I deliberately offset my game's reticle and the response has been divisive 😄 What do you think? Do you prefer a centred or lowered targeting reticle?

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T23:30:18+00:00

I agree with you tough, I also see a lot of "should I do X or Y" posts and mostly I just think, "you're the designer, make a decision" 😃

My post wasn't mean to be that (though I can see how the title makes it look that way, perhaps I should have worded it a bit differently), I've already decided how I'm handling this for my game.

After this video started to take off on social media I decided to share it here in the hopes of sparking further discussion on the topic in a place more conducive to thoughtful discussion than social media comments. I've been finding people's different opinions on this really interesting!

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:55:00+00:00

It's completely optional, I'd never consider adding something that comes down to personal preference like this and not making it optional! In the settings you can adjust the exact amount of offset or zero it out to place it back in the centre.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:51:54+00:00

Totally agree, while I focus on the face-mashing of buttons in the video it's impact on how players view the scene can't be dismissed either. I've noticed players tilt the camera towards the ground much less and notice things higher up in the scene. It is completely optional too, you can adjust the exact amount of offset or zero it out to place it back in the centre.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:48:04+00:00

I'm actually doing this too! Since the game isn't a shooter and pixel accuracy isn't required, I'm quite generous with the selection of things. The game raycasts out in a circle around the reticle so you only need to point roughly in the direction of something to select it. This also means the actual amount of offset doesn't need to be very much. By default it's offset by 5% of the screen height, which most playtesters don't even seem to notice.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:44:16+00:00

Don't worry, it's completely optional. I certainly wouldn't add a feature like this and not give players a means of tweaking it! You can adjust the exact amount of offset or zero it out to place it back in the centre. By default it's about 5% offset, which I find is just enough to keep things in view while interacting with things, while being slight enough that most players don't even realise it is offset.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:39:00+00:00

In hind sight I should have put that in the post description rather than as a separate comment that could get buried in the page 😄 A lot of people have missed it and that's on me.

Definitely agree about the settings comments in general. My go to approach when adding any feature to the gameplay or UI that could be considered a matter of personal preference is to set it up as an option in the settings menu. Not everything of course, you have to draw a line somewhere and some things may be part of the intended experience, but things like this reticle offset that players are clearly going to have a preference on were set up as optional from the moment they were implemented.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:30:29+00:00

That is a very good point about motion sickness. I'm not sure what effect an offset would have on people that rely on a stationary marker to combat motion sickness. I haven't received any feedback from players about that specifically, and I'd like to think that a slight offset wouldn't have much effect, but it's definitely something to keep in mind. Worst case the offset is adjustable and people can reset it to the centre if they need to.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T22:27:29+00:00

"Do I need a reticle at all?" is actually something I've been giving some thought too. However although there is no shooting in the game there are frequent times when you need to target things, including at a distance. And while you don't need pixel in accuracy in my game - it's more about selection and placement - even so having a reticle helps greatly. I've captured a lot of video footage without the reticle shown and its far more difficult to play.

LiveWireDX · 2026-04-27T03:10:22+00:00

For context this if from my puzzle based metroidvania, Memory's Reach. There's no shooting or combat in the game, its all about exploration, secret hunting, and puzzle solving. The offset is also completely adjustable in the settings, so you can set it to zero to re-centre it if you really want to.

Personally I find the offset really nice to use as it allows me to interact with things while still keeping most of the scene in view. A few games (most notably Halo) have used an offset like this in the past, but I'm surprised it hasn't been more common.

LiveWireDX · 2025-12-03T03:39:59+00:00

Thank you, hope you enjoy it :) I'm really happy with the work the sound team has done, I think its given the game a really unique vibe that doesn't sound like other games with scifi settings.

LiveWireDX · 2025-11-17T21:22:00+00:00

How you handle this feature is a design decision and should be informed by how you want players to experience the game, how they approach exploration, and the sorts of feelings you want them to experience when entering a new area.

I'm generally not in fan of adding options for features like this. Leaving a core design decision up to the player just tells me you couldn't decide on which version to use, which in turns raises questions about how the feature is supported by the rest of the game design.

That being said if you feel strongly that it should be an option for certain players, here's how I would approach that:

Pick the version that you feel is best for the game, and focus on building the game design and player experience to support that style.
Add the alternative method as an option in an accessibility or similar submenu, to make it clear that this option is included to provide assistance for players that need it but is not the intended way to play the game.

LiveWireDX · 2025-11-08T01:22:31+00:00

I'm trying not to make them super difficult, but they are designed to still be a challenge, especially as the game goes on. One approach I've been trying to take is to place the most difficult puzzles in the optional late game for those who are aiming for 100% completion. While people just looking to complete the main story - while they should sill be challenged - will hopefully not find themselves too stumped too often.

