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[NealWh]

Hi All,

I'm the coder working on Kynseed, a 2D sandbox adventure game that we've just recently uploaded an early prototype of:
https://pixelcount-studios.itch.io/kynseed



We're really interested to get any and all feedback on the prototype.  We plan to go to Kickstarter soon (so suggestions that we can do to better prepare the prototype for that would really be appreciated but really open to any comments at this stage!).

Cheers!

[indominator]

Man i love the game. if Proteus had fishing it would be perfect. ...

Oh well, lets go back to your game, running is weird. You can lock the direction of the sprite by running, so you can end up moonwalking(its funny lel).

It feels kinda weird that instead of using lmb its rmb. But i guess it kinda work. also holding objects above your head feel weird(the fish one) maybe it should not rotate and your sprite could hold your hands up(like when zelda holds a pot above his head). I guess the game feels better with a xbox controller, but maybe when you play with pc the layout should be shown to the pc keyboards( i never figured out what was the input for the invetory).

Besides that i love this game, and the audio is very good too.

[NealWh]

Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it!

With no gamepad plugged in or with 'experimental mouselook' on it uses the mouse for facing angle at all times which I think is leading to the moonwalking!  We've had someone else feedback that this seemed weird too, I think I just tried it cos of games like Nuclear Throne/Enter the Gungeon had it and felt alright but they are more constantly active in looking in a direction with the mouse.  We'll look to do an update that makes it a toggleable option so players can choose to break the direction if they want (on controller the right stick changes facing so can similarly break it but cos it's in neutral most of the time that isn't perhaps as noticeable a problem to players!).

Also will look to have an option to switch left and right mouse buttons as yea like you say it is probably more usual to have use on lmb...

With holding objects, yeah maybe the rotation is a tad offputting, was in there originally because there was no arrow on throwing to hint where it was going.  Will have a play around with disabling it or limiting it to four directions as I think perhaps it is one of those things with pixelart that people prefer not to see rotations if possible...

With control layout, the way it works at the moment is it shows gamepad keys if you have a controller plugged in, if not (or if you toggle 'experimental mouselook') it'll show the keyboard keys.  Maybe can try a more switchable approach based on what you last used so that it's clearer.

Glad you like it so far!

[AaronB]

I enjoyed playing this and the quirky humor.  I'm a keyboard / mouse type person so the controls did feel a bit cumbersome with all the different key options.  I tried pressing H to bring up the key list but nothing happened?

I like the use of the proverbs to give you direction on solving the tasks - encourages exploration and seems like a great mechanism for setting up some challenging puzzles.

Ambient sound is good - curious to hear what style of music you plan to use with the game.

[marcelofg55]

Any chance for a Mac version too?

[JohnyBGooD]

I like the demo - it is very bright and colorful. Controls are good too, but I think you need to add more tips for keyboard keys. Also some work on the icons of interaction needed and ambient music would be good. In general, you have an excellent game.

[Lionbum71]

Hello. One of the devs for Kynseed here. Great to read some feedback and keys and icons are 2 of the things we want to look at improving.
Glad to see someone likes the idea of the Proverbs...they won't be so easily gained in the main game (the demo area just throws in tons of stuff) and as said, has potential for some nice puzzles.
Proverbs won't be just directions for finding ingredients though or unlocking secrets...they can be used to find out the best places to conceive (so your kids stats are better), things to avoid, the habits of monsters and little superstitions and customsthat the locals follow (each village will have their own quirky customs and festivals, olde England style).

[NealWh]

Meant to post to this topic late last week as an update has gone out that hopefully addresses some of the earlier feedback and included a new trait.

I enjoyed playing this and the quirky humor.  I'm a keyboard / mouse type person so the controls did feel a bit cumbersome with all the different key options.  I tried pressing H to bring up the key list but nothing happened?

I like the use of the proverbs to give you direction on solving the tasks - encourages exploration and seems like a great mechanism for setting up some challenging puzzles.

Ambient sound is good - curious to hear what style of music you plan to use with the game.

Thanks for the feedback!  Could you pinpoint any controls that felt particularly cumbersome?  I think playing it so much has made it a bit difficult for me to know exactly what is good/bad.  With pressing H for a keys list, did that appear in the text somewhere?  The key for it should be K which I believe should be working.

Glad you like the ambient sounds, we're looking to convey the atmosphere with them quite a lot (though are still currently in debate on sounds for characters/animals as it would likely require a lot of them where text might leave something to the imagination of the players).  We've started looking into music but it is still early days so nothing to say on that as yet...

To marcelofg55:
At some point we hope to look into the possibility of a Mac version but lack the resources/time to pursue it right now unfortunately.

To JohnyBGooD:
With 'more tips for keyboard keys' could you mention any specific points when they would be useful (or do you mean in the reminders section)?  One thing we do have right now is that if a controller is plugged in then the gamepad keys will show up, but I'm not sure if that is the problem you have or that it just felt like it didn't tell you the ones you needed to know?

Cheers for the feedback!

[JohnyBGooD]

I accidentally found the E button for action, if there were clues, I did not notice them. At first I did not know which key corresponds to the green button of the gamepad when it is highlighted.

[AaronB]

With pressing H for a keys list, did that appear in the text somewhere?  The key for it should be K which I believe should be working.

Mystery solved - it appears to be a combination of aging eyesight, pixel fonts and Freudian key expectancy (H for help).

Could you pinpoint any controls that felt particularly cumbersome?

I think the main issue is occasionally I feel I should be able to left click with the cursor instead of using the keyboard. Examples would be activating an item and the sub menu/selection in the task and inventory screens.

[NealWh]

To JohnyBGooD
Ah thanks for that!  We'll look at highlighting the E action button better (I think the right mouse button also works for the same function currently).

To AaronB
Aha, ta for the additional info.  Yea, there's a few letters in that pixel font that are a bit hard to follow...  am planning to try and adjust it slightly.  And definitely the plan is to extend mouse to work in the task screen (it should already function for selecting items and categories in the inventory but likely could do with a better cursor and clearer functionality).

[alb55]

In 2017, an open world game HAS to have great control feel (SCell, N++, NDrake, RLegue), deep crafting, farming, hitpoits, loot, random gen ect....

[NealWh]

Hi,

Yesterday we released an update to the prototype that's had just over a month's further work on it.  The biggest part of this is that we now have music!  (a short title track very recently added courtesy of Russell Shaw the legendary composer on the Fable series and ingame from the talented Matthijs den Daas who's worked amazingly fast on several pieces including some not yet ingame!)  In addition to this we've been working on fixes and improvements along with new art in the level and a first go at animated water... 
https://pixelcount-studios.itch.io/kynseed

Additionally to this we are excited/nervous to announce the project is now live on Kickstarter where we go more into the features for the full game, have a video of footage based on the latest version (and some areas in development) and the music for preview:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/405964313/kynseed-a-whimsical-sandbox-rpg-adventure

Very thankful for the feedback received so far in this thread (some of which we know we still have to work further on!) and would be grateful for any further support in feedback and in spreading word and pledging to the Kickstarter if you like the project!

Thanks for reading!