I am back. I did play it with two players and recommend it that way. I played with two different people and the one that's usually bad at games picked it up faster so I don't know what you did but good job. Even if the other player was the one I got the furthest with. Over the hour combined I played with both of them, we did beat the boss once and it was by finding the room and re-entering it with full health by using the gate. We tried the hardcore mode but we couldn't do it. They both agreed that the spiders were op xD. But they were much more manageable with two people. It still felt like there was too much damage and not enough healing though. You have to get lucky with minimal spiders to have a good run. It was a while ago so I don't have a ton of details, but it was significantly more fun. I know it is a demo, the only new thing I have the upgrades from sensei guy don't reset for the second player, they just stay. Which is good for grinding, but not great for playing with new players. Oh and sometimes when you get webbed and use the dash attack you still can't move until the web disappears. We had a small problem with lag again, but I honestly think it's my pc, no idea what it is but game pretty much runs smoothly. Still checking for updates, can't wait for the epicness that follows.
This is going to be a long one, but I love the game and want to tell you about my experience. I played it solo with a bluetooth xbox controller for about an hour, it started getting pretty laggy at that point. I wouldn't rule out my computer because it's been doing that a bunch lately; 3070ti, i7-12700k, 32gigs of ddr4 ram, it was running on an external ssd, but it was fine for the first hour. I have a small amount of game dev experience, next to none in 3D, but I like to critique things. So take this whole review with a grain of salt, it's your game and this is just a community review to give you some feedback. I also get if this is a lost hobby project that isn't undergoing major development.
First impressions: I'm very impressed for a free demo, I enjoyed it a lot while frames lasted. From my slightly unskilled experience, I wasn't able to beat the boss in the first level, and only cleared every room but that one once. I also only found Sensei what's his name (definitely not the Cobra Kai dude) and no other villagers. Maybe he's the only one in that level? Or a demo thing? It just felt kinda boring when I'd bought all the upgrades from Sensei.
Thoughts: It feels like you lose health fast, like you go into a room with more that 2 enemies and it's hard to not lose half (or more) of your health. Dodging and blocking feels semi-unresponsive. You have to stop and give yourself a sec before it dodges. I guess the thing here is it's hard to chain things together. Attacking is prioritized so if you're spamming attack then need to dodge, it might be too late, maybe it's a skill issue. It's less of a thing with the block, I really enjoyed the projectile bounce back blessing. The spiders. I like the stick you in place, but it feels too constant. You're sat there trying to get close, and he just keeps sticking you. You can do the dash attack, but waiting for it to charge he could get one or two of the red shots on you. Pair that with an archer and it hurts. Leveling up also feels slow. At most you get 3 blessings per run. The free one at the beginning, another dragon thing, and the blood sacrifice (looking forward to the possibility of a cool animation for that.) I did like how going back to the level with the gates give you less coins, but all in all there's really not that much incentive to use it when you can't get past the first level.
Final thoughts/amateur's suggestions: Lots of fun, and keep in mind this review was written from a single player perspective who didn't even beat the first boss. And someone who doesn't play many top down games. My roguelite experience is Risk of Rain 2, Vampire Survivors, and 20 Minutes till Dawn. All of which you level up decently quickly which changes the game often and makes each experience feel fun and new. More players might help this (assuming both of you get a blessing,) more characters, and more variety and frequency of blessings. You also have the added difficulty of a theme. A ranged attack would be nice too, but I'm sure that'll come with the new characters. The bomb confused me, when I used it to get to one of the blocked chest, it placed it in the middle, not where I was standing. Which is where it seemed to go every other time and it rolls around a bit (which I did enjoy with the chests). The bombs also had the same problem as the dodge and block, you can't do it while attacking, you have to stop first. And I'd love to be able to throw them, even if that means some of the players velocity is given to it to launch forward a little. I think the enemies are great, the archer having multiple attacks is awesome, and the basic dude and wolves are great too. As far as the spiders go, maybe one attack that does a little damage and slows you down or stops you. Or a longer cooldown. I picture them kind of as a support, not really a damage dealer. I had no idea how to deal with the bosses arrow attack, but every time I got there I was at 50 or less health. More healing would be nice too. I did end up switching to the Sushi dish instead of the Bombs I really enjoyed the parrying with the perfect blocks, that was fun to get the hang of and use purposefully and accidentally. More stuff like that that feels like another ability would be very welcome I also don't have a numpad on my keyboard, so when I first started I had to rebind everything, but eventually moved to controller which played a lot nicer anyway.
