Here some constructive feedback

[OldManSkills]

Pros.
-music is very good
-good visuals for the most part and i dig the DA. the only one assets i didnt really liked was the purple electric walls.
-tight controls.
-good pacing
-very good retro feel.

Cons and my suggestions.
-the attack whip doesnt follow the rules all the time example you can destroy crouching soldiers projectile with regular attacks and you cant example with the first boss on your boat in fact most of the enemies you cant.
-the intro on the boat boss feels unfair its very hard to dodge his fire rain attack and his arms blocks almost all angles while shooting at him hes not hard to defeat but just feels unfair damage that you have to take before starting the level.
-the boat mini gun angles need to be adjusted for lower right diagonals cause sometimes the very first enemy that spawns goes in that off angle and you cant shoot him so you are forced to get of from the turret and it feels unnatural.
-the hook mechanic doesnt make much sense, you barely have to use it only to reach platforms and sometimes you feel the hook should work to reach buildings or gaps but it doesnt also it would be nice to be able to use it between enemies or to hook towards them.it feels more like a gimmick than a real cool tool.
-the difficulty is alright but feel unfair compare to games like hollow knight and shovel knight where you get hit its because you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in this game you get hit cause you have to remember every single spawn timings and shooting timings from the enemies. Example the flying enemie with a jet pack need to have his shooting timing a bit more delayed cause during the helicopter set piece it feels very unfair.

sorry for all those information but i really dig your game and i hope it succeed.

[Daikatan]

minigun has angles..?

[OldManSkills]

Originally posted by Daikatan:

minigun has angles..?

yes you can aim down,up,diagonals etc... but not down right diagonals.

[Daikatan]

Ok i tried again and left/right do some rotations now.

So, any tips for first boss? :p

[blade]

-the attack whip doesnt follow the rules all the time example you can destroy crouching soldiers projectile with regular attacks and you cant example with the first boss on your boat in fact most of the enemies you cant.

What exactly is the issue with this? You just need to learn where it works.

-the intro on the boat boss feels unfair its very hard to dodge his fire rain attack and his arms blocks almost all angles while shooting at him hes not hard to defeat but just feels unfair damage that you have to take before starting the level.

You can kill him before he fires anything.

-the boat mini gun angles need to be adjusted for lower right diagonals cause sometimes the very first enemy that spawns goes in that off angle and you cant shoot him so you are forced to get of from the turret and it feels unnatural.

Use the whip?

-the hook mechanic doesnt make much sense, you barely have to use it only to reach platforms and sometimes you feel the hook should work to reach buildings or gaps but it doesnt also it would be nice to be able to use it between enemies or to hook towards them.it feels more like a gimmick than a real cool tool.

It's for platforming. You can also use it for tight dodges, it lets you float for half a second.

-the difficulty is alright but feel unfair compare to games like hollow knight and shovel knight where you get hit its because you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in this game you get hit cause you have to remember every single spawn timings and shooting timings from the enemies. Example the flying enemie with a jet pack need to have his shooting timing a bit more delayed cause during the helicopter set piece it feels very unfair.

Just learn the timings? Why is this a bad thing? They will have easier modes on release.

[OldManSkills]

Originally posted by Beat Volgarr, You Cowards:

-the attack whip doesnt follow the rules all the time example you can destroy crouching soldiers projectile with regular attacks and you cant example with the first boss on your boat in fact most of the enemies you cant.

What exactly is the issue with this? You just need to learn where it works.

-the intro on the boat boss feels unfair its very hard to dodge his fire rain attack and his arms blocks almost all angles while shooting at him hes not hard to defeat but just feels unfair damage that you have to take before starting the level.

You can kill him before he fires anything.

-the boat mini gun angles need to be adjusted for lower right diagonals cause sometimes the very first enemy that spawns goes in that off angle and you cant shoot him so you are forced to get of from the turret and it feels unnatural.

Use the whip?

-the hook mechanic doesnt make much sense, you barely have to use it only to reach platforms and sometimes you feel the hook should work to reach buildings or gaps but it doesnt also it would be nice to be able to use it between enemies or to hook towards them.it feels more like a gimmick than a real cool tool.

