Post by iceninexp in Gauntlet (Beta) comments

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Couple of things now that a tutorial has been added.

Actually starting the tutorial isn't intuitive. I have to select the menu item with WASD and the down arrow to select it. My first impulse is to use the arrow keys... and that just starts the game.

Because I was trying to use the arrow keys to select I hit the right arrow. This gave me a screen that said "Thank You for Playing" and the page has to be reloaded. Hitting the right arrow on any selected entry on the main menu takes you to that screen.

The crafting tutorial level is possible to soft lock. I think I upgraded an item (maybe the staff) and am unable to make all the armor. I auto collected the staff and had the ability to upgrade it, I think with a shard.

The rest of the tutorial was pretty smooth. There were a couple of the levels where I had a hard time actually seeing the tutorial objectives. I think if I was in full screen mode it wouldn't have been an issue.

Adding another tutorial level covering buttons would be useful because you get done with the tutorial and start the game and you are stuck with nothing to do until you figure out you can click the buttons on the wall. Buttons could even go in the first tutorial room.

The tutorial definitely helped, so a very worthwhile addition.

So I then played. The controls started to make sense although they do take some getting used to but I can see the reasoning for picking the control scheme you decided to use.

Some levels due to the random generation seemed unwinnable. If the first room has nothing but the higher tier enemies I never managed to progress, even when backing out of them. I get you can preview the room before entering but a first encounter and not knowing some of the enemies are powerful gives a first impression that the game is going to be extremely hard/frustrating.

It would be nice if hard enemies all spawned at least 2 rooms away from the starting room.

The timer I had no idea about and took me by surprise. I was happily crafting and upgrading and exploring and then suddenly I was against a boss and would have to start over again. I did not do that as I get to keep no equipment.

A map would be a great addition.

There a lot of potential here, so keep improving! I don't usually like crafting games as they are too grindy but this one isn't too bad.

TheRetroPaul2 years ago

First of all, thanks a lot for trying out the tutorial and for giving the game another shot like you said! Secondly thank you so much for your amazing feedback!

Unintuitive menu: I was a bit worried that people might have a hard time even navigating the menu, but your example of using the down arrow in order to get to the tutorial, only to start the game just sealed the deal. I've decided to stop messing with the sanctity of the arrow keys and just use I/J/K/L to perform actions. The arrow keys are now an alternative movement/menu navigation option. There are now overlays on the action buttons showing what key to press for each buttons as well.

Tutorial: Thanks for spotting that soft lock, the player now starts with enough arcane shards to craft every they can and still complete the crafting tutorial. I've also made all tutorial rooms smaller so that objective text can be seen more easily.

Door Buttons: My hope was that after completing the tutorial, a player would start the game and investigate the only thing they hadn't yet seen before. Then hopefully they would recognize the door button as something they could interact with after walking up to it. But if more people seem to still be confused as to using the door buttons, it won't be a huge deal to add another tutorial for it.

High tier enemies next to starting room: Thing is, high tier enemies can only spawn two rooms away from the center of the dungeon, it's just that the center of the dungeon is actually the boss room, not the starting room. So try finding the boss room first, then exploring its surrounding rooms to find a broken weapon. Don't forget that all damage (except for special attacks) can be negated by using the correct protection spell.

Timer: The timer now flashes red on every minute. I also plan to make it beep in some way but I'm just waiting until after I add the music.

Once again thanks so much for your feedback!

iceninexp2 years ago

No problem on the feedback :)

I/J/K/L may work, although sometimes it an be a little cramped. What about also offering arrow keys and Z/X/C/V?

The timer... I just didn't know it had any purpose until suddenly there was a boss fight. I am still a little confused. Does that mean the game will always end after 10 minutes?

itch.io

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