itch.io

thank you again for the lenghy feedback and double for video

"Shooting very close to walls doesn't explode the bullet on the wall, more like behind it. I had to walk away to hit enemy that was right next to me which feels like an error."
i'll screen your playthrough to see this, i thought i solved this issue, so ty

"Now I feel like axe is best weapon for spiders."
that's the design, lmao. but jokes aside, i find strange that you didnt ever noticed it while playing, just on review. i have to see if this is someting common or not

"Some levels feel impossible, I'm not sure if it's due to unlucky rng or because I failed at managing the enemy count and they snowball out of control."

the rng itself should be in check, but ofc i'm still learning what's "a good level", in this game. The only exception that comes to mind would be if you leave a lot of spawners alive(big plants in slime sewers), but even in that case i have a limiter on how many children they can have at once.
on the other side i can say that the feel of being one step from being overwhelmed is kinda the point, since i've setup waves to rush and not wait like classic design does.
moreover (this is also a thing that can be useful in your game): since this is an arcade experince, meant to be re-played a lot, making the first stages "too easy" can give boredom to returning players. there is a good balance to be found.

"There's less hp drops, I think. It makes the game harder, but getting rid of that bomb spamming playstyle I used last time feels like a right choice."
nice

"I enjoy playing it, but the difficulty curve is a cliff. You have to thug it out at the start and try again and again until you get good."
ye you got the design. my aim is kinda the feel of a pinball game, or ubermosh. again, since i dunno yet what's a good level, i can't make a good difficulty curve. another problem is that so far i dunno how long "a run" should be. it's also all connected to "first stage boredom" problem.

since you think this is a cliff, and you seem an action guy like me, probably i need to tune it down at least a little

thanks for the feedback and double ty for the video;
" I think the motivation would come from the power-ups if anything, but so far they seemed to be without effect."

can you expand on this? i dont understand if you think they are not worty enough, or if you see them outright bugged

ED: i now understand after seeing your vid.
my basic tip would be "there is a tutorial for first time players". but your "cold plunge" has value. there is a reason isaac has a start screen with the command layout in it. 

i appriciate the effort, but i totally understand why you bounced off the game. my suggestion, if you are still interested on what this game is, and what it can do, is to play the tutorial. It has both controls for kb and pad, so you'll know how to play. (and it's literally 3min).

"- I think that a lot of enemies are too tanky to reward quick reflexes because they can reliably retaliate against the player when hit."
by chance you remember witch enemy felt tanky? since all enemies require 1-2 shots to die, it must be a bug. 

"- I'm unsure of the direction that the game is going towards at this stage, but my recommendation would be main weapon modifiers to mix things up. Such as a weaker automatic gun, a shotgun with multiple projectiles and a small spread, a slower gun with a larger explosion, another slower gun that pierces through enemies like a railgun, and maybe even a weak gun that tracks enemies. In short: Steal all the weapons from Contra and Metal Slug."
in your pov you are thiking more of a limited weapon, like slug; or a full substitute via pick up, like contra? 

also ty for giving feedback again

notes during play

- loaded my save from last dd, so i skipped the dream tutorial, dunno if you changed anything

- the camp had a very close cam, but when i got into "my tent", and out again the cam went way back. dunno if it's a bug, or the cam setting was in the prev demo

- first time i got into the shop, the game felt a kick in the nuts, it froze for about 3s

- when katrina joined the team, i also got added modest, osheen and anna in the menu. but they ofc are not there

- kat wanted to be a follower, but got stuck in the wherehouse doorway (then she tp back to me when i got back enough)

- while you run, you "drift" if you turn

- dunno if kat atk is a real healing or not, if so funny idea/jojo reference

So after exploring i got into the dungeon with the pseuo scorpions, i got killed in 2 turns.

i wont spend another dd to smash my head against a wall for three hours to then learn that there is some hidden companion somewhere in a ball of hey; so i finished here.

general stuff

imo all the dialogues should be compressed by half, everything is too "wordy" for no real utility of what info we gather; and sadly i'm not very taken by the characters that i wanna know more about them

again, imo the combat difficulty is fucked. kat dies in one turn if 2 enemies gank her(since she has 20hp, probably 1atk is enough), and we last just 1 turn more. some nes games are more generous than this.

of course balance is the last thing to tune, but after last dd i wont try to understand what you want from your player.

for sure you know this balance is pretty harsh, i dont suggest you to make it super easy for "release", but imo this is beyond what a tester should endure. I dunno what else i can check in the dungeon because, again, combat is a thick wall.

