Hello but before I say my thing I want you to change or I think it cool, you made a game that is amazing even on my toaster! :)
( Take this with a grain of salt its just me opinion )
1.) It was a little confusing that when I want to chose different things from my Inventory I had to scroll down to go right and when I scroll up it goes left and it confused me very much. 2.) My computer is a literal toaster so it was very laggy so It would be cool if you could optimize it a little bit and to put at the settings to make the game a little smaller or more optimize. 3.) This one is just me and my opinion when you are holding a weapon the cursor will change into the square cursor thingy, and if you are not then it will just stay the same. And also when you hold left click the weapon you are holding willjust keep swinging with a cooldown 4.) This game is amazing and nothing else just amazing 5.) the girl version of zote looks like zotes mother so you now maybe change it eehhhhh? 6.) I have no idea how the rolling thing works its like on a bar thingy but I have no clue what to do after the bar is gone.
Howdy! Glad you liked the game. :D I've implemented quite a few optimizations, unfortunately all of the AI and other features I'm using are quite resource intensive. But I'll keep finding ways to optimize it where I can. :)
I'm going to be adding full character customization at some point so it shouldn't be an issue in the future, though I quite like how she looks. However I should note that the player isn't Zoe. Zoe is currently a mystery. :)
Yeah, still trying to figure out how I want to do the dodge. It uses a mana bar. I did this so you couldn't spam it outside of combat, but it is a little awkward. I'll keep workshopping it.
Thank you! It has been a lot of work, haha. I've been working 7 days a week, 6-12 hours a day for the past 4 months. Exhausting work, but I wanted to make something nice for the Kickstarter. Thankfully have gotten a bit of rest lately.
Hey, I followed your Youtube-Channel and I really like your work. It looks promising and really nice. Lots of the negativ points in the other comments seem to be connected to the early version of the game, things like Gamepad or music transition may come later.
The only thing I miss for your Kickstarter campaign is your unique selling point. A Zelda-Like with taming and house-building is kind of nice and your demo looks smooth but its all kind of basic. Of course there will be some interesting mechanics or taming of really big and dangerous beasts or something like that, but its not even implied in the trailer or so.
In my opinion it was a little bit early for kickstarter. Even your planned features on your KS Site are very thin.
Have you ever played 9th Dawn III? It has some simularities (although your grafics are much better) and it has a huge open world as its unique selling point. I don't want to say that open world would be a good point for you, only that 15 bugs is a lot of money for a game that only shows me where it starts but gives almost no clue about where it goes... Maybe you add some ideas about the "late game" to your kickstarter or maybe even some pics or concept art...
I was never going to do a verbose Kickstarter. Even if I did it a year from now it'd look about the same. I'm a simple and straight to the point. Same with the game idea. I wouldn't call it a zelda-like, but small open world RPG with pet taming that focuses on character relationships is all the USP I'm interested in doing as an indie dev. I'm not trying to break ground here, just make a pleasantly simple little game.
I'm not designing with speedrunning in mind exactly. You're the only person I'm aware of to mention the freeze framing, but I'll take a look. And from what I've seen of speed-running, they almost always avoid battles anyhow.
As much as I'd love to let you explore the world more, that's not the point of the demo and would be impossible for me to create in such a short timespan. The purpose of a demo is to show you what the game has planned. If I had those areas built then it wouldn't be a demo but an actual game.
There's going to be quite a variety of weapons in the game. I gave the axe to show that various weapon types are available, and the flame sword was to show that weapon enchantments are also implemented. It's difficult to spread loot out over such a short demo, but won't be so in your face in the full game. I just want to give people a chance to play with whatever toy tickles their fancy.
There's plenty of people speedrunning the game already, I just meant that I personally am not designing with speed running in mind. I will improve things where I can, but I'm more interested game feel over decreasing people's run times.
Zoe isn't a reference to Hollow Knight. I've barely played the game (got stuck on the first encounter with Hornet) and don't even know who Zote is. :) I just picked the name Zoe because it's funny and sounds a bit magical.
Howdy. :) Thank you for the feedback. You mention that a demo should be a small vertical slice but then mention that the demo is too shallow, which in my opinion goes against each other. A vertical slice is a focused representation of the game's core mechanics. To go into depth with these mechanics would be more of a horizontal slice.
The content wasn't included for the sake of it. I included a bunch of weapon types because the game is going to feature a bunch of weapon types of which I only gave a few. I gave them to you early so that you could choose which one you prefered and play around with it before the game ended, which is why I don't give them later on in the demo because that would be frustrating to get a new weapon and get to kill 2 things with it.
