These are my first impressions after a few games, I haven't yet grasped or mastered the game's entire system yet so I won't offer all of my thoughts as they are still developing, but I think my first impressions are still valuable.
The input/keyboard system doesn't feel very good. The controls don't feel streamlined enough, some of the inputs just feel meaningless and it weakens the immersion of the game, most notably how the shop has 4 keys to buy when you use none of those keys elsewhere and how there is a button to cycle through the inventory but does nothing else. I think the reason some the controls are bad is because you didn't want to pause the game while the inventory/shop are open, so you created additional inputs. Of course as you play more you also adapt to the way the input works and it doesn't become too much of an issue, but I still think it could be better.
My suggestions/thoughts about how it might be improved:
- The potion amounts in the inventory menu are unnecessary, the amount of potions is already displayed with icons in the bottom right corner of the screen. Couldn't the life bottle be shown there too?
- Is the inventory screen needed? If not, the 6 slot icons could be in a line at the bottom or something, which you can cycle through. If yes, then maybe it would be best to disable movements etc. so you can just use the arrow keys to move around the inventory (this saves having to have a cycle button) and also maybe an item description could be displayed as you cycle? I think I had a glove at one point but don't know what it did. A similar thing could also be said of the shop/witch.
- I don't feel that having to hold left or right against a wall is necessary, I think while you're next to a wall you should automatically attach to it. Since you'll still slide down anyway, but just means you don't have to press left/right while also pressing Up. Is there ever a time where you don't need to hold left/right next to a wall anyway? Maybe it's just a D-Pad issue as holding 2 directions on a controller D-Pad is dum and sometimes doesn't work (i.e., you fall a lot by accident even when your trying to hold left and up) lol.
The graphics are enjoyable for a resolution so small, there's tons of nice dynamic lighting effects and most things are highly animated. So far the small sprite sizes didn't cause too much difficulty in discernment, only sometimes when enemies overlap other things. The colour choices are all pretty pleasing. The effects for everything is satisfying and impacting: the subtle movement dust effects, the double jump violet glowing state, the fall effect, the screen transitions, etc. are all fantastic.
I got a runtime error just after I tried starting a new game, this happened after I'd already died a few times though. I'm assuming this is a layout change bug or something with Construct though. Also is it possible to put all those .wav files a in a folder rather than have them swarming around the .exe file?
I liked how the levels were different each time I went in, although one time there were balloon-like objects that took me to the top of a few areas really easily and it felt like I was cheating!
Is it possible to have some video options? Like different scales/sizes, also are you able to put an option for that depixelize effect in as well (I'm really curious about how it would look!)?
By the way this is how I mapped my controls to my USB snes pad, if anyone has a better setup show me!link
Even though a lot of this post I spent criticizing it, I am enjoying this game so far! <img src="smileys/smiley4.gif" border="0" align="middle">