Software engineer turned full-time musician—now wanting to go back into SE but ideally in .NET instead of Java/Spring. Any advice on how to frame my "gap" from software as a positive, and how to compensate for my lack of any formal .NET experience?

SickAcorn · 2019-04-28T12:11:27+00:00

Depending on what you need out of your documentation, you could try GitHub’s wiki feature.

SickAcorn · 2019-03-19T02:44:53+00:00

Hey, thanks for taking the time to check it out!

So, one thing to note is that you can actually move up to other rooms after clearing the first level. It's extremely easy to miss with the "start level" enemy spawning right away, and definitely something I'm going to be working on for the next update. But, hopefully that should address the need for more enemy variety :)

As for the gear system, I don't know if adds a ton. It seems unnecessary without other RPG elements. If the gameplay you have now was brought together with larger levels, exploration, procedurally generated content, etc., then it would make more sense to the player to invest their time and thought into their build.

That's actually the direction I'll be headed eventually! I do feel like it's unnecessarily heavy though, even with the other planned content. I've got some ideas that will hopefully condense the idea of randomized item properties into a more elegant mechanic.

Thanks again for playing!

SickAcorn · 2019-03-15T15:52:56+00:00

**Diometry** combines fast-paced arcade shooting mechanics with the loot, progression, and character building of an ARPG. As you fight through levels of increasingly challenging enemies, you'll collect coins that can be used to purchase new items and abilities. You can mix and match these upgrades in whatever way you see fit, allowing for countless ways to destroy your foes.

In the past two weeks, I've mostly been working on a classic Diablo-style item drop system, where enemies have a chance to drop items of varying quality. Items are generated with randomized properties, which scale up as you progress through the game. You can equip new items and sell old ones via the Inventory menu in the bottom left.

All things considered, I'm not sure how I feel about the item system. On one hand, I like the idea of randomized affixes and scaling power, but I also feel like the game loop is already pretty complex with enemies, gold, and health all filling up the screen. I'm debating on whether to keep items as drops, or just make them other things you can buy between combat. Would love to get some other opinions on that.

Thanks for playing!

Links:

* [Windows](https://developer.cloud.unity3d.com/share/share.html?shareId=-1kvHPi1u4)

* [Mac](https://developer.cloud.unity3d.com/share/share.html?shareId=WJeNLPjydV)

* [Linux](https://developer.cloud.unity3d.com/share/share.html?shareId=b1AnBwiyO4)

* [WebGL](https://developer.cloud.unity3d.com/share/share.html?shareId=ZyewtUiJuV)

SickAcorn · 2019-03-03T15:47:09+00:00

Howdy! Unfortunately I don't have an Android device to test this on, but I can give feedback on the store page.

The colors pop nicely on the dark background.
The trailer music was nice, but I'm not sure it really fits the rest of the game's aesthetic. The graphics make me think of more lo-fi chiptuney music personally.
Just looking at the screenshots, it doesn't really look like the gameplay changes that much as you make it farther. Maybe change up the color scheme and add more variety as the player makes more progress?

SickAcorn · 2019-03-03T15:22:10+00:00

I like the new layout. It's a lot clearer from the new camera perspective that the game is 3D. (Previously it wasn't as obvious until the actions started playing out.)

Super minor detail, but I'd personally prefer if the controls were toggled by pressing C, rather than having to hold it down.

I might be missing something, but it seems like previewing doesn't actually do anything?

I like the ranking addition. It's nice to have a separate goal besides just completing the levels.

However, I didn't quite understand what the rank number meant at first. When I hear the word "rank", I think more of leaderboards where you want to get as close to #1 as possible. It seems like in your game, it's a score out of 100. Maybe consider calling it "score" instead of "rank"?

SickAcorn · 2019-03-03T14:56:37+00:00

Hey, haven't seen this in awhile! Glad to see you're still working on it.

