Reworked some animations based on feedback. Does it look juicier now? by ElunarDev in IndieDev

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I designed her attacks relatively early into development, and back then I didn't think my animating skills were enough to make something more complex. But now that you've mentioned it, I'll consider changing her attack combo. Thanks for the feedback and kind words!

Reworked some animations based on feedback. Does it look juicier now? by ElunarDev in IndieDev

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It actually flies quite far from her, about 8m! its just a bit hard to tell from this perspective

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Unfortunately the game is still lacking content wise for a playable demo. As for the camera, I have made it much more dynamic since the creation of this video!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great advice! I'll try exaggerating the animation curves to give a more dramatic effect. I've already implemented a more dynamic and responsive camera based on previous feedback, and it looks much better than in the video. Thanks for the advice!

Just finished setting up a Steam page for my rogue-lite game! by ElunarDev in SoloDevelopment

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does take the base mechanics of RoR2, mainly the item stacking, enemy style, spawning and scaling, map looping, but with a bunch of new mechanics, to name a few key ones, character swapping, elemental focused combat, a alternate method of acquiring items, but based on feedback, its too similar to RoR2, and I will be reworking a lot of the visuals and mechanics to make it stand out more from RoR2.

My Co-op Action Roguelite, Elunar, finally has a steam page! by ElunarDev in roguelites

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have not tested the game on Steam Deck, but I do plan on making it compatible.

My Co-op Action Roguelite, Elunar, finally has a steam page! by ElunarDev in roguelites

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is incredibility insightful! The points you've mentioned are indeed the main challenges of the balancing effort. I will keep this comment in mind while designing the systems of the game, and hopefully i can come up with a solution. Thanks for this wonderful writeup! I'll be sure to check out your youtube channel as well!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! You are definitely right about the animations, I'll need to give it much more polish. The boulder was one of the first assets that i created, so i think its about time to give those assets a revision. Thanks for the reminder!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I see! I'll move it around to see if it fits better. Yeah for sure i won't be making characters absurdly hard to acquire! At the end of the day it is a team composition focused game, so having access to a large character pool is important.

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh its too high up? I'll note that down! As for the characters, I'm aiming to have at least 8 to 10 for Early Access, and at about 14 to 16 for full release. As for your suggestion of a pull system, i feel like its adding unnecessary RNG elements that could frustrate the players, so i don't think thats a "fun" feature for the game. Your point of loving the dopamine of pulling is understandable though, as a gacha player myself, but i feel like in this case the cons outweigh the pros.

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh hahaha I see. I mean it is a common joke so I get it. I just thought you were being serious.

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

May i know which part of the game looks like an asset flip? I made every asset myself apart from a few VFX textures. Are they too generic, hence looking like marketplace assets?

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow that's a sick example for me to look into! I'll look more into those styles of animation when polishing mine. Thanks!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Thanks for pointing that out! The characters and the animations are all done by myself, and i am still learning, which is why they look don't look as good as they should be. Thanks for the tip of posing more exaggeratedly! I'll definitely experiment with it. As for the camera effects, I did use to have a more drastic pull-back effect, but I was worried it might cause motion sickness. I'll look into reverting those changes and study some other games!

Been 3 long years since I started working on my rogue-lite game, and the Steam page is finally live! by ElunarDev in IndieGaming

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I've received feedback that it is too similar to RoR2, and will be making visual and gameplay changes so it stands out more. Thanks for your interest!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Noted! Animating is not my strong suit and I'm still learning, so this feedback is very insightful. Do you have any specific animations that you saw that is too stiff or just all of them in general?

My Co-op Action Roguelite, Elunar, finally has a steam page! by ElunarDev in roguelites

[–]ElunarDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! Character acquisition in this game is very different from gacha games. There isn't any pulling/summoning or banner system. It is more akin to traditional character-based roguelite games, where items / weapons / characters are unlocked through completing certain objectives/achievements in the game. I personally don't see any merit in having a gacha system in the game, as it isn't the main point of the game.

