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Caravana - 2D platforming plus camels. Looking for feedback.

A topic by Joshua Galecki created Apr 15, 2020 Views: 420 Replies: 7

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I recently put out a demo and I'm looking for some feedback. All feedback is welcome, but I have some specific questions.

1) How do the combat controls "feel"?
2) Is there enough variety in combat encounters and what the player can do?
3) Is the Trade / Map screen understandable?
4) Less of a question, but some playtesters have noted that they either can't roll forward or roll backwards. If this happens, please let me know and let me know what type of controller you are using.

Thanks for helping out! You can check out the game at https://joshuagalecki.itch.io/caravana-demo

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Sven Hollesen4 years ago

Hi Joshua,

Unfortunately your current build does not seem to work for me. I get an animated Unity logo, then end on your title menu. Nothing happens when I click any button (not even a click sound) and neither do the arrow/WASD keys or enter work. On the other hand the music is still playing, and ESC closes the game. So if the buttons don't make noises, this might be a graphical freeze-frame?

I'm using Windows 10 with AMD graphics. I tried compatibility mode all the way down to Vista (XP is apparently not available any longer, well done Microsoft ~,~). Other Unity games work on this setup, I use it to develop them myself.

Best regards,

Sven

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Joshua Galecki4 years ago (1 edit)

Hi Sven,

Thanks for trying out the game! I have two ideas for what might be causing the issue.

1) During the first second or two of the title screen loading, the input keys are disabled for the player. I put this in after playtesting showed some players mashing buttons at the Game Over Screen. The button presses would go from the Game Over screen to the Title Screen and then immediately start a new game. This would overwrite the player's autosave file. This isn't needed at the start of the game, though, and I will make some adjustments.

2) It's an unknown bug :) If it's not the delay issue above, I have no idea why it's doing that. I keep debug logs with each game in the CaravanaDebugLog folder next to the .exe file. I'd appreciate it if you could email me the log file 'CaravanaDebugLog0.log' if this is the case.

Cheers,
Josh

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Sven Hollesen4 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

I looked at the log and this is the start of it :

[Screens.ScreenManager]: Adding screen Title Screen
[Screens.ScreenManager]: Screens: [Title Screen: Active]
[PlayerModel]: Initializing PlayerModel
[PlayerModel]: Awake, seed is 1690126827
*******************************************************
[Screens.ScreenManager]: Unhandled Exception!
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Assets.Scripts.IO.InputHelp.GetButtonDown (Assets.Scripts.IO.InputHelp+Buttons button) [0x001cb] in <f6ffd33d2fea43b288c20ba161375ee3>:0 
  at Assets.Scripts.Screens.TitleScreen.HandleInput () [0x002f8] in <f6ffd33d2fea43b288c20ba161375ee3>:0 
  at Assets.Scripts.Screens.ScreenManager.Update () [0x00087] in <f6ffd33d2fea43b288c20ba161375ee3>:0 
*******************************************************

The "Unhandled Exception" then repeats what seems like every frame. Nothing else, just a super bloated file with the same error message over and over.

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Joshua Galecki4 years ago

Thanks! Exactly what I was looking for.

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Joshua Galecki4 years ago

Alright, I figured out the issue. The exception was occurring because there was no gamepad plugged in. I've corrected this mistake and you shouldn't run into that problem anymore.

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Sven Hollesen4 years ago (2 edits)

Hey,

I didn't get much work done yesterday, but I played the first few minutes of your game. Here's my thoughts so far :

Start Menu :
I wish you could use arrow keys and mouse to navigate it. It comes more naturally to new players I think, unless a tutorial on menu usage would be provided. I would have probably thought the menu broken, if I hadn't read your game description before. Actual in-game controls are of course explained by the tutorial and fine as is.
The Menu feels sluggish. When I double tap 's' for example, the caret will only move down to the next menu entry, instead of the one after that. I would also expect the selection to wrap around as in, if I move down 1 from 'Exit', I would expect to arrive at 'New Game' again. Same for up from 'New Game'.
Combat :
The roll seems very far. I wish I could only roll behind the enemy, so I could immediately retaliate without running back to it. Maybe holding the roll buttons could lengthen the roll to a degree, just like with jumping?
The single flying monster absolutely massacred me the first time I fought it. It kept hitting my caravan when I aggroed it, and when I ran away from the camel, it switched aggro from me to the caravan again. When I had finally figured out the timing of its attack in relation to my jump and attack, it was already too late.
Didn't help that I lost another camel before while spelunking. I don't know how I'm supposed to go down into caves to get treasures if monsters can spawn anytime from the portals and massacre half the caravan before I have any chance of getting back up to them. A clock above the portals would really help make the spawning more predictable I think. Or alternatively an emergency teleport if the caravan is under attack. Or just a shout of warning from the caravaneers once they spot enemies approaching them. Or anything else that lets me explore caves just knowing WHEN I need to run back.
Story :
I really enjoyed the story and worldbuilding. Nothing negative to say unfortunately :D .

Best,

Sven

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Joshua Galecki4 years ago

Thanks for trying out the game! The variable-distance roll is a great idea. I'll include that in the next major update.

The skulls are difficult - right now, they don't have a cooldown after they cause damage (like everything else in the game). I think adding that back in would make them less of an issue (without decreasing the difficulty too much).

I agree that there need to be some UI updates on the camels getting attacked. I like the risk-versus-reward mechanic of choosing to explore a cave for treasure versus potential damage to your caravan, but there could be better ways to communicate these things to the players. I want it to be 'risk damage to a camel for treasure' instead of 'lose an entire camel while you hurry to get back'. I'll put some thought into this.

I appreciate the feedback :)

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