Play game
Pollo Diavolo's itch.io pageRate this game
Sign up with an itch.io account to rate and leave comments.
Ai Usage
Human made
Genre
Action
Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing
RPG
JRPG | CRPG | MMO| RPG
Rating
For 13+
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Hello,
Dragon Isle Software sent me!
I played on Windows and it was a good experience.
When I first loaded the game I was not very sure what to do but eventually found a portal and started fighting mobs.
Things I liked
Things that can be improved
Before I start I must tell you that I don’t play this type of game a lot.
Overall it was a fun game
I did stop because it felt like things were repeating too much. I was tried of killing the same zombies. (Note that I don’t usually play these games so I might not be your target audience) Maybe if I had unlocked characters it would have kept me hooked longer.
I played on Linux with Lutris (Wine). Everything played fine as far as I could tell.
It's been a while since I last played. I don't recall everything exactly, but the game does feel much improved. The level progression is certainly better. The environments, especially the woods, are easier to see in. The map generation and enemy placement feel much more reasonable.
I started by resetting my game so I could play with the updates, and reduce chances of any conflicts from such an old game save. I did a few runs. My last I made it to the Forked Cave/Cavern (I forget the exact name) with my character at level 10. I like the powered up enemies having a clear visual indicator under them. I was lucky enough to have always had enough space to back away and deal with them over a distance, sometimes with a bit of rolling to dodge them. It was one of them that finally got me when it went around and came out where I wasn't expecting it. I did not yet do any of the red portals this time, as I did not feel I'd built up enough for them. I had over 1000 gold from this last run, so with the new upgrades I will probably go through one on my next run.
The bow is my favorite weapon, and I pick the Hunter when possible. Unlocking the option to pick your class from all 3 is among the first things I go for. I remember being rather bad with the melee weapons in the game, so did not try it this time. I used the Cryomancer once. I find them to be a decent secondary option. The Shattering Orb can be handy for hitting enemies hiding behind things. Still, I am best with the bow, so currently that is what I mainly play with. I may try playing more with the other classes for a challenge eventually, but for now I want to see how far I can get, and unlock as much as I can.
I enjoyed playing and look forward to seeing what you have planned for future updates.
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game and write all of this down. And of course, it's always great to hear that performance was flawless and that most of the GUI and SFX felt good.
About some of the other points:
There are still some missing translations. Several languages are currently being reviewed, so there are definitely some things that still slip through. This is something I'm working on.
The claustrophobic feeling is actually somewhat intentional. Not every area is like this, and there are larger/open areas as well, but I understand that the tighter areas can feel a bit overwhelming.
Controller support is currently in development. This is definitely something that's coming.
The town is also still very much a work in progress. The spellbook is actually your Legacy system, but it's disabled during the first run. The bloody bowl is the collection for your Unique items, and once you unlock it through meta-progression, you can use it to transmute Uniques before starting a run. There will also be more things added to the town later on, so some of the current points of interest don't have their final purpose yet.
The NPC dialogue issue you mentioned is actually a bug. That shouldn't have been happening in the build at all, so thanks for reporting it.
Regarding the upgrades feeling too expensive, this is probably more of a progression issue than simply an economy issue. There are upgrades specifically focused on generating more income, and some of those are unlocked fairly early. Still, I'll keep an eye on how quickly new players are able to reach them.
The combat being slow is a really interesting point. There are definitely some things that are slower than I'd like right now, but a lot of the game's power comes from exploring the skill trees, finding the right upgrades and progressing through meta-progression. After several runs, the classes can become extremely powerful. We actually have speedrunners completing 12 floors in under 3 minutes, so the game definitely isn't intended to remain slow.
I think the more important point here is probably the learning curve. A new player doesn't really know how much power is hidden in the skill trees and meta-progression yet, so the first few runs can feel much slower than the game eventually becomes. That's something I probably need to polish.
The ranged combat feedback is also something I've been seeing from multiple players. The range itself is something I'll keep looking at, but I may also add some form of aim assist. If several players are having trouble landing shots, that's probably more of a usability problem than something I should simply expect players to get used to.
For Ice Mage, it's similar to what I mentioned in the other feedback: the class is intentionally very weak early and becomes extremely strong later through its skill tree and upgrades. But again, maybe the progression between those two points is simply too extreme and needs to be smoothed out.
