1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard is it? 5 on the way to the computer, 10 on the way back
2. Is the difficulty a good or a bad thing? Bad
3. Did deaths feel unfair? Yes
4. How long did it take you to complete the prototype? Didn't
5. How hard was it to figure out the controls? That depends on whether or not I missed any. Jumping was a little odd, but I found the key all right. I didn't find the attack key until maybe my fifth attempt.
6. How hard was it to get used to the physics? Slightly harder than average
7. Did you ever feel like you didn't know what you were supposed to do next? Not really
8. Is this a project worth pursuing? Only with some major changes
9. Want to take a guess at the game mechanic I'm keeping a secret? Something related to meta-gaming, I'd expect...

Xienen already covered the physics issues a bit. My problem is with the speed (both the horizontal velocity and the gravitational acceleration). I didn't find jumping particularly difficult, but games where hitting the ceiling doesn't make you fall are a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

My main issue with the game is the way health is implemented. I have a bunch of health "blocks" on the HUD, but I die almost instantly so they're pointless. I would strongly recommend either designing the game with one-hit deaths in mind, or adding a short period of invulnerability after the character gets hurt. Considering the current level design, I'd suggest the latter.

I died exiting doors a bunch of times, because the character zooms through too quickly, and each time I felt less inclined to play from the beginning once more. Also, the key used for shooting is a very strange one that doesn't make much sense to me.

I really thought that the character was holding a cigarette until I stumbled upon the firing key. It really doesn't look like a gun of any sort, to me.

Bug-like issue: The game responds to the movement keys even when I'm in my browser typing things like this.

Bug? Sometimes the character faces backward while jumping.

I stopped playing after activating the computer and getting instantly killed by the guns in the previous room.

Yes, we develop this as indie, without any publisher or big budgets. We are not limited by one shadow per object, but we still use only DirectX 9.0c tech, because once we started working on that, we were oriented on Xbox360. As for game complexity - it's a bit friendly now and you won't be killed by making any bad move. But i must notice, that difficulty level in the demo is somewhere between easy and normal. For hardcore fans, there will be hardcore modes

Ah, I see. I suppose it makes sense to stick with DX9c rather than spend extra time and money trying to upgrade it, and risk introducing bugs. Thanks for the info. It sounds good. I'll try to remember to test the demo and get back to you.

Update:

Tech

-Everything loaded quickly and ran smoothly.
-The gamma control also seemed backward compared to most games.
-The cascaded shadow maps, even on high settings, showed a very visible line between resolutions. I would expect high settings to have that line farther into the distance.


Gameplay

-It's not a real problem, but the default controls are a bit strange. In many games, "E" would be "use" and the spacebar would be "cover" but here it's the other way around.
-The movement seems a bit sluggish. Just turning around to face the opposite direction takes about twice as long as I'd expect, and the character took a little long to stop his forward motion sometimes.
-I didn't have any problems entering or leaving cover.
-Shooting doesn't feel like it has any impact. There's no recoil, camera shake, or any sense of power. I do like the limited amount of health that enemies seem to have. Combat doesn't get irritating.
-It's a little sad that "instinct" mode is showing up in so many games these days. I wish it wasn't there.
-It was unclear how close I could get to an enemy before they'd see me. The enemies seemed quite blind unless I was standing right in front of them. Maybe instinct shows that, but I tend to think that levels should be designed in a way that it's clear which areas you're likely to be spotted in.
-When I entered the castle, it said my objective was complete but I don't think it told me my next one. That would be nice to add, so players don't have to manually check.
-I wish I could shoot while crouching. It felt really strange not to be able to at least hold my weapon while crouched.


Other

-I really like the look of the title screen.
-The floorplan of the castle seemed strange in places (really skinny hallways near the entrance, for example) and the basement area seemed almost completely wasted, gameplay-wise.
-I hope you'll be getting the English text proofread. I didn't see any big issues, just sentences that were missing "the" and "is".
-The graphics are better than I expected from the screenshots.
-I disliked some of the footstep sounds and the weapons sounded weak, but I liked the environmental sounds (ex. leaves rustling, birds singing).
-The area felt a little more cramped than I remember from the previous games, but maybe that's just the demo level.


