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NOTE:

If you liked this game, you'll like my other games as well:

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Seal Breaker is a small, atmospheric Action-RPG. It's inspired by games like Dark Souls. I developed it for a small game development event in my town.

Playtime is between 15 and 60 minutes, depending on your skill and experience. The game is meant to be played with a mouse!

In its current version it features three bosses, a tutorial, several weapons and a few spells. There are also a bunch of items like keys, potions, tokens and notes. There are also some eastereggs and secrets. The game is mostly supported by sound and music. Your progess will be saved.

You get experience from enemies to level up and spend them on four attributes: Power, Swiftness, Resistance and Willpower that have a small impact on your playthrough. The combat is based on Mana. It's used to cast spells and to dodge attacks. But it will only be restored when you are dealing damage with a melee weapon to an enemy to keep combat interesting.

Let me know what you think and have fun. :)

Note: Gamepad is currently NOT supported!

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Anmerkung:

Wenn dir das Spiel gefallen hat, werden dir meine anderen Spiele ebenfalls gefallen:

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Seal Breaker ist ein kleines, düsteres Action-RPG, das durch Spiele wie Dark Souls inspiriert wurde.

Die Spielzeit beträgt ca. 15 bis 60 Minuten, je nach Können und Erfahrung in dieser Art Spiele. Das Spiel sollte mit einer Maus gespielt werden!

Aktuell beinhaltet es drei Bosse, ein Tutorial, verschiedene Waffen, ein paar Zauber und eine Menge anderer Items (Heiltränke, Schlüsse, Notizen, Artefakte..). Es gibt außerdem einige Eastereggs und Geheimnisse zu entdecken. Das Spiel wird durch Musik und Sounds untermalt. Dein Spielfortschritt wird außerdem gespeichert.

Durch das Besiegen von Gegnern erhälst du Erfahrungspunkte, die du für die Attribute Macht, Wendigkeit, Widerstand und Willenskraft ausgeben kannst, die deinen Charakter verbessern. Das Kampfsystem basiert auf das Haushalten von Mana. Zauber wirken und Ausweichen kosten Mana und nur das Verursachen von Nahkamfschaden an Gegnern stellt es wieder her, um den Kampf interessanter zu gestalten.

Viel Spaß beim Spielen und lasst doch Feedback da. :)

Achtung: Gamepads werden aktuell NICHT unterstützt.

StatusPrototype
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Rating
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
(32 total ratings)
AuthorFuriousFury
GenreRole Playing
Tags2D, Action RPG, Atmospheric, Boss battle, Dark, Difficult, Fantasy, Pixel Art, secrets, Singleplayer
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Linux_011.zip 32 MB
Mac_011.zip 31 MB
Win_011.zip 17 MB

Development log

Comments

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you should make it a rouge-like, or at least an endless mode

Very good game I played it for hours

Are you planning on returning to this game once drova is done?

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Great game. I recorded my playthrough and put it on my youtube channel. Keep up the good work!

Great game with a lot of potential - sadly, the developer has not updated this in  a year.

Exact thought

THIS IS AMAZING

(+1)

Great Game! I would LOVE a full release someday...

(+2)

I love the game, I think it's incredible and you should continue working on it, I think this game has a ton of potential. I'm going to recommend this game to all of my friends. Keep up the good work!

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This game is amazing and deserves to be finished!

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Possible To get source code?

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If you are interested in certain parts of the code for learning-purposes and how to do some stuff, sure. Even though the code became a mess. But I won't give away all of the code (and assets). Sorry!

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Alright, Thank you anyway!

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I really enjoyed the game, and it felt kind of like Enter the Gungeon to me. Also, I think you should consider having a patron account to help with developing the game.

One thing that I think would be kind of cool, is that when a player finishes the campaign, they could unlock different game-modes. Such as an endless mode with randomly generated levels, monsters and items. Or an all new difficulty you could get from beating it on hard. 

