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A jam submission

Healed To DeathView game page

Healer Rogue-Lite
Submitted by Branno — 2 days, 18 hours before the deadline
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Comments

Played for a bit over one Hour.

Prologue obviously is still Placeholder I hope, three Lines of big Text clicking next isn't very exciting, you could put a nice Intro Sequence before the Tutorial. Later in Development of course.

It feels very nice to play, Cleric wis cute. All in all the new Models look nice, but your Environments, overworld, town, Dungeon Interiors need work I think. You could - and I think you should - really clutter them and make them look interesting, like proper MMORPG Dungeons instead of just squared mostly empty Environments. Also makes Positioning just a bit more important if you can't just move to anywhere/see from anywhere in Combat. 

On Positioning, it's nice that you can command your Partymembers, but I think it'd be nice if they were more intelligent, rather then strictly standing in Place unless commanded. Ideally I'd like them to have an Intelligence Stat that determines how well they dodge AoE, when they take the Decision to move somewhere, if they cancel their casts to dodge based on their health or when they use certain Abilities. It'd really add to the Atmosphere if you could get a Ranger that constantly moves a tick between Autoattacks or after special Shots to get into a better Position, or a Mage who just stands still and spams a big Fire Explosion or something. Makes each individual Run a bit more unique if you don't really know from the beginning how each Partymember acts and have to adjust for that.

While not needed, it'd add to the immersion if you and partymembers could jump. Would also be helpful in allowing more interesting level Designs. It is pretty immersive anyway tho, I wrote this after playing instead of tabing out like usual.

Music is nice and non-intrusive while assisting the Game. I'm hoping for different Soundtracks based on which Dungeon-type you're in, wether its a Crypt, a Ruin, a Cave or whatever.

I think Stats are initially too high, I'd prefer it if you'd not start with 6000 Health, but maybe 60.

I don't quite understand why you automatically descend once the Timer runs out. I like it more then the previous Death Skeletons spawning, but I'd like it even more if you would just have to decide to either find the Exit quick for a Reward like it shows in the Text, or abandon the Reward in Favor of exploring the Dungeon throughout.

Cromwell was a nice Surprise having actual Boss Mechanics. I did not expect that. Overall, while in Essence still simple, it's nice that the Bosses have different Mechanics. This could be expanded to be more movement heavy tho, but that'd require more intelligent Allies. With just the three Movement Commands I have available, dodging the giant AoE feels  a bit dumb, with forcing my Ranged Allies to walk towards me into the AoE while I walk out. 

With the longer Dungeons and more Bosses ( at least I think they're longer) it makes more Sense to start each one back at level 0 then at previous Demoday. I'm assuming Dungeons later on will potentially become longer aswell. 

Sadly there was only one Dungeontype to play in the Demo. I would've liked to keep going.

Different Healers starting with different Spells immediately feel different to play, and not having a full Choice which one and which Spells you get, makes it more interesting in each individual Run. 

I did not get enough Coins to upgrad anything in the Barracks, its really expensive compared to everything else, but seems pretty strong, so I understand that it has to be more expensive. 

Minimap is barely visible against the Dark floors, dark Fog in the Distance, consider making it light instead. Level being at the Top right, aswell as healing on overlap instead of click took some adjustments, but at least the healing Thing makes Sense I think. What would be really great, but really optional would be to allow the Player to customize their HUD to their liking.

One Time Camera rolled into a rather bad Position, no Idea what caused it, maybe trying to look straight down by accident. One Time I thought I was lvl15 but then leveled to lvl14, no Idea if that was a Bug or I misread 13 for 15 tho. 

I think the biggest Thing this Game needs at the Moment is an overall Story, with a proper Intro etc, and a Graphical Overhaul for the Environments. A more interesting looking City, less Square Dungeons, a more interesting Overworld, better Graphics for the UI Elements. You have some sliding on the Floor which should be fixed, and pretty much all casting has the same Animation, most of the Spells look rather similar on their Particle Effects aswell. I think you could go the Extra Mile on both of those to make it that bit more interesting to look at.

