Himalaya Studios

Public Forums => Technical & Bugs forum => Topic started by: Merlkir on March 17, 2013, 04:07:15 PM

Title: Mage initiation demo feedback
Post by: Merlkir on March 17, 2013, 04:07:15 PM
Hi,

I just finished the demo. The puzzle part was pretty straightforward, mainly because there wasn't anything else to do beside the exact correct steps leading to solving the puzzle. So even I (I suck at puzzles) managed to get through.

The battle wasn't as fun as it seemed from the video.

- you allow WASD controls normally, but not in battle? So that I can use hotkeys with my left hand? I think I could manage both. Point clicking certainly makes running around and attacking a lot harder. And I was mostly doing just that. (accidentally I would sometimes click on a goblin instead of that spot of the background I wanted to retreat to, attacking him and wasting time, which led to me getting killed.)
- fire ring seemed to do very little and drained mana like mad.
- firebolt took forever to kill and I'd miss at the least convenient times, but hey, at least it did something.
- the fire mine/bomb thing proved to be by far the most effective spell. Only thanks to this I managed to survive the zerg attack of the last round. -> basically kiting the goblin mob around the screen and throwing fire bombs at their feet.
- the fire bomb seemed to lag the game a bit. (like a frame freeze for a second or two, sprites coming off into weird directions)

overall it just felt clunky. For a dude trained in martial arts, I felt I couldn't do much beside running away. I can't dodge, roll away or through my enemies (otherwise the gameplay and controls would remind me of Bastion a bit, which would be awesome) and there's no physical attacks, so I have to keep firebolting goblins even at close range.

Hope it's not too vague. :)

PS: snow is not white. ;P
Title: Re: Mage initiation demo feedback
Post by: MusicallyInspired on March 17, 2013, 04:39:06 PM
-WASD should work fine in battle, I'm not sure what you mean by this as it sounds like that's what you were doing...? You can also switch spell-casting from right clicking to left clicking, this combined with running with WASD is a lot easier (for me, anyway).
-The fire ring only works in close proximity when you're being swarmed. It's quite effective, actually.

Bastion's combat is actually an interesting way to describe the combat in this game, or at least compare to it. That's a great observation. I wonder if considering some of the things Bastion did for Mage's would be feasible. Chris and other programmers will have to chime in here...there's definitely work to be done to make it feel less clunky and more fluid, though, and that was the whole reason for releasing the demo, to get such feedback. :)
Title: Re: Mage initiation demo feedback
Post by: Merlkir on March 17, 2013, 04:45:28 PM
Hmmm, I wonder what went wrong then, I tried to use WASD repeatedly and died because of it. I didn't even switch any of the control options in the settings or anything. (I'll try again tomorrow)
I understood how to use the fire ring, but it didn't seem to do much damage.

Bastion is a game where I think the controls really add a ton of value and enjoyability to the game. And they're similar enough it might be quite appropriate to take a look at for inspiration.