Kicking myself for missing this one initially, this ended up being probably my favorite game from the last DD. I ended up putting on some jungle in the background while I was playing and I just got completely lost in the experience. I'll save my criticism for the next DD you submit to but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this one. Despite your name, you're GMI!!!
I like the concept, so far the execution is very rough but you already have some very fun levels (my fav is the one with the two red skyscrapers).
Tutorial needs to be remade from scratch. World UI for a game where you run fast and need to build momentum is... really dunno. Maybe it can be done, but your execution is just plain bad. I had to stop to read every new msg because they disappear in a second. I totally agree with Tech-25 comment.
My tip is to see every tutorials for speedy games(ofc don't forget mirror's edge) and reflect on that.
Open world level was pretty bad.(Worst part was the respawn on a jumper. ) Exploring it is not fun, probably because the level itself is huge and you can't really plan a route to a new objective. If you played mirrors edge, classic TR or TH you can plan out how to reach a new platform because everything is under your eyes; your game so far is too expansive for that. You basically just run toward a tape icon and hope there is a road somewhere.
I really like the atmosphere, it reminds me of n64/psx era. the "wow!" for some reason is super nostalgic to me.
-Abysmal tutorial section (borderline dogshit) - the player is forced to go back just to read messages in a game about going fast because said messages are physical objects that you can zoom past. The amount of text in those tutorials is also so fucking verbose. Here's a tip for every part of the tutorial, free of charge: 1."WASD to move, SPACE to jump" 2."Press SPACE midair to double jump" (Why doesn't the game tell you about the speed increase after you land from a jump???) 3."Left click for grappling hook" (What the FUCK is wrong with grappling hook followup explanation appearing so late that you can only see it when you're close to the edge of the platform?) 4. You should let the player experiment with the "blue crosshair = can grapple" mechanic by placing something like 2 walls nearby instead of overhead platform 5. And at least let the player cancel it, but that's less of a tutorial and more of a gameplay issue 6. You should warn the player that grappling hook resets double jump (?) 7.The refill for dash/grappling hook mechanic should refill your resources whenever you are in contact with the ground, not at the moment of you touching it. The current system means that if you dash on a flat plane, you then have to jump in place like a retard to refill it
-Why the hell can't you dash in midair and only towards an object? Why don't you explain that the same "blue crosshair" rule apply to dash as well as grappling hook? -I am actually seething. At this point just let the player figure out controls on their own by putting them in a safe "playground" kind of space with controls written on a wall -Dashing in place on a flat surface gives you a small boost after immediately killing your momentum if you don't pre-jump. Why not make the player slide if they use a dash out of idle stance? -Why is it never stated that you can adjust your sliding direction based on where you mouse is looking? -Why don't you always get your grapple/dash charge back if you dash towards a surface? Doesn't that count as touching it? Sometimes you get a refill, sometimes you don't -The game suddenly introduces walls that can't be dashed towards on level 2 without explaining how that works. Is it because grappling hook actually feels like shit to use and you wanted to find a way to make it viable? Because I assure you - hook feels like a crutch and more of a hinderance most of the time. Why would you use it when it shares the same distance with dash and works worse due to retaining some inertia momentum is beyond me. Seems like a late addition that wasn't thought out -Game philosophy seems to boil do to "you play the level my way or no way at all", with usually only 1 solution to a particular hazard and only 1 road you can take. A blasphemy in a game that looks like it's about free-running at a high speed -Game also suffers from the fact that you will almost never be able to S rank a stage first try due to hazards appearing out of nowhere -Rails going into water because fuck you i guess - very cool -Red buildings being dangerous (not documented anywhere until you bump into one) - also very cool -Genuinely gave up on level 8 (?) with the massive tower because it's just a corridor with minimal room for speed adjustments -Can't check what are the times for each grade, per level. You have to rely on trial and error to find out what's the ballpark for "S" or "A" rank -Certain checkpoints exist just to screw you over, kinda defeating the purpose -Pickup range on cassette tape seems to fuck with the player on occasion -Map editor is a nice addition, but there is no guide on how to use.
