itch.io

First, your game has high ludo energy. It's very immersive. I like the feeling of being small and seeing my objectives from very far away. The level design is excellent. Is your game going to be purely linear? It feels ripe for a metroid-esque or DS1 interconnected map.

Here's my list of things that I noticed as I played the game:

The protagonist looks great. Its anthro design with thick thighs is reminiscent of sybil from pseudoregalia.

The tutorial text goes by a bit too fast. You need to have a way to reread past sections. Or at least a button prompt before the next dialogue line appears.

I found one of your easter eggs lol.

The idle animation is amazing.

I'd like checkpoints to save the equipment I had at the time I reached them.

The rappel section and everything after it needs to be a bit more forgiving.

It would be nice to a have a way to test your equipment safely in the level design before committing to a potentially deadly jump.

If you throw a spear from too close at the green blocks, it doesn't work.

One of the checkpoints is bugged. It was respawning me in mid air, under a platform. There was no way to stop falling to my death every time. It's the first checkpoint you encounter after you leap back to the giant block you threw your spear at earlier.

My run ended here. I had a lot of fun. I was totally immersed. I will follow your game's development closely.

Nice game! The combat feels satisfying and I like most of the animations. The music is good.

Nitpicks:

• The gameplay mechanics are introduced too fast, I didn't have time to get used to them before moving on to learning a new one.
• The font needs a lot of work. The "n" looks like an "h". You need to adjust the kerning.
• The UI takes too much space. Especially when points pop up.
• The sprites need some work. Which sprites have outlines and which ones don't seems arbitrary. The color usage looks all over the place. A more limited color palette could help.
• The menu transitions are at a different pixel scale than the rest of the game, it looks off.
• I had issues with the audio muting itself.

I would have liked to play more levels. Is there only one besides the boss rush? Anyway, I hope you keep working on your project. I had fun.

Didnt notice that, still advise you to make more descriptive and reactive icons so you can see whats going on without clicking on every unit

You're completely right. There's an icon that should display on the right of the label when a unit is out of ammo. I'll have to check if it's bugged or if its conditions are hard to achieve. (running out of all types of ammo, instead of 1).

But the tank is just pz3 and I dont know why to use it in something historically non-accurate instead of charismatic things like early french tanks for example

Yeah I know the kangaroo looks a little too much like the pz3. My goal is to have original designs. Newer vehicles should fit that criteria better.

Same goes with the artillery, you just slapped a box thing in the middle of pz3

Reuse of other vehicles' chassis is very common IRL. For example the german guepard SPAAG has the same hull as the leopard 1.

Thanks for the feedback!

Amazing art in the main menu, did you draw it yourself?

No it's by Hirotonfa.

Can you add the main commands as buttons somewhere in ui

Yeah I'll do that eventually.

It feels like the motor sfx is bugged

It is

Units randomly stop shooting or even stop completely, at the same time I suddenly got control over enemy unit so maybe this is related

Units can run out of ammo. Did you press tab by mistake? In debug mode you can control enemy units.

Also are your units models final or wip?

They're final-ish. The textures and mesh might receive improvements but their overall design won't change.

That's fascinating, thanks for explanation.

Thanks for the feedback! It's true that there's a lot of clutter. I might make the labels smaller next time. Eventually I'll also add platoons (groups of units under the same label). That will help too.

Interesting! I have another question, are the in-game vehicles (such as the attack chopper) 2D sprites or actual 3D models?

Nice progress! I love your pixel art.

I was wondering something. In the image you featured in your patchnotes below, how did you draw the mech? Good perspective knowledge only, or do you have a 3D model for reference?

The gameplay is excellent. I like the low-detail environments. It makes the game very readable. The sandbox approach to missions is fun as well.

If I had one criticism, it would be that the futuristic elements like the shield regen and railgun don't mesh aesthetically with the ww2-era tanks.

I played 30 more minutes. I'd love to have a velocity vector symbol on the cockpit's HUD to help me shoot at weird angles and a zoom button for long range shots.

I enjoy the base mechanics a lot. I can't wait for new content.

Thanks for playing!

It was a bit odd to see enemies just pop in; will there be e a fog of war in the future?

No. The game series I'm inspired by (wargame) doesn't do it, so it's not going to be in this game either.

Is there a "mass embark" button? Pressing X on a group of transports disembarks all troops but for embarking it seems like you have to do it one by one.

No, but I'm planning on adding this feature.

Thank you for the feedback! I'll adjust the game accordingly in a post-DD patch.

Thank you for the feedback! It's possible the LoS is bugged in this example, but I think the infantry unit may be non-visible because of the forest. I'll have to explain this mechanic carefully in the eventual tutorial.

