itch.io

Nice game. Here's a review, 'cause I'm interested in seeing in seeing if it can go any further. Apologies for the embarrassing typo.

This game looks like it has potential, so I’ll probably keep an eye on it. Just from solo testing I can tell it would benefit from having:

1. Hitstun on attacks; as it is now players can just stay in each others' faces and wail on each other with no real consequence.

2. Counters and or parries, especially for the low kicks which can get around the guard.

This is an awesome concept for a physics-based fighting game. I can only imagine how other weapons would work with this game's physics, but if more weapons get added this could probably become a full game.

Pretty well made game. I especially like how different all 3 different styles of fighting are from each other. I'd have loved to have requested a downloadable version, but I got to this pretty late, so I won't hold my breath.

Also, one idea I have for the Simple mode: I think it might be interesting if players are required to win a round with each of the three main styles they selected in order to win the match.

Found a couple of bugs just testing out the various moves in v1.14:

1. This bug is fairly inconsequential: winning a match with Explode gives no victory screen, so you have to manually exit the match in this scenario.

2. Taking a life with Stargazer or the first hit of an uncharged Strike (unless it’s the last life) doesn’t knock down the opponent, allowing you to potentially follow up with more attacks. Not sure if that's intentional.

Firstly I'd like to say this is a pretty nice starting point; this really only took 4 days to make? Honestly I don't know if I'm the best judge for deciding any kind of direction this game could go in, but I think the city roads themselves should become more complex in the future. More complex strings of intersections, cul-de-sacs, maybe a roundabout or two, maybe some alleyways to cut across, and the highway area definitely needs more entrance/exit points. Some sub-areas to explore might be a nice addition too. In a nutshell, the more distinct areas you can have in your city, the better, in my opinion. And then from there, maybe more ideas will come.

Nice, I'm glad you got to see the review. I appreciate the feedback too.

Since I read all of your devlogs and noticed that certain cars (especially the Mercados) had to go through rebalances, I assumed there might've been potential for imbalances, so it's good to know that the cars are actually well-balanced. Apologies for getting the AI setup thing wrong as well. I try to watch them when I can while racing, especially to see how they're nailing the turns I'm not, and when it came to driving the Audo which handles a very specific way, based on how I was seeing them drive, I had thought at that point we were all driving Audos lol.

In all fairness the wall bug won't really be a very big deal until the game becomes popular, and I guess that's where my general concern was when I addressed it, 'cause if that were to happen and you ended up adding more features for the growing playerbase (especially when it comes to online multiplayer or sharing ghost times) that bug would definitely have to be addressed at that point. No worries though, I've no interest in abusing such a thing ;)

Glad you like the experimental ideas I had. Sadly I won't have much impact on helping the game get noticed, but I'll keep my fingers crossed regardless. Best of luck with your future projects!

Alright, here's my review of your game.

Correction: This bug also happens with doors to the special named rooms that need keys. And this time I do have footage.

Found a nasty bug in the game. Entering a room with an elevator inside and closing the door locks you in the room, as you're unable to open it to get out. The door to such a room has an air vent/grate at the bottom. Unfortunately my recording didn't get footage of the playthrough where this happened, as starting the screen recording before opening the game resulted in a black screen getting captured, so I can't show what the door looks like for now.

Finally finished my review of this game since it's been updated.

Good to know, and I'm okay with this game no matter your decision. I am in fact still enjoying it; the elite cars are kicking my rear currently, but I'm getting the hang of the Audo and Chevra now. The Toyato's a little more tricky for me, but I've at least found the setup with it that works best for me, so I'll get the hang of it eventually.

Last of the new bug reports I have, and I'll try to get video footage for it if I can recreate it again, But I've had a few weird instances with level generation where the map continues past where you would jump under a checkmark to progress to the next stage. Going where the map continues in these instances allows you to continue while also allowing you to skip potential waves, and even minibosses if they would be the next stage.

2 more Possible bugs, I think.

1. a forged Megane lets you shoot on every red beat, but the description of its abilities doesn't change, so I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen.

2. If you have the Bunny Ears, moving up onto platforms without jumping is treated as a jump, causing you to automatically pick up items which are on platforms, when you might just be trying to read their descriptions.

Hey again. Finally caught wind of the new update; awesome job with it. Just wanted to report 1 potential new bug I've noticed so far - I don't think that the exploding pages (player or enemy controlled) are working.

Awesome concept for a pong game. Aside from trying to keep up with 100+ projectiles at a time (and that's not counting the invisible ones), surprisingly easy to understand. Kinda bummed this isn't downloadable. I'd definitely consider it for my collection if it were.

