Man, you have something absolutely magical. I will be honest - the worst part of the game is the starting location - it feels very empty and kinda boring. Chasing jannies was a blessing in disguise - I fully expected them to just despawn somewhere on the edge of the map - instead I was lead to an interesting part of the game.
I dunno how detailed your simulation is, but it looks VERY detailed. NPC AI seems very fun, jannie screems from the incinerator are fun. Great spells! I'm assuming I raided the debug chest, but still - high-level spells like the sword rain are amazing.
I think some parts of the map are a bit barren, but the populated area is great and a lot of fun. Looking forward to your progress, great stuff!
Thanks for the kind words! Keeps me going for sure. I appreciate you doing the stream, it revealed some bugs and made it pretty apparent the beginning area needs some work. I'll try and get that done before the next demo! You did find the debug chest, but I put it there hoping people would use it. You were one of the few! Thanks again.
Being able to speed up time was a QOL featue I didn't know I wanted until now. Makes going through large distances easier. Even though having some manner of mount to move faster would be really beneficial. Airship travel was cinematic, but I can see how it could become annoying after the first five times. I thought sleeping would let me skip time but it didn't. Generally I like the option to rest during the night when it comes to games with day-night cycles.
It was a nice change of pace to start with nice starting equipment and not having to spend extra carry capacity to have a hatchet to cut wood with. Though I felt like combat was nothing else but to click on things, and hope you got more hp than it? I don't know if there is a death game over or not. My death was pretty magnificent. NPC responsivity is really nice.
All very good feedback, thank you! As for the combat, it really revolves around picking up items with unique abilities to use in between your weapon attacks. There's also potions and food you can use to heal while fighting, I was really hoping you'd use one of those potions on your hotbar when you were fighting that Worm Queen with that random adventurer NPC. I think more than half of the playtesters have ended up in the incinerator haha. Thanks again for linking the video, it's worth its weight in gold.
Glad to have helped, I've learned long ago that footage is worth than any written feedback that can be given, since you don't just see bugs and player reaction as they occur, but you might also see bugs the playtester didn't perceive as such.
It's a good start, and most things work pretty well.
Selecting targets is a bit imprecise at times, especially when things group up.
Not really sure what the progression system is, or how I can make my character get stronger apart from maybe trying to get the treasure in the snake place.
There needs to be some kind of auto-save or respawn after death. Kinda weird that my guy just drops dead and nothing else happens.
Really just needs a bit more direction apart from only introducing the settlements, although I think I'm probably not really the target audience for this amount of undirected freedom at this point of time.
Good feedback! I'll try and get in some kind of "game over" screen. There's currently no combat-related skills to improve, so I need to get those added in as well. A lot of people have been asking for direction, so I'll try putting in some optional quests in the beginner hub for the next demo. Thanks again for playing!
Got the incinerator ending. I noticed an NPC with a wizard costume was picking up the pink worms I killed, and decided to follow him to find out where he was taking them. Turns out he was just cleaning em up, and I became charcoal. A ton of fun! The open world approach makes me want to investigate and understand my surroundings. I found the game on the easier side, especially with the health potions you start with. Are there other methods of healing in the game? I saw a NPC dialogue that suggested potions can be created with flowers. I wonder if being inside a house you purchased can also slowly heal your HP. I also wonder if there are secondary goals of self preservation besides health, like a hunger bar or a stamina bar of some kind.
The number of enemy variations was appreciated, but I felt that they didn't vary from each other all too much (even though they looked quite different from each other). The only current method of approach is to click on them to attack, but it would be nicer if you could eventually treat the enemies differently based on their characteristics. I guess some of them have different spells but I didn't find them significant enough just yet.
The moments with the NPCs taking interesting actions were the most fun. Interacting with puzzle-like fixtures like the ruby statues was also fun.
Thank you for playing, and thank you even more for providing video! I hate to say that I laughed at the end, but I did.
For healing, there are several ways. Obviously consumables like potions and food heal, but like you assumed, you also heal inside a house you've purchased. You can also drop a bedroll and sleep on that for health. At the moment I don't want to do a hunger system because I feel like it can come off as a chore. But unique buffs for being satiated is something I want to try.
