just got done watching, you found a lot of things that need to get fixed and helped me identify them! thanks again so much for that! I was dying watching because you kept disconnecting the module after equipping it so you never got to see the explode power bauble in effect hahaha hopefully next demo day things will be even better
Yeah, videos like that are good to show devs how people actually play their games, so they also can get some indirect feedback.
I was dying watching because you kept disconnecting the module after equipping it so you never got to see the explode power bauble in effect hahaha hopefully next demo day things will be even better
Yeah, I guess it either needs better tutorial, or must be made more intuitive, or I am just dumb. I still do not understand it, so hopefully next DD I will get it to work. Do not worry, "dying inside" and getting frustrated when watching players do stupid things in your game is a normal feeling ha ha.
Interesting Metroidvania. I like the art style, but some of the foreground objects get in the way of being able to see things, maybe make them translucent as the player gets behind them. The combat and movement is very stiff. The sprinting seems to stop working at random times and dashing doesn't seem to work at all.
The UI is very buggy, and I have to click through multiple things to get it work sometimes. I also can't get the controls and settings menus to close properly sometimes.
The little green dot in the top right isn't a good enough representation of how much health I have and a health bar or percentage number would be better. More health items would be nice too, or make every save station heal you.
Just to not end on a negative; I liked the pre-rendered animations for the menus and saving, reminds me of a 90s PC game.
Love the setting so far, the atmosphere and the way things look and the world design are right down my alley. Menus seemed polished and responsive in general, and the different screens are well made, especially the ones that tie-in with the setting (like the module or heart menu). However, controls in general felt stiff most of the time. Fullscreen setting was also on at the start but the game started windowed. Running into crates doesn't start pushing them until you stop running, which confused me a bit at first. Climbing ladders is generally finnicky - you can't catch ladders mid-jump, jumping from ladders sometimes work, sometimes doesn't. You also teleport when you climb down from the top, and there are some weird stuff when you climb up, grab the ledge at the ladder exit and press down - suddenly you're teleported halfway down the ladder climbing down. Got grabbed by the second humanoid robot, wasn't sure if there's a way to break out early, and if so how. Ended up dying, I also wasn't sure about my HP since the bar at the upper left stayed black - I assume the light represents it instead (green going to red) but that's pretty vague. After dying, the game put me back at the beginning, and only after I realized that there's a save point before the jump down, which is way too easy to miss. I'd recommend more frequent savepoints along the tutorial area, or even just automatic checkpoints.
Hey thank you so much for checking out the game. I'm glad you liked it and I appreciate the feedback, this is going to help me out a lot with development and improving things.
Menus (e.g., the confirm changes prompt, start new game) should not touch the edges of the screen. The main character blends into the environment too much; normally you want them to be the opposite color from the BG. Pressing "Quit" from the menu needs a confirmation prompt. Run should be enabled by default or be a toggle. Settings menu should only ask for confirmation if you changed something. The mouse hitbox for that prompt is messed up. You should avoid obscuring the character behind foreground objects. Mixed resolution assets do not look good. Why is there no button to access the inventory directly? There also seems to be no "back" button for those menus. Pressing M twice backs out of the map menu, but not the note menu. Spacebar should be used to advance text in addition to E (I think it does sometimes?). I got stuck and quit after getting the BlastCaster, since the game does an awful job explaining how to use it. Most of the tutorials are bad; pausing the screen and forcing the player to read several pages of text is not a good teaching method. It make the game feel very intimidating to learn. Also I'm repeating the need for an auto-run option - moving feels like absolute ass without it.
The atmosphere is great, and it has a lot of effort and soul. it needs a lot of work in the user experience department.
The atmosphere of this game is phenomenal. The sound all of the robots make, their designs, and animations are really great. That being said, there are problems. Most notably the slow moment and how it negatively impacts the combat. In short, it is difficult to move or dodge out of the way when an enemy attacks you. I think the problem mostly lies with the dash which has multiple issues.
The dash isn't mentioned in the tutorial (at least up to the part I got to, and even if it is mentioned after, such a core mechanic should be mentioned very early anyways)
The button mapping for the dash, both on controller (in my case an xbox controller) AND keyboard is bad. In the case of the former the button mapping does not work at all as pressing the left stick down opens the map and left button opens the module menu. On keyboard and mouse it's the middle mouse button which is just a bad choice if you want players to consistently use the dash as the middle mouse button input is very annoying to use.
You can only dash while already running. This makes dashing in cramped areas very difficult, and because you need to enter a running state before dashing this increases the likelihood of you getting hit before you can even dash.
Now the dash isn't necessarily the only problem with the combat, but it is one of the more noticeable flaws. A minor flaw is the fact that enemies have similar color palettes to the background (and each other) so they blend together. This makes it difficult to tell when enemies are telegraphing their attacks, again increasing the likelihood of being hit.
Also, this might have been a personal problem, but save stations not healing you is incredibly punishing. I'm okay with the save stations not recharging the Nano Modules, but I think interacting with a save station should heal you. Towards the latter end of my playthrough I got to a point where it would only take 1 hit to kill me, and the game became unfun because of it.
Beyond that, here are some assorted notes I took while playing:
There is a bug where you can select to load a game even if you haven't ever started a new game. Causes an infinite loading screen.
The D-Pad is fine but using the joystick on a controller (in my case an XBOX controller) causes weird inputs sometimes (like skipping over menu buttons)? Hard to explain.