The gameplay loop I have planned is that you will interact with the village, advance their story (bit like Stardew Valley in this regard), run off to a dungeon and do fun stuff there, then come back and repeat. I think I've demonstrated that. Granted this comment is from an older version before I could really implement all of that before the deadline, but my gameplay loop is there.
It would be impossible for me to make a demo with an open world. The open world doesn't exist yet. Railroading still exists in open world games. Think saving the Princess in Link to the Past, or escaping your prison through the sewers in Oblivion. Usually done at the start so as not to overwhelm the player.
Thank you for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
The bug catching, fishing, and taming will be expanded more yeah. The first two not greatly so but thet will serve as collectables, with unique variants being found throughout the world, they'll be a way to earn money, and you'll probably be able to decorate your house with them. It's meant to be something akin to Animal Crossing in that regard. I can see how it would be seen as adding them in for the sake of it, but their purpose is to demonstrate the more tranquil aspects of the game. I'm merging aRPG gameplay with a sort of Animal Crossing slice of life genre. Taming will see a lot more improvements as pets will have happiness, skills, learn tricks, etc. They're not meant to be a core part of the gameplay though, just a fun little thing if you like having a pet.
I should add some items to the blacksmith though, yes. To me, shop vendors in games aren't really where I get unique items, they're usually nothing special about them so I didn't think about adding much to them, just a way for you to acquire a common item if you missed it in the forest, or somehow lost it. I'll probably make a new weapon or two to add there. Won't take from the forest because they're there to show you front and center that a wide variety of weapon types exists, and you're supposed to choose the one you like best. Not meant as a progression thing.
This isn't a complete vertical slice, to be sure. It's a demo of the features that I think are more essential to the gameplay, being the character interactions, story, and combat. I have a lot more planned that I'll be working on in the next couple of years, but would be beyond the scope of this demo. Some will get added in later, but I don't want to put everything into the demo.
A time mechanic is intended, yes. :) It's already implemented, just disabled for the demo because it isn't necessary, and I still have to work on the lighting system. It'll affect things like crop growth when that system is in place (just want to say that this isn't a farming game, but you'll have the option to grow higher quality foods for the "potion" crafting system), certain monsters will come out at different times of day, etc.
I can understand the linear frustrations. My thinking was that I only wanted the player to play this demo about 10-15 minutes. If I give them large branching paths then they might get lost and give up before reaching the end. This is just a demo, so I'm thinking most people aren't invested enough to get lost and find their way around as much as they would be in a full game. I wouldn't in a demo at least. When I play a demo, I just want a quick summary of what the game is about. I might create some more branches to explore though, but nothing serious.
Highly anticipated and it was great! The town seemed a bit too big, so I agree with other comments that something like a map would be very useful. I still enjoyed this demo a lot, and I can't wait to play the finished version!
There are some obvious problems, I suppose pretty easily fixable:
1. The in-game text sticks together. 2. I keep trying to interact things with right-click, while I should have use "E". It's probably just because I played Minecraft and Terraria, but still, even if it had been documented on the UI, the input method still feels unnecessarily complicated. 3. some sprites flash pixel gaps while camera moving.
And, there's some other problem, which won't be easy, and probably won't be popular opinion... I might be wrong about the reason and the solution, but the feeling don't lie.
I'm going to just straightly say it. I don't feel this demo is fun. (To prevent people thinking I will hate this kind of game no matter what: I love A Link to the past.)
As a guy that has a dream to create games with Godot, I would tear apart every aspect of the project just to see how everything work, because from a tech demo perspective, this is phenomenon. But as a player, I can't even finish the demo in the first run. I skipped a few dialogue, and after that, I'm stopped from exploring any part of the map expect the town, which really has nothing going on. I kind of rage quit, but to wrote this comment, I opened the demo again and finish it, just to appropriately write this.
I'll start with the first NPC encounter. The very annoying thing is, as soon as I take out the skeletons around her, it cuts. It cuts to she and I stand in pre-determined positions, have a not-so-inspiring dialogue, and FORCES ME TO FOLLOW HER. Can't it be like, if I don't, I have a relationship drop or something? The map is already liner, I can only head to the town in the end. Why do I have to be chained onto the NPC I just met? "Pre-determined" is the keyword here. I can't decide if I want to talk to her, I can't decide if I want to go in town, I can't decide if I want to go on my own, but I still have to follow her with my own hand...cutscene would actually be better I think. The only time these can be fun is LiSA that kind of game, not in an Open-World RPG.