Bugs

-A soldier took cover on the wrong side of the wall at the top of the stairs in the first area.


Overall, I think it's coming along quite well. I may play it some more later.

As long as you mention that this is more of a level-based game than an endless, score-attack thing, it hopefully won't be directly compared to Flappy Bird. Despite the movement setup, it feels more like an easy Super Meat Boy than Flappy Bird to me.

Anyway, I already knew it was 40Mb since I've gotten into the habit of tracking all my bandwidth use. It still takes a lot longer than I'd expect it to. Even the slowest sites I frequent don't generally take more than a 45-60sec to download that much, so that was a bit weird.

Have you optimized your art at all? I've had decent results, in some cases, with decreasing the number of colors that are being used in a PNG before saving. You could also try a PNG compression utility.

Creating HD art isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it might be good to only load the large versions on a system/mobile that can handle it and have lower-resolution images for other devices.

I hope to figure out a way to properly convey the idea to players without revealing the answer. It is my goal to have the player find out what to do and how things work by them selves, only with minor hints from me.

You know the effect that occurs when you hit those blocks with your proxy weapon? Maybe an altered version should be used for other walls. When a wall is hit, the very small area around the collision could be drawn. That way, there would be a line, so it would be more apparent that there's a wall there.

Wow. I never thought I'd see this series pop up on a forum for indie developers.

Anyway, previous games were pretty great, from what I played. I didn't finish them, though, because I couldn't always get in the mood for that style of gameplay. I enjoy stealth and military games, but I found the DtS games more stressful than most. If I remember right, it felt like everything had to be done perfectly and that feeling pushed me away from the games even though I liked so much about them.

As far as feedback for this one, I'll likely try out the demo later. I'd say that the screenshots of DtS3 look a little off. It's strange to see unrealistic lighting in a modern game (Is it limited to one shadow per object?). I also think that the lighting, especially outdoors, looks a bit too saturated, and the characters look shiny like plastic. Those things lend an "early 2000s" look to an otherwise all right looking game.

What are the major changes you've made to the formula this time around, if any?

1) When I started, I didn't know it was a twin-stick shooter, so I didn't think the mouse would be used anywhere. That's probably my fault, although I would think that adding keyboard support for the menu shouldn't be too hard. I'm pretty sure I've even seen games like this have keyboard controls (WASD for movement and arrow keys for shooting, for example), although that's obviously not ideal.

2) It was only the title screen, if I remember right. When I first started using the gamepad, the Options menu got selected, even though my character was up near the new game option. Moving didn't change that, so I ended up going into Options before exiting that menu and starting the game. I've also noticed a lot of cases where I had to press the button twice.

3) I thought that was probably the case, but it does kinda make it feel like I have less impact on the action than I would in other games. Random thought: Play music only while the player is shooting.

5) I only realized I was getting rated after the first big boss. Even after that, I wasn't absolutely sure about the letters in circles underneath the percentage. I thought maybe I was earning super-bombs or something like you have in some "shmups". That's actually why I was trying different buttons and ended up hitting RB. I think the issue for me is that seeing a letter in a circle on the HUD says "super-bomb" to me. It might sound strange, but without the circle I think I might've guessed it was a rating.

Ah. Soundscapes are great too. I just meant that it seems to need some sort of background sound.

My first impression was not particularly positive at the beginning. The keyboard buttons didn't seem to do anything in menus by default, and even my gamepad wasn't 100% responsive when it came to selecting menu items.

Starting the gameplay, I was surprised and disappointed that there were no bullet sounds. I imagine it would be possible to time the shots with the beat somehow, either by snapping them to the beat or by using auto-fire.

When I was fighting the third (?) boss/mini-boss (the guy that mostly hovers in the center but dashes sometimes and does a bunch of different attacks), I started wondering if there were other attacks so I pressed the other buttons on my gamepad and found out that RB sends you back to the title screen. Very irritating.

