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[Vallar]

Hey guys,

I have been keeping a devlog here for sometime about the game. However, I reached a fork in the road where I have to determine which type of mechanics to go through with in the future. That is why I thought your invaluable feedback should be the most important factor in deciding.

A little background:

Castle Mashers is a 2D action, arcade game that blends Breakout with RPG mechanics. You play a knight storming a castle saving a princess from the clutches of an evil dragon rumored to have kidnapped her. Armed with your magical flail and spikey ball, you fight hordes of fantasy-themed evil creatures in a satirical setting.

Help and feedback:

I have been working on two different types of gameplay (although the second is rougher than the first due to time constraints) and I would like to know which you think is more fun and why.

• The game plays like a normal breakout game; ball being thrown that hits enemies. Enemies have HP that is reduced whenever the ball collides with them. You get XP every time you kill an enemy and you get points for upgrades when you level up. There are special attacks that you preform when you have sufficient mana. GIF:
  
• The game is slightly different from breakout. You have top row (enemies) and bottom row (player). Player is free to move up and down (but restricted to the bottom section of the screen) as well as left and right. You throw the ball at the enemies which goes through them damaging them. But the ball has X amount of "collisions" before it is destroyed. Also you get X amount of balls before you have to wait to recharge them. Note I am using currently a ball sprite because I don't have any other but the plan in this mechanic that the ball sprite would be replaced with a spear or a javelin and if it touches the player it damages them.
  
  GIF:
  

But I understand that GIFs aren't enough to judge and give feedback so here are the prototypes of the first gameplay:
Windows prototype and Mac

The second gameplay prototypes are here:
Windows version
Mac version

Thank you very much in advance for your help and time!

[Alec S.]

Just played a bit of the build.

- I like the art
- There only seems to be a sound effect when the ball bounces against a wall.
- There should be some indication on the ball how many more hits it will take before breaking, and there should be an effect when the ball is destroyed.
- The ball seemed to slow down some times, and it was already pretty slow to begin with.
- The effect when you hit enemies is really nice looking (although, again, it needs a sound effect)
- The ball slowed down to a complete stop at one point, and it got stuck below where the paddle is, so I wasn't able to reach it.
- Where you hit the ball on the paddle have an influence on what direction the ball bounces.

[Vallar]

Thanks a lot for trying out the game.

- I like the art

Thank you very much, I'll relay to my partner these kind words .

There only seems to be a sound effect when the ball bounces against a wall.

At the moment only 1 sound is activated in the game and we are currently working on the rest.

The ball seemed to slow down some times, and it was already pretty slow to begin with.
- The effect when you hit enemies is really nice looking (although, again, it needs a sound effect)
- The ball slowed down to a complete stop at one point, and it got stuck below where the paddle is, so I wasn't able to reach it.
- Where you hit the ball on the paddle have an influence on what direction the ball bounces.

There are quite some bugs with the game at the moment. I am unsure if you are experiencing this with both types of gameplay or only one. However, we managed to change the gameplay quite a bit from these two builds and heading into a more unified direction that incorporates the good from both worlds.

Hopefully we'd have a new build out with better gameplay .

Again, thanks a lot for your feedback, it definitely helps.