MEGATHREAD - Demo Feedback

[Marc (Fading Skies Dev)]

Thank you for playing the demo of Fading Skies! 💜

If you have any thoughts to share about your experience with the game, we’d love to hear from you. There have already been several updates to the demo based on community feedback, and we will do our best to take your input to heart - be it by focusing on the parts you like, or improving the parts that need more work.

We will be merging separate threads with demo feedback into this megathread to facilitate discussion and readability.

We appreciate your support in making the full release the best it can be!

[rafaaa]

Demo gameplay with feedback

Here is the gameplay of the demo with some feedback for the devs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pL4Sg0xmC4

[PHOBIE]

Demo Test

Controls in the keymap couldn't all be used, as apparently, the attack, fly, and interact functions don't work. This raises the question of what should be showcased here. Shift is on shift (not exactly self-explanatory) and I didn't find out what Shift or Shift up should do. Despite there being only empty save slots, a save slot must be manually selected, dragging out onboarding.

The character looked stiff, to the point of seeming lifeless, there was lipsync but no other animations perceived, didn't manage to convey cutesy factor effectively. Fashion design, while somewhat unique in a ragged hermit style, seems crude and not really useful for parkour, and hiding the character instead of showing it. There are lighting and visibility issues with the necklace/emblem when zoomed out. The stress sounds were a bit crude and not cute, with the sound "uh" playing too often, indicating exhaustion throughout.

The environment is gorgeous and the relics/monuments made nice sounds (e.g. the map which we can't use sounds disappointed when we retreat).

The NPC design seems geared towards a kids user group, with anthropomorphic animals. The animations seemed well done, but the stage entry and exit were abrupt. No path highlighting to know which way to go, narrative dissonance commenting we're taking another way, because camera didn't catch which way we're not taking and how it was taken by the NPC. This detracted from player guidance and immersion.

There could be skills/ability feedback for timing latch-on and jumps or otherwise middle-ware; strictly speaking a player new to this wouldn't know what to do. The jumps are low tolerance, asking for precise attention to on-edge placement, while there's ample room for error due to movement animation and interpretation. Luckily, the controls are responsive.

The intended cutesy factor suffered from drops into the ocean, taking momentum out of the game, and lowering motivation to try again, because there was no felt reward or gritty feedback of accomplishment, leading to dis-immersion. Narrative dissonance in comment we were saved by the necklace, as that's the thing that's been stolen and we don't have it.

Furthermore, the game starts out with stealing from the player and chasing down the thief, creating a debt situation with a negative motivator where the title banks on suspension of disbelief, immersion and identification, without providing opportunity to build up. The hunt for justice seems to lose its spur-of-the-moment appeal quickly, and failed to sustain engagement with the plot.

Overall; prioritizing smooth controls, engaging character animations, consistent art style, player guidance, feedback systems, and compelling narratives in order to create a successful and enjoyable gaming experience can help increase player engagement.

A well-developed main character can help make a game more memorable and appealing to players. Games like Uncharted or The Last of Us excel in bringing characters to life through realistic movements and expressions. Games like Overwatch or Horizon Zero Dawn showcase unique and visually appealing art styles that enhance the player experience.

[blacklion40]

Odd Balancing

I honestly looked really forward to try the demo out and really enjoyed the first minutes. The sounds are wonderful to listen togeher with the bgm and The creature Design is especially for the ghosts pretty cute. Reminds me of the old days of jump and run platformers I enjoyed so much. Also I really liked detils like her arm raise when she walked through deeper water and that she got slower there.

However I really think the pacing for learning new skills is kinda odd. You get this training hub to try out the new moves and then you're thrown into a bossfight, still getting used to the controls. And except the arrows from the mutated Bosses, which hit you almost everytime, everything is a homing missile. Which gets kind of annoying. I understand that a boss fight is meant to be challenging. But even regular mobs get shields and are in groups with pretty bad but still homing missiles.

To be honest. I gave up at the second boss after the charge jump you learn. Because two kinds of distance attacks with homing ability, the almost everytime hitting arrow you have barely time to dodge anywhere and then he gets a shield you need to break and not move to get the big sword out while he throws this homing stuff at you? And all this while you jump platforms and have to keep an eye on not falling to death. Because then you start the fight all over again.

[SidhOniris]

Demo Feedback

Hello,

First of all, i'm pretty exciting for this game.

The look is really fantastic, the artistic design is just my kind of thing.
The music is just awesome, and the overall ambiance is really transporting. I really love it. The story seems really good and i'm already interesting to learn more about this world and the story of Ryn.