Out of curiosity, what are you trying to target the minion you summon with? Depending on what you're trying to go for, creating an effect that gives effects to minions in your hand might be what you want.

It'll be a while before I'm ready to give this game a proper review, but so far I'm really loving it. As far as my progress is concerned I've managed to get the hang of the first 6 cars; it's just the elite ones I've gotta master now. Not that I'd expect you to add any more features to the game, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on an elimination mode (where the player in last place slowly loses health) and on a splitscreen multiplayer mode (since a game this intense would be great to share with at least 1 friend).

Update: I didn't realize I didn't have the latest version of DS4, so my 1st comment is actually false.

Also, 1 bug to report: the display settings don't work.

I'd like to request controller support for this game, if it's not too much trouble. I tried using DS4 to map the controls onto my controller, but for some reason the Sprint button doesn't work.

Gave the game a try, and between what I've played and seeing this devlog for future plans, it looks promising, so I'll be keeping an eye on it. 

Some ideas I'd like to share: Since the core of this game's strategy is focused around tires, maybe track temperature is another element you could add. Also (maybe you've already considered this), having options for conditions to change mid-race could also make the strategy aspect more interesting.

Thanks for explaining. Although, to clarify on a few things:

Apologies in advance, but I don't think I follow completely on the one button theme, only 'cause the strategy menu is the only place where auto cycling happens. You're saying that to follow the theme any menu you have to go through after setting the rounds needs to auto cycle, right? But wouldn't that mean auto cycling should be happening in places like the pause menu and possibly the victory screen (after all rounds are completed)? If so, this game currently doesn't do that unless you have the auto cycle option enabled.

The counterpoint I'd make to your Quick Race explanation would be that the mode could just have random weather as the mandatory feature instead of always clear, as this way you still wouldn't need an extra menu for weather.

That aside, I think your new project sounds very interesting. Definitely look forward to that email.

Hey. Now that I’ve got friends to play this with I’ve been able to play this game out to its extent, so now I’ve finally found issues I’d like to share:

In the wing angle/pit stop strategy window, the GUI always auto cycles (regardless of whether or not the function is on in Options). I didn’t think much of it before, but it can mess you up if you’re thinking about your settings and you end up pressing your button just after the GUI makes you hover over something else.

Out of curiosity, why does the Quick Race mode not allow weather changes? I know you can just play 1 minute custom races for quick races in the rain, but using that option you get anything from 2-5 laps, depending on the size of the track. Personally I think the Quick Race option that ensures 5 laps on any track is a better option.

Been tinkering with the Bambi on Ice mode lately, and found that some of the tracks with jumps are actually unfinishable, due to jumps being put shortly before turns. Even if you drive very slowly at the jumps, cars speed up to take them, which guarantees crashes on most of these tracks, and in some cases DNFs. I made a list of the tracks where crashes are guaranteed, and the end result of the car in scenarios where you drive “perfectly” (hitting no other walls and crawling at the jumps to take them as slowly as possible):

Unfinishable

• Jumpleed
• Redrun (Both Directions)
• Prototype (Both Directions)
• Amity
• Bomber (Reverse)
• Astapor (Forward)
• Bigski (Both Directions)
• Bayroot (Reverse)

Finishable

• Goodski (Forward): 2 ticks remaining
• Scargill (Reverse): 2 ticks remaining
• Bayroot (Forward): 2 ticks remaining
• Dinaco (Forward): 3 ticks remaining
• Nomnom (Reverse): 3 ticks remaining
• Piston (Both Directions): 5 ticks remaining
• Nomnom (Forward): 6 ticks remaining
• Spagetti (Forward): 6 ticks remaining
• Bangkok (Both Directions): 6 ticks remaining
• Furnace: 6 ticks remaining
• Goodski (Reverse): 6 ticks remaining
• Bomber (Forward): 6 ticks remaining
• Astapor (Reverse): 6 ticks remaining
• Silvergate (Reverse): 6 ticks remaining
• Airdrie (Forward): 6 ticks remaining
• Lomond (Forward): 6 ticks remaining
• Medusa (Forward): 8 ticks remaining
• Silvergate (Forward): 9 ticks remaining
• Airdrie (Reverse): 9 ticks remaining
• Rampitup: 9 ticks remaining

 Bugs

“Pass On” probably shouldn’t be an option mid-game, as trying to continue a game you left after “Passing On” puts the game in a state where you can’t do anything.

changes to the settings for rhythm indicator visibility go back to default after you die and try again.

An item with the following ability doesn’t have a name: “100% speed and +12 damage to every 6^th dash. +1 enemy per wave.”