As for Gameplay, a bit of precast Time to immediately cast upon ending the previous one could go a long Way I think, and you need better NPC-AI I'd say. Also Party Layout in front/back Lines doesn't seem to always carry over between Stages/After Death, I had to readjust this a bit to often. 

Then ofcourse more Enemy variety instead of just different Colored and Sized Skeletons. Not necessarily on their Abilities, those seem to be varied enough, and you have a quite alright Cast of Heroes and a Ton of Spells already, but in their visual Design.

It felt rather bad when rolling a Party of 1 medium and all heavy Armor otherwise and dropping a ton of great light Armor Pieces. This was when I only had 1 Option to take for each Tank/DD/Healer so I didn't really have a Choice to optimize that. Maybe only drop Stuff that can actually be equipped by your Partymembers, or decrease the Chance for other Stuff to drop or something. But that's just a maybe, as soon as you unlock 1-2 extra Options in Group Select this becomes a non-issue I think.

At some Times I was about to think that this is too hard, but it always just ended in a really clutch Fight, or me just not understanding the Boss Mechanic correctly, not having a proper Spell for it, or not preparing with Potions etc. properly, so I'd say Balancing is pretty good overall at the Moment.

Was Fun, great Game.

Developer(+1)

thanks for the feedback Tomo.

I'm trying to get a release out for April so only some of your feedback can be actioned (some of it already is). I'm definitely going to be redoing the prologue before release. The output from the artist is way behind schedule so i've readjusted the plan to try and make sure that the game can release with some enemy variety though it's largely just going to be skeletons, ghosts and ghouls using the rigs and animations of player/party member models. Not super happy about it but I'm fairly committed to an April release so I'll just have to accept what I get.

I figured as much, can't be changed then. Maybe for a 1.1 or something.

Good Luck with your Release, even with some Graphics lacking, it stil is a really enjoyable Game, from what I've played this DD so far, easily my favorite one.

Submitted

Loved the demo, there's really only the visual/audio polish and some quality of life features that still have significant room for improvement, the core gameplay is already really good. I made it to level 17 and accidentally died with the healer that transfers HP, and it was a pleasant surprise to have all these different healers show up after clearing the tutorial.

I found shift-1/2/3 to be a tiny bit unwieldy for controlling the characters, maybe using the row of keys below WASD could be worth considering? Probably the only somewhat lacking features in the game was in commanding units, it'd be nice to be able to control units individually, or at least split them into groups like frontline/backline so I can avoid attacks aimed at my backline without interrupting what the front is doing. Individual-level micromanagement of focus and movement is probably too much to handle for me and most other players, so I'll be happy if I just get a couple of control groups. It could be useful to be able to call up specific abilities?

Visuals are definitely the weakest link of the game, environments are repetitive and dull, and while the character models are nice, they're reused a bit too much. On my first run where I didn't understand how party formation worked I ended up with 3 pointy hat characters, each with slightly different colours. Also, having more enemy variety would be nice, especially if they could better relate to their abilities, because it's hard to pick out who's what when there's a whole group of enemies bunched up together. I don't know if it's easy/feasible to do in Godot, but a more distinct outline for selections might be nice. Attack visual effects are also quite dull, especially the ones where it's just a circle with a noise texture on it. To be fair, a lot of these kind of stop mattering once the gameplay gets hectic enough that I can only look at the health bars, so it's not exactly a major deal breaker.

In general, the UI is functional, but the design and fonts used have some room for improvement. I'm personally not a fan of the fantasy font text, and the backgrounds for a lot of the panels don't look very good.

Metaprogression with the tavern is interesting for giving more choices, but simple bonus stats for everyone seems a bit bland, though I don't really have any better solution. I do think that the initial run through the earlier levels can get boring if there isn't going to be significantly more enemy and environment variety, so maybe some way to skip to a deeper level could be worth exploring.

