Hi.
Is the game in active development? I would be interested, but seeing that the game is still in alpha stage and the last update is over half a year past I'm wondering if the project is still alive.
Greetings!
Thanks alot.
I'll check out as soon as I can (suppose next sunday night) and give you detailed feedback.
I suspected that the poor attention was the reason you stopped working on your project - any chances that you might reconsider it?
In my opinion, it is better to create a game that is good and finished even if nearly nobody notices it than to have a unfinished game. Think about it :).
I stopped working on it a few reasons. Me and my wife had a kid - I started a new job and I got a lucrative contracting deal as a side-gig...
It kinda boiled down to the fact that I felt like I should work on things that would more obviously have a return. So I'm spending my spare time just writing boring code rather than making games... Selling out, packing up shop and joining the rat race :D
I'd consider the game finished - I'd just planned on keeping on going with updates - something I should probably reconsider in light of what I'm saying here...
Be keen to hear what you have to say!
Hi
Played your game for a few hours.
Problems:
-There are strong visual glitches, requiring a restart; cards and buttons aren't rendered correctly.
You can not click or use such elements, as far as I can tell. Restarting the game solves the problem. This happened to me with the whole are where the "Start" Button is right after the first level on my first attempt; I couldn't continue the game. Players might never boot it a second time in such a case.
-Enemies get stuck in your dungeon, blocking the game from ending if you don't poke them using your spells. Might be caused by the vines or slows. Sometimes magis will create portals, sending all enemies into an loop!
-Sometimes your buildgrid will slide off, causing fields not to mach with the dungeon. This is not only a visual problem, but seems to allow enemies to bypass your minions:
-Setting Plants might cause visual glitches, seemingly creating space within your dungeon. This is especially visible when you sell them.
What would be nice:
-Add an increasing gain for higher levels, so that players aren't forced to backtrack so hard if they spent too much gold on upgrades. Going back to the first stage after level 15 doesn't feel good. Increase the costs of stuff slightly in return, so it is still needed to backtrack a bit. Of course any other working solution for this would do as well.
-More music.
-Hotkeys
-Preview for things before you unlock them.
-Hard mode with an increased spawn of enemies.
-Windowed option
-Only reached boss rooms on the first floor, maybe you should increase the speed of gaining them somewhat?
-Difficulty progression: Sometimes easy levels followed after very hard ones. Not sure about this tbh, could also be me.
-Spellpanel should feel more "prominent" within your UI; sometimes I just forgot to use them in narrow situations or even when I lost.
-Your UI could be improved in general: Some functions feel a bit hidden, at some places tooltips would help. Examples are the objectives ingame; where is the exit button?
-Some of the Drag/Drop-Mechanics or "Keep clicking on" mechanics within the UI are a bit confusing.
What is good:
-Gameplay. The basic gameplay loop is great and fun. Feels like some dungeon-keeper TD and works damn well.
-Your overall gamedesign is elegant and smooth.
-Graphics are well done.
-You got a good amount of content.
-Overall: Good balance! Still needs a bit of polishment here and there though.
-Sounddesign was on point.
-Everything feels coherent. This is very important.
-No game breaking bugs except the visual glitch
-Native Linux version runs well.
Questions of Taste:
-Your music isn't bad, but you should get more tracks. Also, I would recommend to spice things up. The howling chorus effect is nice, though.The OST of phenomena has this kind of sound and rocks, the passage starting from 2:00 is damn good:
:D
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Its a fun and good game, but I disagree about it's completeness. Its still a bit too rough at some points. I can understand that your life has moved on, but It would be nice if you would complete it (maybe in the very long run). If you iron out all or most of the non-cursive written points, it should feel complete and would be a very good indie game. Cursive written points are nice to haves.
Tell me if you have any questions, or need playtesting again. Might play more and give feedback if I do notice anything.
Edit: Did a small review for your game on "arcane cache" - my very underground blog for very underground games.
Dungems is exactly what you normally would want to play if you boot up a indie game: A simple, yet solid and well devised concept realized with dedication and passion by a person who is sure that this is the shit at the time of making it, easily accessible yet deep enough for a few good hours.
http://thunderperfectwitchcraft.org/arcane_cache/2022/11/21/dungems/