It's cool to see you updating your game! It's getting better and better. It's my first time playing since DD57. My thoughts are similar to back then. It's good that the controls are more intuitive, but I miss some of its aspects in DD56 like being able to aim the cannons without changing the direction you're heading.

Additionally, please let us activate more weapons at the same time. Especially the light cannons.

I tried to play with fellow agdg devs but we couldn't connect to each other's lobbies. The direct connect button didn't work either.

I love your game's aesthetics. Is making a sled in the first death spikes level the intended solution?

Interesting rts, reminds me of the wargame series. All the mechanics like panic and ammo types are really cool, looking forward to playing this again soon!

Thank you! The wargame similarities are not a coincidence, it's my main inspiration. You could say I'm doing a "wargame-like".

I don't think that right click for re-embarking infantry is listed on the controls. minor bug , while I'm attacking with Q or with T, if I click outside of the map, this glitches out the aim maybe a balance thing but I can blob a lot of tanks by assigning them to follow one unit such as a recon and destroy anything with a super volley, without worrying about formations.

Feedback noted, I appreciate it.

- This game is a lot of fun. I love the bombs, they're very satisfying to use.

- You need to add a next level button and some way to move the camera.

- It's hard to place units on top of and behind walls.

- You should add some flowers to contrast with the green. Too much grass.

- Navigating the menu is a bit annoying. There's enough room to display all the buttons at once.

Nice game!

About the player handling: The movement speed feels too slow. I'd say increase the move speed by 50% and the space between the obstacles too to compensate. I don't like that the character turns by itself unless the track is tilted.

Maybe you could add a reward for doing tricks like a speed boost.

The camera feels fine.

The visual style looks plain. I'm surprised you asked about this since most assets look like placeholders.

I hope keep posting progress, I like this kind of game!

Thanks! Main menu is going to be patched in quite soon.

Thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing!

Nice game! I wish I could pick an upgrade by using the keyboard since I'm not using the mouse otherwise. That would be a nice quality of life improvement.

the portraits were hand drawn by my mother.

Wow really? Does she work in the anime industry?

I'm not an artist myself, so different assets clashing with each other is kind of unavoidable. while i'm getting better with blender, i'm nowhere close to having a consistent art style all the way through.

Nice game! I enjoyed 2-tapping the mechs with the railgun + rocket launcher combo. The anime drawings are really well done. Did you do them yourself? 

If I were you I'd work on the game's presentation, all the assets clash with each other. I'm rooting for you and I hope you keep making progress.

Nice game! Here's my feedback.

The presentation is top-tier. The game is very fun but super hard after the first level.

The ball appears too small for the character after dying. 

The game respawned me under the level twice after dying from the robot in the first level.

I think at some point the green collectibles became invisible.

Sometimes I made the camera turn 180 degrees with one button press? I'm not sure if that's a bug or I did something wrong.

Nice game! Here's my feedback:

• I like the visuals
• It would be nice to be able to drive down from the bridges after a while. They feel very railroady.
• The HUD is distracting, it takes too much space.

Looking forward to see you post progress.

How to play

Read the mission briefing at the beginning.

The most important commands players are unlikely to know are "Attack" (Q, the left click), "Fast Move" (F, then left click). "Fast Move" lets vehicles use the road network.

Your trucks are carrying infantry. Select them and do "Disembark" (X) before conducting an assault.

Terrain elevation and forests will block line of sight! Use your line of sight tool to help you (C). (It's crude right now, planning on improving it). 

Green units are friendly.

Thanks for playing!

100% needs control group binds.

Yep, it's going to be a priority.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the tanks to change from AP to HE. I wonder if that's why they didn't feel very impactful vs infantry.

They change ammo type automatically based on the target. I'm going to add the option to lock certain ammo types and switch manually too.

Both and also having the option to aim without steering by default.

I’d need to sit down with it for a few hours to get used to the controls but this is looking really good, like WW2: Total War.

Thanks!

There was one part where I was ambitiously trying to have two infantry squads hold still and apply suppressing fire while two others advanced but it seems their range was too short to pull it off, even though the LOS makes it seem like it should work from much further? I tried pressing T and then clicking to have troops fire on a position from a distance but it didn’t seem to work.

Applying suppression to maneuver is a valid strategy, but at the moment it's difficult to pull off due to artillery and planes not being present. Also infantry weapons can't do the "fire position" command. The reason rifle range is so short is because it's balanced versus tank cannon range and ultimately the size of the map. I'd like to make maps much bigger but there's several technical and performance restrictions. I'll solve them eventually.

Definitely need numkey groupings, especially if you can assign them during the briefing section and especially if they can be assigned independently. I think a lot of my panicked micro problems could be fixed with that.

Several people have called for this as well, I'll make it a priority so it's in for the next demo day.

I’d prefer just having Q+E be rotation keys instead of needing to hold down a modifier. The F1 readout also shows space opening the pause menu, this didn’t work for me but having it be another way to freeze would be great.

