Not much to say, pretty cool. Out of curiosity, how much is this inspired by Crawl : P?
Reviews for "The Depths"
I really liked this game, and have come back to play again after making it through the story mode a few times. It's simple, but very difficult, and the sound design is great- way better than most submissions.
One issue I haven't seen in other comments is the timing for the sword-wielding enemies on level one. It seems to me like they can deal damage before the animation and sound effect of the sword swing. Since the animation and sound are the two things that give the player cues about timing, those things should come before damage.
It's cool to have enemies generate randomly at each level, but I don't think there's much of a point for enemies to drop random amounts of money for such a short game, where being able to buy power-ups/health is really important, but there aren't enough stages for that kind of variability to matter much. This was an awesome game. Thanks!
Even though the game is short, it makes up for this fact with its well constructed setting and game play. First and foremost, the art-style is excellent. Every single pixel fits perfectly with the charmingly fresh setting of the threatening, yet playful and lighthearted, "depths." The designs of the characters are very coherent and some designs don't stand out from the others. The animation is also excellent in creating vibrant figures, whose personalities are portrayed through their movements. The sound effects only add to the playful and unique nature of the game.
Onto the gameplay; Eaufu and isaacnite have ingeniously designed this game. In particular, the second level was well balanced with its use of fast moving goblins and mostly stationary spiders, who created little spawn to slow the player down. The first level seemed to have no faults with the recovery time of the red demons allowing the player to either attack them or to dodge the projectiles from the slippery green abominations. The only issue with the third level was that the green clouds dissipated at a bit too slow of a rate. It would have been better if the clouds couldn't damage you when they're reduced to only a few, 4-6, pixels (it would have been even better to cut the last 1-2 animation frames to compensate). I didn't find any issues with the tiny bats; teleporting is your friend here! However, the fourth level was a drastic decrease in difficulty from the third. One could simply bash at the wizards and repeatedly teleport out of the way of the explosions of the flames. I played v1.3; thus I assume that you altered the difficulty of this level, which is glaringly evident. This decline in difficulty hurt the continuity of the game since as opposed to getting more difficult, it suddenly became easier. I understand that players complained about the difficulty of the game, but the players should understand that this game was meant to be difficult >_>. Unless the past versions were unfair to the players, I don't think a change was justified. Moreover, a difficultly setting could have been implemented.The current version (1.3) could have been the easy/medium setting of the game.
Now after the fourth level, the game runs into a few issues. Prior to this point, I only encountered innocuous glitches (enemies spawning on the wall) that didn't affect progression or play-ability. In the rest period before the battle with the boss of the fifth level, my character was able to attack and teleport in this "lobby." I'm unaware as to whether or not this glitch afflicts other parts of the game or always happens on the rest period before the fifth level. This is since I've only reached the fifth,and presumably, last level once. This glitch is problematic since your mana meter is depleted through teleportation and can't replenish until the fifth stage begins; and you need teleportation here. Like the other enemies, there was nothing wrong with neither the fifth stage boss's design nor tactics.
On the use of money in the game, I think that the value of each coin should be increased slightly while the prices of upgrades should increase in smaller increments. By collecting most of the cash in the first four levels, I was able to heal twice and upgrade 3 times. Assuming that the fifth level boss is the last, I think that this value should change to 2 heals and 4 upgrades. Though, this issue is debatable.
Overall; even though this game did have faults in its later levels, it was charmingly fresh and started out strong. Looking at the profiles of Eafu and isaacnite, this game is very impressive as a first game. I hope that you two continue to make games. I look forward to the day that you two release another one. :)
It's ok. Could be better.
Whenever i see "Made by Stencyl" i say SON OF A BITCH.