Same thing happens later, again and again. I'm constantly put into situations where I have no choice but to perform what the game tells me to do. And the story...is at least not engaging enough for me to justify all of these. The only freedom I have is how to approach combats...but I'm not rewarded for playing creative, so I just keep shooting, playing as safe as possible, which isn't very fun. Sometimes there are interesting looking thing come in sight, but they don't do anything. It might just be worse then having nothing in the first place.
All the game elements doesn't feel cohesive at all. The inventory system, the combat, the town, the story, the characters, feels like they just stack upon one another, to fulfill between whatever the game is truly about. I know every feature is hand-coded, but it doesn't feel like it would make much difference if they're glued templates
The point is, the game feels very strict, yet I don't have the slightest idea what it want to say. You meet NPCs because the game demands you, you build relationship by selecting the first option in the dialogue; You meet events because someone told you to, and isn't even allow to do otherwise: And the "Open word", is just bridges between events, no branching path, no hidden roads, generally offers no enjoyment to explore whatsoever. What's the core experience? Are all these really necessary? I mean I can enjoy any part of it, but not when they are trying to get themselves screen time, and kind of killing each other. When everything is important, nothing is.
I know this is just a demo, but a demo is supposed to represent the overall goal of the project. (I mean, this is probably the tutorial, but still.) If the final product offer the same kind of feedback loop, where I just stump upon pre-determined non-inspiring events one after another, I'll probably quit before any fun really starts to pick up. I'll buy it regardless, but I'd more appreciate a game that has a clearer theme.
Great work! Nice to finally get my hands on what you've been showing on your YouTube channel.
Not much to complain about. Like some others, I think the buildings could be a little smaller so the town is less sprawling overall. Fireballs are kinda hard to see. More indication of the shortcut keys would be nice, even just in the description. I did not catch on to z and x at all during my first playthrough, (although I did go into the inventory screen, so maybe that's on me).
The music was probably the weak point of the experience for me (the songs themselves, I mean. The lack of transitions is fine), but even that was nice enough.
I would also welcome gamepad input. Hold-down-the-button power attacks would be nice too.
But those are all pretty insignificant. On the whole it was fun!
Just finished the demo, and I have some things to say:
(warning: very long)
Negatives:
-The bow was unsatisfying as it is the only auto-fire/swing weapon (from what I could tell) and it feels like it should be charged until its released for use in powerful sneak attacks
-Adding on to that last one, the weapons other than the bow feel like they should be auto-fire/swing because rapidly clicking is slightly annoying
-The pixelated tooltip text was squished together and was pretty hard to read
-The cave had horizontal lines in between textures that disappeared and reappeared as you walked, kind of like Minecraft's line bug (which might just be on my computer but idk)
-Like FilloSov said, once the player is noticed, the enemies should probably prioritize them instead of each other. Then you still have the nice detail of them fighting each other, but also makes the player more involved in the fighting instead of waiting for them to kill each other and then start fighting
And for things that are probably just because its a demo:
-Again, as others said, the town feels empty but big enough for a map to be necessary, the music transitions need a little work, there was little to interact with, and a tutorial should probably be added (or at least a tutorial to teach the buttons)
-The magic abilities (fireball and necromance things) seemed strange to have that early on without learning them
-There was little to no warning or context when major events/teleportation happened, which I hope is just because the demo is as short as it is
-Settings like resolution changing (if it doesn't mess with things to see further) and button mapping would be helpful as I personally find it awkward to hit z and x for abilities and tab for inventory
-The wizard's dialogue sprite was cut off to make a square sprite, making it look off (maybe pull a Stardew Valley and have a box around the sprite?)