For the items, the relatively small numbers are intentional because they are meant to stack with the rest of the progression, but I agree that some individual effects could be more impactful. That's something I'll review.
As for music... there currently isn't any. 😅 It's still in development. I'm not a big fan of using AI for music, so I'd rather take my time with it than just throw something in for the sake of having music.
Thanks again for taking the time to play and write such a detailed report. Even when something is intentional, feedback like this is really useful because it shows me how those decisions actually feel to someone playing the game for the first time.
Hello and welcome to Feedback Quest 9! My name is Hythrain, and I'm one of the hosts for this lovely event! I'm also one of the streamers, so both the game and this feedback are being done live! If you want to see the see the VOD, let me know and I'll link you to it when it's uploaded to YouTube!
So when I first saw this game, I immediately began thinking about the Diablo franchise of games and at first I was concerned when I saw the starting area... felt an awful lot like Tristram. I was glad when this was the only thing that felt similar and instead the game went into being more of a roguelike action game.
However, that relief turned into concern again once I got into my fourth run of the game. Why? Well, let me tell you what happened. In my first run, I started as a Hunter. In this run, I managed to get to the second area and was almost into the third when I died. In my second, I was an Ice Mage. In this run, I managed to reach the third area (specifically doing the red portal) where I died not too far into it. In my third, I was a Barbarian and this run... ended in the seconsd area (brief note, I may have the final progress for Ice Mage and Barbarian backwards). Finally, in my fourth I was a Hunter again. In this run... I got all the way to Lower Spire 2 and had to stop playing due to being well over the time I could give the game. Getting that far just wasn't a problem, either. Only once, in Lower Spire 1, did I get low enough to die... yet I was able to just survive until I leveled up, which gave me a full heal.
Basically, what I found while playing is that Hunter is essentially too powerful when compared to Ice Mage and especially compared to Barbarian. It has both the fastest attacks and the highest range, making it really easy to efficiently clear out swarms of enemies with little to no risk to myself. So long as I made sure I had a place to go, I could always keep a safe distance away. Why was this the case? Because the Hunter's secondary skill is so freakin' strong. It not only leaps you backwards, which puts distance between you and the enemies you're fighting, but it also fires so many arrows. Then when I got the skill to use the normal bow skill while maintaining full speed, it became a bit of a joke. Adding in a rather quick dodge that let me get past enemies that had trapped me, and it felt more like I would have to try to get killed.
By contrast, Ice Mage felt a bit challenging. The range for the primary spell was so short while the attack rate was slow, yet it didn't do more damage than the Hunter did. The secondary, meanwhile, was really only effective if I hit an enemy with the main component in order to cause it to shoot out in all directions. However, this resulted in the ice ball ending and its potential damage being excessively limited. Despite feeling like this spell should be far more effective against swarms of enemies, it felt way worse than the volley. It also took me a while to realize how the teleport worked, which I liked once I knew but which I also wasn't a fan of entirely.
As for Barbarian... Heavy Slash is just awful. The slowest attack in game and the shortest range to boot, with only doing about 50% more damage per target hit compared to the arrows. Now sure, it can hit multiple enemies, but the attack is so slow that in order to use it well you have to constantly pre-cast it and have the swing happen right as the enemies arrive. Otherwise, you're going to get hit by virtually every enemy (except the zombies, which have an even slower attack). I found myself using the secondary attack way more purely due to how fast it was: I would lunge in, get the hit and then back away to do it again. Yet the damage output of this just paled in comparison to what I was able to do with Hunter.
And then there are the perks. When I played Barbarian and got to choose my first perk for the class, I found myself asking one thing : what the heck is Spin? Why are two of the only three perks in the Barbarian tree related to a skill that I just don't have?
There are some other small issues too, like how breaking some objects in the world felt like they took way too long (rather than being based on damage done, they're based on a number of hits. This means Hunter will always break them fastest due to having the fastest attack rate, while Barbarian will always be slowest despite having the strongest attack). Another small issue is how if you're highlighting a buff to read its effects and said buff wears off, the buff text won't disappear. It'll even remain if you die and start a new run. I also generally felt like moving around felt slow. When I got a buff that increased my movement speed, I was having a lot more fun as the ability to get around quicker made a huge difference. I won't suggest that that be the default speed, but I do think movement speed should go up.
Overall, the game is really fun and I like the style of it. However, it has a huge balancing issue right now. If you want to balance it out, here are the things I think would help...