ED: i forgot the positives:
the atmosphere of the camp is very chilly, and i like the eterial feel of mosca and kat (even if they talk too much). 

i like a lot of this, it reminds me of those old games like ogame but without the hassle of waiting (and paying).

designwise i have no issue about anything. (very rare)

- i like that tools can be used in more than one way (i found this with kettle)

- i like the overall info on every screen, and most importat there is a guide on how to get more tools (great idea)

the only smallest thing "i dont like" is the slotmachine design for rolls, but even there you have a resolve button so i can skip that

my general issue for a player is that "survival" alone is not engaging enough, this is also connected with the overall "skin" of the game. if dont really have a reason to comeback and play, even if when i'm playing i can chillax 

my tip for more ideas might be dwarf fortress/rimworld (if you can play it), or somethignlike fallout shelter. 

if i was making this game, i would delve deep in the melodrama of the crew: maybe 2 of them are friends/lovers and work better together, others are enemies so they dont wanna be on the same task. also you can have crews that start with some super bonus on X, so you wanna always use them for gathering mushrooms for example; other side of the coin, you have a skilled crew in an mostly useless task (in DF the classic is having a fishdwarf in a mountain)

more about meledrama and attachment: maybe consider a portrait for the crew (moddable so ppl can mode in anime girls) so ppl can have an attachment to them, if they are only names with no stats, no likes and dislikes, they feel like robots.

- soul main menu spashscreen

- pows currency should not be 1dollar, if you dont wanna be funny. designwise it can be still "1", but maybe one million of X currency is more on par with the setting

- dunno if u solved that ceiling bug, but the idea that we are bounced off right away imo is a good solution

- i like that your pows are not just upgrades but they have sometimes a downsides that change your build

- i like a lot that new enemy that goes in circle around you

- overall i like the bullet visual viriety, but i would like also different effects/dmg, so you have more decision making on what to avoid (if some bullets already do different dmg, i didnt notice it)

- since the busterwing is actually a ship in the game, my tip is to have an unique spin on its design, make it the ship for a beginner, or the ship for pro players

- for how unfinished, i liked the biome of mission 4.  i could see some lmao biome where the mountains are made of cardboasrd for real, like toon world of yoshi and similar.

- moreover, since you use big as eff bullets and dive in ground like a dolphin (make a dolphin ship) but also consider to go more wacky with the style. consider that b.hell as a whole got revitalized when girls become the "ships". it would also give your more freedom for visuals for biome and enemies

Sorry for the delay dude(i'll reply you in an expanded way in my comments, but thank you so much for your feedback):

general observations,

i personally loved luftrausers on release, and it's cool to give that gameplay a new spin

- if you are making this game as a commercial product:

so far i did't see enough to be considered a new spin; you know, the classic it's like "X but". the rogue/survivor could be enough, you can't never say.

for what i know the classic ways to "redo" a game is the blizz way, aka X but iper quality; or the "it's X but" i named before. Imo it's pretty hard to compete against a vlambeer game on quality side, so my overall tip is for you to make that design yours and expand/remove stuff in a way that follows your sensibility.

-if this is a game you are making just for fun:

imo cloning a game you love it's a great way to upgrade your devving skills. my only tip is to code in a way that make your stuff reusable in the future. after a few projects like this, your toolbox will be full of scripts and other stuff. at that point making a game will be so much faster and easier.

random stuff i noted

- on first start, the game has problem with a dual screen setup (1080p). the game app will stay on screen for maybe 1s, then autominimize and fuck up the start bar etc. 

just removing the fullscreen fixes it, but it's a bug that some "real games" also have.

- lmao the second lavel it's in a desert and we dive in like tremors; 

- i find funny that clouds are obstacles that block lasers (i'm personally a fun od obstacles in general, so maybe think an evolution of obstacles that become more and more dangerous)

-  i did a few test on your issue: if you go in the "ceiling" enemies will bug out and wont spawn anymore. On my end, that happens every time on level one; you must have a trigger that kills enemies that go there, but when that happens you don't trigger your "spawn next enemy" method

- the background is too bright and can cause confusion on readability of the screen. Yes planes are green, but you need to consider colorblind people. 

my classic advice here is to set your devving screen in b/w and see how constrast is a problem; since you game is pretty fast, everything needs to be clear at first glance. not only colors/contrast but also shapes

Lmao that never happened before.
The later levels imo are too hard, and rely a lot on what you can do with the gimmick of reflecting bullets. It's still a work in progress, last demo ppl told me it was too easy; i still have to find that right balance.

ty for playing dude

If it can be of any help: I note a lot of stuff, but sometime i go back to my game's inspirations to remember what's good (or bad if i wanna avoid) with pad in hand.

gl dude

Thnaks for playing dude

About difficulty, it's one of the main complaints, so it will go up. This first demo was mostly to see if the game loop itself was on to something.

about balace, as you said i have many avenues to persue to tune difficulty up. in theory i could tune it even more "evil" than a normal rogue because i decided to have lives. we'll see

>Edit: I played the old version, I swear I didn't even notice the update notification and wasn't prompted by that to try it.

it's no problem because there is no new version. I was testing a web build, and itch see it as a new release. if you are interested, next demo build will be first week of july.
ED: i didnt notice u were brass dev, happy to see u again!

So i've tried again:
- if i continue from my save with many failures: if i interact with mosca on the left or dog shop at the right, the fight will begin automaticly. i don't thing this is a bug, but i think it should be removed, beacuse only with the yellow jacket found on be bot right you can win that fight.

- also nice that you can gain money on game over. cause my "save" had money, but on new game i had no money.

- i won that battle easly with yellow lancer; game saved, loaded, and crashed at 100%  (-____-'')

- on load i'm at the bonfire area; i go and take yellow; i open my equip screen, and the battle starts (i have no stick equipped, also no shield)

- menaged to win by some lucky miss from mobs and didnt crash again. woke in a accampment.

