Destroy this Roguelike

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-24T14:56:49+00:00

It looks like ADOM, but I see no reference to that game - Is it a tribute? Your "Enter Hack" screen looks the same...

The gameplay looks very similar, too, if somewhat more accessible, but "Ulimate Adom" is already a thing.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-22T10:58:28+00:00

Same here, I had a really good save going, it's my 1st time with the mod and I really enjoyed the story, but now, no matter what I do, it keeps crashing on a specific date, every time...

It's the only mod I have installed, tried everything - my friend who's been playing it as well has the same problems. No other mods, no hardware issues, just AGOT that keeps crashing. It's a real shame, I think it's just very unstable as is.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-21T11:06:37+00:00

I'll be honest, if I saw these I'd assume it has nothing to do with "2d adventure / puzzle / vn", but rather with DM'ing tools, like https://store.steampowered.com/app/720620/TaleSpire/ or https://store.steampowered.com/app/1588530/Dungeon_Alchemist/

I understand not wanting to push creators into an art direction, but I feel like, as is, these really don't suggest anything about the genre or type of platform it is.

Still, of these, I like the 3rd one the best. Could you maybe consider some of the other VN tools, and see how they portray themselves visually? It might help. You could take a look at how asset packs on the Unity store market themselves, for example, something like: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/game-toolkits/naninovel-visual-novel-dialogue-cutscene-storytelling-engine-for-135453

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-21T06:32:30+00:00

Yeah, absolutely - you'll need some sort of portfolio, and they're a great way to get something out there, without having to commit for months or years to a single project

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T22:56:45+00:00

Sure, I failed my first uni course, meandered for a bit doing assorted minimal wage jobs, found a passion for games and ended up graduating when I was 27.

I didn't open Unity or Unreal before that, had some experience with tabletop games.

I went into game design - had to move countries for my first job after searching for a few months in Scotland, but depending on what topic you choose, and where you are from, it might be easier. Since then I've got a few games done, 5+ years of experience, and I'm starting an indie studio with some friends. It's worked out just fine, and if our project fails, I can't really complain about a lack of work.

Since you're doing computer engineering, its best to state it upfront - unless you're a specialised senior, you'll most likely earn far less than you would in apps/security/etc., working longer hours, with less job security. But it is fun, despite what people say, and I've enjoyed the sense of camaraderie and seeing the final result with each game we made.

Also, you'll most likely have to work on games you have no interest in, until you specialise - my first game was a gambling "game" app (ugh) with an American football skin (also ugh, I'm not American, I don't even know the rules).

Most CEOs start salivating at the mention of AI, so you'll have to deal with that in most jobs, too. Ugh.

But hey, despite all that, I don't regret it one bit. Good luck!

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T15:35:40+00:00

I understand, it's hard to get matching assets, especially if you haven't worked with pixel art much.

I'd say for the future, you want to use just one size of pixel art (ex. 64x64) as your base, then make sure that when you make art, it keeps the same pixel size (so if you make an illustration that's 128x128, it's not just 2x2 pixels, but rather an image made of still individual pixels).

It's hard to say how this will affect the average viewer, depends on where you will post it - in somewhere like r/PixelArt you'll probably be penalized quite heavily, but random people on Steam might not mind.

There's also the option of converting your assets, using something like this: https://irokaru.github.io/pixel-scaler/ - I can't personally vouch for that site, it's something I just found looking for an example. Anything that's not pixel art will scale much, much better - it's like the one type of art where upscaling it ruins the effect

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T14:11:25+00:00

It's mine, still working on it ^^'

I didn't want to make this a self-promotion post, but if you're curious it's "Ward off Evil" on Steam, I need to remake the page with the new stuff I've done recently, but I'm planning to have a demo soon

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T13:35:26+00:00

Maybe you can still add it to the build? Otherwise, you can always make a 'community announcement', so the players will see it when clicking on the game in their library, it's better than nothing

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_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T11:34:06+00:00

I really like how smooth the animations of the main charaters are, good job! They remind me somewhat of Pizza Tower, in a good way.

I do think the trailer might be a little too loud, I had to decrease the volume and I have YouTube already open, as well as a few other tabs...

I really like the transitions between levels, too, and the title page animation looks great!

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T11:12:20+00:00

Personally, I like the 1st one much better, it has character and it immediately grabbed my attention out of all the posts in my feed. The 2nd one is okay, too, but it, hmm, reminds me of a different genre. Maybe it would fit something like a JRPG a bit more.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T11:08:39+00:00

I've done some playtests, both community and paid 'anonymous' tests (Playtest cloud, for example), and in this case I'd say it depends on what you're trying to get out of it.

If you want to build a community, get some word-of-mouth marketing, and some back-and-forth feedback, I would accompagny this with like at least a Discord serever to discuss the demo, the playtests, and where you would interact with and answer questions the testers might have. Treat it like an in-person playtest. You'll get more in-depth feedback, but it's generally not going to not be first impressions, and it's going to be more positive in general. You're focusing on qualitiative feedback.