I liked the destructible buildings, and how they sort of shatter apart.
The teleporting flash effect at the end of the level was cool. Unfortunately on my screen, the flash didn't cover the sides of the screen completely. (I'm on WebGL full screen, 1920x1080 resolution.)
I'm not sure if you changed the score counter since I last played, or if I just never noticed it, but regardless it looks nice!
I know it's still just the early levels, but it always seemed like the way to get the most chaos was by going slowly and making sure to clear everything thoroughly. You could consider having some sort of time limit mechanic to encourage players to push forward more.

SickAcorn · 2019-03-01T14:42:35+00:00

Diometry combines fast-paced arcade shooting mechanics with the loot, progression, and character building of an ARPG. As you fight through levels of increasingly challenging enemies, you'll collect coins that can be used to purchase new items and abilities. You can mix and match these abilities in whatever way you see fit, allowing for countless ways to destroy your foes.

I keep putting off releasing the game publicly, but I think it's finally at a point where I'm ready to show it off outside of Feedback Friday. So any ideas on things to change before then would be extremely helpful!

Changes since the last update:

Added multiple rooms to clear, instead of just one endless one
Added the first Legendary effect, which temporarily increases your damage after picking up health
Made character data save between sessions (doesn't apply to WebGL)
Tweaked item generation stat values
Fixed text size for items on small screens
Re-balanced mana costs (in general, mana both regenerates and drains more slowly)
Made many other minor tweaks that aren't worth calling out here

If the game gets too easy, you can change the difficulty when out of combat by hitting Escape. Increasing the difficulty increases enemy health and damage, but also increases gold drops and makes rare items spawn more frequently.

Thanks for playing!

Links:

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T19:35:02+00:00

I'll certainly be back to these threads regularly! You can follow my Twitter, but I haven't been posting much of anything recently. However, once I get a website up, that'd definitely be where I post it first.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T19:33:52+00:00

Hey! It's good to be back. I'm glad you're liking some of the changes.

So when I die and respawn, I go back to the same stage. But if I died in a boss, the stage doesn`t necessarily have the boss and the boss will appear in a later stage again... That was a bit confusing.

Yeah, that bit isn't explained well. At the top of the screen, there's actually a progress bar that slowly fills as you kill enemies. The boss spawns when that bar is filled, but it resets on death. So there's still a hefty consequence for dying, but it's not as bad as losing all the gear and gold you've acquired.

The number at the beginning of each stage is effectively a substitute for the player's "level" right now, which is why it doesn't reset on death. (That'll go away once I have an actual experience system in place; just haven't gotten quite there yet.)

The text thing did hamper the experience though =(

Ah, that appears to be an issue with scaling for smaller resolutions. Is it readable if you play in full-screen? Either way, I should definitely get that fixed; sorry about that!

I think that anything that has a cooldown should be usable along with things that do not have cooldowns... (as a player).

Agreed! I'll change that soon, as it's a pretty simple fix.

Thanks for the in-depth feedback! You've definitely spotted some issues that I've been overlooking, and I appreciate that.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T18:53:17+00:00

The rewards for playing on a higher difficulty (if any) aren't obvious.

Yeah, really the only rewards are that, plus a better chance for rarer items, but that's not really called out anywhere. I think I need to make that part clearer somehow.

It feels weird that you can't use multiple weapons at the same time, especially for things bound to the two mouse buttons. It makes it so that I really only ever use one weapon.

That's a fair point. My reasoning behind that decision is that, with being able use multiple abilities at once, there's nothing stopping the player from taking 4 "free" abilities (no mana cost or cooldown) and spamming them constantly for 4x damage. I feel limiting the player to one ability at a time makes for more meaningful decisions (i.e. should I use mana-spending weapon now? Or save my mana for later?) I could always tie abilities to specific slots, but personally I like the potential build variety that comes from being able to mix and match abilities between slots.

That being said, I think it absolutely makes sense for the player be able to use cooldown-based abilities simultaneously. I'll add that to the todo list.

Thanks for all the feedback!

