For example, by roaming the dungeon intelligent monsters are able to find and collect better equipment. They will also get in fights with each other over resources (rats are prey to pretty much everything for food, which, ironically, they don't drop yet). Creatures are susceptible to all the same effects players are, such as starvation, poisoning, paralyzing, blinding, etc. If a monster is attacked by something, or finds something else to attack, it will also rally creatures of the same type to attack this creature too.

Wow. I never would've guessed all that, especially the part about collecting equipment. It seems a shame that you've done all that work making the enemies "intelligent" when players may never get to see that behavior. If an enemy has a nice helmet or something, I'm not going to think "They must've stolen this from another warrior after winning a fight." I'm just going to think "They were programmed to have that helmet. No big deal."

One reason is that I don't seem able to just sit and watch enemies from the shadows. They usually start walking toward me in attack mode before I even see them in the darkness. A limited stealth system could potentially help with that, so players can watch the advanced AI behaviors without instantly being attacked. Maybe some enemies should carry torches, if they don't already. Some less aggressive enemies could be a good idea too. In any case, I would love to be able to notice and properly appreciate the AI you've put into the game because it sounds pretty cool.

It's possible your slowdowns are due to the AI code (which is fairly complex and can put a strain on most computers when there are more than a few dozens monsters roaming around a level) but we'll see.

I don't think there's any actual slowdown. Animations and movement speed look fine, so it's probably just an optical illusion making things seem choppy because of the flickering lights. I'm curious to see if the un-synchronized flicker helps matters.

About the AI, does that mean enemies are simulated even when nowhere near the player? If so, is it necessary? I'm kind of curious how complex the AI is now. Enemies mainly seem to run straight toward me when they see me, which shouldn't take a ton of processing power. If you're simulating a lot more than that, maybe their intelligence needs to be made more apparent somehow.

On a related note, it might be good if the humanoid enemies could open doors, if they can't already. I'm pretty sure I used doors to escape and flank enemies last time I played.

The wall-jumping feels much better now.

I tried out the controller support and didn't have any issues, but I was surprised/disappointed that there was no analog control.

I'm not sure water does enough. The horizontal resistance isn't even noticeable to me, and the vertical only has a subtle effect. Maybe when you first enter the water, it should slow you down drastically as if you've slammed into the water's surface instead of smoothly passing through it.

One thing I forgot to mention is that it takes too long, in my opinion, for the player to "un-stick" from walls when I let go of the left/right button. I don't feel like I have precise control because I can't drop when I want/need too.

About the screen-tearing, I just tried forcing vsync with my nVIDIA control panel and the tearing went away. Maybe consider enabling vsync in the game, and possibly triple-buffering instead of double.

It works pretty well and feels good, in a Super Meat Boy kind of way (although less slippery).

I think that the character should only stick to walls when moving downward. This is just opinion, but I find that it makes jumping up over ledges less irritating.

Everything was working great and running smoothly. Then I added some water blocks with the editor to see if you had water physics (Is there any point to water right now?). Returning to the game, there was some crazy screen tearing as the camera moved, but only in a space of about two grid rows. I'm guessing it wasn't actual screen-tearing, but it looked very similar.

The only other minor issue I had was that the text explaining controls doesn't stand out on white blocks. When I went into the editor, I had to guess what the controls were in order to move the camera and actually see them.

It's a pretty good start.

I wasn't sure what my goal was. I can explore and destroy things, but I don't see why I'd purposely create obstacles for myself, so I just end up wandering and doing nothing. If I run out of fireballs, I can't really do anything to get them back, can I? If that's the case, then it's far too easy to get completely stuck in a location.

The atmospheric music is nice and pretty well-done, but also really relaxing in a "put me to sleep" sort of way which doesn't really benefit the game, in my opinion.

The menu is a bit weird. If I click on the map, then click on the gear, then close the gear window, closing on the map makes the gear window show up again. Maybe there's a reason it always goes back to the previous selection, but I'm not sure what that would be.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't really find it fun, interesting or nostalgic. I'll try to explain my thoughts about why that is.

