itch.io

Hey Greg! Love the updated visuals on this game and they make me want to keep playing it based on that alone (good art magnet!)

I noticed what seem to be some bugs that weren't around the first time: 

• there's that browser crash that seems to be going around
• the haggle prices going to 0 and staying at 0
• some slight clipping from the character sprite into the card shop in the playground
• I also noticed that I was getting maybe two people at most looking for cards and then closing shop super early. And this went on for days at a time. And the randomization of who came to the shop seems to have been the same, mostly just reruns of Baseball Kid and Game Kid.

I got to day 9 without barely being able to sell many cards and thought that was really strange.

I like that we've got a bargain bin now to offload some of the extra cards we have. I wonder if the sale rate could be some multiplier of the rarity, something along the lines of $1 for common, $2 for uncommon, $3+ based on rarity.

Looking forward to more updates on this game! Great job!

Finally got around to trying this!

I enjoyed playing the game, and the type of gameplay here has me trying "one last time" each time I die, so that's a good sign; You've got the player engaged enough that they want to keep trying even when they fail! I like the variety of weapons and how combat can get a bit frenetic. The art style and aesthetic are interesting. I like that I can level up my character and pursue an upgrade path of sorts.

Now, combat feels a bit janky, and it's a bit frustrating to be hit, stun-locked, and fail trying to escape the group of enemies ganging up on you from both directions. It also seems like leveling up could happen more often, or maybe at the end of each level, that might help with the power curve so later game levels aren't as difficult or frustrating to play through. I got to game level 9 and basically couldn't get past it as the enemies were too many, too strong, and I couldn't deal enough damage.

Leveling up certain weapon types can work against you in the long run because you aren't assured what weapons you get in later levels. So you'll level up axes, and maybe get them just a few levels, so you level up swords or daggers, but find yourself with a spear and bow. Ok, so let's level up those, but I find then I have another different weapon, so I have to raise the bar on these other weapons. Because leveling is so sparse, it's hard to get enough power in your weapons to do enough or at least fair damage to enemies, who seem to get stronger and rush you in greater numbers as the game moves on.

I found that the Resurrect button doesn't work as the game still just goes to restart. It's also hard to hit P, as it's too far away from the other buttons the player has to press most often. I wish there was something like a timer as well, there's barely enough time to hit Resurrect before the Restart menu comes up.

All in all, I enjoyed the game despite the frustrating parts and wanted to keep playing. I probably put in about 30 minutes! I also got some sort of Age of Empires vibe to the game, do with that what you will. I think it was the sketchy, narrative sections and clicking the buttons to proceed to the next page - which by the way, the click to proceed button could be made a bit more apparent.

Great job on this game and can't wait to see what else you do with it!

Yeah, the run is definitely a toggle right now, activated with the left analog stick press once, or with left or right shift on the Keyboard. You press it and move in the direction you want, and as long as you keep moving, you'll keep running until you stop.

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the game and found the mood and atmosphere engaging!

Regarding movement, were you playing on gamepad or KB+Mouse? I'll see how I can improve things as I iterate.

Hey, thanks for playing and I'm glad the game drew you in even more!

Yes, there's some weird itch-Unity issue going on. When you go to hit fullscreen, there's two fullscreen buttons now, the grey/white button and then the blue button beneath. If you hit the blue one, then the screen scales fully to the window size. Haven't figured out why that's happening yet.

Regarding expanding the game, yup, ammo and more weapon types are on the horizon! I added a cooldown to the handgun too, that was nice and it made things a lot more interesting. The zombies are slow and lumbering, and take a few hits to take down, but they blend in well with the background, so you gotta watch your positioning as you shoot them and even break away and create some distance. Soon I'll add the ability for them to lunge at you, that's gonna making things even more interesting!

Regarding movement speed, did you feel that even the running was slow?

Running, Aiming, and Shooting are now active with Keyboard + Mouse. Give the game a spin again!

To Run, press the Left Stick once and just point in the direction you want to go. No way to run with keyboard (yet), that's coming in the next update.

Glad you liked the game! Come back soon for new updates to the game!

Thanks for playing! Glad to hear you liked it. I plan on expanding it for round 2 of the bootcamp, so stay tuned!

Hey there, thanks a lot for playing and I'm glad you really liked the game! That's a lot of good feedback too. Most of it I was in the midst of implementing and hadn't been able to upload a new build until now.

Points #1 - 4, and 7 should be taken care of now.

In regards to point #1, if you don't have a gamepad connected the game defaults to keyboard and mouse, and registers the first selectable button available, so that's why the first option stays red because you can select through the available options with WASD or arrow keys. If you click anywhere with the mouse, you'll see that the option in red loses focus and will highlight when you go over it.

For points #5 and #6, these are planned for a future iteration. I plan on continuing to make improvements on the game and grow the gameplay opportunities in it, as well as gameplay length. Stay tuned for this!

Meanwhile, try giving the game another spin with this new build!

With the store, I think that improving its look over time with different materials would be cool, it shows the progress you as the player have made over time as you become a more savvy card seller. The look would go from a rinky dinky scrap wood stall to something looking like a really nice kiosk or something along those lines.

You could even have stages of progress, where maybe paying the loan shark back is like a chapter 1 end, and then in the interim between chapters, you could upgrade your stall with new materials, items, and details.

Along those lines, what if you could "level up" after a certain time, and upon level up, you could choose a new upgrade that helps influence your haggle price, update your stall to "charm" the kids on the playground to offer better deals (or intimidate the bully, etc), or provide some other benefit. Now, this might be stretching your basic mechanics or gameplay too far, but I hope it's good food for thought!

Considering some of the hiccups you hit during the bootcamp and things you had to deal with, I applaud your commitment to continue and submit something. It's not easy.

What I played I enjoyed, and I think that the game's punchiness/juice could be significantly expanded in a future iteration. Looking forward to where you take this next!

Congratulations again on getting this in!

There's a lot of meat to this game and it's easy to really sink time into this one. I also love the business sim part of it. Kudos for giving it an Earthbound-like vibe, down to getting in Apple and Orange kid lol! Hit a crash with my browser (Edge browser, HMTL issue), but I definitely want to play this one again.

Here are my thoughts on places of improvement:

- Allow resell of cards. You might have too many of a type and folks don't seem to be interested in. Might require some balancing overall, but it would be nice to walk over to Neon and be able to resell at a lower price some of your extra crud.

- Allow the option to offer up a different card to a customer if you don't have what they want.

- Be able to skip dialog with another button or something rather than trying to click.

- I really loved the opening cinematic and the art overall, there's some charm to it and I think it can be polished without destroying the style. I'd try to bring the AI card art to the same level. 

- Be able to upgrade your store would be neat!

- We gotta find a way to deal with this bully, dude was cramping my style lol

- I like how the Haggle could go either way, so it's a risk. Could use some better feedback when you select it though.

- I agree with what someone mentioned below, it would be nice to add some more life to the playground by being able to see some of the other characters just hanging around.

- Hit a bug where I closed out a dialog too quickly while the dialog sound was still playing and it kept on going for a while but eventually stopped.

Great job on this game, was a lot of fun!

Hmm, I think it's worth experimenting with both perhaps and see what feels best, or see what folks respond to if you recorded both styles maybe. I would explore something snappier, but that's a personal preference.

Thanks for playing, glad to hear you liked it!

You've really hit the ground running with this game while learning a new engine, I want to congratulate you because you've made a game that is super fun, charming, has tight gameplay, and high replay value! Curious to see where you can take this game!

Gave this a few playthroughs and it's definitely a game that's easy to pick up and stick with as it's pretty fun and feels juicy already. Keep on ironing out the rough edges and I think you'll have something here.

Because of how the game is and its gameplay, I'm wondering if it should be a bit faster, like Doom 2016. There's something about the concept in that when you made the switch from 2D to 3D, you lost something in translation but gained something else. One issue I find is that the VFX can block your view for too long - like when you launch the blade into an enemy and they die and all the effects come together from the blade and the death animation. If it was snappier, it would feel better.

In any case, I love what you've got going on here and can't wait to see where else you take it!

Digging this game and the lighthearted feel it has. The music is spot on and is helpful to get the player in a flow state where they're stealthing around, picking or dropping objects, and just exploring the game area. Aside from the controls breaking a bit that flow state, I think you've got something on your hands here and nailed your goal in the Adventurer track: the game is fun and well polished.

I won't beat around the bush too much with the controls since everyone has already said something. I did find two other issues. 1) Dropping items doesn't seem to always work, I have to hit the numbered keys multiple times until the item actually drops because a single press doesn't work. 2) I got stuck on the wooden platform leading into the castle, around the side. I seemed to have fallen into a hole that I couldn't get out of. That stopped my playthrough then after spending some time getting comfortable with the game's controls and rules.

Looking forward to further updates on this project! Do you plan on adding gamepad support? That would be amazing!

If using keyboard and mouse, hitting spacebar or enter will work.

So in the starting area, there are three enemies. Two who move horizontally and one who moves vertically. There are two ways to get past the enemy moving vertically. Because I didn't think people would catch on during the initial builds, also because it might be too difficult, I ended up adding a walk-around to make it easier and more apparent where to go. Some player feedback clued me in on that.

However, for more daring folks, the initial way is still there.

Zombies have had their colliders updated, which should make it so you can get past them now a bit easier. You can also see them in the dark by way of their glowing eyes.

I added a new build with some more QoL improvements, including centering the pivot on the cursor when using the mouse, and allowing gamepad functionality right from the start.

