itch.io

GERMAN (english below):

First Impression Video:

Die erste aus einer kommenden Reihe an Tech-Demos für das aktuell in Entwicklung befindliche Spiel "The Waking Cloak".

Pro:
- technisch und grafisch sehr gut umgesetzter Gameboy-Color Stil
- lernen von Mechaniken super durch den Aufbau des Dungeons eingebaut

Contra:
- Rätsel teilweise unnötig chaotisch im Aufbau und künstlich erschwert

-----------------------------------------------

ENGLISH:

The first part of a tech-demo series to the in development game "The Waking Cloak".

Pro:
- technical and graphical excellent Gameboy Color look and feel
- learning the mechanics was very natural due to the dungeon-design

Con:
- puzzles are sometimes unnessecary chaotic in how they are presented so they felt a lot harder then they are actually should be.





_____________________________________

comment to the dev.:
I really liked how the demo felt (also I enjoyed the easteregg very close to the end).
As I stated above some of the puzzles felt a lot harder to solve then they should be. It is not that I don't like a challange but especially the dining-room with its mirrors felt very chaotic, so solving it was more of an trial and error when to cast the spell in which direction since I didn't bothered in actually try to follow its way in my mind by observating the room (to many mirrors to keep track of and no need to plan beforehand) so this room was kind of a chore.
In the old GB/GBC-Zelda games I enjoyed the puzzles being challanging but always super easy to get your head arround, so you weren't stuck in a room for a long time.

Otherwise everything felt great and I look forward for more since I first found the trailer to waking cloak! Keep it up!

Hey Douglas,

sry for being late, as I wrote to Jona's reply, I was on vacation.

Thanks for the reply I look forward to a "real release" for sure. Really enjoyed it so far and I am glad if my feedback helps somehow!

To your question: in my opinion, I would enjoy a real puzzle-platformer with handcrafted big open rooms and a linear storyline way more then roguelike-mechanics. First of all there are way too much roguelike/roguelite titles out right now and almost all of them have the problem of being either very empty and bland or the rooms get to similar / to much reused very fast.

So I guess I would like to prefer the "Zelda"(Or maybe even Metroid)-Approach. Combat seems to be not the focus anyway, so there would be way more room for errors than it would be with roguelike-mechanics. And as I originally wrote, I had a very awesome "Prince of Persia" feel when running through expecially the big open room in the end and I would love to have more of that. So not very combat but very movement-orientated. You nailed that in this version of the game already and it was perfect for me. I dodged most of the enemies, they were merely moving obstacles to me.

So in my mind, it would be a semi-linear experience with big open puzzle-rooms, upgrades here and there that make you backtrack to some rooms to find new challenges and progress further. A playtime of 5-6 hours or so and definitively no permadeath or anything like that. Also no insta-kill traps so you don't have to repeat a big section over and over again over a misstimed jump. Much like portal but with your set of features and not the ones of Portal ;-) (Oh and also Mod-Support, hehe)

hey Jona!

thanks for the reply, sorry for me being late, I was on vacation for 2 weeks. :)

I recorded the video when 1.1.1. was the newest version and then released it a few days later. Speaks for you guys, that by this time, "my version" was outdated, already ;)

My suggestions were for a full release, anyway. I didn't expected you'll overhaul or enhance this version by a lot. Just wanted to give some feedback for a bigger version (hopefully) somewhen in the future! :)

have a nice week!

Verg

==================== GERMAN ====================
(english below)

Puzzle-Platform-Shooter im Ägypten-Setting.

First Impression Video:

Pro:
- Steuerung perfekt umgesetzt (ähnlich griffig wie Doom 2016)
- Aufbau der Rätselräume erinnert an Prince of Persia
- mehrere Lösungswege

Contra:
- Manche Mechaniken werden schlecht erklärt
- Spielerführung allgemein eher ungenügend

==================== ENGLISH ====================

Puzzle-Platform-Shooter with egypt-setting.

Pro:
- perfectly nailed controls (very close to Doom 2016)
- level-design of the various rooms reminds me of Prince of Persia
- different solutions

Con:
- some mechanics are badly explaint (like shooting the displays for upgrades)
- player-guidance is not very good in general

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the devs:
I really hope there will be more than just this Prototype. I enjoyed it very much and would happily buy it as a 5-6h game! :) It just feels so good to play! (modding-support would be the best thing here! so much potential for an active community^^)

for my cons, here are some ideas how to make it better:
- make a control-panel in the first room that says something like "shoot panels to activate upgrades" or so. When the player does this, give him a first ammo-upgrade as an example (maybe from 10 to 15 shots) and open a door to the next area.
- for guiding the player, I would assume make more use of lights in general. The game is very saturated and it feels good (gives me that Sands of Time vibe) but maybe just make it a little darker and use red and blue lights as a hint how to solve some parts of a level and neutral or green lights to light up doorways to the next area of interest. very subtile, but it should to the trick. :)

===================== GERMAN =====================
(english below)

Ein Samurai-Road-Redemption im Splitscreen-CoOp.

