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[Kaelan]

I've been working on this game for a while now, and since I recently prepared a build to submit to a couple game competitions, I figured I'd post it here to get feedback from the TIGS community. It's not remotely finished, but it's got a couple short levels with some platforming/combat gameplay, along with a boss fight. Any sort of feedback you've got will be useful - gameplay feedback, design feedback, technical feedback - you name it.





The game is called Inferus, and it's about a thief who's been thrown into an underground prison and needs to escape and rescue his daughter.

The gist of it is that you use your acrobatic abilities to traverse the levels, avoiding traps and solving puzzles, and kill monsters by punching them to death. In future builds I plan to expand on the gameplay and the design where possible, but that's basically it right now.

If you've got time to try it out on your PC or XBox 360 (the latter requires a Creator's Club membership), there are download links on the info page on my website. You'll need a Direct3D 9 capable video card and a vaguely recent PC.

As a footnote, there's also an integrated level editor in the PC version that you can open by pressing ~. Please feel free to mess around with it; it might be cool to include a bunch of player-created levels with it when I release it, or even add an online level-sharing feature.

PC Download Link:
http://luminance.org/inferus/setup.exe

Please see the info page for controls/other information, or to download the 360 version.

[Theon]

Nice! I'll have to try this!.D
I love the style of the new Castlevania games for the DS<3

[Aquin]

I'm liking what I see so far.  I think the keyboard controls are REALLY wonky, but I got a joystick.  I dunno how others feel about that.

How far off is release?  I'd like to try this game with all the presentation magic.  It's certainly looking like a future indie fav o' mine. 

[Kaelan]

I'm liking what I see so far.  I think the keyboard controls are REALLY wonky, but I got a joystick.  I dunno how others feel about that.

How far off is release?  I'd like to try this game with all the presentation magic.  It's certainly looking like a future indie fav o' mine. 

What are your complaints about the keyboard controls? They're definitely unusual; my goal was to make sure you could play it on any keyboard, since using arrow keys or the numpad is really awkward on a laptop like mine. If there are specific things about the controls that bug you, I can probably address them. A joystick or 360 gamepad are probably the ideal ways to play, though.

I can't really commit to anything resembling a release date, but I'm releasing the game in two halves (for various reasons, including the XBLIG file size limit), so you'll be getting some significant portion of the game sooner rather than later. I plan to release demos and testing builds fairly regularly as well to get feedback.

The current downloadable build that's up on the website is the result of around 7 months of nights/weekends and a month of full time development, if that gives you any idea of how much time it's taken to build the 10-15 minutes of content that's in the game now. (:

[Saint]

Nice! the platforming is well-designed, ramping up the difficulty in a good way and you do a good job of setting the mood. I have a few points though.

The game looks really nice, but the water often seems kind of out of place. It is very shallow and relatively slow-moving so the waves shouldn't be as high as they are - and if you really want them to be, they would do well to have more internal movement instead of just scrolling.

The climbing ledges didn't work well for me since you had to press one direction to stick to the ledge and then release it to hit another to climb it; not sure if there's a trick to it but I fell down quite a lot.

The platforming was very clear and precise, but the movement felt a bit sluggish as there was always noticeable delay between command and execution. If you are going for a Prince of Persia feel this might be what you want, though. Also on a related topic, you might want to add a sliding animation to show when it is possible to jump from a wall.

The talking savepoint was cool.

The combat didn't really do it for me due to the slow movement and the only thing you could really do was attack, it didn't feel very enjoyable and the best way to get past it was to just get in and hammer the attack buttons. But again, maybe I'm missing something.

The tutorials were good, but it was a bit unclear where they would appear - I like how they aren't forced, but maybe you should keep them around longer the first time they're shown instead of repeating them for every obstacle. As it was now, a few flashed by without me having a chance of reading them or knowing where to stand for them to appear again.

All in all I had a good time with it, though. Great job!

[Kaelan]

The game looks really nice, but the water often seems kind of out of place. It is very shallow and relatively slow-moving so the waves shouldn't be as high as they are - and if you really want them to be, they would do well to have more internal movement instead of just scrolling.

The water definitely needs a lot of work. Thanks for the suggestions!

The climbing ledges didn't work well for me since you had to press one direction to stick to the ledge and then release it to hit another to climb it; not sure if there's a trick to it but I fell down quite a lot.