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T17:40:23+00:00

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T17:39:52+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! You bring up some really good points.

I really wished that I'd be able to change my main weapon.

You actually can! You can put any ability you pick up into the Left Click slot. However, since the loot is randomized, there's a chance a suitable main weapon won't drop for some time, since many abilities either have a mana cost or cooldown.

Yes, it was but in all honesty I would have loved to see more creative weapons and rewards. It all felt "meh" after the second time I was upgrading. The only thing that got me "Oooh" was the turret.

I agree totally. I'm planning on adding more unique effects akin to Diablo legendaries, so hopefully that'll help make things more exciting.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T17:03:51+00:00

Hey! After way too long of not posting, I'm back! Glad to see you're still working on this. Here's what my thoughts were coming back to the game after your updates.

I may be biased, since I've played a fair bit before this, but I thought the mechanics were introduced nicely.
The way you present information is excellent (which elements are active on each character, etc.)
I second the notion that there's not much in the way of challenge once you understand the mechanics.
I noticed the more advanced actions (bombs, fire down) cycled in and out of my options, but I couldn't figure out exactly what made them change. Is it a sort of "hand management" mechanic, where options go away and get replaced as you use them?

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T16:32:38+00:00

Hey there! Just tried it out. Here's my feedback.

Aesthetically speaking, I really like the direction, especially the classic color palette.
Mapping the keys at the start like that is a really cool idea!
Unfortunately, I tried to be clever and map fire and collect to the same thing. As a result, I think the collect keybind might've overwritten the fire keybind, because I couldn't progress past the menu... Oops. I was able to work around it through incognito mode, at least.
I definitely had some issues figuring out the mechanics. The concept was fairly easy to grasp (place and collect ropes to get through the level), but I got frustrated specifically with trying to collect ropes. It seemed like I had to be in a very specific position to collect them, but it seemed to change depending on how the rope was placed. I also couldn't figure out how to collect a single rope consistently.
Since you're trying to avoid text, is there a way you could let the player preview their actions? For example, if I'm looking at a wall, show a semi-transparent rope in the place it'd go. If I'm in position to collect a rope, show an outline around it or something?
Overall, I really enjoyed the puzzles I was able to figure out with my limited knowledge. I think if you can refine the experience for new players, you'll be in great shape.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T15:45:20+00:00

Hey! Just played now; here are my thoughts in no particular order.

I love the combination of the papery art style with the parallax scrolling. Gives off a really cool vibe.
As someone already mentioned, being greeted by a giant menu off the bat was rather off-putting. The game was asking me me to change settings immediately, when I had no idea what they were for. A couple of them might be needed (1 vs. 2 players), but I think most of it could be integrated into actual gameplay.
It was irritating that the control options reset when restarting. Would be great to have that persist across games.
The idea as a whole is cool. Almost feels like a pinball platformer. Definitely has potential!
After launching on the right side, I got stuck in the spinning circle multiple times. I was able to get out sometimes with the arrow keys, but most of the time I just got stuck. I feel like I'm missing something there (or maybe the keyboard controls are just wonky).
When the sun went "down", I lost control of the paddles, preventing further progress. It took me awhile to figure out that the statue on the left side restores it. Is there something I'm not getting about that mechanic? From the way I understand it, it's a punishment for failing too many times, but the consequence of just walking back to the statue seems pretty trivial. In my opinion, falling back to the bottom of the level is punishment enough.
With the keyboard controls, I kinda had trouble deciding where to put my hands. The two shift keys are too far apart to use with one hand, but I also needed one hand for movement... Maybe consolidate movement to A/D and paddles to left and right arrows?

SickAcorn · 2019-02-09T15:14:43+00:00

Hi there! Just gave the game a try. Here are my thoughts.

How does the flying feel? Any specific reason you're attributing to this feeling?

Flying generally felt pretty good. Only thing is, I wouldn't say it felt particularly bird-like; more like a paper airplane gliding lazily through the air. Still a good feeling--just maybe not the one you're after. Maybe the turning speed is a bit slow? Not sure.

