I liked the game! Only played single-player. Really good to play something casual and with a variety of ideas. I really liked the robotic voicing and dialogue of the characters. It reminded me of Cyber8's videos on youtube. I think you could get a lot of inspiration from those. Not sure what you're going to go for with the graphics, but they need changing in some way. I'd recommend either a cartoon shader or maybe some weirder "cursed graphics" might be kind of cool.
Best parts:
The key hole lady was very funny. The slide was the right level of challenge, after I figured out you need to use the camera to change direction. The acid lake platforming was good. I liked how you needed to bash keys to pick them up. I liked that dying was only a small setback.
Not-so-best parts:
Sometimes when you try to jump off a platform, you end up helicoptering. Probably because you technically falling off the platform, but it looks like you should still be considered grounded. I think helicoptering after jumping should still keep the vertical upwards momentum from the jump if you are not at the apex, because it's hard to time. The jump from the spinny disc to the next platform is very hard. The dragon fight felt very awkward, probably needs completely redoing. There was no way to check the gamepad controls ingame.
Overall, keep it up! I look forward to seeing progress.
Recording: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2023378574?t=0h31m39s Did not understand the Diamond’s riddle - is a bit weird, since you can easily get up to it just by jumping from hill to hill. Then I was up there with the Diamond and did not understand how the chest, disc and rotor would help me to move it down.
Liked the humor and the mood, this virtual space with weird things moving around.
The diamond puzzle seems to be problematic for some players. You need to spin the disc to lift the portcullis, then quickly get up there and walk out with the diamond before the portcullis closes.
Also I see you had some graphical glitches, but I guess it depends on your Linux environment. I had one friend test this on desktop Linux and another on Steamdeck and it was fine in both cases.
Ye, the game warned me about the potential for glitches ("you have driver version 2.x.y, we recommend at least 21.a.b") so I have nothing to complain about. It may be that it needs the amdgpu-pro driver.
Perhaps the portcullis could be somehow visually connected to the disc, I though the disc was supposed to help you do a cool movement trick but could not figure it out. Oh by the way I really enjoyed the air controls / movement style!
Incoming stream of consciousness I just write stuff down because i'll forget it if I try to type it later
Only played single-player. Windows. Didn't find any bugs over ~35m playtime.
Controls feel solid. I could not get my gamepad to work but mouse and keyboard felt fine. It definitely felt like a Conker game right out of the box.
Obviously the game will rely a lot on cutscenes, humor, etc. I'm not going to say much about the cutscenes or script itself, but I will say that it's pretty big shoes to fill if you're shooting for that kind of writing and comedic flair. Then again I was like 12 when BFD came out and I thought it was the funniest shit but looking back its like :/ ya know?
Anyway uhh after the initial cutscenes your jump gets REALLY tall? like wow that's huge, probably 3x more than it was? I guess it's fine but looking around the map things are way more vertical than they need to be, probably because of your newfound 3x jump height. Just keep this in mind when it comes to level design, maybe you find it comfortable, I dunno. I get that him getting energy drinks is like Conker's beer pick-me-up so maybe that can be Ash's gimmick.
The first key I went for was the barrel. Felt VERY weird for it to "snap" onto it. Not sure how to alleviate that. Barrel control felt kind of too smooth? I dunno, didn't feel like much of a challenge but that's ok too.
Had no problems doing the platforming key.
The throwing projectiles thing felt really hard to aim without a reticle, but if you're clever with design you can make a pseudo iron-sights that players can use to aim with.
The sheep thing felt kind of dumb. The idea is funny but crashing into a wall killing me felt uber lame. Maybe just taking some damage and making me restart the chainsaw would have been less lame.
Oh yeah there's like little wizard enemies that do fuck-all. I... don't even know why those are in? Their AI is really bad. It's nice to have disposable grunt guys I guess but these just sat there doing nothing, even after triggering their chase sequence they just kind of sat there.
The rotating disc thing was not immediately apparent to me what it did but then I put it together and realized it was a timed gate thing. Maybe try to frame the camera if the player is standing on it so that the gate is also visible. Would help a bit. You really do not get much time there btw, it took me 3 or 4 tries before I had a perfect run and that was just enough time.
Slide felt good.
Dragon fight was....eh. The projectiles go too slow really for something like that.
Honestly it's a good prototype. Again, a very ambitious game, especially if you want voice acting for all characters but the gameplay system foundation is solid enough I would say.
Comments
the jumping is too slippery for a platforming game.