-Good visuals, no idea why you would use a filter to crunch up everything around -White concrete texture look like ass, I think it would be better to have grey and red ones only. If you want to add the sense of speed while sliding, you can dot the grey textures with crosses, kinda like HL2 map editor cubes -Why can't you track the next cassette active tape when it's outside of your FOV? Just make it like, I dunno, a cassette icon at the edge of your screen with an arrow pointing towards it so the player would know that it's somewhere "to the right", for example. It really ruins the flow
-Was expecting more of a JSR OST, got a CS surf map ambience instead. Not bad, really, but nothing to write home about. Otherwise SFX are minimalistic, but neat. Probably one of the game's highlights
The game looked better on webms and gave an illusion of freedom that the demo is completely devoid of. I think the latter isn't that bad as long as you can distract the player from it, but there isn't really much to get distracted with. Very good foundation and amazing feeling of speed when things go right, but so far very lackluster execution with sometimes questionable level design. I felt like I was treated like a baby the entire time and never got a proper chance to play the way I wanted. The biggest crime is that this demo doesn't have a dedicated level to just have fun and run around.
Hey! The criticism for the tutorial is really helpful, as we’re planning to completely redo it. We’ll keep your criticisms in mind. As for your problems with the dashing & charge/meter system, it’s been changed so it charges passively (with bonuses while rail grinding and being grounded) rather than charging once when you land/wallrun/rail grind. Red buildings being dangerous was documented in the tutorial, but it wasn’t conveyed well. Checkpoints are being discussed, and they’ll see a change. As for the ranking system, it is somewhat weird & opaque, so it’ll be changed in some capacity. Again, thank you for playing the game! All of this is really great feedback, so thank you!
Nice game! Here's my initial impressions and feedback.
The grappling hook feels good.
The meter feels like it's lacking a passive recharge mechanic when running on flat ground. I know when you go fast that would be mostly irrelevant but still. I jumped in place in the tutorial to recharge the meter, I thought I had to do that because the it was bugged.
I like the skybox and water a lot.
Might be my monitor settings but red boxes don't always look red because of their dark shadows. It's not clear whether they're going to kill you or they're normal boxes.
I understand it's needed for gameplay reasons but the way the objective marker is drawn on-top doesn't look great. Maybe with s compass along with a tall in-world light beam could do the trick.
Please add a FOV slider.
The repeating textures don't look great.
I like the yellow grind bars, they feel good to jump on.
The game is fun when the level design clicks.
Some checkpoints are very hard to recover from after you die like 2/7 and 4/7 in the 2-2 level.
The right click dash feels weird when it's used on the floor to gather speed, sometimes you lose momentum very fast after using it, sometimes you don't. Maybe it's because of the surface type?
Having both an air dash and a grappling hook feels redundant.
Looking forward to see your progress on this game!
when you get into the flow it feels great but there's a lot of things that pulls me out of that flow and im not exactly sure what it is. i think you can only dash when falling? which is weird, grappling on a curved surface sometimes just stopped my momentum instead of keeping it after. another thing is that sometimes it was hard seeing the depth or distance to objects.
but really liked it, with some smoothing and tweaking this can be great
almost quit playing when I got stuck on an island in one of the first levels
The bar recharging mechanic is somewhat unsatisfying. I feel like I have to play in a weird way just to get it up. Doing railjumps is fine (though I'd expect a continuous gain while grinding), but on the ground I need to bunny hop to fill it up? That was annoying, because it went against the movement feel and also hard to do because I might do a double jump instead of a bhop. Also, when coming to a standstill, it would be nice if it'd fill up to quickly get back into the game without havint to reset.
The red walls need some emissive overlay to have them consistently lit from all sides. Had parts where I thought they were grey walls because of the shadow.
The swinging obstacles aren't fun to deal with at such a high speed and the amount air control. Also, because it's first person, it's hard to see where they are when you're next to them. Maybe push/knockback the player instead of forcing a reset?
Grappling I rarely used, only when I felt I was too far away for dashing which quickly became my goto move.
