Great presentation. Felt just like a classic video game in the best sense. I didn't mind the controls, they felt fine once you got used to them, and were a decent challenge. I only played two challenge levels, with games like this I much prefer a long running story to keep me interested. But I am happy to say I think there's plenty to build a story around here, and you definitely have the tools to make it interesting/fun.
Really like the sound effects and music, and the premise is unique and cool. Nice work on the art and models, they fit the theme very well. Can't say I love dodging projectiles with tank controls + static camera, as the perspective throws you off along with needing to re-orient after every attack. The input remapping was a big bonus, the default controls for keyboard were too dated/non-standard for me. Additionally I understand that for pacing the tutorial the standard enemies take some time to kill, but it makes the pistol feel very weak and IMO they have too much health. The premise is cool enough that I don't mind if the combat feels clunky to me
First of all, damn the music's good, the intro is cool too.
The one "issue" i had with the controls (i'm playing with a controller btw), is that when i aim, the character doesn't aim in the direction i'm pointing at with my joystick, but is behaving like the arrows, rotating the player left and right. i don't know if that is intended, to simulate older games though. After playing for a while, i got used to it anyway
finished the 3 courses and i think the challenges do a really good job of getting the player used to the controls, to the powers and the way he should use them.
Your UI and settings seem to work well too, i didn't run into any issue.
On controller, you can use RT/R2 or whatever you rebind it to to use manual aim. This will always start you aiming in the direction the character is looking towards, instead of locking into enemies. You will still rotate though, it won’t aim relative to camera. Perhaps I’ll try it out, I admit it’s done this way out of familiarity with old tank control games.
I tried playing with with a keyboard first but the analog stick camera-oriented movement is so much better.
The story demo was okay, the challenges took a while to do, got contender in the first two and rookie in the last one. I would not have guessed that either of the female characters in the demo were female btw.
It didn't seem to me that there's much reason to dodge when sprinting away gets you farther away faster and without stunning you. Also wasn't a fan of the little victory animation that plays whenever you complete an encounter. If you aim at a charging enemy sometimes the tracking stops. Your inputs won't register if Lea is doing an animation, some input buffering would be nice.
I'm wondering how you'll ramp up the complexity while being limited by the slow movement but what's there is fun, cool demo.
Can I ask, what do you mean by inputs not registering if Lea is doing an animation?
For example, if you want to use magic or dodge right after you reload you're forced to spam the button because pressing it while the animation is playing does nothing. Same thing for trying to reload or open the magic menu while dodging
I’m happy to hear rebinding was of use to someone.
Cutscenes auto advance, so no “continue” icon there. Dialogues do show it. I do want to eventually add a skip confirm though.
The demo may remain as this but there’s a trailer for the full game in the game page if you’re curious!
P.S Lea is a chick but thank you for the fanart :)
Interesting premise, and really liking how the game is presented and looks. Fixed camera angles are nice so far, haven't got confused from them in the current content.
Tank controls! Been a while since I played a game that leaned heavily into instead of just offering it as an option for nostalgia's sake. That being said, the dodge, especially the sideways dodge feels a little weird - can't prepare holding left/right before pressing dodge since that makes you turn so you'll end up turning 90% and just dodging into the arrow anyway, have to press both buttons at once which felt awkward and took some getting used to.
Still, after that something kept throwing me off until I realized that melee and ranged attacks operate on different rules: for melee you have to dodge immediately when the yellow mark is up or you won't have enough time to get away, and for ranged you need to wait until it turns red or the enemy keeps tracking you through the dodge. I feel like it might be better if in both situations yellow would allow you to dodge.
Still, this definitely looks interesting and curious where it'll go in the future.
Please know there’s camera-relative controls as well, in case you missed it. They can also be set on keyboard but are not binded by default, as it seems rather unwieldy to me, and there’s not really anywhere good to set them by default (I’d set them to the current WASD keys instead if I were to use them myself).
Comments
Great presentation. Felt just like a classic video game in the best sense.
I didn't mind the controls, they felt fine once you got used to them, and were a decent challenge.
I only played two challenge levels, with games like this I much prefer a long running story to keep me interested. But I am happy to say I think there's plenty to build a story around here, and you definitely have the tools to make it interesting/fun.