 Sometimes it can feel a fairly slow.. I think that if you made the AI for the enemies "smarter", and added a few more attack animations, it would make the game feel a bit faster. Also, if you added different enemy types that look different, sound different, and have seperate attack animations would help the game not feel as repetetive. 

P.S. - Making it so that the spawn locations of enemies, type of enemies, and drop rate of items is partially random for each level, could help with replay-ability. 

Nice idea :D

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I have not played much of the game, but I do like what I see so far.  I have not been playing Souls games for very long, but I have quickly become a huge fan.  Your game has all the core elements that make these types of games great and it has a respectable level of polish to it.  I'm sure I will spend a good deal more time at some point playing Seal Breaker.

Now as for the main reason why I have only play maybe 10-15 min of the game so far is the reason why I am writing this as well as why I even created this account.  There is a huge bug I have run into multiple times already in my brief play time.  Some bug occurs causing me to be unable to attack.  Both mouse buttons do not do anything.  I can consistently fix this by simply using an item.  When I use an item while experiencing the bug, the melee attack animation goes off immediately and it even damages an enemy if one is near.

 I am not entirely sure what causes it, but it happened enough to be a problem.  I'm guessing there is some problem with the attack animation being interrupted.  I tried to reproduce it by either walking backwards while attacking or getting hit while while attacking, but I could not purposefully initiate the bug (not that I spent much time on it).   I hope this helps you make the game better better.

My only other criticism is the general feel of playing the game is rather sluggish.  I'm not sure how best to describe this, but it just does not feel as responsive as I would like.  Making everything a bit faster might give it a better feel.

Overall, I do think you have made a good game here.  I could even see using rogue-like elements with procedurely-generated areas and random monsters/loot being fun with the gameplay you have already created.   I look forward to delving through what you have already created once I have the time.

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I have played through this and thought I dump what I have in my mind... I hope you pick up something useful from it. BTW, you are talking about 15 to 60 minutes gameplay, but for me on hard mode it was more than 2 hours for sure. 15 minutes sounds impossibly quick.

First of all, I liked the game very much! Of course, considering that it's a prototype. After some polish, maybe you can capitalize on the guys hopelessly waiting for Eitr to come out. (-;

To me, the most important issues are with the AI:

  • Enemies often stuck behind objects when they try to walk towards you. They just try to walk towards you without trying to go around. (Even if I don't want to exploit that, its sometimes not easy to get to the place where they unstuck.)
  • If they are very far away, they just stand there while you are shooting them with fireballs. An relatively easy solution could be if they they dodge them if they aren't in attacking mode. (Ideally the should advance to attack instead, but then the whole group has to do that at once, or else you can exploit this to lure individuals.)

There are some ergonomic issues as well, which aren't that big deals, but hopefully easier to improve:

  • When the manna is lower than what's needed for dodging, it should be well visible. For example, there could be a blue haze at the border, similarly to when your HP is too low, or some icon on the character. Otherwise next time you try to dodge and nothing is happening, you get a hit, and it's annoying. (Also, when I fail to cast or dodge because of low manna, there should be also some feedback, like some sound effect, otherwise it feels as if I pressed the key while still doing the attacking animation, or something like that.)
  • When some of the assigned Q-able stuff runs out, do not remove it from the lower left, just keep it there with count 0. Otherwise I will have to re-assign it every time from the tab menu.
  • I would also recommend not switching to the next Q-able stuff when I ran out of the current one, because you may not notice that, and will just use something you aren't intended to use.
  • Especially when back-pedaling from enemies, it's a bit too easy to stuck at the edge of trees, fences, etc. After all, it's not visible where exactly the edge of those and of your character are. (A possible approach to solve that: Instead of treating the "base" of the character as a rectangle, you could imagine it as an ellipse with infinitely slippery edge. So if you push that against an obstacle near the corner of it, it can move, sliding along the corner of the obstacle, as then it not only moves in the direction of your intended movement, but sideways to go around the obstacle.)
  • The description of Dark Blessing and Arcane Essence should tell how much they refill. Is it the percentage of the maximum HP/manna for example? (It matters when you decide which attributes to increase.)