I'm going to play this with two players sometime in the next week and a half, and I'll leave an update then and maybe join the discord. I do love the game, that's why I'm leaving a review, even wishlisted it on steam. I'm going to keep following it for updates and I'd love to keep playtesting it.
Hey man, thanks for the review. I'm glad you like it.
It's nice to get some good feedback :)
About the laggyness, I have not encountered any issues on my end and I have tested on some lower end devices, and your PC is definitely High-end, so it should run without issue. There might be some memory leak happening which start showing after long playing sessions, which is certainly worth investigating.
The game is also still in development, sadly not major development because this is a solo project, but I am looking for funding so hopefully that changes in the future :)
In the demo there is indeed only 1 villager. It's basically a vertical slice to showcase the gameplay.
The combat system and enemy AI is definitely still a work in progress. Striking a balance between difficulty and rewarding/enjoyable gameplay is certainly an artform in itself.
I have made some improvements in the mean while because I also feel it's difficult too recover once you get locked in some kind of group attack. For example I added a global cooldown between attacks for all enemies and the responsiveness off the player animations have also been improved.
The spider's logic right now is just shooting webbing balls untill you are webbed, and only then do they start shooting venom balls. But it's indeed not a bad idea to make the web slow you down.
Concerning the blessings, it is indeed 3 at best but ye it's also just 1 demo level and it doesn't paint the entire picture. The same thing goes for the check point gates. It is a feature for the higher levels but it's just there for testing.
I've actually not thaught about the fact that a keyboard might not have a numpad xD But it's indeed more for additional input support because a controller is the recommended way of playing.
Anyway thanks for your support and I'm gonna take your notes into consideration.
I might also release a new update with the previously mentioned tweaks. I've mainly been working on future content and refactoring the entire codebase which was overdue ^^
The requirements aren't determined yet because I can only test it on my machine so it would actually be more useful if you told me your specs and if it runs good or not.
It's something like 800MB ram, 400 MB disk space and videocard with DX11 support
hey sorry for the late response I was having some exams and stuff,so I couldn't play and then realised that I don't' have controller so I couldn't play the game
anyways these are the specs of my laptop if they help-
intel core i5 processor
7.88 gb ram
and 400 gb storage
I don't know anything else about this laptop sadly.
Hey mate, could you try something for me. I'm adding a page to rebind your keys to hopefully make generic controllers work as well. Sadly I threw my previous playstation Knock-off controller away a while back so I couldn't check to see if it works.
This is a unity webGL build with just a keyrebinding example so would you mind just opening it and seeing if your controller gets recognized when you try to rebind the gamepad (or maybe keyboard) controls.
Hey dev. I'm sorry for being so late. I don't see all messages here. Unfortunately, my control appears not recognize in this link You provided. Maybe it's my control, but every day I use it to play video games and works fine. But it's not the first time that my control it's not recognized on itch.io (I think that it's the type of control).
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I am back. I did play it with two players and recommend it that way. I played with two different people and the one that's usually bad at games picked it up faster so I don't know what you did but good job. Even if the other player was the one I got the furthest with. Over the hour combined I played with both of them, we did beat the boss once and it was by finding the room and re-entering it with full health by using the gate. We tried the hardcore mode but we couldn't do it. They both agreed that the spiders were op xD. But they were much more manageable with two people. It still felt like there was too much damage and not enough healing though. You have to get lucky with minimal spiders to have a good run. It was a while ago so I don't have a ton of details, but it was significantly more fun. I know it is a demo, the only new thing I have the upgrades from sensei guy don't reset for the second player, they just stay. Which is good for grinding, but not great for playing with new players. Oh and sometimes when you get webbed and use the dash attack you still can't move until the web disappears.
