Looking for feedback on our first game demo. It's a small arcade adventure game with pixel art. Currently there are just a couple levels, but it's plenty to assess the mechanics, art, and... fun.
We would really like to get feedback on the progress.
Very nice, good feeling, nice slo-mo effects. I like it.
Suggestions:
- I died like 10 times in level 2, make a checkpoint in between, because it's hard
- make the arrow at the top bigger, I didn't notice it at first and wondered where to go
- if you come to the scroll that teaches you the air dash, I didn't read it at first, because the acid animation keeps running, which suggests that the game continues and the acid keeps raising and I'm about to die. Make it clear that the game is paused
- generally speaking, I think it's a bad idea to teach new things under stress. players need time to try it out.
- From level 1 to 2, you exit through the right door underneath the skeleton, but if you die and respawn, you exit through the left door to get to level 2
Awesome! The animation is phenomenal. Get some satisfying sound effects in there, and address the problems already listed Apiheld, and you're well on your way...
Thanks Namuol! We left out the individual sound effects because it was crippling performance in some browsers. Maybe if we get it onto some other platforms it will run better, and we can add them back in. (Maybe somebody knows something about sound in browsers I don't?)
Apiheld, yeah, Safari was a particular mess, but all of them seemed to hang if you had too many sounds going on at once. Like say picking up several coins in a row and playing a sound for each shut the frame rate to almost zero till the sounds played through.
Played thru first level, died 3 times and quitted. I guess I'm getting old.
Pros
+ Nice graphics, smooth gameplay, good plot (I wonder what's tis all 'bout)
+ Scroll UI on which the messages are written and also the art style on them is really nice.
Cons
- Dude, game is hard. At least in the first level make me collect only 10-20 coins and just show the bats. Next level throw in some demons etc. Better yet, don't give me a sword at the first level, just make me collect the coins.
- I didn't understand if this is a infinite-runner/jumper type game or the "torrent" actually finishes and I should collect that much coins?
- Minor point: I didn't like the curled-ball style animation for the sec on-jump, it reminds me of Sonic (the Hedgehog), which I can't picture together with any mention of Hades ;)
Hey Dungeonmaster! Thanks for the feedback! About the nice things - thanks! About the cons, Agreed, we need to make the journey more focused and concise. Carry the player through it. I think we tried to give a sampling of several different aspects of the game quickly since we consider this a demo for a much larger experience. We'll just have to see if we get there.
- Understood about the too hard thing.
Have to say, this is a really nice platforming game! Being a fan of retro/giant pixels, i liked the graphics too!
The action and controls are great, nice to see there's also wall jumping, keep things that way!
A few not so good things now:
1 - i've noticed that you can double jump infinitely. Hold UP and keep pressing X, you'll only lose a small bit of magic on the first double jump, then you can keep on forever.
2 - If you hit an enemy while jumping, it'll reset your double jump. Is it supposed to work like this?
3 - Sometimes, when i didn't have enough coins, the skeleton took more coins than I actually had, the counter ended up displaying values like -5, -7,-3.
4 - There is no clear indication that you're supposed to go to the next level. The skeleton gatekeeper just asks for more coins for each level.
The first time around I just went back through the left gate and repeated level 2 over and over. I reloaded the game, got through the level and then went to the right gate, with success. I felt dumb, lol
This could be somewhat of a problem too, no? If you keep repeating the level after you're supposed to proceed, the extra coins go toward unlocking which one, after all? The counter just kept increasing, so at first I thought it was because it was a demo where you're not supposed to go further.
My biggest complaint really is nº4. My suggestions would be:
1 - Skeleton informs how much coins you still need to unlock which level (you still need 100 coins complete level with 91 you still need 9 coins)
2 - Skeleton informs when the right gate can be opened
Hey, this is really great I gotta say. The graphics are excellent and the bullet time stuff works really really well. I would love to see this full screen.
Really like level 1 and how the mechanics unfold pretty naturally. Will definitly be keeping my eye on this one as it develops. You thinking of getting this bundled up for iOS using ejecta?
Thanks for the feedback guys! We're already partway through a tweaks demo that hopefully addresses most people's feedback (outside of just making it a full game!) I'll post again when we have something to show!
Oh, forgot to answer on the iOS question. Maybe if somebody comes out with a decent controller for iDevices. I can't imagine trying to play this on a touch screen, it would be maddening I think. We are trying to determine what all platforms to go after now though.
You may want to try shimming HTML Audio with Audia which would replace use of the Audio tag with calls to the Web Audio API when available (which is supported by the latest version of Safari).
the intro screen was very well done and brought back memories. loved the castlevania-like feel of the game. the idle animation and many of the sprites, and the overall flow was extremely well done. i think the first scroll should have a down arrow key thought bubble or make it appear on the character when you get close. i actually didn't figure out that "down" arrow was the way to read scrolls until later. level 2 is very hard and mostly because there is on indicator of where the flying enemies are.