Oh, so we've got a wise guy over here, eh? You say you beat the game with the flashlight off? Ok. Ok. Next build I'll have a surprise for you :D.

Thanks for playing! I just rolled out another build with some more QoL elements, but nothing major since your last playthrough. Regarding difficulty, I'll certainly be adding something for folks of different skill levels! Also, I tend to play games like these with a gamepad, so almost always I try to get gamepad functionality working ASAP, glad you enjoyed that!

One question I have is how did you get past the one enemy who moves up and down? There are two ways to get past, so I wonder which way you solved it. They technically can't "see" you, since they don't chase you, but they pick up speed if you're close. With that said, as long as you stay out of there way, a player will be fine. Can't say that about the next group of enemies though...

Thanks for playing!

Currently working on a fix for the hardware cursor so the pivot is centered. It's proving tricky. Also, getting gamepad responsiveness for the menu is on my to-do list for sure!

Difficulty settings is something I have been considering as well, so I may implement it in a future build!

Thanks for playing, and glad you like it! Sorry to hear though you got stuck at the beginning.

The colliders need a bit more optimization. Other than that, the zombies pick up speed when you are in their range since they sense you. Ideally wait till they are out of view, and you will be able to move past them. Yes, they also move at the same frame rate as everything else, with that said, I don't have the player or zombies delta timed, so it could be the game runs a bit faster on your machine.

I'll let you know when I drop the next update!

Congrats on getting this out there, I bet it wasn't easy!

This is probably one of the most out there games submitted so far, and I actually like how zany and unique it feels. I see there's a lose condition where everyone loses their HP, but I haven't come across a win condition yet. The characters' stats change depending on some of the choices I make, but I've found myself getting their HP to 100 for a while and I just keep making choices but there's never a win scenario, I don't even know how to win. So there's a state that's missing clarity.

Speaking of stats, I'm intrigued by them, and although I don't know how it works exactly, I noticed that some of the more crazy events will push a character to the breaking point, but also make them more inquisitive and determined. I also noticed that as I start making choices, the card titles start getting bigger, and if I continually choose the events with the larger titles, I can ensure that the NPCs will live by healing and raising their HP to 100. After that, I'm at a loss on what to do.

I've reached a point where I have a party of three NPCs and just keep choosing the cards with the larger titles, and I just keep going and going with no end in sight or major change of state. Like, it's just hard to understand what the progression is.

All in all, this is a very interesting and intriguing experiment. I understand you won't continue with this project, but you've definitely struck upon something here!

Great job on completing this!

This game is full of style and character, I really dig it! Short but sweet, and has a strong arcade-feel. I can see this being ported to an arcade cabinet and folks lining up to play it. It's loud, the visuals are great in terms of expression, and it's got that nice, open city plan to roam around getting items and trying to avoid fangirls and traffic.

Don't know about the dangly bit, might have to leave him in undies. But it's pretty funny either way.

Would be curious to see where this game could go if expanded upon and polished. Well done!

Hey there, I've uploaded a new build with fixed mouse controls. Feel free to try it again!

I've adjusted the mouse settings and it works well now. Feel free to try the game again!

Regarding the graphics, the game is intentionally pixel art and lo-fi, but can still be improved and I'll be doing that over time.

Also, you can lower the volume of the SFX in the options menu, but for my next build, I'll see to lowering the drip effect less than the default so it's not too problematic.

Again, thanks for playing!

Thanks for the response!

Ya know, I noticed I could do a double-jump, but as I kept trying to jump back up, I couldn't get past two consecutive jumps. I'll try again later!

Thanks for taking the time to play my game!

I will take into consideration your feedback! And controls could definitely be better with regards to mouse control. Glad the beginning resonated with you however!

Thanks for taking the time to play!

Mouse definitely still needs some work! I hope to get that working better in a future update. Have you tried playing with a gamepad?

Great job on finishing the game self-guided for the bootcamp!

I dig the game and find interesting all the little "levers" I can pull (basically buttons) and see what new info I can get out of each character. So, there's a lot of fun in there and a dynamic of surprise that you could home in on and expand with content if you decide to pursue this game long term. The base is strong, just needs more polish.

You had mentioned that art wasn't your strong suit in the Discord, so I won't judge this too strongly. You assembled a nice collection of work that makes this fit into a nice aesthetic. The resolution of some of the images is a little off, but nothing that can't be tightened up messing with the sprite settings in Unity.

Overall this was fun and I went through it twice! I noticed that after the day is over, I was expecting to go to day two, but nothing took me there, and the little "power" icon on the top left of the screen does not work. So I had to just refresh the browser.

Congrats again!

