Thanks for playing!
Well, I was shooting for bizarre so I'll take that as a compliment.
With the intro I wanted it to be fast and to the point, in Stalewater and Ja Wizardman the opening cutscenes got way too damn long. The in-game cutscenes were heavily inspired by Pathologic 2 with just how weird and theatrical they are, and judging by your confusion it works quite well. Honestly with the modifier I thought of twisting it in a dumb way as soon as I saw the spelling. The pun was too obvious lol. (And yes the plural singular was an in-joke for SBIG)
The boss fight was intentional, early in the jam I thought of making it more involved but having the fall back plan of what it currently is. For reference, I played through all of Quake just before the jam started, so that's kinda where it came from.
My goal was to make the combat feel more engaging, since the one major sticking point of Stalewater was the combat (lack of save system was an issue, but it was an issue because of the combat). So I decided to sorta ape the style of other games I thought had fun but also wacky or janky combat. So its a mix of Quake, Doom (2016 & Eternal), Necromunda: Hired Gun, EYE: Divine Cybermancy and Cruelty Squad. You're right it would have perhaps been more focused if I cut some things down, but honestly I had so much fun making and using all those mechanics that I don't think I could not use them. The levels were also supposed to be much more involved than they are, so the extra movement was going to be necessary.
Did you encounter any specific or general frustrations with the movement/shooting? Or was it just kinda generally meh?
As you say the AI is still janky as fuck, though I think I was partially successful in making enemies distinct in their abilities. In your opinion were they as bad as Out Of Order/Ja Wizardman and do you think it was a step back from Stalewater?
I was originally planning to add glory kills, but that quickly moved to out of scope. So I settled for making kills not only restore self-esteem, but also temporarily boost it beyond max. I based it off how health or "ego" worked in the leaked 2001 Duke Nukem Forever build. I like it because it not only encourages violence, but it also makes the intense combat manageable, and it means I had to do less work balancing where health pickups are placed!
I made the tilt a bit exaggerated compared to Quake because I thought it was kinda funny, and personally I thought it added a bit more feeling into the movement. Admittedly I probably should've added a slider or toggle for it though.
I'm glad to hear the tutorial worked, I admit I was partially worried that players would either find it annoying or too much info at once. That tutorial room is actually supposed to be the main menu, sorta like Quakes level and difficulty selection level. I also got the idea from a FunBaseAlpha stream where one of the guys said that anyone making a platformer should just make their main menu a playable level. I think it worked because it introduces you to all the basic controls, and you get to try it out in a controlled setting.
Regarding the weapons one of my goals was to make the arsenal more varied and stupid than my past games.
- The revolver is as you said basic, but my thinking was it would be the most accurate weapon the player has, making it useful for shooting buttons and faraway enemies (or fast ones).
- The Plungebow isn't really a damage dealer, its more of a utility weapon. As it says in its description, if you land a headshot with it, enemies are stunned for several seconds which can allow you some breathing room, more time to shoot, or (my personal strategy) allows you to slam on them. I honestly think it would be OP if I upped its damage or fire rate.
- The Tenderizer I intentionally made inaccurate partially because I found it funny (like some Cursed Halo mod or something), but also so it wouldn't end up replacing the revolver like the chaingun did in Out Of Order (which admittedly was not helped by those weapons sharing the same ammo). Though yeah, I think maybe next update I'll playtest it with lowered spread.
- The Boomer was based on a mixture of the grenade launchers from Quake and Strife. My idea was to make it powerful, which frankly I think it was nerfed a bit too much by a change I made to how explosions work, but also bounce around a lot to make it potentially dangerous to the player. As the weapons description says its grenades should explode on impact, but if it hits something thats not damageable (buttons, enemies, the player) then it explodes 3 seconds after impact. When you say grenades exploded inconsistently do you mean it wouldn't explode when it hit enemies?
- The "other" one I really wish had more time to be used, when I mentioned in discord about spending too much time polishing something, thats what I was referring to.
Ok I think on this point the tutorial didn't work quite as intended, especially since its absent from your list of janky mechanics. You have SLAM ability which can instantly gib weaker enemies if you get a double jump in beforehand, and it has a small area of effect so you don't even have to land exactly on an enemy. This is why I included that blurb near the start of the first actual level, to get the player to try slamming onto an enemy. I attempted to reinforce the idea of slamming with it being required to complete the tutorial, and then to progress through other parts of the game. My intention was that players would use the slam on plunged enemies, or just to get some free damage on an enemy beneath them. I was actually worried that the slam would be too powerful, but I guess the game doesn't really get across how useful it can really be.
Also it should be noted, I have completed large sections of the game using just the slam as a weapon. And well since I know about its use and damage I never had to worry about ammo. But on the next update maybe I'll look into how that can be balanced once I get more feedback.
Yeah the levels are simple, far more simple than I was planning. One of my big goals this time around was actually to improve my level design, but sadly a mix of scope and running over time in crunch mode meant that large chunks of levels had to be left as "good enough". The second level was originally supposed to be about 90% vertical movement, with enemies attacking from platforms above and below. The AI I think could handle it, but I would have needed another couple days to properly model, script, and playtest it. Setting up the proper colliders for ledge grabbing, navmesh links, etc. was time consuming, especially on my first attempt. If I get a chance to make another level sometime I definitely want to add weirder architecture, and more dynamic levels with moving platforms.
Frankly I think that's why the mechanics feel so extra, they were made and playtested with more interesting levels in mind. I remember the Doom Eternal devs saying the game was boring when they implemented the new player mechanics and movement but had the same enemies and levels as Doom 2016. In my mind, thats kind of how I feel about Thesmothete, it has the features it needs to be awesome, but the levels don't allow it to truly show off. I think the levels are better than they were in Out Of Order or Stalewater, but thats a very low bar.
I'm happy the weirdness came through, I was worried in development that some of the oddities would be cut out to meet the deadline. I'm sad it didn't quite seem to break the expectations that Out Of Order and Stalewater set, but I'm happy with how much I learned and was able to do. Thesmothete is a term for lawgivers or legislators in ancient Athens, I figured it worked as a title for someone laying down the law. I only discovered the name when that anagram generator Ned shared spat out "I igor thrash thesmothetes", and that kicked off pretty much everything else.
Thanks again for playing, and the detailed feedback!