You're definitely right that they feel very similar right now. I'd like to integrate some behaviors for them so they might try to run and kite, or support their allies. As I add more spells, hopefully that'll help too.
I'm glad you figured out the ruby statues, I think you might be the only one haha. Thanks again for your comments and I look forward to hearing your feedback in the future!
I'm a sucker for this kind of game. Really like what you have so far. Everything seemed to work as intended. One thing that you could work on adding asap is some kind of feedback when selecting items in the inventory. Like whenever I click on an item in the inventory, highlight it with some color. When I right click on an inventory item, it should open a context menu. Even if is just loot that does nothing, maybe give me the option to drop or destroy, as that's what I would expect. I noticed that the enemy corpses doesn't seem to desapear? Or maybe it just takes a long time? I think they should desapear quickly after you loot them, so that they don't litter the environment (and to save on ressources ;) ). Do you have an LOD system for the trees, and props? I think that will be important for an open world game. Also, I noticed I get levels on, for example woodcutting, like Runescape, but there are no levels for combat I guess? So combat is fully dependent on the gear you find?
Anyway, excelent game so far. Looking forward to the development of this one.
I'll have to look into adding a bit more UI feedback for items! The bodies in the world don't despawn. If you wait long enough, you'll see than an NPC will actually collect it and destroy it in an incinerator. Or goblins will collect the body, take it to be sacrificed, and turned into more goblins. There are some LODs in place for trees, but some more props could probably use them! Yeah, currently there aren't combat levels but that will be added in the future! I had something similar to runescape's skill system in mind when building it out for sure. :)
i don't particularly like mouse controls for this kind of games, but i guess i don't like MMORPGs and MMORPG-likes in general i have genuinely no idea where to go and what to do i roamed around until i found an airship that sloooooooowly carried me elsewhere then i followed two wizards carrying some stuff, and as i tried to trade with them i got incinerated. initially i thought that "goals" meant that i was supposed to do something, but then i figured out that it's just what the character does by himself with no extra input. the pause menu seems very finnicky. not only did it stop working entirely while dead, but it also did not work while i was automatically doing something via the goal buttons. when you press esc it TRIES to cancel the operation, but then the automatic nature of the goals makes it start again immediately, so you can never open the pause menu until you manually disable the goals. this game looks very impressive in general, though i suggest avoiding following too closely some of the shortcomings of MMORPGs. example, having to wait for a short load time before opening a chest doesn't really make sense for an offline single player game, it's mostly an annoyance.
Good feedback! I hadn't considered the issue with the pause menu and goals because I rarely use them while playtesting. I'll try making the chest interactions instant as well and see how it feels. Thank you for playing!
This is quite an ambitious game, you really get lost exploring the world. The foundation looks pretty solid and the open world gameplay is working as it should be. I think it's already on a good path so I don't really have much feedback to give, it only needs more polish and content, and as someone said in the comments, just a little bit more direction at the beginning, but it's already quite charming. Good job!
Yeah, I think the involuntary looting is a big problem from what I've seen. I need to tweak the unit colliders after they die so they aren't so tall. Thanks for playing!
Thanks for giving it a try! I'm glad someone tried that out haha. It's definitely pretty open right now, I'll work on some more lures to really pull in the player.
After thinking about it for a bit, i think the type of lure needed is some kind of immediate short term loop. For example, if the guy at the docks has a starter sword in his inventory but he'll only give it to you if you trade him some of the nearby crab meat or something. I wouldn't suggest trying to hook via story or something for a kenshi-like, rather you need to get a small gameplay loop spinning fast to get people invested for the world to matter on the bigger loops. Anyways just a suggestion.
Good thoughts! I definitely think some quests are in order. Right now there's really only one, and the guy is in a cave off to the side. I'd like to fill the starting area with some people to encourage exactly what you're suggesting.
Comments
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2563708220
Man, you have something absolutely magical. I will be honest - the worst part of the game is the starting location - it feels very empty and kinda boring. Chasing jannies was a blessing in disguise - I fully expected them to just despawn somewhere on the edge of the map - instead I was lead to an interesting part of the game.