End of game recap.

Imo, this first dreamy tutorial has to be redone:

the overall setup: "if you trust the your disembodied guide in this dream you fukkin die" is cool. From a gameplay standpoint, as this stands, it's a disaster. 

Yellow jack is pretty hidden, and i searched for him only after i died once more when i picked up the shield on the left; left trail is not hidden but you want it 80% hidden. Yellow jack is hidden for real. the only visible npc it's the only one that dosent offer any help.

I am personally against all of this. both from designer pov, and player pov. you want your player to guess what "the solution is" with 0 tutorial, 0 explaination. Pratically speaking, you don't even setup this scene like there is a solution to find. imo this is your biggest mistake in this dream sequence.

If i was a random player that found out this game by chance i would have given up on this "unwinnable battle 1v3", and bye. refound in 5min

>but net is a thing, and people might share the solution

For sure; but imo this is not something you do to win your first battle in the tutotial at min 0. Overall as a design feature of your game? sure, you can do it no doubt.

imo you need to restructure this scene in a way that a least 80% of blind new players can "find the solution".

>I cringed.

that was my design ò__ò

(but i also fucking know how to play an action game. holy fuck i'm also devving one)

ED: and fighters ò__o

>I'm not married to the battle theme myself, but I haven't gotten around to changing it.

i personally find the contrast very funny. If you want the tone to be "serious" then, maybe it's not a great track

>Anyway, there is a way to beat it if you are curious for next time, but it involves exploring the level and talking to all the NPCs scattered around before picking up the stick. 

lmao. and on minute 0 how is that conveyed to a player? problem is, most dd demos have an unfair difficulty beacuse balance is still not there; i have to admit that probably if this game was an actual release i would have tried to explore. But since we are in a dd setting... <___<

jokes aside; if this is your design, imo a "something" should show up to let you know that this game is not a corridor and you can explore. or you could change the level layout to make obvious that there is another way.Something like that.

dunno if you played nioh2, but there is a great example of "that" in its first stage.

Since you are a shmupper i'll give it another try tomorrow morning.

Overall thoughts

Even if full of placeholder art, i found everything great. i played it was a "game" and not as "let's review". I was fully in the game, so i didn't even remembered to alt tab out to take notes. i just played N+ with shotguns on XBLA  

I could totaly see this as a game on sale, sell it as a "N+ with guns" and enjoy some money for me too.

dunno how much polish you wanna add. imo dev asap as many levels as you can while you market it; ship it when you start to blow up on socials.

Random notes

- Got lucky and unlocked lvl4 on my first try. ò__o
- but holy eff, i can't finish lvl4 at all  -__-''

- dunno how useful life can be, since you die at most in 2 hits. a that point, maybe add a "hit" system like bayonetta challenges, and give a player 2-3 hits of life (nice cave story ui tho)

- i like as lot that weapons are punchy, sound great and are different on a design level

- magnum bounce bullet is very lmao; machine gun imo might be the worse weapon, since it's use is almost the same of the shotgun (for what i saw in the levels) 

- the only thing i dont like is the loooooooooooooooooooooong wait for an axe kick. maybe in a few hours u can "get" the delay like the classicvania chain, but i dunno.

Overall thoughts

sadly my time here run very short because i found your demo unreasonably hard. 

i like everything i saw: the dreamy atmosphere, the dialogue, the artstyle.

I've read i'm the only one to get filtered by this first battle, so i'm surely missing something. 

i'm willing to try your game again in the future though

Random notes

- the tutorial on how to equip your stick stayed on screen for just 1.5s

- lmao the change of tone during battle

- so, every enemy needs 3atk to die, but you die in 4. but you fight against 3 enemies on your first battle. the special "gemini" can hit multiple targets easier, but deals at max half life of an enemy. also you miss a lot if you atk from the front, so you should stab them in the back

  - I tried this first encounter three times. i could not solve this puzzle. Even when using the bonfire and the topside of the arena to juke enemy attacks; using gemini on 2 enemies i simply cannot win.

- Super imo: if even when exploiting enemy ai you cannot win the first effin battle of a demo, it's time to call yourself a noob and move on.

Overall thoughts

I remember when this game just started devvin; happy you kept goin.

i'm sadded to say that i didn't enjoy this experience very much. everything it's very slow, and the talking is very long. for a game with a hip and cool skin about planetary exploitation imo this is a problem. your gameplay dosen't live up to the "cool" art you have.

i'm doubly saddned because my tip would be: maybe check incrementals to see how to speed up your experience 

another problem is that even if the skin is cool, i haven't been hooked by your gameplay at all. this is beside the "it's slow" problem; every game should try to pull you in to play a little more. i havent felt anything like that, imo that's a very big problem

the real problem that summerizes everything above, i almost don't wanna write it because it's a dagger to the chest, is: dunno what's fun about your game. 

Since i'm not a lamer that dunks on ppl for fun, please lemme know what should be "the fun" in your experience, so i can give another try to it.

