Thanks for playing and the feedback, I really appreciate it. Also, thank you for mentioning the level thing, I had everyone at max level for testing and forgot to change that back, haha. That should be fixed now.
Couple of questions if you don't mind so I can make improvements:
Were there any bugs or issues you encountered with using or obtaining money or was it more that you felt it wasn't useful in general? The money is used to buy new characters at the inn, gamble with jackpot, recover hp/mood at the clinic, build the training ground, and then boost character levels with extra xp at the training ground (after it's been built obviously). I also planned to have purchasable weapons and items that could change stats but didn't have time, unfortunately. It might have been tuned too generously, though in terms of how much you earn per round. I do also feel like some of the systems aren't as effective in such a short version of this game (specifically like resting at the clinic, which would make more sense over a longer amount of time/rounds).
For the weapons, were the spatula and ketchup bottle not actually doing any damage or were they just ineffective in their design? Damage wise the spatula should do 20 per hit base damage, the cleavers are 10, and the bottle is 5.
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Honestly, I didn't realize any of those options to spend money existed--I saw the other doors in town, tried to open one and it didn't open after pressing buttons (and it wasn't obvious it was interactable in the first place), so I assumed the buildings other than the main one were just decoration. I did find the one conversation with Frankie, but other than that it didn't seem like I could do anything in town other than talk to people.
Oh, so everyone was max level in the version I played? That would explain why I didn't have any problems completing it without spending money (my characters didn't seem to take much damage in the prep phase, and I started with more than enough characters to cover all six slots at once). Level 5 being max level also didn't seem blatantly obvious, between DSD being L99 (obviously none of my characters would get there, but a little advancement wasn't implausible) and each of the bonuses in the boss battle only being ~one bar.
The bottle seemed like it was doing something, but it wasn't obvious what made it better (maybe it was ranged?). The spatula didn't look like it was doing anything--I'm assuming it was a slow attack compared to the fast attack of the cleavers, but it wasn't practical to use since you're dodging all the attacks (and I don't like slow melee attacks in general). I think what made the cleavers the best is that they had an actual attack animation that was responsive--the bottle didn't really.
I wonder if the doors thing was a bug. I haven't had that in my playtesting but I'll definitely keep an eye out for it, so thanks for pointing it out. It should be 'E' or left face button (which will light up on the bottom of the screen when you can interact with something). Could be I need to make the interaction box on the doors larger.
For levels my original idea was to have the max be 20 but I lowered it to 5 since it's only two rounds to keep it at 30 minutes or less (Schippie is 99 because he's just too powerful, haha!).
Yeah I tried to have it so the spatula was slower and more power and the cleavers were more nimble. Maybe I should make the damage disparity bigger or just rethink the spatula attack pattern. The bottle is meant to be a ranged weapon so I made the damage the lowest since it's easier to sit back at a distance with it.
I suppose a big part of it is also the boss itself, I was hoping to have different phases that favored each of the weapons (so like one is power, one is speed, and one is range focused), but didn't really have time. So I can see where they aren't all as effective as they should be currently.
Thanks again for taking the time to play it and give feedback, it's already helped a lot.
No problem--at the very least I helped correct an obvious oversight :)
I think part of my interaction confusion is that the bottom of the screen isn't an obvious place to look--I think I remember seeing that once on a character or something, but wasn't looking for it when I interacted with a door. It might just be user error combined with a lack of need for things--good to know there aren't a ton of systems that exist but don't do anything ;)