I had difficulties to make it work, but this is my system who are a bit too old.

But here some little thing i think can be improved.

I think this game would be better if it go more like a classic Action Adventure RPG game, than a kindly souls-like in some way.

Like the fact that the attack don't interrupt little enemies. I think that will make the combat a little frustrating later, when their will be more enemies. We find ourselves always dodging and trying to laid just one hit after rolling again a few times. If the attack can interrupt, that will add the possibility to make "armored" enemies who are specifically design to not be interrupt by the attack (the shielded enemies, maybe ?) and will make the combat against the others more "energic" and more fluid. Like in a Nier, or a Darksiders, or that kind of games.

Another thing, the third attack of the basic combo (the one where Ryn make two slash at once) seems to be uninterruptable (at least by the dodge). That can lead into a frustrating situation when the enemy prepare a big hit (like the great explosion of the first boss) where you need to go far away of him to not taking damage, but Ryn do her attack so even if you go away just after, you don't have time to go away enough to don't get hit. I think it's better if you choose to make multiple slash combo attack, and can be interruptable (again like Nier, Darksiders, and this stuff), or make all the attack be an only slash, bit cannot be interruptable. In my experience, multiple hit combo or attack, don't work well with hard timing-based combat, exactly because it mess the timing of your attacks (you want to laid one hit, but the caracter laid two).

Again, this game is really promising, and i support you 100%. But i think it would be better if you take less inspiration in the soulslike and other "hard" A-RPG that we have this day, and more in the "classic" like Nier, Darksiders, DMC... At least for the combat system. I think it will fit more.

Another thing is i think you use too much of the "multiplication" thing in the trainings. It's fun the first two times, but in long terms it will be very redundant, and will make the player feels like it's some sort of "artificial way of improving the lifetime of the game". The end of the training, that are basically a (really good implemented) tutorial of the new mechanic is good. It's the start of the training, with always the three way to complete to open the fourth and gaining the new mechanic. I think that will be just to much in long terms. Or maybe replacing some of it by some other objectives. (instead of always having this three platforming way, having sometimes a battle, or i don't know... something else. Or something shorter. Or nothing.)

For the platforming aspect, i think there is nothing to say about. It's cool, rythmic, greatly designed... It really really good work here.

It's personal preference, but i think the controls would be better with the attacks on the face button (the good ol' Square/X for light attack). The RB thing is good but for a game where you have to be careful and "thrifty" with your attacks. For a game where you can put some good combos (i like that) on multiple target, i thing the face buttons are better. But the way the controls are design, it will force you to dissociate the "throw arrow" button from the "attack" button. Maybe you can make it an option for players like me ? ;)

Plus, a control scheme where the primary dodge button is in the back let us always having this button under a finger. When the attack doesn't need to be under the finger if we need to move the camera. Plus, your camera is just PERFECT. Perfect height, perfect distance of the character, you can see everything around the character, wich is a GOOD (and necessary for melee-multiple ennemies-based game) thing. So in combat you will rarely need to reajust the camera (i say it again : BE PRAISED FOR THAT)

I think that's all i noticed for the moment. And i follow your TikTok too, so i know that the game is not finished yet. So i won't pointing every little details ! ^^

Again, I must say many congratulations for this game, wich feels really interesting, really enjoyable, and in wich almost every aspects feels just. I'm can't wait to play the entire game (in fact, i CAN wait 'til you finish your work, so don't rush it). I will follow your progress with interest, and hope you will get the success you deserve !

Great job,

Thanks for the demo,

And the game.

Raaawr !

[Aftonstjarna]

Quality demo just one request

Please add native gyro aim and or allow mouse input while playing with controller so it can be simulated with SteamInput

[Trilantini]

Demo Feedback

Needs more fixing in technical sense:

• sometimes sound glitching when you're stuck on platforms
  
• No sounds for waterfalls and some other effects during cutscenes
  
• In 2nd dungeon, clipped through elevator before reaching at the bottom. That way, the camera was stuck in closeup and didn't give me an option to use the sword. Was fixed with go in and out of elevator
  
• Moving fast in circle (fast WASD) prompts the character to elevate for a few seconds above ground
  
• General performance. 60 fps with few dips on max settings on latest gen... also frame time spiking around 20ms in some areas after exiting the dungeon.

