I finally played this version of awoken. I tried playing through most levels, I've got some feedback: - The shotgun spread should be randomized with each shot, I think it shoots out the same pattern each time you fire.
- It would be nice to keep the same weapons set up each time you continue with the levels instead of starting out with the default ones. I kept switching back to the weapons I was using before.
- Some of the levels felt too big for the amount of content that they had. I know many are just test levels and what-not but since the mech walks slowly even with the boost it felt that you spend too much time just moving around.
- I did the turn-around mechanic by accident too many times. Since I'm used to just move backwards pressing shift on FPS games like this.
- I tried destroying the laser at the moon level, but I think the weapons barely do any damage considering the time limit that you are given.
- The sewer boss was nice, I liked that one.
I think by far the most fun part of the game is the Arcade Mode. It kind of reminded me of Twisted Metal.
I think I said this before, but it feels like for a project like this it's better to focus on making the mech as polished as you can and then focus on the level design and extra content - I think it's something that will help you out a lot in the long term. Like feeling the weight with each step, have the cockpit tilt to the sides when strafing, etc. Details like that. The cockpit is the place you stare at the whole game - so it's the 'location' that I would expect to look insanely polished kek, maybe I'm asking for too much but it's just my opinion, so far there has been really good progress.
Not much has changed since the last version but there are some improvements here and there, I'd maybe tweak the damage of the shotgun especially, the falloff(?) seems very very sudden. Oh and also giving the environments some graphical overhaul would be good, it'd feel much more complete then!
Recorded myself playing. I love to see all the ways the game improves each time and it's certainly becoming more fun and involved, but I still have my issues with the level design.
Not much changed since I last tested it, but the performance and load times are much, much better. That optimization pass and the upgrade to 4.4 and Jolt really made a difference! The tech keeps getting better and the soul keeps increasing, so keep at it!
Here are the negative things I noticed while playing through (A)WOKEN: 1. Post-processing & slow-mo causes issues for my ultrawide monitor where it looks like a 16:9 overlay is applied starting from the left side of the screen leaving me with one screen for the game in 16:9 super-imposed over another in my regular resolution.
2. Some of the buttons for the level select menu did not work unless I was in a 16:9 resolution.
3. Going into fortress mode seemed to get rid of the footstep sound effects.
4. I like that I can hold back and press shift to turn around quickly, but when I hold back-left and back-right I still end up getting turned around quickly when pressing shift (which to me does not feel natural).
5. Is the shotgun hit-scan with a single raycast? I ask because I was only ever able to hit missiles out of the sky with it (which is a cool thing to be able to do!) if I clicked on them directly.
6. I think the inventory menu needs more labeling. I had no idea, for the weapons, which slot on which arm I was going to be changing out when selecting between different weapons.
7. Having to hold 'C' to heal feels a big cumbersome. Would be nice to be able to toggle it.
I was impressed with the variety of weapons in the game, but I do wish the enemies were more of a challenge. I never felt very threatened by them, but maybe I only played the easier levels.
Overall I think you're doing good with getting the vibe of a chunky bipedal mech down. The view from the cockpit is quite nice. The shaking of the cockpit and the sounds of the mech whilst moving do a great job of making the player feel its heft. Excited to see your progress in next demo day! Keep up the good work!
Beat this Atlantis level (Probably the first time I see a cutscene) and beat the boss, though it seems when I clicked this menu, I still shot from my gun.
Picked Physx I think that's called: Used the grenade launcher on the brick house and the game lagged a bit.
With the Moon level: Beat it by destroying the cannon, then lost because the game was still going: This got me stuck.
Also tried other levels like the Gravitron (Kinda got stuck in the ceiling) and the sewer boss.
The Etna boss was a bit harder for me.
Something that personally annoys me a bit is how the starting weapon on the left is the shotgun because I find the chaingun more convinient.
(Also because in a way, a chaingun contrasts the rocket launcher more by being a fast paced hitscan-ish weapon vs a slow projectile one, while the shotgun is still slow).
As of writing this, I'm playing story levels (If that's what they are) but not in a chronological order.
Also discovered that shift + S is 180 degree turn.
The fight with Nayla wasn't that hard.
In Serenity, I do use G to fly in third person, but somehow it feels a bit weird.
I think I played most levels and also saw a lot of /agdg/ cameos and art.
Also got to see my mech being repaired when using the repair item.
the moon level bug is worrisome, there might be a small window of time between "winning" and still being able to lose before the win screen actually pops up. i personally like the shotgun a lot, but i could make the gatling gun the default instead i guess.
