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[diest]

would really like to know everyone's thoughts on the demo!

[oldblood]

This is just first impressions... I will test it further but my first 5 minutes in the demo were a bit rough.

I couldn't get the game to start at first. I assumed "Enter", "Space" or "E" or one of the arrow keys would work to select the game to start. I had no idea "S" was and it took me about a minute or keyboard mashing till I hit S and the game started. The game was very pretty, well done there-- but I felt the controls were a bit tricky. I had a surprisingly hard time landing jumps (even just messing around in the house at the beginning to help me nail down the movement). But that might just be a practice issue... I went to explore outside and fell off the water edge and was trapped under the world and that ended my first QA run haha.

Will test further for sure and I know its all early in dev... but I'd highly recommend either giving instructions on the Menu or changing up the selection process on the menu's as I worry less patient players will just assume menu's broke and quit without playing the demo at all. Or maybe I'm just an idiot? Just my initial reactions.

[diest]

This is just first impressions... I will test it further but my first 5 minutes in the demo were a bit rough.

I couldn't get the game to start at first. I assumed "Enter", "Space" or "E" or one of the arrow keys would work to select the game to start. I had no idea "S" was and it took me about a minute or keyboard mashing till I hit S and the game started. The game was very pretty, well done there-- but I felt the controls were a bit tricky. I had a surprisingly hard time landing jumps (even just messing around in the house at the beginning to help me nail down the movement). But that might just be a practice issue... I went to explore outside and fell off the water edge and was trapped under the world and that ended my first QA run haha.

Will test further for sure and I know its all early in dev... but I'd highly recommend either giving instructions on the Menu or changing up the selection process on the menu's as I worry less patient players will just assume menu's broke and quit without playing the demo at all. Or maybe I'm just an idiot? Just my initial reactions.

hey yea sorry I completely forgot to add a key prompt for the menu. I did however put it on the itch page. Also yea I completely forgot to block off that side of the level in the pond area, made that area awhile ago and haven't touched it since. Let me know what you think after your new playtest!

[diest]

Hey everyone,
so I updated the demo and fixed aton of fucken bugs people have been telling me about.

PLEASE let me know of any bugs you may encounter. I opened up the comments section of the itch page, so you can leave any hate/love/criticisms/comments you have.

Thanks!

http://michaelvandiest.itch.io/gwyn2

[Connor]

Downloading the demo now, ill let you know what i think.

[mayutastic]

I managed to get the arrows through a glitch. I accidentally pushed continue game with the save data from the first demo, and started the game with a huge fractional number of points, both the arrows and the sword, and the health bar was messed up. They're super fun, but still kind of broken. It might be a good idea to have some kind of check for corrupted saves.

Be sure to get someone with good English skill to proofread your dialogue some day, since the grammar was kind of bad.

Music is great so far. I still love the art.

I lost the boss battle once, respawned, and the boss music was still playing, but the frog disappeared.

The physics on the pink blocks are hard to predict. Also, I could shoot arrows while holding one.

[diegzumillo]

What specifically do you want feedback? At this stage I don't know what am I supposed to ignore because it's a work in progress and what you want to know how it feels.

But here goes some random thoughts. I like the graphics and animation. I only knew S was the right key because I bashed every single key in my keyboard and mouse. The fighting mechanics was functional, but that's all I can say right now. The mini frog boss killed me, I couldn't really find a pattern or a strategy that didn't get me hit while attacking. But I only tried once though, once I died I respawned at the same room and the boss was no where to be seen. But overall looks pretty cool! Good job so far.

By the way, that gif on the first post, the one with the projectile transportation thing, that reminds me of Out There Somewhere. Have you played that game before? It's a very neat mechanic! It's a cheap and short game, I recommend having a look at it.

[diest]

Hey guys thanks to those who gave some criticisms. We're changing alot of stuff. we redesigned the main character. Here are some gifs.

[diest]

So I'm trying to figure out how I want to do healing.
Here are some ideas, you guys let me know what you think of them:

• enemies have a chance of dropping heals
• spend the XP orbs you pick up from enemies to heal. (currently the orbs have no use so i'm trying to find a use for them)
• You have an item equiped which has charges and you can use a charge to heal. (similar to dark souls estus flask)

[diegzumillo]

Each idea has its own set of implications. Here are my thoughts on each one

-If you want the action to ben non-stop, then enemy dropping life is an incentive for the player to keep fighting.

-XP points really depend on what else xp is used for. For sake of example, say I can make my character stronger with it. Then if I'm not that good and get hit a lot, I'll have to spend my points healing and my character progression will be slower. This could work in a game where I can set my own pace (like open world games) so I can find an area with enemies I can deal with and grind a bit of xp in order to balance my character with my skills and finally progress with the story when I think I'm ready. In a more linearly locked game it might not work because the difficulty would be higher for the less skilled player. "Might" is the keyword here, of course. We could imagine another scenario, like a rogue-like game, where the first runs the player will not be skilled and most xp points will be used to remain alive. But after a few runs he will be more skilled and can use his xp points to become stronger and progress further (Hoplite is an android game that does this very well).

-In DS the flasks have an interesting role. If you could gulp the flask without any waste of time it would be a gimmick easily replaced by a larger health bar. It's the time it takes to consume and the nature of the strategic combat in that game that make the flasks an interesting little management game. You try to analyze what you will face and your current health bar, then decide if you want to drink one now and waste some of its healing power or risk dying during the next fight because drinking during the fight is difficult. My point is, if your combat system is a faster I don't think this system would add much to your game.

[diest]

Each idea has its own set of implications. Here are my thoughts on each one

-If you want the action to ben non-stop, then enemy dropping life is an incentive for the player to keep fighting.

-XP points really depend on what else xp is used for. For sake of example, say I can make my character stronger with it. Then if I'm not that good and get hit a lot, I'll have to spend my points healing and my character progression will be slower. This could work in a game where I can set my own pace (like open world games) so I can find an area with enemies I can deal with and grind a bit of xp in order to balance my character with my skills and finally progress with the story when I think I'm ready. In a more linearly locked game it might not work because the difficulty would be higher for the less skilled player. "Might" is the keyword here, of course. We could imagine another scenario, like a rogue-like game, where the first runs the player will not be skilled and most xp points will be used to remain alive. But after a few runs he will be more skilled and can use his xp points to become stronger and progress further (Hoplite is an android game that does this very well).

-In DS the flasks have an interesting role. If you could gulp the flask without any waste of time it would be a gimmick easily replaced by a larger health bar. It's the time it takes to consume and the nature of the strategic combat in that game that make the flasks an interesting little management game. You try to analyze what you will face and your current health bar, then decide if you want to drink one now and waste some of its healing power or risk dying during the next fight because drinking during the fight is difficult. My point is, if your combat system is a faster I don't think this system would add much to your game.

You make some really good points. I think I may go with the enemies dropping heals but maybe add some sort of hybrid with one of the other options. Thanks for your input

[diest]

NEW DEMO 
http://michaelvandiest.itch.io/gwyn-demo-3