To me the simplicity of the controls felt great when it came to throwing potions, aiming with just the arrow keys and pushing the rest of execution difficulty onto imagining the trajectory and repositioning yourself was satisfying; when it comes to the movements options that you offer however the controls felt more lackuster: I would've very much liked to have the chance to dash, shield (especially if it reflected the bouncing bones), and evade attacks. Without any better option to defend myself what I found myself doing was running back and forth without jumping, which didn't do justice to the fun enemies you've designed.
Beat the game after dying a bunch on the 4th level. Great visual style and art. Love the spooky with bats and skeletons. Throwing potions felt good after I figured out the controls, maybe adding the controls onto the ui would help. Would it be possible to add a diagonal throw? Cool progress and I look forward to seeing more added to the game!
The visuals are shaping up to be amazing, as is the mechanic of blasting enemies with potions. I think you should add some (place holder) sound effects, the explosions beg to be heard.
Why doesn't the player character jump high enough to reach the platforms? Are they not implemented yet? The movement feels limited if you are bound to just walking on the bottom floor. I don't think there should be a need to press a button to open the door if it's the only way forward, I obviously want to walk through there after clearing the screen.
The attacks of the skeletons were very hard to dodge, as they blended in with the bones of other destroyed skeletons. The bat swooping animation also isn't distinctive enough to dodge it.
What I would work on next would be to get the gamefeel just right. I want to hear earth shattering kabooms as I litter the area with potion bombs and crunchy bone sounds when the skeletons are blasted to bits. The sprite work is amazing, but the visuals need to communicate gameplay more clearly. Enemy attacks should be more telegraphed and easier to identify.
Great feedback, thank you! I've never done anything with sound yet, but I'll try to figure it out before next time.
You can get on platforms by double jumping, I thought it'd be good to have it that way so that you always use your first jump to dodge projectiles without accidentally ending up in other platforms. That doesn't really come up in the demo though because there's only one type of projectile and it mostly moves vertically.
Yeah the visuals need a bit of an overhaul. I've always been bad at picking colors and I've found it pretty hard to make the important parts stand out while keeping everything visually coherent.
No controls listed anywhere? Sometimes the wizard will throw a thing. I somehow got into the next room by just running into the door for a minute. No clue what's going on :(
Huh, really? I had checked the page and didn't see them, which is why I made the comment. I would have been alright with controls on itch, as that's what I did lol.
I see them now, not sure if I was blind earlier, sorry.
What are your plans with combat? I was drawn to play because I saw the cauldron and hoped there would be some sort of alchemy involved.. please tell me there will be.
Yeah unless itch didn't show them until later or something they were always there. Still, you made me realize that I didn't even mention spacebar for jumping and that you can double jump, so it was for the best.
Yes, the original idea for the game was to have something similar to the spell crafting system in Noita but with alchemy instead, where you create different kinds of exploding potions by mixing stuff together in a cauldron. To be honest I got kind of discouraged with this game because even after spending a bit of time on the graphics I still don't like how it looks too much, but if I continue working on it that's what I'll add.
Comments
To me the simplicity of the controls felt great when it came to throwing potions, aiming with just the arrow keys and pushing the rest of execution difficulty onto imagining the trajectory and repositioning yourself was satisfying; when it comes to the movements options that you offer however the controls felt more lackuster: I would've very much liked to have the chance to dash, shield (especially if it reflected the bouncing bones), and evade attacks. Without any better option to defend myself what I found myself doing was running back and forth without jumping, which didn't do justice to the fun enemies you've designed.
Beat the game after dying a bunch on the 4th level. Great visual style and art. Love the spooky with bats and skeletons. Throwing potions felt good after I figured out the controls, maybe adding the controls onto the ui would help. Would it be possible to add a diagonal throw? Cool progress and I look forward to seeing more added to the game!
I like the art, and I like the effects. I'd love to see what it looks like with explosion sound effects.
The visuals are shaping up to be amazing, as is the mechanic of blasting enemies with potions. I think you should add some (place holder) sound effects, the explosions beg to be heard.
Why doesn't the player character jump high enough to reach the platforms? Are they not implemented yet? The movement feels limited if you are bound to just walking on the bottom floor. I don't think there should be a need to press a button to open the door if it's the only way forward, I obviously want to walk through there after clearing the screen.
The attacks of the skeletons were very hard to dodge, as they blended in with the bones of other destroyed skeletons. The bat swooping animation also isn't distinctive enough to dodge it.
What I would work on next would be to get the gamefeel just right. I want to hear earth shattering kabooms as I litter the area with potion bombs and crunchy bone sounds when the skeletons are blasted to bits. The sprite work is amazing, but the visuals need to communicate gameplay more clearly. Enemy attacks should be more telegraphed and easier to identify.
Great feedback, thank you! I've never done anything with sound yet, but I'll try to figure it out before next time.
You can get on platforms by double jumping, I thought it'd be good to have it that way so that you always use your first jump to dodge projectiles without accidentally ending up in other platforms. That doesn't really come up in the demo though because there's only one type of projectile and it mostly moves vertically.
Yeah the visuals need a bit of an overhaul. I've always been bad at picking colors and I've found it pretty hard to make the important parts stand out while keeping everything visually coherent.
Oh whoops, I didn't even realize there's a double jump. Just replayed it and had a way easier time clearing the last room.
No controls listed anywhere? Sometimes the wizard will throw a thing. I somehow got into the next room by just running into the door for a minute. No clue what's going on :(
I figured out the controls.
Played it. Framerate and visuals were both good. Hope to see more soon.
Controls are written on the itch page, but not anywhere within the game. I admit that was a bit lazy. Thanks for playing!
Huh, really? I had checked the page and didn't see them, which is why I made the comment. I would have been alright with controls on itch, as that's what I did lol.
I see them now, not sure if I was blind earlier, sorry.
What are your plans with combat? I was drawn to play because I saw the cauldron and hoped there would be some sort of alchemy involved.. please tell me there will be.
Yeah unless itch didn't show them until later or something they were always there. Still, you made me realize that I didn't even mention spacebar for jumping and that you can double jump, so it was for the best.
Yes, the original idea for the game was to have something similar to the spell crafting system in Noita but with alchemy instead, where you create different kinds of exploding potions by mixing stuff together in a cauldron. To be honest I got kind of discouraged with this game because even after spending a bit of time on the graphics I still don't like how it looks too much, but if I continue working on it that's what I'll add.