I wonder if you could make the anime girl on screen 3D. like she's in a subviewport and has jiggle physics, and then you render that subviewport to the mech's monitor.
Disclaimer: I have ADHD and I get easily overwhelmed by long text
So here's some stuff:
+ I like the concept of waifus in mechas - Game shouldn't infodump all the keyboard buttons on me at once before starting the tutorial + There's a controls list in the pause menu - I had no idea I could check the controls in the pause menu before poking around - The game shouldn't tell me to press the "heal button" to open doors but should actually tell me what the button is, it did tell me to press Shift to sprint right before that - The tutorial makes me feel a bit overwhelmed, there are a lot of things on the screen at once and I keep failing to notice when there is dialogue on screen + The main game actually feels better paced than the tutorial, I have more room to get used to playing - Shift + Back being the combination to turn around really messed me up whenever I tried to dodge backwards - Levels feel too big and empty, enemies look really small compared to the environment - Weapons other than the gatling gun are really ineffective, it's really hard to do any meaningful damage with them - I keep missing the dialogueon the sides because I'm way too focused on the center of the screen
I like the concept of the game, mech movement feels nice, it's just too overwhelming most of the time
Played the new stuff. The switching between shooting and dodging the homing rockets with the dino boss was pretty cool. wish it had a lil bit more attack variety, and the missiles were a lil easier to destroy, getting caught with a low damage wep or between a low fire rate makes it so some feel undodgable. The sewer boss is cool but i couldnt really get a feel for his attacks i just wailed on him.
Was interested in finding the design doc in the folder, I figured I'll keep it for later but the dialogue in the first 4 missions was so strange I stopped to check it out, maybe I'll learn more. I didn't but it is good you got a mission statement,.
I wanted to say it is too easy at first, and never had to use dodge or even slowmo, but Nyna spiced it up. Although I think in the last 30% of her health she bugged out, and just rubbed against the wall while I sniped her from relatively far. Same happened to AGDGBot in Atlantis, and Isaiah boss at Etna. Otherwise bosses in general seem to make the game interesting, Sewer boss was interesting, but both him and mecha dino need more danger. But the mobs are just a tedium at their current state. Maybe some rockets could be faster.
Nuke looks gorgeous, love the Shredder. Laser Cannon seems louder than anything else. Not sure if it is a feature or a bug that Flamethrower reaches at the other end of the map, but seems a bit unfair towards Shotgun. Not too unfair though, that thing is a beast close-range.
At the Moon level, somehow clicking on Continue, continued the level being played, before moving on after 3 seconds. Shooting the destructible wall have tanked my framreate to 1 for several seconds. Both time.
This game’s a hot mess but I love coming back to it.
Linux build is still solid, no issues
I think I’ve said this every time but your basic gameplay is solid, you just need more visual polish to sell it, but the changes I’ve seen are going in the right direction.
I like how the cockpit is shaping up, but it still has a lot clean empty panels that need buttons, wires, LEDs, or even just some etchings. I can already see the resemblance to the Hawken UI, I always reference the interiors from MechWarrior 3 as well for 2D elements.
The flashing is great feedback for the enemies, I used to do exactly the same but now feedback when you take damage is lacking by comparison. I like the sound and the little BSOD on the matrix screen but you might want the whole cockpit to jerk away with the impact as well.
It’s great how the one-on-one fights have your opponent combo up the powerups and then retreat to repair themselves just like you can.
So many AGDG references! Understand that it’s going to make us biased in favor of the game!
I like how the story references itself being a game. I think you should continue to lean into it and don’t sweat too much about redoing anything, with how much you’re learning along the way I think the game is always going to look like a mess so you should embrace it and leave any idea of polish for the next project.
I might be projecting my desire to move on to another project, but I could already see this releasing by leaning into the meme of it being a work-in-progress or a showcase of your growth as a game developer.
But if you mean to polish the absolute shit out of it you’re going to have to commit to juice and art tutorials and have an autistic attention to detail.
In the short term (this another personal preference), I’d focus on overhauling your cockpit animations so you can consistently replicate all of the little moves the cockpits make in Hawken, from the big sways to the tiny wobbles. It should all just be eased offsets stacked on top of each other, that’s the simplest way to do it.
Movement: Would be good to feel a bit more weight in movement.
Grenade: Would be cool if it can be shoot to explode early.
Cooldown indication: Might be better to have something like a progress bar to see cooldown moving instead of just simple red/blue.
Tutorial have too much info but still don't tell the player what the items and skills actually do, might as well skip this part and introduce them as the game progress with a bit more details.