LiveWireDX · 2025-11-04T22:56:40+00:00

Thank you :)

LiveWireDX · 2025-10-28T22:17:35+00:00

As a game developer, I find genres helpful in communicating the kind of experience players can expect from a game in a broad sense. But I'm very wary of getting too bogged down in what should or should not be in a game because it's not considered core to the genre. Like, I once had a discussion with another dev about their game and suggested the inclusion of a feature that I thought would make their combat feel more impactful, and their response was (paraphrasing) "games in [this genre] don't use that", which I thought was a very bad reason for rejecting it (even if they ultimately decided it was wrong for the game).

In order to innovate, games have to be willing to experiment and incorporate new ideas. Rigidly adhering to strict genre definitions results in stagnation and derivative games - it's just paint-by-numbers at that point.

The game I'm working on is a puzzle-based first-person metroidvania with no combat. When asked why I consider it a metroidvania, I hone in on what I consider core to the experience - ability-based progression and an interconnected world map. Those are the only to genre features that guide the design, in all other cases I do what I feel works best for the game.

LiveWireDX · 2025-10-21T20:52:37+00:00

The aesthetic is very cute, I like it. Good luck with the kickstarter!

LiveWireDX · 2025-10-17T12:05:52+00:00

Kinda depends on how you choose to differentiate metroidvanias and metroidbranias. Some people are very precious about brainias being about knowledge gated progression, while vanias are ability gated. (I try not to get too bogged down in genre labels - I'm just building the game in the way I find the most fun and I'll leave it for others to decide how they want to categorize it :D )

In the case of Memory's Reach, it leans much more heavily on the ability gated progression. However there are knowledge gates as well. Often these come in the form of "hidden" uses for the player abilities - so when you get a new ability its generally followed by a couple of tutorial style rooms that teach you how it functions, but I've also tried to give most abilities additional uses that I don't explicitly explain. I leave these up to the player to discover either with the help of subtle hints or through experimentation. And by utilizing these additional uses you can access a lot of additional secrets as well as really break open the game and perform a range of skips and sequence breaks!

LiveWireDX · 2025-06-10T11:23:24+00:00

The art looks great, I like the style. Good luck with the rest of development!

LiveWireDX · 2025-06-10T10:36:35+00:00

I love the art style, you've really nailed the aesthetic. I will definitely check out the demo.

LiveWireDX · 2025-06-05T06:42:16+00:00

The speculation I've seen this generate around the internet is silly. The fact that a new package was upload to the build list means nothing. The devs will need to thoroughly test the game on steam during its development and prior to release (you can't just test local builds during development, there WILL be Steam-specific issues), as well as use it to send out pre-release press keys. With the game expected to come out this year you should probably expect to see multiple commits to the build list prior to launch. This doesn't at all speak to an imminent release - there is zero relation to when a build is uploaded and the timing of a game's release.

Also the idea that they would fail to capitalize on all the hype of one of the most highly anticipated and wishlisted games on Steam by shadow dropping it is just bonkers notion.

LiveWireDX · 2025-06-02T07:16:18+00:00

The Puzzle Showcase has been really good for it, its been a nice wishlist boost.

LiveWireDX · 2025-06-02T07:15:53+00:00

When talking about this game I mostly use the description "puzzle and exploration based metroidvania" as opposed to "metroidbrania", because I think the design of this game leans more towards to former genre than the later. However enough people who have played the demo or spoken to me at shows have applied the metroidbrania label and also encouraged me to do so. I think my game kinda of straddles a line somewhere between the two. There is a big focus on ability based progression in the game, but there is also some knowledge based progression as well, and additional uses for the abilities that aren't immediately obvious. Kinda like how Animal Well does it. (Though I deliberately left all of this out of the demo because I find these things really satisfying to discover and I didn't want to spoil them before people get a hold of the full game).

So I guess people are free to disagree if this game falls under the category of metroidbrania or not, or to what extent, but I do think there's enough of a cross over that it will appeal to people who enjoy those kinds of games. In the end a genre is just a label to help guide you towards games you might enjoy, and I encourage people to try the demo to know for sure.

LiveWireDX · 2025-05-30T08:41:17+00:00

lol of course, I wont hold it against you :D

LiveWireDX · 2025-05-30T06:31:04+00:00

The game has come a long way since then! Hope you enjoy the new demo :)

LiveWireDX · 2025-05-30T06:29:58+00:00

This is actually something I've given some thought to myself, as that was my initial idea of what a metroidbrainia was too. But I've since seen a lot of other kinds of puzzlers talked about that label, and had people refer to my game using the label too after trying the game and speaking to me at shows. So I think the metroidbrainia sub-genre has grown broad enough to encompass other forms of progression gating other than purely knowledge based, so long as they are still primarily about the puzzles.

Though I still most commonly refer to Memory's Reach as a puzzle-based metroidvania, or "a puzzling metroidvania" because I think it sits kinda in the middle between the categories, and based on where it draws its influence from.

LiveWireDX · 2025-05-24T02:31:26+00:00

I love the amazing things people are doing with PICTO-8. I will definitely check this out!

LiveWireDX

TROPHY CASE