itch.io

Ah, I see, that makes sense!
Perhaps you could have included a little "story" bit in the main menu for that, because it's a really good idea for a premise.

Visually nice looking game, I do think it could use a few improvements with the gameplay however.

The enemies in the game move the same speed as the player, which makes it hard to escape them if you need to regain your health. The bullets however move faster than the player, making them even harder to avoid, especially when the screen is cluttered.The game could also use some sound effect or music in it, but I've seen your other comment about that, and it's entirely fair as to why they're not included.

I liked how the game's title screen was readable and concise, and explained both the controls and objective to the player.

It was a really good attempt, well done!

Fun little game.

Character animation and spritework was solid, as well as the backgrounds, however I feel it was a little unclear where exactly the player's boundaries were, as you could walk into the water in the second level with seemingly no penalty.

As well as this, there was a damage system in place but no health bar for the player, meaning that the game could seemingly end at random from a stray enemy interaction. The win conditions were also unclear - I feel like this could have been specified either at the level's start or on the title screen.

Otherwise, it was a fun time. Well done.

Thank you for the feedback!

I can understand trying to make the game feel more like a rock-paper-scissors style fighter of sorts, but I personally feel like the parry creates a more complex scenario, as upon a successful parry, each player is presented with the chance to either continue attacking or dash back and reset the situation. While I do see the appeal of having an option that beats parrying, it essentially exists as "idling". "Idling" beats parrying by letting you hit them after their parry animation has finished (since there's a cooldown on them performing any other non-movement action), sword strikes beat "Idling" and parrying beats sword strikes. I feel like having a true counter to parry would make it under-perform overall, since it would essentially be the only option to lose to two types of "actions", and the current effect created from being parried leads to a more interesting scenario that continues the game other than just ending it.

Thanks for finding those bugs! While there's not much we can do about it now, I'll try to be more intensive with testing for the future.

Fun submission.

I liked the theme of the game,  although I did find the character and enemy designs to be a little... Familiar. It was nice to see a functioning health bar,  however I don't believe the game presented too much challenge.

I did find that if you held in one direction, you would permanently fall out of bounds, and be unable to return. This would make the game unplayable if you happened to do it. To fix this, I'd suggest adding some invisible boundaries at the edges of each side of the stage.

Still, a fun submission to play, well done.

Nice little game, solid 3D foundation.

I really like the animations and character models used. Were they created from scratch, or were they used from another source? The combos and kicks were extremely smooth, and felt satisfying to use, although I think the game could have used a few sound effects in order to make the attacks feel even better.

I did run into a few issues, most of them after the game had ended... Sort of.

First of all, when the player dies, the game doesn't end, and the AI opponent continues to attack your corpse. While this one isn't so much an issue since it doesn't affect the actual gameplay, the next two really are.

If you happen to wander back to your movement keys, you'll realise that you can still move around as a lifeless body for the remainder of the time spent playing the game. And if you happen to press one of the attack keys, you'll suddenly spring back to life and be able to attack and defeat your opponent again. This also makes it so your opponent cannot further damage you, leaving you to suffer with your immortality until you close the game.

Outside of the gameplay, the controls weren't listed anywhere in the game, and the game could not be paused.

It was still fun to go through though, well done.

Really, really solid game.

The spritework and music is fab, and the character animations are simple and effective. Really satisfying to play, though I did run into a few issues here and there.

I tried to replicate this but couldn't, but I believe it happened from killing an enemy on the same frame their attack animation finished - the enemy would remain on-screen, still with an active hitbox and drained my health almost immediately. While it was only something that happened once, it was still something that occured.

I also think the enemy's speed could be lowered a little, or perhaps have their spawn rate lowered, as I was finding myself getting surrounded very frequently.

Aside from these little things, I had a lot of fun with this one. Well done!

Excellent pixel art and solid gameplay.