For Ice Mage, make them the range leader in both of their skills. You don't need to change Hunter range, just increase Ice Mage range. You also don't need to change the speed of the primary spell, both in terms of casting and in how fast the projectile moves. However, I would recommend modifying the secondary skill to fire lots of more additional shots out at a faster rate (but retain the short distance from the main ball) and to make it that the ball hitting an enemy doesn't cause it to disappear. It should still deal damage, but it should keep going.
For Barbarian, increase its speed (I'd say start by making it 25% faster and see if that works. If not, give it more speed. However, don't exceed 50% faster) and give the swing arc more range to hit enemies further away (if there are enemies directly in front of the Barbarian, the swing should be able to go through them into additional enemies that are right behind). That way, the Barbarian can hit a lot of targets if they're close enough in exchange for being more in danger. Also, go through the Barbarian perks to add more things and actually make them useful. Only three perks in that tree, with two being for a skill I didn't even have, is just not good at all.
Oh, two more thing. First, try to make the starting place look LESS like Tristram. You don't want to risk potential copyright issues with Blizzard. Second, I'd recommend getting some music in there. While the sound design was good so far, I found myself wishing I had some in-game music to go with it. Music can really help with the atmosphere. If there WAS music, I legit didn't even notice it which means it needs to be brought out more.
That's all for me. I can't wait to see where this goes!
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to play several runs and explain what you liked, what you didn't, and why.
About the class balance, there is actually a little more going on than what you can see from a few runs.
Hunter is intentionally designed to be a strong and easy-to-use class early on. It's probably the easiest class for a new player to pick up. The downside is that it falls off quite hard later, and currently it actually has the slowest average completion time of all the classes. So Hunter being very strong early is not necessarily a bad thing, but your feedback does make me think that maybe the early part is a bit too extreme.
Ice Mage is basically the opposite. It's one of the weakest classes early, but once you start getting deeper into its skill tree and upgrades, it becomes one of the strongest classes in the game. That's intentional as well, but maybe the difference between early and late game is simply too big. This is something I need to look at.
Barbarian is a bit easier to agree with. We already know Heavy Slash is too slow. The original idea was basically that you would eventually stop using Heavy Slash and just go full "spin to win", but that doesn't really justify the skill feeling bad to use. So yeah, that one needs some work.
Also, you found an actual tooltip mistake with the Barbarian perks! Cleave and Spin are the same skill, but the tooltips are wrong. That's on us and I'll fix it.
The movement speed feedback is also something I agree with. And actually, the same may apply to attack speed, cast speed, and possibly mana/stamina costs. Meta-progression eventually makes these things much less noticeable, but I think the early game may simply be too restrictive right now. If the player needs several hours of progression before the game starts feeling good, that's probably something I should balance.
And thanks for reporting the buff tooltip bug! That's definitely a bug and needs to be fixed. :D
About the starting area looking like Tristram... yeah, that was actually intentional fan service. 😅 But I understand your point, and it might be a little too close for comfort. I'll have to think about what to do with it.
And yes, there is currently no music. 😅 It's still in development. I'm personally not a big fan of using AI for music, so I'd rather take my time and find the right solution instead of just adding something for the sake of having music.
Thanks again for the feedback! Even when some of these things are intentional, it's really useful to see how they actually feel when someone new plays the game. That's exactly the kind of feedback I need to find where the progression is too extreme.
WARNING -> IM SPANISH NATIVE SPEAKER -> THIS RESPONSE IS AI-TRANSLATED 😅
I appreciate your honestly regarding how the game is designed.
Personally, I think it'd be more interesting if your classes were more balanced but each offered a different way to play the game, which would naturally make ranged classes have an easier time in the early game thanks to keeping out of harm's way more easily but would balance out more later on. However, that's just me. As for music, I appreciate you want to avoid using AI music. That said, there are many resources out there to find non-AI made music that could be temporarily used. I'll admit, I only brought up the music because the game honestly felt like it was a lot later in development than it seems it may be.
Quick clarification about the AI usage tags!
I think there's a small issue with the AI usage tag in the Submit Game options, and I can't select the option that actually fits my game.
The game itself - gameplay, mechanics, systems, design, programming, etc. - is 100% human-made.
I only used AI assistance for localization/translation into French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese.
Jus wanted to clarify this since I couldn't select the right AI usage option when submitting the game.
The AI tags issue has been fixed, please update your game submission to reflect your AI usage.