I dunno how detailed your simulation is, but it looks VERY detailed. NPC AI seems very fun, jannie screems from the incinerator are fun. Great spells! I'm assuming I raided the debug chest, but still - high-level spells like the sword rain are amazing.
I think some parts of the map are a bit barren, but the populated area is great and a lot of fun. Looking forward to your progress, great stuff!
Thanks for the kind words! Keeps me going for sure. I appreciate you doing the stream, it revealed some bugs and made it pretty apparent the beginning area needs some work. I'll try and get that done before the next demo! You did find the debug chest, but I put it there hoping people would use it. You were one of the few! Thanks again.
Being able to speed up time was a QOL featue I didn't know I wanted until now. Makes going through large distances easier. Even though having some manner of mount to move faster would be really beneficial. Airship travel was cinematic, but I can see how it could become annoying after the first five times. I thought sleeping would let me skip time but it didn't. Generally I like the option to rest during the night when it comes to games with day-night cycles.
It was a nice change of pace to start with nice starting equipment and not having to spend extra carry capacity to have a hatchet to cut wood with. Though I felt like combat was nothing else but to click on things, and hope you got more hp than it? I don't know if there is a death game over or not. My death was pretty magnificent. NPC responsivity is really nice.
Here is my playthrough, maybe you'll see something:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2560493434?t=1h0m9s
Also thank you for the clock back then.
All very good feedback, thank you! As for the combat, it really revolves around picking up items with unique abilities to use in between your weapon attacks. There's also potions and food you can use to heal while fighting, I was really hoping you'd use one of those potions on your hotbar when you were fighting that Worm Queen with that random adventurer NPC. I think more than half of the playtesters have ended up in the incinerator haha. Thanks again for linking the video, it's worth its weight in gold.
Glad to have helped, I've learned long ago that footage is worth than any written feedback that can be given, since you don't just see bugs and player reaction as they occur, but you might also see bugs the playtester didn't perceive as such.
It's a good start, and most things work pretty well.
Good feedback! I'll try and get in some kind of "game over" screen. There's currently no combat-related skills to improve, so I need to get those added in as well. A lot of people have been asking for direction, so I'll try putting in some optional quests in the beginner hub for the next demo. Thanks again for playing!
Got the incinerator ending. I noticed an NPC with a wizard costume was picking up the pink worms I killed, and decided to follow him to find out where he was taking them. Turns out he was just cleaning em up, and I became charcoal. A ton of fun! The open world approach makes me want to investigate and understand my surroundings. I found the game on the easier side, especially with the health potions you start with. Are there other methods of healing in the game? I saw a NPC dialogue that suggested potions can be created with flowers. I wonder if being inside a house you purchased can also slowly heal your HP. I also wonder if there are secondary goals of self preservation besides health, like a hunger bar or a stamina bar of some kind.
The number of enemy variations was appreciated, but I felt that they didn't vary from each other all too much (even though they looked quite different from each other). The only current method of approach is to click on them to attack, but it would be nicer if you could eventually treat the enemies differently based on their characteristics. I guess some of them have different spells but I didn't find them significant enough just yet.
The moments with the NPCs taking interesting actions were the most fun. Interacting with puzzle-like fixtures like the ruby statues was also fun.
https://jumpshare.com/s/0I2bvgMLDM3WlQG5KEti
Gonna try another run later. Very impressive! Looking forward for more!
Thank you for playing, and thank you even more for providing video! I hate to say that I laughed at the end, but I did.
For healing, there are several ways. Obviously consumables like potions and food heal, but like you assumed, you also heal inside a house you've purchased. You can also drop a bedroll and sleep on that for health. At the moment I don't want to do a hunger system because I feel like it can come off as a chore. But unique buffs for being satiated is something I want to try.
You're definitely right that they feel very similar right now. I'd like to integrate some behaviors for them so they might try to run and kite, or support their allies. As I add more spells, hopefully that'll help too.
I'm glad you figured out the ruby statues, I think you might be the only one haha. Thanks again for your comments and I look forward to hearing your feedback in the future!