You can actually keep holding towards the wall and still climb; tapping up is all that does it. If this isn't working maybe you're running into keyboard issues. I'm considering making the ledge gripping a 'toggled' state where Aram passively holds onto a surface once he grabs it, so that you won't need to press two directions at once to climb on things. Does that seem like it would be easier?

The platforming was very clear and precise, but the movement felt a bit sluggish as there was always noticeable delay between command and execution. If you are going for a Prince of Persia feel this might be what you want, though. Also on a related topic, you might want to add a sliding animation to show when it is possible to jump from a wall.

Yeah, it's kind of funny actually - at first the player character had tons of acceleration and deceleration, with 'realistic' physics, but the feedback to that is universally negative. I'm probably going to keep ramping that stuff down until the player character's movement is nearly as instantaneous as it is in most of the castlevania games; I don't think the Prince of Persia style works when you have extensive combat.

A sliding animation is a great suggestion for the walls.

The talking savepoint was cool.

Glad you like her. She actually does more than let you recover later on; I just don't have any of it enabled since it's not done yet.

The combat didn't really do it for me due to the slow movement and the only thing you could really do was attack, it didn't feel very enjoyable and the best way to get past it was to just get in and hammer the attack buttons. But again, maybe I'm missing something.

Yeah, there's lots of work to be done here. I think making the controls more responsive will probably help, but I'm still searching for that 'special something' to make the basic melee combat more fun.

The tutorials were good, but it was a bit unclear where they would appear - I like how they aren't forced, but maybe you should keep them around longer the first time they're shown instead of repeating them for every obstacle. As it was now, a few flashed by without me having a chance of reading them or knowing where to stand for them to appear again.

This is a good point. The way they work is that they appear whenever you enter a given region of the level, but have a short 'delay' before they appear again, so if you leave an area and then walk back into it immediately, it doesn't show the hint again (in an attempt to not be annoying). I think this is probably confusing, so I'll probably add a 'hide this hint' button instead that will permanently hide the hint. Adding a visual indicator for the location of hints seems like it's probably a good idea too, so that beginning players don't miss them.

Glad you liked it. Thanks for the feedback!

[Saint]

Having a toggled "ledge grab" seems better yes, the other games I remember playing recently featuring this do it this way. If you want to add some challenge to it you could make the character loose his grip in a few seconds, Shadow of the Colossus style (although that would affect the area with the moving spikes on the walls in the vertical shaft). Or you could let the player choose. Anyhow, I played with the stick on the 360 controller and that only goes in one direction =/

Another suggestion for the water would be to add more foam and underwater stirring to the waterfall in the beginning, the water seems pretty calm as it is now. Might not be necessary but seeing as it is the first thing you see it is more noticeable.

[Theon]

I'm sorry to say this, but I'm rather disappointed. The movement is (as mentioned by others) horrible, it's slow and stiff, and NOTHING like the Castlevania games.
It's sad really, because the design and effects so far look very pretty and true to the genre (though, of course, more particle-effects are needed to compare/compete with modern-day Castlevania;P).

But again, great work on the pixels, and very nice menu-interface! Good luck with the project!

[Kaelan]

I'm sorry to say this, but I'm rather disappointed. The movement is (as mentioned by others) horrible, it's slow and stiff, and NOTHING like the Castlevania games.

What makes it feel slow to you, precisely? The player's movement speed is almost exactly the same as in all of the castlevania games I've played. Stiff I understand.

[Theon]

I'm sorry to say this, but I'm rather disappointed. The movement is (as mentioned by others) horrible, it's slow and stiff, and NOTHING like the Castlevania games.

What makes it feel slow to you, precisely? The player's movement speed is almost exactly the same as in all of the castlevania games I've played. Stiff I understand.

The speed of movement is not the problem, is the time it takes after you push a button to the character actually doing something. In the Castlevania games this feels like it's instant.
It makes it very hard to time attacks against enemies, and thus destroy the entire "action"-adventure thing:P
I'm sorry if I sound rude or anything, but I just really think you should fix this, since the game itself looks extremely promising^^

[Kaelan]

The speed of movement is not the problem, is the time it takes after you push a button to the character actually doing something. In the Castlevania games this feels like it's instant.
It makes it very hard to time attacks against enemies, and thus destroy the entire "action"-adventure thing:P
I'm sorry if I sound rude or anything, but I just really think you should fix this, since the game itself looks extremely promising^^

OK, that helps a lot. I used to get complaints about the movement speed so I wasn't sure if that was what you meant.