First Impression Video:

Pro:
- sehr gute Grafik & Sound
- frei begehbare Spielwelt, Charaktere sind nicht aneinander "gebunden"
- Gemeinsames Spiel durch CoOp-Angriffe sehr spaßig

Con:
- nicht optimiert, braucht High-End-PC
- mit ca. 20 Minuten sehr kurz
- Trefferfeedback der eigenen Charaktere kaum gegeben

===================== ENGLISH =====================

A Samurai-Road-Redemption in Splitscreen-CoOp.

Pro:
- very good graphics and sound
- open world, characters aren't "tied" to each other
- cooperative gameplay is very fun due to CoOp-Actions

Con:
- not optimized, needs an high-end-PC
- very short (~20minutes)
- very bad feedback when players get hit

That would be great. The Game still runs and you are theoretically able to restart the mission but it's not playable due to the blur. I just uploaded a short Clip on my Dropbox, so you can see what exactly happens and maybe find a way to reproduce and fix it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ah00s5c9srdwvw7/BossBug.mp4?dl=0

Also, here's a little Picture how exactly we played the game. I think it is the way it's meant to be played :p

Greetings from a couple to the dev's! :-D

I had a great time with this game playing it with my girlfriend yesterday.

Sadly we encountered a bug: when you lose the Bossbattle, the blur on screen persists so it makes it unplayable and you are practically not able to repeat the mission.
Would love you to fix it, so we can finish the game. (we actually restarted the entire game to see if the bug still occurs and sadly it did)

Otherwise, as I said: great game, we had a blast for arround 30Minutes. Also recorded some footage, so expect a Video from me, soon <3

=============== GERMAN ================
(english below)

Was wäre, wenn wir den "Dungeon Keeper" spielen... aber in "Darkest Dungeon"?

First Impression Video:

Pro:
- Darkest Dungeon, dieses mal als die Gegner
- Grafik und Sound bereits sehr gut gepolished
- knackige Kämpfe

Contra:
- wenig eigene Ideen
- abseits der Kämpfe nur wenig zutun
- RNG kann einen Run direkt am Anfang beenden

=============== ENGLISH ================

How about we be the "Dungeon Keeper"... but we do so in "Darkest Dungeon"?

Pro:
- Darkest Dungeon but you are the enemy
- Graphic and Sound is very very polished
- hard battles

Con:
- only very few own ideas
- not a lot to do outside of battles
- RNG can end your run on the very beginning

Thank you very much! I needed this Soundtrack in my life <3

I so love this game. Reminded me a bit of "Lovely Planet" and "Clustertruck".

I have 2 points of criticism, tho:
1. To be honest, I expected the difficulty to spike at arround room 6, exept of the last 2 levels it was way to easy.
2. the music is placed inside the room somewere instead of being "inside the players head", right? This was quiet disorienting in a couple of levels and sounded really sh*tty. (which is so sad, because the choice of music was just perfect!)

Would pay ~15-20$ for a more fleshed out game with more and harder levels. This was way to short.

Any chance, you could add a .txt with direct links to all the music tracks? I searched on the soundcloud links given in the readme but haven't found all of them. But I waaaant them badly, because as I said: great choice of music!!

I have a looping day again, sadly. Friday evening goes to Bus back home Thursday's... :(
Also a collission bug home on tuesday or wednesday at the stove, but I can enter the bed anyways.

Damn I don't have any luck with your game... :-(

============= GERMAN ==============
(english below)

Ein süß zusammengedampfte Variante der Elder-Scrolls-Diebesgilde mit einem lustigen Twist. Fräulein Langfinger auf der Suche nach legendärem Loot.

Pro:
- Möglichkeit alles zu stehlen führt zu amüsanten Situationen
- Missionen in Form von Rätseln für legendäres Loot
- schöne Präsentation

Contra:
- bei vielen Gegenständen unmöglich sofort das richtige Item zu greifen
- keine Indikatoren wann man gesehen und gejagt wird
- Tutorial zu Textlastig

============= ENGLISH ==============

A cute and small version of the Elder Scrolls thiefesguild with a fun twist. Ms pickpocket looking for legendary loot.