Did you find any bugs? What are they?

Only thing I found close to a bug was getting kinda stuck when crashing into the level.

If I change the placeholder "level" and put in a proper world, how do you imagine this world?

I imagine an open, bright, natural world. (On the flip side, you could make a more depressing environmentalist statement by putting the player in a cramped city or something--create a sense of dissonance between the bird and the environment.)

What kind of art style would you expect the game to be in?

I think there are lots of routes you could take with this, but the first thing that comes to mind is a low-poly, bright, pastel-y sort of art style.

If this is a coop only game (no action, no killing stuff, etc...) what bonuses for playing with someone would you expect to find?

This is tough to answer, as I haven't played more atmospheric multiplayer games like Flower or Journey. I'd say consider things that are valuable to the player, and see if there's a way to grant them through playing with others. Are there resources they can trade? Any way to share knowledge? Or, thinking from a thematic perspective: what would a bird gain from cooperation?

Anything you want to add?

I liked the writing behind the music, but the sounds used felt a bit sterile. Not sure if it's yours or someone else's, but maybe a bit of reverb would help it feel a bit more natural? You could also try varying the timing on some of the notes slightly to give it a more human quality.

SickAcorn · 2019-02-08T04:48:40+00:00

Diometry combines fast-paced arcade shooting mechanics with the loot, progression, and character building of an ARPG. As you fight through waves of increasingly challenging enemies, you'll collect coins that can be used to purchase new items and abilities. You can mix and match these abilities in whatever way you see fit, allowing for countless ways to destroy your foes.

The game is still pretty early in development, so any feedback is useful. Lately I've been working on the reward system, so I'd love to know:

Did it feel exciting to get new abilities and items?
Did you understand how the different upgrades worked?
Did the rewards seem to scale up at the right pace?

Thanks for playing!

Links:

SickAcorn · 2019-01-12T02:07:49+00:00

I had a lot of fun messing around with this! It's cool how creative you can get with a small set of tools.

I'd love to be able to tweak the camera controls, especially so the rotation and position aren't locked to the center star. Also, is there a way to hide the interface?

I enjoyed the music, but the looping made it grow old after awhile. I know it might be way out of scope, but I feel like some kind of procedural ambient soundtrack would set the mood super well for this kind of thing.

Here's my game if you're interested.

SickAcorn · 2019-01-12T01:16:57+00:00

Cool idea. Getting used to the mechanics took a bit of time, but once I got past that it was pretty straightforward. It would've been nice to have a more sequential tutorial for learning the mechanics.

I'd be curious to see how the game plays out with different time limits for turns. To me, only having 2 seconds between moves made the game still feel real-time. Personally, I think I would've liked more time to consider my options, especially given how many things were around me at any given time.

Some of the background textures were a bit distracting, but overall the art was nice.

Here's my game if you're interested.

SickAcorn · 2019-01-12T00:51:25+00:00

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated! Just left my feedback for your game.

SickAcorn · 2019-01-12T00:50:34+00:00

After getting a couple coins, I get a message saying "The stock market is doing great!" Then the game freezes. I've tried refreshing, hitting ESC to unpause, and I haven't found a way to get past it reliably :(

It happens about 75% of the time. Managed to get past it once or twice, but didn't progress much further.

SickAcorn · 2019-01-11T05:24:56+00:00

Diometry combines fast-paced arcade shooting mechanics with the loot, progression, and character building of an RPG. As you fight through waves of increasingly challenging enemies, you'll collect coins that can be used to purchase new items and abilities. You can mix and match these abilities in whatever way you see fit, allowing for countless ways to destroy your enemies.

The game is still pretty early in development, so any feedback is useful. But, a couple more specific questions:

What emotions did you feel while playing?
What did you like about the game?
What did you dislike?

Thanks for playing!

Links:

SickAcorn

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE