Ver 0.950a
[ GAMEPLAY - Physics ]
[ GAMEPLAY - Enemies ]
Hungry Mid-Run Boss now fixed
Now, when it eats the highest tier gem, it only impacts the very next attack, not all future attacks.
(Previously was getting trapped in a "0" attack cycle.)
Hungry Mid-Run Boss HP reduced 12.5%
Bat HP was increased 20%. For some reason, for battle 1, it was in the ~360 range instead of the intended 430 range.
[ UI ]
Brand new font(s) used for most information (for English).
I tried to choose font(s) that felt more thematically appropriate.
I have tried to come up with a more consistent scheme. One font for "headers" and another font for "information"
However, I haven't tried these new font(s) on Steam Deck or 1080p yet, so I may need to edit further.
Also fixed one minor bug where the Health was showing up in the Duplicate / Trash / Inscribe screens, and underlying issue causing it.
My apologies if this font choice is somehow worse, I will keep improving and also hope to one day give players options for different fonts in my path to enable localization for a few other languages.
[ FEEDBACK ]
I didn't forget about you! The bright blocky modern menu font on the main screen, and in most other screens, should be mostly gone. I bet I missed one or two places, but I hope it's overall more cohesive and immersive.
I'm sorry for this negative experience. The boss I think you are referring too is quite difficult, but I wonder if the language was also unclear -- forging a diamond helps, but is not strictly necessary. Saving stones by choosing not to forge, so that you can forge 15+ at one time sometimes works out.
That being said, I see from the data (from those willing to share their data) that Beetle Bane depth 1 absolutely needs revision. Perhaps on Beetle Shield, perhaps on the final boss.
I will also reflect on whether I should share the exact modifiers for the bosses in advance. I promise to reflect on it deeply, though I'm not sure what the final outcome will be.
"Better every time I play feels fresh.
Make enemies pop up on screen. I barely see them
When i bring my cursor to the farmost edge of the chest it makes my coin/gem bounce weird. If the player moves the cursor to the far right or left it should default a straight down shot.
Keep it up bruh"
Thank you for the kind praise! I remember one game I really enjoyed, Die for the Lich, had a great way of highlighting enemies, using a yellow outline / shadow. I may explore whether that's viable for this game. (Maybe color-coding the shadow to fit the chest rarity...)
For dropping along the edges, it was a slightly tricky situation. Basically, because gems have different sizes (including special cases like refined gems / volcano rune / east wind), I was worried I'd mess up on predicting exactly what would be the right limits to ensure it doesn't bump into the side. And in somewhat rare situations, it's actually kind of advantageous to have it "fall off the side", so having it go all the way to the edge can help in those situations. Lastly, I've been thinking about modifying "Mirror Rune" so that you must bump it into the side to trigger the effect.
But, that being said, I'm not opposed to a UI option where the drop range is reduced so that players who don't like it don't need to worry about this. I'll have to think about how to impose it but if this is something other players would also prefer, please let me know!
The gameplay loop was really rewarding esp supported by the great music. My friend kept saying it was just like Bean Machine, I think that's a compliment, mainly he was speaking about the rocks landing. Great game and with more interactions, would be infinitely replayable. Great job!
Thank you! I will also pass along your praise to Fadlan Amada, who did the music. He loves receiving feedback from players.
Your friend is super perceptive! Actually, to some extent, more than Suika or those games, I was inspired by Puyo Puyo and Bean Machine. I always loved that feeling of having this absolute wall of rocks slamming down, and trying to dig my way out of that mess. But when switching from a grid-like system (in Puyo Puyo / Bean Machine) to a freeform physics system, I felt the Suika method of requiring only two things to touch would be a better fit. Still, there are echoes of it throughout the game, like the Alchemy Handle (which requires 3 coppers to touch) and the Horseshoe Rune, which eliminate the resulting forge (as per Puyo Puyo / Bean Machine).
I will keep trying to add more content and variability. I'm also polishing + iterating on existing items to try and make them more engaging. Thank you for the energy!
Oh golly I have to say this is the first time I've ever received praise specifically for the UI. Thank you!!! I'm going to keep pushing on it, I know there's some areas that need improvement, but it's still nice to hear. For difficulty, I was thinking I might want to do a "Depth 0" so that people aren't held back from unlocking content, especially for accessibility reasons. I kind of have an idea of what Depth 0 might be, something like "Enemies do not get more health across battles" -- that is, a Flighty Bat on Battle 1 and Battle 6 would have the same exact HP. But maybe something like "1 fewer wave per battle" or "1 fewer enemy per wave" might also work. I welcome feedback from the community about what might be more accessible or interesting -- please feel free to share in game, in discord, or on steam discussion boards.
Hello Developer! I want to be so wordy I wish I knew your "jargon" to explain better I will try to be brief. This game seems VERY good.
Gameplay overall seems perfect youll notice my ideas are more of a "cool" factor and user helpful. I would and will buy the game as it is. Great Job Developer! Ok bullet points now.
-MUSIC is such a vibe can you add more to make it INCredible. I hope so.
-BACKGROUNDS need more variety and a little more color.
-ART style is unique, handdrawn, whimsical, matches music.. a Chef's Kiss!
-ENEMIES need to punch "harder". MAybe a tad more damage or Maybe just damage effects and more unique sounds have them go in front of the playfield for a second obscure the crate for a second. Otherwise I'm barely paying attention out of my peripheral they dont feel like a threat.
-ROCK FALL add slowdown? There are moments where I can drop a coin while rocks fall..I think there should be a slight time slow to give player time to strategically drop coin before the rocks hit. It could be upgradeable or shovel upgrade..
-SHOVEL system is awesome love the variety and the ones that let you penetrate deeper. MAKE them shinier when they are rare!
-MAP NODES are cool needs to pop more i struggled with seeing where i am and what are my next options and what did i just do "X" out nodes that are cleared clearly not just darken and have more clarity of direction. I see the conveyor showing the path but idk arrows or little gems and ore traveling along the belt.. something to show what has been completed and what are the next choices.
-I WISH i was dropping a few more coins per turn it feels a little short.
This game really seems great I want to play it more and more!
Thank you so much for all of your very kind praise and suggestions! I wanted to reply in detail (your 'jargon' was spot on, no worries!). Reply # correspond to your bullet points.
MUSIC -- We (well I should say Fadlan, he's the talent behind the music) are composing additional songs, but I am sorry this takes some time. The current songs in the game were developed over a continuous period of 16 months or so. But I do hope to include at least a few more in the final release. I'm also thinking about some options for players under music settings such as "pure random" and "one song per battle" -- right now songs are separated by zones, but I think it could also be "one song per battle". Still thank you for the wonderful praise that I will pass on to Fadlan.
BACKGROUNDS -- For the Crystal Ribcage, I do have this additional lighting option(s) but it was leading to non-trivial slowdown, so I will keep exploring this. So for that one, I have some ideas. For the Mines and Mushroom Forest, I'm not sure, but maybe I could consider a sort of graphics slider for background saturation... I'd of course love to include more backgrounds, but I also want to include more monsters and bosses, so it's a bit tricky to balance priority. (There are limits to the art pipeline, as you mention it's handdrawn and sometimes needs multiple revisions.). My general philosophy for the backgrounds is that they should not distract too much from the monsters, but I did have one player suggest something interesting, where the "Duplicate / Trash / Inscribe" screens are engaged with the environment backgrounds, rather than my abstract backgrounds. I'm still reflecting on this.
ART -- Thank you! I will pass your comments to the talented Brian Shepard!
ENEMIES -- This is a bit tricky. In Version 0.947a, I made the regular enemies punch quite a bit harder and it generally led to a decrease in enjoyment -- see the graph here:
View game page
I do have thoughts on how to improve the situation. Right now, the waves for each battle are roughly (2,3,4,5,6,7) by default or (3,4,5,6,7,8) with the +1 wave depth. I'm considering increasing HP, giving monsters a chance to last longer, but changing the waves to (2,3,3,4,4,5). This would require changing the "Start Wave" shovels, as they would be essentially nerfed, but that's okay.
However, I think maybe a combination of increased enemy health and increased health potions from chests might still be viable. I want to keep iterating on this point slowly so I don't end up frustrating players. But it is at the top of my mind, and I appreciate the feedback.
ROCKFALL -- Oh I quite enjoy this idea! I will probably add it to the "Other" tab in the menu in an upcoming patch. On this note there is one relevant shovel that's not in the demo, and one crate also not in the demo, that kind of touch upon this topic.
MAP NODES -- Interesting, I can probably add a light red X over the other nodes without much trouble. But I wonder if it's better to just have a button pop up if the player crate is off screen, like "Center on player". Let me reflect on this more, thank you.
WISH -- There are a few shovels that touch upon this desire~. Hopefully you can get some of them and a copycat shovel, and have a blast... :D
Thank you everyone for your feedback and thoughts. I read them every day, positive and negative, and both give me direct motivation to continue polishing. Hopefully I can patch more this week!
