Neat little game but overall I'd agree with the other comment that there's nothing especially fun here. Could use an extra mechanic or two that people would see in a trailer or screenshot and think "I want to do THAT." Some kind of flashy parry or stun or super move or execution sequence. Otherwise, leaning more into the comedy could work too. It is wacky to fight a killer whale, but it doesn't really do anything wacky or silly. You could go in a Parodius kind of direction, or maybe even have silly parodies of well-known bosses and attacks in the genre. A burping mushroom just doesn't really do it for me
Nitpicks:
I kept trying to hit the whale from above when it did its left-right leap, and I could only sometimes hit it from below, never above. You could maybe expand its hurtbox to make that easier
Slime seemed a bit too basic when tackled safely, but you probably know that
It seemed like I couldn't jump over the mushroom's clouds? Maybe you're supposed to dash through them, but I expected jumping to work
I don't understand why the cannonballs still one-shot you while they're sinking in the water (also why do they take so long to sink?)
I quit on the ship fight after losing 1 hit away from beating it. (I moved down too fast after jumping the third fire line, trying to set up for a jump over the next one) (Why does everything one-shot you here? Surely they could 2-shot you instead)
I also encountered the hit from above issue with whale but just thought it was a positioning issue so I'll definitely extend the hurtbox You can hit cannonballs in the water to make them sink faster which I hope players will attempt, it's an issue that has to be tested by multiple people to see if they think about it. The poison clouds are supposed to be evaded be positioning, they do hover pretty high above the ground Slime is just the tutorial boss, I nerfed it heavily after some people got filtered by it(the hitboxes were too big though) I have some whacky moments on regular "levels" between bosses and another addition planned that could happen during bosses Lack of "hook" is a massive issue for a commercial game so I'll have to do better for my future games..
It's tough to tune bosses well without other's feedback because you I get too good in my own game, I already know I can't jump clouds or I can hit sinking cannon balls..
I appreciate the in depth feedback and I'll definitely tune several things based on it, thank you!
I wouldn't call this fun. The guy is very slow, and some of the attacks feel unfair since it's very hard to see what is impacting where. Also the slime boss had black bars on the screen covering most of it when killing a slime. It needs a lot of work, but maybe it can become something better in the future.
No fun is unfortunate. I don't have the black bars issue nor has any other player reported it before. If you'd like to provide a screenshot and your specs..?
Ay, there's a shadow growing underneath and the warning SFX I agree that it's OP and needs retuning but there's also a reliable simple-ish way to dodge it, once you discover it
Playing without music recommended as I haven't reworked/updated it at all.
Samurai is 70% done. Full in game Controller support, not for menus as they're WIP. Past content will be in the game, I just didn't want to force people to replay bosses.
Does the tutorial page do a good job of explaining the mechanics? (I wanted discovery to be emergent but players tended to forget/miss key ideas and it caused frustration)
Comments
Neat little game but overall I'd agree with the other comment that there's nothing especially fun here. Could use an extra mechanic or two that people would see in a trailer or screenshot and think "I want to do THAT." Some kind of flashy parry or stun or super move or execution sequence. Otherwise, leaning more into the comedy could work too. It is wacky to fight a killer whale, but it doesn't really do anything wacky or silly. You could go in a Parodius kind of direction, or maybe even have silly parodies of well-known bosses and attacks in the genre. A burping mushroom just doesn't really do it for me
Nitpicks:
I kept trying to hit the whale from above when it did its left-right leap, and I could only sometimes hit it from below, never above. You could maybe expand its hurtbox to make that easier
Slime seemed a bit too basic when tackled safely, but you probably know that
It seemed like I couldn't jump over the mushroom's clouds? Maybe you're supposed to dash through them, but I expected jumping to work
I don't understand why the cannonballs still one-shot you while they're sinking in the water (also why do they take so long to sink?)
I quit on the ship fight after losing 1 hit away from beating it. (I moved down too fast after jumping the third fire line, trying to set up for a jump over the next one) (Why does everything one-shot you here? Surely they could 2-shot you instead)
I also encountered the hit from above issue with whale but just thought it was a positioning issue so I'll definitely extend the hurtbox
You can hit cannonballs in the water to make them sink faster which I hope players will attempt, it's an issue that has to be tested by multiple people to see if they think about it.
The poison clouds are supposed to be evaded be positioning, they do hover pretty high above the ground
Slime is just the tutorial boss, I nerfed it heavily after some people got filtered by it(the hitboxes were too big though)
I have some whacky moments on regular "levels" between bosses and another addition planned that could happen during bosses
Lack of "hook" is a massive issue for a commercial game so I'll have to do better for my future games..
It's tough to tune bosses well without other's feedback because you I get too good in my own game, I already know I can't jump clouds or I can hit sinking cannon balls..
I appreciate the in depth feedback and I'll definitely tune several things based on it, thank you!
I wouldn't call this fun. The guy is very slow, and some of the attacks feel unfair since it's very hard to see what is impacting where. Also the slime boss had black bars on the screen covering most of it when killing a slime. It needs a lot of work, but maybe it can become something better in the future.
No fun is unfortunate. I don't have the black bars issue nor has any other player reported it before. If you'd like to provide a screenshot and your specs..?
killer whale op, any way to predict his surfacing?
Ay, there's a shadow growing underneath and the warning SFX
I agree that it's OP and needs retuning but there's also a reliable simple-ish way to dodge it, once you discover it
Playing without music recommended as I haven't reworked/updated it at all. Samurai is 70% done.
Full in game Controller support, not for menus as they're WIP.
Past content will be in the game, I just didn't want to force people to replay bosses.
Does the tutorial page do a good job of explaining the mechanics? (I wanted discovery to be emergent but players tended to forget/miss key ideas and it caused frustration)