The 5 minute timer feels a bit short, but it could just be that I'm too inexperienced with the game and its levels since I've only managed to beat the timer once. I also think there's some untapped potential in making it closer to some kind of dungeon crawler and having more non-combat/exploration-related abilities or items, but I'm not sure if the way levels work currently will support that very well.

(2 edits)

I admire your progress the most(game to game). I admit, I wasn't sold on the concept back then but it seems more interesting now.

-Should replace resusciate with revive imo. it'd help ESLs understand it better right away but maybe you like the british tint.

-Why is the spellbook icon a spear?
-Most of the heals seem very similar. If it was the start I'd tell you to only have 2-3 heal types and focus on other support spells.
-I couldn't move my party out of the way fast enough when I had an attack warning in the tutorial dungeon but I dunno if there's a binding.
-There's some lack of contrast, most things besides the characters are faded.
-I don't like all those stats on armor, I'd rather have just straight up DEF ATK and that's it. 
-Why can I move the camera if it doesn't rotate my characters? seems logical imo. otherwise just diable mouse control. It's far more annoying to have the camera point some way but when you press W you walk 45 degrees to the left.

Somehow party members seem to treat position 3 and 6 as the same one, I also tried to locate ranger at 3, same thing.

One other bug, I accidentally clicked enter a dungeon in the overworld and wanted to cancel so I pressed escape. it loaded the next area but the screen was dark except for the cursor. moving the cursor made sound like the menu was up but nothing was visible. The screenshot I took is just a black screen.

Developer

I thought i had fixed all cases of the black screen bug. i'll look into it. Frustrating that it did that.
I've changed the text to revive & i've fixed the party placement issues so thanks for reporting.
For the camera turn part, left click turns the camera and right click turns the player. I'll do some changes in the tutorial to make that clearer.

Submitted

Played a little more

-Mass dispel and circle of healing are kind of OP

-Need to be able to control on individual basic

-The duration is what?

Submitted (2 edits)

Some scattered thoughts:

Last time I made it to the ossified overlord with I think a mystic or a sunmender, I had a single target heal build so the chaos spell ended the run.
This time I went with the basic lesser+greater heal guy, picked up circle of healing, instant heal and finished the dungeon first try. 
The rest of my team were melee guys so they all fit within the circle with the precision upgrade and it was a cakewalk.
The dodge time on the arcane magistrate's abilities is really generous. It might be a good idea to err on the side of caution and then add an optional modifier to make enemies faster or tougher, it could work like the shrine in bastion.
I got baited into buying shield bash before I realized that none of my guys had the shield skill despite using the sword and shield model.
The library could use a section on the various available characters.
Being able to globally upgrade the stats of your character is lame, I get that metaprogression can be fun but when presented with a flat stat boost players might feel like they're trivializing the game by getting those upgrades or that they're supposed to grind for them if they're struggling. 
There's no reason to show outdated upgrades in the healer's spellbook, also upgrades should probably be sorted by spell rather than written down in the order you get the upgrades.
The DPS prioritize button worked great for Cromwell.
I stacked crit chance and got the extra crit upgrades for instant heal and it was hard to tell when spells critted in the chaos, I'm pretty sure that there's a sound clue but maybe the numbers could be of a different color as well, maybe a lighter green or gold? There's a lot of numbers flying around so just making them slightly bigger is not very clear.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback. I'm really happy that people are finally beating the first level. I've had to nerf it a lot as i think you're the 2nd person besides me who has beaten the demo.

I got baited into buying shield bash

I just got an idea of how i could help nudge you into knowing it can't be bought. I'll see if making a red outline and a couple other things can help prevent this in the future.

arcane magistrate's abilities is really generous

I know but it has to be this way for the first area. The game is extremely difficult for most people as there's about 15 things going on and their brain is just overwhelmed. Greater challenges will be present in the full game. I am thinking about adding a hard mode version of the game as some point but i'd probably only do it as a patch 1.1 thing if the game got sales.

The library could use a section on the various available characters

100%. I want to have various books that let's you explore the various mechanics of the game. I'll get this done for the next Demo Day.

