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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperPlaytestingSpellspun Demo: arcade fragfest inspired by Smash TV and others
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Author Topic: Spellspun Demo: arcade fragfest inspired by Smash TV and others  (Read 624 times)
SageGoneRogue
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« on: March 19, 2017, 05:44:54 PM »

Hi everyone,

Looking for some feedback for my baby, Spellspun: https://sagegonerogue.itch.io/spellspun
(This is a demo, as we are currently in the middle of development. At the moment, Windows only.)







Spellspun is a tough, story-driven arcade game. You assume the role of Wren, a low-ranking mage struggling to defend the Citadel. There is no side-to-side movement, no dodging: you are rooted to the center of the screen. Your only defense against hordes of monsters are spells taught to you by your companion, Argenstrayd. One little problem: as an incredibly powerful animate artifact who is used to working with only the best mages, Argenstrayd hates your guts...

As you play through the game, the choices that you make as well as your playstyle will shape your relationship with Argenstrayd, and eventually, the entire story. Argenstrayd takes note of many hidden factors, and he is quick to judge you based on them. Can a real friendship be forged between our unlikely heroes?

Spellspun is intended to be a challenging game. We would love to have more feedback regarding the gameplay experience and the difficulty curve. Please help us make Spellspun great! Download the demo, and tell us about your most and least favorite parts of the gameplay experience. Any feedback is welcome, but if there were parts where the game frustrated you, or felt like it wasn't rewarding enough, that's the information that would be most beneficial to our small team.

We are very open to ideas for new spells. If you have an idea for a great spell, please let us know, and you may see it in an upcoming update!

I will take a look at many games in the Playtesting section of the forum as well, but if you want me to take a look at your game specifically, please send me a message and I will do so at the first opportunity. Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to test our game out.  Smiley

Download link: https://sagegonerogue.itch.io/spellspun
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NealWh
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« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2017, 01:41:03 PM »

Played the game for about 15 minutes or so, so far.

Quite enjoyed it as I'm a fan of shmup games generally and being locked in the center of the room is an interesting take on that.

I managed to get through the first level and onto the boss(?) in the second.
I didn't try all the spells just the ones provided from the start which probably made it more challenging but didn't generally seem too bad.  Both times of playing the second level I died from self-inflicted damage I think? (excessive use of spells?) This was a bit frustrating as I didn't find it easy to get a sense of how close I was to reaching the warning levels, being more focused on the center of the screen than the side made it difficult to gauge when to stop using a spell.  Perhaps there could be a cap on how much self-inflicted damage is done before the spell just doesn't work?  (I was also initially a bit confused on the bar on the left hand side, thought it was a progress through the level bar for a while!)
 
My other frustration was with the controls, I guess it's intentional to only use keyboard left and right for aiming? but it felt like I was hampered a lot by that and would have found it a lot easier with mouse aiming(or with gamepad if that option were available).  For example I would see an enemy coming from two points left & right (closest), be closer in aim to shoot the left so take a bit of time to line up that shot then try and spin round in time to hit the right one but he would be at my position by then and cause me to take damage and then might miss the next enemy attacking as well.

I liked the destructible scenery but didn't really pay much attention to what it was giving me and it didn't seem linked to the level end screen choice of spells?

My other minor feedback would be:
- could see enemies popping through on the intro cinematic
- I tried using the mouse on the starting menu, and got it into a situation where it got stuck on an option until I moved the cursor off and back on it again.  Seemed to be from small fast movements of the mouse.
- couldn't really understand how to change the options in the menu and the spell tree at end of level.  Would be good to make the player's selection clearer and perhaps show the keys to press down the bottom.

Looking forward to seeing it develop further!
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SageGoneRogue
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« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2017, 08:26:36 PM »

Hi NealWh,
Thanks for the very thorough feedback, it's greatly appreciated!

The bar on the right displays your equipped spells, and the runes around them will turn warning colors and then display a warning circle when you're near reaching the self-damaging state with that spell. Argenstrayd's sprite in the center field will also display a warning circle. We're trying to think of good ways to make this more obvious, as right now, I think it's a bit too easy for it to be overlooked in the action. I like your idea about capping self-inflicted damage as well.