It's for platforming. You can also use it for tight dodges, it lets you float for half a second.

-the difficulty is alright but feel unfair compare to games like hollow knight and shovel knight where you get hit its because you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in this game you get hit cause you have to remember every single spawn timings and shooting timings from the enemies. Example the flying enemie with a jet pack need to have his shooting timing a bit more delayed cause during the helicopter set piece it feels very unfair.

Just learn the timings? Why is this a bad thing? They will have easier modes on release.

you clearly think you are some god or something and think i dont know about the TIPS* you gaved me. you clearly didnt read the whole thing and i wont explain to you again.

if you like that type of gameplay of having to remember every single spawn by hearth and replay the same stage over and over untill you know every single timing to not get hit conce good for you man.

[Retro]

Mini gun just wasn't working for me i wanted to use the joysticks but i get it with dpad for the retro ness

[Valsung]

wasn't aware that you could successfully damage the first boss with the turret weapon. I would just expend all the ammo on the jetpack joyriders prior to the boss so it wouldn't get in the way. not only is that bullet hell segment doable on its own -- just look for empty tracts of space; or if you get really acclimated to that section, you can somewhat manipulate the vector of the bullets, and make dodging stupid simple slide dodging into giant clear holes surrounded by the bullet patterns. this is all moot anyways as you can almost instantly kill the boss before he can even execute his bullet hell technique (even without damage boosting).

not all bullets are destructible, and this is usually noted by the appearance of the bullet. the first boss for instance, has destructible bullets, just not during the bullet hell segment. the shotgun spread he does when slamming down has destructible bullets. I prefer Carusso's implementation of selected bullets being destructible as opposed to having some asinine form of 'consistency'.

Shovel Knight sucks (and I'm sure Hollow Knight does as well, haven't nor plan on playing it). Besides, S&H/K are different genres to Steel Assault. The latter is an arcade style action/platformer game; where the former two are CONSOLE style arcade/platformer games. There is a place for both subgenres - although the two games you used as examples are utter garbage - but complaining about the need for mastery of a levels layout shows that you need something far more casual to SA (which isn't even all that difficult). Play Klonoa/Kirby or sumthin, and pretend you're an expert at the same genre this game resides in.

[SriK]

Thanks for the feedback. We're working to improve platform visibility (so it's more clear what you can grapple onto) and to distinguish more clearly between cancellable vs. non-cancellable bullets. The game shouldn't be hard only because you can't see what's going on!

P.S. Hollow Knight is honestly a very charming game. Haven't met a Metroidvania I've liked since I was 10 and a game about some dumb looking bugs manages to win me over. Need to play more of it!

[D-Burgundy]

I'll try and provide some tips for the onlookers. I started the game in Arcade mode and have not touched Normal mode and I don't know what the differences are, but I should be able to help a bit. I mainly played the game at 1.5 times the game speed and playing normally feels like slow-motion.

Originally posted by OldManSkills:

-the attack whip doesnt follow the rules all the time example you can destroy crouching soldiers projectile with regular attacks and you cant example with the first boss on your boat in fact most of the enemies you cant.

The whip doesn't need to follow the same rules all of the time though. Plenty of platformers and other action games have priority systems for projectiles.

The first boss has two types of projectiles. There is a bullet hell type red projectile that you have to dodge and a more plasma/blue green colored one you can destroy with your whip.

For the red projectiles I generally just run forward (right) and onto the main platform/deck of the boat and use the crouch dash (it has invincibility frames) and crouch walk to make micro-adjustments to avoid the projectiles. I usually end up on the opposite side of the screen when I'm done dodging them. By this point the boss will have set themselves up for some free licks sitting on the platform where the turret would be before it repeats its whole cycle again.

I don't have a video for you unfortunately, but I could probably make a short clip as it is really easy once you get the feel of it.

Originally posted by OldManSkills:

-the intro on the boat boss feels unfair its very hard to dodge his fire rain attack and his arms blocks almost all angles while shooting at him hes not hard to defeat but just feels unfair damage that you have to take before starting the level.