I'll add rebindable keys eventually. The current scheme is inspired by the wargame series, which is this game's main inspiration.

Unit barks are sorely needed

This is being worked on. If you have suggestions for lines there's a form available:

https://forms.gle/qAwsmYJD8AK9npAa7 

I think the first mission is a bit overwhelming for a newbie, too many troop types to manage from the very beginning. For a tutorial level I’d start with only infantry, and then introduce the other units one at a time, including trucks as a separate thing.

I agree.

I could see people complaining that your troops die too fast, especially with the disadvantage of assaulting enemies waiting in ambush without softening them up first with artillery. If you want a simple difficulty setting I’d just make the player’s troops tougher and ballsier and keep the current way as the intended/hard difficulty.

I'm happy with how fast units die right now, the problem is that artillery doesn't exist yet and the countdown timer forces you to rush instead of taking it slow.

Ideally to attack a forest held by the enemy, you would first scout with recon, suppress targets with artillery, attack with cheap infantry that are supported by your tanks much further behind.

This looks seriously good, keep it up! I’d need some more time to get used to it but add a basic campaign map like the one from the original Medieval: Total War and I’d play this for weeks at a time.

A totalwar-style campaign map is being planned but I'm not certain when I'll be able to start adding it since I'm still working on the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for the feedback!

I like the concept and the aesthetic of the game.

Thanks!

I would suggest just straight up copying a lot of the controls from total war, no one is going to complain about that. Things like rotating the camera with q/e, unit control groups and unit control cards.

This is a good idea, I'll add an alternate control scheme for total-war fans when I start working on the options menu. My game is inspired by the wargame series so the main controls scheme is designed by that.

Would be nice to gradually introduce new unit types, you have a bit too much to manage at first here.

I agree, I'm going to make the next map easier.

Units bunch up together a lot. I had 4 tank destroyers that I ordered to attack 1 enemy tank destroyer, they all stacked together, got hit first and they all got stunned and soloed by the 1 enemy tank destroyer and that felt really awkward.

I think this is because the explosion that happens when a vehicle dies is a little too strong, I'll tone it down.

They also went up really close, it's kind of difficult to tell how far units can fire, it would be nice to have some sort of range indicator or some indicator that they don't have line of sight on the target.

There's one, you must have missed it.

I know good unit collision is a difficult issue to handle in 3d strategy games but I think it really improves the feel a lot so it's something I would focus on. It's more obvious for melee combat where you want to take up space and block others from getting there but it's still relevant for ranged combat because it's a natural way to prevent bigger armies from steamrolling everything by making it more difficult to have them all in a position to fire.

Eventually I'd like to turn on unit collisions, but it creates problems with the pathfinding so I'm working on tasks that are more rewarding first.

Thanks for playing! Your video gave me tons of valuable feedback. It's definitely super useful.

I agree the line of sight tool is lacking at the moment, it's due for an upgrade.

Micro-terrain has been a known issue for a while, the next map I make is going to be way flatter.

The trees are just cosmetic, what matters is the area of the forest. The reason why they're so sparse is to prevent performance problems because the map is huge.

Some units need to completely stop before attacking (tank destroyers and infantry). Also they're going to aim way slower if they're suppressed (indicated by the white flag next to their label, and under their unit card at the bottom middle). That's part of why that single enemy tank destroyer was wrecking you.

The new models are really good, it's a huge improvement.

At first I didn't understand why I couldn't pick up the red pills on the ground. It would be nice to have a small popup message that says your health is full at least in the first level or two, or maybe as an option that you can then turn off.

I still think you should have an option to auto-equip stronger items of the same type. Often there's no choice to make, it's a direct upgrade so spending time in the menu prevents you from enjoying the gameplay. Alternatively have less items of the same type.

An enemy got stuck outside the level and I got softlocked.

During the forest level with the ambush, you can barely hear the music.

It's hard to tell how long the shield ability of Vanaia lasts because you're looking at the character and not the HUD.

The trees in this level could use shadows that are less dark.

With a little more bug fixing and polish the game feels ready. Well done! The game is really enjoyable.

Is this a real offer or just a placeholder?

Nice progress, the flashlight is nice. The bug about resizing the window still happens.

Good job on this new version! The updated controls are easier to grasp but I miss the depth from the previous demo day. It would be nice to have all the controls from the previous demo day but the option to steer with the mouse like in this version. The enemies feel very bullet spongy. Looking forward to more updates!

Thanks for playing! The controls cheat sheet would have helped you a lot, there's a command to move your units faster by using the road. There's a few ways to rotate the camera as well.

Thanks!

Nice game! I like the theme, it's original.

Some feedback:

• Enemies feel way too bullet sponge-y. 
• Also I don't like shooting at animals :(