First of all - mad respect for making a GAME BOY game. Absolute madman.
Controls are alright, it's a decent plaformer. The menu for skill (probably?) choice doesn't seem to do anything, and the witch's sprite clips into it if you stand on the right side of the screen.
The intro sequence is a bit too long for my liking, BUT the lava section is actually pretty good, with new enemies and boulders rolling. I managed to jump over the first one so I didn't get the "chase", and the second one killed me. But that part was pretty fun!
Enemy/Witch sprites seem a bit at odds with the background sprites, maybe because the coloring is less striking. But they are distinguishable, and that's what matters I guess.
I would prefer to have a bit more checkpoints. Lamps look like checkpoints, but either I'm too dumb to activate them, or they are just part of the scenery.
The magic system is currently not implemented so don't worry about that.
I've already made the level shorter by skipping some of the more filler-y screens and the level is much better paced and less of a pain to replay after dying as a result.
Initially the background was much brighter but it was kind of an eyesore during the boss so I darkened it to make the sprites pop more.
The lanterns are just background decorations don't worry lol.
I suppose mechanically it works, but the levels (got like 3-4 screens in) are completely uninteresting right now. It feels like it may be a bit too zoomed in to provide a good view for exploration as well.
Pretty alright Castlevania-like. The Gameboy is not exactly known for being the best console for platformers, but you're doing about as well as anyone could with the limitations.
I feel the level design is too slow-paced for lives to be fun as a gameplay feature, but I guess it fits the retro theme.
I will update the control description, that was a mistake on my end lol.
I will also try to trim some of the fat off the stage since I didn't realise how long and repetitive the level was when actually making it.
As for lives, I plan to make an easy mode which gets rid of lives, adds more checkpoints and bottomless pits that bounce you up while doing a bit of damage.
I almost lost all of my lives to the boulder -> ladder jump segment but I'm happy to say I completed the demo. Boulders and lava being an instant kill is some absolute cheese though lol. It can be frustrating with the unforgiving checkpoint placement. Once I got used to the controls I had quite a bit of fun.
The slide could use some more utility. I only used it twice. Once at the beginning where it's mandatory, and the next to collect that one healing item. Perhaps steal from Megaman and have it be more useful for avoiding enemies and projectiles. It also doesn't feel very good since it kills all momentum and isn't much faster (if at all) than just walking. You also can't cancel it with a jump like Megaman does.
The game lags pretty hard if you walk during the elevator segment in the lava area. I wonder if the collision detection code is being stressed out or something. I played on web for reference. Pic below is the area I'm talking about.
Game could use some more interesting enemies. Aside from the skeleton (which I think should have slightly less health), the enemies feel kinda samey in how you deal with them.
Anyways, it's pretty cool to see some homebrew games on here. I'm looking forward to seeing how you implement magic in the next update. Nice work.
Lol, I'll probably make the boulders slower by the next demo, I'll also eventually add some more checkpoints, probably in the planned easy mode.
I honestly tried to implement slide-cancelling via jump but it's surprisingly difficult to do in the engine I'm using and I didn't have time to implement it in time for demo day but it was already on my to do list, as for sliding utility, I designed the beetle enemies for the player to slide under but I'm assuming you just jumped over them or tanked them lol, I will make the slide faster and try to make it so that you don't lose momentum.
I caught the elevator lag straight away, tbh I think it's to do with the platform's movement speed so I think if I just speed it up it should be fine.
I would like to implement some more interesting enemies and will try to but I am limited by sprite tiles and actor counts so maybe only one or two more enemy types will appear in this level the next demo, the skull rocks taking five its is a bit overkill so I'll probably lower it to three hits.
Glad you enjoyed the demo and I very much appreciate the feedback, thanks for playing!
A simple game, which is fair enough. Felt a bit unfair to die after falling off the level from the paltforms, maybe some kind of bounce to give you a chance to recover?
I mean dying after falling into a pit is par for the course in platformers but I don't mind making an easy mode with a Dynamite Headdy-like pit-bounce.
Good start! Some autosave points would be nice, unless you want this to be tricky as fuck. Got quite a bit up but gave up when I died and noticed I would have to do it all again. Might give it another shot later. Controls are a bit sluggish, max speed could me faster, acceleration too. Keep trucking!
Comments
First of all - mad respect for making a GAME BOY game. Absolute madman.
Controls are alright, it's a decent plaformer. The menu for skill (probably?) choice doesn't seem to do anything, and the witch's sprite clips into it if you stand on the right side of the screen.
