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Desecration: Sacrifice-inspired sorcery and creature command. First-play feedback? [Windows/Mac]

A topic by Shaun Nesbitt created 6 days ago Views: 110 Replies: 5

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Hi everyone, I'm looking for first-play feedback on Desecration, an early dark fantasy action-strategy game inspired by Sacrifice.

You play the wizard inside the battle: cast spells, summon and command creatures, recover souls and push towards the rival's altar. There are patron and spell previews, skirmishes and a campaign to try.

Free Windows x64 and Apple Silicon Mac builds:

https://shaunnez.itch.io/desecration-playtest

I'd love 15–20 minutes of your time, especially on these questions:

• Is it clear what you're trying to do in the opening minutes?

• Do casting, aiming and creature commands feel responsive and understandable?

• Can you follow how souls, summoning and the enemy altar connect?

• Which spell feels best, and which feels confusing or weak?

• Does the campaign opening make you want to continue?

I'm a senior developer and AI lead. Sacrifice was my favourite game growing up, so I decided to have a crack at recapturing that feeling in an original game. I started in Godot and moved to Unreal because I enjoy C++. Development is AI-assisted, including generated art and voices.

This is a rough playtest, and blunt feedback is welcome. Please include your OS and hardware if you hit bugs or performance problems. The Mac build requires M1 or later and macOS 14+; it isn't Apple-notarized, so first launch may be blocked.

Reply here or leave a comment on the game page. My ongoing development journal is here:

https://desecration-devlog.shaunnesbittuk.chatgpt.site/

Thanks for trying it!

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NextGenRunGames6 days ago

Hi Shaun — the wizard-in-the-battle premise and the souls → summoning → altar loop caught my eye. I’m with NextGenRunGames; we’re making Spirestorm, a fast action roguelite. I haven’t played Desecration yet, so I won’t fake first-play notes. If you’re open to a reciprocal test swap, I’d be glad to try the playtest and send focused notes on the opening, casting, and creature commands.

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Shaun Nesbitt6 days ago(+1)

Absolutely! Feedback for you. 1) maybe have audio when you first get to the title screen, it's a good track! 2) font sizeon the bottom of the difficulty cards is a touch small 3) forge maybe move skins into another tab, took me a bit to realise i had to scroll 4) gameplay is fun, took me a bit to realise i needed to hit the enemies to jump higher 5) maybe put a small delay between attacking, one i realised i could spam click i was able to wipe bosses resonably easy with no risk (although i imagine this gets miore difficult at higher leves) 6) the first map was laggier then the second no idea why 7) when you attack the abiliites you have unlocked flash as though they are available. Overall - super fun! Audio is great, graphics/art is awesome, well done :)

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NextGenRunGames5 days ago

Thanks so much for trying Spirestorm and writing up such specific notes, Shaun. The enemy-bounce jump discovery and forge navigation are especially useful catches. I’m sharing the attack pacing, first-map slowdown, and ability flashes with the team. Glad the soundtrack, art, and gameplay clicked for you! If you remember which OS you played on, that may help us narrow down the slowdown.

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Roman3 days ago

Really liking the Sacrifice inspiration here, especially the flow of summoning creatures mid-battle and pushing toward enemy shrines. I'm a 3D artist working in Blender, and to take any risk off your plate, I'd be happy to model 1 dark fantasy creature or shrine prop from your backlog completely for free so you can see my quality and speed firsthand. If you'd like to test a sample asset, reach me on Discord (antinarrys) or email (roman.zbor.uk@gmail.com).

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Shaun Nesbitt1 day ago

hey Roman, thanks! I’d like to see what you can come up with, choose one of the wizards or creature and have at :)

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