I wasn't sure what anything in the HUD meant. The percentage, for example, could be a skill rating or it could be something else. I didn't even look at the rest of the HUD because I had to focus on the enemies and bullets, so hopefully there's nothing important out there.

"most of the actions are in sync with the music"? The only things I noticed that felt in sync with the music were some area transitions. Nothing else seemed to have anything to do with the music. How likely is it that I threw off the timing somehow?

Apart from those issues, this game is really great. I love most of the art (except the aforementioned boss's dashing sprite, which I'm guessing is unfinished) and, while the music is not my taste, it fit the style well. It plays great. I didn't find the bosses overly difficult to read, and I love how the gameplay changes slightly every minute or two. Great stuff.

It took forever to load (six or seven minutes), even though the file size apparently isn't very big at all. Very strange. Is it just your web server that's slow, maybe, or am I the only one who encountered this? The other option, considering this is your first game, is that the pre-loading isn't set up as it should be. I wouldn't know about that, having not used Unity much.

Anyway, on the positive side, the game is pretty good. It's simple, but fairly enjoyable.

I felt like the controls worked great. I liked the art. The boss battle worked pretty well. I also liked the music.

I only have a few issues. The first is just that the boss battle is a little strange. I wasn't sure why the beam fired back in the other direction. Also, I think the boss reacted as if it had been hit even when I missed it.

I really disliked the timing on the boss's shots. The angled one in particular didn't really give me any time to move out of the way between the time it stopped aiming and when it fired. Sometimes I was even moving out of the way as the boss was about to fire, and it still managed to hit me somehow. I didn't bother beating it.

Everything else I experienced was pretty good. Apart from the loading time, it runs quite well. There's a pause/stutter when I get hit by the laser beam, but the rest seems good. I really like that the boss changes up its tactics. Very nice for a first game.

Bug? Sometimes, when I retry the boss battle, it doesn't start properly. The boss flickers onscreen at the left and then appears on the right. No "Warning" message.


Edit: I enjoyed it enough that I actually decided to go back and beat the boss anyway, despite my issues with it. I loved the ending of that battle. Great work. The teaser for level 2 was really good as well.

That list looks good.

I'm not sure exactly where I stopped. I think it was a few rooms after I got the second X powerup (explosive proxy dot) and realized I'd probably have to backtrack a ton. I didn't really want to do that, so I stopped.

I think one issue with the backtracking is that it doesn't add anything. Yes, I can open up new areas in some rooms, but almost the entirety of the gameplay I experienced was "go through hallways". It's mixed up a bit, but it all boils down to that. Without enemies or environmental dangers, you may need to add some dynamic elements like walls that shift on the way back through an area, or doors that can only be opened from one side.

When I first tried the game, it seemed like each room was separate from the others and I felt like that worked well. Go through a room, find the end and move on. Every few rooms, you find a powerup that you might use in later rooms. I felt like that linear gameplay worked great and was surprised that it suddenly had backtracking.

I hope you'll reconsider not having music. The game feels very empty to me (and not in an atmospheric way, but in more of a lifeless and bland way). I do really like the turning sound, though, which helps a bit.

Quicksand, you lose flail when Flail Bar is empty again, not by picking other items.

Ah, I see. In that case, maybe clearer feedback is needed. "Epic Flail" text doesn't really stand out, and wasn't clear that it was the reason I got a flail. I thought I'd just picked it up from one of my enemies. Anyway, the info you gave me made it very easy to know how long my flail would last.

Also, the game is not made for tapping , but for holding the direction, the only button you tap is the Blade Dash. Arrow rotates right because it is default when no direction is being held. Hope this helps !

It still seems strange that the default arrow direction is right (even if my opponent is on the left) and the blade dash doesn't always correspond to the arrow direction. Why not just leave the arrow in the direction of the last directional key-press?

