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Hi Cinnature,

Thanks for trying out the (very early) demo, and I'm glad that you found it enjoyable.

Music wise, composing is one my weaknesses and making better tunes is definitely something that I need to work on (and/or hire someone to do it in the far future once release becomes more than a glimmer in my eyes), which I know is ironic for a music-centric game xD

Gameplay wise - equipping and unequipping the instrument is a way for me to play around with having (future) exploratory elements in levels that would be separate from combat elements; and each instrument that I have planned for the game will have a different set of functionalities for that.

But I do understand that it's quite unorthodox to not have your weapon equipped in a game that primarily focuses on combat :D

I'll double check the controller mapping, as I probably made a mistake about which button does what.

All in all, I'm glad that you found the idea interesting, and once again thank you for trying out the demo.

I hope you'll give the game another shot in the future, once I've incorporated the feedback I got so far.

Ivan from Sbeve Entertainment

Reply

Hi Hythrain,

Thanks for playing and covering another game of mine (you reviewed "Meowstery of a Growing Aurora" a year or so ago), I really appreciate it.

As far as the font goes, that's very fair, I might have gotten ahead of myself with trying to set the tone, and didn't consider how legible it is.

I'll double check the control mapping/display, and I'm sorry that I messed up which input does what (and I'll look into making the controls re-bindable, right after checking the save/load bug, which most likely caused you not being able to summon the Mandolin Stand after dying).

I've also been investigating adding non-Xbox controller support, but I've yet to fully figure it out, since UE doesn't support all controllers natively (which is bizarre to me, but I'm sure there're licencing reasons or something).

Gameplay wise, the start of the level is set to 100BPM; which is most likely why it feels very sluggish, and there being a delay between button press and an action occurring - since everything is on beat. Perhaps I should have increased the BPM after the first encounter, so that it's not 100BPM until the boss fight.

Regardless, future updates will have faster areas, so that it doesn't feel as slow as it does now (for both the Player and the enemies).

Again, thanks for trying out the demo, and giving much needed feedback.

I hope you'll give the game another shot in the future, once I've incorporated the feedback I got so far.

Ivan from Sbeve Entertainment

Hi Zflocco,

Thank you for trying out the mechanics demo for Project "Beat Stands", and providing feedback for it.

First of all, apologies that it took so long to reply, I've been on vacation, away from my PC, and I wanted to give all feedback the attention they deserve.

Now onto the meat of the matter.

As far as visuals and audio goes, it's pretty much all placeholders. I'm okay at modeling stuff, but horrible at animating (as you've noticed xD); and (somehow) even worse at composing music.

These would definitely need revising down the line; together with the beard clipping, the floating box being replaced with a pet dragon carrying a portable amp, the tether being more aethereal to resemble chains from "Astral Chain" (which is one of the inspirations for this game), and the combo list being toggleable from a settings window (it's permanently affixed there at the moment so that players can more easily see what the combos are).

I'll revisit the jump and the dash; I've been tinkering with them for a while now, and I'll work a bit more on it.

I'll also work on the aggressiveness of the enemies, as well as the damage values associated with them.

Again, thank you for playing the Demo, and I hope you'll give it another shot in the future (when it's going to be in a better state).

Ivan from Sbeve Entertainment

Hi Hythrain. Thanks for taking a look at my game, and sharing your thoughts on some of the functionality. 

I'd love to improve the game as much as I possibly can, so please send me a link to the VOD so I can see some of the issues you've experienced in play, so I can patch them out and make the game better. 

The mouse-to-face-direction thing is fair, and I have it working when the user uses a controller, that the right stick doesn't dictate where you're facing (unless you're holding it in a specific direction); so I'll try to use that logic for mouse as well; I didn't think it would be an issue because I move the mouse a lot, especially when moving a character, but I recognize that I'm not all players xD 

Honestly not sure why attacks are not being registered by the enemies, I thought I had the range set very generously, so hopefully I'll be able to see it in the VOD, 'cause that is a huge issue that I'd like to resolve.
Beating (most of) the enemies isn't mandatory they're obstacles for players to solve, so running away or skipping fights is a valid option; especially in the demo, where the only mandatory enemy is the Temple Boss at the end of the demo. 

As for the dialogue, I'll try to trim it a little bit. The first level is pretty heavy with it due to tutorialization (especially for the potion explanations), and that is a problem that I know I need to figure out.

Again, thanks for playing the game, and please drop the VOD URL once you've posted it, so I can check it out and fix the issues you've been experiencing!