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[JGalecki]

Trailer:



Protect your camels as you cross the desert in search of those sweet sweet profits.

Caravana is a 2D platformer with an emphasis on combat and trade management. Battle dangerous creatures by taking on new names to gain new abilities. Discover fantastical cities, trade strange goods, and meet stranger characters as you journey through a fairy-tale world inspired by One Thousand and One Nights.






This game grew out of a Ludum Dare entry. The theme was "start with nothing", so I started with the player character not having a name and everything else kinda grew from there. I'm a strong believer in the punk-DIY ideal, so everything in this game (from the pixel art to the music) is a one-man effort. (There's heavy Spanish influence in the soundtrack, but I'll dodge the question by mumbling something about folk tradition.)

All feedback is welcome, but here are some things in particular I'd like to hear about.
1) Do you feel like there's too much text / exposition at the start?
2) Do you feel that combat "feels" okay? If not, what feels off?
3) Do you feel like combat has enough variety to it?

The game is playable on Windows. Link: https://joshuagalecki.itch.io/caravana-demo

[Gravedust]

Heya. I'm in the middle of playing through your game, (made it just past the Egg Oasis section) but it looks like I won't get to play again before tomorrow evening so I figured I'd leave some quick notes and impressions so far, and I'll add to it when I get a chance later.

So far this seems like a very cool game with some really neat concepts in it. I think you did/are doing a great job with it. I have really enjoyed the writing so far, and while I'm not familiar with the source material you say is inspiring you, the game seems very imaginative and has some interesting and intriguing concepts. I like the looooow rez pixel art. So far I'm really impressed.

To answer your specific questions:
1) No, feels like an adequate amount of exposition to set up the story. And I do like the story.
2)  Will have to reserve consideration till I've played the whole thing. I will say the jump feels a bit wierd. (but on the other hand; it's easy to get around with.) I do REALLY appreciate the incremental way you introduce new mechanics/abilities, though.
3)  Again, I'll have to reserve judgement for now until I see what else there is in store. I will say it definitely feels like combat has been given a lot of thought. (eyeflash out of dodge/roll, etc.)

If there's anything specific you'd like me to look at when I resume playing (hopefully tomorrow evening), please let me know.

[JGalecki]

Thanks for playing! I do have something for you to check out. After the Egg Oasis, you start taking more control of the trade aspect of the game - what goods to buy and sell where. I think I've kept it pretty simple, but let me know if any part of the trade system or UI doesn't make sense or isn't explained very well. I'd appreciate it

[Gravedust]

Okay! Made it to the floating city, and then did a run back to Oasis and then Hagreb(sp?) (and was pleased to see that there's a bit more content in both places) bought a camel, accidentally started off to the wrong place to sell my cargo and then called it a night. I had a good time.

To answer your last question, the trade mechanic is simple and easy to understand. (Which is a relief for me, since I am not a fan overly complicated crafting or trade systems.) The UI is also fine, with the exception that I'm not sure what the circles in the rumor section  are meant to indicate.

Regarding combat... I think the degree to which it succeeds depends on what you are intending. It's definitely not hollow knight, but I don't think that's what you're going for. Combat feels really deliberate; you pick an action and commit to it, and in most cases it seems like you pick correctly you win without taking damage, and if you mess up or come at the situation wrong, you get hit. It definitely punishes button mashing (I'm a button masher. >.>) and rewards understanding how an enemy is going to behave and using your abilities to suit.

I think the variety in combat is just fine, especially since encounters have to be handled differently for each enemy type (or enemy formation).

The only fight I was frustrated with was the boss, and that was because it's motion and attacks seemed a bit to fast and chaotic for me to really know what to do against it initially. I think I died probably 5 or 6 times, and eventually won by via dodge and panic flailing.  But generally, once I got used to the rhythm, I felt like combat played out just fine.

One thing I started doing that you may not have intended was by about the halfway point of the game, I was skipping all the underground sections, as usually my camels would get attacked when I went down there, it seemed like. After losing a few of them I basically just stuck to the road the whole time.

Also I never found much of a need/opportunity to use the roll. (Maybe that's what I was supposed to do in the bossfight, come to think of it...)

But by and large, the experience was a really enjoyable one, I really liked the story as it gradually unfolded, the style was simple but well written. I thought the pixel art for the portraits and location backgrounds were really nice, especially considering the very low pixel counts. (and also, for what it's worth, as a graphic designer, I like the logo. )

But yeah, very entertaining, and well executed. Hope you continue plugging away at this.
If there's anything else you'd like me to look at / sound off about, let me know.

[jbarrios]

JGalecki,

I played your game:

[DarkGran]

Hi. :)

Very nice game! I enjoyed the storytelling, the world is very intriguing (and here I thought I don't like fantasy anymore), and I enjoyed the art as well. Made some notes during the gameplay:

1) The very first star (enemy spawner) was a source of absolute confusion. No idea what it does, I jumped down as the tutorial kinda forced me into it, and during the fight there, my camels were suddenly attacked and one of them died. I realized that it was probably the star that spawned them, so I started again (feeling sorry for the dead camel) and waited by it. The wait felt way too long, and yet I did not notice that the star actually indicates when the spawn is going to occur. I do feel bit ashamed for not noticing and not really having the patience, but it might be nice to at least tell the fresh player that the star is not a buff, not your checkpoint (for some reason, I realized that I must save manually much later in the game), but a threat.

2) Is it possible to save the game and not quit? :)) I like to save all the time. ;)

3) Few bugs concerning saving/loading:
- Saving(+quitting) before the explanation of dodge etc. and loading the level afterwards skips the explanations
- When you accidentaly start a new game, quit without saving, and load the old one, you start at the beginning of the game, but you have your old gems
- Saving=>loading, in general, meant that after the level is finished, it restarts (with the dialog that precedes it). (at least for me ;D)
- This is not a bug, just a suggestion/plead: I can get used to menu being on F key, but I did have a tendency to press Escape - which quits the game without saving. Save please. ;D

4) Other unimportant details:
- In a dialog after leaving for FIslands, there's a "theif" instead of "thief" :P
- I think the camel-symbols on top of the screen are vice versa (left symbol blinks when the right camel is attacked).
- Would be nice if camels did not follow so closely - sometimes it seems like they just want to get in on the action. ;D
- I think I got the bugged bossfight (reading Gravedust's feedback): once it started, the boss jumped me and I was inside the boss, unable to roll or anything, just smash attack. I received a little damage and absolutely destroyed the boss.
- I really like the art with 2 exceptions: in the mountain scene that precedes the FIslands, the mountains are triangles like pyramids, while in the level background afterwards they actually look nice and mountain-like - I suggest reworking that one screen. ;) The second thing is that I could imagine prettier trade UI (even if it was just some "texture"), but that's really just a detail.

Do you feel like there's too much text / exposition at the start?

I think it certainly wasn't too much, I actually read your question beforehand and it made me expect much more. Then again, you saw my game and probably some of my posts around here too - clearly there is never too much text for me. ;D (or at least sometimes it might seem like it)

After the Egg Oasis, you start taking more control of the trade aspect of the game - what goods to buy and sell where. I think I've kept it pretty simple, but let me know if any part of the trade system or UI doesn't make sense or isn't explained very well.

I was (again ;D) absolutely confused at first: the UI itself is fine and let's say sufficiently clear (the rumours I had to think about), but when I first came there (and as I later found out, everytime you come to a city), I was not sure what I am supposed to press (btw tried mouse at first for some reason), so I pressed down or left, that seemed to create blue arrows (on my second visit these were red arrows) on resources in cities, and honestly I still don't know what exactly is happening there. Afterwards I just came there, pressing basically any wasd until it started picking choices from the UI - my working theory is that it does not matter what I press, and I'm just supposed to read what is happening, but I don't really know. ;)
(if that is the case, I'd consider restricting the first few "steps" to spacebar, and put "press spacebar to continue" in the dialog window at the bottom)
Otherwise I liked it!

Do you feel that combat "feels" okay? If not, what feels off? Do you feel like combat has enough variety to it?

To me, the base combat is more than okay, but I certainly would not stop here. I do like it though: After finishing the level after the Egg Oasis, I realized the potential you got here, and I just felt like restarting the game on hard difficulty immediately. ;D (btw the games I like, I always play on the hardest difficulty ;))
Some notes solely on combat:
- I would find it practical to be able to change the direction I'm facing after attacks (or even in-between, as in "the combo goes on"); after all I can dodge after a succesful one, and I can turn after dodging (no matter if I dodge anything)
- Crouch would be so cool... maybe even some stealth mechanics?
- Destructible objects! With 1% chance of dropping a gem. ;D
- Did not dodge at all (after experimenting with it a bit): roll seemed much more effective (allowing backstabs and cool bow finish-offs; also dodge seems a little bit slow, meanwhile it seems you can never fail a roll). You might want to consider adding some extra mechanics to dodge (for example riposte/counter attack: extra dmg with attack after actually dodging something).
- I really like the bow but I would move the X key to right shift/ctrl: so left hand does all the movement, and right hand does all the attacks. (btw if it's possible to change the controls, I did not notice, although now I realize that I did not really look...)
- Roll after shooting bow might be cool (maybe after arrow hit? close-hits only? just an idea).
- Now this is a suggestion that I understand may not fit you, as it might turn the game into something you don't want it to be, take it as "just an idea": another melee attack key. Be it 'kick' or a secondary weapon (may be bound to a fresh name), the main point would be you could add more 'combos' and raise the combat variety greatly; does not have to be many combos (no need to turn it into an Marvel vs DC Arcade Smashfest).


Nice job! I'd like to see more (add just a little bit more combat variety and PvP arena and I'm hooked). :) Good luck!

[JGalecki]

Thanks to both for playing! The feedback is appreciated.

To jabrrios: The video and running commentary is extremely helpful. I've caught several things that need fixing just by watching your initial playthrough. (For instance, I noted that one level randomly generated three "flat desert" rooms in a row. Not a lot of variety

To DarkGran: The whole saving and loading system needs to be reworked. Right now, the game autosaves (although I don't tell the player...) every time after a city is reached. It would be better to save after every level, maybe including what tutorials have been learned. The point about the escape key quitting without saving is well-noted.

The stars occasionally spawn enemies to harass the caravan, but they are definitely too mysterious - you won't realize what they do if you don't see the spawning happening. I'm going to fix the whole thing so that when a player enters a side path, enemies won't spawn until a set amount of "exploration time" passes. A timer will display this to the player. I want to balance the risk of caravan attack vs the reward of exploration to keep tension high. I also like jbarrios's suggestion of forcing that separation for progression - scale the walls and open the gates to keep going. I think the 'protect the caravan' aspect is one of the unique things about the game, so I'm tossing around ideas to make that front and center.

Thanks again! :D