Affinity

Community Showcase Game Development
21

Hey man, I played it last night and really liked it! I’m gunna try to organize my thoughts by category here.

Bug: The construct prompts were very hit or miss, I wasn’t sure if it was based on a trigger volume, a timer, or what but on all the constructs after the first one I often had to run away, run back, trigger detective mode on/off/hold, not sure what the sweet spot was that triggered the prompt to allow me to make the construct.

On the down smash floor, the camera freaked out and didn’t quite track me until I got to the bottom.

On the first construct staircase, you will die if you just walk onto the stair case without jumping first, even though visually it looks like you dont need to jump

Art: Although the art still looks prototypish I like what you have going on there; simple colors and solid lighting are nice. For my personal taste I wouldn’t travel too far away from simple flat textures and good lighting and shadows. The detective mode had some super awesome vfx, really liked the look of that! The puddle walking fx in particular were super cool.

Gameplay: Dashing was hands-down the funnest action I could do. Exploit the hell out of that mechanic!

Shooting was a little boring for me, just stand in place and spam the shoot button, not much player interaction. I think shooting could be replaced with an augmented dash mechanic. You’ve got dash which is already super fun, maybe add a 0.2 sec immunity timer in which time they could hit the ‘force push’ button which is only available immediately after a dash. That ability would destroy the nearby sea urchins and allow the player to progress. For me, I could easily see that being more fun than shooting. It’d make me feel more involved in the game, more powerful and skillful for pulling it off, even if it’s an easy task.

Constructs are a cool concept, they have potential but are a little unresponsive and frustrating at the moment (see ‘Bugs’ section above). Once they’re easier to trigger I’d love to see puzzles where you must jump + dash + quick construct to make it to more advanced areas. Maybe add in some temp constructs so the player must hurry and do those jump + quick construct combos before they fade away in later parts of the game.

That’s all I got. Super cool game so far. Can’t wait to see it on Steam, keep up the good work sir!
-Devin

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I also had this issue where the front portion of the staircase will cause me to die.

In turn of ramping up the difficulty of the game play, maybe introduce the depth after the third use of the construct portal mechanic. The first construct portal should be safe as training for the players. (0:59 on the video)

Maybe have the collectible gold orbs appear after the construction of the bridge. (1:11 on the video).

For the construct portal, could it be something that you can pull in real time? For example while sliding the xBox controller’s trigger to the left, the bridge would pull out from the wall to the left, and when you slide the trigger to the right, the bridge would push right toward the wall where it came from.

Or maybe the bridge would have a time limit and if you don’t construct it in time, it will go back to its original form. That could be a mechanic introduced later.

These are all just suggestions. Still an awesome game!

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The controls are definitely better than the previous version. It flows really well. The particle that trails after the character dies is a nice touch.

When I first launched the game, I was able to play up until the double teleport. And then I wasn’t able to construct anymore after that. I opened the game and tried it again, and it didn’t work so I ended up watching the video. After watching the video, I tried playing the game again. And the main character looked like it had kids swimming floaties (white colored) on its arms. Learn to swim ZOGGS FLOAT BANDS 3-6 Years arm bands floaties inflatable 301203 749266012036 | eBay Have you come across that when you were playing? On the fourth time of quitting and going back into the game, the instructions to construct the portal didn’t really show up until later. There was a lag. :stuck_out_tongue:

I know it’s still a prototype, maybe you already had something planned. Could you hide the purple teleport portal (1:47)? It should be hidden or placed somewhere else. It feels a little disconnected from the level by having it there. Even though it’s the teleport that you eventually fall out of, so maybe hiding it would be a better option?

I also noticed that when I skipped an orb, it disappeared when I went back to get it. Or maybe it was just me :stuck_out_tongue: Maybe my character did collect the orb from a distant :stuck_out_tongue:

The projectile that curves to hit the spike toward the end of the video is cool.

Keep up the good work!!! :smiley:

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Great job man. The teleport mechanic is by far the most fun for me, It just feels so good. I like the responsiveness and how quick it is. I would love to see more puzzles in the environment that require quick teleportation to solve them. Even with minimal art, its heading in a great direction and can’t wait to see where it goes. Subscribed!