I get that metaprogression can be fun but when presented with a flat stat boost players might feel like they're trivializing the game by getting those upgrades or that they're supposed to grind for them if they're struggling. 

It's a fair criticism and you've nailed the intent. I think a lot of people struggling will need that extra carrot on a stick as a bit of relief from a pure 'git gud' mindset. Especially if they can't quite conceptualise what they are doing wrong and why they are bad. I understand this will water down the game for people who want a purely 'git gud' experience. It's a trade off without a clear right answer but overall I think that have some meta progression is healthier for the game a whole. The costs of upgrades scale up quite quickly to hopefully discourage people from grinding and instead it just feels like a passive bonus they get while playing the game.

There's no reason to show outdated upgrades in the healer's spellbook, also upgrades should probably be sorted by spell rather than written down in the order you get the upgrades.

 Agreed.

I stacked crit chance and got the extra crit upgrades for instant heal and it was hard to tell when spells critted in the chaos, I'm pretty sure that there's a sound clue but maybe the numbers could be of a different color as well, maybe a lighter green or gold? There's a lot of numbers flying around so just making them slightly bigger is not very clear.

 I'll play around with how crits show again as I would like them to stand out.

Appreciate your feedback as always

Submitted (4 edits)

GODot chads represent!! Really cool game and a unique idea. All the fun of micromanaging healing without the dread of playing MMORPGs and interacting with their playerbase? Awesome!

Here are my thoughts and issues with it:

  • Excellent art style overall, specially the 3D characters and environment. But, I would use less simple gradients in the interface.
  • This is serious: turning the camera with left-click-drag makes it so your movement and strafing is still based on where your character is facing instead of the camera, which is very aggravating. I get using that to set a specific camera angle or check out your character, but movement should still follow where the camera is looking at.
  • You might want to consider adding a re-cast button to cast the last spell, specially with how Lesser Heal costs no Mana and can be used while moving.
  • It's better to stop the character's movement (and then cancel the spell if trying to move again) when casting spells that require being stationary instead of just making them fail if you try to do it while moving, and how some spells benefit from being cast over and over again.
  • "Maximimum" misstype on Chain Heal's description. Other levels of Chain Heal also have spelling mistakes.
  • Pressing to cast a new spell should cancel the currently cast one and start the other, or enqueue the action to be done as soon as the other is finished.
  • Q and E are way too useful to be wasted on a mostly useless action people will do with the mouse anyway. Consider changing the default keybinds.
  • Changing targets while casting a spell doesn't actually change that spell's target! Should be an option at least.
  • ... why is the spell-book icon a spell-wand?

Good luck and keep at it!

Developer(+1)

Q and E are way too useful to be wasted on a mostly useless action people will do with the mouse anyway. Consider changing the default keybinds

Honestly i'll probably do that. I wanted to give people the option for tank controls but I'm probably better off forcing people to use right mouse button to turn as the default.

I don't mesh with the controls or the UI (the damage and heal numbers in particular), but I don't like MMOs so that's probably why.

I feel like there wasn't enough actual combat. I wanted to fight more things but the level ups (which I started ignoring), and the chests and resurrections were getting in the way. This was the tutorial level. I did play a little of the second (with a druid), but didn't go far enough to comment on, other than a new set of spells with blurbs was too much for me. 

I think it could be harder too

Submitted

your game (i played since demo day 57) inspired a Healer Ball in my own prototype! hope to bounce more "healing" systems off with you in the future, once we build out more of our vertical slice!

Submitted (1 edit)

You are getting near a steam presentable demo. Nice world map

You still need:

-More variation for for skeleton, maybe bone dog

-A way to choose your priest appearance.

-Also map is not visible when against black background, it feel like blue [s] are floating in the void.

-Music: For good music See  https://www.youtube.com/@alkakrab/videos

 

Developer

I really hope to get more enemy variants in the game as well. The timeline on art has been a bit of a disaster. Will see what can be done within the next 3 months.