It wasn't fun because exploration is only fun (for me, anyway) if there's something to discover: a cool land formation, an item/chest, a wandering traveler, a secret hideout, a town...really anything except more of the same. I imagine that's partially because it's in alpha, but you asked if it was fun so I'm answering.

I didn't find it interesting because there's so little to the world at this stage and I couldn't do anything except create or destroy the same few things. The world feels so lifeless. Obviously a part of that is because there's no other life (at least in singleplayer), so hopefully that will be remedied later.

I didn't find it nostalgic because nothing about it reminds me of games I've enjoyed. You mentioned Zelda, so hopefully that means you'll be adding more gameplay to it in the future (ex. more abilities and maybe some enemies). In the Zelda games I've played, just about every major area is visually unique, and I'd say your game is really lacking that sort of variety. Adding some pre-drawn shadows to objects could add some visual depth to the game, to break up the even lighting a bit. Different ground types might be nice too, like dirt and puddles.

What I personally enjoy most about Zelda is probably using items to navigate the world. What I enjoy most about Minecraft is that the areas almost always look interesting, and that I have different options (build, dig, travel, etc.) that allow me more gameplay freedom.

Anyway, I do like the color choices in the art. I also really like that ground texture for some reason. The movement feels pretty good and the character moves at a nice pace. Just about everything that's currently in the game seems to work well.

It's funny that you don't like the triple jump,  so far that's been  the thing everyone else loved, the dashing in the air lets you  do mor pinpoint jumping.

My reaction to reading that was "Triple jump??"    I was sure I tried double-jumping, but maybe not. The first jump is so short and useless that I mostly avoided it. I never realized I could triple-jump. That does make things much more enjoyable and dream-like. It also explains why there's a "stomp" action, which seemed completely useless last night. Yeah, the jumping is pretty fun, but I still feel like the first jump should be a bit higher.

I really love the style, with low-contrast, colorful objects combined with fairly realistic shaders. It's amazing how well it all works together.

You mention that it's for children. What age group are you targeting?

I realize that it's a work-in-progress, so I won't talk much about the menu or button graphics, or the lack of certain sounds.

The music, at least when it started, felt like it was too...well, I can't seem to remember the word. The sounds were too far left and right (ie. extreme stereo) with nothing in the middle and it felt wrong. It was made worse by the right side seeming a bit louder than the left.

The mouse didn't work when I first started, so I was controlling things with the keyboard, which was a pain. It's far too sensitive. The mouse started working later and felt a bit sluggish, but it may have just been a frame-rate issue.

The cursor should have its depth set differently. As it is, it can go inside walls if you're close to them.

When I got shot at, it was difficult to determine what was shooting me at first. The early enemies don't really stand out or look dangerous in any way.

The particle effects might be a bit much. They get in the way more than anything. They also last a long time, then suddenly pop out of existence rather than smoothly fading all the way to nothing.

Reflections only exist where I'm looking and fade at the edges of the screen, which seemed strange but also kind of added to the atmosphere. Shadows also fade away in the distance, so when I looked at a hill in the background, it had a shadow on it that was only half there. Maybe that's something that will be adjustable in the graphics settings.

Combat feels a bit simplistic. It's flashy, but not exciting. I don't see the impact of my projectiles (because of the particles), or react much when I'm hit by the enemies' shots. It might be better with more sound effects, though. I don't know.

I feel like the default speed is a bit slow, especially for traveling over the open "fields". I know I can run, but even that didn't seem sufficient and the extra key might not be ideal depending on how young your target audience is. When you mentioned Metroid Prime and Jumping Flash, it made me think I'd be jumping and double-jumping all over the place rather than jogging at a reasonable pace so the movement was a bit disappointing. Jumping is completely useless as it is now.

It was unclear what the goal was, and only when I looked up did I see an objective marker (which I have no idea how to reach, since what looks like a door of some sort into the tower is closed).