The addition of a training mode was extremely helpful to get used to the controls in a safe environment, and to take in the work done to the game's visuals. The most impressive part here is easily the spritework, the designs used are fantastic.

The gameplay, while solid, in my opinion could do with a few more tweaks. I personally found the character's movement speed to be a little too slow, though I feel this could be remedied with a dash movement to quickly close distances or create them.

While this was really the only issue I had with the gameplay, I do feel like there could have been a few animations for each player getting hit or knocked down, however I know that animations take time, so this is only a minor nitpick.

Really solid submission, well done!

Visual style looks nice, but unfortunately the game is totally unplayable.

The movement controls move both players, meaning not only can you not ever hit each other, but neither player can ever win or lose. As well as this, every movement option can take you off the screen - walking either direction is endless, and jumping launches you off the screen's ceiling for an extended period of time.

It's a shame, because this game looked like it could be fun, but well done on submitting something.

While I'm aware that this game has been uploaded unfinished, I'm stuck on selecting a character for the second player. I've tried pressing just about everything on my keyboard, but I've been unable to find out how to do it.

Can you please tell me how? I'd love to still play your game.

A really fun little experience!

The theme is really interesting, and the visual design as a whole flowed together extremely well. The first stage of the game was basically as good as it could be, however the second stage had a few issues for me.

I should start by saying that the idea for this stage is really, really good, and I was smiling throughout the whole thing my first time through, but I did find that it was really hard to perceive how close I was to the exit of the stage. Another thing I noticed was that the shots from the back of the level go through the edges of the barrels, so hiding behind some areas of them was ineffective. While the barrels issue can be solved by perhaps fixing up a few collision problems, I'm honestly unsure about the depth perception issue I found for me, but the concept for it as a whole is extremely impressive to begin with.

Really fun time, well done!

Nice design, unsure about a few things.

FIrst thing to ask, is there a lose condition? I found my first run of the game fairly easy, so I let myself get swamped by enemies and... Nothing happened. It ultimately removes any challenge from the game, which is a shame.

The enemy, player and scene designs are really well-done though, however the animations are a little minimal in some areas. I'm unsure as to what the "jab" animation is actually meant to be, as it's on the hand that's on the other side from it's hitbox?

Aside from this, the game was nice to play. Well done.

You made me want to actually get a friend over and play this for a bit. This game is really fun!

Everything from the sound design, music, gameplay and visual style is top-notch. There's very little that I feel could be improved with this game aside from simply adding more of it! While I only played the game by myself, I was extremely impressed with how obvious it was that each character plays differently and actually have different attack strengths and movement speeds.

If there's anything I think the game could maybe use, it's a pause screen, as pressing escape mid-game takes you back to the main menu. While this is a minor nitpick, it's the only thing I can think of that the game could potentially benefit from having.

Be proud of this submission - it's extremely fun to play. Well done!!

A visually impressive submission, a little lacking in the gameplay department.

The first thing I should mention is that this is a game that you can win simply by spamming the spacebar as hard and fast as you possibly can - and it's the most effective way of getting through your game too. It was hard to know when you were in range of an enemy and when they could attack you too. I feel like this issue could be resolved by maybe putting a cooldown on your attack and having the enemies spawn a little less frequently - despite my expert spacebar-destroying skills, I'd still find myself overwhelmed, especially on the last level.

The visuals in your game are top-notch. I love the character designs, and while it's a shame that more than one enemy design wasn't used, the one that was was clearly designed with care, and the whole game looked great throughout! The music and sounds were also well-done, especially on the title screen. The only thing I'd question is why the player character is so small in comparison to the enemies present, as that was a little jarring to begin with.

Overall this game's best part is it's visual attention, and for that your team should be proud.

It's a shame that you had to go through the process of remaking the game, and I'm impressed to managed to re-put it together in such a short amount of time. Having a game that works and missing a non-essential element as opposed to having it be barely functional is absolutely a good reason in my opinion, and credit to you for making that decision. Well done on putting it all back together :)

Really competent and fun attempt.

