ahoy Damaskusdev
horrible news. reaching the end of level 2, i was pausing the game to jot down some notes, and inadvertently selected New Game, instinctively thinking it was Resume Game. since there's no saving as far as i can tell, i'm forced back into the first room.
disaster.
this calls for a complete replay tomorrow, but until then, here's my preliminary feedback. i'll update this by replying to this post once i have played again.
>The levels ARE good.
They're inter-connected. They have eastereggs/secrets. They have sidepaths. They have doom closets. They're all great and i see nothing wrong with them. The gimmicks (meathook, conveyor belt, floor that you fall through) are also all great. i honestly think at this point you're aware of this and are just pretending so i wont jizz more about the matter.
If anything, I think the issues some players might have is with the enemy design. There were many sections where my optimal playstyle would be sitting at the room entrance with a pistol shooting stationary goons, who would be hitstunned and couldn't react to me. I think you should take inspiration from something like Serious Sam's first levels. Your key pace-breaking enemies are the charging boys - but the ones you have are far too strong. consider introducing a weaker melee enemy and sprinkle him at the start of the demos to avoid the "sit + shoot with pistol" tactic. Personally, I didn't have this problem since I played before and thus know what do, but i can easily see someone rushing in a room and getting blasted from all sides. you need to ease them a bit
Other small issues would be important objects not having a light near them, causing them to be easily missed. this is true for the shotgun outside the bathroom, and some ammo boxes every now and then.
The ammo is very restrictive, but i managed to beat everything so far with leftover ammo. i'd slightly increase ammo so that weaker players don't have to rely on kick so much.
I only found ONE secret, and that was in level 2. I remember the old ones, but you seem to have shifted those around. I didn't find any of those.
The game is a ton of fun and very juicy. The shotgun is still a blast to use.
please remove NEW GAME from the menu options. replace that with Resume.
once i play again i'll be sure to write more, but i have nothing but praise so far for the changes. keep up the good work and be proud of your levels.
i'm gnot a gnoblin, i'm a gnome