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(+2)

perfect, ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. i am OBSESSED. I CANNOT STOP PLAYING AND NEVER WILL. thank you.

(+1)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOW (thanks for the kind words!)

(+2)

Good Pla

(+2)

THIS IS PERFEC

THANK YOU

(+2)

this is really cool! 

i love the grpahics and style and music

the mini games were fun,some were quite challenging (flock!)


i am not sure why i keep getting memories, I'm not sure how to use them or how to drop the ones I already have

Thanks so much for playing! You can get unlimited memories, they are passive (their effects are automatically in use at all times), and you cannot drop them in the current version :)

(1 edit) (+2)

Cool game! I think the general concept has promise but it needs a lot of refinement. 

The general problem is that runs feel too much the same, however I think you already know this because the content you intend on adding to the full game is targeted towards fixing this.

Even so I think the way that the current "memory" system contributes a lot to the problem. Most of the memories are strong and strictly positive, and you get a lot of memories; so many that it can be difficult to keep track of them all. To me the problem can be split into two parts;

First, the builds you create over the course of different runs don't feel very unique or "defined". To illustrate what I mean by the term "defined"; a run in a deckbuilder like balatro or StS is very defined in the sense that I can describe to a player the "idea" of the deck in terms of its main combos, mechanics and archetypes without telling them much about the specific cards or relics/jokers. The existence of defined builds implies the ability of the player to coordinate their choices so as to create cohesion or purpose within the build, which is one of the things that people enjoy in these sort of games. 

In general the appeal of a roguelike mostly falls into the inherent appeal of the basic gameplay stuffing (so like the omens here), as well the overarching "run building" decision making. This decision making itself sits on a spectrum from local/micro decisions of the form "how do I influence my build so as to do well in the immediately upcoming encounters", and the more global/macro decisions about how to build something cohesive; "how do I build powerful synergies".
Although not especially deep at this point in time, the game does have some micro decision making; I was thinking about which order to take the omens in given how hard I was finding them/how much easier they would get, and I could often choose omens specifically to target the difficulties I anticipated based on the remaining omens.
On the other hand run definition lies in the macro decisions and this game really doesn't have any of that; instead each run is defined by an uncorrelated mush of something like twenty different memories.

I think it's ok for this game to not lean too heavily into synergistic deckbuilding because not everything has to be balatro, but I also think that it would be clearly better if the player had a greater ability to define their run. If you want to make this thing the best version of itself you should probably experiment with a lot of different versions of the run building system. I don't claim to know what's optimal here, but a simple idea that springs to mind is having a limited number of slots for memories (like jokers in balatro) which you can swap out, which I think adds a bit more depth and choice to the whole affair (a cool thing here is that there is a strong incentive to swap out elements of your build as the omens you focus on change). Relatedly, it limits the number of memories to the point where you can think about each of them individually and the run has a concrete identity. Also the adding sand option isn't very pickable right now (which is part of why you get so many memories), and I think it might be interesting if you got sand for skipping a choice of memory after seeing the options rather than having to commit to it before seeing what you might get (I'm not actually so sure about this one, but the point is that these are all things to consider). 

Looping back, the second problem is that the memories disproportionately affect certain games compared to others. The shooter games end up being fairly trivial if you leave them to the end, because you will be filling half the screen with randomly-size explosive splitting bullets, whereas the voyager game would probably be more difficult in later stages than at the start of the game (the only thing which seems to help here is some aura collection effects and enemy slowdown). There is also the fact that the games are generally a little unbalanced; in particular I think the bubbles game is really easy (maybe would be more interesting with some kind of time pressure?). To some extent the fact that certain omens are better to play at different stages of the run adds strategy, but in this case the strategy is not very subtle or interesting.

All these issues can be addressed by balancing the games and memory pool with data from playtesters. On the other hand every player will have a different experience with the relative difficulty of the games and so another consideration is to design the game in a way which is innately resilient to these differences. Namely the game should probably allow the player to manage the relative difficulty of the games with their decision-making. I think this consideration is kind of baked into the premise of the game, and so maybe this problem just goes away if the run definition is improved.