I also found it a bit strange that sometimes I would bounce from one enemy to another after a kill. I'm guessing that's a feature, but I didn't like having control taken from me. I had a similar issue with my horizontal dash making me rise slightly into the air and throwing off my aim.

Anyway, I did a lot better the last time I played. It's great to be able to dash around in the air as much as I want, without a stamina meter or something getting in the way.

1) Yes, I think the goal is quite clear.

2) I really like the slightly unsettling music, but I wish it actually played during the game.

3) The text speed was a bit slow, but the gameplay speed seemed all right. The house itself could use a path at the top, though, because going all the way around the bottom takes forever.

4)

Bug: When I returned to the upgrade screen, I had two points and it wouldn't let me upgrade my locks. With three points, it was possible, but the other two weren't available even though they should have been. Worse, I seemed able to install both the alarm and cameras with only four points. The cameras didn't cost me anything at all (if they were even installed).

Bug: The pathfinding for going down the lower hall, heading right, didn't work well. Most of my clicks didn't even cause the father to move at all, so I couldn't properly protect that half of the house.

Typo: "...and the father's resolve where put..." -> "were put"

5) The basic concept is a good one and the feeling of entering a room only to see the burglar standing there, then watching him flee out the door/window was great.

6) Why does it tell me to "Choose upgrades" on the first screen, when the game should know I don't have any points to spend yet?

I feel there should be more feedback about the upgrades I've bought. There's no indication on the upgrade screen's map that the locks are upgraded, for example.

There's also no real feedback about the consequences of failure. My TV was stolen, but I didn't lose anything. In fact, I gained the ability to upgrade my locks even though I also had to buy a new TV. When "Bad Things Happen" like the baby being taken, the game resets without telling me anything or giving me a "Game Over".

The baby's crying was a bit weird, because it went on long after the baby was gone. It was also the only sound I heard during my time playing, which seemed weird. Why not windows opening, footsteps, worried grunts as the robber runs off, etc.?

This works pretty well and it's decent fun. My only real issue was that my character's actions didn't always match what was shown by the arrow.

If I tap "UP" for example, the arrow returns to the default right-facing position by my attack will go upward, even if I wait a while before attacking. I'm not sure if that was my plugged-in 360 pad interfering with my keyboard input or just a random bug.

I also found it a bit strange that when I got armor, I seemed to lose my amazing flail (which I much preferred to the armor). Is that how it works? Maybe it got knocked out of my hand at some point and I just didn't notice right away.

When you are in combat you can click anywhere close to your character to move in that direction, that'd allow you to outflank enemies (it's not mentioned by the frog because that's a new feature, I'll add that)

Ah. That's good.

I don't understand your comment regarding interrupted movement, you should still be able to walk to the enemy of your choice if you want.

It's the switch from long-distance movement to square-by-square that was bugging me. If I click on an enemy across the room, I expect to move there but combat mode means I have to click, then click again and again and again to get over there. I can see reasons for doing it this way, but I still wonder if there's a better way.

In rooms without enemies the "speed" looks like that just because I intend it to be an abstraction, you are just warping from door to door because there's nothing else interesting. When you are with enemies you move square by square (there's an underlying grid).

I figured that was the case, but I still don't see a reason to slow it down quite so much. Moving from one square to another in combat mode takes almost double the time I'd expect it to. Maybe the issue is that the game is originally presented as being very fast-paced, which makes combat mode seem very slow in comparison. Another possibility is that I've just gotten used to things like Desktop Dungeons, where movement is instantaneous.

Please compare your gameplay with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRwQpnkLdw

Is it running like that?

Once I get into the actual gameplay, it's maybe 60% of that speed, so I guess the frame-rate is pretty low. If you add an FPS counter for testing, I'd be happy to give you an actual number.

On another topic, I just got killed by an enemy bouncing me off the side of the screen (like in the video, actually). Is there any way to avoid that? The direction I bounce sometimes seems a bit random and there doesn't seem to be any way to quickly change directions once you've been pushed away. Dying from random chance is pretty frustrating if I was doing well before that.

It looked intriguing, so I downloaded it (for iOS).

