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[almightyzentaco]

Into the Underdusk is an action, exploration based platformer game for the windows PC. It is currently in beta and I would love to get some feedback!




Introduction and Gameplay footage.








You can grab the latest version of the game Here: http://bit.ly/JdygUw

Thanks guys! Have a great day and a wonderful holiday season.

[joe_eyemobi]

Do you have a webplayer version?

[almightyzentaco]

Unfortunately, no. As soon as I get enough money I will be buying the HTML5 exporter for CF2.5 (which is how I made this) and I will make it a web version too. I know people aren't too keen on playing .exe versions of games, but for now this is all I got.

[nexus]

I made a 5 minute gameplay video. It's just the start of the game, but i thought it was really good!

[IndiePendant]

The jumping sound is a little annoying, but other than that good job!

[almightyzentaco]

I made a 5 minute gameplay video. It's just the start of the game, but i thought it was really good!

Awesome! Thanks for checking it out and making a video. Your feedback is appreciated. Let me know if you find the game too difficult or frustrating, or if anything prevents you from enjoying yourself.

The jumping sound is a little annoying, but other than that good job!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to add an option to mute the jump sound, as well as see if I can make it a little less annoying. You do jump a lot, so having an irritating sound associated with it probably not great.

Thanks for playing guys.

[nexus]

I made a 5 minute gameplay video. It's just the start of the game, but i thought it was really good!

Awesome! Thanks for checking it out and making a video. Your feedback is appreciated. Let me know if you find the game too difficult or frustrating, or if anything prevents you from enjoying yourself.

It is a really cool game though

The jumping sound is a little annoying, but other than that good job!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to add an option to mute the jump sound, as well as see if I can make it a little less annoying. You do jump a lot, so having an irritating sound associated with it probably not great.

Thanks for playing guys.

The point at which I ended the video was where it got frustrating because a) I died and couldn't just restart the room i was in b) the reaper guy seemed to throw those scythes so randomly I couldn't judge what to do.

[almightyzentaco]

Noted. I've added and moved some saves to make it less frustrating. He does throw the scythes randomly, but he has some dead zones which are safe to stand in.

[handCraftedRadio]

Great game! I played through the whole game and it was awesome! This is my favorite freeware game I've played in a long time. Here are some of my thoughts on it:

-The beginning movement was painfully slow. I know it's part of the game to get that speed upgrade, but it was so slow it almost made me want to quit. I didn't think there would be an upgrade for your speed so I thought I was going to have to play the whole game at that pace.

-The fireballs that came out of the lava were too random for me. I couldn't find any recognizable pattern and just had to hope a fireball didn't appear when I jumped over. It felt very unfair and confusing. Complete randomness seems to be a thing that keeps popping up over and over and really made the game frustrating at times (in a bad way) when it didn't have to be. This leads me to my next point:

-That freaking face mask. Oh man this thing made me mad. I really wish I could have recorded my playthrough along with my physical reaction to this guy. Definitely the most frustrating, annoying, and unfair part of the game. The path of this guy seemed almost completely random, I couldn't figure out any strategy to be able to beat him. It felt like I had to play it over and over and over again until I got lucky enough to get to the next save point. There was no way to determine if he was going to come in front, directly at me, or behind me. Sometimes he seeked me perfectly, sometimes he went flying off the screen. He could cut corners so tight that you couldn't even react to his movements some of the time. Also, he would come into the screen behind you so you could get hit without even having a prayer of reacting. I like a difficult game, but this face mask guy should be more predictable so that it doesn't seem completely unfair. You can't develop a strategy to overcome this obstacle since it is so random. Even whenever I beat that part it wasn't really satisfying because I felt like I got lucky enough for it to even be possible. I am actually pretty curious to know how this guy is really programmed.

-This one is just a small thing. I thought that the ledge by the first savepoint should be accessible by the double jump. I like coming back to previous areas with new powers and being able to traverse them quicker and easier. I thought that part would be faster to get to the other areas and it would be a nice reward for getting the double jump if I was able to skip right up there.

-There was a room with nothing in it that I thought was weird. The one that is to the left of the ghost place. Maybe I just missed a secret or something, but I came back to it multiple times expecting to find something, but nothing was ever there.

-I'd like to have a map on the pause screen or something. But I was able to navigate well enough without it so it didn't feel completely necessary.

-I played the whole thing through without closing the game so I'm not sure if it saves, but it definitely should. I think a lot of people may not play it in one sitting.

-The escape button opens a menu but doesn't seem to pause the game. I only tried to pause once (when I was on the face mask guy) and the dude kept moving. That escape button should definitely pause the game.

-I really liked all the nice touches throughout the game. There were so many of them. Usually on a game like this you get a lot of the same looking environments, but there was a lot of variation and cool little things to make the areas unique. I really liked the spitting dragon thing, the hidden blob town, and the ghosts chomping their teeth. The game was packed with great stuff like this.

-The atmosphere was so great. I thought the intro story was well written and did a good job setting up the world and atmosphere. All the sounds and music fit perfectly. Well, actually The "pop goes the weasel" thing was a little weird and kind of took me out of the game. But it was a sort of creepy version of it so it was ok.

