Very good presentation. The godrays were :chef_kiss:. I can feel can be big. Finished it 42 minutes, and probably over 1/3 of that was spent on the last boss. I think he's way too tanky. I get that you, as an experienced player, were spamming grenades or something but you can't expect that from a first time player. I also feel like his patterns are unbalanced. His tackle attacks are way too fast for me to react properly, so it made me stay in the corner for most of the fight, where those attacks didn't ever reach. His other patterns are very easy to dodge. There's a pattern where he spams bullets when he gets on low health, but it's completely harmless. The only way you're going to get hit by that is by trying to get hit on purpose since he never aims at you.
I didn't have issues with the enemies except for the worm that goes under the ground. It's hard to tell where it's going to appear from.
I found the game hard at first, but after a decent couple of deaths I got the hang of it. I think that could be eased by adjusting the difficulty curve. The dashing beetle doesn't feel like an enemy you should meet within the first minute of gameplay. Yeah, I know it's a short demo and you can't do much about it, but I wanted to mention that. I think the game is pretty intuitive though.
A couple of suggestions: I would really like if the mouse/aiming position affected the camera, rather than adjusting the camera using the direction you are moving to. One needs to see what they're aiming at better. It would also help in seeing what kind of places you're falling to when aiming down. I would also like a way to exit the menu using the mouse, like the return button you have on the weapon menu. Speaking of that I really like how you can select which weapons you want enabled. I would also really like for you to add a way to change weapons using the number, at least on keyboard, like an FPS.
Oh, I also think the basic gun should autofire. I get it's a basic bitch weapon, but you can just make the fire rate low. I'm not a fan of constant clicking. I think you should also auto-switch weapons once you run out of ammo.
A couple more of things to add about my experience.
I didn't use the dodge button very much other than for sliding. It doesn't feel that much faster from walking. The backdash feels obsolete when there's the forward dash. The double jump/air dash thing felt a bit hard to get used to, and I didn't notice any situation where I would want to use the air dash over the double jump. EDIT: I ran out of grenades just when I needed them to progress and I had to farm for a bit to some. I guess that's the problem of mixing progression with ammo. Before I got the pulse rifle I thought my health was the ammo count for the longest time. Maybe it's because it's just above the weapon icon. Idk. Like another comment said, I wasn't a fan of immediately falling down after bumping your head on the ceiling.
Other than the pulse rifle there was some kind of machine gun, but I couldn't pick it up. I tried every button (does G not work anyway? I never saw it do anything) to no avail. No idea what was up with that. There were also some kind of graphical artifacts around the borders of the tiles in the first room on my nvidia. Pic rel Anyway, good experience, but hard as balls.
Pretty good so far, though there wasn't much interesting exploration wise. I gave up on the large green boss because I haven't saved my progress. Having that sort of temporary weapons is a great twist and I have this in my metroidvania too.
- Art music sound is amazing, takes me right back to metroid fusion in the best way - Love the enemy gibs - Wasn't sure how my ammo was going down - Corner-hang would help a TON for navigating vertical bends. - A map would be nice
I looked around the map and couldn't find any upgrades, but had a fun time exploring none the less.
>The intent of this demo is to determine how ready the game is from a mechanical standpoint, and to test out the general gameplay to see if it's good enough to begin planning and building the final game world.
Easily best one I've tried so far. Music and artstyle are top tier.
Boss was neat, lack of health bar is bold choice, but if that's the direction you're going for I'd consider other form of feedback on boss's HP like cracks or partial destruction. Without feedback it begins to feel like bullet sponge after a while. AI is good, enemies have different patterns and can successfully outsmart you.
Given stunning graphics and interesting architecture in the background the game begs for some world building. Maybe there are some journals scattered around but I didn't manage to find anything.
Shite, I recorded a video but spoke into the void since the mic options weren't proper.
rolly polly is really fast and can't be ignored after he's aggro'd. I'd prefer a nerf.
The first flying red bug has some teleporting behavior, his movement is a lot faster/instant than the second flying bug.
I think there's no boss, I tried exploring what I could. no map I suppose, I tried tab. F for flashlight is the only button I found other than jump/shoot.
amazing looking water.
dash off a platform gives hover time until dash runs out, unsure if intended.
good music track(not the nexus one). has potential.
Plagiarized Demons Souls music. Seriously? I'm guessing most things are too. No volume/any settings. No controls tutorial. Pressing fire should autofire instead of needing to spam cluck. For some enemies like the chargers it's hard to tell if you're dealing damage. The progression is really unclear and feels aimless. Bumping you head into ceilings makes you drop straight down, which is bad for platforming. I know it's a staple for Metroidvanias, but the enemies respawning when you leave the screen is annoying. They should at least drop health/items to compensate.
Overall the presentation is excellent, but it's not very interesting. It needs something besides the graphics to stand out.
Comments
The movement system is very deep and rich, lots of techs to learn. Can't wait to see it play out in the future
Damn, legit game great sound design, good enemy design, great graphical style.
I liked it
Very good presentation. The godrays were :chef_kiss:. I can feel can be big. Finished it 42 minutes, and probably over 1/3 of that was spent on the last boss. I think he's way too tanky. I get that you, as an experienced player, were spamming grenades or something but you can't expect that from a first time player. I also feel like his patterns are unbalanced. His tackle attacks are way too fast for me to react properly, so it made me stay in the corner for most of the fight, where those attacks didn't ever reach. His other patterns are very easy to dodge. There's a pattern where he spams bullets when he gets on low health, but it's completely harmless. The only way you're going to get hit by that is by trying to get hit on purpose since he never aims at you.
