Fun idea. Always wondered what a magicka roguelite would be like.
Not sure if I like having spells unlock with each level. I think maybe having them all available at the beginning would be better honestly.
I feel like I just ended up spamming double light spell. The projectiles have basically no falloff and don't collide with terrain properly so they fly across the map and kill stuff way off screen. Maybe want to add a falloff distance or something or lower it.
Stage selection needs a bit of work. At first I thought green stages meant "passive" advancement and purple were "combat" advancement but my last level was home -> purple arena "passive" advance -> shop -> shop and that was the end of the game lol. Didn't even get to use the last element I unlocked!!
Speaking of shops, I had way more money that I needed to buy everything in every shop. Probably not intended but currency should be something that the player should make choices on. Gimmiko, another AGDG game, has a really nice currency and shop system as a roguelite . Might wanna check that out
I had a lot of fun though. The aesthetic is kinda cool, just needs more content and a bit of tuning.
Apologies about the colors of nodes, they are arbitrary right now unfortunately.
I agree about the preciousness of economic choices in this game - it's something I'm looking a lot at. I'll later be adding the ability to sell trinkets, and a max on the amount you can hold.
Sorry the overworld sector maps do need a lot of work, so they generate some unfun paths.
I think 1 element will be a little more fun when I add the ability to cast with both hands at once / off of each other's cooldown
LR Hand mechanic is a bit confusing, took me a bit of time to understand what's going on (at first I thought only 2 leftmost elements affect spellcasting). Same with the "Charge" spell - took me a bit of time to figure out what's going on.
Speaking of charge spell - it breaks the game. Costs almost nothing to cast, and when you charge to 500+ - the game kinda breaks. Bubble spell makes the game lag, most other spell just start spamming over and over again. Which is very cool, but also very not balanced. I also managed to get an item that gives me +1HP per cast, and Charge 500 + Spell makes you basically immortal. Very cool, but at that point I wished I had more enemies to kill - cuz they were dying too fast.
My biggest complaint is - when the spell is casting - you remember the first mouse position (at the moment of click) instead of the last (at the moment when the spell casting is finished and the projectile/spell effect is being summoned). It makes it very disorienting and hard to aim.
-Element orbs disappear behind walls and other decoration, which sometimes look bad. Walls especially because on the vertical ones they appear and disappear on the seams of said wall tiles.
-As they are, the cave levels feel a bit sparse.
-No feedback when you can't buy something in the shop, or when you don't have enough mana to cast a spell.
-Option of up to two spells depending on last 3 orbs is nifty. Also, so far double umbra is quite powerful, you can just shoot through walls with it. [later] or I guess it's not unique, a lot of spells go through walls.
-Map screen shows your options, but not the path you took to get there. Not important, but would be nice to have.
-You can't cast a spell with only 2 orbs, which is kind of weird. By the logic presented, I should be able to.
-Beat da game. Not much to it, but it's decently fun. Could use type effectiveness against monsters to better incentivize switching the spells up?
I really like the simple look, the nice sound effects, the discovery of cool playstyles by combining the spells. Maybe a little bit more feedback like a screenshake would be good?
Haven't played this since it's first iteration, it's a lot better! All the spells felt powerful, and useful. I liked how you got more elements as the game progressed. I don't really have any technical feedback, but do have some idea guy suggestions
- More sound effects for enemies
- More enemy types in general
- Wave attack encounter (Like vampire survivors)
- More power ups for specific elements (Maybe give up one to empower another?)
- Map is a bit inconsistent, some nodes have 5 encounters, some have 1
- Still love the art style, it's cute, clear and memorable
introducing the player to one element at a time is good to encourage experimentation so that was a good decision.
I saw that there's upgrades for player speed but the base speed is atrocious, I spent the whole game with either the shadow-water dash or the water-fire dash combos just because it was much faster. Arena nodes didn't do anything. Changing your selected elements is a bit clunky, it would be easier to combo different spells if it were faster.
Comments
Fun idea. Always wondered what a magicka roguelite would be like.