Item Shield need clearer boundary.
Tooltip over items, skills and weapons would be helpful.
I dig the new character portraits! and the sewer boss as a concept is kino.
arcade mode is still by far my favorite mode since the map is the most dynamic and interesting imo. blasting shit with nukes and shotguns is fun
i must be missing something, but even if i did nothing but blast the laser cannon on the moon level i wasnt able to deplete its health fast enough
i cant tell what the berserk/fortress power ups do
imo the screen getting fuzzed up and scrambled by enemy mechs is really annoying
the gravity flipping level seemed to work pretty well and i like it a lot as a concept for a hawken like game
Keep up the good work!
Ran into a few bugs that i didnt have the last time i played that ill document below:
the left weapon "Next:" indicator was offset by 1, and the gattling gun would not render or play any sound. fixed by switching loadout in the menu. Flamethrower also displayed no particles when firing for me.
AGDG bot's AI glitched out and got stuck jittering in the corner during the following level. Same thing happened in the following level.
the sort of pencil style portraits is cool, though it would be good to have different images for different situations like the lady in mullet madjack
mouse sensitivity settings would be good to have, bit too slow for my likings by default
the dialogue is really weird in an appealing way, with the characters directly talking about the underlying structure of the game they're in. lends it a bit of surrealty, and I hope that if it's placeholder dialogue then an element of that remains
side strafe is great, hover is good. other than the SFX and HUD, it doesn't seem very mech-y. even the height of the camera feels like that of an ordinary man
AGDG posters are a good reward for exploring lul
ended a level with enemies still alive nearby, that doesn't seem to make sense. I was rather looking forward to fighting them but stumbled into the Area3D and was whisked from combat
level design is a lot of size and not a lot of anything interesting. combat seems largely to be handled by shooting the enemy while strafing or sometimes hiding behind corners. you have some quick fixes for this in the hunting down turrets level, and I respect the audacity of just putting wireframe mode in as a feature, but I think the better solution would have been to put more interesting things in the vast expanse
Comments
I finally played this version of awoken. I tried playing through most levels, I've got some feedback:
- The shotgun spread should be randomized with each shot, I think it shoots out the same pattern each time you fire.
- It would be nice to keep the same weapons set up each time you continue with the levels instead of starting out with the default ones. I kept switching back to the weapons I was using before.
- Some of the levels felt too big for the amount of content that they had. I know many are just test levels and what-not but since the mech walks slowly even with the boost it felt that you spend too much time just moving around.
- I did the turn-around mechanic by accident too many times. Since I'm used to just move backwards pressing shift on FPS games like this.
- I tried destroying the laser at the moon level, but I think the weapons barely do any damage considering the time limit that you are given.
- The sewer boss was nice, I liked that one.
I think by far the most fun part of the game is the Arcade Mode. It kind of reminded me of Twisted Metal.
I think I said this before, but it feels like for a project like this it's better to focus on making the mech as polished as you can and then focus on the level design and extra content - I think it's something that will help you out a lot in the long term. Like feeling the weight with each step, have the cockpit tilt to the sides when strafing, etc. Details like that. The cockpit is the place you stare at the whole game - so it's the 'location' that I would expect to look insanely polished kek, maybe I'm asking for too much but it's just my opinion, so far there has been really good progress.
Keep at it Federx
The controls and gameplay are solid.
sometimes the "Next: [weapon]" text in the hud was inconsistent, it would say "Next:Shotgun" when i already had the shotgun equipped.
maybe i was using the jump pad wrong but sometimes i jumped only a little and sometimes i jumped very high on the jump pad
the shotgun and rail gun firing rate could be faster. I was mostly just using gatling gun and missiles
pressing tab to open up the menu was too slow, I think you it should just quickly change the cockpit windows into monitor screens instantly
personal preference but i'd like changing weapons on mousewheel instead
i could stack berserk, slow mode, and fortress mode all at once. not sure if thats intended
You're on the right path!
Not much has changed since the last version but there are some improvements here and there, I'd maybe tweak the damage of the shotgun especially, the falloff(?) seems very very sudden. Oh and also giving the environments some graphical overhaul would be good, it'd feel much more complete then!
Recorded myself playing. I love to see all the ways the game improves each time and it's certainly becoming more fun and involved, but I still have my issues with the level design.
Not much changed since I last tested it, but the performance and load times are much, much better. That optimization pass and the upgrade to 4.4 and Jolt really made a difference! The tech keeps getting better and the soul keeps increasing, so keep at it!
Hey Federx!
