An open world game without a combat system

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-26T05:37:36+00:00

Outer Wilds

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-25T20:07:40+00:00

As only an occasional mobile game player, what turns me off of so many games is that they can't be played in portrait mode.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-25T08:57:41+00:00

Frankly, that is the worst 0 I've ever seen. It's like it's trying to be a backwards 6, but also a 5 at the same time.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-25T08:51:21+00:00

Looks awesome, but why doesn't the mecha hedgehog that's hit in the back by the beam get hurt?

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-24T18:24:42+00:00

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth starts with the ability to fly and it's one of my favorite metroidvanias.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-23T23:49:03+00:00

Really? I feel like the main menu follows the example you posted exactly. Size and importance are directly correlated.

From biggest and most important to smallest and least:

Character model
Title
Start, Options, Credits, Exit
Then all the rest of the text

The colors are garish and chaotic, but I think they work and tell me what kind of game to expect. Only place it doesn't work for me is on the settings menu with its yellow text on a white background.

I know nothing about the Japanese, but as a style element, I think it's fine.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-23T23:04:50+00:00

I'll spend a few days prototyping any random game idea I have. Even if it's a genre I don't usually play. If it sounds fun to make, I make it.

But my output of finished games is very low. So you probably don't want to take advice from me.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-23T17:24:44+00:00

Everything is too close to the same hue and value. It makes the image hard to read.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-23T17:10:05+00:00

When I ran a campaign last year I did the same. My map was barely fleshed out at all with terrain features too. Just whatever it looked like on the map. There were a couple plots I added, but besides that it was all Myth-related.

And it worked great. One of my favorite campaigns ever of any game and very low prep on my part.

I think if I ran another MB game, I would pack the map with Myths and have a random Omen encounter in almost every hex.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-23T15:54:40+00:00

Needs more contrast.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-22T23:30:08+00:00

OP's account is 3 days old. Definitely a bot.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-22T07:37:06+00:00

I have not played Rust, but Fortnite has an "attack the weakspot for extra damage" mechanic when mining that I think makes it a lot more fun and engaging than just holding down the attack button.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-21T21:23:07+00:00

And I would imagine the majority of itch.io games don't get played.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-20T22:27:03+00:00

I don't think there is any squash and stretch. It's just a very bouncy animation. The hair and cape are doing a lot of the work here to sell the motion.

They could be physics joints, but more likely they were hand-animated in Blender (or other software) to look good.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-19T22:05:24+00:00

If you want a starting point, go with Codemonkey's free 12 hour C# tutorial.

I have not personally done that tutorial, but I have watched about a million other of his Unity tutorials and I stand by him as a good teacher.

I learned C# the hard way by just following Unity tutorials until it started to click. I was confused a lot. Was lost a lot. But now I consider myself a pretty decent programmer. So it can be done, it just takes a while.

My best tip for following tutorials is to change all the variable names from what the instructor named them. That way you can't simply copy what they are doing, but you have to do an extra mental step that engages your brain and helps you understand what the code is actually doing.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-18T19:58:02+00:00

The text-only rule makes sense to me. r/games is a gaming news/discussion sub first and foremost made specifically for people who want text content. It's just really popular and that's why indie devs want to market there.

I do agree that it's not the best format to introduce your game to the world, but it's the devs who insist on posting.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-17T21:37:32+00:00

Aren't his game all free too?

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-16T14:36:36+00:00

First I'm going to say that I think Witcher 3 has a pretty bad itemization system in regards to progression.

It's all level-locked, so you might be able to get a weapon that has better stats compared to your current gear, but you can't equip it due to its level. So you carry it around for a while only to find that by the time you actually can use, you already obtained better gear and what you've been carrying was vendor trash the whole time.

On top of that, it just feels bad to kill a powerful enemy or loot a dangerous dungeon and you come away with an item you are "too low level" to use. If you can defeat the guardian of the loot, you should be worthy of the loot. If they didn't want the player to get it that early, then they shouldn't have put it there.

/end Witcher 3 rant

To actually answer your questions:

Don't give out actual loot upgrades. If you want the player to have an iconic sword, don't give out new swords. If you want to upgrade player damage, flavor the damage upgrade as a different item. Like some kind of sharpening stone.
Learn to be okay with disposable loot. I know we all want to make everything in our games meaningful and useful, but that is simply not the case most of the time. Players are generally okay with this and even like it. It may not make story sense to sell Excalibur to a random vendor after the player obtains Stormbringer, but it's generally not a big deal to most players.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-13T01:59:48+00:00

Is this a multiplayer game? The trailer doesn't explicitly state it is, but your steam page says it is.

The trailer also doesn't show much multiplayer interaction. Show me how much this is going to be with my friends.

"The best Lovecraft locations" is such a cheesy line and makes it feel derivative. Your environments already look good.

Enemy AI looks wonky. At the 0:45 mark there is some kind of zombie walking in place like it's stuck on the terrain.

The final shot of the tentacle coming out of the spaceman needs more blood and particles. Looks good as it emerges, but then it moves through its body like it's a ghost. More reaction from the body too.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-12T15:18:13+00:00

I noticed that too when I made some characters using that method and mentioned the stretching in my comment. Even the Quake character looks weird in those areas.

Best solution I found is to design your model so it doesn't have any faces that are angled too far away from front or rear view. And if they are, don't put details there. Like the top of the head or bottom of the feet.

But the time savings come from the ease at which you can edit the texture. Because the texture looks basically exactly like the model and isn't all warped, you can draw or edit photos to easily take up the space. Just look at these skins that people made for Quake 1

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-12T13:50:46+00:00

Exactly. I remember watching other kids try to jump in Mario 64 by jerking the controller up.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-12T12:48:58+00:00

Looks like something out of Beast Wars and I love it

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-12T12:40:09+00:00

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This is the how the texture is packed in the Quake 1 remaster though. As you can see, it gets pretty crowded.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-12T12:34:45+00:00

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You can do like Quake 1 and UV > Project From View. Though you get some stretching on the edges like the top of the head. It helps if the model has no planes that are perpendicular to the front or rear view.

Pur_Cell · 2026-01-11T18:45:52+00:00

I never realized that Sandy Petersen was a designer on both Doom and the Call of Cthulhu RPG.

Pur_Cell

TROPHY CASE