The game's great so far! Excellent job on all audiovisual departments.
The game does fall short on the some of the design choices however. Like being unable to dodge through foes but then having to dodge through an enemy (body part) during the boss battle. Also, the lack of explanation on somethings like the casting system is baffling, I had to check it on the pause menu (aka break the flow of my game) to see how it was done. Also the font choice is the oddest thing; it's a cool font, but I had difficulty reading at many points (especially in the heat of the moment). The cost of stamina for things like sprinting and dodging is also concerning; but I understand such balancing issues are part of the process.
Overall, it's good game with potential, but needs some anti-frustration techniques in its design.
You can dodge through attacks which the hand swipes, during the boss fight, are. This is the kinda video game logic that I think is usually accepted as fine. Dodging through enemies would remove too much of the difficulty.
Casting is explained when you pick up the Light spell. I made the design choice that tutorial stuff is very non intrusive and you can ignore it, so you must have missed it.
Font will change.
You can level up your endurance which increases your stamina (This is an RPG so your character will get stronger).
I wanted to explain a little why the game has instakill falling and "lag" at the end of some animations that you're talking about in your feedback.
If you press roll at the wrong time and in the wrong direction you have to live with that decision right and if you do it wrong you'll get punished, that's why the game is a souls-like but fair.
The game is supposed to be methodical where every button press fells important.
Some of this stuff will get better because it's an RPG and with more stats and talents it will get smoother.
That said, I'm making some changes based on your feedback like increased movement/sprint speed, light lasting longer, faster and improved rolling and the stun you get after getting hit in exhausted state shorter.
Souls-like that's only keyboard and mouse? Man you really want me to die a lot.
So far I really like what I see. The movement and animations are nice and smooth. The combat's decent. The range on the sword seemed very short and I kept misjudging whether I could hit an enemy or not. That and the fact that you can only attack in the cardinal direction your facing made combat a bit frustrating. But of course, like with any Souls game, part of the fun is the janky controls and the learning curve of how to work with it, so I can't fault the game too much for that.
The stamina management feels very tight throughout the game, with how you can only dodge and attack like 4 times before your stamina is empty. That isn't a negative though, since I like the slower and more methodical gameplay. Makes it hard to get out of a stick situation though.
The spells were, interesting. I'm not a big spell guy in these games, and the fact that you have to memorize a key combo to cast them made me not use them in combat much. But they worked well utility wise. The light for obvious reasons and the bolt for managing aggro. Also, as much as I liked the lighting mechanics in the second area, I feel the duration of the light spell is way too short. During multiple encounters I would cast it and it would run out before I killed everyone, which either forced me to fight blind or in a tiny area around a light source. Again, this could be intentional, but it sure as shit didn't make that encounter with the bow and two sword dudes any less of a pain in the ass.
I'm not 100% with the level design. Part of the issue is that I got lost easily. See, Dark Souls doesn't need a map because every square inch of the game is unique (for the most part), so you can be placed randomly anywhere and know right away where your at. In a game like this though, where every room and corridor uses the same few textures and templates, it makes it very hard to know where you're going. The first area wasn't bad since it was open and relatively small, but I found it difficult to navigate the lower level because of how samey every corridor felt (the light mechanic didn't help much either). Adding more features and unique designs to areas would help, or you could just keep areas small, or you could try adding a map. (Or you can just ignore me. idk I just play a lot of games, not make them)
I like the weapon mechanics. The ability to switch out secondary effects effects on the fly, with the caveat that they have harsh penalties, is an interesting design choice. You could even have a shortcut for switching effects mid fights, but that might take out some of the planning and prep you would do before fighting difficult enemies. I like it though. There's also the obvious issue of only having two weapons, which are identical to each other outside of stats. It's a demo, so that's not really a complaint.
The boss was meh. It looked cool, but I only died to it once, and that was from dodge rolling off of the edge. The sweep and projectile attacks were very easy to dodge while the slam attack was damn near impossible to time without spamming the dodge. Adding to that the ability to fully heal yourself five times and with plenty of downtime between attacks to heal, It just wasn't very exciting. Again, it's a demo, so I can't be too harsh. Just hope the bosses get a bit more spicier in the future.
Overall though, I enjoyed it. It's polished for a first showing and what's here just made me want more. I'm excited to see where it goes.
There are more weapons but they don't have finished animations so I disabled them for the demo. Each weapon is also designed to have obvious weakness like for example the swords have short range but are quite fast with wide swings. Combat was also designed around 4 directional combat to make positioning something you have to think about.
The lower level was meant to be like a maze where you can get lost, there's an npc that tells you you should follow the pink trail. Game wont have map but yes I want to make the rooms more unique.
You also wouldn't believe me how many people told me I should make the lower level completely dark with more traps :D but people also on average died to the boss like 10 times too. It's possible that you upgraded your weapons few times and leveled up too, that won't be in tutorial which basicly this demo is.
So yeah this boss is just a tutorial boss teaching you to use your dodge and be patient, only harder and spicier bosses will come after this one.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
The game's great so far! Excellent job on all audiovisual departments.
The game does fall short on the some of the design choices however. Like being unable to dodge through foes but then having to dodge through an enemy (body part) during the boss battle. Also, the lack of explanation on somethings like the casting system is baffling, I had to check it on the pause menu (aka break the flow of my game) to see how it was done. Also the font choice is the oddest thing; it's a cool font, but I had difficulty reading at many points (especially in the heat of the moment). The cost of stamina for things like sprinting and dodging is also concerning; but I understand such balancing issues are part of the process.