The intro sequence is a bit too long for my liking, BUT the lava section is actually pretty good, with new enemies and boulders rolling. I managed to jump over the first one so I didn't get the "chase", and the second one killed me. But that part was pretty fun!
Enemy/Witch sprites seem a bit at odds with the background sprites, maybe because the coloring is less striking. But they are distinguishable, and that's what matters I guess.
I would prefer to have a bit more checkpoints. Lamps look like checkpoints, but either I'm too dumb to activate them, or they are just part of the scenery.
Keep it up!
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!
The magic system is currently not implemented so don't worry about that.
I've already made the level shorter by skipping some of the more filler-y screens and the level is much better paced and less of a pain to replay after dying as a result.
Initially the background was much brighter but it was kind of an eyesore during the boss so I darkened it to make the sprites pop more.
The lanterns are just background decorations don't worry lol.
I suppose mechanically it works, but the levels (got like 3-4 screens in) are completely uninteresting right now. It feels like it may be a bit too zoomed in to provide a good view for exploration as well.
Pretty alright Castlevania-like. The Gameboy is not exactly known for being the best console for platformers, but you're doing about as well as anyone could with the limitations.
I feel the level design is too slow-paced for lives to be fun as a gameplay feature, but I guess it fits the retro theme.
I will update the control description, that was a mistake on my end lol.
I will also try to trim some of the fat off the stage since I didn't realise how long and repetitive the level was when actually making it.
As for lives, I plan to make an easy mode which gets rid of lives, adds more checkpoints and bottomless pits that bounce you up while doing a bit of damage.
Seems fine though I struggled getting into climb mode when I had to jump and then attach to a ladder with nothing underneath.
I almost lost all of my lives to the boulder -> ladder jump segment but I'm happy to say I completed the demo. Boulders and lava being an instant kill is some absolute cheese though lol. It can be frustrating with the unforgiving checkpoint placement. Once I got used to the controls I had quite a bit of fun.
The slide could use some more utility. I only used it twice. Once at the beginning where it's mandatory, and the next to collect that one healing item. Perhaps steal from Megaman and have it be more useful for avoiding enemies and projectiles. It also doesn't feel very good since it kills all momentum and isn't much faster (if at all) than just walking. You also can't cancel it with a jump like Megaman does.
The game lags pretty hard if you walk during the elevator segment in the lava area. I wonder if the collision detection code is being stressed out or something. I played on web for reference. Pic below is the area I'm talking about.
Game could use some more interesting enemies. Aside from the skeleton (which I think should have slightly less health), the enemies feel kinda samey in how you deal with them.
Anyways, it's pretty cool to see some homebrew games on here. I'm looking forward to seeing how you implement magic in the next update. Nice work.
Lol, I'll probably make the boulders slower by the next demo, I'll also eventually add some more checkpoints, probably in the planned easy mode.
I honestly tried to implement slide-cancelling via jump but it's surprisingly difficult to do in the engine I'm using and I didn't have time to implement it in time for demo day but it was already on my to do list, as for sliding utility, I designed the beetle enemies for the player to slide under but I'm assuming you just jumped over them or tanked them lol, I will make the slide faster and try to make it so that you don't lose momentum.
I caught the elevator lag straight away, tbh I think it's to do with the platform's movement speed so I think if I just speed it up it should be fine.
I would like to implement some more interesting enemies and will try to but I am limited by sprite tiles and actor counts so maybe only one or two more enemy types will appear in this level the next demo, the skull rocks taking five its is a bit overkill so I'll probably lower it to three hits.
Glad you enjoyed the demo and I very much appreciate the feedback, thanks for playing!
Space really should be the jump button, Z being the jump and J being the attack is very awkward. Graphics look nice.
You can also use K button to jump and X to attack.
Thanks, I'm really happy with how the graphics turned out.
A simple game, which is fair enough. Felt a bit unfair to die after falling off the level from the paltforms, maybe some kind of bounce to give you a chance to recover?
I mean dying after falling into a pit is par for the course in platformers but I don't mind making an easy mode with a Dynamite Headdy-like pit-bounce.
Good start! Some autosave points would be nice, unless you want this to be tricky as fuck. Got quite a bit up but gave up when I died and noticed I would have to do it all again. Might give it another shot later. Controls are a bit sluggish, max speed could me faster, acceleration too. Keep trucking!
I'll make an easy mode with infinite lives, there's a couple of check points around the level but they are spread out quite a bit.