We had a small problem with lag again, but I honestly think it's my pc, no idea what it is but game pretty much runs smoothly. Still checking for updates, can't wait for the epicness that follows.
This is going to be a long one, but I love the game and want to tell you about my experience.
I played it solo with a bluetooth xbox controller for about an hour, it started getting pretty laggy at that point. I wouldn't rule out my computer because it's been doing that a bunch lately; 3070ti, i7-12700k, 32gigs of ddr4 ram, it was running on an external ssd, but it was fine for the first hour.
I have a small amount of game dev experience, next to none in 3D, but I like to critique things. So take this whole review with a grain of salt, it's your game and this is just a community review to give you some feedback. I also get if this is a lost hobby project that isn't undergoing major development.
First impressions:
I'm very impressed for a free demo, I enjoyed it a lot while frames lasted. From my slightly unskilled experience, I wasn't able to beat the boss in the first level, and only cleared every room but that one once. I also only found Sensei what's his name (definitely not the Cobra Kai dude) and no other villagers. Maybe he's the only one in that level? Or a demo thing? It just felt kinda boring when I'd bought all the upgrades from Sensei.
Thoughts:
It feels like you lose health fast, like you go into a room with more that 2 enemies and it's hard to not lose half (or more) of your health.
Dodging and blocking feels semi-unresponsive. You have to stop and give yourself a sec before it dodges. I guess the thing here is it's hard to chain things together. Attacking is prioritized so if you're spamming attack then need to dodge, it might be too late, maybe it's a skill issue. It's less of a thing with the block, I really enjoyed the projectile bounce back blessing.
The spiders. I like the stick you in place, but it feels too constant. You're sat there trying to get close, and he just keeps sticking you. You can do the dash attack, but waiting for it to charge he could get one or two of the red shots on you. Pair that with an archer and it hurts.
Leveling up also feels slow. At most you get 3 blessings per run. The free one at the beginning, another dragon thing, and the blood sacrifice (looking forward to the possibility of a cool animation for that.)
I did like how going back to the level with the gates give you less coins, but all in all there's really not that much incentive to use it when you can't get past the first level.
Final thoughts/amateur's suggestions:
Lots of fun, and keep in mind this review was written from a single player perspective who didn't even beat the first boss. And someone who doesn't play many top down games.
My roguelite experience is Risk of Rain 2, Vampire Survivors, and 20 Minutes till Dawn. All of which you level up decently quickly which changes the game often and makes each experience feel fun and new. More players might help this (assuming both of you get a blessing,) more characters, and more variety and frequency of blessings.
You also have the added difficulty of a theme.
A ranged attack would be nice too, but I'm sure that'll come with the new characters.
The bomb confused me, when I used it to get to one of the blocked chest, it placed it in the middle, not where I was standing. Which is where it seemed to go every other time and it rolls around a bit (which I did enjoy with the chests). The bombs also had the same problem as the dodge and block, you can't do it while attacking, you have to stop first. And I'd love to be able to throw them, even if that means some of the players velocity is given to it to launch forward a little.
I think the enemies are great, the archer having multiple attacks is awesome, and the basic dude and wolves are great too. As far as the spiders go, maybe one attack that does a little damage and slows you down or stops you. Or a longer cooldown. I picture them kind of as a support, not really a damage dealer. I had no idea how to deal with the bosses arrow attack, but every time I got there I was at 50 or less health.
More healing would be nice too. I did end up switching to the Sushi dish instead of the Bombs
I really enjoyed the parrying with the perfect blocks, that was fun to get the hang of and use purposefully and accidentally. More stuff like that that feels like another ability would be very welcome
I also don't have a numpad on my keyboard, so when I first started I had to rebind everything, but eventually moved to controller which played a lot nicer anyway.
