The jumping is awful. Mario figured it out nearly 40 years ago; don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Why is the angle on the fireball random? Getting hit because the game decided your shot should go over the enemy's head is bullshit.
The fireball hitbox lingers. Explosion hitboxes should only last for one frame.
Depending on how the hay bales spawn, if you destroy the topmost one of the first group, you can get stuck between the two below it. Why do they even spawn in slightly diffrent locations each time you restart? They also sometimes move a bit when the camera does.
I found this game really hard, and I was a little disappointed I can't set the hay bales on fire, considering you have a fire attack, and they are hay, it seems like a natural outcome, and they have collision, so maybe set that up if you think it's a good idea. The music reminds me of that one song I think it's called 'Within you and without you' . The hat wizard Baldizar is a good design.
What did you find particularly hard? What part? If it's when you're charged by many villagers, then the secret is getting the powerup in time. If it's the final boss, then don't worry as it's currently really buggy and I will change it. Anyway, I agree on the hay bales. Generally I had to cut some corners to make it for dd with something resembling a level, but ideally I'd want to also give each character a death animation.
JUMPING IS WEIRD! READ THIS: 1. You jump when you release the up key.
The longer you've been pressing it, the higher the jump 2. You can't
change your trajectory in mid air. So you have to take running jumps to
jump on stuff 3. Floor detection sucks on wheat rolls. Sorry
Soulfully primitive and enjoyable for the novelty that it is. I love how you blatantly cover up the character designs so that you don't have to draw them, as it's exactly what I do myself.
The music popping out of nowhere and being unironically great was hilarious and made me laugh out loud. Kind of reminds me of the fakeout on the NES Solstice title screen.
If you are making this game as a learning experience you can probably incrementally improve it until it's actually good. Fix the jumping jank and there's a surprisingly solid base here, despite the visuals.
Incidentally the mechanics here are a bit like Narazoth's Castle on this very same DD.
Jumping is incredibly unresponsive and takes forever to happen. If it happens, thats more or less luck aswell.
Character designs are nice, music was a pleasant surprise.
Controls are weirdly laid out, and I think it'd make Sense if you could move up and down aswell, but I don't really know what kind of Game you're going for at this Stage, so I don't know.
Since there are so many sidescrollers about jumping around already I wanted to try to put less focus on that aspect in this game, also, it's not like mages are famous for their athletics. So the way jumping works is a bit of an experiment: You jump when you release the up button. The longer you've held it down, the higher the jump (up to 1 second or so). You also cannot change your momentum while in the air.
I'll have to see if by explaining it better and implementing the celeste platforming tricks it becomes tolerable. If not, I'll just give up and implement standard jumping.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by up and down movement, but if you mean something like the last stand (flash game) I don't think I will go there unless coming up with levels becomes too difficult with how things are now.
I like your character design, simple yet original. I also like the perspective that the scenario has. You should explore that somehow (old beat 'em ups may give you some insight, in case you need it). The option of having a ranged attack with controllable distance is not common, extra points for that. I've tried the demo multiple times, but I kept dying when SPOILER ALERT ----- the giant farmers show up. You probably want to, eventually, give the player more health.
What do you mean by "perspective that the scenario has"? Anyway, I'd be interested in playing some old beat 'em ups if you think they are relevant to my game; which would you recommend? As for the giant farmers, I'm not sure I'm going to keep that fight, but if I do it needs work
By perspective I mean the way you made the background. If you look at a sidescroller like, let's say, the first Mario Bros. In that game background is flat, it has no depth. Your game has depth, like in Captain Commando, for example. It has a vanishing point. You don't have to play them, just take a quick look at videos in case you need inspiration for visuals/interactions with the background. Also check how the characters move. No need to add that type of movement to your game, I just wanted to offer you some insight regarding what has been done.
Comments
I think there's some charm in the character designs and scenario but it's controls are pretty wacked out.
The Jumping is so sluggish and the randomness in the fireball trajectories just make it frustrating to play.