I will cap the unsolicited advice here. Looking forward to the full release!

This is such well thought out feedback, we really appreciate it! I totally get your thoughts on memories not offering enough unique builds yet - that's something I definitely want to lean into as we add more memories. Defined builds that are best suited to tackle a specific set of omens is something very inherent to the vision of the game, so we'll work toward making that more apparent in future versions.

I also particularly like the idea of offering a small amount of sand as a reward for skipping events.

(-4)

not to be rude, but...

this is unfair. and badly made. and unbalanced.

sorry.

I'm sorry to hear you weren't a fan, but we'd love to know more specifically what you felt wasn't working for you!

no easy mode, the healing is completely useless, and half the upgrades are downgrades. also, the gas in the crow place is unfairly fast. on the other side of the spectrum, the forest and the shooter thing(i forgot the name) are both too easy.

(+2)

this was beautiful. I played the whole thing in about an hour it was brilliant. the art style is so yummy and the minigames were really fun! I appreciated the simpler games interspersed with the shooting games (as i called them in my head) because I find shooters stressful as hell - though the music helped so much with that. Can't wait for a full release!!

Thank you for playing!

(-1)

Not bad, but could be better

(+1)

Hi, love the game. It was really good. 

I did get soft locked twice in the crow area (forgot what it's called)

An idea is for some of the upgrades to stack (like the magnet or brass knuckles), so that in later stages, the player doesn't have to hit the X button when choosing items (tho it's just an idea)

Hello! Sorry about the softlocks, I can confirm we've fixed that issue in the newest version!

Also, all items do currently stack! You can take unlimited items.

I love this art style, nice work

(+1)

Very unique game! Looking forward to the full game!

(+1)

Super pretty art, music, and style with creative mini games and progression

(+2)

lowk i feel like the voyager is too hard late game as i could not beat it for the life of me even when it was the last one left pls make it easier

(+1)

This is really good! Surprisingly complex for a demo, let alone a pre-demo. I like that you've already included an unlock system for replayability. The different omens keep gameplay fresh, and the items are pretty fun. I didn't get any performance issues at all, but maybe my build wasn't as busted as others.

I look forward to seeing this game grow, and I hope it gets more attention. I had a great time with it.

(+1)

Looks neat I guess but too laggy to play. 

Thank you for the feedback! Our full demo will be out in a few weeks and we've been working on a ton of optimizations that hopefully allow it to run super smooth on as many systems as possible!

(+3)

If WarioWare was a roguelike

It was great! Got near the end and broke the game. Bumpers froze up (after going down to 1 FPS) because I had split shot and lottery (among other things? I assume it's those that broke it)

Ah yep, I'm sorry about that. We've thankfully fixed that bug for our full demo, which will be up on itch in just a few weeks!

It might just be me, but because it feels really easy to go a long time without getting hit, could you please add difficulty settings? you dont have to change the base difficulty, but it would be really fun to try and play on some stupid hard mode where there are twice as many enemies who drop half as much aura or something like that. Love the base game though!

Hey thanks for playing and for the feedback! In the full release of the game we're planning to have "Nightmare Level," which is inspired by the Hades heat system (a group of difficulty modifiers tied to more unlocks). We'll make it extra difficult for you!!

I'm not sure if it's just me, but this game seems really slow. I really couldn't bring myself to try more than 3 stages because i almost fell asleep. Especially on those open area shoother sections.

Are you using gamemaker and the HTML export module? Or the OperaGX module?

(1 edit)

We use the gx.games export target as a zip and upload that!

That's pretty cool. Since GameMaker's HTML export sucks, it's good news to know I can simply use the Opera GX module and upload it here. I thought it was restricted to the Opera GX browser.

