Hey! This is super impressive for a first game, both at at polish level and at a game design level! I had a lot of fun playing it. I'll list some feedback below, starting with some bugs/technical things and then moving onto some more subjective thoughts about design.
1) The collision detection for picking up drops is a little finicky -- specifically, when you walk so that a drop is entirely obscured by the character's head, it feels like you should pick it up even when you don't.
2) Both you and enemies can get stuck on certain wall corners. Not sure what exactly triggers this, but it happened a lot to the energy gun boss (which was actually useful for beating it).
3) More generally, many of the free-standing walls in the laboratory section have some weird stuff with collision, I think due to the fact that they're portrayed in pseudo-perspective and it's hard to tell where the boundaries are. Specifically, the energy gun boss could shoot "through" the front of the pillars in that room (and I could shoot back) in a way that was confusing, and being able to end up "behind" the pillars in that room as well as the servers in the server room was also confusing at times.
Now moving onto more subjective stuff:
1) I think that the enemy AI could be made a little more interesting -- the fact that they mostly run straight towards you while shooting is a little repetitive. At one point, I encountered a "glitch" where two of them ran away while shooting rather than towards me, and it was actually quite fun to have to chase them down while dodging shots. Maybe enemies could do a bit of strafing or try to maintain a certain distance.
2) I think that the shotgun might be better balanced if its shots had a maximum range, i.e. if they disappeared after going a certain distance. I say this because it's a bit frustrating that there's effectively no way to avoid taking damage from shotgun-wielding enemies and it would seem to make sense if you could out-range them. However, I only used the shotgun in the server room, so I don't know -- maybe this would make it underpowered.
3) It feels a bit unfair that enemies can easily hit you from off-screen when you can't see them. Maybe their accuracy could go down when they're outside visual range.
4) The energy gun boss is so much more difficult than the rest of the game that it feels a bit out of place, and the disappearing/teleporting mechanic was a bit confusing. It also doesn't feel like it rewards the sneaking/careful approach style of gameplay as much as the rest of the game does. Maybe it could lose track of you when you flashbang it, so that you can sneak up on it and get some free damage in afterwards.
5) Not sure if this suggestion makes sense, but maybe the different enemy types could be scattered throughout the levels and drop their weapons so that you can switch weapons more freely instead of only at set points in the game. That way, the player would get to choose which weapon makes the most sense for which situation.
Apologies for the long comment and again, great job! The game is super fun as is and I think the development from feeling like it's difficult to beat even one enemy to being able to take out whole groups is really satisfying and a really cleverly done arc.
Hi, I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed playing my game! :)
The pickup radius of ammo drops does seem to be too short, so I'll increase it to make drops easier to pick up.
Enemies getting stuck on walls is an issue with pathfinding (it does not account for the size of the enemies' collision boxes). I've tried to fix it multiple times during development, however I was unable to find a solution that wouldn't end up breaking other things.
Walls actually used to be fully solid to bullets, but it caused problems when standing in front of a wall and trying to shoot. I have a solution in mind that could make wall-bullet collisions work better, so I might try experimenting with it! And after reading your comment and doing some testing I also realized that collisions with servers are somewhat broken, so I'll try fixing that too.
The AI is definitely a bit bland. That glitch was probably caused by the way I handle pathfinding (either there was a traversable gap they incorrectly assumed was too narrow or you moved and they didn't update their path quickly enough).
Trying to balance the shotgun has been finicky, but I might perhaps increase both its damage and spread, making it more suited for short range. I might also try reducing the range of all guns.
Your suggestion about the boss's behavior after being flashed does sound quite enticing! I may at least make the boss take more time to teleport after being flashed - making him more vulnerable to flashbangs.
The guns could be more spread out for sure. I think the main issue is that almost all of them are located in the lab (and the rifle and shotgun are only used in 1 or 2 levels each). I'll try giving shotguns and rifles to some of the soldiers that currently have SMGs and make all enemies drop their guns on death and see if it works well.
And finally, I'd like to thank you for your feedback! Don't worry about it being too long - it actually helps me improve the game and learn more about game development in the process. I'm very grateful that you took the time to write such a comprehensive and insightful comment!
It could've been amazing game. I love the art the feel you get when shooting, the health mecanic, and switching the weapons.
But few things needs to be improved.
1. If you shoot and you have no ammo, reload should be done automaticaly
2. If not equiped, gun should be reloaded automaticaly after 15 seconds or so
3. The douge mecanic looks more like cheeting the system then something that requires skill. If there was more things to hide behind I think it would've improve perception of this aspect of the game
4. Music. It tires you out after few minutes because of how repetetive it is and how many things it have in it. I suggest you using something ambient that plays at all times and something actiony to turn on while you are in a fight.
That beeing said I think the game has lot of potential but lacking some core moments to be user-friendly
Early in development I wanted to make the game feel tactical and making the reloads manual was intended to slow down gameplay. Later on, I decided to settle for a more arcadey style, but kept the manual reloads and some other "tactical" elements, so I get that it feels a bit out of place.
Dodging was just thrown on top of everything because I wanted to give the player another ability. It could definitely use some improvement (though I don't think there's much that can be done about it now) and I'll try to make game mechanics more grounded in actual gameplay in my future games.
As for the music, I have considered giving each environment a different track, but I didn't do it because I had some trouble finding music that would be (at least somewhat) fitting for the game. Your suggestion is great, however I'm a bit worried that the switching between tracks may be a little too frequent. I think I'll experiment with it in a future update!