Pro:
- Option to steal everything leads to amusing situations
- Missions done through riddles for legendary loot
- nicely presented

Con:
- with a bunch of Items it's impossible to grab the correct item immediatly
- no indicators when being seen or hunted
- tutorial too text-heavy

I was playing 1.3.3 like 2 hours ago, the loop from Thursday to Tuesday still occured for me (windows-version). also had a lot of the bugs, seen in the video in the other thread. (missing collission in the office one day, double character at the end of wednesday (?).. saaad. want to play it through (and also do a video about it then)

=========== GERMAN ===========
(english below)

Ein 3D Streets of Rage Demo wirkt wie ein Proof of Concept mit guter Grundlage die Lust auf das fertige Spiel macht.

Pro:
- Grundlegende Kampfmechanik fühlt sich gut an
- sehr gute Vermittlung von Entfernungen und Angriffsreichweite

Contra:
- Stunlock für Gegner zu lang
- Grafikstil verursache Motion Sickness (persönliche Erfahrung)*

=========== ENGLISH ===========

A 3D Streets of Rage, Demo currently feels like a Proof of Concept. Good basic mechanics, which make me want to see the final game.

Pro:
- Basic combat mechanics feel great
- very good feel for range between characters, objects and attacks

Con:
- Stunlock for enemies is way to long
- graphical style sometimes induces motion sickness (personal experience)*

* I like the artstyle very much, but I really have a big problem for playing it longer than 20 minutes without getting a headache or feeling sick which is super sad!! :(

========== GERMAN ==========
(english below)

Ein Fan-Spiel zu "Minit" mit dem Konzept auf die Spitze getrieben. 1 Sekunde und tot.

Pro:
- "Minit" auf extrem
- Speedrun-Gefühl sehr gut
- Spieler muss extrem akkurat steuern

Contra:
- leider viel zu kurz

A "Minit"-Fan-Game with the concept cranked up to 11. One Second and.. dead.

Pro:
- "Minit" on steroids
- very good speedrun-feeling
- player has to move very accuratly

Con:
- way to short (wanna see way more! Dev, please do more puzzles!!)

==========GERMAN==========
(english below)

"Sid Meier's: Pirates!"-Lite mit etwas Pixel Pirates und einem Hauch Monkey Island Humor. Macht mehr Spaß als man denkt.

Pro:
- klares Gameplay, schnell zu erlernen
- Steuerung geht flüssig von der Hand
- Humor und Atmosphäre Sorgen dafür, dass man mehr entdecken will

Contra:
- keine Hauptquest, Entwicklung der Welt nur über Nebenaufträge
- Schwertkampf ist einen Tick zu schwierig
- Schiffskämpfe oftmals ein DPS-Race

==========ENGLISH==========

"Sid Meier's: Pirates!"-Lite with a little bit "Pixel Pirates" and some Monkey Island humor. More enjoyable then you might think.

Pro:
- easy to learn Gameplay mechanics
- easy controlls allow very fast play
- humor and atmosphere make you want to explore more

Con:
- no Main-Storyline, world only develops via sidequests
- Sword-fighting a little too hard (a little more time to see enemy attacks coming would be great)
- ship-fights are a DPS-Race for the most part

Heya!
Glad, you liked the video! - honestly, watching it makes me scream at myself, it is really hard to play this game while trying to focus also on talking about it ^^"

I already thought, that the lack of zoom is down to PICO-8 (even though I know nothing about it, but the comments show me it is very limited in what you can do with it). But since I tried to show the game of as what it is, I felt the need to at least address it as an issue (when you are able to build longer slipways it was more a problem then in the early phase of the game).

With "non-planets" I mean the ones dissappear after you scan them, aye. I had a lot of games where I started in the busiest sector and ended up with an earth-like, a water-planet and a barren and not many options. It feels like too many of them dissappear. I would feel more comfortable if it would be coded in a way, that the first x number of planets you scan have a bigger chance of being hospitable.

Oh by the way: For fun, I just tried to start the game on my iPhone and was able to at least colonize 3-4 planets and build slipways and I liked the way it looked and felt on a mobile device even though I wasn't able to move the map or use any other right-click or mouse-over actions.
Any plans for a mobile version after the full pc-version is out there? :) I pretty much enjoy the puzzle-like very light gameplay and I think this one would be a nice one to have for a 20min session on public transport.

bests,
Verg :)

--- GERMAN ---

Ein kleiner Space-Sim in dem man Anhand von gegebenen Planeten und Handelsrouten ein florierendes Reich zusammenklickt.