I found this game really hard, and I was a little disappointed I can't set the hay bales on fire, considering you have a fire attack, and they are hay, it seems like a natural outcome, and they have collision, so maybe set that up if you think it's a good idea. The music reminds me of that one song I think it's called 'Within you and without you' . The hat wizard Baldizar is a good design.
What did you find particularly hard? What part? If it's when you're charged by many villagers, then the secret is getting the powerup in time. If it's the final boss, then don't worry as it's currently really buggy and I will change it. Anyway, I agree on the hay bales. Generally I had to cut some corners to make it for dd with something resembling a level, but ideally I'd want to also give each character a death animation.
The hard part for me is that the villagers are faster than me, so it's hard to line up my arc to hit them.
JUMPING IS WEIRD! READ THIS: 1. You jump when you release the up key. The longer you've been pressing it, the higher the jump 2. You can't change your trajectory in mid air. So you have to take running jumps to jump on stuff 3. Floor detection sucks on wheat rolls. Sorry
Art is good with the environment with the music. A couple of things:
>Allow the fireball to be aimed instead of having to press multiple buttons for different ways to fire it, while it's not consistent
>Don't make the fireball randomly change how far it goes, that was annoying
It's a good base
The art is really charming! The amount of spread on the fireballs felt like a bit much but I guess that’s fine.
Soulfully primitive and enjoyable for the novelty that it is. I love how you blatantly cover up the character designs so that you don't have to draw them, as it's exactly what I do myself.
The music popping out of nowhere and being unironically great was hilarious and made me laugh out loud. Kind of reminds me of the fakeout on the NES Solstice title screen.
If you are making this game as a learning experience you can probably incrementally improve it until it's actually good. Fix the jumping jank and there's a surprisingly solid base here, despite the visuals.
Incidentally the mechanics here are a bit like Narazoth's Castle on this very same DD.
Jumping is incredibly unresponsive and takes forever to happen. If it happens, thats more or less luck aswell.
Character designs are nice, music was a pleasant surprise.
Controls are weirdly laid out, and I think it'd make Sense if you could move up and down aswell, but I don't really know what kind of Game you're going for at this Stage, so I don't know.
Since there are so many sidescrollers about jumping around already I wanted to try to put less focus on that aspect in this game, also, it's not like mages are famous for their athletics. So the way jumping works is a bit of an experiment: You jump when you release the up button. The longer you've held it down, the higher the jump (up to 1 second or so). You also cannot change your momentum while in the air.
I'll have to see if by explaining it better and implementing the celeste platforming tricks it becomes tolerable. If not, I'll just give up and implement standard jumping.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by up and down movement, but if you mean something like the last stand (flash game) I don't think I will go there unless coming up with levels becomes too difficult with how things are now.
>up/down
Had to look it up, but yeah, pretty much like that. Your Screen and Graphics already suggest that based on how everything seems to be laid out.
I like your character design, simple yet original. I also like the perspective that the scenario has. You should explore that somehow (old beat 'em ups may give you some insight, in case you need it).
The option of having a ranged attack with controllable distance is not common, extra points for that.
I've tried the demo multiple times, but I kept dying when SPOILER ALERT ----- the giant farmers show up. You probably want to, eventually, give the player more health.
What do you mean by "perspective that the scenario has"? Anyway, I'd be interested in playing some old beat 'em ups if you think they are relevant to my game; which would you recommend? As for the giant farmers, I'm not sure I'm going to keep that fight, but if I do it needs work
By perspective I mean the way you made the background. If you look at a sidescroller like, let's say, the first Mario Bros. In that game background is flat, it has no depth. Your game has depth, like in Captain Commando, for example. It has a vanishing point.
You don't have to play them, just take a quick look at videos in case you need inspiration for visuals/interactions with the background.
Also check how the characters move. No need to add that type of movement to your game, I just wanted to offer you some insight regarding what has been done.