The graphics are amazing, it's got an amazing creepy feeling to it.
I had lots of trouble with the UI not scaling to my 1980x1080 screen. I couldn't properly click on buttons, and once I fixed it I could work with it, but it reset again once I got to level 2.
The game also had a lot of lag. I got some errors about lighting having to be rebuilt.
Overall I could have fun playing a game like this.
A few people mentioned the UI acting up. I just wish I could reproduce it. I'll look into it some more tomorrow.
The lighting isn't built, you're right. The lightmap resolutions are leading to some really weird looking baked lights in some areas. I'll try to disable the text
You mentioned lag: what are your computer specs? We are aiming for 60fps+ on a gtx 1060+, although we dip into the 50s a few times when testing here. If you are getting bad performance with an equal or better card, let me know and I'll optimize things better. I think its draw call bound at the moment, so that means some research about hierarchical instanced static meshes this or next week!
Computer Specs: CPU: i7-7700 (3.6GHz) RAM: 16GB GPU: ASUS ROG GTX 1080 Running off an SSD
So I don't think specs should be a problem. Might just need some optimization. But looking past the issues, I think this game could definitely be a favorite of mine.
P.S. I was running the game on 1920x 1080 at Max. Low Motion Blur, cause I'm not fond of Motion Blur in general :D
Strange, I'm using a 1080 with a ryzen 2700. At 1440p, I never got lower than 50 FPS just now, and ususally it was over 60 or 65, with everything on max. I guess we know its not pixel bound at least. It would be better if the min number was 60
Thanks for all the notes, they are really helpful! After a few more bugfixes or critical features, I'll look a bit more into instancing and whether I can't get the twig people's triangle counts down a bit further without mangling them
Lots of lods. I think it might be draw calls maybe. Do you know if large textures can cause a slowdown? The cpu is pretty busy, could be just sending textures all day slowing down frames?
Large textures will most likely be the case. I wouldn't go over 1020x1020 textures unless it's something that really needs detail.
Also make sure that objects that don't move are set to static and that materials that are used a lot are gpu instanced. I'm speaking out of a Unity perspective here, not sure about UE.
Thanks. Its been a pleasure talking with you. Please feel free to message me on discord any time with any game related topic you find interesting. Your website says you are making a game? Edit, I also see a drive thru rpg link. I was considering making a pen and paper rpg for free rpg day to promote my game. Big tabletop rpg fan, mostly osr these days
Very interesting! The wicker things are cool! Also, wow, voice acting!! I think I glitched it out a little at the camp, the wicker people didn't attack. I'll have to try again. I like it though, great job! Oh and I think it would be good if you can go into the plugins and disable VR so that it doesn't try to open SteamVR every time with the game :)
Edit: VR removed, I think weirdly, the project stops compiling whenever I try to remove vr support. I wonder why the wicker things did not attack though. Something must have prevented the dialogue from finishing? I’ll look into it, thanks. If you play again, let me know if it happened again.
When you say the wicker people didn't attack, you mean none of them attacked at all after you walked to the campfire? I haven't been able to reproduce that. The few standing in the woods are decoration
I haven’t played again yet but I suspect it is because some guy came running from around a rock with a torch and sword in his hands. I assumed he was a bandit and promptly murdered him mid stride. He was headed in the direction of about five wicker people who just stood there. They weren’t there when I arrived, and eventually I attacked and killed them while they stood there.
Nice. First couple of minutes I was thinking this isn't that spooky. Those things in the woods though. I think I accidentally sidetracked a chunk by jumping up through the cave to the top of the mountain and then just running down to the inn. I also had a good explore of the other caves, and found some interesting stuff. There's definitely a story there that's worth exploring.
Good stuff.
My only real criticism is that the combat feels like it needs more impact. A good trail on the sword, and some VFX on impact would make a big difference. Same for taking damage. I found it was hard to keep track of when I was getting damaged without watching the health bar.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Besides the effects, how did you find the character controller and combat controls? It definitely needs some vfx and sfx
I think the block binding wasn't set up by default, so after the first fight I rebound everything to lmb - attack, rmb - block and a mouse thumb button to lock on. With that setup, combat felt alright.
I did most of my fighting in the caves, and I don't think that suited the lock - on style that much. It feels like that needs some more open spaces. I also found that I wasn't sure if my blocking was effective. Is it a quick block that you need to time or something you call hold? If it's the former then I think the enemy attack animations need a visibile wind - up and brief pause before they strike, or some kind of indicator like the batman games.
I also think in a full game, the combat tutorial could do with dragging out to cover each move. Training swords that barely hurt + a "now try blocking my attacks" phase kinda thing.
The character controller felt pretty good. It's steep slopes handling was maybe a bit too forgiving. It felt like my route out of the mountain was more glitch than planned path. Other than that I'd just want to spend more time in other environments to get a feel for it
Sure. Are you expanding on it for the "Finish Your Game Jam"? I'll keep an eye on Messy's discord, but just give me a shout once you want me to have a look
Comments
The graphics are amazing, it's got an amazing creepy feeling to it.
I had lots of trouble with the UI not scaling to my 1980x1080 screen.
I couldn't properly click on buttons, and once I fixed it I could work with it, but it reset again once I got to level 2.
