Hi CodyBrealey!

This was a surprising entry as I've actually seen it quite a few times but never got a chance to play it from other jams. I had so much fun that I actually didn't want to stop. In fact, I kept expecting the game to end already but it kept progressing and surprised me with more content! So here's my feedback!

Gameplay:

• At first it felt like a clunky older fps but eventually it just became a huge part of the charm! A lot of games try to add a ton of complex mechanics with refined concepts but instead I feel like your game just embraced its flaws and made it such an enjoyable part of the game, especially the slide-jump!
• I did have regrets when wasting time exploring the first area when getting off the boat... I would have really wished that I didn't burn so much time there so I could get into the meat of the game more. It was this area that kind of started me with a negative impression.

Audio

• The lack of music on the early non-boss stages was a bit jarring, I wouldn't mind at least some more ambient tones if not any music, probably the sound of just howling wind and some debris moving around like rocks or something.
• So I'm a bit torn about the sfx, partly because I think it could be better but the other part is that it adds to the sloppy old school aesthetic. If anything, it's something that can be further improved on but not a priority.

Visuals:

• The enemies were simple, easy to see, and some were a pain to hit, but again, this was part of the charm of the game.
• As a colorblind player, I tend to focus on whether the game is playable for me or not and I honestly didn't have any real problem with the game visually that would impact my enjoyment of the game.

Other Feedback:

• Upon clearing the tutorial area inside the boat, I couldn't get to the exit because the bars stay in the way. I almost thought that there was nothing more to the game but somehow managed to accidentally slide jump past the bars.
• I'm not entirely sure what the flare gun is for so much.. it felt like you wanted to go somewhere with that mechanic and then just abandoned it.
• Need an enemy counter and a way to help find the last few enemies after a certain conditions like having less than 10 enemies and not finding them for like 5-10 minutes. As one viewer commented, it was like the den of evil (diablo reference) where you had to hunt every enemy in the first cave and sometimes you missed just 1 and spent the whole time searching it again.

Overall, the boss stages really had me really engaged and the first time I heard the music for them had me a little on the edge of my seat in anticipation. I need to get back to playing the game more but I hope you continue expanding on the game!

Thank you for your time and for devs creating such fun games!

Regards,

- Glim

Here is my gameplay video if needed: 

It's alpha, so... understandable why it's so barebones. The camera is not that good for people who have motion sickness, so perhaps some setting will help in the future. At first I was planning to end my gameplay a soon as possible because of the camera, and the control that feels... confusing at first, but I tried to play the game till I reach the first boss.

• Youtube Timestamped Link
• Graphics : Amateurish , yet some of the freaks you fight are kind of charming. (Fingle monster)
• Music / Sfx : Sound balancing is needed.
  • Music : Near non-existent.
  • SFX : I can only assume you made the majority of the sound effects yourself, they're certainly..something.
• GUI : Kinda not great.
  • Fov / Mouse Sensitivity sliders should have numbers to help fine-tune.
  • Equipping a weapon or gear shows a lot of information , but the overall 'equip' screen is lacking in names and shows a lot of white boxes
• Gameplay : Conflicted.
  
  • Stopped playing when I got sent back to the tutorial area after hitting 'edit character'.
  • The movement and jumping is fairly jank
  • The quantity of enemies is a tad ridiculous.
  • Flare gun seemed to just run out of ammo despite having only having used 1 round out of 15.
  • Shotgun ammo should be increased (per pickup)
  • Pistol felt fairly useless (accuracy is pretty bad), Shotgun felt like it was just about mandatory.
  • ASWD to stop moving and 'ground pound' is awful, it should be bound to a hotkey, CTRL , ALT , something else that's easier to do.
• Notes :
  • Is this meant to be taken seriously, it feels like a shitpost?
  • I request that the weird large finger monster be named "Finglers"
  • Why are we fighting evil vomiting horses?
  • Considering the sheer volume of monsters, more shotgun ammo for R2 fire or an explosive weapon would be nice (GL40 , Grenades, sumt)
  • Some areas really should have better rewards, even if just ammo pickups , one area after fighting probably 2 dozens enemies the only reward that awaited me was three or so full heals worth of health.
  • The game is incredibly jank, especially involving enemies (Targeting, movement, attacking you etc.)
  • Blood mist from gibbed enemies should probably be turned down.
  • Summons are hidden pretty well as I only found one, I usually like summoning stuff but the one I got felt near-useless and considering this game's frenetic nature, I don't know if it's even particularly viable.
  • I kinda liked the weird structure/fight with the light following you up the floors.
  • Title/Name reminds me of Realm of the Mad God

Overall despite the sheer amount of things I could critique or have done so above, this isn't terrible and I actually somewhat enjoyed this jankfest , up until 'character select' yoinked me back to the beginning.

