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Mossieur Patate2 years ago

I am unsure whether this is caused by my computer or the game itself, but I experience quite low FPS; the lag makes the controls feel uneasy. In case this is not due to my material, it could maybe be a good idea to use less heavy assets and/or see how to optimize the rendering?

Alas, the QWERTY-AZERTY curse striked again!! (I am saying that, because I have recently been stumbling upon a series of games that behave like this.) I have an AZERTY keyboard, and the WASD keys were coded symbolically in the game, instead of physically. To give you an idea, my A is your Q for left, which is still manageable, but my W is your Z for up, which is not handy.

I like the castle and the music; on the other hand, the action seemed a bit confusing to me. As a suggestion, perhaps you could design an architecture that sets the two camps apart more clearly (I don’t know if this is really a good idea), and differentiate the enemies from our allies even more?

I like the final shot that lets you peek at the roof during your final moments lying down, especially focusing on a candelabrum; I was pleasantly surprised by that one! :)

As for the constraint: well, it is true that this type of game matches the requirement, but I feel this is too conventional an answer. This may be me, but I see the constraint as asking for some kind of twist.

I tend to think that having complex 3D is hard to manage, especially in a short game jam timeframe, and your account of how things went on the page for the game seems to confirm this view. If you get to hone skills out of it, that’s great. Congratulations on having your own first project! :)

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Dillster2 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!  The low FPS is probably my fault.  My computer is kind of beefy and, like you said, I used some high quality assets when I could have found something low poly.  I also don't have experience in Unreal so I'm liable to used unoptimized or otherwise expensive features or approaches without realizing it.  Finding assets, setting up animations, and all of the overhead took the entire first day so I barely got to touch code and I am more a programmer than anything else so I was ready to be done with that part.    Unfortunately, I downloaded so many assets when testing things out that my file size bloated to 1.4 GB which I only realized after the fact.  Only a fraction of them got used  If I had noticed that sooner, I would have trimmed the fat and removed assets I didn't use.

As for the keyboard mapping issue, I'll have to look into ways to avoid that in the future.  I didn't realize those keyboards were so common.

As for the design of the map, I definitely felt that I should have put the enemies upstairs and had the allies start downstairs, but then they would bottleneck on the stairs which caused some issues with hits registering.  I wanted the action to be everywhere, but could only manage to get the AI to stay in two places: upstairs and downstairs, so it wasn't set up all that well.  I had hoped the color of the health bars and armor would be enough, but there were a lot of health bars so I can see that being a problem.

Funny enough, that shot of the ceiling was actually a bug that became a feature.  I was trying to get the camera to stay in place when you died so you could watch your character fall, but I felt like the camera pointing up at the ceiling fit so I kept it (plus I was running out of time).

I definitely agree that my use of the limitation was half-hearted at best.  I'm not great at coming up with ideas.  I prefer the execution (i.e. the programming).  I still had a lot of fun with it though!

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Mossieur Patate2 years ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the account, this is interesting. :)

I didn't realize those keyboards were so common.

Well, they are common… in France, where I am from. XD I think this issue is interesting, because it makes you realize all the possible compatibility and internationalization problems you may run into. Just think of Asian keyboards, right-to-left text, assets with incorporated text to translate… I am surely forgetting a lot of them!

For the map design: I agree it’s complicated; I was not too sure my own suggestion was practicable. Actually, the health bars might help enough once you get used to it, I was just a bit confused at the beginning, but already less after the first attempt.

The camera shot: good job taking advantage of a bug, then! XD

I still had a lot of fun with it though!

That’s the most important, taking something out of it. :)

Thank you for your feedback to my own feedback! Going back to test out games from GMTK (this is opened to the public by the way, although non-submitters only have access to a random selection of games), this is going to take long, especially given my style of writing wordy constructive reviews… :o

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