I liked the game! Only played single-player. Really good to play something casual and with a variety of ideas. I really liked the robotic voicing and dialogue of the characters. It reminded me of Cyber8's videos on youtube. I think you could get a lot of inspiration from those. Not sure what you're going to go for with the graphics, but they need changing in some way. I'd recommend either a cartoon shader or maybe some weirder "cursed graphics" might be kind of cool.
Best parts:
The key hole lady was very funny. The slide was the right level of challenge, after I figured out you need to use the camera to change direction. The acid lake platforming was good. I liked how you needed to bash keys to pick them up. I liked that dying was only a small setback.
Not-so-best parts:
Sometimes when you try to jump off a platform, you end up helicoptering. Probably because you technically falling off the platform, but it looks like you should still be considered grounded. I think helicoptering after jumping should still keep the vertical upwards momentum from the jump if you are not at the apex, because it's hard to time. The jump from the spinny disc to the next platform is very hard. The dragon fight felt very awkward, probably needs completely redoing. There was no way to check the gamepad controls ingame.
Overall, keep it up! I look forward to seeing progress.
Good start to the game! Keep the same energy and work on tweak the platforming physics just a little
Recording: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2023378574?t=0h31m39s
Did not understand the Diamond’s riddle - is a bit weird, since you can easily get up to it just by jumping from hill to hill. Then I was up there with the Diamond and did not understand how the chest, disc and rotor would help me to move it down.
Liked the humor and the mood, this virtual space with weird things moving around.
Thanks for playing.
The diamond puzzle seems to be problematic for some players. You need to spin the disc to lift the portcullis, then quickly get up there and walk out with the diamond before the portcullis closes.
Also I see you had some graphical glitches, but I guess it depends on your Linux environment. I had one friend test this on desktop Linux and another on Steamdeck and it was fine in both cases.
Ye, the game warned me about the potential for glitches ("you have driver version 2.x.y, we recommend at least 21.a.b") so I have nothing to complain about. It may be that it needs the amdgpu-pro driver.
Perhaps the portcullis could be somehow visually connected to the disc, I though the disc was supposed to help you do a cool movement trick but could not figure it out. Oh by the way I really enjoyed the air controls / movement style!
Incoming stream of consciousness I just write stuff down because i'll forget it if I try to type it later
Only played single-player. Windows. Didn't find any bugs over ~35m playtime.
Controls feel solid. I could not get my gamepad to work but mouse and keyboard felt fine. It definitely felt like a Conker game right out of the box.
Obviously the game will rely a lot on cutscenes, humor, etc. I'm not going to say much about the cutscenes or script itself, but I will say that it's pretty big shoes to fill if you're shooting for that kind of writing and comedic flair. Then again I was like 12 when BFD came out and I thought it was the funniest shit but looking back its like :/ ya know?
Anyway uhh after the initial cutscenes your jump gets REALLY tall? like wow that's huge, probably 3x more than it was? I guess it's fine but looking around the map things are way more vertical than they need to be, probably because of your newfound 3x jump height. Just keep this in mind when it comes to level design, maybe you find it comfortable, I dunno. I get that him getting energy drinks is like Conker's beer pick-me-up so maybe that can be Ash's gimmick.
The first key I went for was the barrel. Felt VERY weird for it to "snap" onto it. Not sure how to alleviate that. Barrel control felt kind of too smooth? I dunno, didn't feel like much of a challenge but that's ok too.
Had no problems doing the platforming key.
The throwing projectiles thing felt really hard to aim without a reticle, but if you're clever with design you can make a pseudo iron-sights that players can use to aim with.
The sheep thing felt kind of dumb. The idea is funny but crashing into a wall killing me felt uber lame. Maybe just taking some damage and making me restart the chainsaw would have been less lame.
Oh yeah there's like little wizard enemies that do fuck-all. I... don't even know why those are in? Their AI is really bad. It's nice to have disposable grunt guys I guess but these just sat there doing nothing, even after triggering their chase sequence they just kind of sat there.
The rotating disc thing was not immediately apparent to me what it did but then I put it together and realized it was a timed gate thing. Maybe try to frame the camera if the player is standing on it so that the gate is also visible. Would help a bit. You really do not get much time there btw, it took me 3 or 4 tries before I had a perfect run and that was just enough time.
Slide felt good.
Dragon fight was....eh. The projectiles go too slow really for something like that.
Honestly it's a good prototype. Again, a very ambitious game, especially if you want voice acting for all characters but the gameplay system foundation is solid enough I would say.