What I didn't like:

• Before getting dash effect, jumping from one platform to another was harder in the sense of needing to detect a perfect point from where to jump and where to land, because otherwise I would fall
  
• Dungeon repetitive routine, like always this three points to finish (they're different, but same principle) and then going to fourth way in order to execute story flashback. Maybe mix in different way. Dungeons do repeat themselves sometimes, but not in that way
  
• Needs a dedicate Photo mode key button (not ESC and click on it). I know that UE4 has a good photo mode options, like there needs to be an option to use keyboard as like camera movement, changing settings in sliders and so on. On top of that, why is it fixed only 360 degree around character (like you are the center) and not have the ability to move away from (XYZ way)
  
• Stun-lock during boss fights

What I liked and can be improved:

• Combat. To generic. Yes there are other weapons but 99% you will use normal sword. There could be like parry system (maybe)
  
• Music is awesome, and the way of collecting ghost was also lovely. Can be seen that lot of inspiration was taken from Zelda (Liked it)
  
• World needs to be more alive
  
• Platforming, especially in dungeons, was good and rythmic
  
• Nerf boss arrows, everything else was ok
  
• Animation can be improved. Camera also highlighting where to go or similar (not in sense of game holding my hand)
  
• More engaging story with other characters

I know that this game is far from being finished. But if the you implement some of these things including other peoples feedback, I think there is a potential for this game to be great and I would gladly looking forward to it. As of right now, i'm hesitant (on more positive side)

[Lazy Pharaoh]

Demo Feedback

Will update as I continue to play

Improvements:

1) If you roll while holding the bow and arrow button, you should immediately pull it back out after the roll, not go back to the sword

2) Some platforms look at though you can stand on them but instead you slide off and die. I think it should be made slightly more clear when a platform is one that you cannot stand on

As for positives, the combat is good and the platforming is phenomenal

[fiftydwarves]

Feedback

In case you want to hear it. People seem to be posting in different threads - maybe one master thread by the devs would work better? Anyway, I wanted to share too.

The controls are absolutely amazing. It's very joyful to just run and jump around. I deeply appreciated how forgiving jump distances were.

Sword fighting and the overall mobility are very nice, I liked the slo-mo dodging and quick repositioning with that shift ability.

Idk how you did it, but this is definitely the best bow shooting I've experienced in any game. I prefer aiming with a mouse, but played this demo with a controller (because duh, it's a platformer) and didn't feel bad or deficient in any way. The weight of the arrow is just superb.

I really liked Ryn's self-aware comments about events in the game and things in the environment. It was kinda fun to discover that you can power up the portal things with your Kirby attachment through her comment. Her voice is also great.

I also appreciated visual variety. Just when I was beginning to get mildly afraid that the game might start looking a little samey soon, I reached the flying islands portion and it did feel drastically different.

Ghosts are cute, and I liked variety of their tiny challenges a lot. I want to say that it would be nice to have some way of detecting where they are, as areas are pretty big and getting between parts of the levels takes a bit of effort, but then again, I was never stuck because of it for more than a few minutes, so maybe it's not necessary at all.

Regarding minor tweaks, I guess I would suggest adding a lock-on, as the first boss felt pretty annoying compared to roughly similar Dark Souls experiences, but it was short, and this option would actively hurt the second boss fight, so idk. Maybe make it so furballs can shake lock-on off?

Also, the energy attractor would be a little nicer if it could be activated with no delay and during jumps, and maybe attract the bits a little faster? Delay by itself is fine - but maybe pressing a button for a short while and having the bits fly up to you with a delay would work better? Collecting them felt a tiny bit like a chore, but maybe upgrading it further helps, idk.

Other than that, thank you very much, it was absolutely amazing.
Good luck with the Kickstarter!
This definitely scratches itches of playing more quality platforming games AND the desire to play more Zelda, so I hope you get funded very fast!

[Ditalos]

Demo feedback

I went in to this demo without expecting much and was pretty surprised with how good and well made it is! I'd still like to share some things and feelings about what I played since the devs seem pretty receptive of feedback.

Here are my thoughts/opinions
Things I thought were pretty good:
Movement - Moving around feels great and the platforming feels really snappy and well made. There was never a moment where I missed something and I felt the game was to blame. The shift feels great to use, though it could do with some more momentum.
Presentation - I played the game at the low-medium and it was still very, very pretty. The characters look fine and the world is very pleasing to look at. The art direction in general both in design and tech is very good, though it could do with a bit less tiny particle effects and with a bit more player guidance (I'll talk more about both later). At worst it's still a very competent looking game, and at best it's very, very pretty and impressive. Some animations on the overworld like absorbing the ghosts or the green crystals could do with a skip/speed up option, though.