Not sure if I like having spells unlock with each level. I think maybe having them all available at the beginning would be better honestly.
I feel like I just ended up spamming double light spell. The projectiles have basically no falloff and don't collide with terrain properly so they fly across the map and kill stuff way off screen. Maybe want to add a falloff distance or something or lower it.
Stage selection needs a bit of work. At first I thought green stages meant "passive" advancement and purple were "combat" advancement but my last level was home -> purple arena "passive" advance -> shop -> shop and that was the end of the game lol. Didn't even get to use the last element I unlocked!!
Speaking of shops, I had way more money that I needed to buy everything in every shop. Probably not intended but currency should be something that the player should make choices on. Gimmiko, another AGDG game, has a really nice currency and shop system as a roguelite . Might wanna check that out
I had a lot of fun though. The aesthetic is kinda cool, just needs more content and a bit of tuning.
Apologies about the colors of nodes, they are arbitrary right now unfortunately.
I agree about the preciousness of economic choices in this game - it's something I'm looking a lot at. I'll later be adding the ability to sell trinkets, and a max on the amount you can hold.
Sorry the overworld sector maps do need a lot of work, so they generate some unfun paths.
I think 1 element will be a little more fun when I add the ability to cast with both hands at once / off of each other's cooldown
Nice CRT aesthetics.
LR Hand mechanic is a bit confusing, took me a bit of time to understand what's going on (at first I thought only 2 leftmost elements affect spellcasting). Same with the "Charge" spell - took me a bit of time to figure out what's going on.
Speaking of charge spell - it breaks the game. Costs almost nothing to cast, and when you charge to 500+ - the game kinda breaks. Bubble spell makes the game lag, most other spell just start spamming over and over again. Which is very cool, but also very not balanced. I also managed to get an item that gives me +1HP per cast, and Charge 500 + Spell makes you basically immortal. Very cool, but at that point I wished I had more enemies to kill - cuz they were dying too fast.
My biggest complaint is - when the spell is casting - you remember the first mouse position (at the moment of click) instead of the last (at the moment when the spell casting is finished and the projectile/spell effect is being summoned). It makes it very disorienting and hard to aim.
-Element orbs disappear behind walls and other decoration, which sometimes look bad. Walls especially because on the vertical ones they appear and disappear on the seams of said wall tiles.
-As they are, the cave levels feel a bit sparse.
-No feedback when you can't buy something in the shop, or when you don't have enough mana to cast a spell.
-Option of up to two spells depending on last 3 orbs is nifty. Also, so far double umbra is quite powerful, you can just shoot through walls with it. [later] or I guess it's not unique, a lot of spells go through walls.
-Map screen shows your options, but not the path you took to get there. Not important, but would be nice to have.
-You can't cast a spell with only 2 orbs, which is kind of weird. By the logic presented, I should be able to.
-Beat da game. Not much to it, but it's decently fun. Could use type effectiveness against monsters to better incentivize switching the spells up?
Keep up the good work.
It feels really good so far!
I really like the simple look, the nice sound effects, the discovery of cool playstyles by combining the spells.
Maybe a little bit more feedback like a screenshake would be good?
Haven't played this since it's first iteration, it's a lot better! All the spells felt powerful, and useful. I liked how you got more elements as the game progressed. I don't really have any technical feedback, but do have some idea guy suggestions
- More sound effects for enemies
- More enemy types in general
- Wave attack encounter (Like vampire survivors)
- More power ups for specific elements (Maybe give up one to empower another?)
- Map is a bit inconsistent, some nodes have 5 encounters, some have 1
- Still love the art style, it's cute, clear and memorable
Anyways, good job!
bubbles are OP.
also, often doors to the next level pop up way too close to where the player spawns.
Nice, I remember a previous version of this.
introducing the player to one element at a time is good to encourage experimentation so that was a good decision.
I saw that there's upgrades for player speed but the base speed is atrocious, I spent the whole game with either the shadow-water dash or the water-fire dash combos just because it was much faster.
Arena nodes didn't do anything.
Changing your selected elements is a bit clunky, it would be easier to combo different spells if it were faster.