The physics engine is a great touch. I spent almost 10 mins just studying how the character and the tools held in hand moved frame by frame as i introduce motion to the character, in order to see how it works.
Overall i would say the crafting element is the strongest point. This game reminds me of Terraria, which is great! The artstyle can be polished further.
I think it would be immersive if there is a game like this with the artstyle of Octopath Traveller (2d pixel art with 3d environment). For e.g., since it is a feudal japan setting, the background scenery could take some inspiration from ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai, where the mountains and oceans are 3D. sounds cool right? Food for thought i suppose.
Hope to see more of your work in the future.
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Yes, definitely. Even though I had the original idea for this game long before I played Terraria, I've definitely been inspired by games like Terraria since. The core of the 2D physics and "arm swinging" idea came from Hammerfight. And the crafting was just something that I thought would be cool (crafting anything you want with individual pixels of materials and letting the physics influence how it behaves). I recall it was the first game project I seriously worked on, starting with me hand coding the crafting canvas and tools in C# in MonoGame over 16 years ago. I spent a year on the game and got burned out, I was working a minimum wage job and going to college and my wife at the time was getting worried about us paying the bills. So, I gave up game development and got a career.
Gosh, sorry for the life story. I am just very glad that AI tech has reached where it is now where I can finally realize dozens of dreams I've had in my head all these years. I have game design notebooks full of ideas like this. And, yet, even with AI there is still hardly enough time to realize them all.
Yes, the art style is a sore spot. I don't even have a walk animation, lol! The Octopath Traveller look is one I hadn't considered for this. But, that is a great idea to consider. I had thought about either classical woodblock or ukiyo-e style like Hokusai. I even did a Hokusai-style art for the cover. But, ultimately decided to go more Akira Kurosawa style instead.
Thanks, likewise :)