Hey, nice start. just a few problems for me
- The "room" system doesn't really help me in any way since I'm just in an open field, but it makes the camera really janky. Often hard to see enemies that are close to me because they're technically in the next room.
- The auto targetting makes the game more boring than if I got to aim, and it disables target prioritization. It really sucks shooting at some random slime while an ogre is on my case. Hard to use magic AoE properly too. I'd rather do it myself.
- I'd really like item and buff descriptions before I buy/choose.
Reviews for "Darkwood"
ErikSwahn responds:
Thanks for letting me know! I suppose the room mechanic is not serving enough reasons right now and I am thinking of a way to fix the auto target system.
It's rather cute and spry.
The gameplay loop is rather solid. Going around the map and seeking stuff to upgrade your equipment, fight enemies and overall level up before a fight you choose to engage with yourself keeps the game quick and lively. I also like the variety of items with effects and meaningful, palpable stat changes. The vector-based artstyle while generic is executed decently well in the sense of the environment feeling rich and enemies moving about rather naturally, albeit some attacks could use extra animations. The bosses were decent and varied.
I also want to pat you on the back for realizing how the game wouldn't be fun if you could draw aggro of several enemy squads at once so they relent rather easily.
There is quite a lot you could improve upon through. The autoattack system is a bit of a snore overall but is compounded by the fact it seems to be rather janky. The enemy priority is unorthodox and it can be frustrating to have something up in your face and only have the melee attack to handle it, when most enemies outrange you or shoot projectiles. The balancing is odd, where at later stages even after investing all my levels into my HP a generic slime cleanly snapped my head off with a single projectile with no room for me to react because of..
The camera is not great. It had a nasty habit of heavily lagging behind the character, where it would take about 10-15 seconds for it to "catch up" and adjust. This is the most obtrusive issue and I am not entirely sure why it happens.
ErikSwahn responds:
Appreciate the detailed feedback. Seems people are not hype about the auto attack system that much and I have been struggling to get the right feel for the camera too. I am thinking on how to change these mechanics, and I am new to balancing. However I am glad you like the art style!
no medais? :(
ErikSwahn responds:
I am not familiar with how medals work sadly but appreciate you playing :)
Found a decent number of bugs:
Sometimes bags drop and you cannot pick them up.
Moving left for a bit and then right slowly drifts you either up or down randomly (about one left-right every second).
Some enemies don't seem to give any XP (skeletons in my case, unless that's intended).
Artstyle is fantastic, but the game feels clunky and unresponsive. And the autotargetting of arrows does the player no favors, it will target enemies rather randomly, and you might end up being hit by the boss when he's one hit away from death.
There's a lot of potential, but this needed a lot of playtesting before being released.
ErikSwahn responds:
Very valuable feedback and thanks for letting me know about those bugs! The skeletons should give XP so will look through it :)
Honestly I keep seeing stories of people dying really early but this is honestly the first game I've stopped playing before dying, because I'm now sitting at level 40, I've beaten this loop 10 times now and it genuinely seems pretty easy if I wanted to keep going so although its super easy for me I do still see how it could be difficult for others.
This game would be super awesome if it was developed more and had more abilities, items, bosses and maybe even a secret if you reach a certain level, maybe don't make that secret at level 100 though, maybe keep it at level 50 because it took me a solid while to get to level 40 and I'm not doing anymore.
Solid work though, keep it up and hopefully I'll see more stuff from you, hopefully more developed too lol
ErikSwahn responds:
Happy you played that long honestly! I used the creativity I had for the project and could not squeeze much more out at the moment. Feel it needs a bit more content myself though. Still thanks :)