[Eclipse]

how you did that installer\downloader? it's pretty rad!
I'm downloading the game right now, looks great on the screenshots

edit: tried it, i don't find the movement too atrocius but the animations cold be better, the run cycle is a bit wonky, the overall movement speed seems good.

The thing that i really find bad is the keys layout, it's truly a mess because involves only letters, and even if he moves also with the cursors is impossible to play with them because you have to use keys like Q and E and keys like J that are very distant.
Add an option to customize the keys, or at least make a more human configuration, like

cursor to move, Q - W - E A - S - D to jump\ fight ect.

oh anothe thing is a problem with the levers, seems like you need to keep pressing for a bit to activate stuff, sometimes they randomly disactivate while pressing or they switch on and off, it feels very buggy.

Last but not least an hint: If you want to improve the fights make an hurt animation for the enemies when they don't die in a single hit, and possibly make 'em bounce backward a bit, those little critters are easy to kill but it's quite hard to evade their bites, it's ok for strongest enemies, but for stuff you will encounter a lot around could be a bit annoying to have to punch\evade three times every monster.

I like the character design, i do agree that you can do better with the water but it's not bad at all. You got me interested

[Theon]

The speed of movement is not the problem, is the time it takes after you push a button to the character actually doing something. In the Castlevania games this feels like it's instant.
It makes it very hard to time attacks against enemies, and thus destroy the entire "action"-adventure thing:P
I'm sorry if I sound rude or anything, but I just really think you should fix this, since the game itself looks extremely promising^^

OK, that helps a lot. I used to get complaints about the movement speed so I wasn't sure if that was what you meant.

I'm sorry; I should've been more spesific^^;

Want to add, though, that I actually found the water very appealing!^^ I don't understand all the critisism, because it looked really fluid and seamless. Though Order of Ecclesia might have had better animated water(or maybe not), the first DS Castlevania (and best, in my opinion) didn't even have a rippled surface:P

[tim_the_tam]

ive finished playing and im sorry to say that while the graphics and sound are great the game play is not.

before i begin my review i have to say that ive only played a little castlevania and prince of persia so im not sure if these design elements are intentional.

first off the control scheme for the keyboard is not terrible but it could have been better. the buttons felt a bit like they were everywhere. i recommend having back flip on U and slide one I and keeping everything else the same. and also they the reaction time feels slow for some reason.

the combat needs improvement. i dont know if this is a castlevania style but having to crouch to attack get up and run away before doing the same thing again feels clunky especially with the slow reaction time. pretty much you can only hit them at most 2 times before getting up to catch up and hit them again or they running away because they will hit hit you. this combat would have been alright if you can continually attack them especially since they have a lot of hp (too much hp imo for a first level). i recommend that once you hit the enemy they slow down significantly for a few seconds. that way you can hit them multiple times and if you are facing them they can still attack you.

the platforming feels really basic. for all my experience of prince of persia which is not many, i remember having a free running platformer. where the ability to run up walls or even wall riding? the levels also feel pretty basic. i mean is formatic.. its feels a bit like.. enermies, wall jump, enermies, wall jump, boss fight. i know there cranks and moving platforms.. but they have been used scarcely.. even so its still a really simple platform game and even adding spikes to certain place don't improve the platforming.

also while it got a great art style i found that some animations are missing. one i have in mind is the jumping. his legs just stays in the air and it looks like his wearing a dress floating down merry poppins style without an umbrella. another is when you are running and make a sharp turn in the other direction. the guy slows down but the animation is the same.

but yeah.. like i said before you have some great graphics and music. if you can improve the gameplay, especially the combat and the level design im sure youll have a great game.

[Eclipse]

i think the platforming is not "basic" at all.. i mean, you can't have a lot better from a 2d platformer.
Also i think wall running sucks, wall jumping is way more interesting as wall running is almost never used vertically in PoP games, and this is a 2d game, where you don't have horizontal walls to run...

the worst thing about the gameplay are the fights imo, the platforming could be better having better tune character movements and a customizable layout for keys but the level design is not bad at all.

Also every Castlevania has stiff movements like the ones in this game, as they're not true platformers

Kaelan i suggest you to never cite Prince of Persia again because it will lead to people making stupid comparisons beetween things that works better in 3d and your game