Pro:
- sehr simples, süchtig machendes Spielprinzip
- kurze Runden von ca. 30 Minuten
- sobald man versucht zu optimieren wird es richtig knifflig

Contra:
- kein Tutorial, Quickstart-Guide lesen für ganzen Spaß ist Pflicht (zum Glück nicht lang)
- keine Zoom-Funktion auf der Sternenkarte
- zu viele "Scheinplaneten"

_________________________________________________________________

--- ENGLISH ---

A little Space-Sim, were you build your empire with the given planets and setting up trading-routes (slipways).

Pro:
- very simple, addicting gameplay
- short rounds of arround 30minutes
- when you start to optimize, it get's really tricky

Con:
- no Tutorial, reading the quickstart-guide is obligatory for the most fun (luckily it's a short one)
- no zoom-option on the starmap
- to many "non-planets"

oh a gif just for me? that's much appreciated (I like it quiet a bit ^^)

Looking forward for more! already bookmarked the itch.io-page ;) It looks very promising. Probably coming up with a few more ideas later. (if you plan a tablet-version, I actually have quiet a good idea of how it could work for 2 players) But I want to see more of your ideas first. I honestly was surprised when I played with a friend how intense the game can get, even with just this very simple mechanics! great game-idea! :))

First Impression Video (German):

GERMAN:
Aktuell in der ersten Alpha. Mehr ein Proof of Concept, verspricht aber schon jetzt kurze intensive Taktik-Schlachten gegen Freunde. 

Pro:
- selbsterklärendes Gameplay
- kurze, spannende Runden (aktuell nur gegen Freunde am gleichen PC)

Contra:
- nur eine Karte und 3 Gebäudetypen
- kein Online-Multiplayer oder KI-Gegner

____________________________________________________

ENGLISH:

Right now in it's first Alpha. More a Proof of Concept than anything else, but already very promising with intense Tactic-Battles against friends.

Pro:
- gameplay explains itself
- short, intense Rounds (2 players only - same PC)

Con:
- only one map and 3 building-types
- no online-multiplayer nor KI-enemies

____________________________________________________

Wishlist for the Developer:
- more buildings (maybe a Loadout-System with picking 3 buildings for each battle)
- inverted colors mode / "dark mode"
- Tablet/Smartphone Version (I feel like sitting on an iPad Pro, face to face with a friend could be a lot of fun and chaos)

Looking forward for more content! :)

Na aber sowas von! ;-) Muss ja auch mal Klicks abgreifen, auf anderer Leute Spiele :-P

Ich hoffe das Video ist unterhaltsam/halbwegs Informativ geraten wenn auch sehr kurz.

Und Danke für die Nachhilfe in der Namens-Aussprache. Aber das NICHT auf Englisch auszusprechen ist echt eine Herausforderung. Aber das hörst du gaaaaaaanz bestimmt grad zum ersten Mal ^^"

cya, ich stalke dann mal weiter die Fortschritte auf Twitter!

PS: Ich hoffe danach gehts mit SKTBRD weiter bei dir!! Da wart ich ja auch drauf!

(GERMAN)

Die 2$ "Demo" zum baldigem Party-Klassiker "Last Man Sitting". Ein Modus zum Austesten im Couch-CoOp, verspricht großes für das vollständige Spiel.

First Impression Video:

Pro:

- ein (gepolishter) Spielmodus aus "Last Man Sitting" (Fußball)
- Couch-CoOp an der Tastatur oder mit Gamepads für bis zu 4 Spieler
- leicht erlernbar und hat (mit Freunden) großes Suchtpotential

Contra:
- kein Online-Multiplayer
- sehr spartanisch im Umfang

(ENGLISH)
The 2$ "Demo" for the upcoming partygame-classic "Last Man Sitting". One Gamemode to test in a couch-coop enviroment. Gives me a positive impression for the upcoming full game.

Pro:
- one (polished) Mode (Soccer)
- Couch-CoOp on Keyboard or xBox-Gamepads for up to 4 players
- easy to learn and (with friends) a huge timesink

Contra:
- no online-multiplayer
- very scarce contentwise

I did a first impression (german only) as well. Loved the game, played it in one sitting!

Hope you will come back to the game after university. I would pay 30$ for a good lenghy campaign in this style! (if KI in fights are getting better, that was my only problem with the game)

love it! <3

Cheers for the update. I found the game a few weeks ago and still playing the hell out of it. Also still figuring out new stuff (I was happy like a little boy when I found out it is absolutely possible to dig through mountains with a pickaxe).

Please take your time, make the game as good as possible without forgetting about yourself. But you seem good in that regard :) definitively looking forward to the dev build, to help out. Maybe also translating... well we'll see.
Any chance, you'll set up a discord at some point?

Have a good night!
bests
Verganon