I'm going to play this with two players sometime in the next week and a half, and I'll leave an update then and maybe join the discord. I do love the game, that's why I'm leaving a review, even wishlisted it on steam. I'm going to keep following it for updates and I'd love to keep playtesting it.
Hey man, thanks for the review. I'm glad you like it.
It's nice to get some good feedback :)
About the laggyness, I have not encountered any issues on my end and I have tested on some lower end devices, and your PC is definitely High-end, so it should run without issue.
There might be some memory leak happening which start showing after long playing sessions, which is certainly worth investigating.
The game is also still in development, sadly not major development because this is a solo project, but I am looking for funding so hopefully that changes in the future :)
In the demo there is indeed only 1 villager.
It's basically a vertical slice to showcase the gameplay.
The combat system and enemy AI is definitely still a work in progress.
Striking a balance between difficulty and rewarding/enjoyable gameplay is certainly an artform in itself.
I have made some improvements in the mean while because I also feel it's difficult too recover once you get locked in some kind of group attack.
For example I added a global cooldown between attacks for all enemies and the responsiveness off the player animations have also been improved.
The spider's logic right now is just shooting webbing balls untill you are webbed, and only then do they start shooting venom balls.
But it's indeed not a bad idea to make the web slow you down.
Concerning the blessings, it is indeed 3 at best but ye it's also just 1 demo level and it doesn't paint the entire picture.
The same thing goes for the check point gates. It is a feature for the higher levels but it's just there for testing.
I've actually not thaught about the fact that a keyboard might not have a numpad xD
But it's indeed more for additional input support because a controller is the recommended way of playing.
Anyway thanks for your support and I'm gonna take your notes into consideration.
I might also release a new update with the previously mentioned tweaks.
I've mainly been working on future content and refactoring the entire codebase which was overdue ^^
So I am running Linux mint with a 2gb ram module I'm just wondering if it would work well on my system?
2 GB should be more then enough but I haven't tested for linux so I'd say to give it a try and let me know ;)
can you add keyboard and mouse controls for people who don't have a controller.
And can you tell me what are the requirements to play this game because I have a potato laptop.
keyboard support is on the to do list.
The requirements aren't determined yet because I can only test it on my machine so it would actually be more useful if you told me your specs and if it runs good or not.
It's something like 800MB ram, 400 MB disk space and videocard with DX11 support
hey sorry for the late response I was having some exams and stuff,so I couldn't play and then realised that I don't' have controller so I couldn't play the game
anyways these are the specs of my laptop if they help-
intel core i5 processor
7.88 gb ram
and 400 gb storage
I don't know anything else about this laptop sadly.
Thanks but I also need to know if it runs well :D
Next update will contain keyboard support though so stay tuned :)
ok thanks but when will it come out? will definitely be waiting for it.
Keyboard support has been added mate :)
I have a generic controller, but I can't play the game
Hey, ye currently it's only the controllers that are automatically recognized by unity that will work. So Xinput controllers, ps4, xbox, switch.
Anything else I'll have to look into how to make those work. Sorry about that
Hey mate, could you try something for me.
I'm adding a page to rebind your keys to hopefully make generic controllers work as well.
Sadly I threw my previous playstation Knock-off controller away a while back so I couldn't check to see if it works.
https://yannick-h.nl/Projects/rebind/index.html
This is a unity webGL build with just a keyrebinding example so would you mind just opening it and seeing if your controller gets recognized when you try to rebind the gamepad (or maybe keyboard) controls.
Hey dev. I'm sorry for being so late. I don't see all messages here. Unfortunately, my control appears not recognize in this link You provided. Maybe it's my control, but every day I use it to play video games and works fine. But it's not the first time that my control it's not recognized on itch.io (I think that it's the type of control).
warning u need a controller to play ;-;