Mouse aiming is probably something we're going to avoid. We have a lot of spells that hit in interesting patterns or wide areas, and being able to very quickly react with the mouse would make the game too easy once those are learned. Re-balancing everything for mouse would probably require a lot more monsters, and make it less relevant what spells you're throwing out, as long as they're wide-area. Still, interesting thought. (Definitely true that the game can punish you quite a bit if you miss a few shots as the monsters pile up!)

Items that come out of the destructible scenery as well as monsters are used in evolving spells. We definitely need to add a little tutorial that better explains the system for the first time the player is able to see the spell screen...

"- could see enemies popping through on the intro cinematic" If you have a chance, could you send a screenshot of this? It would help tremendously in identifying and squishing the bug.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to write the feedback! Glad you're enjoying the game so far.  Smiley
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NealWh
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« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2017, 12:35:01 AM »

Cool, glad if it helps Smiley

Yea I understood the right bars, just like you say in the action it's easy to overlook and to panic because with enemies that do take multiple hits the concern is more of destroying them than seeing if there's a warning.  Perhaps it improves with familiarity but those who aren't otherwise hooked might not give it too many chances on that front.  I dunno if this kind of thing exists already in the game but perhaps there could be 'powerups' that reduce a given spell's warning level, so there could be a strategic reason to not shoot wildly all the time?

Understood on the aiming.  I'd suggest giving it a quick try just to see how it feels if possible.  I think it would feel more enjoyable and it could be under a separate 'easy' mode where you don't necessarily have to change the balance?  You could also make the turning take time as if pressing the keyboard keys so limiting its benefit but perhaps helping people more comfortable with mouse aiming where 360 degree aim is available?  One further possibility on keyboard which I don't know if you've considered or would work could be to have the down key allow a reasonably quick 180 turn?  I guess like you say it comes down to balancing and what you're aiming for with the game.  There's not any highscore aspect that I could see so I guess the intention is that people will take a while to get through the levels?

With the items shown in levels, yea there isn't really much of a chance to see what you get or appreciate whether it's going to help or not.  Are the items random or fixed or affected by how you are doing per level?  The reason I ask is that that might affect my interest in them, if they are the same each time then I don't have much sense of loss when I die as it doesn't change my progression.  Having just had another go, I did pay more attention to what it said they were and it did mention what type they were clear enough, but like you say could do with more clarity in the spell screen.  For the evolving of spells perhaps the UI could show when you haven't selected a spell which of them can actually be upgraded with the items obtained?

With the enemies popping through on the cinematic I can't repro that now.  I wonder if having the continue option has affected it happening (where does this info get saved out of interest as I can't see any file for it?)?  The enemy type that was visible was the slime type creature and it partly appeared through the upper right half of the screen I think.

One further suggestion while I think of it, what about holding down a spell key doing a autorepeat fire?  It doesn't have to be as effective as hammering the button but after many years of various key mashing games (mostly Blizzard games!) I do tend to prefer games that don't cause me more RSI!



« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 03:55:41 AM by NealWh » Logged

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SageGoneRogue
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« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2017, 10:14:55 AM »

Quote
I dunno if this kind of thing exists already in the game but perhaps there could be 'powerups' that reduce a given spell's warning level, so there could be a strategic reason to not shoot wildly all the time?

We do have some spells made that reduce cooldowns, empower spells of specific elements, etc. Not in the current public build as we're still balancing things, but you can expect to see them soon.  Smiley

Regarding the aiming, we've experimented with a couple of things... Having a "quick turn" key was one of them. Unfortunately it didn't work out so well. Mouse aiming for "easy mode" might be a good idea! That would be a great way to let people who are more interested in the story (or just playing with a bunch of spells) have more access into what is normally the harder content of the game. Really great suggestion!

Regarding items, we have drop rates similar to many games with RPG elements. A destroyed column or baddie might drop one of two or three items, with the rarest one having the least chance to drop. Right now, after you have learned a spell, it will show the item prerequisites for evolving it further... Definitely something for us to fix, because being able to evolve a spell right away could play a big part in whether someone wants to learn it or not.

We'll play with the current build and see if we can get that pesky slime to show up in the cinematic. The auto-fire for spells that don't cause self-damage, like Candleshot, is also a great idea. Thanks again for all of these!
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