Now here's a game that rewards persistence and gets more fun as time goes on. I'm really impressed with how fun polished, and engaging the game is. At first I had a bit trouble figuring it out, but then once I got the hang of it, the game just got more and more enjoyable. I like how the challenge level scales the longer you play as each level gets a bit more difficult. The music and sound effects are a nice touch as well.

There was an issue with the browser and trying to maximize the screen, so I had to just find the optimal amount of screen I could play on and try my best.

Superb work on this!

Congratulations on your submission!

I'd like to preface my comment with the game runs fairly slow on my computer, even with an updated driver. I guess that's just the nature of things since I'm on an old Asus ROG from 2015.

I tried playing for a while, but I got stuck in the first area you are able to enter after getting the first gem. There seems to be lava or some sort of hazard, and I managed to get two gems, one over the first hazard, and then the second at the bottom of the drop. However, I couldn't find any apparent way back up. So, the game basically just soft locks on me there.

One piece of feedback I'd give is that the rotation of the camera seems very slow (a different slowness compared to the game running slow), so it's hard to gauge where one is in relation to the game area. I'd love it if I could more quickly move the camera to inspect my surroundings. Also, the auto-save special effects can be distracting and caused me to unwittingly move into a hazard and die several times since I couldn't see where I was going. I will say that the effects may just be problematic because of the game running slowly on my PC.

Other than that, I'm still curious about this game and hope that some time I can jump back in. Great job on finishing it for the bootcamp, especially with doing your own 3D models!

Congrats on getting a game completed!

Overall I thought the game was enjoyable, and it speaks to the strength of the Survivorlike formula that with just a few base elements you've got a fun game that can be expanded on pretty easily!

Like others, I had to download the Windows build as I could not get the browser version to maximize.

Some extra polish items could take this game even further. Mainly have the character actually aim while shooting as currently the character seems to be glitching/stuttering - the gunhand just keeps shaking.

One thing I did notice that kept taking me out of the enjoyment was the level up/next level progression. It is so abrupt, with little fanfare that leads into it, and all enemies just magically disappearing that I got a bit frustrated. I think this is a part that can be "juiced up" to make it more enjoyable and ease the player into the next round.

Other than that great job!

This feels like a good mix of influences. It makes me think of Dark Souls, a roguelite, and dungeon crawling. I find it very enticing to keep playing to get to the top of the tower, but also find the difficulty keeps me trying to figure out the best play.

Resources seem scarce and their appearance is spread out enough that it seems unbalanced. After a certain amount of time playing, I find that I get to this point where I can no longer survive encounters because the ability to increase my stats or heal myself is too little to offset the amount of damage or drain the enemies can inflict. It basically becomes a damage race that gets skewed in favor of the enemies over time. 

In Dark Souls, you can account for the difficulty of bosses and enemies by way of skill, using items at the right time, and getting stronger and getting better equipment over time. Here, skill isn't as much an issue because of the turn-based nature of the game, so it comes down to just attacking and knowing when to use the right magic type against the right enemy. Getting more powerful seems to come down to encounters, and the randomisation needs some more work because sometimes you'll get the same encounter 2 to 3 times on the same floor. And with the lack of gold, it's hard to get anything. I do have to choose wisely what I get because of the low gold amount.

I find I want to run across the hall but the movement seems limited to nodes or a grid, is there a way to keep the player moving seamlessly but still taking the grid into account?

The game is pretty great overall, and I enjoyed playing it so much that I want to keep playing. Great world building as well! So great job!!! Some more polish, in terms of effects when attacking, hitting, using magic - like screenshake perhaps, screen flashes, etc - could go a long way of pushing the game even more, as well as more art polish. And then playing some more with the randomisation, and maybe giving the player more gold, could help equip the player better to handle the difficulties of the tower.

Thanks for playing! 

By far the gamepad is the defacto way to play. Still working on getting the mouse to function properly. Mouse controls work perfectly now!

Glad you enjoyed the game, thanks for playing!

 That's motivating to hear that you think it has commercial potential because I've been considering it. Faith is another 2D top-down horror game that has three games and I believe has done well for itself. So there's definitely an audience. I'll be figuring out how to take advantage of my angle and surface with Dead Rubicon and see where I can take it.

Getting that mouse to work properly has been a real piece of work. And with multiple monitors, I find that the mouse cursor doesn't constrain to the game window, I need to look into that. I heard it may be a WebGL issue. Your suggestion of constraining it horizontally so that it rotates by moving left or right is a nice compromise I'll look into. Having a cursor as well is a good idea, and someone else has recommended it too!

Regarding the art and colliders, I'll be putting in the work to better distinguish them for better traversal. Also looking forward to sprucing up the art some more.

Fixed the bugs with the intro text which were a result of multiple calls to the GameManager from the enemy collider once you get caught. Also, the mouse will be much more responsive if you happen to use Keyboard + Mouse.

Thanks for playing!

I've noticed that bug about the intro text as well, I'll need to figure that one out!