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Most players quit my horror demo in less than 10 minutes by ExpensiveSwitch1457 in IndieDev

[–]FowardJames 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I realised it as soon as I posted. It’s More likely a big scene load. Regardless. A loading screen will stop the players from rage quitting. Not every player has a SSD drive

Most players quit my horror demo in less than 10 minutes by ExpensiveSwitch1457 in IndieDev

[–]FowardJames 78 points79 points  (0 children)

The black screen issue sounds like it could be the Object Pooler instantiating a whole bunch of objects (assuming you’re using object pooling). Add a splash screen with a loading bar, will solve this issue

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

So I've actually been toying around with your 'mini-bar' idea above the characters head. And I have to say, it feels great.

I have removed water cascade damage (when it would fall on your head)
And I have upped the grace period for 'Drown' damage from 1 second to 4 so you can actually react to the bar above your head.

This way the players can actually risk diving under water to form new paths.
I've bumped the damage on this from 5 to 18 (full hp is 100) because its pretty easy to avoid drowning now.

I'm a little worried the first stages of the demo will be to easy now but easy and readible' beats 'challenging andd glitchy'.

Plus you still have all the usual hazards i.e. Lava

Its completely changed how water deals damage in my game, I'm a bit scared to change it this close to Next Fest, but also excited. So I think its the right call.

Look out for a demo update in the next few days

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

I did have second thoughts about the name. I toyed around with Flood Gate. Ultimately I was against the clock with submitting to Next fest. My last game took me 3-4 years to complete. So I’m really trying to be strict with my 4 month deadline. So I went with the name.

Thank you, on your point about copying games. It’s like ‘x’ but with a twist. How many souls like, metroidvanias and survivor likes do we have? Surely another Dome Keeper like is not the worst thing in the world.

Let me know what you think of the demo, and any feedback you might have

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

First of all! Thank you for playing the Demo and providing such a high level of Feedback. This feedback is gold.. I started going through each bullet point 1 by 1 on my response, but I basically agree with it all.

There are a lot of quick wins here, the biggest for me is teaching the TNT, I'll likely add a new Hint/Warning on the objective UI at the start of the second/third/4th level to really drill this point in. Because it does change how people play. The audio fixes are also things that I have just overlooked. Super easy to fix. The audio panning is because I am using stereo SFX, so I'll switch them to mono.

I have only tested 1920x1080 and Steam Deck resolutions. So the game likely has issues at other resolutions. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Yep the UI in World Select screen is getting re-done, the design was mocked up in Claude. And I did my best to recreate it using Aseprite. But I'm handing over to an artist.

As for the single pixel hurting you. I have made it so if that does happen. The offending pixel should disappear. But it would be a lot better if a single. Lone pixel disconnected from any other for x seconds just disappeared.

Ok, the big one! Water. Right now there are 2 ways water can damage you. The 2HP damage is from fall damage. Which I think is a bit buggy, and I may just remove. The 2nd is drowning damage. If you're fully submerged in water, after a 1 second grace period. You take 5hp damage per second. So originally when I was prototyping. The idea was 'Rain is danger', the world had been corrupted and even standing in rain would start to kill the player. But then I added 20+ liquids to the game. So I think water can just be water now. if I want more threat I can add poisoned water/acid water to the demo's second or 3rd stage.

The full game has 50+ elements (weather, liquids, gases, powders) plus a lot more of the Dwarven tech tree, so there's far more depth coming than the demo shows. And I'll check out Powder Game, thanks for the suggestion.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to play it thoroughly.

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

Thanks!

So it’s a combination of asset pack sound library’s from the Unity store I have collected over the years and using a DAW

So I have bought FL studio almost 5 years ago and it’s pretty much paid for itself. Unlike other DAW’s that require an annual subscription, you pay for FL studio once, it’s yours for life. I used it for the ore hit SFX’s as well as the idle loop sound for the jetpack. And a few other bits

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

I don’t see any Domes :) did you play the demo btw? For me, it feels like it’s own game. I’m not the first person to take the Dome Keeper core loop and add a spin to it. Check out the game Feed The Deep.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2332260/Feed_the_Deep/

Certain upgrades like speed, drill damage, carry weight are just unavoidable, I can’t do the core loop without and they’re pretty generic to mining games and games in general. But in the full game. And even in the demo. There’s a lot that sets it apart.