Not clear where you can ledge grab or not. Maybe mark it visually?
Not sure what my remaining health is? UI bit confusing on that part, could just be me.
Bind healing items/consumables to a button? (If you can, it's not clear)
There was a softlock, pictured below. The box blocks you when you pull it back to the right.
thank you so much for playing the game and giving such detailed feedback! this is going to help me out a lot with bug fixes and improving the gameplay!
Comments
I played your game, and recorded it with commentary.
You can find your game's video with other DD52 games at https://mega.nz/folder/WQ91HBxL#X4-j8Mj7H30Ai3aevWFEmA
hey thank you so much for playing and recording your session & feedback! this helps me out a ton and is greatly appreciated!
I am happy to hear it is helpful to you.
just got done watching, you found a lot of things that need to get fixed and helped me identify them! thanks again so much for that!
I was dying watching because you kept disconnecting the module after equipping it so you never got to see the explode power bauble in effect hahaha hopefully next demo day things will be even better
Yeah, videos like that are good to show devs how people actually play their games, so they also can get some indirect feedback.
Yeah, I guess it either needs better tutorial, or must be made more intuitive, or I am just dumb.I still do not understand it, so hopefully next DD I will get it to work. Do not worry, "dying inside" and getting frustrated when watching players do stupid things in your game is a normal feeling ha ha.Interesting Metroidvania. I like the art style, but some of the foreground objects get in the way of being able to see things, maybe make them translucent as the player gets behind them. The combat and movement is very stiff. The sprinting seems to stop working at random times and dashing doesn't seem to work at all.
The UI is very buggy, and I have to click through multiple things to get it work sometimes. I also can't get the controls and settings menus to close properly sometimes.
The little green dot in the top right isn't a good enough representation of how much health I have and a health bar or percentage number would be better. More health items would be nice too, or make every save station heal you.
Just to not end on a negative; I liked the pre-rendered animations for the menus and saving, reminds me of a 90s PC game.
Love the setting so far, the atmosphere and the way things look and the world design are right down my alley. Menus seemed polished and responsive in general, and the different screens are well made, especially the ones that tie-in with the setting (like the module or heart menu). However, controls in general felt stiff most of the time.
Fullscreen setting was also on at the start but the game started windowed. Running into crates doesn't start pushing them until you stop running, which confused me a bit at first.
Climbing ladders is generally finnicky - you can't catch ladders mid-jump, jumping from ladders sometimes work, sometimes doesn't. You also teleport when you climb down from the top, and there are some weird stuff when you climb up, grab the ledge at the ladder exit and press down - suddenly you're teleported halfway down the ladder climbing down.
Got grabbed by the second humanoid robot, wasn't sure if there's a way to break out early, and if so how. Ended up dying, I also wasn't sure about my HP since the bar at the upper left stayed black - I assume the light represents it instead (green going to red) but that's pretty vague.
After dying, the game put me back at the beginning, and only after I realized that there's a save point before the jump down, which is way too easy to miss. I'd recommend more frequent savepoints along the tutorial area, or even just automatic checkpoints.
Hey thank you so much for checking out the game. I'm glad you liked it and I appreciate the feedback, this is going to help me out a lot with development and improving things.
Menus (e.g., the confirm changes prompt, start new game) should not touch the edges of the screen. The main character blends into the environment too much; normally you want them to be the opposite color from the BG. Pressing "Quit" from the menu needs a confirmation prompt. Run should be enabled by default or be a toggle. Settings menu should only ask for confirmation if you changed something. The mouse hitbox for that prompt is messed up. You should avoid obscuring the character behind foreground objects. Mixed resolution assets do not look good. Why is there no button to access the inventory directly? There also seems to be no "back" button for those menus. Pressing M twice backs out of the map menu, but not the note menu. Spacebar should be used to advance text in addition to E (I think it does sometimes?). I got stuck and quit after getting the BlastCaster, since the game does an awful job explaining how to use it. Most of the tutorials are bad; pausing the screen and forcing the player to read several pages of text is not a good teaching method. It make the game feel very intimidating to learn. Also I'm repeating the need for an auto-run option - moving feels like absolute ass without it.
The atmosphere is great, and it has a lot of effort and soul. it needs a lot of work in the user experience department.
hey thank you so much for checking it out and giving all these notes. This will help me out a ton with fixing things and improving the game!
Played up until I got the double jump.
The atmosphere of this game is phenomenal. The sound all of the robots make, their designs, and animations are really great. That being said, there are problems. Most notably the slow moment and how it negatively impacts the combat. In short, it is difficult to move or dodge out of the way when an enemy attacks you. I think the problem mostly lies with the dash which has multiple issues.
Now the dash isn't necessarily the only problem with the combat, but it is one of the more noticeable flaws. A minor flaw is the fact that enemies have similar color palettes to the background (and each other) so they blend together. This makes it difficult to tell when enemies are telegraphing their attacks, again increasing the likelihood of being hit.
Also, this might have been a personal problem, but save stations not healing you is incredibly punishing. I'm okay with the save stations not recharging the Nano Modules, but I think interacting with a save station should heal you. Towards the latter end of my playthrough I got to a point where it would only take 1 hit to kill me, and the game became unfun because of it.
Beyond that, here are some assorted notes I took while playing:
There was a softlock, pictured below. The box blocks you when you pull it back to the right.
thank you so much for playing the game and giving such detailed feedback! this is going to help me out a lot with bug fixes and improving the gameplay!