It works like a charm! And yes, there are some in-game post-processing effects that don't work on HTML builds but have no issues with gx.games - strange, but I'm glad it works as an upload

Arrow keys don't appear to work.

We don't have arrow key support on any of the game modes (but I will consider adding it!)

(+1)

Woahhhh...cool game! I wish listed immediately. I honestly can't use words to describe this experience, but I feel like this game is a rage game 😅. Keep up the great work!

Haha, we'll take it!! Thanks for playing

Can't even start dream or anything else because the buttons aren't working

I'm sorry to hear that, just confirming, are you using mouse and keyboard?

I added a keyboard and a mouse to my tablet

Ah - I'm not sure if we have support for tablets, i'm unable to test that out.

very intresting game. only issue ive noticed is i feel like theres a lack of upgrades impacting the bubble blower sim and voyager. over the course of my run my bullets changed dramatically. but those two had basically the same gameplay everytime as i dont really get to shoot in them. ive seen upgrades that could impact them but they always seemed actively detrimental (there is no point speeding up myself if it will also speed up enemies). still had a lot of fun playing!

Thank you for the feedback! This is inspiring me to plan out some new items 🤞

(+1)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Make the sticky hand not grab the skulls in voyage I lost a run to this

Otherwise this is literally one of the coolest games I've found on itch. Great job.

That's the tradeoff with sticky hand, every memory comes with a price 😈

Thanks so much for the kind words!

(1 edit) (+2)

fantastic game! i've played the demo a few times over, wishlisted it on steam - i've nearly done all the unlocks in the demo! one bug you guys may have to clean up is in the forest level w/ the lottery ticket - i lucked into a GIANT shot with it, but i think because of that w the setup of the level it IMMEDIATELY began to lag, was going at like a frame a second. (photo for ref)  ultimately it crashed/froze and i had to quit out 

(+1)

Thanks for the kind words, and sorry about this bug! I'll take a look and see if I can fix it for our full demo.

(+2)

fantastic!! if i were to give any other notes, this might be intentional (and no worries if its not, i personally dont mind planning my minigames so that the easiest are last) but it feels like the difficulty scaling for the minigames is kind of wonky if that makes sense? the flock and voyage become WAY harder as the difficulty ramps, but the forest + the bubble game are both basically the same as the easiest difficulty

That's great feedback - do you feel that has more to do with the items being more overpowered/beneficial for those games vs ones like flock and voyager, or do you feel that even if you had no items the scaling would be uneven?

(+2)

if i were to be more specific, i think that for fill the sea, both the artifacts and the difficulty ramping seem to have almost no mechanical impact on gameplay - if i pick it for my very first or very last minigame, it feels/plays very much the same regardless of progress or artifacts. there are a few exceptions, like that the chunks one does make it easier to conserve space, or making the enemies smaller, but the overall feel is very similar, and it doesn't feel like the enemies get that much harder through the level progression either. it's also sort of unclear which mechanisms (shot speed? stamina refill?) cause the bubble to fill more quickly/slower, just that occasionally it DOES feel like the speed is different.

whereas the forest kind of has the opposite problem - playing it in early game CAN be very mechanically challenging/it does feel very much like a strategic or puzzle game with how you have to count your shots and line up the obstacles. however the difference between how much the difficulty changes (not much mechanically imo in terms of obstacles etc) feels very disproportionate to how much the artifacts very quickly can ramp up how easy it is; ones that increase or randomize shot size especially, or ones like the scattershot/chunks/etc make it so that there's no mechanical difficulty whatsoever. whenever i've managed to save it for lategame, you can basically just set the obstacles wherever and shoot randomly and clear them on your first shot. maybe could be improved by adding obstacles in the higher difficulty levels that can stop projectiles in their tracks or taking away aura points if they're hit, if some level of strategic play is meant to continue? 