I loved the sound work and spritework, and the simple animations with the simple controls and movement options made the game easy and satisfying to play... Most of the time.

I found an issue where if you got hit while attacking, the game would seemingly ignore your inputs to attack back for a few seconds (you could still move however). If this was an intention mechanic of some description, please let me know, however if this is the case it was not conveyed in any way.

I feel like the enemy spawning rate accelerated a little too quickly, as I found myself getting overwhelmed after about 10 seconds. I feel it could be toned down a little, or perhaps have some stronger enemy variants show up from time to time to increase the pressure in a different way.

Aside from this, this was a fun little game to spend some time with. Well done!

This is some seriously impressive stuff, the whole team should be really proud of this submission!

I was suprised to see some more in-depth features such as a character customizer, and a functioning one at that. The controls worked perfectly, the movement and animations behind them being really satisfying to control. The addition of an AI opponent was a welcome surprise as well.

I should mention that while your controls worked well, it could be improved by having the ability to pause the game. I did try to press keys like esc and backspace to try and pause, so I'm going to assume there wasn't one (please correct me if I'm wrong!). In this pause menu, you could have a quick refresher on the controls if the player needed it.

The only other issue I found is that by simply walking up to your opponent and mashing the E key, you could win the game after less than a minute. I tested this a few times and managed it on each one. While maybe not a pure problem, I believe that the ability to block to take reduced damage in exchange for not being able to attack could prevent this kind of "cheese strategy" of sorts from being able to occur as easily.

Aside from these little nitpicks, this game was genuinely really fun to play. Well done!

Really competent fighter.

The animations shown off are extremely impressive, the idles in particular. The combat shown works perfectly, however I think the movement is somewhat sluggish.

While the controls work well, you are also required to remember them at the title screen. This issue could be fixed by adding a pause menu to be able to look at the controls again, to save players mashing keys hoping to find out what their attacks are.

Another thing to add is a lack of sound effects and/or music makes a game feel a little more empty than it looks. Was there a reason for the lack of sound in the game, or was it just an area where you ran out of time?

Aside from these two minor issues, this is a really strong submission, well done!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-rMIXX92MeElpm1Q3CbOEKxCcHbVSzUK

Sorry for the inconvenience! The file you need is in this Drive link. Please let me know if you have any more issues!

(Alternatively, re-downloading the game should also work now!)

Oh no! Just going to grab that file now and give you a Drive link, sorry for the pain!

Really good attempt at the task, well done.

The movement didn't feel problematic to control, and the platforming elements involved were simple enough so that they didn't hinder the brawling element of the stage shown. The inclusion of walking and attacking animations helped the overall movement feel natural to control, as well as obviously providing a clear and concise indicator as to what input you're performing.

There are a few issues throughout, but I wouldn't say any of them are major aside from this first one - I couldn't find a way for the player to take damage aside from instant death. The health bar displayed in the top left didn't decrease in my multiple playthroughs of the stage whatsoever, and falling in a pit or landing on spikes would cause the stage to reset. It appeared like the enemies patrolling the stage couldn't damage the player at all, turning them more from something to consider a threat to simply an inconvenience towards reaching the goal. The enemies were literal pushovers, as you could simply walk into them and shove them down a pit in order to continue, with no potential harm coming to the player character if you did so.

I should also add that only once when I was close to the goal, the stage restarted. It was unclear if I had taken any damage, as I was simply mid-jump with a platform beneath me. I tried to replicate this a few times, but was unable to.

Overall it was fun to go through your game. Well done guys.

Game crashed on first startup.

On the second one it ran fine though. While the fighting element leaves a lot to be desired, the spritework shown is actually really impressive, even if the character's themselves look significantly lower-res than the background. 

For a game where you had to "salvage it out of messy coding", being able to control both characters was nice, however I should mention that holding the jump button would cause a character to float up out into the atmosphere, never to return.