Overall, it's good game with potential, but needs some anti-frustration techniques in its design.
Thanks a lot for playing!
You can dodge through attacks which the hand swipes, during the boss fight, are. This is the kinda video game logic that I think is usually accepted as fine. Dodging through enemies would remove too much of the difficulty.
Casting is explained when you pick up the Light spell. I made the design choice that tutorial stuff is very non intrusive and you can ignore it, so you must have missed it.
Font will change.
You can level up your endurance which increases your stamina (This is an RPG so your character will get stronger).
Thanks again for playing and for the feedback!
:D
It looks interesting, this game will be available in Steam?
Yep. I'm also gonna be patching up this demo based on feedback, working on a big update right now that fixes lots of stuff.
Thanks for playing!
Nice, thanks for the answear :D
cant wait this game release on steam
Very nice, I can tell a lot of work has gone into this, wrote a review with my feedback.
Completed the demo and overall, I’m liking the game so far.
Excited to see how the game develops!
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
I wanted to explain a little why the game has instakill falling and "lag" at the end of some animations that you're talking about in your feedback.
If you press roll at the wrong time and in the wrong direction you have to live with that decision right and if you do it wrong you'll get punished, that's why the game is a souls-like but fair.
The game is supposed to be methodical where every button press fells important.
Some of this stuff will get better because it's an RPG and with more stats and talents it will get smoother.
Thanks again for playing!
That said, I'm making some changes based on your feedback like increased movement/sprint speed, light lasting longer, faster and improved rolling and the stun you get after getting hit in exhausted state shorter.
Thanks again!
Show post...
COOL
Souls-like that's only keyboard and mouse? Man you really want me to die a lot.
So far I really like what I see. The movement and animations are nice and smooth. The combat's decent. The range on the sword seemed very short and I kept misjudging whether I could hit an enemy or not. That and the fact that you can only attack in the cardinal direction your facing made combat a bit frustrating. But of course, like with any Souls game, part of the fun is the janky controls and the learning curve of how to work with it, so I can't fault the game too much for that.
The stamina management feels very tight throughout the game, with how you can only dodge and attack like 4 times before your stamina is empty. That isn't a negative though, since I like the slower and more methodical gameplay. Makes it hard to get out of a stick situation though.
The spells were, interesting. I'm not a big spell guy in these games, and the fact that you have to memorize a key combo to cast them made me not use them in combat much. But they worked well utility wise. The light for obvious reasons and the bolt for managing aggro. Also, as much as I liked the lighting mechanics in the second area, I feel the duration of the light spell is way too short. During multiple encounters I would cast it and it would run out before I killed everyone, which either forced me to fight blind or in a tiny area around a light source. Again, this could be intentional, but it sure as shit didn't make that encounter with the bow and two sword dudes any less of a pain in the ass.
I'm not 100% with the level design. Part of the issue is that I got lost easily. See, Dark Souls doesn't need a map because every square inch of the game is unique (for the most part), so you can be placed randomly anywhere and know right away where your at. In a game like this though, where every room and corridor uses the same few textures and templates, it makes it very hard to know where you're going. The first area wasn't bad since it was open and relatively small, but I found it difficult to navigate the lower level because of how samey every corridor felt (the light mechanic didn't help much either). Adding more features and unique designs to areas would help, or you could just keep areas small, or you could try adding a map. (Or you can just ignore me. idk I just play a lot of games, not make them)
I like the weapon mechanics. The ability to switch out secondary effects effects on the fly, with the caveat that they have harsh penalties, is an interesting design choice. You could even have a shortcut for switching effects mid fights, but that might take out some of the planning and prep you would do before fighting difficult enemies. I like it though. There's also the obvious issue of only having two weapons, which are identical to each other outside of stats. It's a demo, so that's not really a complaint.
The boss was meh. It looked cool, but I only died to it once, and that was from dodge rolling off of the edge. The sweep and projectile attacks were very easy to dodge while the slam attack was damn near impossible to time without spamming the dodge. Adding to that the ability to fully heal yourself five times and with plenty of downtime between attacks to heal, It just wasn't very exciting. Again, it's a demo, so I can't be too harsh. Just hope the bosses get a bit more spicier in the future.
Overall though, I enjoyed it. It's polished for a first showing and what's here just made me want more. I'm excited to see where it goes.
Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback!
There are more weapons but they don't have finished animations so I disabled them for the demo. Each weapon is also designed to have obvious weakness like for example the swords have short range but are quite fast with wide swings. Combat was also designed around 4 directional combat to make positioning something you have to think about.
The lower level was meant to be like a maze where you can get lost, there's an npc that tells you you should follow the pink trail. Game wont have map but yes I want to make the rooms more unique.
You also wouldn't believe me how many people told me I should make the lower level completely dark with more traps :D but people also on average died to the boss like 10 times too. It's possible that you upgraded your weapons few times and leveled up too, that won't be in tutorial which basicly this demo is.
So yeah this boss is just a tutorial boss teaching you to use your dodge and be patient, only harder and spicier bosses will come after this one.
Thanks a lot again!
is the game already have end of the demo or is just open RPG game where can be played with no end?, it's just i want to make the gameplay footage
Hello there, it has ending. Demo ends with a nice boss fight and outro animation.