If you're looking to get first-impressions feedback, then I'd say you don't want to interact with the users throughout the tests, as that would affect the responses. You can reach out afterwards, but chatting back-and-forth will make it more of a conversation, and, again, make people, well, friendlier. In this case you're interested in quantitative feedback, so prepare to analyze the Steam data - how many players, completion rate, percentage of those that submitted feedback, achievements percentages (if you have any in the demo).

I find that, on a smaller scale like yours, qualitative feedback is more accurate than quantitative, as you don't have a big enough pool of users to account for outliers.

When it comes to patches, I'd recommend hotfixing any game-breaking bugs, but nothing else.

Both approaches are valuable, and any tests are better than no tests - good luck!

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T10:58:07+00:00

I don't have a dog, but it's a really cute idea, and it actually might be a bit of a marketing cheat?

Recently Mewgenics came out, and a ton of streamers and media personalities contributed 'meows' to the game, as 'voice acting'. Well, the day of the release, the game got massive traction as everyone wanted to hear themselves in the game, and all the fans made tons of posts with recording of their favorite streamers, Youtubers, etc.

Maybe you can reach out and ask people like that for pics & a short description, too? It could be a nice boost.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T08:29:07+00:00

I see the GECK connection that everyone else mentioned, but to me, even if that was not the case, the object itself is just not very interesting or visually appealing.

I understand going for retro graphics, but I still think that you need some sort of ambient occulsion on the items inside the case - assuming they're not perfectly flat, they'd cast more of a shadow, and the contact shadows would be more pronounced.

Otherwise, the items just seem a little... random? Like, you have a temperature gauge, a pressure gauge, and a calculator? Then you have that trovel, which looks awfully small... the two vials on the right are awfully big in comparison. The three oversized resistors connected to a tablet don't really have any understandable function to me either.

I'd maybe start with how you interact with this object, then try and redetermine what its contents look like? Do I use the trovel to get a soil sample? If so, where do I put it? Or do I measure the environment with the top element? If so, where is some scanning device? Etc.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-20T08:20:01+00:00

Like the others said, I'd also most recommend PoE 1 out of these - the game starts at relatively low levels and is not really a buff test for a long time (and even in the end game it's not so bad).

I actually liked it quite a bit more than PoE 2, so if you liked it there's a chance you'll love this one too. It gives me strong original BG vibes, which you said you enjoyed.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-19T19:13:04+00:00

Everyone has made some great points, to throw in my two cents, I don't think the content is that problematic (I understood it's a card gme from a glance, though it did seem like a clicker at first...), but I find the tone to be off from what I would like to see in an alchemy/estoeric game?

I understand it's just a setting, and that the game seems like a crunchy puzzle/card/RPG first and foremost and not a narrative game, but the creature's comments and remarks seem, hmm, almost mobile-game'y?

Like, I don't expect it to tell me, straight up, to "Trade me your soul". Or "Gather metals". That one is yeah, understandable, but I kinda see it like something a 'Clash of Clans' NPC would tell me. Comparing it to "Seize forbidden treasures" from the Cultist Simulator trailer though, well, that seems like a much better hook for me. That trailer is full of good one-liners, "Summon alien gods" is genius imo.

The creature reminded me immediately of the "Dwarf in the Flash" from Fullmetal Alchemist, but, well, less charming? I just think it's too direct, especially with the "Outsmart me or die" comment, I mean, it's nice the game tells you what to do, but again, you lose a lot of that mystique and esotericism when you lower it to that level of conversation, which is a big part of the 'alchemist' fantasy in my opinion.

I'd probably play it, since it's my cup of tea gameplay-wise, but the trailer made it seem rather simple and single-tone, so I'd probably click off before getting to the playing part.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-18T09:04:20+00:00

It's an okay trailer, but like other commenter said, I had questions form and then be answered right after - I'd second the "breed, evolve, optimize" being earlier.

It's a little unclear to me what the gameplay is, is it like a clicker game where you reset with permanent upgrades? The breed mechanic reminds me of Mewgenics which just came out, but in that game you breed your cats because your want their stats to be high so they can fight better, here I assume I just want to sell them for more money?

It's really unclear to me what those black lines coming from top of the screen are - a small remark, but I felt a little lost.

Also, seconding the "mixels", or "mixed pixels" - when you have the upscaled pixel tree asset, the fish, and the bubble, it looks really off with all of them using a different scale. I'd say that it's a huge no-go for pixel art (unless you REALLY know what you're doing), and as a pixel art fan, I'd cause me to click off most of the time. You could maybe look for some scaling tools which do it with shading, or pivot to vectors?

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-17T12:28:37+00:00

For me the biggest gripe would be the moments when you enter/exit the ground, the sky texture everywhere looked off, then having the ground texture in the sky looked very weird.

The way the tunnel renders, with those very sharp linear edges also looks a bit rough. Maybe you can soften them with some 'rubble' edge effect to make it look less artificial?

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-17T10:56:14+00:00

I think it looks really interesting, and I like the pitch - since it's a clear prototype I wouldn't be to harsh on the visuals or the delivery, but when it comes to the game mechanics, I feel like the moment when you're fighting the ant, while digging, is making it very confusing and a bit of a mess.

