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Hello, first time here.
I'm testing  an early-build of this game Shadow Samurai, (working title).

Webplayer:   https://dl.dropbox.com/u/96722209/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/96722209/WebPlayer/WebPlayer.html)

At its core is a Survival, Action/ skill oriented game with a tactical mindset, rendered in 2d top down.
I´v streamlined the game in order to test the control's move/ look/ fight mechanics.
The game will end after 3 days (day time is reduced to only 2mt) and you're required to kill as many enemies as you can.. or die trying
Hopefully I can convince some of you to try it and post your thoughts, overall experience.

The controls are accessible thru the game menu, but i will give a resume here so you can have an idea of what to expect, Keyboard & Mouse Control:

Move:  mouse Left-Button: point and click, or keep left-mouse button pressed (diablo style), or push left-control once

Katana
A & D to swing your Katana left or Right
Bow
X arms the Bow, X again releases the arrow

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/96722209/SS_Day1.png)


PS: Watch out for your stamina level, if it gets to zero you can only walk out of whatever situation you are (i.e won't be able to use your weapon or run); Refresh page to re-play.

This looks really good so far. The graphics are really nice and the gameplay is smooth and fluid. Animation is also very well done

This has a lot of potential, keep it up :)

Check me out as well

I think it has potential, but I found it a bit annoying.

Refreshing to restart is annoying. A weapon-switch key would be great (maybe just tapping "2" could work).

I couldn't figure out how to aim the bow. It seemed to be auto-aiming a bit, but sometimes it turned me away from the enemies that were closing in on me.

There seemed to be a bug where if I moved my mouse, it would show me the area around my cursor for one frame and then hide it again. I also got stuck in backward-walking mode at one point. I feel like the run and backward keys should require me to hold them instead of running being a toggled action.

Dead bodies block movement, which seems a bit weird.

Quite often, clicking to start the game also moved my character, which I found strange.

I suffered "an horrible deaf". That should be "a horrible death"...unless you wrote it that way on purpose and I just didn't get it.

The interface was a bit strange. I was originally under the impression that the blue bar was stamina (seemed to make sense). I never expected it to be those blocks. I don't have any idea what the blue bar is now.

I didn't understand why sometimes I could see my view circle and other times it disappeared completely (not talking about the day/night cycle).

Despite the issues I had with the game, when it worked well it actually seemed too easy. The sword can take out anyone that gets near me long before they can do any damage. The enemies are slow and there's no reason to use the bow.

I do like the look of the game (especially the trees), and the idea of using color to show visibility. I do wish there was some detail in the ground that I can see so I could distinguish it from the ground I can't see.

I hope this doesn't seem too harsh. I tend to think that being thorough in a critique makes it more likely to help. I think this game could turn out pretty well if you give it some real challenge and a bit more variety.

Majestic, thanks, I´v yet to digg  in the music department.. now here is that hat

Quicsand_S, thanks a lot!  for taking the time. Thats what i´m looking after.
I´v cut a lot of corners in order to get a “playable” build, like the refresh thing.  

The bow needs work for sure. As it works now  there is no real aiming. Push X to arm and  use the right mouse to move your “focus” release de X key to shoot the arrow.

Line of sight is implemented, making the mouse circle to disappear when blocked, thats how its supposed to work,  maybe I should had better visual clues.

Maintaining the mass of dead bodies was intended as you can use them to block path/ enemies.

The blue bar is the day/night time. The others are for Water, Food and Rest the “resources” you will need to stay alive.. as you explore the game world.
The´r  more (dangerous) enemies in the pipeline, but was hopping to be able to introduce real enemies --> other Players in a free far all mode, where players are able to help or kill each other. So that the shadows (enemy) will become more of a "tactical" layer, dangerous but not your main threat.

Thanks for your feedback, very helpful

Glad I could help.

I know there's line-of-sight. My only issue was that a visible circle would flicker into, and out of, existence when the mouse was on the other side of an obstacle. The line-of-sight calculation probably just needs to be run before the make-this-area-around-the-mouse-visible code.

Aiming the bow with the right button seems a bit strange. I expected it to aim toward my mouse without needing a button. If you could move while shooting, it would make sense (aim one way while walking a different way), but the way it is, it doesn't seem quite right. Then again, maybe you have it set up to work with other weapons in the future.

Edit: How about making it that when you're holding X in bow mode, the character faces the mouse cursor? I would think that should work with other, similar weapon types too if you decided to add them. It even works for moving while shooting.

Also, using the right mouse button in a browser game always irritates me. I like having access to context menus, so I prefer not to let games/websites mess with that. Do you plan to have customizable controls in the future?

When I hold the right mouse button, I would expect it to center on whatever point my cursor was placed. Instead, it just keeps moving until I manually center my mouse, but after that I can move it anywhere without trouble. It's a little strange.

I guess that maintaining mass of the enemies makes sense, even though they got my way more than anything. My main issue with that right now is the fact that they look like shadows, so they don't seem like they'd have any mass.

The thought of making players the main threat instead of the AI enemies sounds pretty good.

Good points

I´v updated the player: Dropped the right-mouse use, now the player is always at the center.
Ther´s still some flick on the LOS mechanic.

I´m not totally happy with the Bow, will experiment with proper sights /coll-down indicators (enforcing the double X key push)