Things I feel could be a bit more worked on (and I believe they're already on the dev's list, maybe):
Combat - While there's nothing really wrong with it, it lacks a bit of impact and visual flair on both animations and effects. The charge attack doesn't really give out any signals (like a flash or something) besides Ryn getting a big sword, and it doesn't feel very impactful for her and the enemies: The enemies barely react to being hit and are mostly just damage sponges that you hit until they die. They could still attack while reeling from hits (or force an attack while being combo'ed like some action games do), because right now they just stand still while you smash them until they attack (This can be fine for strong bosses but at least common enemies should react a bit to being hit). Generally, the combat doesn't have anything wrong besides lacking some visuals and tactics that could help to make it more impactful and interesting, and maybe some more interactions with other mechanics as well (the shift into damage skill barely feels useful). Also there's no lock-on despite the R3/RS being free?
UI/UX - Nothing wrong with menus, but the in-game UI feels pretty small. It already hides itself automatically for immersion, so whenever it comes out during combat or stat changes (which is when you DO want to pay attention to it), it could benefit from being bigger/more noticeable. It also makes it difficult to see when something has happened to stats like Health and experience since the UI is very tiny and reacts very subtly. Besides that there's not much style to the UI but I don't think that's much of an issue.
Flight - Unlocked last, it feels a bit weird to use. Most games that allow you to fly/glide as an ability have used a similar scheme based on air energy, with the player being able to dive to gain speed/energy, and surfacing to spend energy/gain altitude. Here, however, the most optimal way to cover distances is to mostly just glide forwards, as diving barely gives you aditional speed, if at all. It took me quite a while to realize I was supposed to simply just hold the fly button without moving, and let Ryn glide instead of attempting to dive and surface like most games, and if that's the intended technique, then it probably should be explained in the tutorial text (as the flight tutorial only tells you to hold the button to fly and not much else). After figuring out how to use it, I didn't have any more issues with it but I feel like having the dive/surface mechanics could make it feel more interesting to use than simply going up and down.

Please work on this!
Performance - I could get the game running at consistent 60 with decent look & visuals, but it still stuttered a bit. On a 1060/R5 3600 I believe the game could run at something above "low" considering the graphical fidelity, as right now it seems to be getting really chugged down by particle effects and draw distance.
Player Guidance - While I managed to beat the demo, there were several moments where I wish I could have an indicator of my current objective or points of interest. Ryn talks a lot but she doesn't usually remind players of the current objectives, and there isn't a way to ask for help on where to go, too.

Anyways, great demo and I am very interested to see more of the game in the future.

[Auryn]

Fun stuff! I liked the world you've crafted here, and the gameplay is pretty fun, honestly.

One thing I would look at is the medallion at the very beginning.

She gets the medallion stolen, which causes her to run after "Furball". Once she catches up with Furball, she gets the Medallion back, and realizes it might be a key to the door way.

Once she then realizes the key doesn't work because its out of charge, our heroine suddenly doesn't seem to care? Rewatch that cutscene and maybe switch out that dialogue with something a bit more enthusiastic. Obviously she's happy to get the Medallion back, right? It had some kind of sentimental value to her, I assume, before she realized it was a key. And then these ghostly kitties are, seemingly, going to offer her some way to charge up the medal. That's good too, she should be excited, rather than annoyed.

This is just a little thing I noticed while playing.

Also, please give us a lock on. Please. Fighting normal enemies was kind of annoying without it, but fighting that boss, who could super charge around the battlefield whenever it wanted, without lock on, was super duper annoying. Thanks!

[Iskandros]

Some feedback -
- Something about Ryn's (and the dragon's) shading seems slightly different than the rest of the world. Possibly there not being enough coarse texture detail to break up the model (the bump/normal map looks great up close, but of course isn't visible outside of cutscenes).
- I keep wanting lock-on.
- Shift charges showed up before the ability was gained, which made it somewhat confusing.
- Maybe make Ryn able to move slowly during heavy attack charge?
- The early sequence when trying to dodge the shots from the possessed Neyko feels rough because of the high speed of the projectiles, especially on the second or third position if the player hasn't been able to localize them. Perhaps something that could be used for dodge indication?
- At least one cut-scene with dialog locked the camera behind Ryn's head; if there was any emotive acting through facial animation it would be impossible to see.
- Some of the rising/falling floating rocks _don't move quite fast enough_, making it difficult to tell that they're moving at all.
- The "Lights Out"-esque puzzle in the first dungeon - it wasn't immediately obvious that turning them all on/off was **not** required, especially because the target pillar initially appeared to be too high to reach from even the thicker block (I was expecting turning them all on to lower it). Replacing the thicker block with the target block, and making it toggle as well may be a better option.
- I'd need more time with the control scheme, but possibly putting "Shift up" as a double-jump/held jump? I more want attack to be on X, especially after playing various games where it's X for Light Attack, Y for Heavy Attack.
- Ryn arching her back while drawing the bow is an.... unusual choice.