I got to the open areas and, despite liking the world you've created, I didn't feel like spending time crossing them to explore more because they're completely empty. Some pickups and/or enemies might change that. The world looks so big, but most of the interesting stuff is up in the sky and it's daunting to think that I could have to walk for ages before managing to get up there. Maybe I don't have to, but it feels like it.

Anyway, I really love the atmosphere and I think I'll check it out some more. Maybe at a different time of day I'll feel more enthusiastic about exploring. I wish I could modify the graphical settings, though. Does the game create an INI file somewhere that I can modify, since the menu option doesn't work?


Edit: Ok, so the graphical options do work. The menu has issues. I have to click in fairly specific spots on the words, and there's no menu-related feedback (sound, highlight, etc.) to show that I'm having an effect. The graphics options are also a lot more limited than expected. The game's a bit sluggish on my computer, so changing particle count, resolution, etc. would be very nice. At the very least, resolution options are probably a must.

The art looks pretty great.

You've got to enable the download link on your site, though. Right now a JavaScript alert comes up and says "Not Yet" when I click it.

[A note for anyone thinking of trying this: Make sure you don't just click "Accept" on things in the installer and note that Falco Game Player leaves a couple of things on your computer even after uninstalling the game. Ugh. I didn't find anything big, just a shortcut and some other stupid file in my Program Files directory.]

AVG didn't tag it as a virus, but there's a TON of ad-related stuff in the installer and the player. That was a real turn-off. I had to decline about seven offers before getting to the game, and then it brought up Falco Game Player instead of just opening the game which was a turn-off as well. I would not recommend the game to anyone with all that in it, even if it was great. What's worse is that it's just a Unity game and runs just fine without Falco Game Player, so there's no need for any of that.

Anyway, I did try the game itself.

-Those are some of the lowest-resolution textures I've ever seen on the ground/rocks in a game. Why?

-The weapon animations are pretty good and the character's movement felt all right.

-I like how the sniper rifle feels, for the most part. It didn't seem like headshots made a difference, though. They probably should.

-The other weapons feel terrible to me, though, because there's no impact. Only the final hit gets any reaction from the enemy. It's especially bad with the zombies because they take so many hits but I don't feel like I'm hitting them.

-I don't understand the point of instant-use medkits in a game with incredibly fast regenerating health. I got injured in a fight, walked over to a medkit and couldn't pick it up because I'd already healed. I think it would make more sense to store up a few for when you're in combat and can't afford to take some time to regenerate.

-There should be a message and/or sound when you try to pick up something you already have the maximum number of.

-I walked up the hill near the minefield and it told me to go backward to the objective (which was just a waypoint where I didn't have to do anything) rather than realizing I was closer to the next one. I walked two or three steps toward it and then it told me to go where I had just been a second earlier.

-Not having a melee weapon in level 2 wasn't great. I feel like there should always be that option, even if melee against the enemies with guns isn't particularly viable. Fighting zombies with a sword seems like it should be fun (at least, if they react to the hits).

-Depending on how far along development is, the transition between levels could be considered an issue. It took forever to even switch after I completed level 1 and then level 2's setting was completely unlike the previous one.

-There's a LOT of object pop-in in level 1. I even noticed some things appearing and disappearing as I moved forward, which was very strange. An occlusion issue, I guess?

-Level 2 had some frame-rate issues for me, even on the "Fastest" graphical setting. Not much difference on a higher setting, so I imagine it's not graphic-related.

-I died on level 2 because I just ran in shooting to see what would happen. While the screen was black, I pressed Escape to open the menu and quit so I could write this feedback. My mouse cursor didn't exist. I could navigate that menu with the keyboard, but when I got back to the title screen I still didn't have a cursor. I had to Alt-F4 to close the game.


Overall, it's a decent start. The installer is terrible, though, and I don't know if I'd test future versions unless that's changed. The gameplay is all right and mainly needs better feedback during combat. I hope you'll change the ground textures soon as well, because they really give a bad first impression...er, a bad second impression after the terrible installer.