I forgot to write down notes as I was playing this, so I may have forgot something. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it here.

Again, great game. I really enjoyed this a lot. Have you made any other games? You didn't post a website or anything (which I'd like to see if you have one.) If this is your first game I would be very very impressed. Great job! 

[almightyzentaco]

First of all, thank you for playing and for your feedback. I agree with most of what you said as well. I have trouble making a game challenging without making it too difficult, and this is something I'm going to keep working on in this game till I get it just right. I watched my brother play the game today, and I thought he was going to have a minor mental breakdown. While this is not my first game, I have trouble finishing projects so most of them are laying around half finished.

I will take what you said into consideration and try to make everything more fair and less frustrating. I agree with the idea about making the first orb reachable by double jump as well. And yes, saves do work.

I probably won't add maps for this version of the game, but after I the windows version where it feels right I'm making another for the Ouya, which will actually be an entirely different game based in the same world with a similar feel.

I've been tweaking the face mask to make him feel more fair, but without allowing him to become completely impotent. The trouble I'm having with him is the only thing preventing him from gunning you down instantly is the randomness to his movement. I might add some safe spot areas that make him go away. I'm not sure. I'll tweak his movement some more and maybe it won't feel so cheap.

And, as for the room with nothing in it, that was an oversight. It was supposed to be a room with some doodads and flavor set pieces, but I spazed out and totally forgot about it. I'll add that before I patch the game.

Thanks for playing. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself despite the flaws. It's always great to get feedback. Have a great holiday season!

[Kolba]

Hello. I enjoyed this a lot, perhaps most for its atmosphere. The way the game is introduced is nice, with the ambient panorama intro before the title screen, and the intro to the game proper having that long lost quality, drawn as it is on a scroll - were you influenced by Wind Waker for this part, by any chance?

The atmosphere in game itself was great, kind of downbeat, with the dark palette and subdued music (at least in the start area). Nice little graphical effects, like the pixel flies, to keep scenes alive. Overall the art has a good aesthetic, and I liked the sprite of the main character, which is always vital.

The first thing that needs to go is that death screen. It's too jarring, visually and aurally. I understand this may be what you were shooting for, but it made me want to keep a distance from the game, which I'm sure you weren't shooting for. With an atmosphere like this one, I want to put my headphones on and let it envelop me. But there's no chance those headphones are going to get anywhere near my head when my ear drums are under the constant threat of sudden lo-fi trauma should I slip off a ledge.

The death screen has another negative effect on the game too. It makes death a chore. This is quite a punishing game, and I died lots. But that's okay! Have you played VVVVVV? It's harder than your game, and I loved it. Why? When you die in VVVVVV you reappear INSTANTLY at the last checkpoint. In your game each time I die I have to wait a couple of seconds until it puts me back in the game.

For these two reasons, the death screen made me quit after collecting about 5/18 collectables.

For an exploration platformer you really need a map screen, because my memory ain't that good. Especially when reaching new areas sometimes requires a leap of faith. There's a scene near the start where there are several places to drop down, and you can land on either spikes, water or land, and it amounts to guesswork. At least with a map I'd only have to make that guess once (which I'd probably be happy to do).

It's a bit of a shame you've no plans to develop this further, but if you're making something else with a similar atmosphere I'll definitely follow it!

[almightyzentaco]

Thanks for the feedback. And thanks for playing. I actually am actually currently making a different version of this game for the Ouya. It's longer and fuller featured, but stylistically the same.

I didn't realize the death scene was so jarring. I feel it's necessary thematically, but I can definitely smooth it out and shorten it. I certainly don't want people to be put off and annoyed by any aspect of the game.

Well, thanks again for playing. I'm glad you enjoyed what parts you played.

Cheers!

[Kolba]

That's great, looking forward to hearing about it!

You know I was thinking more about that death scene, and what about allowing the player to explore a little the 'negative' world upon death? It just seems there are two ways you can go with that death screen, one is to shorten it, and the other to lengthen it.

[handCraftedRadio]

I really liked the death screen. It was much better than just a simple respawn imo.

[almightyzentaco]

New version up.

I did a big haul of bug-fixing this round. Lots of little things
that were plaguing some players.
Tweaked a bunch of game-play as well. Moved and added saves, and worked on the Mask movement
parameters. People said he was ridiculous and unfair, so I tried to make him more predictable.

Also I added an options menu for easier screen re-sizing. The original version didn't have the sizes optimized so you would get some double pixels. Special thanks to Nim over at create-games.com for helping me sort that one out.

Thanks to everyone for playing this! As soon as this is officially released I'm making an OUYA version of the game, which is going to be longer and more full featured.

Have a great day!

[Quicksand-S]

I love the environment graphics.

A few comments:

-I switched to full-screen on the menu and then it reverted to windowed mode as soon as gameplay began, so I had to switch it again

-Falling while pressing against a wall, I should be able to consistently move into holes along the wall. Right now, I sometimes just slide right by the hole I'm trying to enter.

