Eric

The Steam Next Fest is cool to get tons of wishlists for your game and such, but do you know what might actually be more helpful for me right now? Just knowing if the stuff I build for Virtue's Heaven is actually any good. I never did any real playtesting for this game, because I have no resources for that. So I have almost no frame of reference if what I think is an interesting and fair challenge, is actually and interesting and fair challenge.

So regardless of wishlists and attention, if some folks here could play the demo and either:

Tell me what they thought of it, or upload a (preferably uncommented) video of them playing the demo, that would be really cool!

Again, you can get the Demo on Steam, no pressure to wishlist it, or even like it. I just want to get a better understanding of where I'm at with this project.

#virtue's heaven #demo #playtest #gamedev #indie game #Steam Next Fest #gamechosting

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scampie!!@Scampie2/9/2023, 2:35 AM

hi, i gave the demo a play, i had to take a break after dying to the human robot boss, I fought it again a few times later off camera, but never beat it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOzepmcGUZk

i enjoyed the demo though! i feel like it may be tuned a bit on the tough side at the moment, but also i doubt i used the combat mechanics well. scrubbing through my own playthrough quick, i noticed I completely forgot the uppercut move after the tutorial :)

Eric @MOKKA2/9/2023, 7:32 AM

thanks! The uppercut is fairly overpowered, you should use it.

Also on a more serious note: I saw you struggling in the upwards dash "tutorial" part. Can you remember why you were struggling? I had already people complaining about that part and I want to figure out how to adjust that part to make it more clear.

P.S.: Talk to Wilt in the Home area. He has a bunch of additional information about what you can do in the game.

scampie!!@Scampie2/9/2023, 2:47 PM

I knew essentially what was being asked of me: do an uppercut, double jump, and some walljumps all at once. I think my brain had just short circuited at that point at having to put that all into sequence. :) So maybe just a bit overwhelmed from having learned so many new mechanics all at once. TBH, I don't think it was that awful; if this wasn't recorded I don't think I would have ever thought about it again except as "it took me a second to learn the controls".

My suggestion would be to just make it a little easier to get through that part of the tutorial; the player doesn't need to fully master their movement abilities right off the bat, they just need to know what they can do and be given a space to practice. Leave mastery for the rest of the game.

Iro @Iro2/9/2023, 9:18 PM

Played up until the start of the Human Factory, about 30 minutes.

What I Liked:

The writing/vibes.
The movement feels good.
Commitment to the Gameboy aesthetic.

What I Didn't Like:

The map screen. It all dissolves into a jumble of [[][][[[]]][][] for me.
Having to go build up meter somewhere else so I could Zealot Mode past obstacles in another room.
Alt-tabbed while standing in a doorway to write some of these notes and it closed and soft-locked me in place. Kinda my own fault, but, well.

What I'm Unsure About:

Combo attack seemed to trigger instantly when hitting 5 combo pips, not sure if this is intended or not. Meant I missed it a lot or it just went off when nothing else was around.
The uppercut is so good that the wall jump feels kind of superfluous as a result and I kept forgetting I had it until I would inevitably run out of dashes in midair. Not sure how many dashes that is. (Also because the uppercut is an attack, I instinctively want to do it by holding Up and pushing Attack, rather than Up and Dash)
I like the movement but on the other hand it means I am dash-punching through everything.

Eric @MOKKA2/9/2023, 10:09 PM

okay, the auto-charge attack is definitely not supposed to happen. Do you happen to play the game on keyboard?

Iro @Iro2/9/2023, 11:54 PM

I was using a Dualshock 4. (Which reminds me, another thing I Liked: an option for button prompts! Thank you!)

Eric @MOKKA2/10/2023, 7:39 AM

I found what caused your problem! The chargeattack made no distinction between the button being held down, or being pressed, so I assume that somehow the game just registers the chargeattack button to be perpetually held down in your case?

Now, regardless of this case, I have no clue why it registers one specific button to be held down all the time. Maybe it has something to do with you using a Dualshock?

Anyway, I update the game in a few minutes that should at least fix the charge attack.

Iro @Iro2/10/2023, 4:44 PM

Checked it again and it was still happening. I looked at my controls and while Charge Attack was bound to a gamepad button, it was unbound for keyboard controls. Once I bound it to a random key, it stopped going off on its own.

Eric @MOKKA2/10/2023, 5:36 PM

when did you initially download the demo? Just asking, because I'm wondering if the charge attack key being unbound is just a residual of a fixed issue, or if the issue actually hasn't been fixed.

Iro @Iro2/10/2023, 6:42 PM

I first played it on Feb 8th, probably downloaded the demo a day or two before that.

Eric @MOKKA2/10/2023, 6:43 PM

okay, then this is a holdover from the previous issue, thanks!

Upthorn @upthorn2/11/2023, 4:37 AM

After browsing the #Steam Next Fest tag on cohost, I played your game's demo today.

I like the aesthetic and the story of the game. And I really liked the feel of the movement, but I do have a few notes on points that could use improvement:

These wound up being a lot longer than I thought, so I've gone ahead and written them up in an unpublished draft that I'm linking here: https://cohost.org/upthorn/post/1004731-virtue-s-heaven-demo/531edc92255147d38f0ddb8a0cdb4ec4

Eric @MOKKA2/11/2023, 7:12 AM

Thanks!

(Disregard what was here before, I found and fixed the issue)

Upthorn @upthorn2/11/2023, 9:25 AM

Whatever "one more thing" you were trying to find a non-rude way to say did not get included in the comment.

However, I have suspicions as to what it would have been regarding, so please allow me to say that I understand and apologize if my feedback came across as rude and over-stepping bounds. This is obviously your game and things that don't jive with me may be in there for adherence to a vision that I am not privy to. I put in my recommendations in an attempt to make my feedback as constructive as possible, but I certainly understand if it came across as entitled and demanding that you change your art to suit my tastes.

In particular, I definitely did not spend enough time considering my words on the zeal loss/regain mechanic. I think it's become a pet issue of mine. I've rewritten that section to be less unnecessarily hostile, and I apologize for what I originally said.

Eric @MOKKA2/11/2023, 9:30 AM

I removed these parts, because I felt like it was needlessly confrontational, and also forgot to remove the introduction to that part. so please just ignore it. My frustrations just got the better of me, but that's not your fault.

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Eric

@MOKKA

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