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[PleasingFungus]

Kill monsters. Get points. Make very silly noises.

I'd especially like feedback on:

• Are there bugs?
• Is the game too difficult or too easy? (Where, when? Use the wave display on the top.)
• Are things confusing?
• Is the game fun?

Let me know what you think!

[PompiPompi]

lol, great game. Loved the sound effects.
I reached wave 220? I think.
I didn't exactly know what to do with the teleport, it didn't seem too useful. Or it wasn't too intuitive for me to use that.
Also, I mainly used the attack where he thrust the spear forward, the other attacks didn't seem as useful as well. Also, I might be a lazy gamer and I would usually use the minimal required actions to complete the goal. So out of "laziness" I might prefer to use only one attack, unless I really see the benefit of using two different attacks.
Or, if you give me one attack that I should use 90% of the time, and another attack to use 10% of the time, I might try use the first attack for almost 100% of the time. Unless, it is only possible with the second attack.
I hope I was clear enough.

[Curseman]

I didn't see any bugs.  The first set of waves was pretty effortless, but the difficulty ramps up quickly.  I thought it was intuitive and fun, and yeah, the grunting helps a lot.  I liked the unlockable abilities too.

The standard attacks could use a bit of differentiation though.  In most situations it doesn't matter which one you use.  Slow and strong/fast and weak attacks or something like that might be more interesting than forward/slightly to the left/slightly to the right, y'know?

[PleasingFungus]

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

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I didn't exactly know what to do with the teleport, it didn't seem too useful. Or it wasn't too intuitive for me to use that.

Interesting. You didn't find it useful for evading the projectile-attacks?

Also, I mainly used the attack where he thrust the spear forward, the other attacks didn't seem as useful as well. Also, I might be a lazy gamer and I would usually use the minimal required actions to complete the goal. So out of "laziness" I might prefer to use only one attack, unless I really see the benefit of using two different attacks.
Or, if you give me one attack that I should use 90% of the time, and another attack to use 10% of the time, I might try use the first attack for almost 100% of the time. Unless, it is only possible with the second attack.
I hope I was clear enough.

Of course, that's perfectly ordinary. It's my job as a designer to make all the attacks useful, so that players see a reason to use more than one. The problem here seems to be that the strong-forward-attack (the 'hyperstab') is a bit too powerful. I've reduced its range significantly

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The standard attacks could use a bit of differentiation though.  In most situations it doesn't matter which one you use.  Slow and strong/fast and weak attacks or something like that might be more interesting than forward/slightly to the left/slightly to the right, y'know?

That's a problem I was wondering about. The attacks are actually significantly more differentiated than they appear, but the animation obscures their actual range / area of effect. I've tweaked them; the animation should correspond more closely with the hitbox now. (Let me know if it's clearer!)

[jrjellybeans]

I got to the second level and got kind of bored.  I don't mean that I thought it was bad, just not my thing...

Sometimes I would press Q thinking I was going to hit the monster in front of me and I didn't end up hitting it.
I sometimes would teleport when I didn't mean to - I spent most of the game holding down one of the attack buttons.  While trying to move out of it, I would sometimes inadvertently teleport...
I think that by that second level things were pretty difficult.

Hope that helps!

[Curseman]

That's a problem I was wondering about. The attacks are actually significantly more differentiated than they appear, but the animation obscures their actual range / area of effect. I've tweaked them; the animation should correspond more closely with the hitbox now. (Let me know if it's clearer!)

It's a bit better, but in the end I still used the default forward attack (the regular one, not the "hyperstab") 90% of the time.

On the 4th world, I couldn't see a difference between the charged laser and the regular one, and it wasn't initially clear that the gray guys blow up.

[PleasingFungus]

I got to the second level and got kind of bored.  I don't mean that I thought it was bad, just not my thing...

Sometimes I would press Q thinking I was going to hit the monster in front of me and I didn't end up hitting it.
I sometimes would teleport when I didn't mean to - I spent most of the game holding down one of the attack buttons.  While trying to move out of it, I would sometimes inadvertently teleport...
I think that by that second level things were pretty difficult.

Hope that helps!

It does! Sorry you didn't like the game, but thanks for the info anyway.

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It's a bit better, but in the end I still used the default forward attack (the regular one, not the "hyperstab") 90% of the time.