My 2 real criticisms:

I think the “Hop, Skip, and Jump” sections should be more platform-oriented as opposed to making players only have to jump across 1 or 2 gaps. I’d have suggested that maybe some gaps could also be bigger in these sections to make players have to do midair dashes to successfully clear them, but Gravitation is a thing, so I doubt that’d be possible...

The shelled enemies that are introduced as enemies you need to jump on to beat should be knocked over by jumping on them as opposed to dashing into them, if the goal was to make them weak to jumping attacks.

Aside from that, amazing game. Thanks to this I can finally add a rhythm game to my collection.

As promised, my official review for the game. Might be a bit harsh, but hey, I am a critic, after all.

Thanks for the reply. There was actually another bug I completely forgot to mention concerning the timer: if you back out of spinning, buying a vowel, or attempting to solve the puzzle, the timer resets. This can essentially be abused to give yourself infinite time.

Got 1 more bug to report. The game's crashed on me a few times in the middle of my play sessions claiming that I've run out of puzzles, which is impossible now since the mod I've created and am using has 1800+ puzzles currently, and at most I go through 10-15 puzzles at a time. I'm sending images of the crash log here:

I like this game a lot and I think it has room for growth, so I'm planning to give it a proper review sometime next weekend.

Correction: Now that I've read the Modding Tutorial page, I now know why it looks like puzzles were being "removed". Apologies for the false bug report.

2 bugs to report.

1. Turning Fullscreen off isn't saved, so the game automatically goes back to fullscreen whenever you re-enter.

2. It looks like a few puzzles get "removed" after a game is played/exited. I've provided a video showcasing this, where the number of puzzles available goes from 125 to 118. Restarting the game brings back the "removed" puzzles, at least.

I've finished a review for the game now in hopes that it may spark something.

Here's a video showing Undeen's Taunt in action. It seems I was actually wrong - it's not that her Taunt doesn't work against Water minions, it might actually be that it only works for 1 turn, unlike with other Taunt users where it works indefinitely.

I'll keep an eye on Elf Archer, 'cause I can't help but think his/her "double damage" effect would be more appropriate on a weaker minion, especially considering Elf Archer's power can be boosted by not only Scholar Angel, but also Elf Commander.

My opinion on poison: Your "Poison to all" effect is a good idea for what poison should be in general. Not instant death like Deathtouch but capable of taking out multiple minions over time. I look forward to seeing that in action, though it'd still need to start off doing 1 damage, then stacking more damage with additional poison effects.

I mistook what "Sort By Value" meant. I figured it'd sort the collection in order of mana cost. So all the 0 cost, then 1 cost, 2 cost, etc.

Thanks for getting back to me. I look forward to seeing what you end up coming up with.

Alright, I’ve decided to make a list of the issues the AI has after all (the issues that I know of, anyway). The main issue is that not all of the characters use all of their skills, not even at Expert difficulty:

Kotatsu: Doesn’t use her Wall Jump

Cali: Doesn't use her Counter Stance

Ginny: Doesn’t move while carrying a ball she’s caught. Also if she catches a ball, AI opponents don't move until she releases it, when it'd be more beneficial to try and stay in front of her.

Menoko: Doesn't seem to know she can block and parry while moving with only her momentum, making her very susceptible to chip damage and Syrhild's Meteor Smash.

Suji: Doesn’t use her Foxfire

Jill: Doesn’t use any of her abilities

Smaller general issue: At the beginning of a match at the East Birthday Street stage, the ball starts in a position where it hits the players’ pads straight in the middle if they don’t move, so at the beginning of a match there the AI will just let the ball bounce back and forth if nothing changes its trajectory.

Sharing bugs and ideas I have for potential new card effects. The ability to battle your own decks is a nice addition by the way. I hope to see this game continue to grow just for that alone.

Bugs

• Undeen’s Taunt doesn’t seem to work against Water minions.
• Elf Archer's Double Strike doesn't work.
• Is it intentional for an Eldritch Hound summoned via Dark Queen to not be able to use its Charge ability?
• Poison does 3 damage per turn instead of 1. Also do you think it might need to have an additional effect or new effect altogether, with Deathtouch just being a better version of it? (Personally I’m thinking lowering an enemy’s attack value would be a better effect.)
• The game seems to have controller support, but there don’t seem to be any controls for selecting cards.
• The Sort by Value option doesn't seem to do anything to the collection.