Outside of the previous tips on the fire rain move, as soon as the boss first appears you can attack it at a 2 o'clock angle while moving backwards and forward to doge the arm punch attacks. After that, it's going to move to hover above the platform with the cannon in which case you can still jump and attack it from a diagonal and directly above you.

Also, if you ever need to get off the turret quickly to evade/reposition just slide.

Originally posted by OldManSkills:

-the boat mini gun angles need to be adjusted for lower right diagonals cause sometimes the very first enemy that spawns goes in that off angle and you cant shoot him so you are forced to get of from the turret and it feels unnatural.

The turret is fine as is. You can kill all of the enemies without it. I've only recently discovered that the normal mode turret has infinite ammo and can be used against the boss (last I played Arcade mode and the turret did nothing so I always got rid of it as quick as possible), but since I play on arcade mode I usually just kill the first three jetpack enemies, jump on the turret (it has limited ammo) and kill off the enemies that drop the red guys, and after the turret runs out of ammo, I just jump off and kill the yellow jetpack guys that are common throughout the 2nd part of the level.

Once the boss comes, I follow the previously mentioned patterns (hit it at an angle soon as it arrives while dodging, then

Originally posted by OldManSkills:

-the hook mechanic doesnt make much sense, you barely have to use it only to reach platforms and sometimes you feel the hook should work to reach buildings or gaps but it doesnt also it would be nice to be able to use it between enemies or to hook towards them.it feels more like a gimmick than a real cool tool.

The hook is for mobility and while we only have one stage that displays its use, the second part of the stage provides a decent amount of opportunities to use it.

I do agree that it'd be pretty kickass to latch it onto an enemy for mobility and or just another attack option. Outside of hooking on to platforms, it lets you float a little in mid-air when it doesn't hit anything.

Originally posted by OldManSkills:

-the difficulty is alright but feel unfair compare to games like hollow knight and shovel knight where you get hit its because you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in this game you get hit cause you have to remember every single spawn timings and shooting timings from the enemies. Example the flying enemie with a jet pack need to have his shooting timing a bit more delayed cause during the helicopter set piece it feels very unfair.
.

The game is very fair in my opinion based off what it presents itself as. You get hit in this game because you mess up too unless there is some bug/glitch you'd like to report (if you're reading this dev, I use the hook to attach to the top part of the boat and can fall through the floor when jumping off).

The game speed is slow enough for you to be able to react to the situations you come across and make the right move. If you were playing at 1.5x speed like I do, area 3 after you get off the airship has a section with a ton of enemies where you have to take down a ton of bikers and drop kick dudes with all sorts of chaos that ensues if you don't kill them quickly. The input requirement at that speed is ridiculous but possible, but normal speed makes it feel like they give you an hour to deal with each one.

You don't have to remember every spawn point even though memory does help in any game.

I can't speak on Hollow Knight as I have no interest in that game, but Shovel Knight is a very different style of platformer when it comes to level design. Steel Assault is more upbeat with a lot more going on, fewer breaks in-between segments, respawning enemy waves, enemies being more active/agressive and having to be quick on your feet/moving around while surveying the section at the same time.

Shovel Knight, and many other platformers similar to its type have a more leisurely pace where you can take your time in more of the segments and see how you want to approach.

I like Gunstar Heroes (arcade style) and I like Mario Bros 3 (console style), but they are significantly different types of games as a whole.

Hopefully the dev will have an easier mode for newcomers as I feel your average player tends to give arcade style games horrible reviews because some players want to play without learning the tools they're given, assessing situations, or being afraid to fail and lash out by calling everything cheap because they don't understand something.

I love a good challenge myself, but everyone sees fun, a good challenge, good design, and enjoyable in different ways. I hope the final product is better for you and as many folks as possible.

Steel Assault looks like it may be another classic for me.

[Valsung]

Originally posted by author:

I like Gunstar Heroes (arcade style) and I like Mario Bros 3 (console style), but they are significantly different types of games as a whole.

I would argue that Gunstar Heroes is a console style game as well (one of the best), but I can see where you're coming from.