This update has made the gathering portion of the game much less monotonous and has actually made it fun, I think the expansion (with respect to labyrinthine-ness) of the cavern might maintain the excitement of exploration, as well as buffing the enemies heavily. The mixing of the teas is fine mechanically, there is a missing sense of sense to the ingredients and teas and the teas themselves are not independently rewarding (the buffs are underwhelming and short).
I think being able to get over the hurdle of the caverns (and saves) has made me see the potential of the game even more, but its flaws as well.
Well thank you for giving the game another shot :D
The tea is probably going to feel wonky for a while until there's enough content in the game for it to be useful. Most of these teas (so far) are combat related, but the early game enemies are weak, so that's part of why it feels underwhelming. I also wanted to encourage the player to mix the teas together and get crazy combos, so using them independently really isn't the point of the mechanic. I'll probably still update them a bunch until they feel 'right' to me.
Once again thank you for your feedback, your reviews have been very insightful, especially since I'm still struggling with gamedev tunnel-vision and all that :)
This game is very promising, and at first, when exploring, fun and exciting, but once you start spelunking is when the game starts becoming confusing and frustrating. There isn't really a maintainable sense of direction, it's difficult to tell hazards from background, it's difficult to tell where each room's "door" is, the rooms are way too restrictive to the movement and the bugs don't really add anything to the gameplay.
I think it's generally kind of bad in a game like this to have only one way to make money (from what I could tell you can't sell teas or herbs anywhere), but it's especially bad if the only way to get money is to get confused and try to map out a cave system. Which is compounded by not having a save system (from what I could tell), the ability to get stuck, and a good on its own, but terrible in repetition soundtrack. I unfortunately gave up after finding all my progress was reset after getting stuck between a plank and the diamonds I was trying to bridge over.
This did give me a laugh though, don't name your crystals like this.
To be clear, I loved this game and found its style interesting, and I initially thought I was going to give a lot of high praise, but the spelunking was a halt to momentum and enjoyment.
I'm currently trying to update the cave system/Buildbag thing to be less confusing after getting similar feedback, so you're very right about that :/ . Though please remember that this is a very very very early demo of what will probably be a long game. All of this stuff you mentioned will absolutely be worked on and polished in the future!
You can save your game by pressing Esc at any time. I intended the player to save often as dying will reset you to the last save (I will probably add this to the tutorial soon).
The money making thing is also currently in a very under-baked state. In the future you will have to actually sell your items (instead of getting money right away) and your character will have a job (plot spoilers), this current money making system is just a placeholder at the moment.
Also Gypsum crystals are real, I didn't name it like that lol
Anyways, thank you so much for your feedback!! Stuff like this is how bad games become polished ones, so thank you for not holding back honestly lol <3
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This update has made the gathering portion of the game much less monotonous and has actually made it fun, I think the expansion (with respect to labyrinthine-ness) of the cavern might maintain the excitement of exploration, as well as buffing the enemies heavily.
The mixing of the teas is fine mechanically, there is a missing sense of sense to the ingredients and teas and the teas themselves are not independently rewarding (the buffs are underwhelming and short).
I think being able to get over the hurdle of the caverns (and saves) has made me see the potential of the game even more, but its flaws as well.
Well thank you for giving the game another shot :D
The tea is probably going to feel wonky for a while until there's enough content in the game for it to be useful. Most of these teas (so far) are combat related, but the early game enemies are weak, so that's part of why it feels underwhelming. I also wanted to encourage the player to mix the teas together and get crazy combos, so using them independently really isn't the point of the mechanic. I'll probably still update them a bunch until they feel 'right' to me.
Once again thank you for your feedback, your reviews have been very insightful, especially since I'm still struggling with gamedev tunnel-vision and all that :)
This game is very promising, and at first, when exploring, fun and exciting, but once you start spelunking is when the game starts becoming confusing and frustrating.
There isn't really a maintainable sense of direction, it's difficult to tell hazards from background, it's difficult to tell where each room's "door" is, the rooms are way too restrictive to the movement and the bugs don't really add anything to the gameplay.
I think it's generally kind of bad in a game like this to have only one way to make money (from what I could tell you can't sell teas or herbs anywhere), but it's especially bad if the only way to get money is to get confused and try to map out a cave system.
Which is compounded by not having a save system (from what I could tell), the ability to get stuck, and a good on its own, but terrible in repetition soundtrack.
I unfortunately gave up after finding all my progress was reset after getting stuck between a plank and the diamonds I was trying to bridge over.
This did give me a laugh though, don't name your crystals like this.
To be clear, I loved this game and found its style interesting, and I initially thought I was going to give a lot of high praise, but the spelunking was a halt to momentum and enjoyment.
I'm sorry you felt that way :(
I'm currently trying to update the cave system/Buildbag thing to be less confusing after getting similar feedback, so you're very right about that :/ . Though please remember that this is a very very very early demo of what will probably be a long game. All of this stuff you mentioned will absolutely be worked on and polished in the future!
You can save your game by pressing Esc at any time. I intended the player to save often as dying will reset you to the last save (I will probably add this to the tutorial soon).
The money making thing is also currently in a very under-baked state. In the future you will have to actually sell your items (instead of getting money right away) and your character will have a job (plot spoilers), this current money making system is just a placeholder at the moment.
Also Gypsum crystals are real, I didn't name it like that lol
Anyways, thank you so much for your feedback!! Stuff like this is how bad games become polished ones, so thank you for not holding back honestly lol <3
Ohhh, lmao, I just didn't think there was saving.
Oh and, the game isn't bad, like I said, it's very good but the spelunking is just an unenjoyable core aspect of it.