imho: combat should be simple in a game like this but there's way too much going on; enemies seem to instantly hit you when in range, there's no counterplay or windup, you have bullet management, instantly ganged by like 4 dudes right at the bat, needs so much heavy refinement on combat before doing weird stuff like adding a parkour mode
I LOVE THE HAT dude the shopkeeping is so insanely good. lots of qol already in the game like quick stacking, feels natural, bargaining feels great, lots of agency with the city/time system, decor/furniture system is mad impressive
Thanks for playing, and the video is great to have. As far as I can tell it's the only recording from this DD, so it's a service to see how someone is actually interacting.
I think most of your issues with the combat is from it being very WIP currently, I also don't like it for much the same reasons(instant attack + darksouls tracking, loading into enemy room, small rooms, etc). Though the parkour is to stay, I will consider removing or changing various parts of the dungeon/combat if it turns out I can't execute my current ideas well enough; or else if simplification leads to better game design. As with the shop, happy you like it! After working so long on the game it's nice to know at least some people click with it. Still quite a mountain before even the shop mode is feature complete though. Also shout outs to rutbon he's the visual artist for the game.
Very interesting gameplay loop. The shopkeeper experience is maybe even more high action than the dungeon one hahaha. Presentation is also good. Many elements feel like they are still a WIP, but the overall feeling that I got was of good feedback with all the menus, and interactables.
I had a bit of trouble understanding how would you display your items for sale. Maybe make the highlighted area on the furniture, where you can place the items, more stand out.I would keep it conisten with what you already do with all the other interactables, where you make a white ouline. Instead of manually going to each spot of the furniture to put the item, just open the furniture, and show all of the slots.
On the technical side, I hada big freeze each time I would step into the dungeon portal. Also got some stutters here an there, the first time something loaded, like when firing bullets.
On the shopkeeper side of gameplay, I was very confused about buying items from customers. I would assume I would have the option to not buy, but aparenty there is no way of not buying. You are forced to. Is that intended?
With the table areas I'll try making it more obvious by adding an outlined '?' if there's no item there yet. Freezes are due to bad proc gen, and not doing pre compilation of shaders; should be much better next time. Then with buying from customers, it's usually worth it but I can see adding a way to decline a customer outright, along with other ideas I have. Though, I should say that hitting them with your shoe until they get the clue is quite entertaining.
Amazing progress. It looks great with actual assets. No problems with controls or mechanics (outside of some mouse and keyboard minor gripes, but that's not the main control scheme).
Turns out when I'm time, money and health limited at the same time, I'm more aggressive than doom guy. The pressure mixes well with the combat. It could be way, way simpler and it would still work. It doesn't mix well with resource gathering though, since there's no decision making, just picking up what little crates you can get with no dynamics outside of multiple descents. I'm not sure about acrobatic mode controls, but it works well enough.
The shop on the other hand gave me a bad experience. I was stuck in a low food price loop with barely any market changes across many days. I could swear at some point the newspaper said the food prices stabilized, yet it still traded for lower that day and forward. I got to 180$ and stalled out there for multiple days.
Thanks for playing! Good to know it's in the right direction, more or less. What were the gripes with mouse? Main thing planned for that is allowing clicking on tabs to cycle without Q/E/1/4.
Didn't think about it, but I suppose I am being a bit heavy with all the dungeon features, the weird gunplay by itself has a lot going on. I'll at least consider taking some out if it yields a better result. Yeah the dungeon is still lacking in decision making, even if I add more things to do/aim for, I'm not sure it would help since I am very hesitant to allow avoiding/running from encounters outright(the main time soaker). And if you apply too much pressure with time to drive split decisions, more people can't beat the game. Maybe ditch the time, but it's an FTL dark cloud that chases after you per room, lol(but maybe a great idea actually). Lastly, I hope the acrobatics will feel nicer once I get to making the dungeon rooms larger, like 2-4x larger than current.
I see you got Irish Famined, sad. What you say is probably true, there's a 'bug' in the economy I've been meaning to address, which allows the same material to go from low -> stable, then stable -> low in the same newspaper. Doesn't help that there's low item variety for now. Sorry it ruined your money game.
One of the things I would change about the controls is letting pick the Yes/No decisions with mouse (if you click on No it will select Yes because it simply accepts whatever was selected). The other is letting player interact using mouse instead of using looking direction of the character (so I'm next to a table and I can't interact with it until I turn to it using WSAD, instead it could just direct player on mouse click and interact as long as it's within range).
The combat is fine as it is. There were other options like letting player play more defensively (as a health vs time tradeoff), so aggressive playstyle actually ends up simple in practice. The timer gives you lots of design options, like getting items from fleeing enemies, destroying crates mid-combat to save time and having different room difficulties with more risky combat but better loot. Running from encounters could be fun too using the acrobatics mode to its fullest and you can always band aid fix it with balanced item drops.
Is it possible to replace this vase in the corner? I can't seem to reach it.
I also kind of got stuck right here. I was able to climb up to this spot by pressing LT near the green wall, but none of the buttons seem to make the character jump, so he just keeps falling. I may have missed something during the tutorial. The game also crashed when I clicked the X to quit.
Thanks for playing, and your concerns should be covered in the tutorial pop ups. I can understand not noticing though. Also you may have missed the rest of the dungeon, you find it by using the portal in the bottom right of the checkpoint room (green pad with text).
UX wise the biggest change is the new textures for prompts and pop up tutorials, let me know if it's alright or massive trash. Though the pop ups were last minute so they're more eh than I'd like.
