Feedback on the Demo

[Azuris]

I’ve never played a demo for this long – the game has incredible potential! My focus here is on things that felt off, but this isn’t meant as pure criticism.

I played through it twice on Mere Human and Demigod.

Positives
The hero feels amazing, and the sword upgrades have real power.

The gameplay has a strong foundation, and I’m excited to see how it develops further.

Suggestions for Improvement
Skill Balance & Weapon Upgrades

While sword upgrades feel impactful, many skills feel almost useless.

Bow and magic would be much more interesting if they could also be upgraded to level 10, allowing players to specialize in a class.

Aiming and shooting with the bow takes too long. Even though it's useful against flying enemies, the slow draw time and low damage make it ineffective.

The same applies to magic, which feels weak compared to the sword.

Building & Defense

Spikes are more of an obstacle than a help. They also seem to cause crashes, as NPCs can already be injured by them in the build menu.

Taking damage from your own spikes is fine, but AI workers keep committing suicide on them.

Cannon doors sometimes blow themselves up. A realistic rotation radius should be visible when placing them to prevent them from shooting into friendly walls.

Towers could have a target priority system to focus on stronger enemies instead of weaker mobs.

Terraforming & Build Time

Shovel-based terraforming could be improved to avoid placing blocks one by one. It should allow for smoother leveling or digging trenches.

More build time without time pressure would be nice. Maybe a game mode where you can build for longer but earn less money?

Tutorial & Exploits

The tutorial can be exploited: During the combat training or before farm building, time is paused. This allows players to gather resources, set up NPC farming, and earn money by digging.

If overused, the game can get stuck, preventing further progress.

There is only one save point between the farm and combat tutorial, which can be problematic.

Conclusion
The game has a great foundation, and I’m really excited to see what changes come before release! Improving skill balance, better building controls, and clearer AI interaction would make the experience even better.

[Twin Earthling]

Hey Azuris, thank you SO much for taking the time to write down all that feedback. It's feedback like this alone that made it worth releasing the demo because after working on a game for nearly 3 years you can get a bit myopic and are not that sure anymore which things are important to fresh players!

General:

A few things we can improve right away, namely the bow draw speed and damage. Draw speed improved with higher levels, but it still seems to slow.

Regarding the magic and arrow: Would you make them mutually exclusive, so that you have to pick a class and can't max both? Or just increase the levels of both so that it becomes harder to unlock them all?

For the spikes we're rolling out a fix this week that should take care of this. But you're right, they are more temporary obstacles, also because they take damage when doing damage. The metal spikes on the other hand don't take damage and also allow your minions to pass, so they are a clear upgrade.

We will roll out an update for the target priorites of towers that should improve their aiming decisions, but we'd love to offer more fine-grained control later :-)


Building:
The early access release will have a creative mode that allows you to take as much time as you want before calling a wave. You might still need to call a wave because that's the main source of gold, but it's up to you when you feel ready.

Tutorial:
That's one lesson from the demo, people found various ways to exploit the demo :-) In the early access release we'll load the level fresh after the demo so that you can't exploit anything.


If you have any other suggestions let us know! We also have an active Discord community where we discuss new features and track progress. Feel free to join if you want to suggest more ideas! https://discord.com/invite/jes7b7b625

All the best,
Jonathan

[Azuris]

Originally posted by Twin Earthling:

Hey Azuris, thank you SO much for taking the time to write down all that feedback. It's feedback like this alone that made it worth releasing the demo because after working on a game for nearly 3 years you can get a bit myopic and are not that sure anymore which things are important to fresh players!

General:

A few things we can improve right away, namely the bow draw speed and damage. Draw speed improved with higher levels, but it still seems to slow.

Regarding the magic and arrow: Would you make them mutually exclusive, so that you have to pick a class and can't max both? Or just increase the levels of both so that it becomes harder to unlock them all?

For the spikes we're rolling out a fix this week that should take care of this. But you're right, they are more temporary obstacles, also because they take damage when doing damage. The metal spikes on the other hand don't take damage and also allow your minions to pass, so they are a clear upgrade.

We will roll out an update for the target priorites of towers that should improve their aiming decisions, but we'd love to offer more fine-grained control later :-)


Building:
The early access release will have a creative mode that allows you to take as much time as you want before calling a wave. You might still need to call a wave because that's the main source of gold, but it's up to you when you feel ready.

Tutorial:
That's one lesson from the demo, people found various ways to exploit the demo :-) In the early access release we'll load the level fresh after the demo so that you can't exploit anything.


If you have any other suggestions let us know! We also have an active Discord community where we discuss new features and track progress. Feel free to join if you want to suggest more ideas! https://discord.com/invite/jes7b7b625

All the best,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for your response! I really appreciate the effort you’re putting into the game, and I’m excited to see how it develops further.

I think players will enjoy the ability to mix different builds, as long as it feels meaningful. If bows and magic could scale to level 10 in the late game like the sword, that could open up more strategic choices. Adjusting the base costs slightly could help balance this. Having a secondary weapon like a bow or magic already feels good, but adding more impact would make them even better. For example, if the guided arrow could also target flying enemies, it would make the bow much more viable.

Personally, I love specializing in one strong playstyle and letting my defenses cover my weaknesses. That’s why I think a class system could be really interesting—like a dedicated warrior, a mage, or even a commander who focuses more on leading soldiers instead of fighting directly. However, I also love the freedom to mix everything as it is now, as decision-making is always exciting.

One idea to make specialization smoother would be to let players choose between sword, magic, and bow from the very beginning, each with a passive effect:

Sword could have lifesteal or stamina buffs,

Magic could improve mana or mana regeneration,

Bow could have increased draw speed or precision.

This way, the skill tree could be expanded naturally without overwhelming new players. It could even allow for hybrid builds like battle mages, which would add even more variety.

Regarding the building aspect, my feedback is mostly focused on combat since I haven’t had as much time to explore construction in-depth. During the 15 waves I played, I primarily focused on defense and didn’t really notice a strong need for large-scale production, aside from setting up farming fields. However, I’m curious if structures will have more functional benefits in the future. Would a well-built castle provide any production bonuses if it has proper doors, windows, and a roof? If so, that could add another interesting layer to the building mechanics.

If you need testers or have any questions, I’d love to help. It’s always great to see developers putting thought into feedback, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Best regards,
Azuris