Other gameplay notes (based on hard mode - I haven't tried the others):

  • Right now, there's no big punishment if you die, in fact, it can be exploited for framing XP and items. I guess some better rules has to be figured out there.
  • Daggers seem to be very weak compared to swords. Also it seems to me that the axe wins hands down even against the regular (non-short) sword. While it's slow, its damage easily makes up for that. Especially as you don't hit enemies repeatedly with sword for too many times either, as that's too risky, the average damage output won't get high enough. But it's maybe a problem with my game style, I don't know.
  • I think the "skeleton army" (was that the name?) boss is too difficult (in hard mode as I said). Maybe I'm just lame, or maybe it's just Dark Souls philosophy. Personally, while I have no problem with spikes, in fact, bosses should be spikes, a too huge spike just leads to endless retries until you get lucky. In this case, the type of the skeleton spawns is random, and I managed the get through when I got lucky (basically, not too many mages in the final wave), and not because I have become better or figured out a new trick.
  • Obviously, content, equipment types (and skills maybe) need to be expanded, but that's well known any maybe not the priority now.

Thank you very much for your time you put into your comment! It's really welcome and helpful.

You are right with the AI.. basically there is no "AI".  I tried to implement some sort of pathfinding in a later version, but I wasn't satisfied at all and left it like this. It will be improved for sure in a newer version. I also agree with all the other issues you mentioned. Most of them I already noticed and noted. But some of them are actually pretty smart and will go directly to my todo-list.

Unfortunately, I can't currently put the effort into this game as I wanted to.  But there will be a new/better version for sure. It's just a matter of time. :)

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This is an amazing game. A few more stats, a few more weapons/spells, and some more replay ability this could be confused with a AAA game.

Thank you. I really appreciate your "exaggerated" comment :) Makes me kinda proud.

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Awesome game. Had a ton of fun playing this. I think this game is headed in the right direction, for the content it offers right now, the combat felt intuitive and fun. The enemies were quite different from each other, offering a nice challenge. The only thing this game is missing really is more content, cause it's a ton of fun to play. Hope you're still working on it and planning to add more! :D

Cool editing of the gameplay. I really like it :)

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by far the one of the best games on itch

Thank you so much :)

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This game is great so far, played the first part of it the other day, hope more content gets added though, was a bit sad when I found out it was only 15-60 mins of gameplay. Here's the content I recorded of the game.

Like and sub, if you feel so inclined ;)

Cool! It was fun and helpful to watch it. Thank you :)

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I love this game, has a nice simple story and fun and interesting game play. Final boss was good fun. When i left the graveyard and it said that was all, i thought no it cant end now. Would love to see more.

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Hello! My name is Cataegis Ira, and I'm a Let's Player. I did a quick two-parter on your game here, and I have to say I really, really like it.




The video should be viewable by the time you see this, but if not, it'll be up in seven hours at the time of writing.

Anyway, let's get into it.

Some of the things I liked and disliked about the current iteration are already in the video, of which there will be a second at the same time tomorrow.

First off, the sound design is great. Even if the sounds themselves are off, the placement of each sound is great.

Secondly, the game handles quite well. The controls are tight, and they do exactly what I want them to do, when I want them to.

The variation in the weapons is also superb(I went and found the Rapier and the Axe after my playthrough ended and I stopped recording), though I would like to see more than just Fireball and Illumination(pardon, I may have missed a spell) in terms of spells. An idea comes to mind for necromancy. Raise a single(or even multiple) bodies of your slain enemies to tank and deal damage for you, but each minion drains mana for as long as it's up, requiring you to be in the thick of it as well, or burn through a large supply of consumables. Just an idea.

