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The Tower on the Borderland

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Null Winter 16 Jun, 2024 @ 9:51am

Demo Feedback

Decent atmosphere, but the environments are pretty bland; some more structural damage on various floors of the tower might help break up the monotony and help the player recall which floor they're on without needing to check the map.

Melee and dodges don't feel good; since enemies have no animations for being hit and don't flinch, melee combat becomes a cycle of waiting for the enemy to finish their attack, getting one weak stab in, and then i-frame sliding away from them like 'Illbleed'. Some enemies also have ambiguous animations leading into projectiles that aren't very visible (moths...). 'Dark Souls' pretty much perfected risk-reward on pressuring enemies that can flinch, setting up enemy tells on when you can and can't whack 'em, and dodge cooldowns to prevent spamming through any attack (outside of dedicated dodge builds, anyways); you need to at least get close to matching old competitors on the feel, unless you want players just going through for the story.

Similarly, the pistol was underwhelming. Lock-on range was longer than where the pistol could actually reach, so I lost bullets that simply vanished before reaching a target. The game also says you can stand still to focus for more powerful shots, but I never saw a damage increase; perhaps add some sort of glow to the barrel or a sound effect to indicate a "charging" state? That aside, the model is hilariously large; the main character needs to hook two fingers through the trigger guard to pull the trigger, suggesting an extreme caliber that should have insane recoil on each shot.

This would feel better on a controller, but it seemed to be KB+M only with no option to alter the questionable controls. We'll be pressing Melee/F and Dodge/Spacebar a lot, but an F press requires momentarily taking a finger off core WADS movement keys or externally mapping an extra mouse button as an extra F/Spacebar.

Several areas have a vague arrow icon indicating an interaction, but the actual method to interact might vary; as an example, we can climb in the opening segment, but the player has to resort to trial-and-error and just walk into the environment for a moment to enter a fixed animation.

Not sure if there's a major plot reason why the grey husks are going pants-less; unless there is, you could have just as easily altered the model and avoided the Steam warning and potentially being locked out of sales in certain regions.

There's potential, but ya have a lot of room ya need to grow into.

Last edited by Null Winter; 17 Jun, 2024 @ 11:35am

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Originally posted by Dascu:

Originally posted by Null Winter:
Decent atmosphere, but the environments are pretty bland; some more structural damage on various floors of the tower might help break up the monotony and help the player recall which floor they're on without needing to check the map.

Melee and dodges don't feel good; since enemies have no animations for being hit and don't flinch, melee combat becomes a cycle of waiting for the enemy to finish their attack, getting one weak stab in, and then i-frame sliding away from them like 'Illbleed'. Some enemies also have ambiguous animations leading into projectiles that aren't very visible (moths...). 'Dark Souls' pretty much perfected risk-reward on pressuring enemies that can flinch, setting up enemy tells on when you can and can't whack 'em, and dodge cooldowns to prevent spamming through any attack (outside of dedicated dodge builds, anyways); you need to at least get close to matching old competitors on the feel, unless you want players just going through for the story.

Similarly, the pistol was underwhelming. Lock-on range was longer than where the pistol could actually reach, so I lost bullets that simply vanished before reaching a target. The game also says you can stand still to focus for more powerful shots, but I never saw a damage increase; perhaps add some sort of glow to the barrel or a sound effect to indicate a "charging" state? That aside, the model is hilariously large; the main character needs to hook two fingers through the trigger guard to pull the trigger, suggesting an extreme caliber that should have insane recoil on each shot.

This would feel better on a controller, but it seemed to be KB+M only with no option to alter the questionable controls. We'll be pressing Melee/F and Dodge/Spacebar a lot, but an F press requires momentarily taking a finger off core WADS movement keys or externally mapping an extra mouse button as an extra F/Spacebar.

Several areas have a vague arrow icon indicating an interaction, but the actual method to interact might vary; as an example, we can climb in the opening segment, but the player has to resort to trial-and-error and just walk into the environment for a moment to enter a fixed animation.

Not sure if there's a major plot reason why the grey husks are going pants-less; unless there is, you could have just as easily altered the model and avoided the Steam warning and potentially being locked out of sales in certain regions.