Some positives:
-The melee combat feels nice
-The art style is amazing and well-developed
-I enjoy this game even though I don't play RPGs often
(sorry I'm not good at giving compliments lol)
I wish the demo was released later on in development as it feels too short, and like I said before, needed that extra time to fill with more story context (unless it would spoil something). If any of these things were intended, then keep them in (these are just my opinions: it's your game so do as you please). The game feels like its heading in the right direction and I'm excited to see how the game looks in a finished state.
liked running into enemies that were fighting each other
no apparent controller support
full screen doesn’t appear to work quite right on Linux
had a skeli attack when its hit animation
The ‘out of stamina’ sound seems to be out of place (not match other sounds)
needs an eat animation/sound
sword attacks 1x per click, bow repeats as long as the button is held down - I also expected the bow to charge when held down and shoot on release
wasn’t exactly clear if there were any specific goals/etc
the z/x key ability - I would like to see them in some sort of on screen UI
would be nice to have a close button when in a shop, had to guess at esc to close it
it wasn’t unclear to go to the village elder’s house to continue the quest(s)… I just found it by wandering and was about to quit thinking I hit the end of the demo
would be nice if spells targeted at the end of the cast instead of the start, so moving targets were easier to hit
Just tried the demo after having binge watched the GameDev series. I have some feedback tho, both positive and negative.
The Good:
- The art is amazing, really. I like your style and I think that you made a very good job.
- The dialogues are not a lot in this demo, but I appreciate the idea of having a town full of people to interact with.
- The feeling of the combat is really, really good, and when the monsters started mashing each others you brought a smile on my face.
The Bad:
- Even if I liked the mechanic of enemies clashing against each other, I think that when they spot the Player they should focus on him/her. It's not fun to wait every time for them to be weakened by each others.
- The town was too big and too disorienting. I was lost and I even thought on leaving the demo because of it. You could add a map or some road signs. Are you sure to keep the houses in that way? I would prefer to have smaller houses from the outside that become bigger when you enter in them so they can be closer to each other and the village will be looking better (imo)
- Ranged weapons seem to be far superior than the melee ones. This could be an impression due to the small umber of enemies in the demo, but with the magic wand or the bow is almost impossible to be hit, while with the sword you always risk to be damaged.
I wish you all of luck and I hope the kickstarter Project will perform good!
Just noticed thqt the character you control, got his sprite animation locked. For example facing the same way going up, down, left, right. If I use the weapon to another side. The sprite changes to that direction. When moving again that sprite is locked.. So bug I guess?
I think the sprite animation is locked on purpose, since you can control the direction you are facing with your mouse. In this way you can`, for example, run to the right and attack to the left at the same time. This is a design choice, not a bug
While playing, I was a bit annoyed by the music, it just changed.. nothing else.
And yes the last person to comment did say to fade in and out music, I don't really like that fix.
Recently I watched a video on adaptive music, so instead of fading in and out music, I'd like it if there was a short clip of music that would play between transitions.
Just tried the demo for a few minutes. I know I'm being pretty picky, but if you want my feedback and opinions on it, here it is:
- There was no warning here that it was a godot dev build, so the godot cmd window scared me a bit. I also had to run the game as admin to get rid of some error, and closing the window closes the game? I guess this is good for finding bugs but a slight annoyance to whoever is playing.
- There are no instructions on how to play, nor here nor ingame. Didn't figure out even how to open my inventory other than clicking chests, still don't know the game shortcuts, etc.
- The high-res font felt out of place inside the game, breaking the pixel aspect of it. I'd have preferred a pixelated font by a lot, personally.
- It's very easy to get lost. Nothing shows you where to go other than dialogue, you start in the middle of nowhere, I can't see my objectives nowhere on the screen nor on menus. Even a minimap or map button could have helped. This is the main thing that drove me away from the demo. I get lost easily and couldn't enjoy the demo mainly because of this.
And lastly there are a few things related to polishing that I can forgive since it's a demo, but really should be fixed before the final game in my opinion:
- The music transition felt horrendous when changing areas, since the old music very instantly shuts down so that the new one comes in. Should have been a smooth fade, of course.
- The town felt very empty; this is very obviously because it's just a demo for now and will very likely be fixed soon, but adding houses with nothing inside and fences with no animals inside (not even birds) still hurt me a little to look at. I personally would have liked if you just placed a bunch of birds inside the fence as placeholders, at least, or something like that.
There are a few other things that I already forgot or are just nitpicks, but this is my opinion on the game. The thing I liked most was the game atmosphere indeed, but with all the above in the way it felt a bit like an unfinished walking simulator. I do think the final product will be really good, though.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Can you upload a 32bit version for windows
Hello but before I say my thing I want you to change or I think it cool, you made a game that is amazing even on my toaster! :)
( Take this with a grain of salt its just me opinion )
1.) It was a little confusing that when I want to chose different things from my Inventory I had to scroll down to go right and when I scroll up it goes left and it confused me very much.
2.) My computer is a literal toaster so it was very laggy so It would be cool if you could optimize it a little bit and to put at the settings to make the game a little smaller or more optimize.
