low on ammo fast.

For the restaurant portion, we realized that a lot of people wouldn't really get the full impact of cooking without the story context that goes into it. We included a very basic cooking / restaurant in last year's demo, but the feedback was that the two modes felt disconnected. We're planning to continue updating the current playtest to include cooking, but only once the story is caught up to that point.

Thanks again for playing and I hope you enjoy the rest of FQ9!

It's very good, and the music is really unique and different from other retro music I've heard from before! Sometimes the game has really bad rng and you have to die. But that's my only complaint ^^ !!!

ATB combat is really fun, my only issue is why is it 13+ on the description here vs in the game that warns 18+

Boss is peak, and I like how it feels different compared to other VS, and I likethe cooking :3

SO, I am a hardcore Sar player- 1.5k hrs
And I saw the Cute animal plushy things, with all the guns and stuff and I KNEW I had to play this game XD

The game loop is really similar to Enter the gungeon. So dungeon exploration, bullet hell, Roguelike collecting and all of that fancy stuff. Altho the difference between these games, is the TTK in this one is insanely long, especially if you aren't lucky. And I finished the game (except for Shuffle area) so I can say some stuff about it! 

Feedback/Issues (Major to minor):

1. It's not specific, but the combat is very Understimulating. It takes ridiculously long to beat enemies, because your gun is weak, or enemies have a lot of health, theres a heavy lack of engagement, and i find myself to be repeating a sequence of inputs on the keyboard.
2. Pausing the game gives you invincibility towards bullets
3. The cake's collision can be abused, and you can idle behind fire
4. The pure black void outside of the first area feels a bit bleak
5. Music doesn't loop, and It doesn't feel good when it suddenly stops
6. No map for finding the portal
7. Trap cake is really easy because there are no walls

It does get more fun later on (especially orange mango area) but I'm reminded how long and boring it is at the byte area. And I do feel it heavily relies on roguelike progressions
It is a solid game tho, And I still feel like it's worth a try, It's  a cute game!

Thanks very much for streaming the game ^^ We'll have something of bigger scope(and aiming to be consistent with the prologue) to test in the future.
So thanks for enjoying this current version right now!

Thanks so much for this! Added the 100% human badge to our thumbnail and page.

I didn't know how to credit you so I added the attribution to the bottom of our game's page. Is that ok?

Pretty fun game ^^ even though I don't play much First-Person platformers. I played 3 runs- learning one thing after another, and that was enjoyable. My only complaints, is that the controls took a couple tries to understand, and that there wasn't much of a celebration once you reach the office, and there aren't really any other goals to get, other then getting a score

"Space = JUMP
CRTL = Crouch
CRTL + RUN = SLIDE"
Took a while to learn what "RUN" was

I had a fun time with this one ! It's a nice human made submission 🦊

Please download Official-Ver for the latest version.
Archival-Alpha-Ver is the version from last year.
(srry I don't know how to remove the second option ^^;)

Cool game! Love the dialogue and the overall feel of it.

Hey, you found us! We haven't announced the demo yet on our socials because we wanted to flesh out the restaurant more beforehand. But we're so glad you enjoyed it! Look forward to more as we continue to update here!

Thanks for playing!

We watched the VOD and you were right on the money when you were describing the loop! The restaurant would be how you make money to be able to upgrade your weapons and buy travel supplies to explore new areas. We are planning on fleshing the restaurant out more, what we have in the demo was more of the groundwork. And yes, you will get to customize your gun per color later. So you could have two identical shot types or two different ones if you like. 

Dogwood is a narrative-driven game. Although there is progression in the exploration and restaurant, the main goal you'd have is to complete the story. Also, at full release, the story will unfold differently from the demo, so hopefully that's something to look forward to

Super glad that you enjoyed the game, and your stream was just fantastic! 

Thanks for playing! We found the VOD on YT! 

We're glad you enjoyed the game, loved the little voices you gave Sheriff and Doug!

The ammo system was an issue for a lot of players, we're definitely planning on revamping it for our next build. The timed section will also be migrated out of normal gameplay and into special stages instead.  We've taken a lot of notes and will continue to fix and improve on things as we develop.