Initially I didn't think to use double jumps because I thought they were connected to the charging meter and I didn't want to waste it.
the tutorial text needs more space and the tutorial itself could be a bit more elaborate in giving space to test the mechanics
I didn't like the linear levels in an open environment. Choosing my own path, based on my current momentum, felt much nicer. It's probably fine once you have the mechanics and the level layout down.
sometimes it wasn't clear after finishing a rail if I could still double jump
Sometimes it wasn't clear how far away the tapes were. Having some outline indicating that they're currently behind a wall and also a distance number would help. On levels with multiple tapes collectable it wasn't always clear which one was the closest one.
didn't like the pixel post processing
tried the level editor, but didn't do much with it
Apparently there is a replay system? Well, I made a video ...
That's all from the top of my head. I'll definitely steal the rail grinding :>
It took me a long of time to catch the flow of the game, but I eventually learnt some momentum.
Actions don't feel responsive. There should be feedback when bars aren't filled yet or grapple can't reach so that I immediately know what I'm doing wrong. Same goes for jumping, landing and wall run - those need better feedback, as camera is so nice and smooth that I don't really know if anything or when exactly happens.
I'm not fan of the camera height. It's so low that I don't see where I'm going when close to ground and it's especially a problem on flat ramps going up where you can't even tell when to jump.
Post processing is pure eye cancer, it looks way better without it and I can't see a reason for it being the default.
I don't know how to feel about the pendulum hazards, although now I'm noticing that there's a dodge mechanic. The horizontally rotating ones were a cool segment even if they were janky.
There is a problem with dashing on ramps, or at least the way it loses momentum doesn't feel good (I think it was 2-6 or 2-7 where I experienced a major roadblock).
I like the scummy wall climbs you can do in a clutch situation, but those also probably contribute to not learning the flow properly.
The level design felt off at times and first levels were confusing but it was impressive overall. Tutorial is way too dark and I was afraid that the rest of the game will be like that.
Hey, thanks! About the level design, the first few levels were created when we didn’t have a proper idea of how they should flow. 2-3 and 2-4 are the last levels we worked on because they were awful. We’ll definitely adjust some of them so that they’re more friendly towards the player and easier to follow. I’ll add SFX for when you can’t dash or when your grapple can’t reach, I think that’ll help make it feel more responsive. I’ll see about adjusting the camera height. Post processing is definitely… off. The style of the game hasn’t quite been figured out yet. I’ll change the tutorial skybox, my thought was that it’d make it easier to see the text against a black background. Camera will definitely be adjusted, I agree that it feels way too smooth.
Regardless, I’m glad you like the game!
The smoothness of the camera isn't bad at all, it's better than risking giving someone motion sickness. Sound and particles should be enough.
For grapple consider an indicator that would appear whenever you are able to attach it, that way players will be able to learn the spacing required too and stop spamming the button.
Comments
Kicking myself for missing this one initially, this ended up being probably my favorite game from the last DD. I ended up putting on some jungle in the background while I was playing and I just got completely lost in the experience. I'll save my criticism for the next DD you submit to but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this one. Despite your name, you're GMI!!!
I like the concept, so far the execution is very rough but you already have some very fun levels (my fav is the one with the two red skyscrapers).
Tutorial needs to be remade from scratch. World UI for a game where you run fast and need to build momentum is... really dunno. Maybe it can be done, but your execution is just plain bad. I had to stop to read every new msg because they disappear in a second. I totally agree with Tech-25 comment.
My tip is to see every tutorials for speedy games(ofc don't forget mirror's edge) and reflect on that.
Open world level was pretty bad.(Worst part was the respawn on a jumper. ) Exploring it is not fun, probably because the level itself is huge and you can't really plan a route to a new objective. If you played mirrors edge, classic TR or TH you can plan out how to reach a new platform because everything is under your eyes; your game so far is too expansive for that. You basically just run toward a tape icon and hope there is a road somewhere.
I really like the atmosphere, it reminds me of n64/psx era. the "wow!" for some reason is super nostalgic to me.
Keep posting progress and GL.
Thank you for the feedback! The tutorial will be completely redone, and we’ll look at improving 2-4.