Random notes

- i love a lot of the polish you put into the game: how resources look, music etc the "bad stuff" like contracts portatirs i wont comment on, since i know it's place holder

- i dont like the tutorial at all. it's not "interactive" enough, you click a lot and get very little done. it seems to story heavy for what you accomplish

- by the middle of the tutorial, where i tried the atom smasher and the the trade exchange i feelt quite "lost". the game has not(or i missed) a clear low level immediate objective to be done in the next 2-5min. If the tutorial told "dude complete some contracts" i totally missed it, becuase i've already too much.

- after maybe 15-20min the contract broker bugged out: when i completed a quest resourced were not removed from my inventory

- in the main gameplay area imo you should focus and tutorialize the importance that every "room" has a double function for right and left click

>Also I didn't "stretch" anything. The "Wong mode" is already toned down in many ways (including enemy damage) from what the game was just a week before this DD.

but you say in the end of your reply that you agree that enemies killin you in three hits is bad. So i don't get what "tone down" means in this context. Overall for what i played this dosent seem a rage game, but an actual attempt at making a 2d beu: if this is the case having drain health and enemies that kill you with 3 hp is very drastic. you can tune this in multiple ways, from enemies dropping more health, adding some healing items drop etc. that's not the problem; my problem is if "that" is the first level, i don't wanna see what path of pain you will be making for the last level. And i am a beu/soul/stylish/nioh/big dick is back in town player. Moreover, for how punishing your game is, adding also a gameover + hard reset to the level like an arcade is really spiteful. that's also why i've written you streatched your content. also in testing phase imo give a bigger number of lives; if you were testing level balance and first time play with this build, imo your difficulty setting pov for what a player should expirience is completely out of wack.

>footsies

i can argue that "footsie" fights against your game design: if you want footise your gameplay is probably too fast. But this game needs to be fast because your health drains; and since wait and dodge it's a losing strategy, it's better to dash beyond any enemy that is not gated. And when you need health, you win by outmanuvering enemies by dashing on their backs and chain-stun them. in your current build "footsie" is not a good philosopy to follow. I'm basically playing megamen zero [melee edition]. if you say footises are well implemented and useful, i need to see how you play your game; because then the problem might not be footise on itself, but how you teached me how to survive in the tutoral.

>yamazaki

search yamazaki king of fighters; he has a counter move(tongue out); that pose it's very similar to one of your pg

GLfor your next build

>Made it to the end. I remember playing the version with levels several demo days ago, glad to see a glorious return

thanks dud!

>Im not sure what the yellow ball pickups or the fire familiar do

yellow pickup are energy for subweapons, it's my fault on subW tutorial room(that room is shitty and needs to be redone). Familiar is explained in some post below (search orange) if you are curious about it

>I think some bullet pattern variety like in shmups would go a long way, I think the only kinds of shots you have to dodge right now are cardinal or aimed at the player's current position

totally agree. my only problem design-wise on implementation is: a bullet pattern is harder to do if there are platforms everywhere blocking incoming bullets. it's something i need to resolve, any feedback is welcome.

>Strafing is pretty slow and with enemies being fast and mobile I didnt find myself using it very much

i have to check how much of a problem this is. Since this speed was tuned for the "old game", that had a very low pace in comparison. i need to ck and compare normal and focus speed on some touhou. Btw, would you like a powerup "increase strafe speed"? or you think this speed would be too low even if you can upgrade your movement a la gradious. 

>the upgrades were cool, but the only one that changed my strategy going into a room was which subweapon I happened to have

indeed, this was a very early vertical slice, and i'll try to add more pows and choices (shop etc) by next demo

>I really like the music 

royalty free stuff goes long way ò__o

>and the main character's design

ty dude, thanks again for your feedback

Overall thoughts

i'm mixed. i love the art, the mood, the aestetic and music. But if this is a gameplay-first experience imo it needs a lot of work

played with xinput pad

played oh mah gawd justin wong mode

Imo it has a lot of potential, but players will throw the controller out very very fast. dunno how your "easy" mode is easy, and if solves my problems written below.

imo though, as this stands (wong mode) dosent seem an "hard but fair experiance for lvl.40 wizards", but just badly designed. you dont have much content so you stretch by making your players die in three hit. I get it. imo that kind of thinking is not something you should have ever, but expecially while testing.

Random notes

- "press start" screen (i could not even read the word at first lmao). You dont go forward by pressing start, but A. double lmao if this is intentional.

- in the first room, i interacted with neet chad by pressing up on d-pad, i also jumped on the same time and was stuck in mid air for the whole conversation

- neet chad's beard seems more peanut butter spread on his face. i'm a pixelshitter, but it's probably the symmetric highlight that made me see it as a liquid and not as hair

- walking is super slow for no reason, i really dont like it. since dash has not cd you wanna always dash. since you lose hp with time, walking is always a losing move. if you need a slow walk only to better postion and survive tricky jumps, imo rework it. this is a combat experience no?