Comments
video:
tl;dw combat is cbt shop is peak
imho: combat should be simple in a game like this but there's way too much going on; enemies seem to instantly hit you when in range, there's no counterplay or windup, you have bullet management, instantly ganged by like 4 dudes right at the bat, needs so much heavy refinement on combat before doing weird stuff like adding a parkour mode
I LOVE THE HAT dude the shopkeeping is so insanely good. lots of qol already in the game like quick stacking, feels natural, bargaining feels great, lots of agency with the city/time system, decor/furniture system is mad impressive
Thanks for playing, and the video is great to have. As far as I can tell it's the only recording from this DD, so it's a service to see how someone is actually interacting.
I think most of your issues with the combat is from it being very WIP currently, I also don't like it for much the same reasons(instant attack + darksouls tracking, loading into enemy room, small rooms, etc). Though the parkour is to stay, I will consider removing or changing various parts of the dungeon/combat if it turns out I can't execute my current ideas well enough; or else if simplification leads to better game design. As with the shop, happy you like it! After working so long on the game it's nice to know at least some people click with it. Still quite a mountain before even the shop mode is feature complete though. Also shout outs to rutbon he's the visual artist for the game.
Hope it's more to your and my liking next time.
Very interesting gameplay loop. The shopkeeper experience is maybe even more high action than the dungeon one hahaha. Presentation is also good. Many elements feel like they are still a WIP, but the overall feeling that I got was of good feedback with all the menus, and interactables.
I had a bit of trouble understanding how would you display your items for sale. Maybe make the highlighted area on the furniture, where you can place the items, more stand out.I would keep it conisten with what you already do with all the other interactables, where you make a white ouline. Instead of manually going to each spot of the furniture to put the item, just open the furniture, and show all of the slots.
On the technical side, I hada big freeze each time I would step into the dungeon portal. Also got some stutters here an there, the first time something loaded, like when firing bullets.
On the shopkeeper side of gameplay, I was very confused about buying items from customers. I would assume I would have the option to not buy, but aparenty there is no way of not buying. You are forced to. Is that intended?
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback!
With the table areas I'll try making it more obvious by adding an outlined '?' if there's no item there yet. Freezes are due to bad proc gen, and not doing pre compilation of shaders; should be much better next time. Then with buying from customers, it's usually worth it but I can see adding a way to decline a customer outright, along with other ideas I have. Though, I should say that hitting them with your shoe until they get the clue is quite entertaining.
Amazing progress. It looks great with actual assets. No problems with controls or mechanics (outside of some mouse and keyboard minor gripes, but that's not the main control scheme).
Turns out when I'm time, money and health limited at the same time, I'm more aggressive than doom guy. The pressure mixes well with the combat. It could be way, way simpler and it would still work. It doesn't mix well with resource gathering though, since there's no decision making, just picking up what little crates you can get with no dynamics outside of multiple descents. I'm not sure about acrobatic mode controls, but it works well enough.
The shop on the other hand gave me a bad experience. I was stuck in a low food price loop with barely any market changes across many days. I could swear at some point the newspaper said the food prices stabilized, yet it still traded for lower that day and forward. I got to 180$ and stalled out there for multiple days.
Thanks for playing! Good to know it's in the right direction, more or less. What were the gripes with mouse? Main thing planned for that is allowing clicking on tabs to cycle without Q/E/1/4.
Didn't think about it, but I suppose I am being a bit heavy with all the dungeon features, the weird gunplay by itself has a lot going on. I'll at least consider taking some out if it yields a better result. Yeah the dungeon is still lacking in decision making, even if I add more things to do/aim for, I'm not sure it would help since I am very hesitant to allow avoiding/running from encounters outright(the main time soaker). And if you apply too much pressure with time to drive split decisions, more people can't beat the game. Maybe ditch the time, but it's an FTL dark cloud that chases after you per room, lol(but maybe a great idea actually). Lastly, I hope the acrobatics will feel nicer once I get to making the dungeon rooms larger, like 2-4x larger than current.
I see you got Irish Famined, sad. What you say is probably true, there's a 'bug' in the economy I've been meaning to address, which allows the same material to go from low -> stable, then stable -> low in the same newspaper. Doesn't help that there's low item variety for now. Sorry it ruined your money game.
One of the things I would change about the controls is letting pick the Yes/No decisions with mouse (if you click on No it will select Yes because it simply accepts whatever was selected). The other is letting player interact using mouse instead of using looking direction of the character (so I'm next to a table and I can't interact with it until I turn to it using WSAD, instead it could just direct player on mouse click and interact as long as it's within range).
The combat is fine as it is. There were other options like letting player play more defensively (as a health vs time tradeoff), so aggressive playstyle actually ends up simple in practice. The timer gives you lots of design options, like getting items from fleeing enemies, destroying crates mid-combat to save time and having different room difficulties with more risky combat but better loot. Running from encounters could be fun too using the acrobatics mode to its fullest and you can always band aid fix it with balanced item drops.
Is it possible to replace this vase in the corner? I can't seem to reach it.
I also kind of got stuck right here. I was able to climb up to this spot by pressing LT near the green wall, but none of the buttons seem to make the character jump, so he just keeps falling. I may have missed something during the tutorial. The game also crashed when I clicked the X to quit.
Thanks for playing, and your concerns should be covered in the tutorial pop ups. I can understand not noticing though. Also you may have missed the rest of the dungeon, you find it by using the portal in the bottom right of the checkpoint room (green pad with text).
UX wise the biggest change is the new textures for prompts and pop up tutorials, let me know if it's alright or massive trash. Though the pop ups were last minute so they're more eh than I'd like.
Linux version was crashing so it's gone for now.