i'd say i actually enjoy the scaling w the flock and voyage - i think with those two in particular the concept of like. having to choose artifacts carefully because of the different game mechanics works pretty well; the example that comes to mind being that larger enemy size is good for the flock but bad for voyage, or that while the magnet is really nice to have in the aura rooms in the flock, sometimes when paired with the moon in voyage it's lost me that particular round. 

one other minor thing - i do kind of wish that there was a bit more in mirage to mechanically distinguish it from the flock, as it is it just kind of ends up feeling like a less challenging version of the flock? i dont MIND it, i have fun playing it, but of the currently available minigames i find it's the one that feels a bit more like a throwaway/spare, if that makes sense. 

thank you for your responses!! i hope this is helpful + doesn't come across as too critical, im vv excited to see the full game! :] 

This is really valuable feedback, thank you so much for taking the time to write this up!

I definitely hear you on Depths and Forest - I think for Forest we could incorporate bumpers with a lot more HP in the later difficulties to balance out the item upgrades that you've gotten so it isn't just "spam anywhere and you'll win"

For Mirage, we've tried a couple mechanics to distinguish it further and nothing's felt quite right so far. We have plans to try one more spin on it, and we'll be adding a lot more maps as well to increase variety. In my mind I see Mirage as a survival horde game, and Flock as a chase sequence!

Thanks again so much for your thoughtful feedback, it's really appreciated and helpful!

(+1)

Loved the music & sound design!

Thank you!

(+2)

this game is perfect, i really like this! i wishlisted on steam, i cant wait to play the full version. the only problem of this game, its the game lagging on web in some arcades. maybe its my computer or maybe its the bug in web verison idk

Really appreciate your kind words and for shouting out the performance! We're working on some bug fixes and optimizations for our full demo, which is coming soon!

(+2)

Truly excellent pixel art Yaaaas

why no fullscreen on web?

(+1)

There's a fullscreen toggle in the game's settings menu :)

(+2)

Actually i really love the game and i played it like an 20 minutes but "The Flock" is really really too hard, i am constantly losing my healts bcs those spikes are really odd to the game and i cannot feel them cause of the calor palette too, i think you can focus on this leveling.

(+2)

daaamn 

(+3)

Made a video

(+3)

Yooo you guys actually came back to it haha

(+2)

Yes and we are very impressed by how much was added to the original version. Now to wait for the full game that looks like it should be even bigger.

(+1)

Muy buen juego!

(+4)

I COULD PLAY FILL THE SEA FOR DAYS ITS SO GOOD

Hey thank you! In the full version we'll have full isolated arcade modes for each game so you can play that one as much as you want!

YAYYY I WORLD GET IT IF I HAD STEAM!!

(+1)

also do you know what fill the sea type of game is called?

(+1)

Unfortunately I'm not aware of too many other games like it, but it was inspired by this old flash game! https://simianlogic.com/games/filler

thank you

(+4)

Hi! Very much enjoying the pre-demo and eager to get the full release when ready! I was hoping for some clarification on the Voyage omen- do the moons make you invulnerable? Is there something I should be doing when all the elements on the screen disappear? 
Thank you!

(+2)

Hi thank you for the kind words! So you're meant to collect the moons just the same as the other Aura but they have an effect that makes everything invisible for a couple seconds, to make things harder. We could definitely try to make that more clear in the full version!

(+1)

Loved this game 8/10 the game glitched a bit when the fireball hits the wall and bounces a thousand times. Overall, cant wait for the release

(+1)

BUGGY & LAGGY
Becomes unplayably laggy in the first room, it's like moving through tar & even the audio stars breaking after a few rooms.

(+2)

a bit to buggy for me being able to play sadly, would be good with an low graphic mod

Ah I'm sorry about that! We're aware of a bit of slowdown on browser for some devices - we recommend downloading the game to desktop for the most optimized performance!

yeah, cant to that on a chroomebook, ii was not even able to beat the first few lvls with everything just broking down on me, and its also a bit unclear what  the heck you should do. but i think trying to optimice the game should be your number one priority, to get a web game actually working is really important. 

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