Hey there ChainandScale here!

What I liked

• Graphics
• Weapons and the variety 
• Level design- The changes throughout keep things fresh and that dungeon level was fun along with being a challenge.
• The monsters

It takes some getting used to the movement and timing jumps. I think the amount of enemies at times can be a little overwhelming a grenade would have been good to have at times. Otherwise I loved this and I look forward to seeing updates. 

Hey there! I tried the demo and enjoyed it, and the game runs smoothly.
What I liked the most was the dark ambience and the enemy designs (I liked some of the noises they made). I feel that with controller support it would be even better, but the movement in open spaces was great.
What I had problem was with the weapons cycling. While in combat, it was hard to choose what weapon I wanted, and sometimes I even ended up without a weapon equiped (maybe use numbers to select weapon).
I'm not a fan of the first part, spaces were tight and you move a lot. After leaving the boat I fell into the water, and when jumping I almost could fly haha.

This game was interesting! Definitely a diamond in the rough for the right type of player.

I'm just going to dive right into the things I think could be improved, because for me anyways this game still feels like it's very early on in development. Perhaps I am incorrect, since this kind of shooter is new to me, but that's the overall vibe I got due to the lack of direction on where to go next in the world and much of what I'm about to share following.

In character creation, disconnect the movement of the character from typing in your name for said character. And, unless there's going to be future dialog or a save slot that includes using that name, maybe just do away with the name entry overall.

Please add some music to the menu area. The pure silence is almost unnerving. Just something quiet in the background honestly goes a long way.

Text on screen needs a drop shadow or outline or something to make it more legible when it comes to the story telling. White text on a busy background is hard on the eyes after all.

Being able to adjust the volume of things in-game would be nice, too. Not all speakers/headsets are created equal, and not all hearing is the same. I tend to have very sensitive ears, so I usually turn volumes down in games for that very reason. Other people might be harder of hearing and want to turn them up. Having the option is always good.

Speaking of options, being able to adjust the mouse sensitivity without backing out of the game completely would be top-notch. That way I can see immediately if I've fine-tuned it enough.

I'd also recommend a small tutorial to go over all the mechanics, like picking a weapon, using a weapon, etc. It was a solid start in the beginning (where the bug with the first enemy was discovered), but it could be a little more robust.

With the weapons too, please label them as you pick them up with their function, for choices, and have them labeled in your wheel. "You've found a flare gun. It will light up a space for 30sec and the flares stick" or "A shotgun. Deals heavy damage but has a slow reload"

The pixel graphics are fun, but they don't lend themselves well to visually discerning between firearms quickly in my experience. 

Finally, something I mentioned to you as well when you were there in stream with me, a motion sickness warning is going to be important for this game. I wasn't expecting to get motion sick from playing, but I had also never played a game like this before to know. The rapid movement in multiple directions was definitely a lot for my poor brain to deal with (since motion sickness is a disconnect between your brain perceiving/not perceiving movement and your ears doing the opposite), and I think the game would only benefit from that warning like others do for epilepsy warning etc. This way someone who is motion sensitive, like myself, can consider looking up gameplay first or playing a demo to double-check before going full-bore and possibly being frustrated by a game they can't play because their own body has to get in the way. You've done nothing wrong designing the game the way you intend it to be played, and the way probably that genre of games is designed to be played, but warning people ahead of time is always good.

Overall it feels like a really solid foundation. I think there's definitely a target audience for this type of game. I was enjoying it while I was playing it, minus my motion sickness frustrations. Honestly I bet it's a game my little brother would get into, and his friend. They're who introduced me to FPS games in the first place, they just aren't content creators.

My VOD is here, your game is timestamped in the bookmarks: 

Henyo! First of all, thanks so much for getting me to try out your game, it has been my favourite demo so  far! You have introduced me to a new genre of game that I've never tried before which is movement shooters. There are a couple comments I do have about it but please don't be discouraged, I hope it helps you improve and move forward with development.

• Character creation; Camera could be faster; either have a drag mouse to rotate or speed up the button movements so it's easier to view the character from all sides instead of waiting around for it to rotate fully.

• Movement shooter not really great for claustrophobic areas (starting levels), if you wanna demonstrate the movement should note it during a more open level for players to try it out when you show the prompt. 

• NPC maybe could be invulnerable if important to shop or quest etc. I killed the shopkeeper immediately since it was a game where the environment was hostile to the player.

• Diagonal movement seems faster than cardinal directions, not sure if that was on purpose.

• Amazing job at the level designs, they left me uneasy at the very high ledges and it I was so tense from the fear of falling.  

