Thanks!
[Framerate]
How do you know the framerate?? I mean, why do you think it has lower framerate?
[Handholdy]
Yep, in the beginning there's some of this for new players.
[End of demo]
Mmhmm, so you didn't kill the first boss and get the first stat?? In the other hand, you don't necessarily have to backtrack, you can move between save points. The end of the demo is a message that literally says "this is the end of demo"
[alt-f4]
Interesting, I will make note of it
Thanks for playing the game!
I just beat the boss and finished the demo!
The framerate/game speed is very obviously around 30 due to how the vines on the wall near the beginning are animated. However, because of how the player, most enemies, and bullets move - multiple pixels per step - it feels worse than 30.
There is a big difference between telling a player "touching this saves your game" and "go to the right so you can save your game because there's a save point over there". If you make an adventure game, you are directly undercutting the adventure, thereby making the game worse. I understand holding new players' hands a bit, but this occurs potentially 30+ minutes into the game, after the player has become familiar with the controls and gameplay, and after several rooms where you can take multiple paths.
Backtracking means going to places where you've been before. It's not inherently a bad thing. Whether you have to walk to previous places or are able to warp there, it's still backtracking. It also doesn't help that the map doesn't indicate if there's an exit you haven't gone to.
A few very minor issues I had that can be solved easily:
- This is about the map thing I mentioned earlier. You could solve that by doing what most Metroidvania games do and show where exits are even if you haven't gone through them. This simple change makes players infinitely less liable to scour every single corner of the map if they get lost.
- It's not immediately obvious what you can use power-ups on. A common way of dealing with this is by trapping the player in a small room after they get the power-up, and the only way out is to use it.
- There's no visible way of knowing whether or not you can use your power. Perhaps you can make the icon dark until it is recharged?
I was humming some of the songs from the game while writing this out. They can get to be real earworms in the best possible way. The boss was a great example of a first boss. Large, slow, easily dodged attacks, and a recognizable pattern. I also loved the anti-cheese in the form of it doing 50%+ damage when I ran into it point-blank. I look forward to fighting more bosses in the future!