Anyway, back to equipment, I'd like to see, in the future, armor and trinkets, as well. Likely never anything heavy, since the character is a mage, but basic things, like a gambeson, leather vest, heavy greaves. Maybe a helmet. Just to vary up the builds a bit more. Heavier armor could require significantly more mana to cast spells and dodge, but in exchange, less damage is done to you.

All that said, I really do enjoy this, and I hope to see updates to the game in the future. Let me know if there's anything you need from me, including taking down this video series.

Thank you so much for the Let's Play and feedback! I love to see people play the game and comment while doing so. Helps me so much to improve. I like the idea of necromancy! More spells were planned, but I hadn't enough time yet to implement (technically it's possible to get the blue fireball of skeletons with some cheats :D ). More equipment (like trinkets and armor) is also planned.

I really, really want to make more and improve this game as much as possible, but currently I am pretty busy with other stuff. But I am sure this game will get updates in the future!

(+1)

That is fantastic news.

I was actually really hoping I could get the blue fireball in game, because blue fire screams necromancy to me, because of the Necromancer from Diablo 2.


But, do let me know when there are updates. I will certainly test the game and give feedback on any changes or new content.

(+1)

Brilliant, please make more!

Amazing atmospheric game!

One problem for me: can not get my gamepad to direct the character's view. The Look X/Y does not make any effect, although all the other gamepad functions work. The view direction always follows the mouse. Maybe there is a way to disable the mouse and to play on the controller entirely? (Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS, controller: Logitech Gamepad F310).

Thats true. I disabled the gamepad support because the switching between mouse and gamepad was buggy. Also the menus and inventory could not be controlled by gamepad. So I figured that I want to focus on mouse controls. But I forgot to disable everything related to gamepad, hence the movement is still available, but the viewing is not. Sorry!

(+1)

REALLY fun! Can't wait for more gameplay!

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It seems cool and all, but feel very slow while playing, always (have only played the begining, I have to admit) struggling to find places to dash out ennemies strike. Why using mana(limited ressource) for dash and is there a way to protect yourself from attack like shields or parry? There's a real potential in top-down souls-like, and you seem to be skilled enough to make a good one, but from what I've seen the gamefeel isn't that good for the moment(slow and narrow all the time)

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Thank you for your feedback (I really appreciate critical ones).

In the version I am doing right now I aim to solve most of you points. I want the gameplay to be more fluid and a bit faster. I will implement shields and the structure of the game will change. Currently it's very linear (and narrow). I want the world to be more open to have more paths that you can take and thus there will be more space.

However I don't want this game to be played like a "normal Hack & Slash" game. So it will be probably slower than most action RPGs (I want the player to thinkg about when to attack and see what will come from enemies).

I had the idea to put doding to the mana-pool since I wanted the player to be upfront to the enemy and use dodge when necessary and not to spam it. Since your attacks restore mana I thought this shouldn't be a problem. I admit that the situation when you have no more mana sucks.

(1 edit) (-1)

Ok, I think I got your point.

If I was complaning about the dash and mana it's beceause if I don't use my mana it's really hard to not get hit (using a dash or a spell from distance). And there's no way to protect yourself from a melee attack, except getting a bit lucky on timing, attack range and ennemie's timing attack isn't really clear(To me it lacks what I call in french "lisibilité" which makes a situation easier to "read"). Also in a fight the player is always walking back, that's common in a game where you play a distance character since melee is his weakness, but even whith a sword, you keep walking back while charging an attack or waiting the ennemy so fail his. That's why a shield or a parry is a good solution for these problems to me.

It's ok if you want your game not to be as fast-paced as any Hack'n'Slash, but walking from a place to another is boring, wanting fights ot be slower, more based on timing than spamming, is a good idea. I was maxing swiftness, not to hit faster, but just to not get bored while moving. Having the possibility to run would be great, a running mode in which your can't fight and have to draw your weapon next after which slow you down to a more appropriate rythm for a fight.

To much tombstone, I sometime feels like playing a leg-less character :D , I recommand yout to make transparent stuff hidding your character.