-Dying was awesome the first time, but I kinda wish there was more to it. I just read Kolba's comment and I agree completely. Make it shorter or longer. The current length doesn't irritate me, but I wish it felt like there was more of a reason for it.

-The screen with strong wind seemed like a bug at first (like I was stuck on geometry or something). Maybe let people move further onto the screen before the wind affects them.

-I liked the checkpoint spacing for the most part, but I feel like the "bosses" should have checkpoints before them. The place with disappearing blocks was annoying to go through once and I didn't want to go through again after getting hit by a scythe. I do like that the glowing things remain "taken" even after I die, though.

-Pressing F4 (A habit from playing too many Game Maker games) caused my full-screen game to go from having a black bar underneath to being stretched. I'm not sure what the point of that is.

-I really like that an exploration game still has boss-like enemies without actually including combat (as far as I saw).

All in all, it's pretty good but the lack of checkpoints before "bosses" made me stop playing. The slow movement didn't help. I'd love to explore the world more, but I don't know if I'll go back to it without some changes to these elements.

[almightyzentaco]

Thanks for playing!

Pressing f4 toggles the option menu, which doesn't show in full screen anyway. Not sure why there's a black bar.

Not sure why it's switching back from fullscreen. That shouldn't happen. I'll look into it.

I'm glad you enjoyed what you played of the game. Thanks for the feedback. I'll see what I can do to go about fixing the issues you mentioned.

[SirNiko]

Really liked it! Played through the whole thing in one sitting.

I liked that the world had a couple of distinct areas, like the lava zone and the forest region where you get the eye ability. I liked the abilities in general. I felt like the length was just about right for the complexity. The controls were tight, and I rarely had problems getting my guy to go where I wanted him to.

I liked the ending. It wasn't particularly shocking, but the twist was fitting. I also liked that it didn't dwell on stating the obvious once you realized what was going on. I wouldn't change any of it.

Bugs:

Text (on the title screen and in the opening cinematic) is cut off so the black or red border of the text doesn't appear on the fringes of the text. You can see this in the youtube video you've posted in the opening part. It really bugs me!

The orange blob in the blob village sometimes will leap extremely high and go through the ceiling, which looks weird. If you stand outside the entrance, wait a few seconds, then enter, you can usually get him to do it in 4-5 attempts. It might have something to do with him jumping at random heights.

If you push against a wall while falling you repeatedly will hear the sound effect for landing on the ground.

Design stuff:

HandcraftedRadio already pointed out, there's that weird empty room to the left of the graveyard area.

There are a lot of areas with plain black background that look very empty! Maybe you've already thought about it a bit, but if added some tiles to make the transition between regions a little smoother, it'd make the game even more fun to explore.

The spark enemies (red circle with a white exterior) are very plain compared to the other enemies! Consider giving them more detailed sprites (burning skull?).

The mask that chases you was cool, although very difficult. There wasn't really a clear reason for him to be chasing you in just that one area, though. It'd be nice if you decorated the outdoor section with some other masks or had some kind of an animation showing the mask start chasing you. It might also be nice if it was clear when you reached the part where he stops chasing you.

There's a pit halfway through the mask section that takes you to the graveyard. I ran the first half of the mask section twice just to jump into that hole to see where it goes, and be disappointed. I figured you added it so a player at the second checkpoint could easily escape the mask sequence. Why not turn it into a teleport well that takes you back to the start, so a player knows it doesn't lead to a new area?

If you restart at any checkpoint in the mask-chase area, the mask starts off in his old location. This sometimes gives you one, two or even three screens you can run through before he gets back to you. You may consider having him spawn in a different location if the player ever respawns at one of the checkpoints in his domain, probably on the same screen that the player respawns.

The mask is pretty clearly inspired by Phanto. It might not be a bad idea to make him look a little less like his inspiration, maybe by emphasizing a skull and reaper motif or giving him eyes with pupils (or red pupil-like dots/flames).

It was odd that you find the key upgrade so early and use it so late. For a long time I thought maybe it unlocked a door I hadn't found yet and didn't leave a trace to show me where the door used to be.

It's weird that you have blue orbs in the reaper rooms with the switch and the speed boost. For a moment I considered not even going towards the switch because I thought maybe the orb was the only prize. If you remove the orb it makes it more evident that the reaper is guarding the switch and not just the orb.

For the 'death' screen, it might be cool if the screen varies over the course of the game based on how many orbs you have. I felt like the game was easy enough and the respawn was fast enough that it never got to the point of feeling annoying, though.

Some enemies (like the skulls with flames around them) could use slightly more forgiving hit boxes. There were a lot of times when I thought I had enough clearance to avoid damage but got hit instead. This made me give those enemies a lot wider berth than was necessary. You might even leave the hit boxes the same, and just slightly increase the size of the sprites so the player realizes they need to stand just a few pixels further away.

Overall the game is short and fun, both of which I like! Good work!

[almightyzentaco]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm doing another round of tweaking tomorrow. Getting the saves to work with keeping your position, and I'll try to add a lot of what you suggested. I agree with pretty much all of what you've said.

Thanks for playing. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[SirNiko]

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2014/01/weekend_download_258.php

You got featured on JayIsGames over the weekend.