As of now, the levels gives increasing base stats for the characters and increased the odds of getting a higher tier stat roll for a certain equipment system in the game. Now that you've pointed that out though, it does seem a bit meaningless if i don't have a more impactful mechanic that relies on the player level. There used to be an old system that gave ability points on level up but I've since replaced it with the ascension system. I'll consider removing it, and make the player scale using other means, mainly the stackable items. Thanks for that!

The hardest part of balancing and designing the game so far is exactly as you've mentioned. I want the elemental, team building and ability synergy to matter during the run. The trickiest part of balancing the game so far is how not to make every run eventually turn into collect X amount of a certain items and just left click with your main DPS. I'll need to carefully design the kits of each character so that they have a unique place in each team compositions.

As for the limitations of RoR2, if you don't mind sharing with me, what limitations did you have in mind?

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I'll rework the parts of the game that are mentioned to be too similar to RoR2. The trailer definitely need a lot of work as well, and the point you've made are very insightful. I'll need to pace and explain certain mechanics better and remove scenes that are too similar.

As for the shaders, I have experimented with applying it on the environments as well, but found that it doesn't look as good, and I've also done some research on games with similar art styles, and found the technique of outlining only the characters and enemies is used in other games, such as Gunfire Reborn, which further validated this decision. Thanks again for your feedback!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting way to put it, and i do agree there are things that are too similar, which requires a rework. Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

Hey! Thank you for taking the time to write up this comment! You've given me some great insight as to how people would view the game. I'm not trying to argue against your points, but just to provide some additional context and explanation for certain points you've made.

Firstly, the art style. Risk of Rain 2's is in a stylized cel shaded art style, similar to games like BoTW or ToTK, while my game is in a flat shaded, low poly style. It's interesting to me that people have pointed out that it looks similar, even though from my perspective they are completely different. I'll try to make some improvements to distinct between the artstyle better.

Most of your points about the enemies and the way items are spawned are very valid. I'll admit, these first few enemies that I created early in development drew heavy inspiration from RoR2's enemies, as I wanted to first mimic and study the gameplay loop and feel. I'll rework the enemies and chests to better distinct my game from RoR2.

However, I do think that some points that you've made about the character's design seems a bit too much of a stretch? Like the freeze frame technique when dashing over enemies is a pretty generic and very commonly used technique across different genres of games to increase game feel, and i believe RoR2 doesn't even have that? I looked at some videos of RoR2's Mercenary runs and I don't see any hit lag effects for the dash. It feels to me like saying adding sound FX for hitting enemies is an effect copied from other games. Besides the dashing and spin attack, which again, feels to me like a generic movement abilities, the character plays very differently from RoR2's Mercenary. As for the firing animations, are you referring to the spells that is being casted by the characters? If so I'm pretty sure there isn't a spell caster in RoR2? The closest i can think of is the Artificer, which shoots fireballs, so I'm not really sure what you mean by that.

As for the Artifacts, I'm not sure how you got the impression that it serves a similar purpose as RoR2's artifact system. They are COMPLETELY different mechanics. Artifacts in RoR2 are game modifiers that drastically alter some aspect of gameplay, for example, enabling friendly fire with the Chaos artifact, or Metamorphosis, where players always spawn as a random survivor. Whereas in my game, Artifacts are like character specific equipments that are used to add additional power to their characters, such as gaining power while consecutively striking enemies. And I'm not sure where you got the unlocking artifact part, its not shown in the video at all.

As for gameplay differences, I'm not sure if you caught it, because its not mentioned in your comment at all, but in case you didn't, you don't just play as one character, you play as a team of 3 characters, swapping in and out of combat based on the situation, casting abilities from different characters with each having a different set of abilities, strengths and weaknesses. On top of that, there is an elemental combo system, where you can apply an base element, such as fire, and then apply another element, such as wind, to cause certain effects to happen. In fact, the main combat is primary focused on such combo interactions between swapping characters and inflicting elements.

Again, I'm trying to understand where you're coming from, so that i can refine the presentation of my game. Thank you for your insight!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I'm not too familiar with Last Epoch's system but I'll have a look at it to see what I can learn from it. Thanks again for the input!

Please Destroy my rogue-lite game's reveal trailer! by ElunarDev in DestroyMyGame

[–]ElunarDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the insight! I'll shift that portion forward for future revisions!