Keep at it!
Thanks for playing!
The full game will have a longer campaign mission with plenty to explore, cutscenes and fights.
Really like the sound effects and music, and the premise is unique and cool. Nice work on the art and models, they fit the theme very well. Can't say I love dodging projectiles with tank controls + static camera, as the perspective throws you off along with needing to re-orient after every attack. The input remapping was a big bonus, the default controls for keyboard were too dated/non-standard for me. Additionally I understand that for pacing the tutorial the standard enemies take some time to kill, but it makes the pistol feel very weak and IMO they have too much health. The premise is cool enough that I don't mind if the combat feels clunky to me
Thanks for playing!
The way the combat works, you’re generally supposed to gain mana by shooting then dispatch enemies with the Harm spell.
First of all, damn the music's good, the intro is cool too.
The one "issue" i had with the controls (i'm playing with a controller btw), is that when i aim, the character doesn't aim in the direction i'm pointing at with my joystick, but is behaving like the arrows, rotating the player left and right. i don't know if that is intended, to simulate older games though. After playing for a while, i got used to it anyway
finished the 3 courses and i think the challenges do a really good job of getting the player used to the controls, to the powers and the way he should use them.
Your UI and settings seem to work well too, i didn't run into any issue.
Best i can do is three fiddy
Thanks for playing!
On controller, you can use RT/R2 or whatever you rebind it to to use manual aim. This will always start you aiming in the direction the character is looking towards, instead of locking into enemies. You will still rotate though, it won’t aim relative to camera. Perhaps I’ll try it out, I admit it’s done this way out of familiarity with old tank control games.
I tried playing with with a keyboard first but the analog stick camera-oriented movement is so much better.
The story demo was okay, the challenges took a while to do, got contender in the first two and rookie in the last one. I would not have guessed that either of the female characters in the demo were female btw.
It didn't seem to me that there's much reason to dodge when sprinting away gets you farther away faster and without stunning you.
Also wasn't a fan of the little victory animation that plays whenever you complete an encounter.
If you aim at a charging enemy sometimes the tracking stops.
Your inputs won't register if Lea is doing an animation, some input buffering would be nice.
I'm wondering how you'll ramp up the complexity while being limited by the slow movement but what's there is fun, cool demo.
Thanks for playing!
Can I ask, what do you mean by inputs not registering if Lea is doing an animation?
For example, if you want to use magic or dodge right after you reload you're forced to spam the button because pressing it while the animation is playing does nothing.
Same thing for trying to reload or open the magic menu while dodging
Please, show the button for next dialogue because I escape the intro by mistake. I had some fun, curious for what come next.
Thanks for playing!
I’m happy to hear rebinding was of use to someone. Cutscenes auto advance, so no “continue” icon there. Dialogues do show it. I do want to eventually add a skip confirm though.
The demo may remain as this but there’s a trailer for the full game in the game page if you’re curious!
P.S Lea is a chick but thank you for the fanart :)
Interesting premise, and really liking how the game is presented and looks. Fixed camera angles are nice so far, haven't got confused from them in the current content.
Tank controls! Been a while since I played a game that leaned heavily into instead of just offering it as an option for nostalgia's sake. That being said, the dodge, especially the sideways dodge feels a little weird - can't prepare holding left/right before pressing dodge since that makes you turn so you'll end up turning 90% and just dodging into the arrow anyway, have to press both buttons at once which felt awkward and took some getting used to.
Still, after that something kept throwing me off until I realized that melee and ranged attacks operate on different rules: for melee you have to dodge immediately when the yellow mark is up or you won't have enough time to get away, and for ranged you need to wait until it turns red or the enemy keeps tracking you through the dodge. I feel like it might be better if in both situations yellow would allow you to dodge.
Still, this definitely looks interesting and curious where it'll go in the future.
Thank you for playing!
Please know there’s camera-relative controls as well, in case you missed it. They can also be set on keyboard but are not binded by default, as it seems rather unwieldy to me, and there’s not really anywhere good to set them by default (I’d set them to the current WASD keys instead if I were to use them myself).