For optimization, if it's fine with you, we'd like to get in touch on Discord and ask for your specs, just to help with benchmark testing.

Thanks again for playing and for helping host FQ8! It's our first time joining and we're having a blast!

Thanks for playing! 

Watched the VOD and we could definitely see the issues you mentioned. The map's getting fixed up by our next build, so hopefully we could get rid of the guidance issue. Showing the controls first was also a really good suggestion. We've still got a lot of things to fix up, but we're glad you enjoyed Dogwood!

Thanks for playing!
Appreciate your very comprehensive feedback, I'm surprised the controller worked at all! (controller support is still in the works)
Based on the unanimous frustration of the ammo system, we're planning on revamping it to be more forgiving. Timed sections will also be migrated to special challenge rooms in the full release. We've still got a lot of grinding to go, but we're glad you enjoyed Dogwood!

Thanks for playing! Appreciate the feedback. We've gotten a lot of good input on how to improve Dogwood the past few weeks and we're looking forward to making this game better :)

Thanks for playing!

Based on the feedback we've gotten so far, the ammo system's a friction point for many players. Overload (when your weapon breaks from collecting too much ammo) was something we had to address the issue of being "fully immune". The idea is that it makes it so that you're never really fully immune and can't be complacent even when you're the same color as the enemy. But as of now, we're planning on revamping the system based on everyone's feedback 

Thanks for playing and wishlisting! Your stream was so fun and seeing you enjoy Dogwood made our day!

Based on the feedback we've gotten so far, the ammo system's a friction point for many players. For the full game, we're considering removing overload (when your weapon breaks from collecting too much ammo) for the beginning guns, just to make it more accessible for everyone. 

We actually have some similar ideas for the restaurant, like color-switching mechanics that changes the way Doug cooks meals. We've got a lot of things we need to test still, but hopefully the restaurant will start to live up the combat soon!

It's peak. Better then silksong, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA game

Cute fox and silly story! I wanted to play insanity mode but the brown bullets and general bullet visibility always cooked me :(
Bouncing back bullets can have a different look as well, as I forget that they are the player shot xD

Hunting the goblins was fun, but these goofy sheeps are hard to guide!!

Hunting the goblins was fun, but these goofy sheeps are hard to guide!!

Really good Bullet hell movement, dodging everything just feels really good! (suck at the platforming tho xD)

Gameplay
Overall, it was very impressive! the gameplay of bullet hell and precision platforming mixed in a way I couldn't even imagine! 
The difficulty curve was a bit steep, and this would mean you visit the progression much more early in the game, I didn't feel like I played enough! And only later then, levels would bring you into more into that kaizo strategy pacing.
This is just a suggestion, but enemies I feel can have some more novelty, at first, they are very satisfying to shoot up, but they become kind of annoyance later on. A progression system of sorts could possibly be given for killing enemies(or scoring system).

Visual/Sfx
I do think there can be some impact sounds/feedback, like when the player lands or grapples the wall, walking sounds as well. but these can be very quiet still, the sleekness of the player felt nice that way!

Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! We'll definitely keep polishing this build, got an update coming up to fix some of the bugs.
Glad you enjoyed the game!

Hey! Thanks so much for playing!
We hear you on the cooking segment - we're working on an update to fix some of the issues that have been reported. We'll continue to polish and add new features to this demo, so we hope you'll try again soon :)

Cute game! Can see the potential in the gameplay loop. Love the silly dishes you can make

Love this game!

Hey! Thanks so much for playing!
We loved your video, saw a lot of areas we can improve. Loved the voices you gave Doug and Sheriff <3
Cheered you on the whole way, you did great!

Oh, I think it was because I died, I thought it had lagged, my bad

9/10 so far!! Really good and immersive gameplay! Really good story. I have some suggestions: The enemies could be far from the entrance door, and there can be some room variety early stage

Fun game! I like the difficulty. Pixel art's very nice. Although I found it hard to understand how to play the game at first. I ran into some optimization issues (stuttering, lag) as well. But it's definitely a solid foundation. Looking forward to more fixes in the future!