FEEDBACK PLS: 20XX's Future

[batterystaplegames]

Hello! It's been a few months since our last update, so I wanted to take a few minutes and share what we're up to. While we're at it, I'd love your feedback on a few issues concerning 20XX's future updates.

EDIT: a list of the elements we've taken from this post and are looking into working on are are at the bottom of this post.

First: we're super happy with how 20XX's development and post-launch reception have gone. It's been ~9 months since our launch on Switch, PS4, and XB1 and (barring a few bugs we're looking to squash) we're happy with where we've landed.

We've been working on 20XX for a long time. If you (conservatively!) count the Draco-on-consoles patch as 20XX's last active development day, we've spent about five and a half years making the game - time well spent, as far as we're concerned - and it's finally time for us to focus our efforts on a new project.

We're incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to put the skills we've developed while making 20XX to good use by making something new for you to enjoy. While we can't share anything concrete about the project right this moment, we're confident that anyone who's spent time enjoying 20XX has a good reason to be excited. We can't wait to tell you all about it!

In the meantime, though, the year is still 20XX, and we'd love to keep that year interesting and fun to as many of you as we can while we're busy behind the scenes cooking up something fresh. Accordingly, we have two major objectives:

• Eliminate any remaining major outstanding elements (bugs, design features, etc) that negatively impact your experience playing 20XX
  
• Develop a gameplan to keep 20XX as interesting as possible for its current playerbase

In this thread, then, I'd love it if you could take a minute and share your thoughts on either of these topics. What about the current game hurts your enjoyment of it? What mixups/modes/extras could you see keeping the game fresh-feeling for you going forward?

While we're happy to listen to any and all feedback here, keep in mind that, as of now, there are zero full-time engineers or artists working on 20XX - that means certain very expensive suggestions (fully new level themes, characters) are a tough sell unless we hire for it. I've debated how plainly I wanted to state this - I know it's probably not what you want to hear! - but feel it's ultimately most important that we remain open about the game's development instead of leaving folks wondering "when's the next update coming?" forever.

Thanks for your input - this community is the reason 20XX became the game it is. I hope you'll join us for the next chapter of Batterystaple's journey when we're ready to open those gates.

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback so far - keep it coming! If something's missing from the list below, I haven't sorted out what bucket it belongs in just yet.

Things we're likely to tackle:

• Co-op/endless crashing
  
• Instant bee reappearances/invisible bee hitboxes
  
• Removing/reworking World Slug
  
• Fixing "vaulting" as described above
  
• Reset the OPR list every 8-10 or so levels in Endless
  
• Level piece variety & community level piece work - think this is probably a big one!

Things we might? tackle:

• Direct-IP connection play (seems like it'd make the game's multiplayer accessible to pirates. hmm)
  
• Janky, completely unpolished "vs" play (seriously - if we do this, we won't polish it at all - is that still appealing? We'll also make zero effort to stop cheaters online - wayyy more time than it's worth!)
  
• Auto-charge
  
• Cheevo for Revenant game completion
  
• Rebeginner changes/visual rework
  
• Music modding
  
• Color customization
  
• New items once in awhile? (Big maybe here.)
  
• Hawk/Draco revenants (with less than perfect art)
  
• Steam bundle including the game/OST/both character DLCs

Things we probably won't tackle:

• Characters, level themes
  
• Additional bosses (though we might be able to remix bosses? That could be fun)

[Scarecrow_Cannibradio]

It's been a heck of a ride. :)

[Star Scorpia]

Well overall i'd say occasional item packs (Think TBIO boosters) would be neat.
Another thing that would be cool is fixing endless in coop so it does not crash at level 12 or so.

[Dinomyte]

a vs co-op option tp play against friends in an arena would be AWESOME

[Water]

I love this game, and it's sad to see it stop development. But I completely understand. I wish we got 2 more DLC characters, but with what there is already you have made something great!

Keep working on your next project, I can't wait to see it. I'll support it whatever it is

[Twisted1]

I'd personally love to see a 3~4 player co-op. Would be hectic, and would need to be capped, but imagine the insanity!!

[SauloTheMan]

The only things that comes to mind is the overall way the levels are generated and the traps when you go deep in the game, the levels are not the same everytime, but after plenty of hours playing the game you know which segments are which, so it feels less like they're randomly generated and more like you're playing an entire level that has been divided in parts that are picked at random, and the obstacles/traps tend to be everywhere in later levels, especially if you're on loop, so it quite encourages you to pick the trap disabling powers and use only them.

[Chinpo]

A modding scene/community created content support would help keep the game alive.

Options for more drastic mods to the level generations. As it stands now, once people get used to the generation it tends to be the same thing over and over again. I feel that adding more random elements would help individualize each run more. It doesn't need to be completely new setpieces; maybe try and cut up the current ones to get a more randomized blend?

Maybe more options in general; what would the advanced fan go out of their way to do that you could implement in the game for that niche group?

[LDDestroier]

There are a few things that keep this game down in my opinion.

Firstly, Death Lotus is a pain in the ♥♥♥♥ to fight at higher levels without tanking hit after hit, especially if you've picked Ace. Getting close enough to deal damage while dodging hits is a damn impossibility due to the sheer amount of bullets coming at you from every angle, combined with the short amount of time you have to damage the boss. If you go out of your way to destroy the bullet-spawning entities while the boss is moving, the fight will take forever -- otherwise, you have to tank hits. Mind you, this is mostly just at high levels. He's much more manageable at lower levels.