Once again, thank you for the feedback. I'll see if I can revisit some of the mechanics and try to improve them a bit if I have the time. :)
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Hey! This is super impressive for a first game, both at at polish level and at a game design level! I had a lot of fun playing it. I'll list some feedback below, starting with some bugs/technical things and then moving onto some more subjective thoughts about design.
1) The collision detection for picking up drops is a little finicky -- specifically, when you walk so that a drop is entirely obscured by the character's head, it feels like you should pick it up even when you don't.
2) Both you and enemies can get stuck on certain wall corners. Not sure what exactly triggers this, but it happened a lot to the energy gun boss (which was actually useful for beating it).
3) More generally, many of the free-standing walls in the laboratory section have some weird stuff with collision, I think due to the fact that they're portrayed in pseudo-perspective and it's hard to tell where the boundaries are. Specifically, the energy gun boss could shoot "through" the front of the pillars in that room (and I could shoot back) in a way that was confusing, and being able to end up "behind" the pillars in that room as well as the servers in the server room was also confusing at times.
Now moving onto more subjective stuff:
1) I think that the enemy AI could be made a little more interesting -- the fact that they mostly run straight towards you while shooting is a little repetitive. At one point, I encountered a "glitch" where two of them ran away while shooting rather than towards me, and it was actually quite fun to have to chase them down while dodging shots. Maybe enemies could do a bit of strafing or try to maintain a certain distance.
2) I think that the shotgun might be better balanced if its shots had a maximum range, i.e. if they disappeared after going a certain distance. I say this because it's a bit frustrating that there's effectively no way to avoid taking damage from shotgun-wielding enemies and it would seem to make sense if you could out-range them. However, I only used the shotgun in the server room, so I don't know -- maybe this would make it underpowered.
3) It feels a bit unfair that enemies can easily hit you from off-screen when you can't see them. Maybe their accuracy could go down when they're outside visual range.
4) The energy gun boss is so much more difficult than the rest of the game that it feels a bit out of place, and the disappearing/teleporting mechanic was a bit confusing. It also doesn't feel like it rewards the sneaking/careful approach style of gameplay as much as the rest of the game does. Maybe it could lose track of you when you flashbang it, so that you can sneak up on it and get some free damage in afterwards.
5) Not sure if this suggestion makes sense, but maybe the different enemy types could be scattered throughout the levels and drop their weapons so that you can switch weapons more freely instead of only at set points in the game. That way, the player would get to choose which weapon makes the most sense for which situation.
Apologies for the long comment and again, great job! The game is super fun as is and I think the development from feeling like it's difficult to beat even one enemy to being able to take out whole groups is really satisfying and a really cleverly done arc.
Hi, I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed playing my game! :)
The pickup radius of ammo drops does seem to be too short, so I'll increase it to make drops easier to pick up.
Enemies getting stuck on walls is an issue with pathfinding (it does not account for the size of the enemies' collision boxes). I've tried to fix it multiple times during development, however I was unable to find a solution that wouldn't end up breaking other things.
Walls actually used to be fully solid to bullets, but it caused problems when standing in front of a wall and trying to shoot. I have a solution in mind that could make wall-bullet collisions work better, so I might try experimenting with it! And after reading your comment and doing some testing I also realized that collisions with servers are somewhat broken, so I'll try fixing that too.
The AI is definitely a bit bland. That glitch was probably caused by the way I handle pathfinding (either there was a traversable gap they incorrectly assumed was too narrow or you moved and they didn't update their path quickly enough).
Trying to balance the shotgun has been finicky, but I might perhaps increase both its damage and spread, making it more suited for short range. I might also try reducing the range of all guns.
Your suggestion about the boss's behavior after being flashed does sound quite enticing! I may at least make the boss take more time to teleport after being flashed - making him more vulnerable to flashbangs.
The guns could be more spread out for sure. I think the main issue is that almost all of them are located in the lab (and the rifle and shotgun are only used in 1 or 2 levels each). I'll try giving shotguns and rifles to some of the soldiers that currently have SMGs and make all enemies drop their guns on death and see if it works well.
And finally, I'd like to thank you for your feedback! Don't worry about it being too long - it actually helps me improve the game and learn more about game development in the process. I'm very grateful that you took the time to write such a comprehensive and insightful comment!
It could've been amazing game. I love the art the feel you get when shooting, the health mecanic, and switching the weapons.
But few things needs to be improved.
1. If you shoot and you have no ammo, reload should be done automaticaly
2. If not equiped, gun should be reloaded automaticaly after 15 seconds or so
3. The douge mecanic looks more like cheeting the system then something that requires skill. If there was more things to hide behind I think it would've improve perception of this aspect of the game
4. Music. It tires you out after few minutes because of how repetetive it is and how many things it have in it. I suggest you using something ambient that plays at all times and something actiony to turn on while you are in a fight.
That beeing said I think the game has lot of potential but lacking some core moments to be user-friendly
Hi, thank you so much for your feedback! :)
Early in development I wanted to make the game feel tactical and making the reloads manual was intended to slow down gameplay. Later on, I decided to settle for a more arcadey style, but kept the manual reloads and some other "tactical" elements, so I get that it feels a bit out of place.
Dodging was just thrown on top of everything because I wanted to give the player another ability. It could definitely use some improvement (though I don't think there's much that can be done about it now) and I'll try to make game mechanics more grounded in actual gameplay in my future games.
As for the music, I have considered giving each environment a different track, but I didn't do it because I had some trouble finding music that would be (at least somewhat) fitting for the game. Your suggestion is great, however I'm a bit worried that the switching between tracks may be a little too frequent. I think I'll experiment with it in a future update!
Once again, thank you for the feedback. I'll see if I can revisit some of the mechanics and try to improve them a bit if I have the time. :)