On the 4th world, I couldn't see a difference between the charged laser and the regular one, and it wasn't initially clear that the gray guys blow up.

Fourth world is ice, yeah? There isn't actually any advantage to charging your laser - the thing is to hold the magic key and press one of the attack keys (Q,W, or E). That'll deploy a proximity mine.

It's pretty awkward as a control method. I may still change it; suggestions are welcome.

[Tumetsu]

I liked it Some more spesific critique below.

I think game was rather fun though I missed some things. First I couldn't figure how to exit the instructions screen. There just read "Good luck!" but after hitting enter and some other buttons, game didn't start. I finally reloaded the page to get back into main screen. So maybe a little text to show what to press maybe...?

Then the actual gameplay. The gameplay was rather nice and simple. Reminded me of somekind retro game. The visual style and audio were good imo. I especially liked the voices of character which were rather hilarious. However, I think the space of the game was rather slow, at least at the first level. This was slightly boring, though it was fixed in the second level. Actually, I think the curve between the two were rather steep. First there is hardly any enemies and suddenly they flood in. It may be just my incompetence, but maybe decrease the enemy appearing a bit in the second level...? For me atleast it was after dieing in the second level, it felt a chore to replay the slow first one. The teleport mechanic felt rather weird. At first play I didn't get it since I wasn't fast enough to read the message. Even after reading it I kept teleporting accidentally to the midst of enemy horde. I really suggest you to come up a different control scheme for it or leave it out. Finally about the attacks of the main character. They were animated well but I think they would have needed perhaps more variability? At least I just pressed different attacks rather randomly and those attacks into sides felt a bit odd. Again, I may just suck but I think there could be made some refinement there, though I can't pinpoint anything.

Hope this helps your development

[PleasingFungus]

I think game was rather fun though I missed some things. First I couldn't figure how to exit the instructions screen. There just read "Good luck!" but after hitting enter and some other buttons, game didn't start. I finally reloaded the page to get back into main screen. So maybe a little text to show what to press maybe...?

Ah, shoot! I had that in an older version of the screen, but when I revised it, I forgot to re-add the text. Fixed! Thanks for letting me know.

However, I think the space of the game was rather slow, at least at the first level. This was slightly boring, though it was fixed in the second level. Actually, I think the curve between the two were rather steep. First there is hardly any enemies and suddenly they flood in. It may be just my incompetence, but maybe decrease the enemy appearing a bit in the second level...?

The reason so many enemies spawn in the second level is so that it isn't as slow as the first, of course. But you might be right; I'll consider tweaking it downward somewhat.

For me atleast it was after dieing in the second level, it felt a chore to replay the slow first one.

Er. You shouldn't ever have to replay levels. After you beat a level, the next one is unlocked to play from the main menu - just press left and right on 'play phase'. If that's not appearing, it's a bug; otherwise, it's something I need to clarify more.

Hope this helps your development

It does! Thanks for the detailed feedback.

[torahhorse]

Heya, neat game you've got. It seems to be progressing well. I played for a bit, found it got really difficult at wave 3 (when tons of bouncy things spawn). I also couldn't quite get a grasp of the directional attacks, and their usefulness wasn't really clear to me.

The last thing, the sound effects were charming for the first few seconds, but I had to turn them off after a bit. It's kinda hard to listen to repeatedly for so long.

Other than that, it's looking good!

[Curseman]

Er. You shouldn't ever have to replay levels. After you beat a level, the next one is unlocked to play from the main menu - just press left and right on 'play phase'. If that's not appearing, it's a bug; otherwise, it's something I need to clarify more.

It's something that needs to be clarified more.  I think the biggest thing is that when you die, if you select the "play again" option, it starts you at the beginning instead of back where you were.  You need to go back to the main menu and then select the level you were on, and that's not going to be clear to most players.

Edit:

I got to wave 8.  I guess it really is an eternal battle.

I've come to the conclusion that while the unlockable abilities are nice, the spin move you start with is the best attack in the game.

[Tumetsu]

It's something that needs to be clarified more.  I think the biggest thing is that when you die, if you select the "play again" option, it starts you at the beginning instead of back where you were.  You need to go back to the main menu and then select the level you were on, and that's not going to be clear to most players.