A note for anyone thinking of trying this: Make sure you don't just click "Accept" on things in the installer and note that Falco Game Player leaves a couple of things on your computer even after uninstalling the game. Ugh. I didn't find anything big, just a shortcut and some other stupid file in my Program Files directory.

To clarify my earlier point, my main problem with the camera was the left/right motion. The box doesn't stay anywhere close to the center of the screen while moving.

As for the difficulty of the levels, I'm one of those who find a bit of challenge in level 1 appealing. I really prefer that to a boring, easy level that would be nothing like the rest of the game. This way, players are given an idea of what they're getting into.

I like the style. I like the sounds and the vocals. The music seems decent, although very very quiet compared to everything else.

The level generation seemed a little more random than I would've expected. Level 1 sometimes starts out simple, and other times it starts out with a segment that's incredibly difficult to get through.

I dislike the slanted text in the game over screen. While it looks kind of cool, it just makes it unnecessarily hard to read.

The only thing I would say I really have a problem with, though, is the laggy camera (for left/right movement). I'm fine with weird angles, gravity-switching, high speed, etc. but having the camera lag so far behind my movements feels terrible to me and makes lining up with things difficult for the wrong reason (in my opinion).

Typo? I think "Achievement" in the menu should have an "s" on the end.

Bug? Sometimes I seem to collide with...something...while in the middle of a gravity switch. My guess is that it's because my "character" moves sideways slightly while flipping. It only seems to happen when I flip while going in between things.

Bug? The voice always seems to say, "Level 1 Egin" (no noticeable "B" sound for "Begin")

Overall, I like it a fair amount but I probably won't play very long because of the camera.

Ah. Good to hear that it gets more challenging later. I gave up on it because of the lack of challenge and the glitchy ball collisions. Maybe the challenge should come into play earlier so people can see that there's more to the game than just getting easy baskets.

I just went back and gave it another try. I think I can safely say that the "angle auto adjust" is far too generous. I purposely threw the ball diagonally sideways toward the wall and it still went in almost every time.

The powerup nets are often blocked by the hoop of the main net, making them (as far as I can tell) impossible to get the ball into. It's made even harder because the ball keeps angling toward the main net when I aim for a powerup.

I also noticed a bug: I got the ball into a powerup net a second before it disappeared and it didn't get activated.

I played the web version and found the game strangely compelling for a while, but it's also incredibly easy and a bit glitchy.

I didn't miss even one shot. It seems almost impossible to. Does the speed of a shot have any effect on the ball's trajectory? It would probably be good if players had to swipe at the right speed, not just in the right direction.

It wasn't clear how to get the "power-ups" or whatever they were, and I'm not sure why they exist in Classic mode. I thought that would just be an Arcade mode sort of thing.

The sounds weren't bad. Some audience cheers or something could be nice, but I guess only if the challenge is increased.

I'm not sure the ball I'm holding should be able to collide with the others. It just causes a ton of glitchy physics weirdness and annoying sound problems.

I think that you might want to consider putting in something like H-O-R-S-E, where you keep playing until you miss too many times (again, only if the game gets more challenging somehow).

If you want to go all out with the arcadey style, maybe move around the basket after each successful shot, so the player has to adjust to different angles.

Like I said, I found it strangely compelling despite the issues I had and the repetitive nature of it. Maybe I've been wanting a simple basketball game for a while. I don't know.

I love the trees, but I feel like there's not enough to look at while walking so slowly between areas. I'm one of the people who actually enjoyed Dear Esther, but I think the difference there was that there was always something to listen to or some landscape element to admire.

On a related note, I felt like the fog in the park was a little bit too close. I ended up just wandering in whatever direction seemed like it might have something. Usually it paid off, but not always. Suddenly realizing there's nothing in a direction and that you'll have to walk sloooowly back to where you were isn't great.

