LÖVE

raidho36 wrote:(...)

^The good thing about that is that there's room for optimization! /goodcop

First of all, I love Downwell and am super inspired by it, too. I'm happy to see somebody else saw its potential as well!

I'll echo what others have said: Frogfaller looks awesome! Looks like you've got the hard part (actually making the game) well under way. All the stuff about optimization is true and should be done -- but in my opinion, profiling and eliminating bottlenecks is easy compared to actually making a playable game. So kudos!

Optimization

And speaking of which, I'm not particularly busy right now, so I can give a hand at improving performance if you want. Can't say I'm the best programmer around but I'm good enough for some of my code to make it into LÖVE core codebase.

The game certainly has a fair amount of polish to go around, all the way from the UI to the in-game graphics and everything.

However, unlike the obvious inspiration Downwell I think the game has fairly noticeable readability/visibility issues due to all the various particle effects and clutter on screen. At times it felt like I should have been taking damage but instead got away scot free, since it's kind of hard to judge the player's hurtbox against enemy hitboxes with all the clutter on screen. Heck, even in one of the in-game GIFs you posted yourself has you take damage from an enemy you (most likely) couldn't see. Just as one suggestion, defeated enemies could be given more muted colors and be drawn behind the alive enemies to make the ensuing chaos that much more clearer.

Speaking of colors, some stronger color coding much like, again, Downwell for all the enemies would be nice, too. While it's easy to understand that blue or flashing means bad, it felt like I was somehow able to bounce off of those enemies every now and then without having any clue why or how.

Ulydev wrote:Damn, this is amazing. Are you doing all the art and programming by yourself?

Me and an artist

CaptainMaelstrom wrote:First of all, I love Downwell and am super inspired by it, too. I'm happy to see somebody else saw its potential as well! I'll echo what others have said: Frogfaller looks awesome!

Thank you!

raidho36 wrote: And speaking of which, I'm not particularly busy right now, so I can give a hand at improving performance if you want. Can't say I'm the best programmer around but I'm good enough for some of my code to make it into LÖVE core codebase.

No, thank you. I'll work on performance when the game is further along.

MrFariator wrote: However, unlike the obvious inspiration Downwell I think the game has fairly noticeable readability/visibility issues due to all the various particle effects and clutter on screen. At times it felt like I should have been taking damage but instead got away scot free, since it's kind of hard to judge the player's hurtbox against enemy hitboxes with all the clutter on screen. Just as one suggestion, defeated enemies could be given more muted colors and be drawn behind the alive enemies to make the ensuing chaos that much more clearer.

Speaking of colors, some stronger color coding much like, again, Downwell for all the enemies would be nice, too. While it's easy to understand that blue or flashing means bad, it felt like I was somehow able to bounce off of those enemies every now and then without having any clue why or how.

Thank you for this feedback, other people have voiced similar concerns so this seems like a top priority.

Best of luck with your project! Looks really awesome as it is I'd say!

But really, do optimize it. Even my higher end sector desktop struggles with this game and the framerate drops sometimes.

Cool-looking game with a stuff executed pretty well: the menus, graphics, etc.
Very high marks for juicy-ness and art direction - I think a game like this could easily pass through Greenlight.
I did get a Lua crash or two, and from a technical point of view (loading) could be improved, but those are minor gripes.
The bigger issue I have is with the general gameplay mechanic:
you really want to add something special to the gameplay that sets it apart from Downwell.
It needs to be something that affects the gameplay and sets it apart in a big way
[the upgrades idea is good but I recommend going out of the norm in a more drastic way]
I should be able to look at the screenshots and immediately tell what makes the gameplay special/unique...
Graphics are good but again: you want a make something that not only looks better than Downwell...
but also has its unique gameplay mechanic.
People will come to your game because of the graphics but will stay only for the gameplay.
Other than that I see a lot of potential here, so well done!