- dash input in the tutorial screen seemed a combo, add something to make players see at glance that those are two alternative inputs for the same action

- also, putting a dummy near the tooltip for the dash is quite useless and confusing. it doesent make me think that you need to use the dash to pass that gap

- really like music, and that little animation when you change scenes

- while using sword stance (nice yamazaki reference) i got a crash:

___________________________________________

############################################################################################

ERROR in action number 1

of  Step Event0 for object obj_actor_parent:

Variable oPlayer.bs_recovery(104915, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Script_anon@3074@pState_sword_stance@pState_sword_stance

############################################################################################

gml_Script_anon@3074@pState_sword_stance@pState_sword_stance (line -1)

gml_Script_anon@177@StateMachine@State_machine

gml_Script_anon@1843@pState_sword_stance@pState_sword_stance

gml_Script_anon@353@StateMachine@State_machine

gml_Object_obj_actor_parent_Step_0

gml_Object_oPlayer_Step_0 (line -1)

- the special sword + gun tutorial dosent tell you how to exit those modes; the gated encounter of that tutorial room is ver hard for no reason. Since entering special mode and shooting/swording is a long procress, the hardship of that encounter is just a timed race to hit something before you get hit by a bullet. not fun, and not an interesting tutorial

- classic melee combat is assigned X Y for punches (Y strong); A B for kicks (B strong). you swapped contorls that are the same everywhere for no reason

- in the first real enemy encounter you place one enemy, and 1m after a stack of three. a first solo encounter is good to ck the moves ai etc; but the second needs to be more spread out. also if by putting three big enemies with aoe dmg in an enclosed space you wanna tell people that they can skip non-gated encoutners; imo that's very bad tutorialization. also you have for granted that people will dodge that aoe wind atk by jumping, so you put a low cieling; but you only give that opportunity for a player in the first enemy of that stage

- in the first gated encounter of that level (two pits on the side, and 2 enemies with signposts), the far right enemy shooter can be awaken if we get too close. that for sure is not intended, and if by chance it was intented imo it's a challenge for later levels

- overall i dont like that enemies kill you with three hit

- i dont think is "good design" to have infinite air dashes

- if you "are dyng" and life paticles ae coming to you, they should save you, and not not-heal your dead body

- in the last gated encounter of that level, second wave enemies spawn with a great deleay and you can die by "waiting". worst feel ever.

- i like that you can duck under the big puncher enemy, imo it should be introduced before the signpost enemy; not after

- problem with big puncher. since you can always dash behind him, and you can't attack while crouched (you are also vulnerable to aoe signpost wind atk), ducking is very rarely a smart move. i like the design of it, but imo you upgraded the movement too much, and made this solution almost obsolete

- i overall understand why big jump with LT is there (is the same action as quick crouch jump?), but your movement is on RT; your special atks are on LT. putting a movement move on LT is a "mistake"

Overall thoughts

tetris is always good. I like this spin into a rogue, i dunno if there are other games like this; I know about peglin, imo you can take some inspiration from it.

i like that there are already a lot of monsters with special skills that makes every encounter different. Speed as an enemy skill is simple but genius

imo this could be a commercial success(depending on competitors, marketing, polish), gj.

Random notes

- both Z and space didn't work on gameplay, but space works to quickstart an encounter

- since you move with arrows, plese add arrow move for menus

- on the pause menu, you should have a "resume" button, not a "back" button to unpause

 - moreover, resume should be the first option on top, not return to start screen; return to start should be last option, with an additional "are u sure?" etc etc,. same for quit.

- on the slect room screen, add something that makes you notice that:

 1 - this map is an interactable 

 2 - something that at a glance makes you see where You is (maybe a border animation on the You tile itself)

- you can stuck pieces to the side of the tetris board. If this is intended for normal play, i beg u to reconsider. Imo add it as a BIG malus, or a skill for a boss/elite enemy. This bug disappeared when iu restarted the application, in both cases i choosed the warrior pg

- on victory screen, add a "choose" above the three choices thast pop up

- more on map screen, you need to let players know that they can move back into empty spaces

- i like the boss (ghost with swipe) a lot. sadly i didnt beat it

Overall thoughts

I like a lot of this. Ambience/vibe is great. I dint encounter any bug, beside a problem in the catacombs that imo you can easely fix with a zoomout function.

I like the style with a few exceptions:

 - skl dosent seem to be cohesive enough stylewise with the rest of your art

 - also acolyte with robber mask and boots, and baseball bat

 -  also a suiper clean lamplight

 - also big trashbags like we are in a city for some reason

Imo the potential is there, if you can setup the mystery of this setting well enough you could get a lot of ppl speculating about your lore. 

Random notes

for first encounter i got very unlucky and got a mud spawner as an enemy, and only after e while i "got" that that was a spawner, and i was a noob. For actual feedback, maybe the first encounter of a run should be really piss easy to get things going faster and get some upgrades

on map screen there should be a note with what icons means, or at least let me hover with mouse even when i can't click it (it's more a tutorial thing)

it's very fun to use force push multiple enemies, break barrels and give status effects, etc

imo the overall combat is good, but everything is spongy. 6 dmg for force push, but every enemy has 30 hp. i'm of the philosopy for a slim and fast paced combat, doubly so when you are just starting and u could turn a player away.

in short, i can't accept to feel "boredom" after only three fights, because those encounters can last a lot (for a noob, this could be a very bad thing). I can totally agree on the "why" your basic atks are not super powerful: about strategic positioning, using spells to take multiple targets at once, and using barrels for extra dmg etc. But imo at least in the first 30min pacing is super important, noobs get bored very fast. I would suggest you to make the first few encounters with enemies at half life, and test to a new player too see how it feels.

in catacombs i have problems to "get downstairs" because cards are on the way of the node selection; same thing for attacking 

GL dude, u have a great attitude.