I'm a sucker for this kind of game. Really like what you have so far. Everything seemed to work as intended. One thing that you could work on adding asap is some kind of feedback when selecting items in the inventory. Like whenever I click on an item in the inventory, highlight it with some color. When I right click on an inventory item, it should open a context menu. Even if is just loot that does nothing, maybe give me the option to drop or destroy, as that's what I would expect. I noticed that the enemy corpses doesn't seem to desapear? Or maybe it just takes a long time? I think they should desapear quickly after you loot them, so that they don't litter the environment (and to save on ressources ;) ). Do you have an LOD system for the trees, and props? I think that will be important for an open world game. Also, I noticed I get levels on, for example woodcutting, like Runescape, but there are no levels for combat I guess? So combat is fully dependent on the gear you find?
Anyway, excelent game so far. Looking forward to the development of this one.
I'll have to look into adding a bit more UI feedback for items! The bodies in the world don't despawn. If you wait long enough, you'll see than an NPC will actually collect it and destroy it in an incinerator. Or goblins will collect the body, take it to be sacrificed, and turned into more goblins. There are some LODs in place for trees, but some more props could probably use them! Yeah, currently there aren't combat levels but that will be added in the future! I had something similar to runescape's skill system in mind when building it out for sure. :)
Thank you again for playing! :D
i don't particularly like mouse controls for this kind of games, but i guess i don't like MMORPGs and MMORPG-likes in general
i have genuinely no idea where to go and what to do
i roamed around until i found an airship that sloooooooowly carried me elsewhere
then i followed two wizards carrying some stuff, and as i tried to trade with them i got incinerated.
initially i thought that "goals" meant that i was supposed to do something, but then i figured out that it's just what the character does by himself with no extra input.
the pause menu seems very finnicky. not only did it stop working entirely while dead, but it also did not work while i was automatically doing something via the goal buttons. when you press esc it TRIES to cancel the operation, but then the automatic nature of the goals makes it start again immediately, so you can never open the pause menu until you manually disable the goals.
this game looks very impressive in general, though i suggest avoiding following too closely some of the shortcomings of MMORPGs. example, having to wait for a short load time before opening a chest doesn't really make sense for an offline single player game, it's mostly an annoyance.
Good feedback! I hadn't considered the issue with the pause menu and goals because I rarely use them while playtesting. I'll try making the chest interactions instant as well and see how it feels. Thank you for playing!
This is quite an ambitious game, you really get lost exploring the world. The foundation looks pretty solid and the open world gameplay is working as it should be. I think it's already on a good path so I don't really have much feedback to give, it only needs more polish and content, and as someone said in the comments, just a little bit more direction at the beginning, but it's already quite charming. Good job!
Thanks for playing! Appreciate the comments, I hope I can make some further improvements for the starting area for the next time around.
Please add music and sounds!
Hmm, there should be music. But sounds next demo I hope! Thanks for playing!
left mouse-click to attack faster or to involuntarily open the looting-menu. enemies are all very adorable
Yeah, I think the involuntary looting is a big problem from what I've seen. I need to tweak the unit colliders after they die so they aren't so tall. Thanks for playing!
also I didn't realize you could click to attack faster but by god you certainly can.
oh baby i was genociding the entire island
I stood in the incinerator and burned to death. This game is quality.
I think it needs a hook of some kind and a bit more direction and a bit more of a lure but this foundation is solid.
Thanks for giving it a try! I'm glad someone tried that out haha. It's definitely pretty open right now, I'll work on some more lures to really pull in the player.
After thinking about it for a bit, i think the type of lure needed is some kind of immediate short term loop. For example, if the guy at the docks has a starter sword in his inventory but he'll only give it to you if you trade him some of the nearby crab meat or something. I wouldn't suggest trying to hook via story or something for a kenshi-like, rather you need to get a small gameplay loop spinning fast to get people invested for the world to matter on the bigger loops. Anyways just a suggestion.
Good thoughts! I definitely think some quests are in order. Right now there's really only one, and the guy is in a cave off to the side. I'd like to fill the starting area with some people to encourage exactly what you're suggesting.