Mage Lords of Brams (VS clone)

[Justinian]

I think it's worth giving my game its own thread at this point. As of today my last major Alpha update went up. Next update will switch to beta and all the content should be in (just some polish, balance changes, UI updates and some sounds left, and bugs of course!). Since next update will have more content added than any previous content, and I've put in no effort to advertise it, I'm not sure the current version is bug free.

So I'm offering free Steam keys to anyone interested, until I run out of the current stash (20).

Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2078710/Mage_Lords_of_Brams/

 

[Justinian]

I thought getting all my attacks done would make me happy, but I'm more giddy about the sadistic bosses I have planned for the hardest levels.

One that gains permanent movement speed bonuses when he attacks. And he attacks fast.

Another that summons a copy of himself everytime he attacks. He also randomly teleports in your vicinity every 3 seconds. He's slow but you can never truly kite him. Only saving grace is that his summons have his current health, so you won't have to keep
fighting a new full health boss every time, but still.

Both of these will really fuck you up if you have summons since there will be lots of fodder for them to attack and build up their power.

 

[kroki]

Is it good design to punish summon builds just because boss powers up on hit? Many games struggle with balancing summoners. They usually do well against regular enemies but suck on boss encounters.

 

[Justinian]

Is it good design to punish summon builds just because boss powers up on hit? Many games struggle with balancing summoners. They usually do well against regular enemies but suck on boss encounters.

I'll find out once I start testing. I should've finished the game this month but it's taking forever because my motivation to keep working on the same thing has taken a serious hit.

Several summons have a chance to instakill regular enemies and almost all instakills reduce a % of current health when they hit bosses. My intention isn't to punish summons per se but to discourage people from using the same types of skills all the time. Some levels have enemies that destroy projectiles, which will impact piercing projectiles. One of the new levels has an enemy that heals all other enemies when it dies, making aoe in general a lot less effective.

The other issue with this type of game is that bosses in general aren't very interesting. Or at least they weren't in Vampire Survivors. They were just HP sponges. So I want some bosses that break the flow of the game and have to be planned for in future runs.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Justinian I haven't played this game and I understand you're not going to change it in any significant manner, however from viewing the video on the Steam page, I have two main feedback points that may be considerations for the future:

1) With all the coloured balls moving around and then the enemies, I found it kind of "mashed" together visually, so it was hard to tell what was what and see what was going on. In fact, in the early part of the video, I wasn't clear if the balls were enemies, projectiles, XP, or something else. Now, the main thing I understand is that they're not enemies since those look like guys. A more distinct / colour palette may help make different elements of the game "pop" and remain distinct even as things get hectic. I'm no artist, so that's about all I can say about that.

2) The video, for showcasing your game, appears that it's experiencing some significant stuttering and/or slowdown in several places. If that's an element of the game where you can slow down time, I'd try and make that apparent. If it's actually slow down, I'd try and re-record video on a better rig or of different sections in order to remove showing the game blowing up your PC.

Keep at it, the one review that you have on Steam suggests that there are some really great ideas and elements in what you put out. Best of luck!

 

[Justinian]

Justinian I haven't played this game and I understand you're not going to change it in any significant manner, however from viewing the video on the Steam page, I have two main feedback points that may be considerations for the future:

1) With all the coloured balls moving around and then the enemies, I found it kind of "mashed" together visually, so it was hard to tell what was what and see what was going on. In fact, in the early part of the video, I wasn't clear if the balls were enemies, projectiles, XP, or something else. Now, the main thing I understand is that they're not enemies since those look like guys. A more distinct / colour palette may help make different elements of the game "pop" and remain distinct even as things get hectic. I'm no artist, so that's about all I can say about that.

2) The video, for showcasing your game, appears that it's experiencing some significant stuttering and/or slowdown in several places. If that's an element of the game where you can slow down time, I'd try and make that apparent. If it's actually slow down, I'd try and re-record video on a better rig or of different sections in order to remove showing the game blowing up your PC.

Keep at it, the one review that you have on Steam suggests that there are some really great ideas and elements in what you put out. Best of luck!

Thanks for the feedback. The blue balls are mana you collect (which acts like XP in that you gain a level once you get a certain amount). They are similar to experience crystals in Vampire Survivors, except I think people will appreciate that they collect automatically. I think once someone plays for a bit it's a non-issue. The game does get pretty chaotic, and unfortunately that's kind of baked into it at this point. Enemies don't use projectiles, except for some bosses and on some secret levels, where I think they are reasonably obvious and distinct.

I should probably reshoot the video anyway since it's out of date, the slowdowns were due to poor optimization (which I have fixed, or at least I haven't run into any during my testing) and the mana balls are smaller in the final version (the screenshots are an accurate representation of the final game in this regard).