>I think it's a bit too easy now. I'm not sure I like how the secondary weapons work now, you get too many of them and the lunge seemed much better than the rest.

indeed. your opinion is in perfect line with the majority, so it needs to be fixed asap

>Also in the second tutorial you can't use the bomb if your health is too low, it should probably reset your health in the tutorial rooms.

ye i totally get you. so far im "not solving" that problem by giving you 99 lives; also on death you are 3s from that bullet wall

thanks for the feedback dud

>Looped through the game twice

 A question for you: on second loop the rooms/encounters felt like replaying the same level, or were there different enough to be still enjoyable with a "novelty" pov?

Glad you enjoyed this demo, and ty for the feedback

>In terms of difficulty, the combat feels very hectic but I managed to beat the entire demo without losing a single life. I essentially kept almost dying over and over.

i find v interesting that this demo was found easy by the majority of players. in someway this is very good, because then i can became "evil" on stage 3, like psikyo and cave games (lel)

>I think the game could be really good if it had more enemy types and more interesting upgrades besides flat stat increases. The familiar that eats bullets is a good example of an interesting upgrade.

that's the overall goal for this game. ty for this feedback

Overall thoughts

I like the idea very much. i could describe it as a topdown shenmue(v cozy), with jrpg melee combat

i dunno what's your objective with this, but imo it has potential. also the story seems interesting, with your origin be something that recalls the original shadowrun

my tip is to not spread yourself too thin and make a lot of content, since there are bugs to fix everywhere. imo you should start polishing and bugfixing; meanwhile take notes about the new content that you wanna implment, and add it as chunks one piece at the time

dunno for what style you wanna go, but i suggest you to make a choice between anime style of the pixels and dialogue vs the western style of the combat. 

Random stuff i noted:

- i found the initial explaination of the bars on the right-side of the battlescreen hard to understand. imo also starting with all those attacks might be a mistake, even dq and ff starts with a semplified combat (my to go game for tutorial is ffx, u might like something else ofc, the important part is to take a step back and see how great games explain new mechanics)

- in the pier area (where you talk with sitting man) you can go out of bounds and walk on water if you walk into the little house at far left center, at the edge of the map

- i got the yellow mohawk bug too, when a girl with your same quest shows up:

ERROR in action number 1

of Other Event: User Defined 1 for object oDialogue:

Unable to find instance for object index 213

after that, i played the game and skipped the tutorial

- i like a lot that some quest can be solved with talk an not just by punching

I'll be really harsh (even more than i usually am) so feel free to skip my post. Also this was the first incremental i ever played, so my feedback could be full of shit.

I played till you unlock the healer; health potion is the last thing i unlocked.

Random stuff i noted

- i really want options to kill the volume, since it's only on browser my only solution is to mute the tab

- you can pick up coins after you died, while in the gameover screen

- coins/gems have a low chance to roll outside the screen; dunno if this is something to keep you engaged, or if it's somethingoutside your design. I personally like it because it keeps you engaged and it could lead to a later 'magnet' powerup for it.

Overall thoughts

i'll be very negative and harsh since i've been leaving you feedback since platform gun days. Imo you need to take this bitter pill: art is important. 

You know this on some level because healed sold "well". I feel you, i'm not an artist myself, but art is what will make a random player sit on a chair and try your game.

Even if your design is great, this art is a full debuff that turns away people. and since you already made a steampage + trailer i know this level of polish could be almost final.

So we are talking: enemies without anims; one tile per dungeon biome (for what i see from your screens); not even torches are animated. 

beyond that, heralds has not even a style.  Surface had that b/w of classic rogues going for it. what heralds have? it seems all placeholder stuff; even the title is just something typed.

I don't play incrementals, but i know there are lots of them out there, even one that uses the skin of "heroes goin into a dungeon". So this is not an out-there idea, a super new experimental thing that needs to be tested. Incremental is a genre that exists and it has a playerbase.

You talk about novelty in your videos. What's the novelty of this game? if i didn't know this game was from you, i would never click a steampage with this art.

Of course i'm talking from a pile of shit. you have three relases (one mildly successful), i still have to reach my first release. So as said in the beginning, be free to not consider my words at all.

Overall imo your game design is very good. i like to play your games. but when you don't care about "appeal" of your art, you really hurt yourself and your "product".

>in b4 this game sells a million copies in one weekend.

