(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers. Edit: And most/all issues reported here were fixed in the meantime.)
Having a light orb in front of you for lighting is quite clever.
The damage indicator is really nice. Until yesterday, I didn't even know the compass hud element existed, and on the next day I already see a game use it in a hacky way.
The footstep sounds on the floating stone platforms in the stone level have reverberation. This is genius.
The dialogue text was cut off sometimes.
In the floating stone platform area, there's a spot where it's not deep to fall down, and you can see the ground. It's unexpected that one dies there, but unexpected in a bad way.
You can easily get out of the level in the first level, and directly go to the last level. This doesn't seem intended.
There are too many enemies at once. They spawn faster than I could ever kill them, even with full weapon upgrades. This makes the game too hard. There should be something like a limit of enemy count per space.
The goal and overall plot could be communicated better.
Picking up items by walking over them doesn't work reliably.
I haven't seen anything fitting the "unexpected" theme.
The boss fight was boring. There was no boss music, and all I had to do was run in circles and shoot for minutes.
There was no feeling of progress thorough the game. Finishing it didn't feel satisfying.
I'm happy you like the light orb. I spent WAY too much time on making it work absolutely smoothly with natural-looking movement without lag .
I don't think I used the damage indicator in a hacky way. It works perfectly, does it not?
The reverb works with the most boring trick ever: Duplicate the normal stone nodes, but add a reverb sound. All reverb sounds are actually new sound files, too. Totally unimpressive programming-wise but the player doesn't have to know :D
The dialog text bug is the worst bug in the game ever because in the final day, I actually added code to make the font smaller on small resolutions but some people still got the bug because I chose a bad cut-off point :-( I'm SUPER mad about this bug because my last-day bugfix was still buggy lol
Good point about the floating stones. I think I should make the chasm waaaaaay deeper so it's actually believable that you die
Great job in finding a way to escape the level! I tried hard to make that impossible but I overlooked something lol. The forest level is the last level I made in the final day so it was hastily put together lol. Not surpried it is THAT level that still had a bug
I agree there are WAY too many mobs. Mob spawning is the most broken/least polished aspect and the only thing left on my TODO list before I ran out of time. Sadly, due to personal life issues (nothing serious, don't worry) and just bad time planning, I failed. I decided to make a game with mobs this time, which was a big risk because of my lack of experience with them. Maybe if I had chosen a less risky game idea, I would have won. :P
Item pickup does work reliably but you must stand VERY close to the thing. I think I should increase the pickup range
The unexpected part is the reveal in the final level where you learn where all the shadows are coming from. Your light orb literally says the word "unexpected" in the dialog. THAT is the unexpected part. OK, OK, I admit this is quite "forced". tbh I mostly ignored the theme but still tried to apply it somehow. lol now you know the truth. :P
Goal could be communicated better: Yeah, the wizard is a little cryptic and doesn't explain what the light crstals are for which I think is pointlessly confusing. But apparently not THAT confusing since you obviously managed to break the shadow bush barrier
No boss music: Yes, but this is why: This was the first time ever I composed and published my own music! This already cost me a lot of time. Adding a boss music would have completely destroyed my time schedule. And actually I tried anyway but failed to come up with a good melody but failed as I'm not really a musician lol so I just had to scrap the idea. I'm still immensely proud I managed to put any of my music in the game in the first place tho :P
Boring boss fight: Yeah, my experience with mob development is still low and it's a very very basic mob but at least it's not as broken as the other mobs. But I see if I can make the final boss more interesting
No feeling of progress ... I don't know what to say about that. Very subjective, hard to "fix"
I don't think I used the damage indicator in a hacky way. It works perfectly, does it not?
It does work perfectly! But it's the compass hud element, not damage_indicator. Who would've thought this worked so well? => Hacky, imo. (Which is not a bad thing. :D)
The reverb works with the most boring trick ever: Duplicate the normal stone nodes, but add a reverb sound. All reverb sounds are actually new sound files, too. Totally unimpressive programming-wise but the player doesn't have to know :D
In the end it's simple, yes. But if you haven't seen this simple technique before, the idea is not boring at all!
Great job in finding a way to escape the level!
Thanks! :D
That way I was also one of the players who encountered the darkness at the world border. It was nice to see you thought of someone getting there.
Btw. the spot where I escaped was at: (56,62,214) (If positions aren't always the same, for orientation, the first campfire of the first level is at: (24,53,224)) (There might also be more holes elsewhere.)
Goal could be communicated better: Yeah, the wizard is a little cryptic and doesn't explain what the light crstals are for which I think is pointlessly confusing. But apparently not THAT confusing since you obviously managed to break the shadow bush barrier
Before I found the first light crystal, I didn't know at all where I could find one. I thought it was some kind of drop. The first light crystal shrine also wasn't visible from far away. In the end I managed to do it because there was nothing else to do, but a player shouldn't have to bruteforcefully search through the world, imo.
=> Some hint, via dialogue or so, where light crystals can be found would be good.
No boss music: Yes, but this is why: This was the first time ever I composed and published my own music! This already cost me a lot of time. Adding a boss music would have completely destroyed my time schedule.
Understandable.
I'm still immensely proud I managed to put any of my music in the game in the first place tho :P
And you should! The music did it's job well most of the time. You'll probably get more effective at making music with time. ^^
No feeling of progress ... I don't know what to say about that. Very subjective, hard to "fix"
To make this more concrete:
You can visit all but the last level from the beginning already.
Enemies don't get considerably more difficult over the levels.
The player doesn't get that powerful in the end. With all the upgrades I'd expect the first level to be a cakewalk, but it isn't.
After beating the game, the world still looks the same. (I understand why you did this, and I've read the dialogue where it says the forest has to regenerate. But still, some sort of trophy at least would be good.)
In the floating stone platform area, there's a spot where it's not deep to fall down, and you can see the ground. It's unexpected that one dies there, but unexpected in a bad way.
You can easily get out of the level in the first level, and directly go to the last level. This doesn't seem intended.
There are too many enemies at once.
Picking up items by walking over them doesn't work reliably.
(Disclaimer: This review was made in the context of the game jam 2023. May contain spoilers. Edit: And most/all issues reported here were fixed in the meantime.)
(to be continued ...)
(1/2)
It does work perfectly! But it's the
compasshud element, notdamage_indicator. Who would've thought this worked so well? => Hacky, imo. (Which is not a bad thing. :D)In the end it's simple, yes. But if you haven't seen this simple technique before, the idea is not boring at all!
Thanks! :D
That way I was also one of the players who encountered the darkness at the world border. It was nice to see you thought of someone getting there.
Btw. the spot where I escaped was at: (56,62,214) (If positions aren't always the same, for orientation, the first campfire of the first level is at: (24,53,224)) (There might also be more holes elsewhere.)
Before I found the first light crystal, I didn't know at all where I could find one. I thought it was some kind of drop. The first light crystal shrine also wasn't visible from far away. In the end I managed to do it because there was nothing else to do, but a player shouldn't have to bruteforcefully search through the world, imo. => Some hint, via dialogue or so, where light crystals can be found would be good.
(2/2)
Understandable.
And you should! The music did it's job well most of the time. You'll probably get more effective at making music with time. ^^
To make this more concrete:
In version 1.1.0, these points are fixed now: