excellent demo, jimpo! i enjoyed every bit of it, and can now see its full potential (almost
with more tilesets, etc, it can only get better!).
Quote: "Is the game insanely hard?"
not at all. in fact, i'm wondering if you're considering difficulty levels. ie, easy/hard/too hard
more on this later.
Quote: "Any bugs or low fps?"
high 300's throughout, and 1
possible bug:
while battling a not-so-bumbling bee, i maneuvered him into a corner and then whacked him, mightily, into the trees. it was only 1 tile deep so we were still able to exchange unpleasantries (i was feeding on the blood, voraciously, and, therefor, didn't think to see if he would make his way out or just sit there, whimpering, knowing his Time was at hand!). but, it made me wonder what potential negative(s) might come from this feature(?). maybe it would be better if we simply swapped positions in this scenario?
more feedback:
>> i would appreciate audible/visible communication when picking up gold and eating food. a simple "Cha-ching!" and "Gulp!" would be sufficient.
you probably have this planned already, but it's worth mentioning.
>> after vanquishing enemies, when chests spawn they sometimes do so on top of food/gold/items left laying on the ground (i found myself saving food for when i needed it instead of gobbling it up instantly). is it possible to check if the space is occupied before spawning a chest and, instead, have it spawn next to it instead of on top? was i losing the item below the new one?
>> it became apparent early on that the environment (tiled/collision design) would play heavily into combat. monsters were easily "trapped" around corners while i was free to wander off and find something easier to fight, find food and heal, etc. this took away from some of the (potentially) tougher battles. by grouping them up, timing their not-so-random attack sequences, and charging in and out, i was able to easily vanquish the hordes. this kinda thing (using/exploiting the envornment) is something you see plenty of in this/similar game genres. to counter potential ills here, how about allowing (atleast some) monster attacks (maybe "magic" ones vs "physical" ones) to travel through trees, walls, or just some types of obstacles? i'm happy to see the enviornment be useful and factor into battle sequences (ie, it will play heavily in level design aspects) but i'd also like "tough" battles to remain tough. maybe a little more complex path-finding/ai would help a lot, too.
>> more on combat and difficulty: my character (first one so far) is a paladin (Burke. "Destroyer of All That Can Die (and then some)!", to friends
now lvl 6.) with ~300 kills, and 3 deaths that could have all been avoided using the method mentioned above. i had completely forgotten about the special attacks until ~lvl 5 so never healed, etc.. by "grouping enemies, charging in and dealing a heavy blow, then back out. repeat." tactics, i found it pretty easy. the knock-back, which appears to stun enemies and stop their attacks, was easy to utilize over and over. and, i don't know if it was the fact i was already lvl 5 or 6 but once i got the Ball & Chain, it was even easier.
>> that reminds me of another possible bug. the Poison Ivy sword did ~ 30 damage on normal attack and roughly
half that on the "heavy" attack. all the other weapons i'd used did about double damage on the heavy attack. i dunno if that was a conscious choice on the poison ivy since it had potential poison benefit but i don't think the monsters lived long enough for the poison to help me anyway.
>> in the "appearance" inventories, i would like to see something like: "Displaying Clothing Items 1-18", or a briefer "7-24 of 120" as we scroll through so many options. something along those lines to help keep track of where we are. you have done this kinda thing in the inventory pages, and the menus, otherwise, are well done given the limited screen area you're working with.
>> i would appreciate a "confirm on exit" prompt. using the escape key to back out of menus, etc, it's easy to get lost on how deep i was in a menu and accidentally quit the game a few times.
>> an F1 "help" window/overlay would be nice.
this demo was pretty well polished and i'm impressed with how smooth things ran and the attention to detail. you've really thought things through, and it shows. i decided to give you some thorough feedback here instead of a simple "it's great!", and it is, so i hope the nit-picking doesn't make you think otherwise
Virtual Nomad @ California, USA
AMD Phenom™ X4 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4 GHz . 8 GB PC2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 3650 @ 512 MB . Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