Here are the negative things I noticed while playing through (A)WOKEN:
1. Post-processing & slow-mo causes issues for my ultrawide monitor where it looks like a 16:9 overlay is applied starting from the left side of the screen leaving me with one screen for the game in 16:9 super-imposed over another in my regular resolution.
2. Some of the buttons for the level select menu did not work unless I was in a 16:9 resolution.
3. Going into fortress mode seemed to get rid of the footstep sound effects.
4. I like that I can hold back and press shift to turn around quickly, but when I hold back-left and back-right I still end up getting turned around quickly when pressing shift (which to me does not feel natural).
5. Is the shotgun hit-scan with a single raycast? I ask because I was only ever able to hit missiles out of the sky with it (which is a cool thing to be able to do!) if I clicked on them directly.
6. I think the inventory menu needs more labeling. I had no idea, for the weapons, which slot on which arm I was going to be changing out when selecting between different weapons.
7. Having to hold 'C' to heal feels a big cumbersome. Would be nice to be able to toggle it.
I was impressed with the variety of weapons in the game, but I do wish the enemies were more of a challenge. I never felt very threatened by them, but maybe I only played the easier levels.
Overall I think you're doing good with getting the vibe of a chunky bipedal mech down. The view from the cockpit is quite nice. The shaking of the cockpit and the sounds of the mech whilst moving do a great job of making the player feel its heft. Excited to see your progress in next demo day! Keep up the good work!
you night just have enlightened me of why exactly so many people complained about the quick turn in the past.
the shotgun fires multiple raycasts, but the damage they deal rapidly decrease with the distance.
sorry about C but i will not touch the default hawken control scheme. (proper rebindable keys will come eventually)
Beat this Atlantis level (Probably the first time I see a cutscene) and beat the boss, though it seems when I clicked this menu, I still shot from my gun.
Picked Physx I think that's called: Used the grenade launcher on the brick house and the game lagged a bit.
With the Moon level: Beat it by destroying the cannon, then lost because the game was still going: This got me stuck.
Also tried other levels like the Gravitron (Kinda got stuck in the ceiling) and the sewer boss.
The Etna boss was a bit harder for me.
Something that personally annoys me a bit is how the starting weapon on the left is the shotgun because I find the chaingun more convinient.
(Also because in a way, a chaingun contrasts the rocket launcher more by being a fast paced hitscan-ish weapon vs a slow projectile one, while the shotgun is still slow).
As of writing this, I'm playing story levels (If that's what they are) but not in a chronological order.
Also discovered that shift + S is 180 degree turn.
The fight with Nayla wasn't that hard.
In Serenity, I do use G to fly in third person, but somehow it feels a bit weird.
I think I played most levels and also saw a lot of /agdg/ cameos and art.
Also got to see my mech being repaired when using the repair item.
Managed to see lots of new stuff.
the moon level bug is worrisome, there might be a small window of time between "winning" and still being able to lose before the win screen actually pops up.
i personally like the shotgun a lot, but i could make the gatling gun the default instead i guess.
I wonder if you could make the anime girl on screen 3D. like she's in a subviewport and has jiggle physics, and then you render that subviewport to the mech's monitor.
well, I certainly can NOT considering that i can barely change the color of a cube in blender lol
Disclaimer: I have ADHD and I get easily overwhelmed by long text
So here's some stuff:
+ I like the concept of waifus in mechas
- Game shouldn't infodump all the keyboard buttons on me at once before starting the tutorial
+ There's a controls list in the pause menu
- I had no idea I could check the controls in the pause menu before poking around
- The game shouldn't tell me to press the "heal button" to open doors but should actually tell me what the button is, it did tell me to press Shift to sprint right before that
- The tutorial makes me feel a bit overwhelmed, there are a lot of things on the screen at once and I keep failing to notice when there is dialogue on screen
+ The main game actually feels better paced than the tutorial, I have more room to get used to playing
- Shift + Back being the combination to turn around really messed me up whenever I tried to dodge backwards
- Levels feel too big and empty, enemies look really small compared to the environment
- Weapons other than the gatling gun are really ineffective, it's really hard to do any meaningful damage with them
- I keep missing the dialogueon the sides because I'm way too focused on the center of the screen
I like the concept of the game, mech movement feels nice, it's just too overwhelming most of the time
Played the new stuff. The switching between shooting and dodging the homing rockets with the dino boss was pretty cool. wish it had a lil bit more attack variety, and the missiles were a lil easier to destroy, getting caught with a low damage wep or between a low fire rate makes it so some feel undodgable. The sewer boss is cool but i couldnt really get a feel for his attacks i just wailed on him.
