itch.io

Glad to see this indie classic's back on the internet! I was wondering where it (and the site it was on) went.

I feel like that still doesn't solve the issue of the game incentivizing the player to spam click until their finger hurts, but it's a start! I still think a true autofire function would be the easiest approach, but of course, it's not the only one.

Tried to send feeback using the ingame menu, but it said "ConnectionError", so I'll put it here instead.

Having to switch between active skills using hotkeys is really annoying, and makes the game feel like a juggling act that gets in the way of the main gameplay of aiming, timing, and enemy prioritization. So I usually forego alternate skills entirely. Also, when the cooldown gets too fast, you're incentivized to spam click in order to activate it as soon as possible. Honestly, that can even happen at longer cooldowns, because every second you don't use your ability is wasted damage potential.

I feel like both of these issues could be solved by having an autofire toggle of some sort, where you check a box next to the skill icon at the bottom, and it automatically activates at the cursor's position every time it's ready. Maybe even make it so that holding down the mouse button activates the skill as SOON as it's ready.

An alternate way to solve the issue of the player being incentivized to spam click in order to not waste cooldown time would be to allow the player to hold multiple "charges" of skills. That could be a fun thing to make upgradeable as well. If that feels like it would be overkill to have available from the start, maybe the player could still build up to slightly above 100% charge to begin with. 110%? 150%? Something like that. Just to prevent carpal tunnel.

Besides that, it feels disingenuous to not label this as a demo ANYWHERE on the game's page. The entire "features" section is a lie, because none of the stuff listed is actually available in this version. It's a bait and switch, and I feel less inclined to wishlist the full version thanks to that deception.

Well no wonder you couldn't make a less vague reply if you only skimmed it. What kind of opinion about what things?

What's all this I keep getting about essays? I just tend to ramble a little. Is that really so alien to everyone else on the internet?? Well sorry I couldn't be more "concise" for you. You know what they say, "if I had more time I would've written a shorter letter." I'm not gonna sit here and go through multiple drafts of something that I don't wanna spend more than maybe 15 minutes writing.

Also it's not marketing techniques, and I didn't say you're not allowed to like it. I'm just saying that there are many things about it that have been ruined by EA, the company PopCap is currently a subsidiary to, and the company that replaced the producer for PvZ 2 because it wasn't "enough like current free-to-play games".

Besides, I was never talking about whether the game was fun or not. I've played a couple mods that fix EA's mistakes (like re-tooling or otherwise removing the leveling system, removing microtransactions, removing many of the more detestable updates, etc), and there is a game that WAS at one point GOING to be good. It's just that it didn't turn out that way. And what do I think after playing these mods? Eh, it's okay. Could never beat the original in a million years, but if a diehard PvZ fan just wants "more PvZ", then (modded) PvZ 2 can certainly be described as "more PvZ".

No, I just find it pretty ridiculous that you attacked someone just for not liking a fairly mediocre game. You made an account JUST to attack them. That's, uh... pretty extreme. I'm just trying to get you to see why people have that opinion. Opinions aren't universal, and you can't expect people to share yours, especially when there are MANY good reasons to dislike the game.

Uh...? It doesn't meet my standards for how long an essay should be, but if that's what it feels like to you, sure?

Well good to know it's not for mac or anything weird like that, but my issue still stands. I haven't published a game on Itch before so correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you're able to specify platforms on a per-download basis. Just mark "PvZ in GML Release v0.1.0 - Download.zip" as being for Windows and people will be able to install it via the Itch app just fine. For some reason, if the creator does NOT specify the platform for the download, even if it's the only download option available, the Itch app literally won't let you even select it. It's a pain sometimes.

Can't be installed by the itch app due to the download not specifying what platform it's for.

Alright, jokes aside, don't think I don't know what's going on here. You're a big fan of PvZ 2 because you're at the age where you don't really mind if a game is an obvious cash grab, and don't get turned away by the typical awful design that mobile games usually have. And when people attack a game you like so much, you feel offended because you feel as though people are attacking you personally for liking it. Trust me, I understand, I was like that too.

But someday, you'll start to understand these situations for what they are. You'll start to learn the many tricks that mobile game developers put in their games to try to force people to spend money. Even if you feel accomplished for playing through the game without getting frustrated enough to give EA money, the game wasn't designed for you. It's designed for the kind of people who WOULD give into that frustration. They're like gambling addicts, except their dopamine hit doesn't even come from earning part of their money back, it comes from succeeding in something that was designed to have them fail.

