Really promising start, I hope to see this officially released someday. Obviously still early development on this, but some thoughts on it so far:
- I think there should be more invincibility frames when you get hit. Its really easy to get hit several times before you can react and get away.
- I'd recommend juicing the moment when you take damage some more. Some options to consider would be slowing time down, screen zoom, screen shake, particles, exaggerated animation, and some crunchier sound effects
- Something about stamina doesn't quite feel right to me... I was originally going to just say it needs to regen faster or start regen-ing faster but I'm not 100% sure that's the solution. Maybe start with a slow regen that ramps up over time until full or you input a move.
I also think there should be something more when stamina is depleted. A "tired" animation, sound effect, or some sort change in the player sprite - something to go along with the depleted stamina bar that's hard to not notice and tells the player they are in a vulnerable state now. This might be enough to fix that "off" feeling I have with the stamina regeneration, but I'm not sure. - the stunning mechanic could be clearer in some ways - when introduced, it seemed like stunning would happen whenever you kicked after a 3 hit combo. Saying something like "kick when you see a star to stun" would probably convey the mechanic better. Also it's not clear when the window for pulling off a stun closes.
- Some notes on the bird boss's moveset:
- The spin slash thing he does needs more/ more noticeable anticipation in some way (mostly the stand-alone version, not the version following the ground pound attack). It covers a big area, and I rarely noticed the start up because I was focused on other things on the screen, so it felt like that move could be a cheap hit sometimes.
- When the boss retrieves its feathers, it can be hard to tell which ones are being retrieved. Something like drawing a feather's trajectory on screen a moment before it is retrieved could be an effective way to show where the danger zones are about to be.
- If this is really going to be the first fight of the game, I'd probably tone down the difficulty a bit. Difficult is good, but it might be a hard sell if people keep getting stuck in the tutorial.
- More sound effects! Use sound more to help the player anticipate danger and sell impact. You have a great start with some moves, but others come out completely silent.