3.) This one is just me and my opinion when you are holding a weapon the cursor will change into the square cursor thingy, and if you are not then it will just stay the same. And also when you hold left click the weapon you are holding willjust keep swinging with a cooldown
4.) This game is amazing and nothing else just amazing
5.) the girl version of zote looks like zotes mother so you now maybe change it eehhhhh?
6.) I have no idea how the rolling thing works its like on a bar thingy but I have no clue what to do after the bar is gone.
7.) the game is frickin amazing. :)
Howdy! Glad you liked the game. :D I've implemented quite a few optimizations, unfortunately all of the AI and other features I'm using are quite resource intensive. But I'll keep finding ways to optimize it where I can. :)
I'm going to be adding full character customization at some point so it shouldn't be an issue in the future, though I quite like how she looks. However I should note that the player isn't Zoe. Zoe is currently a mystery. :)
Yeah, still trying to figure out how I want to do the dodge. It uses a mana bar. I did this so you couldn't spam it outside of combat, but it is a little awkward. I'll keep workshopping it.
Thank you for playing!
Wait, the character isn't Zoe??!! now I am even more hyped for the game to be finished. :)
Played the game and thought it was terrific! Not sure how you did all of this by yourself, but, please keep up the good work and finish it out!!
Thank you! It has been a lot of work, haha. I've been working 7 days a week, 6-12 hours a day for the past 4 months. Exhausting work, but I wanted to make something nice for the Kickstarter. Thankfully have gotten a bit of rest lately.
Hey, I followed your Youtube-Channel and I really like your work. It looks promising and really nice. Lots of the negativ points in the other comments seem to be connected to the early version of the game, things like Gamepad or music transition may come later.
The only thing I miss for your Kickstarter campaign is your unique selling point. A Zelda-Like with taming and house-building is kind of nice and your demo looks smooth but its all kind of basic. Of course there will be some interesting mechanics or taming of really big and dangerous beasts or something like that, but its not even implied in the trailer or so.
In my opinion it was a little bit early for kickstarter. Even your planned features on your KS Site are very thin.
Have you ever played 9th Dawn III? It has some simularities (although your grafics are much better) and it has a huge open world as its unique selling point. I don't want to say that open world would be a good point for you, only that 15 bugs is a lot of money for a game that only shows me where it starts but gives almost no clue about where it goes... Maybe you add some ideas about the "late game" to your kickstarter or maybe even some pics or concept art...
I was never going to do a verbose Kickstarter. Even if I did it a year from now it'd look about the same. I'm a simple and straight to the point. Same with the game idea. I wouldn't call it a zelda-like, but small open world RPG with pet taming that focuses on character relationships is all the USP I'm interested in doing as an indie dev. I'm not trying to break ground here, just make a pleasantly simple little game.
wrong whitch lol
I'm not designing with speedrunning in mind exactly. You're the only person I'm aware of to mention the freeze framing, but I'll take a look. And from what I've seen of speed-running, they almost always avoid battles anyhow.
As much as I'd love to let you explore the world more, that's not the point of the demo and would be impossible for me to create in such a short timespan. The purpose of a demo is to show you what the game has planned. If I had those areas built then it wouldn't be a demo but an actual game.
Thanks for playing. :)
There's going to be quite a variety of weapons in the game. I gave the axe to show that various weapon types are available, and the flame sword was to show that weapon enchantments are also implemented. It's difficult to spread loot out over such a short demo, but won't be so in your face in the full game. I just want to give people a chance to play with whatever toy tickles their fancy.
There's plenty of people speedrunning the game already, I just meant that I personally am not designing with speed running in mind. I will improve things where I can, but I'm more interested game feel over decreasing people's run times.
Zoe isn't a reference to Hollow Knight. I've barely played the game (got stuck on the first encounter with Hornet) and don't even know who Zote is. :) I just picked the name Zoe because it's funny and sounds a bit magical.
Howdy. :) Thank you for the feedback. You mention that a demo should be a small vertical slice but then mention that the demo is too shallow, which in my opinion goes against each other. A vertical slice is a focused representation of the game's core mechanics. To go into depth with these mechanics would be more of a horizontal slice.
The content wasn't included for the sake of it. I included a bunch of weapon types because the game is going to feature a bunch of weapon types of which I only gave a few. I gave them to you early so that you could choose which one you prefered and play around with it before the game ended, which is why I don't give them later on in the demo because that would be frustrating to get a new weapon and get to kill 2 things with it.
