Hey, finally had a chance to check this out. Here are my thoughts as I played:
- The idea of having the tutorial be tarot cards is great.
- Very good aesthetic so far
- When I finished the stack or tarot cards it looped. So I tried to get out of it with escape. That brought up a book which was a little confusing. I was pressing random keys until I saw I could move and get out of bed. I think you were going for something a little more interesting with the way the tutorial disappears, but it might be better to go straightforward with it, and make the tarot cards modal. Close them before you start moving around and opening menus.
- Encouraging the player to bully the broom, and restating the control for it, is great. I need to do more in-game reminders like that.
- player control and speed feels good. im glad he doesnt move too slow, thats a common problem i see in top down games.
- cool effect with the flipping pages depending on the direction you shift click. thats fun.
- dude, there are so many good ideas in this game already. the moving quill in the menu is sweet.
- The room asks me to "understand which direction is which spell", but i cant see what the other spells besides star are or do.
- oh i see, the next rooms are teaching me. i assumed by "before moving farther", it meant "before leaving this room". Might be better to say "understand how to change spells before moving farther"
- I think the NPC text that comes up could do with a better font. it feels very operating system, not very "magic fantasy". Something a bit more whimsical would fit better.
- the story got me a little confused. at the end of the tutorial, there was a room with a bag that i couldnt seem to interact with. i went back down and was back in my living room. When I went outside, a girl was hiding behind a rock talking about a monster, but I didn't see a monster. So I bombed her ass, and she ran away. There were a few empty screens, then a witch sent me to the desert. She said no one was supposed to be guarding the crystal, but I had no idea what she was talking about. Then someone on a broom crashed into me and also said something I didn't know who she was or what she was talking about. I know I sound like a damn Alzheimers patient right now but I was pretty confused.
- The staff attack looks good, but its quite unclear when I hit an enemy. I swing, and then even if there is no visual overlap, the enemy disappears a second later. The enemy hitboxes might be a tad too generous, but that's always a tough call. I'd at least put a sort of visual effect that plays instantly when you connect with a monster. Just a puff or something, between your weapon and the monster.
- please dont force me to watch the hat fall all the way to the ground when i die :D
Good work dude. It has a lot of charm, and is looks to be shaping up well.