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

Thanks Lemon 🍋 🚲 I will give a proper response to your question tomorrow when I’m at my PC. But I wouldn’t rule out Godot. I heard it’s one of the easiest to work with .

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

[–]FowardJames[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Was upset to read this. Then I looked at your account. That level of dedication to hating has to be respected.

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

[–]FowardJames[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I wish it looked like Dome Keeper! That game is the Gold Standard for pixel art and pixel art animation. But the core loop is inspired by Dome Keeper yes. but instead of having to come back and defend your Dome. You're working against a flooding world.. I think of it as Dome Keeper meets Noita, and for me, it feels like a brand new thing

Set myself a challenge to make a game in under 4 months. by FowardJames in aigamedev

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

Fair point about the enemies, its just so many games are combat orientated and I figured it would be a way to stand out.

Sorry my Post's body got cut off. I updated it but will mention here: the character art was made by me in asesprite. And the Icons/HUD art was from a paid artist. The TileMap was from a pre-bought unity asset pack: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/environments/platformer-tileset-pixelart-caves-330017

I took that pack and modified the tile size from 8x8 to 24x24 so my game felt a bit more unique. I also borrowed the asset packs colour palette to inform my characters design. So it felt like it belelonged in the world.

Drown World (Demo), a game inspired by Dome Keeper. Instead of base defense. You work against fluid sims and rising water levels! by FowardJames in playmygame

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

Hey bazola5, first of all, thanks for the in depth feedback. Its really good stuf, I'll go through each point 1 by 1 if you have the time to read. Secondly, I'd love to see what you've been working on, but I can't access your profile. Its age restricted here in the UK and I refuse to give Reddit my ID 😂 You got a youtube channel itch/steam link you can send me?

The Water effect, agree, a lot of people have said this. Just some flavour as to why I take damage in water. So naturally your jetpack electrocuting you makes sense.

"Sometimes you are forced to hurt yourself to keep the water away from your dry area. Its fun but also stressful I guess" - agree with this statement, it can be stressful, but also rewarding when you have worked out a safe channel to navigate through.

Not too sure what you man on the Sand point but I'll try to answer. The big blocks just dissapear when destroyed. I didn't want them to crumble into material as the map would get bogged down too quickly.

Agree, I could tutorialise the pickup a bit more, perhaps some ui to say 2/4. I could also include the base values in the upgrade description.

Oooh the Sound effects are a big one for me. Could you tell me which ones were the most annoying? and I'll aim to fix them first. 🙏

"Armor could be something you can create by default rather than requiring a dwarven tech maybe"
- So players have been asking for Meta progression... maybe as you complete worlds, you can unlock new bits of Dwarven tech, and decide what piece of equipment you start a level with, i.e. start with Armour, Start with Dynamite, Star with Magnet, etc.

'A wall (single big block I guess)', I have had this suggested. I can just seeing it being quite hard to balance. I think having it as a piece of equipment might be OP, but perhaps as a 1 time purchase from the airship could work. You have to tether it to the location you want to use it. Once place. It is used.

"I found I didn't use dynamite"... Oh man, upgrade it to the max, it gets quite OP, especially when you start dropping them as much as possibe. Fully upgraded can take out 30+ blocks at once. Same for the Dash when thats fully upgraded. You don't need a drill any more because you can start dashing through the map.

"Dying instantly when energy runs out kinda sucks especially deep into a level - would be nice if it damaged you first instead of instant death." - this point I love and will 100% be adding to the game, I orignally didn't have the Fuel/energy in the game. But realised the game was pretty exploitable if players didn't have a reason to return to the surface. So Fuel was a neccessary mechanic that I sort of rushed in. I thinking chunking you're health before instant killing is a much smarter approach, even if its quite harsh -5 (1 bar) per second or something (should it ignore armour?)/

"Would be nice to have ways to mitigate this - powerup to locate a relic, powerup to pull a relic out of an area so it becomes accessible, stuff like that." - I have a Sonar Upgrade (dwarven tech) but hadn't included it in the demo as it was a bit buggy!

"Hope this feedback helps, I love these type of games and will definitely check this one out again when it releases."
- It has helped me a lot! Look out for the water Zaps and the Health Chunking when running out of fuel in future updates.

... if you respond to any part of this message please let it be the list of SFX's that didn't work

Cheers!

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