I REALLY want to like this game, but: (mostly played the roguelike mode after playing adventure mode)
[b]UI & UX (user interface and user experience):[/b]
- The red & pink-ish color palette on the floating tips texts gives me (and other people I know) a headache, it's extremely hard to read as it's not the best color for a text font (color theory regarding UI), can be fixed by simply changing to a different color, like pure red, but I assume this color was chosen because of the main game palette, so I won't recommend this, but you could select a different color from your game palette;
- Plus, the font letters most of the times (on floating tips) sometimes leaves the letters too close together, making it even hard to read (the letters blobs together, making it hard to discern letters apart), can be easily fixed by giving an outline for every letter, this is highly recommended for any game (or change the text font, but it could artistically change your design, so I won't recommend that);
- When switching between options sets the screen dark and then goes back to normal, this gives heavy headaches for people with photosensitivity issues. The issue is not the darkening part but the sudden darken instead (like it goes from 100% to 0% instantly), can be fixed by slowly going dark (just 100ms is enough) instead of instantly.
- For some reason, whenever you start the game, the "tap to dash" option goes back to default (ON), meaning you have to disable it every time you open the game;
- Sometimes you can get stuck when moving diagonally to a horizontal wall (like the map tiles have different sizes, probably a hitbox floating error);
- Getting several dropped items at the same time (like the star bounty points or even simply the cogs when you recycle something) spams the SFX and deafens you for 2 seconds, even if game volume is at 10%, can be easily fixed by clipping specific types of SFX, or setting an array of played sounds so they don't climb each other (waveforms wont stack together, and are played one behind the other at the same time by overlapping);
- Regarding game volume also, every time you start the game it does that deafening sound effect at maximum volume, even if the master volume is at 10%, likely a hardcoded variable, can be fixed by getting the player's volume configs and modulating accordingly;
- If you open the menu (pausing) by pressing ESC, you cannot close it as easy as pressing ESC again, you gotta click the resume button... Easily fixable by listening for the ESC key press and execute the same script as for clicking the resume button;
- You cannot compare guns as easily, like to compare to your own gun that you have, best way possible is to have the gun you want to compare on your second slot and the new gun on the first slot, then pressing ESC to see the stats, which is a shame because of the other problem that you need to press the button instead of re-pressing ESC.
[b]Balance (mechanics):[/b]
- Game balance is nonexistent (kind of), your starter weapon is stronger than 90% of all of the other weapons, including rarer weapons (at least for the first character), it's way better to just upgrade your starter and recicle every other weapon (you can keep stronger late-game weapons), can be easily fixed by either making other guns stronger or the starter one weaker;
- Another on the game balance is that giving spectral bullets for enemies and spamming 4 enemies per 5 seconds is not the greatest idea: if you ignore them on the middle of the map (like you want to explore the corners), when you go back to the middle there will be 30 enemies spamming 10 bullets per second per enemy giving you a too hard of a time, even if you have 20 items equipped. Can be fixed by lowering enemy spawn rate (you can make them stronger instead) or having a different roster every group of enemies (like instead of spamming the same enemy for 2 minutes straight, you can spawn a different group of enemies for every spawn). This type of problem is very common on this type of gamemode (like RoR 1 and 2) so they usually make the enemies chase the player no matter where he is, so the overall number of this type of enemy evens out.
- Some enemies doesn't have delays between different types of actions, like the fly-like enemy that floats and goes back to the ground: the same instant it reaches the ground it shoots.
- Enemy HP regen is a good idea, but it's VERY fast, even on lower difficulties/levels, they regen very fast making chipping enemy health unfeasible. Either give them all a shield and make the HP not regen, or lower the time between not receiving damage to starting the health regen.
Some of these points are mostly from playing other games of the same style, it's easy to compare to extremely successful games (like what this game was inspired from, which I presume it's Nuclear Throne and Risk of Rain 1/2), but my point isn't comparison, but more of a common standpoint on typical game design, so almost all of these aren't opinion based.
Apart from that, here's a few things I liked:
- The gun game is fun, you can spam clicks to shoot faster which is a good thing;
- The 'solid' graphics on the sprites is something also cool, instead of having tons of texturing this gives a more cartoon-esque feel which is fun;
- I preferred much more the other gamemode that looks like Risk of Rain because of the roguelike elements (and items that can modify gameplay), but the adventure mode is a bit fun as well.