I was afraid to be a bit harsh for an "itch.io independant amateur cuty loving game" but I tried to be more respectfull and don't treat your work like my 5yo nephew's hand-drawn family house. So it's nice you take it easy

(-1)

Don't be afraid to be too harsh. I know that this game has a lot of issues and it's hard for me as a developer to see each issue on my own. Having critical comments help me to identify these and hopefully make it better (which doesn't mean that I will implement each comment straight away).

I also had the feeling of "always" moving backwards, the game lacks some mechanics that "rewards" not to. A shield is a very good idea to at least stay at a certain distance and maybe a shield-bash (block + dash into enemies) could be something to get closer to enemies. Also I have planned to allow the player to customize his style of playing (e.g. play more aggressive, passive, melee, ranged, one-handed, two-handes, shield, magic) with certain game modifiers (e.g. the regain-system like Bloodborne or mana refresh when blocking attacks or increasing damage for sucessfull attacks in a row). A player will be allowed to choose like 4 modifiers by equipping certain items that he be can found in the game. I hope that the game will feel more unique to each player with that system.

The idea of different "move"-modes is nice. One in which you can't attack but move faster (travel-mode) and one in which you have your weapons drawn but move slower (fight-mode). I will put this to my list of stuff that I would like to implement!

With "lisibilité" you probably talk about more (visual / acoustic) feeback from the game to be able to know when to attack and when the enemy attacks. I tried this most of the time in the game (e.g. zombies make a sound when raising their arms and holding it there for some time before attacking), but it's true that it can be clearer. Especially for other enemies that only have visual cues.

Thank you for your time writing this. :)

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It's YOUR game after all, and my opinion represent only my point of view after 20mins of gameplay so yeah take my comment as it is :D

Having the opportunity to try different fighting style is something I except from this type of game (but It's a lot of work to add so I don't mention it on unfinished project), that something I would love to try.

Yeah feedbacks, I don't know why I forgot this word :D

I'm pretty curious so let me ask you few things:

-Do you plane on making this game a product or only an amateur project?

-Is it your first game?

-How skilled are you on code? I mean do you know various languages, have you done years of work in a company, stuff like that?

-I would like to try Unity(2D), but for the moment I only got some basic knowledge in C (from my school) and doing some stuff with game maker. Do you think it's enough to start a project on unity, at least if I do their tutorials(ya know, the roll a ball, 2D ufo, 2D roguelike, procedural cave generation) or it's not good yet and I should have more experience on OOP first, or even in C#?

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- My goal is to have released a "full game" before I have graduated university. I'm not yet sure if I will choose this game for this.

- This is far from my first game. I think it's rather my.. 30th game? :D However most of them were really unfinished and even smaller prototypes than this game. So I consider Seal Breaker to be the "first big game / prototype" I have developed. And it's the first game I released to the public. I struggled a lot with createing a game like Seal Breaker over the years (I always wanted to). I started out like 5 times and surrendered soon after (I lacked a plan, knowledge and motivation to pull it off).

- I started to study computer science 4-5 years ago. Since then I have coded in several languages (e.g. C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Javascript). I have worked mostly at university in non-gaming areas and in a small company that created Augmented Reality applications with Unity (first contact with the engine). I also attended some courses at university to learn making games.

- I would really recommend getting familiar with (OOP) programming in general before jumping on a big game engine. Pick a language you like and pick up a simple framework to render stuff to the screen and getting keyboard / mouse input from user (e.g. SFML, XNA / MonoGame). It's easy to think that an engine like Unity will make stuff magically work, but having a solid understanding of what Unity (and other engines) do in the background really help to create a game and it will reduce the frustration that might arrive working with them.

Some recommendations to start with:

- Start small, make simple games like Pong, Tetris, Break Out, Space Shooter and FINISH them. It's really easy to abandon projects and to start over and over again. It's really hard to finish them. Show them to friends and family get some feedback or upload them to platforms like itch.io. Improve from there. Make bigger / more complex games, but keep it yet simple. After some time you will find youself to re-use some code over and over again for a lot of different games. And thats the time you might want to jump onto an engine.

