that was dope!!!
Reviews for "UMBRA -Demo-"
KeysThings responds:
Thank you thank you!
The game is cute yet i must critique the choices for pixel art in tandem with the very strict colour pallette chosen to play the game: everything blends in together, and even if you can understand where you are and the elements of the level, it is exhausting to do so... i played for 15ish mins (excluding tutorial and introductory lore) and my eyes hurt. Reading is a chore, the very low res pixel art aesthetics doesn't work if you want your text to be easily readable...
My main critique is the chosen colour palette that clashes with every single element of the game, nothing is clear to the eye and everything looks extremely busy, overwhelming the eyes and stressing the experience...
I have to reccommend you take a look at "20 minutes until dawn" or similiar games on how they manage to make a strict colour pallette and a pixel art game into a visually clear and easy to read experience for the player, i liked the premise of the story, but i literally cannot look at the game as is now.
If you only have 16 colours to work with with your chosen engine, either you change engine (i personally recommend Godot) or you lessen the strictness of your chosen main colour pallette to utilize all colours you have to the fullest, but i won't deny it is tricky to do given how limited you are in pixel size and colour. I wish you the best of luck with the development of this little metroidvania-hollow knight-like!
KeysThings responds:
Firstly thank you for giving the game a shot! Secondly, thank you for the criticism. I get the artstyle not being your cup of tea, though I chose this engine as a challenge to myself. It's meant to simulate developing for retro consoles with similar limitations in memory, color, and resolution. I do at some point want to remake the game in a more substantial engine, but im doing my best to push this one to its limits lol. 20 minutes until dawn is a fantastic game, and if I ever remake umbra, it'll probably lean into that style a bit but I want it to be its own thing. And I may even use godot! But pico8 suited the needs for what I wanted with this game, though I agree there's definitely still some polishing to be done.
I'll see what I can do about making things a bit clearer, (including the text). The first level is a bit of a visual noise fest, I agree, and I'm working on redoing some of the tiles.
Thanks again for playing!
interesting game, i like it
KeysThings responds:
thank you thank you!
A finely crafted and fun-as-hell demo - I see plenty of potential in this.
KeysThings responds:
thank you thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll try and keep it updated as the game progresses
The controls are solid and the concept is interesting, but there is a terrible audio glitch which causes the sound to compound and crackle. Combat is straight forward and responsive, but the art style makes it hard to see and differentiate between foreground and background.
KeysThings responds:
Thank you for giving it a shot! I'm sorry for the issues. The audio crackling apears to be a browser issue, though I'll see what I can do about it. In regards to the art style, I am working on making things a bit more clear, though I only have 16 colors to work with in this particular engine. Thank you for the feed back and thank you for playing!