The tutorial was very slow, in terms of the timing. It would be nice if I could move more quickly through the steps. It also stopped just after the "block is validated" step and never moved forward. I tried to get back to the main menu, but quitting just took me to a black screen.

The game could really use some music, and maybe some reworked interface/menu graphics. I do like the graphics for the "board" though. Some sounds in the menus would be nice as well. Speaking of sounds, I like most of them except for the victory one. That one comes across as obnoxious to me. It may just be that it's a bit long.

I feel like most of the "Easy" levels are far too easy. Once a person has the basic concept down, there's no need to spend another six levels or so drilling that into their brain. That said, maybe the game doesn't make things clear. In level 6, I won easily, but each of the 3s was only in contact with one circle. That didn't seem to fit with what I thought the rules were.

Bug? I tapped on an empty square and it flashed red just like it does when you tap on a lit square.

The ad that played after level 7 was long and irritating.

Level 8 broke. I placed four circles but no squares lit up. I reset and found myself unable to place any circles anymore. Quitting once again took me to that black screen and forced me to restart the app. I went to double-check something in level 6 and then level 7 ran into this same error where squares wouldn't activate.

The concept seems sound, but it's basically unplayable if I have to manually close and reopen the app every few levels. That said, it could just be my device. I'm on an iPod Touch 4th Gen with iOS 6.1.6.

Pretty cool. I like the graphical style, although I'm not sure the characters stand out enough (especially when in/on doorways).

It was a little irritating not being able to click anywhere. I'm guessing you wanted to streamline things, but it does remove my ability to flank enemies.

In addition, I really disliked that whenever someone attacked me it interrupted my movement. If it's still possible to head for the enemy I selected, I want to keep moving toward it. I can see why you'd do it the other way, though. I'm just sharing my personal preference.

I wish the movement speed of my character was constant. In areas with enemies, he moves at half the speed, but since it's a turn-based game I'm not sure what the purpose of that speed reduction is.

The backpack icon doesn't really look like a backpack to me. I think the hand throws off the look of it.

I really like the unobtrusive hint/tutorial messages. Nicely done.

The game plays well and looks pretty good. I hope you'll be adding some sound and music, and that there are, or will be, some more varied environments. I didn't find any bugs during my time with it.

Ohmnivore already mentioned the laggy movement, clouds and boring gameplay I was going to bring up. I agree that it needs a lot more variety and/or complexity in the gameplay.

I like the art style, but generally hate the look of stretched pixels (especially when there are other sprites that are not stretched).

I died twice in the tutorial section without seeing what was happening. The first death seemed to happen even before my plane spawned. When I did get to play, I wasn't sure if I was controlling the plane or not because the motion was so delayed.

It seems almost like every motion is going through the server. Is that right? I'm not an expert on multiplayer coding, but I'd think it might be a good idea to do some things client-side. I'd probably handle all movement for each player client-side and then send the new positions to every other player through the server, so the only lag experienced would be from a high ping to the server, rather than having laggy controls for each player.

Ah, that explains the name change. I can certainly understand wanting to keep the old version as-is.

The problem with not picking up jewels wasn't necessarily a collision issue. When I hit an enemy, I bounce off so maybe it was just a timing thing that made the jewel appear after I'd already moved a few pixels out of range. It didn't happen all the time.

I think the only really big issue is the lack of control. If I could move left and right faster, the game would probably be a decent amount of fun for a while.

Did you already make a new game, or is this just Solenoid with a different name?

Anyway, for a game with "Hyper" in the name, it's fairly slow. That may just be a frame-rate issue. I don't know.

In any case, I felt like I didn't have enough control. If I was ever bounced toward an open space, I had absolutely no chance of saving myself because the left/right movement wasn't fast enough. Unavoidable deaths make this game, which could be fairly enjoyable, a bit annoying to play...at least, for me. It's got potential, though.

The only other thing I noticed was that sometimes I didn't pick up the jewels or whatever they are when I killed enemies. It would be nice if they were picked up automatically.