I didn't have issues with the enemies except for the worm that goes under the ground. It's hard to tell where it's going to appear from.
I found the game hard at first, but after a decent couple of deaths I got the hang of it. I think that could be eased by adjusting the difficulty curve. The dashing beetle doesn't feel like an enemy you should meet within the first minute of gameplay. Yeah, I know it's a short demo and you can't do much about it, but I wanted to mention that. I think the game is pretty intuitive though.
A couple of suggestions: I would really like if the mouse/aiming position affected the camera, rather than adjusting the camera using the direction you are moving to. One needs to see what they're aiming at better. It would also help in seeing what kind of places you're falling to when aiming down. I would also like a way to exit the menu using the mouse, like the return button you have on the weapon menu. Speaking of that I really like how you can select which weapons you want enabled. I would also really like for you to add a way to change weapons using the number, at least on keyboard, like an FPS.
Oh, I also think the basic gun should autofire. I get it's a basic bitch weapon, but you can just make the fire rate low. I'm not a fan of constant clicking. I think you should also auto-switch weapons once you run out of ammo.
A couple more of things to add about my experience.
I didn't use the dodge button very much other than for sliding. It doesn't feel that much faster from walking. The backdash feels obsolete when there's the forward dash. The double jump/air dash thing felt a bit hard to get used to, and I didn't notice any situation where I would want to use the air dash over the double jump. EDIT: I ran out of grenades just when I needed them to progress and I had to farm for a bit to some. I guess that's the problem of mixing progression with ammo. Before I got the pulse rifle I thought my health was the ammo count for the longest time. Maybe it's because it's just above the weapon icon. Idk. Like another comment said, I wasn't a fan of immediately falling down after bumping your head on the ceiling.
Other than the pulse rifle there was some kind of machine gun, but I couldn't pick it up. I tried every button (does G not work anyway? I never saw it do anything) to no avail. No idea what was up with that. There were also some kind of graphical artifacts around the borders of the tiles in the first room on my nvidia. Pic rel
Anyway, good experience, but hard as balls.
very thorough, much appreciated. I neglected to include the interact key from the controls, you can press E to pick up temporary weapons
Pretty good so far, though there wasn't much interesting exploration wise. I gave up on the large green boss because I haven't saved my progress. Having that sort of temporary weapons is a great twist and I have this in my metroidvania too.
Visuals, UI art and minimap are amazing.
Impressive, has fun mechanics with movement.
Figured out dashing to go to tight places.
Lost against the flying robot boss with the bullets and rockets.
Love that one charging enemy whose impact literally knocks you off.
I didn't find save stations, though.
Looks great!
Only when he wakes up the sprite is too noisy and completely breaks the illusion of pixel art
Your choice for keyboard binding is strange, so I was forced to look controls on game page, maybe make it like on others metridvanias?
Also at first didnt notice you can crouchdash by default and spent some time running around more than needed looking for exit
You need to introduce this ability to player
Notes from playtesting
- Art music sound is amazing, takes me right back to metroid fusion in the best way
- Love the enemy gibs
- Wasn't sure how my ammo was going down
- Corner-hang would help a TON for navigating vertical bends.
- A map would be nice
I looked around the map and couldn't find any upgrades, but had a fun time exploring none the less.
>The intent of this demo is to determine how ready the game is from a mechanical standpoint, and to test out the general gameplay to see if it's good enough to begin planning and building the final game world.
I'd say almost certainly yes.
I was told to test of /agdg/, but no linux.
Easily best one I've tried so far. Music and artstyle are top tier.
Boss was neat, lack of health bar is bold choice, but if that's the direction you're going for I'd consider other form of feedback on boss's HP like cracks or partial destruction. Without feedback it begins to feel like bullet sponge after a while.
AI is good, enemies have different patterns and can successfully outsmart you.
Given stunning graphics and interesting architecture in the background the game begs for some world building. Maybe there are some journals scattered around but I didn't manage to find anything.
Huge potential
Shite, I recorded a video but spoke into the void since the mic options weren't proper.
rolly polly is really fast and can't be ignored after he's aggro'd. I'd prefer a nerf.
The first flying red bug has some teleporting behavior, his movement is a lot faster/instant than the second flying bug.
I think there's no boss, I tried exploring what I could. no map I suppose, I tried tab. F for flashlight is the only button I found other than jump/shoot.
amazing looking water.
dash off a platform gives hover time until dash runs out, unsure if intended.
good music track(not the nexus one). has potential.
Polished!
Plagiarized Demons Souls music. Seriously? I'm guessing most things are too. No volume/any settings. No controls tutorial. Pressing fire should autofire instead of needing to spam cluck. For some enemies like the chargers it's hard to tell if you're dealing damage. The progression is really unclear and feels aimless. Bumping you head into ceilings makes you drop straight down, which is bad for platforming. I know it's a staple for Metroidvanias, but the enemies respawning when you leave the screen is annoying. They should at least drop health/items to compensate.
Overall the presentation is excellent, but it's not very interesting. It needs something besides the graphics to stand out.