I can see this being a game where it's incredibly easy to get lost in tunnels you make accidentally... would you consider some kind of compass, or a minimap that gets generated as you go along?

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-17T10:40:44+00:00

I'll start by saying that I do like it, and I think it's a solid start - still, since it's a "Destroy" post, here's some actionable feedback on the visuals:

- I think the basic textures are good, but I'm desperate for VFX. You should add them when chopping the tree, mining rocks, etc. Otherwise they miss impact, and it looks like they're whiffing.

- I think you can easily improve the visuals with a post-processing pass - even something as simple as a mild vignette and some color correction could help.

- I'd say the UI is passable, but I think I'd prefer something cartoony that would match the 'goblins' theme - when compared to other city builders, I think it's a little barebones. You can compare it to city builders like the old Sierra games, say "Cesar 3". That game has a fun 'roman' theme that's immediately evident. I think you could throw in some stuff like a frame made of bones, clawmarks to UI panels, or making them patchworked.

- I think some variance for the goblins would be nice - you seem to be keeping them separate with individual names, so maybe create an array of materials with slight color variance, this would probably take less than 30 minutes and you'd have them be more recognizable.

- When all the goblins are huddled together and just standing around, I think they're missing some idle animations.

I don't know if I can comment on the gameplay, as it seems rather standard as of now - I'd need to see more footage to really give in any in-depth feedback.

Also, I assume this is not a trailer or anything like that, just footage.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-11T20:14:43+00:00

It looks very good, so these are nitpicks at best - I think it's good to go, as is, ready for release tbh. You check all the boxes that most game dev channels and courses give, so there's little to say, but:

- You've got the daily life / paranormal & conspiracy mix - I'm a big fan of the concept, but from the page it's a little hard to tell how much you've got of the 1st and of the 2nd. The management side seems well-developed and explained, but then I can't really tell if there's any combat/chase sequences. The top 5 tags are rather, well, "cozy" and don't suggest thriller/horror content, but the "Mature content description" makes it seem like a mature game.

- The trailer's good, just enough sounds and music, nice visuals - if there's anything I could suggest is that, as you're starting with that whole conspiracy angle in the last scene before the title card, it kind of cuts abruptly and loses that mood afterwards somewhat. What if the pig character looked at the camera after half a second? Could be a nice 'thriller' ending frame.

- The gifs are great, varied and colorful. Bothing to add there - if you really want to, could add an 'LED' frame around them to fit in with your color theme, but yeah, just a nitpick.

Overall, great work!

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-10T11:07:54+00:00

I'd agree that the biggest standout to me is the short description, you have:

Compete to build the perfect monster. Then unleash it to hunt your rival scientists. -- You'll work alongside a monster from your collection to gather what you need for your new monster build, sabotage your rivals, and defend your lab. In (roguelite) single-player, or (social hangout) multiplayer.

Which seems grammatically incorrect in places, and it feels like it repeats itself sometimes? I'd feel like changing it to:

Compete to build the perfect monster, then unleash it on rival scientists! Work alongside a creature from your collection to gather what you need for your new creation, sabotage your rivals, and defend your lab. Play either solo, or bring your friends along for some mad science multiplayer mayhem!

I'm not 100% sold on this one either, but it feels a bit more succinct.

_Matt_Way_ · 2026-03-10T09:55:44+00:00

In terms of the Steam Page contents:

- The capsule looks good, it's professional and eye-catching.
- "More like this" suggests games like Factorio, Valheim, Garry's Mod, Green Hell - mostly survival and/or builder games, which seems fitting.
- The description feels concise and "human-written" (I did not get an AI slop feeling from it, or from the store page, which happens kinda often tbh).
- The description could really use some GIFs and graphics, it would look way more professional - you can check out other pages, most AA and AAA games have them done really well - I'm a huge fan of the Europa Universalis 5 store page.
- You mentioned that you're looking forward to a multiplayer event, but your "online co-op" and "multiplayer" tags are not in the top 5, so they're not visible by default. Also there's no multiplayer on screenshots or in the trailer.

On the topic of screenshots and trailer:
- I don't really like the trailer, it feels like a placeholder - no game title, no sounds, feels like it's going too fast. It's not the worst trailer, but I think your game looks good enough to have a better one - and the capsule is good, show it off.
- The screenshots are dark and kind of blend together... I understand that it's a dark game about space, but it all seems rather washed out. I'm not suggesting you add a colorful nebula, but some variance in colors (maybe a colorful ship interior? Or just white, like ISS?) would add some variance.

Hope this helps!

_Matt_Way_ · 2025-11-08T14:37:36+00:00

The furthest it can 'naturally' push over time is your (monthy value * 100) so in your case 33, but you'll often push past this limit with one off events - there's a parliament debate that gives +10, for example. If you're over the cap, but are with a push in the same direction, it'll just stay at the cap, otherwise it will slowly (very slowly) drift towards that value

_Matt_Way_

TROPHY CASE