-Abysmal tutorial section (borderline dogshit) - the player is forced to go back just to read messages in a game about going fast because said messages are physical objects that you can zoom past. The amount of text in those tutorials is also so fucking verbose. Here's a tip for every part of the tutorial, free of charge:
1."WASD to move, SPACE to jump"
2."Press SPACE midair to double jump"
(Why doesn't the game tell you about the speed increase after you land from a jump???)
3."Left click for grappling hook"
(What the FUCK is wrong with grappling hook followup explanation appearing so late that you can only see it when you're close to the edge of the platform?)
4. You should let the player experiment with the "blue crosshair = can grapple" mechanic by placing something like 2 walls nearby instead of overhead platform
5. And at least let the player cancel it, but that's less of a tutorial and more of a gameplay issue
6. You should warn the player that grappling hook resets double jump (?)
7.The refill for dash/grappling hook mechanic should refill your resources whenever you are in contact with the ground, not at the moment of you touching it. The current system means that if you dash on a flat plane, you then have to jump in place like a retard to refill it
-Why the hell can't you dash in midair and only towards an object? Why don't you explain that the same "blue crosshair" rule apply to dash as well as grappling hook?
-I am actually seething. At this point just let the player figure out controls on their own by putting them in a safe "playground" kind of space with controls written on a wall
-Dashing in place on a flat surface gives you a small boost after immediately killing your momentum if you don't pre-jump. Why not make the player slide if they use a dash out of idle stance?
-Why is it never stated that you can adjust your sliding direction based on where you mouse is looking?
-Why don't you always get your grapple/dash charge back if you dash towards a surface? Doesn't that count as touching it? Sometimes you get a refill, sometimes you don't
-The game suddenly introduces walls that can't be dashed towards on level 2 without explaining how that works. Is it because grappling hook actually feels like shit to use and you wanted to find a way to make it viable? Because I assure you - hook feels like a crutch and more of a hinderance most of the time. Why would you use it when it shares the same distance with dash and works worse due to retaining some inertia momentum is beyond me. Seems like a late addition that wasn't thought out
-Game philosophy seems to boil do to "you play the level my way or no way at all", with usually only 1 solution to a particular hazard and only 1 road you can take. A blasphemy in a game that looks like it's about free-running at a high speed
-Game also suffers from the fact that you will almost never be able to S rank a stage first try due to hazards appearing out of nowhere
-Rails going into water because fuck you i guess - very cool
-Red buildings being dangerous (not documented anywhere until you bump into one) - also very cool
-Genuinely gave up on level 8 (?) with the massive tower because it's just a corridor with minimal room for speed adjustments
-Can't check what are the times for each grade, per level. You have to rely on trial and error to find out what's the ballpark for "S" or "A" rank
-Certain checkpoints exist just to screw you over, kinda defeating the purpose
-Pickup range on cassette tape seems to fuck with the player on occasion
-Map editor is a nice addition, but there is no guide on how to use.
-Good visuals, no idea why you would use a filter to crunch up everything around
-Was expecting more of a JSR OST, got a CS surf map ambience instead. Not bad, really, but nothing to write home about. Otherwise SFX are minimalistic, but neat. Probably one of the game's highlights-White concrete texture look like ass, I think it would be better to have grey and red ones only. If you want to add the sense of speed while sliding, you can dot the grey textures with crosses, kinda like HL2 map editor cubes
-Why can't you track the next cassette active tape when it's outside of your FOV? Just make it like, I dunno, a cassette icon at the edge of your screen with an arrow pointing towards it so the player would know that it's somewhere "to the right", for example. It really ruins the flow
The game looked better on webms and gave an illusion of freedom that the demo is completely devoid of. I think the latter isn't that bad as long as you can distract the player from it, but there isn't really much to get distracted with. Very good foundation and amazing feeling of speed when things go right, but so far very lackluster execution with sometimes questionable level design. I felt like I was treated like a baby the entire time and never got a proper chance to play the way I wanted. The biggest crime is that this demo doesn't have a dedicated level to just have fun and run around.