The gameplay loop I have planned is that you will interact with the village, advance their story (bit like Stardew Valley in this regard), run off to a dungeon and do fun stuff there, then come back and repeat. I think I've demonstrated that. Granted this comment is from an older version before I could really implement all of that before the deadline, but my gameplay loop is there.
It would be impossible for me to make a demo with an open world. The open world doesn't exist yet. Railroading still exists in open world games. Think saving the Princess in Link to the Past, or escaping your prison through the sewers in Oblivion. Usually done at the start so as not to overwhelm the player.
Thank you for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Interesting feedback, thank you. :)
The bug catching, fishing, and taming will be expanded more yeah. The first two not greatly so but thet will serve as collectables, with unique variants being found throughout the world, they'll be a way to earn money, and you'll probably be able to decorate your house with them. It's meant to be something akin to Animal Crossing in that regard. I can see how it would be seen as adding them in for the sake of it, but their purpose is to demonstrate the more tranquil aspects of the game. I'm merging aRPG gameplay with a sort of Animal Crossing slice of life genre. Taming will see a lot more improvements as pets will have happiness, skills, learn tricks, etc. They're not meant to be a core part of the gameplay though, just a fun little thing if you like having a pet.
I should add some items to the blacksmith though, yes. To me, shop vendors in games aren't really where I get unique items, they're usually nothing special about them so I didn't think about adding much to them, just a way for you to acquire a common item if you missed it in the forest, or somehow lost it. I'll probably make a new weapon or two to add there. Won't take from the forest because they're there to show you front and center that a wide variety of weapon types exists, and you're supposed to choose the one you like best. Not meant as a progression thing.
This isn't a complete vertical slice, to be sure. It's a demo of the features that I think are more essential to the gameplay, being the character interactions, story, and combat. I have a lot more planned that I'll be working on in the next couple of years, but would be beyond the scope of this demo. Some will get added in later, but I don't want to put everything into the demo.
A time mechanic is intended, yes. :) It's already implemented, just disabled for the demo because it isn't necessary, and I still have to work on the lighting system. It'll affect things like crop growth when that system is in place (just want to say that this isn't a farming game, but you'll have the option to grow higher quality foods for the "potion" crafting system), certain monsters will come out at different times of day, etc.
I can understand the linear frustrations. My thinking was that I only wanted the player to play this demo about 10-15 minutes. If I give them large branching paths then they might get lost and give up before reaching the end. This is just a demo, so I'm thinking most people aren't invested enough to get lost and find their way around as much as they would be in a full game. I wouldn't in a demo at least. When I play a demo, I just want a quick summary of what the game is about. I might create some more branches to explore though, but nothing serious.
Highly anticipated and it was great! The town seemed a bit too big, so I agree with other comments that something like a map would be very useful. I still enjoyed this demo a lot, and I can't wait to play the finished version!
Howdy, Ludos! Thanks for playing. :) A map is planned, probably in the next update.
There are some obvious problems, I suppose pretty easily fixable:
1. The in-game text sticks together.
2. I keep trying to interact things with right-click, while I should have use "E".
It's probably just because I played Minecraft and Terraria, but still, even if it had been documented on the UI, the input method still feels unnecessarily complicated.
3. some sprites flash pixel gaps while camera moving.
And, there's some other problem, which won't be easy, and probably won't be popular opinion...
I might be wrong about the reason and the solution, but the feeling don't lie.
I'm going to just straightly say it. I don't feel this demo is fun.
(To prevent people thinking I will hate this kind of game no matter what: I love A Link to the past.)
As a guy that has a dream to create games with Godot, I would tear apart every aspect of the project just to see how everything work, because from a tech demo perspective, this is phenomenon.
But as a player, I can't even finish the demo in the first run.
I skipped a few dialogue, and after that, I'm stopped from exploring any part of the map expect the town, which really has nothing going on.
I kind of rage quit, but to wrote this comment, I opened the demo again and finish it, just to appropriately write this.
I'll start with the first NPC encounter.
The very annoying thing is, as soon as I take out the skeletons around her, it cuts.
It cuts to she and I stand in pre-determined positions, have a not-so-inspiring dialogue, and FORCES ME TO FOLLOW HER.
Can't it be like, if I don't, I have a relationship drop or something?
The map is already liner, I can only head to the town in the end. Why do I have to be chained onto the NPC I just met?