A good attempt still, and I don't think it would have taken much more work to make this a functional fighter.

A lot to unpack. Played the game on my own, so please let me know if you think my critique would be affected by another player.

I should start by saying I love the differences in the two characters, with one being primarily close-range and another being primarily long-range. However, at the beginning of each game, both players have to get close in order to accomplish anything, which I can imagine would lead to each game starting with one short, close-range engagement before the ranged player backs off and tries to use their abilities. Once they're out of power, they can't do anything at all, so they have to bring themselves back inside the close-range player's attack range, who from what I can imagine (again, please let me know if you think differently) would always win the engagement trade, as they have abilities focused around close-range as well as a spammable mouse-click attack.

I love the effort to balance each character's movement options, I believe they're almost implemented on the wrong characters. While it makes sense for the long-range fighter to be able to float and for the close-range one to use a grappling hook (which was immensely fun to play around with by the way, it feels great to use), it leads to another problem with the balance. The close range fighter has a very, very easy escape option with the grappling hook, which is something I feel is more needed on the ranged character, as they needed a faster way to get back to a good attacking range for them in my opinion.

However, while most of my critique has been about the balancing with the close-range character, the long-range one also has a few problems. While the "power" system was implemented well, some of the abilities are a little overpowered. The long-range character's fireball attack is from what I can gather (having tested it from opposite ends of the stage) completely unavoidable. As well as this, the close-range character's shuriken storm attack is almost unreactable. 

Another thing to add is with the stage selection. Each stage is identical functionally, which while isn't an issue in itself, sometimes the stage's hazard doesn't work. Every third game would see the hazard at the bottom of the stage fail to be spawned. As well as this, it also doesn't stretch to the end of the screen, though I should add that the collision still hits both of the players if they're in the area that isn't covered, so it still functions correctly.

The last thing to mention is the controls and menu. The main issue I find with the controls is that there's a lot to remember for each player, and it can only be shown at the main menu. This problem could be solved by creating a pause menu, with an option to view the controls again on there. As well as this, there is no option to exit the game from within the game itself. This could also be added to the pause menu.

Overall, I still had fun playing your game, and if I have the time to go back through it with a friend, I will.

Sprite work, music and sound effects are all top notch

However, the actual gameplay seems to have taken a hit in exchange. While movement is fine, the combat suffers in multiple aspects. To begin with, the only way to engage enemies is to also move into their attacking range, which often leads to trading damage with an enemy. With the amount of enemies in each stage, trying to engage every one of them leads to inconsistent damage trading and in the multiple attempts to run through your game that I did, it often didn't allow me to progress past the first stage.

On top of this, the lack of any damage indicator makes it hard to know when I've actually hit an enemy, or how much health they have remaining. This would lead to me trying to edge up to an approaching enemy and mindlessly mashing the spacebar, hoping that I might be able to scrape past before the enemy attacks me back. I should also add that backing off after an attack to make the engagement "safe" on the player's end becomes difficult, as enemies spawn in behind you. This can quickly lead to either being backed into a corner or completely surrounded, however I did notice that turning away to look at enemies behind you would prevent any enemies from the front from moving closer to you, which at least prevented the issue from becoming worse.

Another thing to mention is the lack of any "Controls" display from what I could see (please tell me if I missed it somehow, I will go back and replay the game). While I was able to figure out movement and attacking with the spacebar, I was unable to know if their were any other player actions.

Assuming that this doesn't already exist, I believe a few of the gameplay problems focusing around actual "safe" engagements could be solved by adding a ranged attack to the player of some description, perhaps with a cooldown to prevent it from being spammed to much and making enemy approaches too "safe". 

Aside from the aforementioned issues I see with the gameplay, I should really stress that I loved the spritework and general aesthetic of your game. If I have missed anything that you believe would have made my experience better, please let me know and I'll replay your game right away.