- Try to surround yourself with people that develop games aswell. Make games together with them if possible. Find blogs / YouTube channels / Facebook groups that create games to keep you motivated.

- Attend Game Jams (like Global Game Jam, Ludum Dare). You will learn a lot of stuff in a very short amount of time. Try to find Game James nearby and attend as a real person if possible.

- Make it a habit to create games. E.g. set yourself some goals for a week / month and work on them a little bit every day.

- Be patient. Developing a game is a very time consuming thing and it will frustrate you over and over again. Don't give up. It gets easier and easier.

Okay I will stop here. It's already a lot of text and I don't want to bore you. :D All of the above is just my experience / opinion. People might disagree and for some people other things worked aswell.

I hope it helps you a little. :)

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I very much so enjoyed the duration of this game. Although short, I had a blast hacking down loads of skeletons and destroying dark-magic wielding tree things from the void. I hope more of this game comes out, as I will be needing to continue my 0 death run ;D!

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its a really good game. can't wait to more comes out

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Me neither :D

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Really liked this, shows a lot of potential. I like the little touches, like healing and picking up items slow you down for a moment, tiny passages hidden in plain view, etc. Works great on Ubuntu 16.10, too.

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Thank you!!. Also good to hear that it works on Ubuntu 16.10 aswell, since I never tried it myself on different platforms.

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Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Awesome! I'm wating the full version

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Mouse icon is glitched out and i can't turn, stuck facing left.

(-1)

Really odd. For most people it just works fine.

Can you provide a screenshot or / and the log file? You can find the log file at the folder where your .exe file is located (where you downloaded it or with the itch app: rightclick my game, then "show local data"). There is a folder "SealBreaker_Data" and inside of that is the log file called "output_log.txt".

That would be a huge help! Thank you :)

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I just uploaded a new version. The bug might be fixed.

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mouse icon is default system icon so its not glitching, i guess you just disabled it
And i can now aim with the mouse!

(-1)

I want to skip first game story Text.
So i try to type keyboard with clicking mouse but nothing.. so I close and delete
[I think this game good. but I don't like this type. some recently game show to much long story and no skips. so That make to boring..]

(-1)

That's true. I didn't have time to implement the skipping (I had a hard deadline for a submission with that game). In a newer version it will be skippable. Thanks for your feedback :)

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There is a new version. The intro is now skippable. Thanks for your feedback.

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When the game comes out?

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That is a good question. I am currently rewriting the whole thing to make it more robust. I would like to have a longer/better version in in several months. I also would like to release it someday. However I can't promise anything.

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Thanks For the info

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Wow.... Great game. I can't wait for more content.

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Thank you. :)

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You did an amazing job with this game, FF. The Dark Souls inspiration was felt in full force, and the gameplay was tight and tense. I really like the gritty atmosphere and the feeling of going up against the insurmountable. Really looking forward to where you take this!

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I really appreciate your comment. It's good to hear that people enjoy playing the game, gives me huge motivation to keep working on it. :)

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I just tried this build and I find it odd (to say the least) that you can't orientate your character with the mouse. I have to dodge in order to turn left or right, or face up/down.

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The character is supposed to look (not visually, it just has graphics for left / right) at your mouse (indicated by the arrow around our character). That is not working as intended? Can you give more details on this? Or even a small video / gif?

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For me the character was 'stuck' facing left or right. No matter where I moved the mouse, nothing happened. When I dodged that was the only time when the character changed his orientation. Sorry I don't have a video, I wasn't recording at that time.

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https://vid.me/91GV

i have this problem as well and i cant face either left or right and the wheel doesnt work and .. see the video

(1 edit) (-1)

Thanks for sharing. I uploaded a new version. I think and hope that this bug is fixed by now.