Second, I don't really care for the lava facility area layout. Lots of platforms moving left to right while bats come at you. I've probably lost the most games on this area because of the way it's laid out. It's probably just me, though.

Third: After playing for a while, I'm starting to get really familiar with the platform bits that are randomly picked out for each map. Like, I see the same sort of structures in the same types of areas (lava/ice/planty) and it makes the map feel less unique. If there were more of them, the level variety would probably be a bit better.

Fourth: When it's local 2-player mode, if the distance between two players gets too great, you get to see level assets being loaded on the edge of the screen. It's not really that big a problem, but it's weird.

I love the game, but man ♥♥♥♥ Death Lotus at level 8.

[Lylatt Astray]

Well, a few things come to mind!

A: I personally had the time of my freaking life playing with the Wave Beam, and it's been a year since I've *never, ever* gotten that weapon again. All the others I did, though, but I wonder if something about the weapon generation algorhythm can be made? Same with certain pieces of armor, really. Another selfish request would be: whatever event would allow Shatterbeak to be even faster and stronger than he already is at Level 8 with enemy speed-related mods on and Defiant Decree. I've rarely had such tense 50 or so seconds of pure bossfighting in Megaman-likes before, and I honestly believe that there's a lot of potential behind that. I have a replay of the whole thing, so should I come back to give more detailed feedback, I'll prolly post a link to that to support my claim! (Same for the Wave Beam, that thing *really* needs to appear more often. Maybe a mod in Defiant Mode where you get to choose which weapon upgrade to start with?).

B: A mode in which one player can fight against another with a list of at least four powers and equipped with armor abilities or shots (Wave Beam :D) that they can choose before the battle begins — preferably, without the other player knowing what the opponent's choice is. Would be really fun to have a... kind of a X VS Zero mode, to be specific. I think this would be a great way to keep the current player base interested (point A was really just a personal thing).

C: I'd also love to be able to create my own levels within the 20XX engine or something? It would make for a great legacy for the community in general, and I'd honestly love to see what other players have in store, level design-wise.

I'll prolly come back here with more detailed feedback, but for now that's all that comes to mind. Thank you for making this game, sincerely.

[Vental]

All I want is SOME form of PvP, I suggest looking at what "Wizard of Legend" does with it's Rogue-Like. After you beat a boss in co-op. If both players are still alive, the game saves both of your current health and then provides you fake bonus health that tops you up to max with the player with lower max health getting armor to make up the difference. From there, You and your teammate battle in the boss areanaa before the boss exit may open. Once someone wins, their old health that was saved is restored and the fake health (and any extra bonus balance armor) goes away. When entering the next room where you get your upgrades, the revive pod drops down and auto revives the teammate who lost and restores their health to what THEIR saved health was.

[Vental]

Also, modd support for a level tile editor. So you can custom design your own room that can/has a chance to load into your playthough and just seamlessly connect to the rest of the map. I feel like even if you stopped editing the game, if you allow other people to continue adding content through something like the steam workshop, then the game will always be great.

[Relle]

When comparing 20XX to other roguelikes such as Binding of Isaac or Tangledeep, one thing that strikes me as lacking in 20XX is pathing options. Yeah, you can choose one of three bosses to fight next (or one if you're doing a daily/weekly) but you basically always fight the eight robots and then the two final bosses. It'd be interesting to see branching paths where you fight one set of final bosses down one path and another set down the other, similar to how you can go to the Chest or the Dark Room and fight different final bosses to end the game.

Similarly, it'd be cool to see some more weapon interactions with certain pickups, like a dual shot pickup that lets you fire two pellets simultaneously as Nina, or extend sword range (horizontal or vertical) as Ace, etc. Basically something that changes up your run beyond just boosting your damage or other stats and instead changes how you play. It would help keep the game feeling fresh.

[Water]

also one more thing: is it possible to add an option to customize our character's colours? it is already done for Player 2, we just can't do that ourselves

[Sᴉɹ Hɐɯ]

To be completely honest, the thing that kills my enjoyment of the game at the moment which i don't know if it's a bug or a feature since I've never asked is this thing which i call "Vaulting"
https://media.giphy.com/media/QmKwfQ4uzrVJkfOaGO/giphy.gif

Those small bumps kill any fun i get every time i try to get back into the game on a competitive side which is about the only thing left to it these days. They will lead to hits that could have been avoided easily. They use up your jump, which mean more hits / less control overall and a diminished enjoyment.

The second thing would be the bee related issues, where they will spawn randomly on screen like they get loaded much later than they should. It lead to more irritation by itself.

The third would be the invisible hitboxes. There will be rarely some instances of a random enemy hitbox, which i assume is a bee, just laying there still active. It will hit you and cannot be destroyed which is honestly the weirdest thing.

Other than that, i understand you're pretty much working on this alone at this alone at this point but my second biggest gripe would be the lack of stages. And the lack of stage pieces, it's really easy to memorise the layout in a few playthroughs. Which isn't really the worst thing.

Maybe a couple of item packs as DLC if you're feeling cheeky and inspired in the future :p

And some modding tools would be pretty much the cream on the top of the cherry but that would honestly just be some extra flavouring on top,

Other than that, nice job on the game, man. You and your associates did a fine job over the years to deliver this amazing little package. Kudos.

[Vental]

Yo, splitting paths. Like a fork in the road. I like that idea @Relle but at the same time, we dont want random generation to cause 1 path collide with another so I could see that getting a bit messy to implement. I'd compare this game more to Spelunky or A Robot Named Fight. I own ARNF but never got around to playing it. Anyone know how they handle pathing variation?