itch.io

I'm not sure what you mean by light being difficult to master, more light = more easy game

Yep, it absolutely sounds like this. But sometimes "Glowbugs are missing in the deepest areas" and you don't know how at first how to deal with prolonged walkings in darkness and you may end up being impaled by spikes or fall into the pit. But the more you learning the game the more ways to deal with darkness you finding out.

This includes items as they're an interactable, but it only happens once and so I guess this isn't good enough. I can add another controls popup specifically for items saying "Space : Pickup item"

It will do I think. Also I'd like them to be distinguishing (some colour code maybe?), because in the end of the game enemies just litter weapons everywhere and trinket finding ends up into cherrypicking.

You mentioned the "trinkets" being unobvious, but it says "Equip artifact" when you hover over it in inventory, isn't that good enough?

Unfortunately, I figured out to equip them only when I opened the inventory to switch weapons... Yep, I'm that simple minded.

So what happens if they keep going deeper? Discover new enemy types forever?

Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ After this amazing light mechanic it wouldn't surprise me. 

There is a potential problem where the player doesn't explore the deepest area properly and doesn't find the boss. Would this be considered a flaw? Surely players would properly explore the deepest area.

Agree. Probably it's my personal thing, I prefer to be overly cautious in games like this.

I've debated it with myself and I probably won't remove the bell from Central because I want to train the player to abuse the bell

Good decision. The starting zone is a perfect "tutorial" stage which teaches a player about all features this game has, like consuming food, curing rotting, allocating power, bloodshed and using light sources. It would be strange to remove such a significant interaction from this zone.

It's a free game, I won't be selling it, dev is a hobby. It's the greatest free game ever made! (well those are some big shoes to fill so maybe not)

Haha, it definitely is! I would pay for the experience it gave me. It could compete with any $15 indie game and easily exceed it.

Instead of buying, tell others about the game, I need more feedback before I'm done with it.

Sure thing! After my very first run the first thing I did was telling my friend (who is fond of Dark Souls) about this game. He greatly appreciated it and spent many hours in it as well. Planning to tell other people too.

By the way, tell me if a lower Gamma value looks better

It looks better at 90, Darklings are more distinguishable from floor and some objects start to looking more solid. 80 is too low, it makes walls too eye unfriendly.

I done a walkthrough from scratch to see how quick I can beat this game with all knowledge I gained and I would say next things:

The order of bosses was W>S>E>N (but now I think I would go E>S>W>N). First things I started to upgrade are Technique and Energy. After these got level 10, I started to improve Lifeblood and Restoration to be in the dungeon as long as possible. North is the best location for farming (I would say South but you risking being cursed by Devils) Luck is needed mid-game to gain as much useful items as possible. Domain turned out to be the most essential skill in the late-game, probably if I spent some points in it instead of Charisma and Luck I would beat this game even faster. Feather Angelic Spear is a judgement day device, one precise hit is enough to clear corridor full of powerful enemies. Crown of Desire with +50% bonus made progress much faster. Shield of Blood is imbalanced and makes you virtually invulnerable (I wouldn't nerf or remove it though). Bosses are underpowered (or I got overpowered), only centipede killed me once (and that's because it had many other enemies nearby), after this I farmed a bit more and then did my last run and all bosses were killed in one life.  Overall it was very fun experience, I would do another walkthrough like this!

poor tutorialing

Actually I love this game being so terse. It allows you to learn it yourself. However some moments are really unobvious, like the inventory and trinkets ( items indication as blue light is too vague). The most big problem for beginner is to master "lightplay", it took me a dozen of runs to fully comprehed how light works.

"turned into a death machine at the 13th level and game becomes a piece of cake"

Hehe, I just love to break games by looking flaws in its balance, it's kind of my hobby, I am veteran of roguelike and roguelite games. You see, 5 strength/technique points already doubles your damage which is extremely huge bonus, making fights with angels, minotaurs and devils much easier, especially with the help of backstabs. Energy stat is also extremely overpowered, 10 points in it make you already fight relentless due 20% recover by kills. I would make this bonus 5+LEVEL% of missing energy instead of maximum one. Other skills are fine though. Also I love using spear-like weapons, they seem to be imbalanced in my opinion, long reach doesn't allow enemies to get closer. (Still I get owned by... cactuses? They seem to be the most tough enemies, it's scary to approach one in a corridor)

I was also thinking of removing the Bell from the starting zone

In my opinion bell doesn't give that much in the starting zone though (It gives power depending on the amount of enemies in a zone, right?) However in other branches it can spawn right at the exit and give you +15000, or sometimes it's impossible to find it at all.