This. I didnät know that there even were level selection. I just tried again after I died and it started at the beginning. It really needs clarification and perhaps "play again" should restart the current level, not return into first one. I can imagine I would want to quickly try level I failed again without having to wade into menues. Also, I think it is little unintuive too now.

[RotateMe]

I don't know if feedback on that is also appreciated but here's my two bits about the art:

I like the simple look of the levels and your main character very much. I don't like how the crystals displaying health aren't below the scanlines, it somehow seems inconsistent. Also for enemies and crystals I would remove the outlines and make them a little simpler overall so that they fit better to the great style of main character and levels.

As for gameplay, I kind of liked it. It bothered me that the character couldn't move a while after attacking.

[RichMakeGame!]

hi, another guy here who just used the 'w' attack and ignored q and e.

for me, it just seems weird that when I'm facing down the screen, the attack button on the right of my keyboard attacks to the left of my character. It's simpler to ignore the attack and just attack forward. Imo if you're really attached to multiple direction attacks, I'd rather have wasd and attack in the direction I press in screen space. It's too much work figuring out while I'm fending off bad guys that 'ok my character is facing *right, so q, which is on my *left, attacks *upwards. blah, not gonna do it

I think you're better off ditching directional attacks and simplifying your controls though. When you're dealing with hordes of enemies, simple controls are your friend

[PleasingFungus]

Thanks for playing the game! Glad you liked it. More specific responses to your feedback:

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It's something that needs to be clarified more.  I think the biggest thing is that when you die, if you select the "play again" option, it starts you at the beginning instead of back where you were.  You need to go back to the main menu and then select the level you were on, and that's not going to be clear to most players.

This. I didnät know that there even were level selection. I just tried again after I died and it started at the beginning. It really needs clarification and perhaps "play again" should restart the current level, not return into first one. I can imagine I would want to quickly try level I failed again without having to wade into menues. Also, I think it is little unintuive too now.

Ahh, sorry - that was an oversight when I changed the level unlock system to the current version. Hadn't even thought about "play again"... It'll behave as you two suggested now.

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I don't know if feedback on that is also appreciated but here's my two bits about the art:

I like the simple look of the levels and your main character very much. I don't like how the crystals displaying health aren't below the scanlines, it somehow seems inconsistent. Also for enemies and crystals I would remove the outlines and make them a little simpler overall so that they fit better to the great style of main character and levels.

It's a little too late now to redraw the art, unfortunately, but the scanlines are easy to fix. Fixed in the latest version. Thanks for the suggestion!

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hi, another guy here who just used the 'w' attack and ignored q and e.

for me, it just seems weird that when I'm facing down the screen, the attack button on the right of my keyboard attacks to the left of my character. It's simpler to ignore the attack and just attack forward. Imo if you're really attached to multiple direction attacks, I'd rather have wasd and attack in the direction I press in screen space. It's too much work figuring out while I'm fending off bad guys that 'ok my character is facing *right, so q, which is on my *left, attacks *upwards. blah, not gonna do it

I think you're better off ditching directional attacks and simplifying your controls though. When you're dealing with hordes of enemies, simple controls are your friend

YACI got its name from a lament my alpha testers uttered often: "Yet Another Control Implementation!" The one in the game as-released is the sixth or so.

That's a long way of saying: I tried a scheme similar to the one you suggested; it didn't work that well.

It might have been better to ditch the directional attacks entirely, as you suggested. But I think it's too late to change now.

[punking]

The blink is fun to use until there are enemies around.  You can only attack 1.5 units in any direction while the blink moves you 6 units.  This is far enough away that it is effectively the same as a random teleport.  I think that I would feel more comfortable using it, if it moved a shorter distance like 4 units away so that I was still in the same area of influence.

although there are 3 different attack buttons I just choose one and stick with it because they all have the same feel. 
I sidle up near an enemy and then hit the button like I'm erasing wrong answer.

how does the feel of the game change when the enemy pauses twice as long when hit?

[PleasingFungus]

Hello! Thanks for giving the feedback - I'm not still actively developing YACI, but your comments are very solid. The blink and stun ideas in particular - if I revise the game at some point, I'll definitely test those.

The "no reason to use any particular attack" is a common and valid complaint. It's something I struggled with throughout development, but I never really found a solution. I probably should have scrapped the idea, but I was too attached to it. Pity.

Anyway, thanks! I really appreciate it.