Feedbacks from DEMO

[DamarusRex]

Feel free to add your feedbacks on the demo here.

+ cool pixelart, animations and engine features.
+ well designed and easy UI
+ fighting vibes are action packed and engaging
+ interesting classes systems, contrasted and complementary for squad synergy
+ loot system is fine

- after the dungeon on the score screen, there is no description of the badges assigned to each player aside from a tiny visual.
- on the map while playing with another player, P1 could select cards, but cards description is empty for P2, therefore unable to read what P1 is selecting.
- game is a confusing mess sometimes, making it hard to notice when HP get low (or when we are hit)

[beardedbear]

I played with Damarus, and noticed a visual bug on a moving platform (it was going up and down). My character appeared fine on the screen, but Damarus's behaved weirdly. It's pretty hard to describe, but when the platform was going up, the sprit didn't follow accordingly, it was going up in jerky manner, and when it was going down, it looks like that he was falling a bit.

Everything seemed fine on his side. I was hosting the game.

We planned to play together again some time, if it happens again, I'll try to make a video of it.

[Sieg Hart 89]

- The jumping feeling and air control is really awkward : you start slow and then accelerate; which is a bit counterintuitive. And can also make plateforme phase more harder than it seem.
- no description of the badge at the end pf the games
- no moveset description (in the menu or somewhere else)
- played with the rogue : the fact that most of your aerial attack / ground combo ends up with a really big projection make it quite hard for follow up and is frustrating if, like me, you got the gauntlet who make tentacle spawn (since it kick the ennemies out of it).
- lack of term description : +20% de decrepit (what is decrepit ?). Some skill have a number but also another one in parenthesis ? Like : your attack deal +13% damage (+16%)

+ the fighting feeling are really nice
+ character feel different one from each other
+ the sbire mechanic is fun
+ same for the tarot card
+ Overall, good ambiance.

[DamarusRex]

Originally posted by Sieg Hart 89:

- lack of term description : +20% de decrepit (what is decrepit ?). Some skill have a number but also another one in parenthesis ? Like : your attack deal +13% damage (+16%)

Agreed, sometime it's not clear enough what the effect or numbers are meant for. Nor how to trigger an effect, and what does "temporary" means (how long ?).

[Joe Blob]

Hey everybody,
That's some good feedback, thanks.

The badges are designed like in Towerfall, where the title and icon are a hint at why you received the award, but there is no clear explanation of the mechanics behind them. I understand this can be puzzling, we might have to think about that.

That is well spotted for the tarot cards not showing for other players, we'll have to see if we can improve this.

The game can be chaotic at times, to say the least, but we consider that part of the difficulty: positioning yourself in the arena is an important skill to master, and crowd control is also an important part of the strategy as a team. Of course it's more chaotic if you play 3+ players.

Concerning the moving platform "lag", this can be caused by a poor/insufficient internet connection between host and clients, and it is very hard to mitigate. We made sure that you will never seen your own character lagging. The host might see you lag, but you will always see your own character where it stands and won't be hit by something you couldn't see because of that. Our netcode is here to ensure that you don't get teleported or rollbacked and feel cheated because of that, but this can't be perfect when connection is not optimal.

The jumping might need to get used to, but we could indeed try to refine it a little more. The goal of having a slower start than you're used to was to help bunny hopping and chain that into a combo.

For the moveset description, that's on us, as we needed to disable the class tutorial for the content restricted demo. There is a Class specific tutorial in the full game, which helps a lot. Time constraints unfortunately did not allow us to keep the tutorial in the demo.

For the item description, you can browse inventory by holding LT, and then you can scroll up and down to see what every item power does. For perks, those are usually self explanatory, but I guess what is not explained correctly is the "+XX% power to AAAA/BBBB gear"

Each path has elements linked to it: Fire/Lightning are for Chaos, Cosmos/Ice are for Order, Spirit/Nature are for Life, and Decay/Shadow are for Darkness. It could be better explained in game, but I can't see how nor when.

Thanks everybody for all this useful feedback, there are definitely things here that will help us improve the experience even further.

[Sieg Hart 89]

First of all, thanks for your answer, it's very, very appreciated :)

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

The jumping might need to get used to, but we could indeed try to refine it a little more. The goal of having a slower start than you're used to was to help bunny hopping and chain that into a combo.

The main problem is that jump should slow down gradually, because gravity, thus why it feel strange.

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

For the moveset description, that's on us, as we needed to disable the class tutorial for the content restricted demo. There is a Class specific tutorial in the full game, which helps a lot. Time constraints unfortunately did not allow us to keep the tutorial in the demo.

Actually, the class tutorial is here :D I did it for the rogue.
I was thinking of a simple screen with text. In most action game with several manoeuvers you generally have that kind of screen as an option in the pause menu.
It's especially usefull if you try a new character but doesn't to do the whooole tutorial because you already have a hang of the game or you havn't played for a while and just want a quick reminder.

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

For the item description, you can browse inventory by holding LT, and then you can scroll up and down to see what every item power does. For perks, those are usually self explanatory, but I guess what is not explained correctly is the "+XX% power to AAAA/BBBB gear"

And what's a bit confusing is sometime the red number followed by a green one. I guess it's because the skill / item is upgraded by a trait but if it the case, why bother showing both number and not just the upgraded one ?