Ideas For New Effects

• You can summon a minion from your graveyard, but you must pay its cost.
• Your minions without effects gain +X/+X, or cost less mana to play.
• If you have less minions in play than your opponent, gain +0/+X equal to the difference.
• If you have more minions in play than your opponent, gain health equal to the difference.
• Gain +1/+1 for each card in your hand.
• Do more damage to minions with Taunt
• Negate Aura/Steal Aura/Do more damage to minions with Aura
• Immune to Deathtouch
• Resist Effect Damage
• On Ally Death effects
• On Kill effects (An effect that gives you 1 more mana for the turn might work with this condition.)
• Effects that require the opponent to have leftover mana, like using their mana to summon a minion.
• On Ally Summon effects (Requiring specific types of allies to be summoned would probably be the way to go about this.)
• Effect that "hides" minions by flipping them face-down and shuffling them around during your opponent's next turn, leaving the opponent guessing who they're attacking. While Hidden/When Revealed effects might be something that could go with this. Probably makes sense for these effects to work exclusively for Dark minions.
• Transform effects
• During your opponent's next turn, their minions must attack in order of strongest to weakest/weakest to strongest.

Really solid card game with a lot of cool ideas. I look forward to seeing the full version.

1. Some sound effects can still be heard even if you set the sound effect level to 0, tick the box to mute all sounds, or even set the master volume to 0. The ones I know of so far are:

• M.O.L.A’s dash, parry, and Laser Drone
• When the ball gets lit up at the Kazan Dojo
• The ball spawning in and the pigs from the Manzai Farm
• The cannon and holograms at the Arcus Munitions Deck

2. If matches are set up to go for more than 1 round, the UI for the rounds won doesn’t get refreshed when starting a new match.

3. There’s some kind of inconsistency with using the Pause menu (at least while using a PS4 controller) where the Square button is sometimes used to select the options instead of the Cross button.

4. Galenta’s not supposed to start matches with 3 meters, right?

5. If P1 is Chi and P2 is any other character, and they’re playing in a match that goes for more than 1 round, P2 doesn’t start any round after the 1st one with full HP. I think Chi needs to be nerfed a bit as well. At the very least her shadow clones should disappear and she shouldn’t be allowed to make more while her Bullet Barrage attack is in effect, especially since the extra balls she makes don’t even damage her anyway when they go through her own goal. The big issue is that she can stall for time with Bullet Barrage since a new ball doesn't spawn in until all those extra balls are removed.

6. After time runs out or a player gets KOed, players who aren’t KOed still need to be able to move to try stopping any projectiles still in play, since there’s a period of time where they can still take damage before the end result of the round is decided.

I’ll leave out any criticisms on the AI, since improvements for them were originally planned for an update once upon a time... Wish I chose to look into this game sooner. It’s an incredibly creative take on Pong, with so many cool ideas implemented, with the characters, stages, and the overall playstyle.

In case the game does end up growing... I compiled a list of all the potential ideas for new effects and effect conditions I could think of.

Effects

• Place spells into the opponent’s next chain.
• Increase/decrease damage done by a spell(s) cast after the spell.
• Negate the effects of a spell(s) cast after the spell.
• Draw/discard a card for each spell cast before/after the spell.
• The opponent is forced to renew/draw on their next turn.
  
• The opponent can’t use “Chain Level X” spells on their next turn.
• Your next spell in the chain can be one with the same Chain Level as the spell.

Conditions

• If HP is above/below a specified level.
• If your hand is empty.
• If all 4 elements are used in the same chain (assuming the element limit gets removed).
• If multiple subtypes/no subtypes are used in the same chain.
• If multiple copies of the same spell are used in the same chain.
• If no other spells in the chain have an effect/do damage.
• If no spell is adjacent to/cast after the spell (assuming placing spells in opponent’s chains is implemented).
• If the spell is used on the turn you drew it.
  

No problem. Deck building card games that let you play against your own created decks are rare to come by, so for that alone I'm glad to have come by this. Glad you're interested in revisiting the game. If you do manage to add to it, I'll definitely do my best to keep giving feedback.

About the element limit, it might still be viable to keep if your game ends up with a lot more cards, although it honestly looks like the cards do well creating the limits on their own, as a fair amount of them need to be used with cards of certain elements or subtypes (usually their own). Requirements similar to what the Ocean's Bounty card has is another good way to implement limits.

This is a pretty solid card game. Kinda bummed this was just for a university project; if this were fleshed out a little more to be sold as a full game, I'd probably have already purchased it. After a couple of test matches I'm already thinking about new card ideas like cards that could put spells into your opponent's next chain they'd have to work around.

As far as actual criticisms go, I've got 2.

1. The game doesn't save any changes you make to screen resolution.

2. Is the 2 element per chain limit for balance reasons? Since there aren't a lot of cards in this game it feels like that limitation is just taking away potential for more deck building/chain building strategies and potential new card ideas (like cards that could benefit from having multiple elements used in the same chain).