• I'm impressed with the amount of levels you have managed to make for the demo, each one feels different and they never overstay their welcome or feel repeated. The environments could be bare bones at times and spacious without much reason but I think it's ok for a movement shooter since you're supposed to keep moving. 

• Death screen comments are funny "ABH; Always be hoppin", the humor is really good.

• Most of the guns feel great but a possible stabilization could help with the sniper scope.

Overall very well done, the creatures had distinct silhouettes so it was easy to tell them apart from each other. It's a very impressive vertical slice for the game that you are developing, it's huge and I can't wait to see more from you. Best of luck! 

[Part 2] https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2547479434

It's a great start, and I had alot of fun with the combat!  I do feel like I may have missed something and didn't progress all that far.  But, for the parts I did see, it was a very interesting and nostalgic experience.  Enemies seem well thought out, and the engagements felt great to resolve.  I'd love to see this game more fleshed out, and I can't wait to see where you take it.

Some general critiques:

1.  The zone based tutorial is a little hard to follow.  I'm not sure it would be very accessible and some tips would be easily missable.
2. There's huge potential for environmental story telling.  The current ambiance and lore are great, adding a few more choice decorations to lead the player along would go a long way.
3. Had a weird moment where the enemy that was supposed to be the tutorial for picking up a weapon clipped its upper half into the wall.  Luckily later I figured out what the tutorial meant after seeing another downed enemy
4. The menus seem to be in the early stages of development; there's a stark difference in quality of them versus the gameplay itself.  The only concrete improvement I could suggest is the ability to unequip a weapon from the weapon slots, because in playing with the menu, I ended up with duplicates of weapons.
5. Not sure if it's intended, after I assigned a duplicate shotgun, I was able to animation cancel the cycling of the weapon and increase the rate of fire by swapping between them.

The VOD is linked below, and will be available for 60 days.  If it's needed for longer, please reach out and a highlight can be made.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2545634493?t=0h6m44s

This game has been updated a few times since the jam started and I'll probably keep updating it throughout. I'll continue editing this comment as I update the game.

Most recent update: September 11th

Changes so far:

Picking up guns no longer equips a new one if you have that gun already.

Reduced enemy counts and fixed soft locks in multiple levels.

Updated tutorial.

Updated menus.

NPCs are immune to player's attacks.

You can hold spacebar to swim up.

The earlier tomb levels have had their layouts edited to hopefully allow better use of the game's movement system

Unique summons now properly summon

Number keys can be used to select weapons

Changed the wording on some menu button to be clearer

Moved the merchant on the island level closer to where the player starts

Changed underwater movement to be less insane

FOV and mouse sensitivity can now be changed from the pause menu

Added motion sickness warning to the title screen

You can now "clear" a level by killing every enemy in it. Doing so will reveal how many secrets that level has and how many you've found, as well as (mostly) preventing the enemies in said level from respawning when you revisit it.

Added tutorial level to hopefully teach the movement better

levels with no secrets no longer show the secret counter

A number of other smaller things.

• Atmosphere is great. The little taste of worldbuilding helps with this 
• Biomes don't overstay their welcome
• Very glad there's no fall damage
• The monster enemies are great. Each one is distinct with obvious combat roles and really good animation telegraphs. The way the factions fight each other is perfect
• Not sure if it's intentional but chaining slides and jumps up slopes lets you fly around like crazy. Feels good once you get the hang of it

• Being able to have multiple copies of a weapon when they share an ammo pool anyway makes weapon selecting tedious. This also made me lose my sniper rifle because I accidentally replaced it with a tiny pistol
• Item pickup range is very very small
• The aerial movement works in huge open spaces but feels like too much in smaller areas. Especially anywhere with a risk to fall off and die
• Not sure if I was supposed to find better armor at any point but it got very frustrating when there were tons of purple balls killing me from offscreen in the tower level
• The camera has a severe jitter to it when character is moving and the camera is rotating. The motion blur makes this even worse. Easier to see in slow motion. It seems like the character is physics-based and the camera is not getting updated every frame.

Unfortunately softlocked myself in the white sand area by taking the door back to the boss arena. Lot of fun up to that point

Had an absolute ball playing this, laughed so hard and got some good jump scares.  My chat was dying at the God mode LOL  And OMG thank you for not having the character be slow as molasses!

I do think the weapons should just be combined on the same type versus having multiples as it made it harder to cycle through.  I also noticed whenever I went through a door, I'd come out with the flare gun equipped, versus whatever gun I had before.

I made it to the tower with the 10 floors or so that you could fall down to the bottom of if you weren't careful.  Couldn't clear it, but had fun trying!  

VOD link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2543795410  I started it around the 36 minute mark :)