Since I don't know where I can personally give you my feedback. Not on Steam Review, not on Twitter. So I'll give a short one here; - I love the difficulty. It gives replayability to this short demo. - I really like the middle ground between being committed to your jumps while still being able to slightly control your trajectory in midair. It makes platforming more exciting. - Those invisible "crystals" are great little secrets to discover. They're just visible enough to find out, while being easily missable if you're not paying attention. - Nitpick: I wish I could skip the intro text. Now I know where the axe is. Secrets like these give the game replayability. With every game I start, I'm getting better at areas that were once hard for me to get through.
Thanks for your feedback and trying out the demo. Appreciate it! Skip Intro is gonna be in later today. I just added it gonna test it out in the build before I submit it to Steam's Backend. For the secret axe weapon, that was just there to see if anyone finds it. In the final build, You'll be able to trade in boss souls for abilities from the witch in the carriage and the ectoplasm for spectral weapons. So Axe, Daggers, boomerang scythe, Morning star spike balls, as well as armor upgrades, so you'll first start with 2 hearts but every armor upgrade will add 1 heart. 4 total. Yah I've gotten a lot of comments about the difficulty, and watched some playthroughs online...and people just kinda give up or don't understand the mechanics, so there maybe some work I have to do there like I changed the checkpoint prompt to appear right away instead of an animated pop up...because everyone just skipped over them. Added an easier mode that just halves all enemy health. Just to see if I misjudged the difficulty for people. I didn't think it was that hard, but that's also cuz I've been playing the level over and over again like 200x while working on it. I'm gonna do a dev-log talkin about some of the reception/feedback/difficulty stuff.
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc If you don't mind me saying but I don't think the difficulty comes the enemy health. (But the platforming too.) In terms of combat, I think it's the stamina management during a horde fight. I can see that when some of the comments mentioned that the punishment for failing at platforming is having to start all over again from a faraway checkpoint. Maybe, if you make players lose health instead for falling into the pit and let them try again right before it, it'll be more forgiving for them. It's only when they lost all their health that they'd have to start again from the last checkpoint. Just a thought..
Yeah I'll think about it, because even small changes like that impact the intended feel of the game as well as a lot of sequences would need to be entirely unloaded/reset if a platform falls away...you die come right from the location you jumped from...and the platform that fell is still gone...there's nothing you can do. I tried several things in Easy mode that just to me made it feel trivial and boring, like slashing enemy health by the end I had 250 ectoplasm orbs and hadn't had to heal once. But I think I'm just too good at my own game. and I misjudged the difficulty for others. In the end, to me its the intent (who is this game for? people who enjoy difficulty or people who want to chill and casually play through something)
@@officialgrimwaregamesllc Hey, don't worry about me. I'm just a regular guy. I like the base difficulty just fine. The challenge to reach the end is what keeps me coming back to try again. If I already finish it, then it's over. Well, discovering secrets within the levels is also part of the fun. Like finding an Axe that can change how we play.
I played the demo for a bit. Some thoughts, critical comments first: - The intro text, and the tutorial section is fine for a full length game, but too much for a demo. For a demo you need to get quickly to what makes your game good. Start the player with the sword already, get rid of the first ghost, and tighten up the tutorial section onto a couple of screens. Also consider getting some of the more exciting combat earlier in the game. The zombie section with the skeletal birds is great, but I suspect many people would already have given up on the demo by then. - There need to be more save points. I died several times on the acid platforming section and it was really frustrating having to walk through so much empty scenery to get back which was made worse by... - I think the save points should be automatic and free. You talked about why you did them this way in a previous video but I don't think it works very well. Particularly as in the demo you don't have enough souls to activate the save point when you first encounter it. I didn't immediately figure it out so the first few times I died I had to trudge all the way from the start. - I was stumped for a while by the section where you have to go under a vertical wall to a platform because I didn't expect to be able to jump in mid-air whilst falling. I would consider changing the first time you have to do this to progress in the game so that it's not over acid, or at least having a save point immediately before it. As it was it just felt punishing and frustrating rather than being a fun platforming puzzle. - On the tutorial prompts, for the A+A+B prompt, perhaps they could be spaced out or something? I didn't understand the need to time the presses correctly when I first tried it, as your system is less forgiving than others I've played. - 8.6Gb seems a lot for the demo? - Actually quitting the game takes an annoyingly long time. I'm a fan of having quit to desktop on the pause menu itself, but the length of time it takes to show the logo and display the menu after quitting the menu feel really unresponsive. - I didn't expect to be killed by the closed coffins of the zombies. It seems like you should be able to jump on them. Onto the good stuff: - Love the graphical style of the game, it looks really good - Sounds good too. The music fits the game really well and adapts well to the action. - The controls are really good once you've got used to them. The character has a great feel, and you can get him to go exactly where you want. - The section with the zombies and the skeletal birds dropping from the above is really excellent. Challenging and frenetic without feeling unfair. Really well done on getting your game this far! And keep up the good work.
Oh, and one more thing: please make the weapon fire continuously when you hold the button (or have it as an option in the settings). For people like me with RSI it literally makes games without unplayable.
I just started noticing how much this game reminds me of my favorite game as a child: alien hominid. It is really not well known I guess but I absolutely LOVED it as a child. I am getting more and more hyped!
@@NutNoll YES! After I wrote this comment I actually looked it up and OMG what a f'ing coincidence! Like.. I have waited 20 years and ON THE ONE DAY I actually look it up the remaster comes out!!
tried to play it but dropped it because I was constantly falling into the water and game was resetting me to the last checkpoint instead of taking one life and letting me try to jump over same spot again. So it was very frustrating to jump over 3 water places, then being hit by a hummer, fall into water and start from beginning. Maybe I am not the target audience though. I loved visuals and sound :)
I agree the difficulties is not suitable for the first stage, a bit too hard , of course it is a demo so that is not a problem as demo is try to put something on the table .
I tried playing the demo two days ago and was not able to finish it. I got pretty frustrated at the part where you are standing on one platform and the next platform is an acid spiter. I plan on trying it again and want to leave feedback on it, if I finish the demo.
Amazing work overall, design, graphics, sound, music, effects. But first impression, the music is too loud and a bit too one-note. It also looks a bit unfocused, too many mechanics at once, and too quickly. Might be the idea for the demo to showcase the variety, though for a linear experience, I’d recommend to look at Mario games how they introduce a mechanic safely, then more dangerous, then with complications etc. Overall fantastic job!
How many stage do you plan to make for this game ??IMO , the demo stage maybe too long as this is the first stage , do the stage have check point when you die ?? I think the stage may able to split into 2 stages .