There's potential, but ya have a lot of room ya need to grow into.

Hi - I've made various edits to the player and enemy attack animations. Nothing too substantial, but I think it's a small improvement.

For controls, you can use a controller - just plug it in before starting.
Regarding the ghoul enemy's genitals, I am keeping those. There is no story or lore reason, I just think they're neat.

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Showing 1-5 of 5 comments

Dascu [developer] 17 Jun, 2024 @ 10:04am

Hi - Thanks for writing that all out. There's a few things I plan to still address in a future update, though I don't think it would satisfy all of your complaints. I do appreciate the Illbleed reference though, I take it as a positive.

Null Winter 17 Jun, 2024 @ 10:33am

Originally posted by Dascu:
Hi - Thanks for writing that all out. There's a few things I plan to still address in a future update, though I don't think it would satisfy all of your complaints. I do appreciate the Illbleed reference though, I take it as a positive.

'Illbleed' was janky but fun due to having a lot of unique mechanics not found elsewhere. A pity it's now abandonware after the team dissolved without selling the rights.

Doctor Dementor has The Tower on the Borderland

19 Jun, 2024 @ 4:51pm

Originally posted by Null Winter:
Not sure if there's a major plot reason why the grey husks are going pants-less; unless there is, you could have just as easily altered the model and avoided the Steam warning and potentially being locked out of sales in certain regions.

There's potential, but ya have a lot of room ya need to grow into.

Censorship is never a solution its a game with monster and horror its not for kids

Null Winter 19 Jun, 2024 @ 4:58pm

Originally posted by Doctor Dementor:
Originally posted by Null Winter:
Not sure if there's a major plot reason why the grey husks are going pants-less; unless there is, you could have just as easily altered the model and avoided the Steam warning and potentially being locked out of sales in certain regions.

There's potential, but ya have a lot of room ya need to grow into.
Censorship is never a solution its a game with monster and horror its not for kids

It's a solution if you don't want to face potential lock-outs from sales regions because you wanted a non-plot relevant feature that doesn't match any of the other enemies' design aesthetics.

A developer of this app has indicated that this post answers the original topic.

Dascu [developer] 22 Jun, 2024 @ 9:30am

Originally posted by Null Winter:
Decent atmosphere, but the environments are pretty bland; some more structural damage on various floors of the tower might help break up the monotony and help the player recall which floor they're on without needing to check the map.

Melee and dodges don't feel good; since enemies have no animations for being hit and don't flinch, melee combat becomes a cycle of waiting for the enemy to finish their attack, getting one weak stab in, and then i-frame sliding away from them like 'Illbleed'. Some enemies also have ambiguous animations leading into projectiles that aren't very visible (moths...). 'Dark Souls' pretty much perfected risk-reward on pressuring enemies that can flinch, setting up enemy tells on when you can and can't whack 'em, and dodge cooldowns to prevent spamming through any attack (outside of dedicated dodge builds, anyways); you need to at least get close to matching old competitors on the feel, unless you want players just going through for the story.

Similarly, the pistol was underwhelming. Lock-on range was longer than where the pistol could actually reach, so I lost bullets that simply vanished before reaching a target. The game also says you can stand still to focus for more powerful shots, but I never saw a damage increase; perhaps add some sort of glow to the barrel or a sound effect to indicate a "charging" state? That aside, the model is hilariously large; the main character needs to hook two fingers through the trigger guard to pull the trigger, suggesting an extreme caliber that should have insane recoil on each shot.

This would feel better on a controller, but it seemed to be KB+M only with no option to alter the questionable controls. We'll be pressing Melee/F and Dodge/Spacebar a lot, but an F press requires momentarily taking a finger off core WADS movement keys or externally mapping an extra mouse button as an extra F/Spacebar.

Several areas have a vague arrow icon indicating an interaction, but the actual method to interact might vary; as an example, we can climb in the opening segment, but the player has to resort to trial-and-error and just walk into the environment for a moment to enter a fixed animation.

Not sure if there's a major plot reason why the grey husks are going pants-less; unless there is, you could have just as easily altered the model and avoided the Steam warning and potentially being locked out of sales in certain regions.

There's potential, but ya have a lot of room ya need to grow into.