Here's a link to some gameplay recording
https://mega.nz/file/r9c30biA#2SePC8mw0Tb0oyW1P0QTgK7BCAQiB7k2THDU4An2E00
Hey! The criticism for the tutorial is really helpful, as we’re planning to completely redo it. We’ll keep your criticisms in mind. As for your problems with the dashing & charge/meter system, it’s been changed so it charges passively (with bonuses while rail grinding and being grounded) rather than charging once when you land/wallrun/rail grind. Red buildings being dangerous was documented in the tutorial, but it wasn’t conveyed well. Checkpoints are being discussed, and they’ll see a change. As for the ranking system, it is somewhat weird & opaque, so it’ll be changed in some capacity. Again, thank you for playing the game! All of this is really great feedback, so thank you!
Nice game! Here's my initial impressions and feedback.
The grappling hook feels good.
The meter feels like it's lacking a passive recharge mechanic when running on flat ground. I know when you go fast that would be mostly irrelevant but still. I jumped in place in the tutorial to recharge the meter, I thought I had to do that because the it was bugged.
I like the skybox and water a lot.
Might be my monitor settings but red boxes don't always look red because of their dark shadows. It's not clear whether they're going to kill you or they're normal boxes.
I understand it's needed for gameplay reasons but the way the objective marker is drawn on-top doesn't look great. Maybe with s compass along with a tall in-world light beam could do the trick.
Please add a FOV slider.
The repeating textures don't look great.
I like the yellow grind bars, they feel good to jump on.
The game is fun when the level design clicks.
Some checkpoints are very hard to recover from after you die like 2/7 and 4/7 in the 2-2 level.
The right click dash feels weird when it's used on the floor to gather speed, sometimes you lose momentum very fast after using it, sometimes you don't. Maybe it's because of the surface type?
Having both an air dash and a grappling hook feels redundant.
Looking forward to see your progress on this game!
superfun!
when you get into the flow it feels great but there's a lot of things that pulls me out of that flow and im not exactly sure what it is. i think you can only dash when falling? which is weird, grappling on a curved surface sometimes just stopped my momentum instead of keeping it after. another thing is that sometimes it was hard seeing the depth or distance to objects.
but really liked it, with some smoothing and tweaking this can be great
Very nice.
Apparently there is a replay system? Well, I made a video ...
That's all from the top of my head. I'll definitely steal the rail grinding :>
Good shit, I like it.
It took me a long of time to catch the flow of the game, but I eventually learnt some momentum.
Actions don't feel responsive. There should be feedback when bars aren't filled yet or grapple can't reach so that I immediately know what I'm doing wrong. Same goes for jumping, landing and wall run - those need better feedback, as camera is so nice and smooth that I don't really know if anything or when exactly happens.
I'm not fan of the camera height. It's so low that I don't see where I'm going when close to ground and it's especially a problem on flat ramps going up where you can't even tell when to jump.
Post processing is pure eye cancer, it looks way better without it and I can't see a reason for it being the default.
I don't know how to feel about the pendulum hazards, although now I'm noticing that there's a dodge mechanic. The horizontally rotating ones were a cool segment even if they were janky.
There is a problem with dashing on ramps, or at least the way it loses momentum doesn't feel good (I think it was 2-6 or 2-7 where I experienced a major roadblock).
I like the scummy wall climbs you can do in a clutch situation, but those also probably contribute to not learning the flow properly.
The level design felt off at times and first levels were confusing but it was impressive overall. Tutorial is way too dark and I was afraid that the rest of the game will be like that.
Hey, thanks! About the level design, the first few levels were created when we didn’t have a proper idea of how they should flow. 2-3 and 2-4 are the last levels we worked on because they were awful. We’ll definitely adjust some of them so that they’re more friendly towards the player and easier to follow. I’ll add SFX for when you can’t dash or when your grapple can’t reach, I think that’ll help make it feel more responsive. I’ll see about adjusting the camera height. Post processing is definitely… off. The style of the game hasn’t quite been figured out yet. I’ll change the tutorial skybox, my thought was that it’d make it easier to see the text against a black background. Camera will definitely be adjusted, I agree that it feels way too smooth. Regardless, I’m glad you like the game!
The smoothness of the camera isn't bad at all, it's better than risking giving someone motion sickness. Sound and particles should be enough.
For grapple consider an indicator that would appear whenever you are able to attach it, that way players will be able to learn the spacing required too and stop spamming the button.