One thing that I think would really improve the atmosphere would be to change the footstep sounds depending on the location. I think it would give things a great, surreal sort of feeling to see these flat-shaded landscapes while hearing the sounds of grass underfoot, maybe birds singing, etc. You might also want to consider having the sounds of people in some areas, so that you get that sense of having people all around. You could make the player feel more like the character: in a world, but separate from it and unable to fully interact with it. I'm just throwing out ideas here.

I didn't have any issues with frame-rate during the short time I spent with it.

It's a nice start and I'm curious to see what will happen with it.

I like the rocky area. Is there anything for people to give feedback on (ex. a demo or access to the alpha), or do you just want our thoughts on the trailer/concept? If you're looking for an alpha tester, I've got time.

As for the trailer, I felt like it spent far too much time slooooowly showing the car accident, when all I wanted to see was a bit of the gameplay. It was built like a teaser trailer, but about twice the length of one. The actual quality of the shots isn't bad, but it doesn't really tell people much about the game. Viewers have to read the description in order to find out anything at all.

I've seen that Alice in Wonderland quote used by a couple of games, but I still like it. To me, that was the highlight of the trailer. Any game that does that crazy-coma-world sort of thing is usually my sort of game, so I always find it intriguing and enticing.

I only played the new version briefly in order to see the lighting changes. The light level feels a bit better to me, but I have to wonder if people with their monitor brightness set higher will still like it. This is why I think a brightness slider would be nice. Not to get rid of the pitch-black areas, which I have no problem with, but to make the lit areas show up properly on any monitor.

I did encounter one really irritating issue. I noticed it in the previous version, but thought it was my imagination. Now it's more pronounced. As I walk around, something gives the impression that I'm moving at about three frames per second sometimes. It's an interesting optical illusion, but feels terrible to me. My guess is that it's one of two things (or maybe a combination): the torches flickering at a constant rate (which should probably be changed even if it isn't the cause of this), and/or you're disabling lights behind the player while they're still casting light that is in sight.

I also thought of something I'd love to see, if it's at all possible in the engine: high ceilings. I remember loving that feeling of looking up in some parts of Tomb Raider (the original) and Arx Fatalis and not being able to see the ceiling. It made areas feel so much more expansive, and also a bit more surreal.

The link to your blog is broken. It's got quotes around the URL.

Personally, I felt like the lack of a character on the world map was one of the things that made this game feel special. I also felt more immersed (as strange as that may seem). My guess is that it was because there was nothing between me and the levels. No character acting as a middle-man or delaying things.

I liked that, but I expect you'll handle it well this way too. Should be interesting to see.

The ninja star is my new favourite weapon. That said, I really disliked always having to aim above enemies, no matter what range they were at. If someone's right in front of me, I should be able to aim at them and hit. Maybe consider giving the star an initial vertical boost, or aiming it slightly higher than where the player is aiming, so that gravity won't be an issue right away. I do really like the weapon, despite this, and didn't have any issues retrieving stars from walls/ground.

What is the turret gun supposed to do? From the name, I thought it would be a place-able turret. Instead, it's just a very, very slow bullet for a weapon that takes ages to reload.

Thank you for adding the Acrobatic style. I never liked using the other ones, but the game forces me to pick something. I do have one issue with it, though. Automatic double-jumping makes it too easy to accidentally do it and makes me feel like I have less control.

The only other issue at the moment is the ammo counter for the primary weapon. Bright yellow on a white background doesn't really show on my monitor.

As I played, I started to think it would be nice if I could shoot at the portals to close them early. They sit there for a long time before spawning anything, which makes it seem to me like I should be able to do something to them during that time.

The music is all right. I think it fits the feeling I get from the game. I didn't have any issues with the sound that exists at the moment.

I could be reading this wrong, but it looks like you're doing physics calculations more than once per frame since the frame count is much lower than the number of calls to FieldLineVisualiseParticles.FixedUpdate(). I imagine that would cause a ton of slowdown if it's the case.