"Pre-determined" is the keyword here. I can't decide if I want to talk to her, I can't decide if I want to go in town, I can't decide if I want to go on my own, but I still have to follow her with my own hand...cutscene would actually be better I think. The only time these can be fun is LiSA that kind of game, not in an Open-World RPG.
Same thing happens later, again and again. I'm constantly put into situations where I have no choice but to perform what the game tells me to do. And the story...is at least not engaging enough for me to justify all of these.
The only freedom I have is how to approach combats...but I'm not rewarded for playing creative, so I just keep shooting, playing as safe as possible, which isn't very fun.
Sometimes there are interesting looking thing come in sight, but they don't do anything. It might just be worse then having nothing in the first place.
All the game elements doesn't feel cohesive at all.
The inventory system, the combat, the town, the story, the characters, feels like they just stack upon one another, to fulfill between whatever the game is truly about.
I know every feature is hand-coded, but it doesn't feel like it would make much difference if they're glued templates
The point is, the game feels very strict, yet I don't have the slightest idea what it want to say.
You meet NPCs because the game demands you, you build relationship by selecting the first option in the dialogue;
You meet events because someone told you to, and isn't even allow to do otherwise:
And the "Open word", is just bridges between events, no branching path, no hidden roads, generally offers no enjoyment to explore whatsoever.
What's the core experience? Are all these really necessary?
I mean I can enjoy any part of it, but not when they are trying to get themselves screen time, and kind of killing each other.
When everything is important, nothing is.
I know this is just a demo, but a demo is supposed to represent the overall goal of the project. (I mean, this is probably the tutorial, but still.)
If the final product offer the same kind of feedback loop, where I just stump upon pre-determined non-inspiring events one after another, I'll probably quit before any fun really starts to pick up.
I'll buy it regardless, but I'd more appreciate a game that has a clearer theme.
Great work! Nice to finally get my hands on what you've been showing on your YouTube channel.
Not much to complain about. Like some others, I think the buildings could be a little smaller so the town is less sprawling overall. Fireballs are kinda hard to see. More indication of the shortcut keys would be nice, even just in the description. I did not catch on to z and x at all during my first playthrough, (although I did go into the inventory screen, so maybe that's on me).
The music was probably the weak point of the experience for me (the songs themselves, I mean. The lack of transitions is fine), but even that was nice enough.
I would also welcome gamepad input. Hold-down-the-button power attacks would be nice too.
But those are all pretty insignificant. On the whole it was fun!
Just finished the demo, and I have some things to say:
(warning: very long)
Negatives:
-The bow was unsatisfying as it is the only auto-fire/swing weapon (from what I could tell) and it feels like it should be charged until its released for use in powerful sneak attacks
-Adding on to that last one, the weapons other than the bow feel like they should be auto-fire/swing because rapidly clicking is slightly annoying
-The pixelated tooltip text was squished together and was pretty hard to read
-The cave had horizontal lines in between textures that disappeared and reappeared as you walked, kind of like Minecraft's line bug (which might just be on my computer but idk)
-Like FilloSov said, once the player is noticed, the enemies should probably prioritize them instead of each other. Then you still have the nice detail of them fighting each other, but also makes the player more involved in the fighting instead of waiting for them to kill each other and then start fighting
And for things that are probably just because its a demo:
-Again, as others said, the town feels empty but big enough for a map to be necessary, the music transitions need a little work, there was little to interact with, and a tutorial should probably be added (or at least a tutorial to teach the buttons)
-The magic abilities (fireball and necromance things) seemed strange to have that early on without learning them
-There was little to no warning or context when major events/teleportation happened, which I hope is just because the demo is as short as it is
-Settings like resolution changing (if it doesn't mess with things to see further) and button mapping would be helpful as I personally find it awkward to hit z and x for abilities and tab for inventory
-The wizard's dialogue sprite was cut off to make a square sprite, making it look off (maybe pull a Stardew Valley and have a box around the sprite?)
Some positives:
-The melee combat feels nice
-The art style is amazing and well-developed
-I enjoy this game even though I don't play RPGs often
(sorry I'm not good at giving compliments lol)
I wish the demo was released later on in development as it feels too short, and like I said before, needed that extra time to fill with more story context (unless it would spoil something). If any of these things were intended, then keep them in (these are just my opinions: it's your game so do as you please). The game feels like its heading in the right direction and I'm excited to see how the game looks in a finished state.
