Awesome feedback, thanks quantumpotato!
I'll try to comment on some of your negative feedback.
Disappointments: Where's omni-directional airdashing? I came in hoping I could airdash like a madman after grapple hooks, but no dice.. it's limited to set pieces. I think you would get a lot more value out if you let players do their own airdashes from the air. Swing the mouse to curve them if you want that curve around the corner effect. Still very mobile but I felt limited when I came in -- the first thing I tried was jumping and mashing the airdash button
Plus it would make me feel like I'm solving your levels not just following the path.. it would let speedrunners compete by just not knowing if there was a faster air-dash path out there.
I prototyped a lot regarding this, including omni-directional airdashing (i.e. ability to dash anywhere). But this was a
nightmare regarding level design. Players were able to get anywhere they wanted, often circumventing puzzles/traps/obstacles I placed in the level. I was spending most of my time having to think about where players could go and restricting them when necessary. Then I experimented with things like refilling dash-meters and the like, but nothing great came out of it.
I wish I could allow players to dash whenever they want, it would give much more agency... but also destroy the game.
Where I stand now is: dashing is the "discrete" motion, hooking/roping is the continuous motion. When a player dashes through a dash-point, I know exactly where they will be afterwards. This allows me to craft levels much more carefully. Hooking on the other side is very wild: players can do all kinds of things with that mechanic that can get them to different places.
I like the air-dash into enemy mechanic - that's cool.
Thanks!
"Combo" bonus for hitting the 3 dashes around the triangle feels like a distracting minigame.. I recommend combining combo with your achievements so that your combo increases each time you hit a new grapple point that you haven't touched before and ends if you touch the ground. I want to make 20 sick moves in a row and have the game acknowledge that, not just acknowledge my skill of triple-tapping my mouse button to aird ash for a Combo-3.
Yeah, the combo system is still lackluster (as well as the triangle minigame-like obstacle you mentioned). What IS actually in the game (and I like) is that the combo only end once you land on ground. So as long as you stay in the air via dashing and hooking, your combo stays. But currently, only air-dashing through an enemy increases the combo. This works in parts where there are multiple enemies in reachable proximity, but doesn't make as much sense in the example you gave. The idea with additional elements (hook- and dash-points) giving combo increases is really good though, I will think about that!
The UI was a bit to figure out - having to rotate the planet
Level select/planet screen is very much WIP
there's a couple grapple points below the starting ledge in water that made me think there's a secret but nope -- a more novice player could feel stuck there.
That's a very interesting topic. Like you, quite a few playtesters reported that they were looking for secrets and were disappointed that there are none. The problem/fear I have with adding secrets in the classical sense is that once a player finds one, they will start playing the game much differently: they would probably go left first, dive into the water and swim to the edge of the map every time they can. This would make for a very boring experience IMHO. Also, they would play the levels much more slowly, looking for a secret, when I want them to move quickly.
My current plan is this: have "secrets" pop up in already beaten levels. After a player beats a certain level, he/she gets notified that a secret has popped up in level XY. The player may decide to go back to XY and look for it then. Once the concept is established, I hope that players don't go searching for secrets on their first play of a level, but only when being told "Hey, there's something hidden there, maybe go find it?". I'd probably not even make the secret visible beforehand. This hopefully solves the problem of always looking for secrets AND gives level replayability... in theory at least
Listing Airdashing in the controls -- if you go with the current mechanic it would make more sense to call it "Homing Attack" so I know to use it at enemies & in special contexts.
Good idea, will do!
Ok, that's everything negative I've got for you. Positive - this game is a lot of fun and is pretty close to what I was hoping for from the trailers. Fantastic work! I would pay $ for this, definitely.
Thanks a lot for playing and your encouraging words. I really hope to sell this game at some point, so telling me you'd pay money for this is
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