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

Each path has elements linked to it: Fire/Lightning are for Chaos, Cosmos/Ice are for Order, Spirit/Nature are for Life, and Decay/Shadow are for Darkness. It could be better explained in game, but I can't see how nor when.

Simple way : add a NPC / book in an obvious place at the tavern who will do a quick sum-up.
Also, if it does not clutter the UI too much, item could have a mention of their corresponding path / element beside their name. This way you the player can understand the relation in the glimpse of the eye.

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

Thanks everybody for all this useful feedback, there are definitely things here that will help us improve the experience even further.

Happy to jhelp ! I was following this game for several years now and finalling having my hand on it is so cool :)

[Joe Blob]

Good suggestions here, thank you, thank you very much!

[Lucky]

I played as Amazon and my thoughts were thus:

+ Three hit combo felt impactful and powerful despite the speed
+ Item variety was good and the health pickups hit a very good middle-road
+ Common healing perks is also good for a roguelite
+ Chakram was useful when used correctly, frustrating getting hit by it however and the startup felt too long for when it could be very helpful (i.e. ranged enemies, bosses)

- Jumping attack has a short -> long frame animation that feels unreliable
- Enemies have extremely short telegraphing which makes ranged enemies feel a bit overtuned, tactics quickly divulged into rushing into them because parrying/dodging in small crowded arenas felt impossible
-/+ Petting dog is good but you can do it in the middle of battle which is not so good.

-? I died at the end of the first boss after collecting the gem? At least my character appeared dead.

[Joe Blob]

Hey Lucky, thanks a lot for the feedback.

We'll definitely need to disable the dog petting animation during combat, it shouldn't happen.

That's extremely weird that you died while collecting the gem, nothing should be able to kill you outside of combat.

[Sieg Hart 89]

Originally posted by Joe Blob:

Hey Lucky, thanks a lot for the feedback.

We'll definitely need to disable the dog petting animation during combat, it shouldn't happen.

That's extremely weird that you died while collecting the gem, nothing should be able to kill you outside of combat.

Wait, what ? I've "Finished" 2 run and each time I died while grabbing the gem. My character get the gem, put it over his head Zelda-style and then boom, there's an animation with thé reaper slashing the screen and voilà. I thought it was normal because... Demo, so limited level.

[Joe Blob]

My bad, this is totally normal behaviour for the demo, you are correct, this is how the demo ends.

[&rew]

I'll just say it's great to have another game like Vagante. Plus same-screen, LAN, and online co-op? And PVP? This dev's got their priorities in order. It seems like a full package. It's hard to get a sense from the demo, but I really hope the character build variety shines through in the final game. It looks like each zone maybe has one level-up shrine? Hopefully those rewards stack on each other in some really interesting ways. That was what kept me coming back to Vagante for so long.

[Yeldo]

Originally posted by &rew:

I'll just say it's great to have another game like Vagante. Plus same-screen, LAN, and online co-op? And PVP? This dev's got their priorities in order. It seems like a full package. It's hard to get a sense from the demo, but I really hope the character build variety shines through in the final game. It looks like each zone maybe has one level-up shrine? Hopefully those rewards stack on each other in some really interesting ways. That was what kept me coming back to Vagante for so long.

100% this feels like a step up from Vagante and that is saying a lot

[&rew]

Originally posted by Yeldo:

Originally posted by &rew:

I'll just say it's great to have another game like Vagante. Plus same-screen, LAN, and online co-op? And PVP? This dev's got their priorities in order. It seems like a full package. It's hard to get a sense from the demo, but I really hope the character build variety shines through in the final game. It looks like each zone maybe has one level-up shrine? Hopefully those rewards stack on each other in some really interesting ways. That was what kept me coming back to Vagante for so long.

100% this feels like a step up from Vagante and that is saying a lot

Well, I wouldn't say that just yet, based on what we can play right now. But I'm intrigued.

[Joe Blob]

Thanks, I did play some vagante and I did love the game, and it's true that we wanted something similar with a more dynamic combat system (I hated one shot traps though ^^)

Caveblazers was also something I did enjoy and wish had a more fleshed out combat.

[Cataklyste]

Here are my feedbacks after 1 run as a rogue:
+ Combo game is really cool
+ Tutorial is fluid and seemless
+ Loot seems impactful and really change one's run
+ Tarots are great modifiers
+ enemy design is varied enough in the demo, hope that it is kept in the long run
+ Accessible info on loot

- Jump, it as already been stated it feels off, I get were it's coming from, but I guess if you want a short-hop input it would be the same ? It's especially weird on long jumps where the acceleration curve is a bit faster.
- The boss at the end have really little telegraph to it's actions, I feel like I was hit a lot without proper time to react. Maybe I'm just bad tbh.

-/+ When you get a new loot, cool be cool to have a prompt to lead directly to item description, but discovering it is also a good way of experimenting.
-/+ I got the pendule upgrade which upgrades the dash, and the second one only upgrade it by 10% speed, I didn't quite really found it valuable compared to a whole new trait, but it may be for balancing.

Overall, very cool game with promising experience, I am yet to try multiplayer but it sounds like the good mix of challenging and chaos, I feel like if the 3C where a little bit more pleasant (especially jump) I would be more into it.

Keep up the good work !!!