Amount of content?

[Pickle Bath]

I enjoyed the demo and thought "this will be a great game when they add more and it comes out"...and now it's out, and from the screenshots and store desc I worry there's not much more beyond the demo and initial concept. Any level variety? Do runs feel same? I'm tempted to pick it up but think once the "wow" fun and uniqueness of the mechanics and movement wears off it'll feel repetitive and shallow

[BlackjackGT]

Just refund it if it's not your cup of tea,that's what the Steam refund policy is for. :) I guess my refunds have been more over frustrating difficulty most of the time.

For my part, the demo and my middle eyeballs did NOT get along, and I'll probably take a pass on it for that reason. The game just literally felt TOO fast, and I couldn't keep up visually with what happens on screen. I couldn't "process" what was happening fast enough to be able to react to what's happening on screen.

I message with the lead designer (I think?) on Twitter/X now and then, I'll remind him to see if he could answer some questions here on Steam forum in case that's helpful.

[BlackjackGT]

I posted in the game's Twitter/X feed to see if I could encourage them to check the forums here and try to address some questions.

[Tyrian Mollusk]

For these questions, opinions from people with more than two hours can be a lot more helpful than burning your refund window. Refund windows and roguelites don't exactly get along great, since they tend to backload so much.

Of course, we'll have to wait for the game to be out more than two hours, but we've also got streams to watch to see the game getting played.

Re: Blackjack's old eyes: Did you try the game on controller any? I'd expect mouse requires a lot of matching eye precision/tracking, but at least on controller, the demo had massive aim assist and doesn't require your eyes track everything as carefully, so you might be able to zone out a bit and still enjoy playing.

[Pretentieux]

If I was selling a game on Steam I would not be hanging out over on Twitter instead. You wouldn't need to remind me to be present in the marketplace I am serving. What is going on with this project? Very weird behavior.

[♫RL]

Originally posted by Pretentieux:

If I was selling a game on Steam I would not be hanging out over on Twitter instead. You wouldn't need to remind me to be present in the marketplace I am serving. What is going on with this project? Very weird behavior.

This is pretty normal tbh. Most devs hang out on discord/twitter as there's more activity there or questions being asked. Very rarely do you see them answering on steam forums.
Only real time steam forums get active is when people are going after each others throats over nothing.

[Zanaki]

Originally posted by Pretentieux:

If I was selling a game on Steam I would not be hanging out over on Twitter instead. You wouldn't need to remind me to be present in the marketplace I am serving. What is going on with this project? Very weird behavior.

My guy that's just how it is, with any game, give it time lol

[Pretentieux]

No I completely agree this is typical. I still find it very weird. Discord is not the marketplace where the game is being sold. It's like if I go into a store to ask a question and they ignore me. Then some customers tell me oh you have to go across the street to figure that out.

It makes no sense and is bad for business because people who use the search function will just find people asking questions and not being answered.

[Tyrian Mollusk]

Yeah, hardly unusual to expect a Steam developer to pay attention to their Steam customers in their Steam forum, especially after using Steam NextFest to garner interest and feedback.

When devs prioritize pulling us into dumps like discord and twitter, it comes across as can't be bothered to care about their customers, and lacking basic business sense in running their project. None of that's a good look for game launch, where you know eyes are especially critical.

BTW, another thread talking about content with more play information: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2008510/discussions/0/4137186960650896996/

[Hanamigi]

Having finished the game in the first two difficulties (on gamepass) I found it quite nice.

There is a total of 4 "worlds" and bosses, but mechanics are added with progression (e.g. enemies that must be bashed with the ball before they can be damaged).

Also many weapons, abilities and perks.

I am liking it! Takes a moment to get used to the controls, I suggest a controller.

[Pickle Bath]

Thanks for the info, sounds like it's got more than I expected from the store.

I agree Discord and Twitter are awful ways to communicate. To follow all my games and having to join 50+ Discord servers to trawl through useless messages to find anything useful is ridiculous.

Also re: buy and refund, it's hard to tell a ton about a roguelite in 2 hours, especially when I already played the demo and am more focused and wondering on longevity.

[Slaktus]

Hey, dev here. Longevity of Go Mecha Ball depends a lot on what you're looking for in a game. It's not terribly grindy, so you'll unlock most of the weapons, abilities and upgrades in the first few hours of play. The real endgame is getting real good at the game to enjoy it The Way It's Meant To Be Played. In that sense, it's more like a spectacle brawler (think Devil May Cry, Revengeance, Bayonetta) than a roguelike (Hades, for example).

It's got five difficulty levels that gradually layer in more and more challenge that makes the game harder and harder to master, and the highest difficulty is a lot more punishing and requires much more intricate play than the starting difficulty from the demo.

As for amount of level content, there are four different worlds, each of which have 8 different levels, and each of those 8 different levels have multiple configurations. That's 32 different levels, each of which have multiple different layout combinations.

25+ weapons, 50+ upgrades and 20+ abilities. Lots of different builds are possible. Loads of level configurations. 4 difficulties. Once you've played a few runs and unlocked a bit of content, you'll see a fair bit of variation.

Is it varied enough for you? Depends on what you really want. Do you want to master the game and learn how to feel really cool and sustain high combos and pull off weird ass tricks during super-high-speed play? I think you'll be satisfied!

As for devs keeping to Twitter and Discord ... it's a bit of a question of ergonomics. Both Discord and Twitter are really nice and easy to use, with very flowing conversations. It's easy to feel like you're talking to people and not writing them letters, in a way.

Forums like this one feel a bit formal, the ergonomics aren't great and blah-blah. That's no excuse for not engaging with the community here, though! I've been terribly busy for the last couple of days fixing bugs, talking to players and figuring out what's stopping people having fun, and there has been a LOT of activity on our Discord, where we also do our internal team comms.

So yeah, it's really a matter of habit and convenience. I'm gonna do my best to keep on top of the Steam forums from here on out.

[Pretentieux]

Really appreciate the thoughtful response! Looking forward to the game!

[Hanamigi]

OT: in my case I prefer forums specifically bcs it is like writing letters. You can see who said what and when (even going back years), open them when you have time to ponder an answer, and ignore lots of noise. All things very hard to do on chat-like platforms.