Thank you, there's some really valuable feedback, I'll address some points.
that "crash", was it the windows overlay with program stopped responding or just instant quit? B on controller was bound to Esc by default which simply closes the game, I don't own a controller so didn't think about it early. I made a quick build with controller support (https://my.mixtape.moe/wtkiro.zip), could you just check if it works at all? Bumpers for slash and shoot, A for jump.
the inertia is necessary to make it impossible to climb walls, I don't want them to be climbable.
I'll admit the game is pretty demanding, I want it to be but no pixel perfect jumps so I'll adjust some levels, I want to keep what you called puzzle aspect as well of figuring out what to do and in what order
The tutorial text appears when you actually need it, you can use some abilities earlier as you did but you don't need them to complete the level
https://my.mixtape.moe/kolxtw.mp4 I recorded a quick run, there are some areas where you thought extreme precision was needed or you thought you were stuck like that level with walljump tutorial text (look at that part in my run), I'll try to make the design more clear but this was also the puzzle part so I want to keep the figuring out what to actually do and make it clearer when you are trying to do something in a way that's impossible. I guess it will vary between people too, take a look at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262780391?t=03h42m55s , he figured out the levels you were stuck on faster and beat the whole demo, still I want to make the game a bit more accessible so feedback from you who played worse was more valuable
I'm glad it was useful! I'll try the game with the controller input and see how that goes.
That crash showed "not responding" when I hit the button while in full-screen but not when the game was windowed, for some reason.
"the inertia is necessary to make it impossible to climb walls" - technically not true! The typical way to do this is to make it so that the player has no air control for a brief period of time after wall-jumping (the game just moves them away from the wall), and then giving it back to the player after. In some games like Megaman X the time is brief and that lets you climb up walls. Other games tweak the timing so you can't climb. But the air control and inertia is independent of this, so you can tweak that however you like with this method.
I checked out the playthrough "prettysober" did on Twitch that you linked. Honestly it did not inspire much confidence. :P He didn't get stuck on one level for 20 minutes like I did but he still struggled a lot, even with the earliest stages. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with making a hard game (hopefully it's hard in the good ways). But I would urge you to consider not using levels like these as your "tutorial." A tutorial should focus on explaining the mechanics, not testing your abilities (or your patience)-- that can come later!
I'd suggest adding an explanation as part of your tutorial that sometimes the order in which you should kill enemies is not always what you might think at first. Sometimes level design can suggest things which the player make take at face-value rather than thinking of different approaches, unless you point out that thinking that way is a part of the game.
Here's another vid I made for you. Some problems here but it plays MUCH better with the gamepad!
Thank you again, you didn't miss much, you quit on the last level. About the tutorial being too hard, maybe I worded it wrongly, it's not structured like:
learn new stuff, learn new stuff, learn new stuff, expand, expand, expand, challange, challange, challange
It's:
Learn new stuff, expand, challenge. Learn new stuff, expand, challange. You didn't have trouble with the first slashing level, first walljump level, first shooting level, did you? It was 2 or 3 levels later when it ramped up after you already learned new mechanic, I think it works better than dumping tutorial with everything first when you won't even need it until later like shooting.
Hey man, that does make sense. Maybe in the final game you could ramp it up more gradually though? You might lose a lot of players if they get hung up within the first 10 levels before they can get hooked. Just my opinion. Keep up the good work!
The controls are way too slippery for my liking, mostly due to the high horizontal speed and the fact it goes from full stop to full speed immediately. I couldn't figure out the third level or how to get the collectible in the second level, and the tension involved in making the wall jumps actually made my hand hurt. However, other than the level design being hard to read or the controls being hard to understand, it seems to all be functioning as intended. I would recommend the keyhole/doorway change in some way (or just appear in the first place) once you've beaten the enemies to indicate you can go in it, at least for the first level.
Do you play pure platformers like Celeste or Meat Boy? The acceleration can't be low in those otherwise it feel unresponsive, it doesn't accelerate to max speed instantly but it's very fast. What exactly couldn't you figure out in the third level? Here's a solution: https://my.mixtape.moe/iaqcjn.mp4 What do you mean by wall jumps? If you couldn't pass the third level you haven't yet reached any levels which require wall jumps.
I think I grabbed a different version or something, those ghost enemies looked different in the demo I played and the third level didn't look like that, and I think the game page has been changed since I downloaded it. That said, no I haven't played Super Meat Boy or similar games before other than some other people's demos. Maybe if I'd played it with a controller the acceleration and direction changing wouldn't seem so jarring, but I didn't feel like it setting it up. The game is also quite a bit smoother in that video, so maybe my system had to do with it.
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Thank you, there's some really valuable feedback, I'll address some points.
I'm glad it was useful! I'll try the game with the controller input and see how that goes.
Here's another vid I made for you. Some problems here but it plays MUCH better with the gamepad!
Thank you again, you didn't miss much, you quit on the last level. About the tutorial being too hard, maybe I worded it wrongly, it's not structured like:
learn new stuff, learn new stuff, learn new stuff, expand, expand, expand, challange, challange, challange
It's:
Learn new stuff, expand, challenge. Learn new stuff, expand, challange. You didn't have trouble with the first slashing level, first walljump level, first shooting level, did you? It was 2 or 3 levels later when it ramped up after you already learned new mechanic, I think it works better than dumping tutorial with everything first when you won't even need it until later like shooting.
Hey man, that does make sense. Maybe in the final game you could ramp it up more gradually though? You might lose a lot of players if they get hung up within the first 10 levels before they can get hooked. Just my opinion. Keep up the good work!
The controls are way too slippery for my liking, mostly due to the high horizontal speed and the fact it goes from full stop to full speed immediately. I couldn't figure out the third level or how to get the collectible in the second level, and the tension involved in making the wall jumps actually made my hand hurt. However, other than the level design being hard to read or the controls being hard to understand, it seems to all be functioning as intended. I would recommend the keyhole/doorway change in some way (or just appear in the first place) once you've beaten the enemies to indicate you can go in it, at least for the first level.
Do you play pure platformers like Celeste or Meat Boy? The acceleration can't be low in those otherwise it feel unresponsive, it doesn't accelerate to max speed instantly but it's very fast. What exactly couldn't you figure out in the third level? Here's a solution: https://my.mixtape.moe/iaqcjn.mp4 What do you mean by wall jumps? If you couldn't pass the third level you haven't yet reached any levels which require wall jumps.
I think I grabbed a different version or something, those ghost enemies looked different in the demo I played and the third level didn't look like that, and I think the game page has been changed since I downloaded it. That said, no I haven't played Super Meat Boy or similar games before other than some other people's demos. Maybe if I'd played it with a controller the acceleration and direction changing wouldn't seem so jarring, but I didn't feel like it setting it up. The game is also quite a bit smoother in that video, so maybe my system had to do with it.