War Smith

The game feels very interesting, especially with the design two person cooperation. But the guidance at the beginning of the game still needs to be strengthened. In terms of operation, some modifications are also needed. The pause menu cannot be closed using the commonly used return button, but must be clicked again on the same button. Besides, the materials used by craftsmen to build items will be immediately deducted, and creation will continue when the materials are not enough. I watched him swing his hammer for 3 minutes and then realized that he was just pretending he is working.

[h1]Before I played War Smith, I had a small pp, no friends, no gf, depression, and no life. These things havent changed, but the game is pretty good[/h1]

The ideas behind this game have a lot of potential, but they are executed somewhat poorly. It seems to me that the developers for this game aimed too high and missed. I have a few specific criticisms. Firstly, there is no tutorial, there are no instructions, and the abilities of each player are not explained in the slightest in-game. I was unaware that my sword ran out of durability, and my brother (who I played the game with) was unaware that the swords he kept crafting refreshed that durability. If there were even a little description of each player's capabilities in the pause screen, or a little blurb just before gameplay begins, that would be far, far better. My second (and much larger) criticism is that the game is unbalanced and unfair. It is easy to exploit the behavior of enemies, running circles around them effortlessly. The enemies only come in two variations, but I think more variety here would have been nice. The stone-hurling enemies are poorly designed, in my opinion. They periodically throw their own head at targets, and the hitbox on this massive rock is constantly active. Walking into it after you have stopped moving deals damage. After being thrown, the rock eventually returns to the golem that threw it. If the rock just disappeared after landing, it would be fine, but it sticks around as a constant hitbox. This doesn't make sense to me from both a gameplay perspective or a physics perspective. The rock has stopped moving; it should not be dealing damage. A simple solution to this would be to have the rock crumble after landing, and the golem pulls another one up from the ground. I have no qualms with the tree-stump enemies, they're passable but not perfect. I do, however, think that the towers built by the smith are essentially unimpactful after a certain point. It seems as though nothing can take more than three hits before being destroyed, and after wave two, there are so many enemies that they just plow through all defenses, destroying every wall and every ballista. The enemies always target specific things in a specific order: all enemies prioritize towers first, then the warrior player, then the smith player. The fact that they ignore the warrior even as said warrior is actively attacking them is a large flaw in the design. Enemies end up rushing the towers, destroying all of them immediately, and then pick off the players. This brings us to the capabilities of the players. The warrior player is the only player able to directly attack enemies, and frankly, it feels like they can hardly do that well. Whether or not an attack will hit an enemy is inconsistent; there's no clear indication of where the attack hitbox is or even where the enemy hurtbox is. Playing as the warrior felt like fighting against not just the enemies, but the game. My brother, who played as the smith, felt the same way about his character. The warrior respawns less than five seconds after being killed, making their death almost meaningless- that is, until wave five comes along. Up until this point, there were no consequences to dying as the warrior. Now, each time you die, you need to pick up a new sword (which can only be crafted by the smith) or else you can't attack or do anything. In essence: dying means nothing, until suddenly it doesn't. Neither of these extremes are good from a game design perspective, especially an intentional shift from one to the other. It shows an awareness, an intentionality behind the decision. And by wave five, dying is incredibly easy, as hordes of enemies have already annihilated every tower and hunt down the players. To summarize, the game feels like an uphill battle that ends because the rules suddenly and inexplicably change. The concept and core gameplay absolutely has the potential to be fun, but crucial elements are executed poorly and make the game difficult in unmitigatable ways for the players. The game lacks explanation, structure, and, most importantly of all, balance. Each of my sessions ended the same: my brother running in circles as I repeatedly die, wading into the mosh pit of enemies desperately trying to land one or two hits on an enemy, over and over and over. Then, at round five, deaths suddenly matter and the game is unwinnable. There may be potential in this game, but the mechanics are so poorly implemented that such potential is stifled and crushed. Everything in the game should matter. Player death, towers, the warrior's attacks (which are nigh impossible to hit at all) all mean nothing. The good version of this game is consistent, balanced, clear in its goal and instructions, and makes the actions of both players matter. Currently, it is none of those things. I hope the developers of this game go on to take these things into account in their future endeavors. If you are reading this, I want you to know that your ideas are good, but I think you struggled to bring them to life well. Bringing out all the potential in an idea takes a fine hand. I'm also not blind to the potential challenges that may have been faced when developing this game; the graphics are good, the art is good, and as far as visual presentation goes, the developers did a phenomenal job. However, a gilded frame cannot make a bad piece of art good. The metaphorical painting needs to be reworked and rethought. I can only look at this game in the vacuum of what I see, and I see something that needs to be improved.

I think the two-person coop is a very cool idea and something that has become less mainstream in the more recent games that seem to focus on online multiplayer. It reminds me of when my sister and I used to sit down at our old home computer and play fire boy and water girl when I was younger. I really love the art style of this game and I think it's a fun game to just chill with a friend and play. Keep up the good work :)

Overall I thought that this was a very cute game and had a lot of fun playing it! The concept is very solid and the art style is probably my favorite part. The only thing I can recommend is work on some balancing issues and other minor details, but overall it was a very solid game for its stages!

The game has a satisfying menu, and the sound is nice as well. The controls were a little bit confusing to figure out, but once I figured them out the game was engaging and fun. The gameplay is fun and simple, which makes for a good experience as a player. Would recommend playing with two players.

I enjoyed playing this game. It was difficult to start because the directions weren't very clear, but once i figured it out it was quite fun. It reminded me of the Overcooked series of games and seemed to be inspired by them because of similar control schemes. One thing I would recommend for the developer is to add some UI pop ups when you get near to something you can interact with, especially as the blacksmith, because sometimes it is unclear as to what you should be doing.