I love the game! Especially the tone/atmosphere + the sound design. I've also been following the DevLog series on YT. Downloaded the v1.01 and here's some of the feedback/bug stuff I found while playing for the last 2 hours or so:
Some bug/QoL stuff first
- No dodge/roll controls in the written instructions at the start
- No control to skip the cutscene with a controller
- Clotho's Thread doesn't seem to function when picked up from one of the item rooms (not shop)
- Sometimes the projectiles remain active on the ground + can still damage Samuel in the boss
- No way to view the details of your current beads + items with controller
- There was a moment when I went to crawl where two block corners met (large enough for it to be an obvious path), and I somehow clipped through and got pushed downward through the wall into another part of the map.
- For the destructible walls, some sort of voice line (or even text) hinting that death needs to break it would be helpful. It took a while before I did it by accident lol
- Not sure if intended, but the Hydraulic Clogs damage and break the destructible environment objects as well as enemies (i.e. boxes, barrels, etc)
Now some more opinion-y feedback stuff (lol obviously feel free to ignore this part)
- A way to restart the run/start a new run in the pause menu (or from holding R on keyboard like a lot of games) would be so nice
- Some sort of screen effect or heartbeat to make it more obvious when on low HP (I found myself not realizing my health was so low a number of times)
- Since the tutorial guy at the start is fairly easy to walk past (and miss some very helpful mechanics), maybe putting a door/wall in the first run to block you until you go through his dialogue would be helpful.
- Its kind of a skill issue, but I found it extremely hard to dodge death's attack once he started winding up with his "magnetism" towards Samuel (though towards the end I started to get the hang of it). Its honestly the biggest obstacle in the early game before you build up beads.
- Especially early on, I found myself climbing walls a lot, often when I didn't mean to.
- As a completionist who likes to pick up all the shinies, a way to do multiple bead trades would be cool too. I feel like since the trade is 2-1 it wouldn't make things too much easier by allowing for more trades. I also found it somewhat annoying to enter the menu on controller (I would sometimes have to re-trigger the dialogue a few times to get it to open).
- A map feature showing where you've been so far would be great, perhaps in the pause menu (found myself lost on a few occasions after exploring to find all the beads).
- I found myself wanting a simple melee combo/input buffer to make combat feel more fluid
- I wish there was a "quick throw" to just throw the held object in the direction Samuel is facing, or wanting to be able to flick the right thumbstick in a direction to throw the object. Especially with Death, the ghosts, and other enemies, I didn't like that I often felt I had to stop moving completely to properly aim + use the throw mechanic.
All-in-all I love the game, and can't wait to eventually see a finished version! <3