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Looking for feedback on a combat prototype for this game I am making.

A topic by Noel K. created May 08, 2021 Views: 310 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 4
(1 edit)

Hello,

I would like some feedback on combat prototype I put together with some assets I made. The game is supposed to be an action game where you engage in combat against enemies in a top-down perspective. Think of something similar to the game Hyper Light Drifter (although that game was not a source of inspiration for me). I'm mostly looking on feedback for how the game feels to play right now (such as movement, controls, and npc behavior). This can be played in a minute or two.

Thank you for reading.

https://noel-k.itch.io/transgression-combat-prototype

Hi Noel!

Played your game for a while:) First, let me say that I really enjoyed the graphic design, great job on those sprites! Now to answer your inquiries:

 The game has really nice gameplay, loved the combat system - took me some retries to get used to it, but after that it was really fun. I didn't really get the people in white robes, why they are trying to push me away - it was quite annoying. The actual guards were great. Consider to improve some of the shots mechanism of the sniper dude - I tried to hide behind an object or behind another guard and the shot went right through - also when I get closer to the sniper and he ran away his sprite stuck for the movement (not a major issue, but something to fix later on). 

Regarding the attacks, the 'q' super attack was pretty great, consider to lower the power bar a bit more after each attack as it becomes full too quickly. Also I'm not sure about this but maybe pressing q should actually initiate the attack and not just activate it? 

As for the styles, I actually didn't get what is different between them (while starting the games try to move from one style to another and press the attack button - and it was always the same combinations, maybe something went wrong?) Anyway I had a lot of fun playing your game, thanks for sharing!

Hope this review was helpful:)

Shifful Studio

Follow us here or on twitter

(+1)

Hello Shifful Studio,

Thank for taking time to play the game, I'm glad you liked it.

As far the interns, that was an idea for what kind of attack they should do. I wanted them to tackle you, but I understand. While playing myself, I did not feel like their attacks were going to work out as intended. Also, the sniper was definitely supposed to run away. I didn't put it in this prototype, but I am going to give the player a projectile. I just wanted to see what it was like to fight them without a projectile. So far I've only gone off of my own experiences when designing and I didn't like having to chase the sniper down, but I didn't want to toss away the idea until getting some feedback because someone may find it interesting.

Completely agree with your suggestion about the points, that part will be tweaked later on to make it more of a challenge. As for the second question, I have thought of that and I'm not quite sure it will work out well. However, I'm playing this with a mouse and keyboard and that control scheme might work with a controller. So, I think I will add that functionality for the input for anyone who wants to play that way.

Yeah I didn't really specify it, but it just changes stats. You can think of the styles as giving you access to a set of passive skills and one active skill (kind of). A stands for attack. D stands for defense and S stands for Speed. Pretty simple, but I have found some interesting uses for it which still need to be properly balanced. In the future I will plan to add some indicators to let you when style abilities are in use. Also, did you have issues with the style animations playing correctly?

Thank you for the feedback, it's given me some things to think about.

Noel K.

Hi Noel,

To answer your question, as far as I can tell the style animations played pretty well. Maybe you should alternating between several style animations for each style - so the speed style animations for example will include short quick attacks.

(1 edit)

I've made a new update for the game I am working on. I list the changes in this devlog:

https://noel-k.itch.io/transgression-combat-prototype/devlog/255680/new-update

Basically, I made some animation tweaks and tweaks to enemy behavior. I also added a new animation.

Any feedback on this update would be greatly appreciated.

(5 edits)

Hello, so I played it for few minutes. It feels fine, can't say it was boring.

The combat it self isn't bad in any way, but didn't surprise me either. I'll start with the good things. The attacks of the main character looks nice. I can clearly see where I'm hitting, The animations look cool, like some cyber neon ninja. Especially the first attack, the first click, is nicely responsive and I can even manage to 'kait' with it (I simply liked it). The other follow ups, other clicks, doesn't feel that responsive but aren't bad. I also like the visuals of enemies, especially the sniper is cool. The AoE attack (RMB) is great too, but does seem to have low range than is practical, mby would make it bigger.

If I don't mind that there is not much depth yet, there are suggestions for improvement. Overall I think the combat needs more indicators of what is going on. It's mainly because there is no audio(at least I didn't have it there), but it can be improved visually too. My attacks are quite clear but, but enemies attacks doesn't seem to be very recognizable, especially the snipers melee and the white cloaked guys. Not that big deal but can be improved.

Biggest issue I found out is probably a bug or what, idk. Thing is that when I dodge (E), my character starts to dodge infinitely every attack automatically. So I'm practically invincible when I dodge one attack.

The stances (1,2.3) doesn't seem to do anything, except the speed stance, where I can use dash (space)

So I liked you game! It looks nice, If you expand the combat system even further It can be pretty fun game.

Hello Clesak,

Thanks for your feedback on my game. Thank you for pointing out the issue with the enemies attacks. I'll fix there animations so that it's easier to tell where their attacks land and will probably start to add in some effects. Especially with the audio. I had disabled it for now because I was getting some annoying pop sounds, but I know how to fix it now.

As for the thing about the dodge, that was what I planned for. It's not a bug, I figured that the player should have a way to dodge any attacks if necessary. Previously the way to dodge was by using the dash, but since I decided to put that in the speed style I figured that I would need something that can allow you to avoid damage everytime. There is also a "block", but it is only meant to be used in certain scenarios because it really just reduces damage dealt to the player instead of blocking. If the issue with the dodge is that it is too easy to use or something and should require something more skill based, then I will look into that.

And lastly, yes I will be adding more attacks and new mechanics to the combat. I wanted to disable some of those things for now to get feedback on how the game feels.

Thanks for giving it a try.