Microtransactions in games literally wouldn't exist if there was no point in using them, so developers come up with ways to make people want to use them. And of all the companies that do, Electronic Arts, the publisher of PvZ 2, is by far the most infamous of all of them. They were literally voted the most hated company in America at one point, and have made it to the top 10 in plenty of other similar votes. There's literally an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to criticism of EA, and given Wikipedia's strict rules on notability, that's fucking saying something.

So in short, Plants vs. Zombies 2 is:
- Published by EA
- A game that locks plants, including plants that were literally available for free in the first game, behind paywalls
- Mobile exclusive

Even the original producer of the game talked about how bad PvZ 2 turned out.

So when people say a game is bad, don't just automatically assume they mean that it's IMPOSSIBLE to have fun with, or that the people who do like it are wrong for doing so. I have plenty of games that I despise, that I still have fun with. Clearly there was a game here that the developers cared about making. But then they got acquired by EA mid-development, and it all went down the drain. Developers try to make good games, and executives like these try to get them to make bad games (that make more money) instead. Naturally, since the executives have complete control over the developers, this goes about as well as you'd expect.

My condolences.

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Cross Origin Isolation - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

SharedArrayBuffer - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

Can't install via Itch app due to downloads not being marked by what OS they're for.

Ridiculously loud, can't find the volume controls, and the game tells me to press controller buttons even though I don't have a controller plugged in. Playing post-jam version, though I'm not sure why it's not the default version.

Nice! Though I'm not really sure what the Discord bit has to do with anything.

Is the unbearable lag going to be fixed in future version(s)?

So, did you get in trouble for stealing your parents' credit card?

Best time: 37:30
Pretty interesting game, but I do have a few issues with it.

1. The shielded enemies are overpowered. I don't know the exact mechanics of the game well enough to explain why, as this issue only really becomes apparent due to the issue I'm about to name.

2. The enemy spawning is REALLY weird. For the entire time I was playing endless mode, the bottom two rows would ONLY spawn the shield enemies. I had to focus ALL of my firepower on said bottom two rows, because replacing even one of the lasers with a gatling gun or lab would've ruined everything. This is even with the upper 4 rows containing gatling guns almost exclusively, upgraded with scattershot to be able to help with the bottom two rows. I pretty much never saw any enemies come from any row besides the bottom two, which is what leads me to feel they're overpowered. Although this might not even be noticeable if enemy spawns were even instead of weirdly focused.

3. Feels too reliant on RNG. I had several games at the start where I had twice as many labs as I did actual weapons. It doesn't help that the shock weapon seems totally useless, meaning it's a coin flip whether a tower you get is actually useful. And in some games, I only got one column on a given row, and literally had no way to defend it, as there was no room to place a second gun.

4. Upgrading via the labs is VERY tedious. Just nonstop clicking. And you get to a point where each individual damage upgrade matters so little you don't even know why you continue to bother clicking on them. The only reason I even lost when I did was because I got bored and decided to just sit and watch the outcome. Surprise surprise, it was the shield enemies that did me in.

Potential fix for #4: Make it possible to buy lab upgrades in bulk. Maybe if multiple labs are ready to provide an upgrade, choosing an infinitely-stackable upgrade causes ALL labs to provide that upgrade, and go on cooldown. I feel this would make it a lot less tedious, but this is just one idea for how it might be fixed.

All in all, interesting concept and I'm glad I checked it out, but I probably won't be trying to get a better time.

Can't install via the Itch app.

What happened to my save? All my progress just got reset.

Why does it cost money if it's a proof of concept?

Iron Helmet: Adjacent clothings get +1 block
Red Hoodie: Does not get +1 block

Hoodies are not clothes confirmed.

Isn't it just supposed to pass on effects? The weapon doesn't give anything else an effect, it just can't be next to a weapon, which it's not. If I had to guess what was causing this bug, they probably use an invisible effect to track weapons being adjacent to others, and this invisible "technical" effect is being treated like a regular effect, despite not being listed in the stats at all.

Glitch: ...What nearby weapon?

I miss when you could skip the tutorial and start with a rare item. It made it a whole lot easier to get invested in a run from the start, since instead of just going through the motions and waiting for something to replace your boring wooden sword and shield, you're already visualizing what kinds of builds you could do with your starting item.

Latest version seems to freeze very frequently. Hope it gets fixed soon!

Tried archery for the first time and got a new best run! Was fun being able to do 3462 damage each turn!

Encountered what might be a bug. For some reason, my game started lagging really badly the moment I got this ring of doom. The framerate standing still is pretty alright, but it seems like using anything connected to the mana network causes a lag spike.