I like the target retinal shake when attacking
graphics look great
music is nice
liked running into enemies that were fighting each other
no apparent controller support
full screen doesn’t appear to work quite right on Linux
had a skeli attack when its hit animation
The ‘out of stamina’ sound seems to be out of place (not match other sounds)
needs an eat animation/sound
sword attacks 1x per click, bow repeats as long as the button is held down - I also expected the bow to charge when held down and shoot on release
wasn’t exactly clear if there were any specific goals/etc
the z/x key ability - I would like to see them in some sort of on screen UI
would be nice to have a close button when in a shop, had to guess at esc to close it
it wasn’t unclear to go to the village elder’s house to continue the quest(s)… I just found it by wandering and was about to quit thinking I hit the end of the demo
would be nice if spells targeted at the end of the cast instead of the start, so moving targets were easier to hit
Just tried the demo after having binge watched the GameDev series. I have some feedback tho, both positive and negative.
The Good:
- The art is amazing, really. I like your style and I think that you made a very good job.
- The dialogues are not a lot in this demo, but I appreciate the idea of having a town full of people to interact with.
- The feeling of the combat is really, really good, and when the monsters started mashing each others you brought a smile on my face.
The Bad:
- Even if I liked the mechanic of enemies clashing against each other, I think that when they spot the Player they should focus on him/her. It's not fun to wait every time for them to be weakened by each others.
- The town was too big and too disorienting. I was lost and I even thought on leaving the demo because of it. You could add a map or some road signs. Are you sure to keep the houses in that way? I would prefer to have smaller houses from the outside that become bigger when you enter in them so they can be closer to each other and the village will be looking better (imo)
- Ranged weapons seem to be far superior than the melee ones. This could be an impression due to the small umber of enemies in the demo, but with the magic wand or the bow is almost impossible to be hit, while with the sword you always risk to be damaged.
I wish you all of luck and I hope the kickstarter Project will perform good!
my main complaint is that i just want to be able I to interact with the emvoment like cut down trees burn bushes such and such like that
Just noticed thqt the character you control, got his sprite animation locked. For example facing the same way going up, down, left, right. If I use the weapon to another side. The sprite changes to that direction. When moving again that sprite is locked.. So bug I guess?
I think the sprite animation is locked on purpose, since you can control the direction you are facing with your mouse. In this way you can`, for example, run to the right and attack to the left at the same time. This is a design choice, not a bug
While playing, I was a bit annoyed by the music, it just changed.. nothing else.
And yes the last person to comment did say to fade in and out music, I don't really like that fix.
Recently I watched a video on adaptive music, so instead of fading in and out music, I'd like it if there was a short clip of music that would play between transitions.
If you don't understand what I mean here's the video:
reeeeeeeaaalllyyyy gooooodd, i don't have words to describe it.
Just tried the demo for a few minutes. I know I'm being pretty picky, but if you want my feedback and opinions on it, here it is:
- There was no warning here that it was a godot dev build, so the godot cmd window scared me a bit. I also had to run the game as admin to get rid of some error, and closing the window closes the game? I guess this is good for finding bugs but a slight annoyance to whoever is playing.
- There are no instructions on how to play, nor here nor ingame. Didn't figure out even how to open my inventory other than clicking chests, still don't know the game shortcuts, etc.
- The high-res font felt out of place inside the game, breaking the pixel aspect of it. I'd have preferred a pixelated font by a lot, personally.
- It's very easy to get lost. Nothing shows you where to go other than dialogue, you start in the middle of nowhere, I can't see my objectives nowhere on the screen nor on menus. Even a minimap or map button could have helped. This is the main thing that drove me away from the demo. I get lost easily and couldn't enjoy the demo mainly because of this.
And lastly there are a few things related to polishing that I can forgive since it's a demo, but really should be fixed before the final game in my opinion:
- The music transition felt horrendous when changing areas, since the old music very instantly shuts down so that the new one comes in. Should have been a smooth fade, of course.
- The town felt very empty; this is very obviously because it's just a demo for now and will very likely be fixed soon, but adding houses with nothing inside and fences with no animals inside (not even birds) still hurt me a little to look at. I personally would have liked if you just placed a bunch of birds inside the fence as placeholders, at least, or something like that.
There are a few other things that I already forgot or are just nitpicks, but this is my opinion on the game. The thing I liked most was the game atmosphere indeed, but with all the above in the way it felt a bit like an unfinished walking simulator. I do think the final product will be really good, though.
Nice!
Idk pretty good
can you add a linux build please :D