[Bug]

Hi!

Fading Skies looks absolutely phenomenal, and after playing as far through as I could get, I have some feedback!

Firstly, as pretty much everyone has said, your artistic vision is phenomenal. The music, the sound effects, the environments and colour are all fantastic. I'm envious as a games artist myself to work on something so fluid and beautiful.

Secondly, I really liked the combat mechanics, the movement and especially the "shift" platforming mechanic; it all felt smooth and fluid.

The characters were charming and I got a real sense of nostalgia playing through some of the levels. You've nailed that PS2-era feel, made me want to look at picking up some of my old Spyro and Ratchet & Clank games.

Now for some big things I think could use adjusting:
1. Please have some stronger form of objective indication. I almost did not complete the demo because I got stuck searching for the spirits after the second temple for almost an hour - Ryn mentioned going high, so I got as high as I could and still couldn't figure out where to find like the last one, even after coming across the third temple itself. The giggles when they are close are helpful, but when I couldn't even get close enough to hear them, I struggled going over the same level space and hearing Ryn say "can't get back through here" before I gave up. It was only after I came back later that I was finally able to move on - and THEN I got stuck right before the floating islands temple, once again missing a single ghost I couldn't find.
2. While the level design for early chapter two is clever, designing it with the pre-shift player and post-shift player in mind, I still found it tripped me up a lot early on, thinking I could get to places I couldn't (which were designed for the post-shift player to access). Resulted in a lot of unnecessary falls to my death. Maybe try using lighting or some other methods to highlight where the player can and cannot access.
3. The manual ether collection was great but it really threw off my tempo when I couldn't activate it while sprinting or doing other kinds of movement. It slows down the gameplay for - at least from what I can tell - not much reason.

And some small ones:
1. The flowers and other destroy-ables that you collect the orange ether from are difficult to spot in such a vibrant environment. Try to find a way to make them stand out more - I found myself missing a ton of them, which made navigating the more open-ended levels difficult.
2. The diamond-shaped objects you hit to begin challenges in the temples probably should not have collision on them after you begin a challenge. Almost knocked myself into the rift with those a few times.
3. Definitely felt the lack of other speaking NPCs. I love Ryn's character; it'd be great to see her have relationships that evolve over the story aside from with ones we can't understand.

And lastly, stuff I only picked up on because I am a games artist myself:
1. Ryn and Kyo's expressions and lipsync feel slow-mo and disjointed - they could be way more expressive, especially for a game with such a vibrant environment.
2. While the brightness and vibrance of the environment are wonderful, it might also limit your ability to use colour and lighting to guide the player where they need to go. Consider what colours or lights you might reserve for guiding the player.
3. The one cutscene I got to witness suffered from similar problems to point one. The expressions were a bit off, the lipsync wasn't very clear and some of the dramatic timing was disjointed - having the "rival" get hit by three or four hits and then whinge about being "beaten" by a "failure" when we barely even hear her grunt at these blows - much less see any damage from the sword - is a little immersion-breaking. See if you can seek expertise from a storyboarder or someone with experience making game cinematics and cutscenes to help your dramatic timing really land!

All in all, Fading Skies was a breathtaking demo, and I will be checking out the kickstarter after I've finished writing this review. You guys have a fantastic vision and the skills to bring it to life. I wish you nothing but the best of luck, and dearly look forward to the release of the full game!

[Roie]

please add DLSS and HDR...

[Treska]

The music is fantastic and the visuals are very pretty in some spots, though I find the style a little odd. It kind of looks like if a Phantasy Star Online cutscene was higher resolution.

I couldn't get past the sniper enemy. No matter when I tried to dodge it still hurt me. Speaking of, it seems like dodging right when an enemy is about to hit briefly slows down time, but not enough for you to do anything with the slowed down time? I also agree with others that the combat needs more to it. Anyways I'll keep an eye on it.

[Iskandros]

Having thought about things some more:
- I really want shift/shift-up to be extensions of dodge/jump, as either held presses, or second/additional presses (eg, shift-up becoming double-jump, essentially). I don't know how well this interacts with your design for upgrades, though. This may also be slightly less friendly for accessibility scenarios, however.
- I don't recall any fall damage, _which is fine_; the problem is that there isn't anything to "sell" the lack of fall damage. The modern tradition is to have a roll animation on landing, but given this is a high-tech/magic game there are other possibilities.