>Felt really easy, not because of gameplay (that was in a decent spot), but because I kept getting shields and 1-ups like crazy. Random enemies probably shouldn't drop those.

this first test was to see if the code works(lel). i made health and 1up very rare,  but y it's something that needs to be fine tuned

>I didn't think to use the special weapons until I was like "wtf do these books do? Is there a button for them?" so maybe a quick control overlay

that's a mistake i noticed just after i've submitted the demo, sadly i always miss something. of course in the subw tutorial there should be a button tooltip, like the rest of the rooms -__-''

>At one point, I was instantly teleported to the next level because I happened to be at the exact space for a door as soon as those would have appeared.

you moved very quickly to the arena borders (where i place the exits) or an exit spawned in the center of the arena(where you pick ypur reward)? if it's the latter case, you noticd a bug and i'would like to know more

>And I still can't tell if the shot actually has an explosion range or not? 

if you talk about the main atk, yes. it has a range after witch it explodes (in a little explosion); if you if an enemy, the explosion will be bigger

>game is hard as hell to not get hit in but the health feels too forgiving... so it's really difficult but too easy at the same time.

you think this is a good thing, or a bad thing?

>this really needs a little glossary of what every sub-weapon is and stuff like that

indeed

If you are using this project to test yourself and advance your skills, imo there is no problem in making it generic. a lot of people clone their favorite games to understand them better from a designer pov.

as said i'm not an expert at all with card games, but your humor could be a way. I personally find scary to write up something "lmao wo wacky" for every card in the game, but a general soltion could be to make your game satirical of other card games instead of playing it straight. Slayqueen by itself is a title that we can lmao about 

some general tips:

- for sure you love card games: pick your fav and for a couple of days play them a lot, with a notebook on the side. Note everything you like and everything you hate, considering your pov as a player and not a designer. something shuld come up.

- hippy tip: (architect vs gardener.) While you are devving, follow your inspiration and implement stuff that comes into your mind that are not "part or the plan". half of the things that makes my game fun were born from "it would be cool if..." kind of thought

>Nice to see you again, friend.

^^

• I wish there was some audio in the main menu, I thought my audio was broken at first on behalf of the silence.

noted. there is a low soundscape, but it's very low, and can cause confusion

• What does the cat buddy actually do? 

in short it's an "easy mode" that can take an hit for you. if you check the comment under yours there is a detailed explaination about him

>about subweapons 

I hear you. I personally like sword dash so much i thought to make it part of the base skillset. The basic parallel i can make is classic megaman vs X and vs later megas with the slide. I could still totally just make sword an actual base attack, but at that point everyone would just zip around like maniacs. Since it also has an aura that kills bullets on hit, it's just too good to not use.

About remote mine, i most porbably need to power it up, the easier route is to make it a big as fuck explosion that goes through walls.

About the overall subW design: i need to see how i can evolve them with this version of the game, any feedback is always welcome. My main design is/was: you can only shoot forward(as u noted, it's a limitation), and the sub will help you kill stuff up and down. Of course all sub can be useful only if the environment synergize with them. in a very maze-like level, sword could be not very good, but mine and axe could win. a good idea to explore wouls be "let's make some levels where sword is shit".

also consider, sword is best subw for sure, but a classic castlevania design is to make it more rare to drop (holy water).

>I had a good time. I think this could be fun, though I'm not sure how much you can realistically squeeze in terms of content. It feels like the game is already at a bit of a ceiling without introducing brand new mechanics, like items/buffs and whatnot

my idea for this new game is all about "content"; mechanics(traps/obstacles) that adds up and combo wth each other, items and powerups. Imagine it as a mix of hades and isaac. this first demo was to test if i could do "random waves" fun to engage, and the main loop gimmick (stolen from hades) of fighting  and moving room to room while powering up. in short this was a main tests was to see if this design could gel with my stuff.

>Hell, you get so much ammo that you don't even need to shoot after farming for a room or two

well that's because i still havent coded-in a limiter for subw ammo ;^) ofc with that i'll also implement a powerup for it, like for hp 

Thanks for playing and for your kind words dud.

When i can download this? it seems you are updating your build every other hour

Overall Thoughts

lot's of potential. the pad support and chicks might make it already better than tower.

played with pad

reached minugun dev room

Random notes:

i dont like forced tutorial trigger after a few steps of starting. imo a screen that you can click like the shop would be better. pure preference

i like the systemshock vibes of mobs 

the level assets are less SPACE than i would like. they seems no SPACE at all, it's mmore an underground bunker

shop girl is cute. the protestic arms seems more armor than prostetic arms. if they are armor, they are not armor enough

I really like shop.exe anim.

since this is a more industrial setting than tower, having those green cabinet for chests is not enough of a telegraph(this is a problem only for the first 5min). i see bookshelves with stuff on it, i wanna try to take that stuff. like classic RE, you should fine a visual way to guess what's clickable or not at a glance

equipping stuff with pad is a nightmare.

since you can move while attacking and aiming, the enemies are not good enough to be a challenge. imo check how poe 2 solved that problem

on the other side i would like a dash of somekind. Or since you have big guns that weight a lot, you get a debuff on speed with big stuff like minigun, so enemies can be dangerous. there are ofc a lot of ways to solve this problem

overall for pad i would like to have a laser sight, at least for silenced pistol since you can miss a lot. maybe it can be an attachment u can add to any weapon. dunno what's your design pov on that  

i like the gore and gibs. maybe like some other games those gibs can be internal organs, bones etc 

>Maybe the pause after receiving damage or triggering the bomba should have some animation, visual clue that this is on purpose (at least I think it is, but it looks a bit like a performance drop).

i agree. in theory i should add a quick anim on both(ed, even just a changed sprite for .5s), but so far i have no idea of what kind of image to do. On the opposite side, it's better for gameflow to remain always in control of your chara, so even when hit u can move/shoot. So.... so far i'm in the "i'll solve this later" stage.