Did you know? This game has an end!

Nice, I suspected it. There are obviously different dungeon stages which progresses further but I usually never left 5x5 square (2 rooms horizontal and 2 vertical) to safely allocate power. It was very nice to make them distinctive also. North seems like some tower, South is some dungeon and West is absolutely dim lit cave. I like it, especially that these directions have their own enemy types and special rewards, like the flowers that cure your curses which are growing in the West. (but West is extremely dangerous due lack of light so you should go there with some light artifacts or make some tricks with your spells)

However, you should really give some indication on this. Some players will probably think that there is no progression in the dungeon.

Once again, it's your decision how to make it, if you think that the level progression is fine then leave it as it is and polish some real flaws. Despite its faults, it's still extremely good quality game. I'll be looking forward to 1.00 and would gladly play it (or even buy it if you consider putting this on some store)

Very fun and dynamic game! Played it for several hours straight.

I really love how you mixed roguelite with souls-like genre and you did it somewhat right.
Great pixel artwork and design of monsters and icons. Very atmospheric music. Great amount and variety of content. It was extremely pleasant to examine this game from scratch. I love the unique mechanic of partially discovering a dungeon by illuminating rooms making light a very significant gameplay element. The test that decides your primary skills is also a nice touch.
The only part that is worrying me is the game balance. The first several runs are extremely hard (and I don't consider it as a bad thing) but linear progression turns you in a death machine around the thirtieth level and the game then becomes a piece of cake. I would suggest making the progression logarithmic but it's up to you.

Some irritating things:
I don't know what is the purpose of the game not stopping during the pause menu but this is very weird, I got killed while rebinding controls.
Not sure if this bug but if you walk right into objects that are situated right next to the pit you will immediately fall despite you having some distance to the pit.

Actual bug:
If you get healed during being killed, the main character will be destroyed but "game over" screen won't appear softlocking your current run.

It's a very addictive and well-made game, you should share it more because it actually has great potential. Good luck to you and your game!

A really polished prototype for a platformer with good spritework and animations.

In my opinion, this game lacks of some reward system. You should reward player for his actions, like killing and beating the level.
And as the game is skill-based I'd advice to reward player for doing good in your game, so there will be much more motivation to master your game.

Also as your game feels exactly like Ninja Gaiden I suggest you to read my review I wrote for NightmareDemonCastle. It has a recommendation that I would also recommend to you, to make a some unique gimmick that will make your game distinct from similar genre representatives.

First of all, I want to say about thing that bothers me.
The gameplay though is not bad but to make a good game out of what appears to be a clone is a bit tricky.

For now the game lacks of some unique author's gimmick. You should make something that makes game yours. Like put something that you would put in Castlevania because it lacks in Castlevania itself. Give the player a reason to prefer your game over Castlevania itself.
It could be some specific challenges, some dynamically occuring events during gameplay or something like this. Don't be afraid to experiment with the game, you can discover some game mechanics that would make a gameplay more unique and pleasant.

Anyway the game is enjoyable and main game mechanics are polished. The weapons feel just right and convenient.
Love the HUD portrait and atmosphere. Generally, visuals are not bad. (but blurry font is confusing)
Music is also good, definitely gives a gothic vibe.

Really well made 2.5D roguelite.

Gameplay already feels smooth and engaging though for now levels seems
a bit plain as you do nothing but killing enemies and avoiding traps.

I love that it has a skill tree and inventory system but there is little variety for now.

What it needs are more ways to develop character and
more interactions during the game that allows player to make some decisions.

Also I must to make a note here, you made a good progress.
I once played Archtower v0.2.5 when I randomly found it on Itch because it's took my attention
(and I'm very picky when it's about games I should play and I rarely find a real interesting games here)
Also probably because I had a save file of older version, when I pressed Camp in the main menu I got an error (something related to inventory). Had to go to Floor and kill my character.

What I see now is actually makes me happy, you definitely put an effort into your game!

Good luck for your game! You have good odds to make some good roguelite, just add more possibilities and content. I hope for randomized levels in the future updates as well.

Well made prototype for a possible future project.

It has definitely nice visuals (love the animations) and dynamic fast-paced combat.
Really pleasant battle and interesting AI behaviour. Main character also have cool abilities.
Great potential for a hack-n-slash project, especially if you'll add much more variety in player's possibilities.

What it should to have for now is a conceptual (and more stylish) UI.
You should add more icons on UI with hotkeys for them so player always would understand
what key stands for and what abilities he possess.