The game also had a lot of lag.
I got some errors about lighting having to be rebuilt.
Overall I could have fun playing a game like this.
A few people mentioned the UI acting up. I just wish I could reproduce it. I'll look into it some more tomorrow.
The lighting isn't built, you're right. The lightmap resolutions are leading to some really weird looking baked lights in some areas. I'll try to disable the text
You mentioned lag: what are your computer specs? We are aiming for 60fps+ on a gtx 1060+, although we dip into the 50s a few times when testing here. If you are getting bad performance with an equal or better card, let me know and I'll optimize things better. I think its draw call bound at the moment, so that means some research about hierarchical instanced static meshes this or next week!
Computer Specs:
CPU: i7-7700 (3.6GHz)
RAM: 16GB
GPU: ASUS ROG GTX 1080
Running off an SSD
So I don't think specs should be a problem.
Might just need some optimization.
But looking past the issues, I think this game could definitely be a favorite of mine.
P.S.
I was running the game on 1920x 1080 at Max.
Low Motion Blur, cause I'm not fond of Motion Blur in general :D
Strange, I'm using a 1080 with a ryzen 2700. At 1440p, I never got lower than 50 FPS just now, and ususally it was over 60 or 65, with everything on max. I guess we know its not pixel bound at least. It would be better if the min number was 60
Thanks for all the notes, they are really helpful! After a few more bugfixes or critical features, I'll look a bit more into instancing and whether I can't get the twig people's triangle counts down a bit further without mangling them
Are you using LODs in your game?
They are a bit of effort to get in place, but speeds a game up tremendously.
Lots of lods. I think it might be draw calls maybe. Do you know if large textures can cause a slowdown? The cpu is pretty busy, could be just sending textures all day slowing down frames?
Large textures will most likely be the case.
I wouldn't go over 1020x1020 textures unless it's something that really needs detail.
Also make sure that objects that don't move are set to static and that materials that are used a lot are gpu instanced.
I'm speaking out of a Unity perspective here, not sure about UE.
Thanks. Its been a pleasure talking with you. Please feel free to message me on discord any time with any game related topic you find interesting. Your website says you are making a game? Edit, I also see a drive thru rpg link. I was considering making a pen and paper rpg for free rpg day to promote my game. Big tabletop rpg fan, mostly osr these days
Will message you over on Discord :D
Very interesting! The wicker things are cool! Also, wow, voice acting!! I think I glitched it out a little at the camp, the wicker people didn't attack. I'll have to try again. I like it though, great job! Oh and I think it would be good if you can go into the plugins and disable VR so that it doesn't try to open SteamVR every time with the game :)
Edit: VR removed, I think
weirdly, the project stops compiling whenever I try to remove vr support.I wonder why the wicker things did not attack though. Something must have prevented the dialogue from finishing? I’ll look into it, thanks. If you play again, let me know if it happened again.When you say the wicker people didn't attack, you mean none of them attacked at all after you walked to the campfire? I haven't been able to reproduce that. The few standing in the woods are decoration
I haven’t played again yet but I suspect it is because some guy came running from around a rock with a torch and sword in his hands. I assumed he was a bandit and promptly murdered him mid stride. He was headed in the direction of about five wicker people who just stood there. They weren’t there when I arrived, and eventually I attacked and killed them while they stood there.
Shouldn't have affected it, but maybe there was an IsDead check somewhere that broke a logic chain. I will investigate!
Nice. First couple of minutes I was thinking this isn't that spooky. Those things in the woods though. I think I accidentally sidetracked a chunk by jumping up through the cave to the top of the mountain and then just running down to the inn. I also had a good explore of the other caves, and found some interesting stuff. There's definitely a story there that's worth exploring.
Good stuff.
My only real criticism is that the combat feels like it needs more impact. A good trail on the sword, and some VFX on impact would make a big difference. Same for taking damage. I found it was hard to keep track of when I was getting damaged without watching the health bar.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Besides the effects, how did you find the character controller and combat controls? It definitely needs some vfx and sfx
I think the block binding wasn't set up by default, so after the first fight I rebound everything to lmb - attack, rmb - block and a mouse thumb button to lock on. With that setup, combat felt alright.
I did most of my fighting in the caves, and I don't think that suited the lock - on style that much. It feels like that needs some more open spaces. I also found that I wasn't sure if my blocking was effective. Is it a quick block that you need to time or something you call hold? If it's the former then I think the enemy attack animations need a visibile wind - up and brief pause before they strike, or some kind of indicator like the batman games.
I also think in a full game, the combat tutorial could do with dragging out to cover each move. Training swords that barely hurt + a "now try blocking my attacks" phase kinda thing.
The character controller felt pretty good. It's steep slopes handling was maybe a bit too forgiving. It felt like my route out of the mountain was more glitch than planned path. Other than that I'd just want to spend more time in other environments to get a feel for it
Your feedback is extremely helpful. Would you be open to taking another look at it in December after we polish it up a bit?
Sure. Are you expanding on it for the "Finish Your Game Jam"? I'll keep an eye on Messy's discord, but just give me a shout once you want me to have a look
possibly that joining that jam
Played through all your games on stream today. Here is the VOD:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/795059404
Your game featured at : 01:32:45