Nice game.
moron
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A member registered Jan 09, 2019
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Get Your Tentacles Off My Waifu! comments · Replied to Flying Realms in Get Your Tentacles Off My Waifu! comments
Hi, I've got a few hours of gameplay under my belt and I feel like sharing my experience to help out in making of this game.
First, let's start with a huge compliment. I love games that have a playable hub as a main menu. It is a feature I feel should be a norm, but most games, even those AAA, have those boring click-fests instead of something interesting. Immersion, game pacing and all other stuff benefits from this. It also helps in not overdoing the between-level upgrade sessions. Top stuff.
However, this is where the first complaint comes. There is too much information at first. The hub is not big, but overwhelming at first. I just wanna play the second level, not explore for 15min. Yes, I could jump right into the second, but I might lose some advantage I might get if I explore. This is a mentality of a gamer. People will optimize fun out of the game - quote by someone. A solution I'd suggest is opening each sector of the house each lever, or even few levels, if the game becomes that long.
The levels themselves are interesting. The player, fighting a monster, can choose what part if it to prioritize, choice is good, people like choice. The visuals are on point and audio fits the gameplay.
I wanted to make a charged-shot build. Unfortunately, it's hard to notice in the middle of the battle when the shot is charged fully. Shooting either too early or too late causes me to lose dps and the game is too short right now to get the feel for the timing. I'd suggest adding a sound effect to the charging, it'd let the player focus more on the dodging. Maybe some screen shake or knockback, that's what I'd do, but you have other stuff to focus on right now. Though it'd really up the feeling for the players, even sacrificing some core development for later, it might be worth it.
The throwing mechanic is not something to write home about. Honestly, at this point, I feel like there would be no negative impact on the game if it was removed. The thrown cats don't deal enough damage for how much effort it takes to catch and throw them, it is just faster and easier to shoot. Throwing a waifu is a no-go, it sacrifices too much dps; I'd go as far as to ask why is it a feature in the first place. But the boxes require the throwing, right? I don't think so. There is no thinking required, no physics to think of. Later in my gameplay I'd fly to the box, and since it's already near the ground, press the button and immediately get all the loot. Maybe you could add a specific drop zone for them, or make players throw those boxes at the monsters, calculate the damage by how fast it moved relative to the hit part.
I'm not done bashing that mechanic. Oh why, in god's good graces, are the 'throw' button and 'switch thrown item' button next to each other? Why is the most used button, the throw [T], a key that is so far from gamers' usual hand position? The whole stock key layout needs to change, it's a job for 20min and it helps new players get into the gaming faster.
Another feature, that I never used, was the boost. I get that it's supposed to be the invincible dash, but the condition that it can only be used by a wall makes it completely unreliable. It takes a skill, reaction/timing, to pull those moves in other games, but here I'd need to sit on the ground and wait for the monster to do the first move, that way it makes it a reactive defensive ability, rather than offensive, as most people would probably prefer.
Speaking of positioning, is the game supposed to be a fast paced shooter? I didn't get that impression since the best strategy I could find was sitting at the edge of my shooting range and chip away slowly at the tentacles. This strat is less exciting and dopamine-rewarding than getting up close and personal, but at this point there are no weapons or abilities that reward for that gameplay. There is also no overall timer, where you need to destroy the beast quickly or something bad happens. My suggestions: a shotgun-like weapon; damage falloff over distance; timer-based loot; a 'bravery' boost gained by proximity. It'd also help people getting distracted with getting all the loo on the map before the fight finishes. I feel like there is a very delicate balance in this mechanic, both too short or too long timers could harm the 'fun' more than benefit it.
Now, damage feedback, the numbers that show when you hit something. There should be more difference in appearance between 1 and 111. The zeros aren't that bad, with the gray color. I suggest either making the highier damage numbers larger, like for charged shots, or changing a color by a red-to-gray gradient, where huge damage shows in red. Or use both. One little bit I want to add here, outlines. When you rapid-fire into the monster the numbers become a red smudge. Alternatively, make a settings-toggle where you can choose to stack the damage, to show it in a single long-lasting number that updates with every hit.
For the future, I'd love to see the difficulty settings to change more than some numbers. Right now, extreme settings mean a lot of slow grinding with less reward and long-drawn, boring battles. I adore games that add abilities to enemies based on difficulty. Yes, that's hell-of-a-lot work; I'm spewing suggestions. Even something as simple as a 1.25 timescale multiplayer. It makes the game harder, faster-paced for those hardcore gamers, bored with the normal speed, but most of all it speeds up the progress for those who actually manage it. It's a win-win. I can only hope that your engine can do that and not have any artifacts going rogue. I can easily see this game getting a speedrunning community in the future, especially with the timescale setting.
I don't want to go on a long tangent of player health mechanics in games, I just gotta ask, are the 'bonus health' and 'more healing' systems fitting in this type of game? I don't think so. Feels like it's here just to be another stat to be had. There is no advantage of going a tank build here. I'd really like to see you make it a viable alternative to ranged. Maybe melee with life leech?
What about splitting the perk slots into offensive, defensive and utility. I ran full utility, since it was more rewarding time-wise than blasting through with full damage. What if, if you wanted an additional utility item, you could place that in one of the other slots, but it would be half as effective? This was completely spontaneous, unlike the other planned points, it just came to me and I wrote it. I wonder if anyone is going to to read all of that nonsense I've written.
Yes, the tooltips need more clarity, you know that, moving on.
Now, a few bugs, glitches, whatever you call those.
The box on the roof of the main hub, the one to the left of the ceiling exit. Destroying it, always opens a console with a following message: "NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object"
I am able to surpass the stardust limit on the equipped equipment, as in go into negative stardust. Let's say I have 100SD and 2x equipment that each requires 60SD. I put one of them in a slot, and am at 40SD. Now if I take the second item and swap it with the first one, the other slots light up green. Then I can put that swapped equipment into the green-lit slot and go into -20SD. If that explanation wasn't sufficient, ask. I might not answer quicky, though.
Sometimes the tentacles go underground, making it very hard and annoying to kill the eye they are attached to. I have to chip away at it for minutes with charged shots, due to the damage reduction the tentacle gives it.
I also had 2 occurrences of going underground myself. Once, I was slapped under the surface by a tentacle. Second, I was flying fast towards a box and opened it immediately, ended up underground. Was it some kind of update suppression on the collision check? With all the: picking up the box; throwing it; the game registering it hitting the ground; spewing out items and me picking them up all at the same time.
Oh, and I forgot to mention how the movement feels too robotic for something as physic-based as flying. Maybe have a movement overhaul somewhere far in the future.
In conclusion, I really liked the game. I see the potential it has and want to help with feedback. Yes, I am sounding very demanding. I just wanted to share most of my suggestions, even those that require a lot of work. I hope my rambling wasn't too boring and unreadable. Good luck with your project guys! If I didn't mention something, that means that I liked it.