Was interested in finding the design doc in the folder, I figured I'll keep it for later but the dialogue in the first 4 missions was so strange I stopped to check it out, maybe I'll learn more. I didn't but it is good you got a mission statement,.
I wanted to say it is too easy at first, and never had to use dodge or even slowmo, but Nyna spiced it up. Although I think in the last 30% of her health she bugged out, and just rubbed against the wall while I sniped her from relatively far. Same happened to AGDGBot in Atlantis, and Isaiah boss at Etna.
Otherwise bosses in general seem to make the game interesting, Sewer boss was interesting, but both him and mecha dino need more danger. But the mobs are just a tedium at their current state. Maybe some rockets could be faster.
Nuke looks gorgeous, love the Shredder. Laser Cannon seems louder than anything else. Not sure if it is a feature or a bug that Flamethrower reaches at the other end of the map, but seems a bit unfair towards Shotgun. Not too unfair though, that thing is a beast close-range.
At the Moon level, somehow clicking on Continue, continued the level being played, before moving on after 3 seconds. Shooting the destructible wall have tanked my framreate to 1 for several seconds. Both time.
I am vibing with the music.
This game’s a hot mess but I love coming back to it.
i'm gonna need you to elaborate on the last part.
i GENUINELY want to polish this project as much as i can.
i'm not particularly interested in starting a new project any time soon...
I might be projecting my desire to move on to another project, but I could already see this releasing by leaning into the meme of it being a work-in-progress or a showcase of your growth as a game developer.
But if you mean to polish the absolute shit out of it you’re going to have to commit to juice and art tutorials and have an autistic attention to detail.
In the short term (this another personal preference), I’d focus on overhauling your cockpit animations so you can consistently replicate all of the little moves the cockpits make in Hawken, from the big sways to the tiny wobbles. It should all just be eased offsets stacked on top of each other, that’s the simplest way to do it.
Probably not a surprise but the way the game renders seems to not work very well with wine (using crossover) on macOS.
I'll have to try it later
The game is fun but slow fire rate weapons feel kinda bad and it takes too long to switch weapons.
I got kinda inconsistent results with the movement but i assume that's skill issue on my part
You should add a sword so i dont have to aim :)
Movement: Would be good to feel a bit more weight in movement.
Grenade: Would be cool if it can be shoot to explode early.
Cooldown indication: Might be better to have something like a progress bar to see cooldown moving instead of just simple red/blue.
Tutorial have too much info but still don't tell the player what the items and skills actually do, might as well skip this part and introduce them as the game progress with a bit more details.
Item Shield need clearer boundary.
Tooltip over items, skills and weapons would be helpful.
Loadout should persist between levels.
the idea was having a separate loadout for every mission, because some weapons can trivialize some encounters.
stuff like, "those are the weapons that HQ has made available for you for the next mission"
I dig the new character portraits! and the sewer boss as a concept is kino.
Keep up the good work!
Ran into a few bugs that i didnt have the last time i played that ill document below:
the left weapon "Next:" indicator was offset by 1, and the gattling gun would not render or play any sound. fixed by switching loadout in the menu. Flamethrower also displayed no particles when firing for me.
AGDG bot's AI glitched out and got stuck jittering in the corner during the following level. Same thing happened in the following level.
those glitched bosses are supposed to run away from the player but their arenas are too small. they will need a complete rework.
the sort of pencil style portraits is cool, though it would be good to have different images for different situations like the lady in mullet madjack
mouse sensitivity settings would be good to have, bit too slow for my likings by default
the dialogue is really weird in an appealing way, with the characters directly talking about the underlying structure of the game they're in. lends it a bit of surrealty, and I hope that if it's placeholder dialogue then an element of that remains
side strafe is great, hover is good. other than the SFX and HUD, it doesn't seem very mech-y. even the height of the camera feels like that of an ordinary man
AGDG posters are a good reward for exploring lul
ended a level with enemies still alive nearby, that doesn't seem to make sense. I was rather looking forward to fighting them but stumbled into the Area3D and was whisked from combat
level design is a lot of size and not a lot of anything interesting. combat seems largely to be handled by shooting the enemy while strafing or sometimes hiding behind corners. you have some quick fixes for this in the hunting down turrets level, and I respect the audacity of just putting wireframe mode in as a feature, but I think the better solution would have been to put more interesting things in the vast expanse
i plan to remove the area3ds at the end of levels and create more boss fights in their place.
more portraits are planned but my artist is LAZY.
thanks for playing!