(your partner has a % to absorb bullets when you are hit, and you will take no dmg. his help get more probable when you are closer to death. in my mind he is a support that you can find only on the beginning stages, and works as a diagetic easier mode. the fine tuning of how much he should intervene to save your ass is proably too low, since most people don't even notice when he helps you)

ty for plyaing and commenting dud.

Played tutorial and a few rounds in the swamp

I'm not a card player, i know only the basics of yugi and magic, so my feedback will be pretty basic.

>looking for ideas on more content (battles)

my basic tip would be to use decks as characters, like magic. this dud don't have high level minions but tons of low level, so he will swarm you; this dude uses tons of magic cards to deal direct dmg; this other dude stalls and foce you to finish your deck and die(i dont suggest that because it's lame play and players will get mad at it) etc etc

Overall impression

Game works and i didnt see any bugs. My problem is just how generic it feels even for me that don't play this genre at all. if you are making this game for fun, i don't see any problem with it; if you wanna try to sell this, i don't see anything to make it stand out. You can't really match the polish and complexity of an heartstone, magic or yugi; so you need to give your players another reason to play.

Random thoughts i noted:

title in titlescreen is a bit blurry, i'm in 1080p

in the first intro video the white elf/goddess image has a cut on the left side, like it's two images 1px or so missaligned;

"+1 mana after each turn + refill" tutorial might be placed too late

music in the tutorial is maybe too upbeat since the game itslef it's not very fast-paced

once a minion atks it should have a "something" to remind you it already attacked this turn, the warning on click is fine;

"how to win" imo is also set very late in the tutorial

the "sleepy" Zzz.. on minions it's also blurry 

in the main screen after the tutorial, with the knight statue: it dosent seem a plaza with a big statue in the center, but a miniature that you are seeing while stretched out on the ground, like a cat

i don't like to have the title of the game as a transition image. many changes are possible, imo use arts of your cards randomly (you could also have a setting to use your fav cards)

i don't like that the missions you accept don't have a visible "reward on complete". dunno if it's a design decision, or just something you still need to implement

i like map screen a lot.

dungeon gate used for transition is cool, but very blurry

gargoyle txt "everytime u pee" it's very funny, but it's not alligned to the overall tone of the game. Imo all your game should be wacky like that text, or all straight. 

Moreover, since your game (imo) dosen't have an appeal on it's own, this could be a way to sell it better.  However, since i don't play this genre i don't know if there is already a card game with LMAO guvenile humour.

btw, it wasn't your fault about the door.
that room has a shitty flow, beacuse you enter, you fight in the right and then you should exit by goin up and back. I need to redisign that room entirely, since till that point every tutorial room is "go right".

thanks again

if you just walked through the grates, i have must misplaced something. ty for stresstesting it
also ty for compliments ^^

i finished lvl.3, aka demo's end; played with pad.

Overall thoughts

i like the tron+geometry wars vibes

destructibility i like a lot, and probably it's your main focus. "see how every enemy and the arena itself is destructable" etc

gameplay is solid, but with only one enemy there is only so much i can say about combat feel.

i don't have anything bad to say about your demo. the main problem is that you need tons of enemies, guns, ship parts and bosses.

it's no joke when you have isaac as competitor.

Random stuff i noted

lmao what's a pre-prototype

the first screen where you look around it's cool but imo too long; 

when you choose the memorycard for your saturn: the light border on the cards seems too little, it's probably just a problem caused by the camera angle

"go back" with B/circle button in menu ui imo it's a must;  

making the enemy spawn after you open the gates is imo not a good choice (visually). maybe you spawn them "deactivated", then you open the door and then you ativate the ai

you need "something" to happen when you kill an enemy to visualize the kill(beyond energy/money drop). The destruction fucks with this, bacause some enemies are still alive when they are only "a few bits of poligons left" and i have to double check them. 

lmao a slotmachine room. i lmao, but if this is the only "shop" i'll suggest you to make also a classic one, and leave the slots for risky "rare" drops. a way for better players to have more fun.

also since this is an isaac game, you probably need a powerup per level to incentivize exploration of the dungeon.

boss door should be different, beside on the map (again, isaac)

when exp flies to you, it shouldn't have an "OnExitTrigger" or similar effect imo. when the energy locks you it flies to you and should not lose you

when you change dungeon floor, it seems "level" is reset.

i like music blasting, but it seems to increase and decrease volume on it's own. you should make "maximum volume" in your audio mixer. also an option to change volume while pausing

i like a lot that razor boss on lvl.3 has more parts to be broken than previous versions.

about the boss, i like his intro a lot, but ofc in three levels i was already "get over with it". it's probably more a recycle content problem that will disappear once u have more bosses

i dunno if i like that if you dont "aim" your ship goes places when you shoot

this sticky talks about it:
/t/4120453/game-quarantined-search-or-indexing-problem-read-this

i did a check and now both my username and game are displayed. thank you!