Best run so far! Died to that enemy that adds spikes every attack and hard-counters my build with nothing I can really do about it.

I really hope the Kickstarter does well, all the stretch goals sound so nice that it'd be really upsetting to have to know "what could have been" while playing the full game. :(

On that note, are there any plans to add stuff that didn't make it in via stretch goals through other means, like followup kickstarters or DLC?

For some reason when I downloaded the game, I got some error about needing to start Unity in dev mode or something like that. I don't even have Unity, how am I supposed to play?

Just experienced a weird visual glitch: I paid for a max health upgrade from the healer, and I had EXACTLY enough gold to get it. The gold disappeared from my inventory, and so did the slot it was occupying! This seems to be a visual effect thankfully, as I got the slot back when I tried to move another item to where I remembered it being, but it was still concerning. I thought a MUCH worse glitch had happened.

What... what is this game? This just feels like a ripoff of another game with the exact same premise, and it doesn't even function. Why was it published?

I don't get it. Sometimes the entire raft just collapses for no reason.

Not familiar with the jam this was made for, but this is a pretty fun game! I love just how many ways you came up with for movement. Everything moves in just a slightly different way, and that's probably my favorite part. The only thing I didn't like was that it can make you input the code twice in a row sometimes. I can only assume it's RNG that decides when you have to put in the code, so a minimum cooldown before it can happen again (maybe 4 seconds) would be nice. Other than that, this seems like a great implementation of the theme you were going for! The emotion that sums up this game is just a loop of "oh god, uh... wait, uhh... this!"

Played this for about 5 minutes before it crashed, but this just looks like Day of Meat but worse. The aspect ratio is garbage too, because I have to scroll up and down to see HUD elements, and zooming out in my browser makes the already tiny text hard to read. Plus the low resolution the game renders at makes every rat look like it's pulsating as it moves across the screen, and if I were to take a screenshot of the numbers that pop up from them, it would look like I just edited them in with MS Paint.

Neat game, but a lot of the levels are way too short. The idea of the split path on level "3" (why does it start at 0? I know computers do, but the player isn't a computer) is neat, but said gimmick literally didn't even matter because there were only enough waves for me to build half the path. Level 4 was too short for me to finish the path as well, but I didn't even get to upgrade from the basic mushrooms before it was over! This kind of made the final level disappointing as well, as I was excited to try to find the most efficient setup, but it ended when half of my towers were still walls, and my setup probably would've been more efficient if I just didn't try to use the other half of the map at all.

The control scheme is kind of awkward as well. Middle click is annoying to pan the camera with, and replacing mushrooms is a bit tedious when you have to remove it, then pick the new one you want, and then place down the new one. It would have been nice if I could just place new mushrooms over old ones, for example. Camera panning could've probably been moved to right click, with a quick right click on a mushroom deleting it, but holding and dragging would pan.

Besides the minor stuff brought up in my feedback, this is a decently enjoyable game for as long as it lasts. I do agree with the other comments that something like a level editor could've probably quadrupled its longevity (or more!), but I don't regret installing it.

Great game from what a friend and I have played! But one question: Why did this game just randomly install to appdata? I made a folder just for it on a drive that has way more space, so I'm a little disappointed it just chooses appdata instead of just installing in the same folder as the installer, or even just having an option for where to install it. Besides that though, I love what I've played!

Well yeah, the boost to slow yourself down thing is just how Asteroids works. I'm talking about the rotation being "press a button once and spin anywhere from 30 to 270 degrees per second and you have no way of knowing beforehand". Also I hardly see how the controller thing is relevant. I see that said for many games all the time, but as I'm way more used to keyboard, it never ends up being true. YOU may be used to a controller to the point it's easier for you, but I'm not.

I'm just trying to tell you how difficulty does not equal fun. Difficulty is not an excuse for having bad controls. Do you disagree?

Ah, that should probably be stated somewhere. Also this game could probably use a "local multiplayer" tag, it makes things easier for people looking for multiplayer games.

Older version? I'm just talking about the version you posted. You only really post games here if you want people to play them, I thought? If you're posting a prototype here, I would imagine you're doing so to gather feedback on how to improve the game.

I think a game having bad controls isn't the best way to add difficulty. I could make a Mario clone where every time you jump you have a 50/50 chance of dying, and it would be "difficult", but it wouldn't be a "good" game. Asteroids is already difficult without having bad controls, as it having good controls allows the developers to have more asteroids on screen at a time. What I gather from your game design is that you realize the bad controls are too bad to have any meaningful input on what happens in the game, so you heavily nerfed the asteroids to compensate.

What is even the goal?