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[Cirrus Minor]

Hi!

I'm working on an action-roguelite game.
The main inspiration is Binding of Isaac, and the universe is comics-fantasy (a little bit steam punk) with a touch of classic roguelike as Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. 
It's a twin stick shooter, in a randomly generated dungeon, with spells, religion, bosses, etc...

Technically, the game is developed in C++ / SFML.
I've got Windows build for the demos, but the sources are available on GitHub (the game is free).

Github: https://github.com/Cirrus-Minor/witchblast
Download: https://github.com/Cirrus-Minor/witchblast/releases/tag/v0.4.5

Any feedback about the gameplay, the challenge, the fun, graphics, or how it works on your system would be really appreciated!

Game features:

• randomly generated dungeons,
• lots of items,
• monsters and bosses,
• different shot types,
• chest and keys,
• merchant,
• spells with cooldown,
• temples and divinities,
• savegames,
• scores (local).

Standard controls:
WASD to move (8 directions)
Arrows to shoot (4 directions)
[E] to interact (not space, it's an in-game error)
[TAB] to change the shot type (if any)
[SPACE] to cast a spell (if any)
[RSHIFT] hold for speed x2 (to travel faster)

The 2D artist who's recently joined the project is quite talented, here are some screenshots and an in-game video.

[DwarvenArtisan]

Hi!

I like it and could imagine playing it at work

Some things i noticed:
- whats a bit strange for me is the mixture of the top down look on the environment and the side view for the characters/monsters, I would like it more if it was one of the two
- I couldn't manage to buy something at the shop in level 2
- then i got killed by a rat :D
- Some lighting would give the scenes more depth. Some tourches and maybe a field of view / light radius for the player?
- When I clicked in the lower part where the inventory and so on is shown, its casting an attack (wouldn't think thats supposed to happen)



I'm curious how this evolves! *following*

[Cirrus Minor]

Hi DwarvenArtisan and thanks for the feedback!
Glad to read you've enjoyed the game.

* About the strange perspective, that was a big "theme" for us, but it's the better compromise between gameplay and good look we've found. It's used by other games, like Zelda or Binding of Isaac.

* To buy something, you need enough money of course, you can buy health items only if you're hurt, and you have to press [E] and not [Space] (copy-paste error  ).

* I don't know if I'll implement the light radius in dark rooms in the future. I've though about using the staff with a special shot aura (like thunder or fire) as a torch. Well, maybe...

* Oh, you're right about the mouse! The GUI is brand new, we will have to think about what the mouse can do on it, and restrict the "fire" function of the mouse to the dungeon area.

We'll release a patch soon with bug fixes and full translation (German, Spanish and Russian are not 100%).

[Vasae]

I'm also having trouble buying things from the shop or using the "interact" button as well. Can't use it to select a God to worship as well. The perspective is also rather strange to me and while other games use a similar style it makes aiming a little difficult. Controls are good though otherwise and the gameplay flow moves smoothly.

[Cirrus Minor]

Thanks for your feedback, Vasae!
To buy or to worship, you have to use the [E] key, not the [Space], it's an error in this version.
I'll have a patch soon, and this issue will be fixed.

[Vasae]

Alright, that worked thanks! Some other things as I've played. More boss and item variation would do this game well. Fighting the same boss over and over with the same items makes it not very fun to replay. Also the Slime Boss and it's jumping is quite rough of an upgrade from the first boss, not that that's a bad thing. I'll agree with the other poster that the way you've got the game parsed out with a top down look but side long view makes things rather a pain to aim. BoI:R gets away with this because the rooms, in general are much smaller and even with the way enemies face the bullets still move from a more top down perspective. You can also aim your bullets in BoI which you can't do in this game without an item and even then it's also one bullet.

The Gods also need a bit better description. The Show not Tell symbols give a little bit of info on what they might do should you pick them but even some flavor text would go a long way to making each one a more understandable choice. Also a lot Enemies also move rather swiftly/teleport to often for your shots and while that does add a bit to the difficulty of the game it's what I like to call "Soft Difficulty", meaning it's difficulty skill can't account for and is an arbitrary sort of level that might frustrate players. All that being said, of the "Isaac Clones" on the market this one has some promise.

If you keep plugging away at it some further suggestions I'd make. As much as you're inspired by Isaac (and it shows), try to find your own song. You've got some cool RPG elements going into this game and an art style (that I honestly can't say I jive with but it works) that makes your game stand out. Focus on those things and build on them.

[Cirrus Minor]

Thanks Vasae!
Yes, we plan more items, but no other boss (well, I mean, there will be 4 other levels, so 4 other bosses, but, for v1, there won't be random boss). Other playable characters would be nice too. Achievements (I'm working on this at the moment) will be a nice addition.

You are right for the Gods, it's not so easy to understand what they are doing, and I will add more description, and maybe a message for the bonus at each level.
Gods are still experimental.

I've got a new release of the game with lots of bug fixes, some (ligh) gameplay changes and new sound effects.

Witch Blast v0.4.6
Download: https://github.com/Cirrus-Minor/witchblast/releases/tag/v0.4.6

[austinbreed]

Looks really fun! My only comments are that the shadows under the characters should really probably just be a solid color and not a gradient because you don't see the gradient anywhere else in the character art, that I thought pixel art clashes against the rest of the artwork and the color choices need to be coordinated (they look kinda random atm). The art really does look well-done otherwise.