I promised you to play it "tomorrow" a few weeks ago. Promise broken.. but completed today. Here are my thoughts and some bug reports in the description.
Great video! I certainly appreciate all of the feedback you provided, and I will 100% take it into account for any future work! I also appreciate that you linked the Itch page in the description. Hope you enjoy the rest of the game. Look forward to a big update soon!
I also want to add that although fixing the stairs thing isn't something in-scope for this project, I have already fixed it for future ones. So stay tuned on that. For the most up-to-date info, I recommend joining the Discord. There you can provide direct feedback and see what's coming up before everyone else.
I played for about 15 minutes so far. Great job! Really captures the feel of some of my favorite old school RPGs!
Somethings to note:
When you die, the player can still move (swing and jump sounds still play if I hit those buttons)
The Depth of field has a weird effect on the sprites. Character's faces look like they're blurred out for their protection
The mouse seems to not rotate unless I hold the mouse button or bring up the esc menu first. After that I can then rotate.
That's all I have so far. I would also suggest maybe randomizing enemy placement a bit. I killed a Roblin, went into a cave, came right out and it was back in the same spot. Other than that, I really enjoy what you created!
Really fun game! Played and followed its releases since v1.02, but with the AI chase lag being fixed in v1.04 I decided to give it a go with a speedrun. Lots of room to improve but I'm glad I gave this a try. It even includes the all-important "phantom drowning" invincibility glitch ;)
Edit: Woke up this morning to see that my request to start a leaderboard on speedrun.com has been approved. The challenge is open to everyone! https://www.speedrun.com/Wizzerd_Quest
Fantastic job! I have to admit, I never thought I'd see someone beat my game faster than I could do it. You did an incredible job. Of course, since you successfully managed to break the game with your drowning glitch, now I've got the classic gamedev predicament: do you patch an exploit used by the speedrunning community, or leave it in? It's a real head-scratcher...
Hi! You use the mouse wheel or controller bumpers to cycle through all the bartering options, like you do when switching inventory items. My intent was to make it easy to simultaneously tab through items while also switching between Buy and Sell. However, I definitely could have done a better job of conveying that functionality to the player. A lot of the feedback I'm getting is that it feels good once you get used to it, but it's super clunky at first. That means I need to make this system easier to understand for new players. I'll note your feedback down and make some improvements to the system in a future patch.
I really value your feedback. It's super rewarding to have notes like this that allow me to improve the game in ways I didn't even think of. As soon as the inventory gets addressed in a patch (and trust me, it WILL), I will note it in the patch notes. Worry not: patches do NOT affect your save file.
Thank you again! Share Wizzerd Quest with your friends and keep the feedback coming!
I completed it later that day, used a controller because I didn't figure out how to interface with it (I had not seen this message at the time XD). When I had to use the bumpers I realized I probably didn't try the correct button on PC.
Anyway, I loved the game. I was sad when it ended where it did. I thought it was going to and *after* you see what's going on in that place.
Games like yours makes me wish there was a better way to browse itch.io to find good games... it's not easy to find the gems! I think I may have happened to scroll by a reddit post to find your game tho, don't quite remember.
I really appreciate all the well-wishes! Trying to keep quiet because I don't want to accidentally do a "Sean Murray hype train," but there will be another, larger update to the game this month that will lengthen the plot and add much more to do! Hopefully that will help you get the satisfying conclusion you are hoping for!
Thank you so much for playing my game. Remember, it's SHAREware, so make sure you share it with your friends!
Hi there! I think we may have talked already but just to be safe, I recommend trying to install from another device. We also just released another update that should make the game more stable so it wouldn't hurt to update as well!
Not sure if I softlocked my game somehow, but I have no idea how to progress and Ive circled the map like 10 times. I found Favas tools and I keep getting told to look for Fava, but I cant find him. Theres also like 3 places I think Im supposed to enter but cant figure out, such as the red portal thing in the wall at the back of the map, the hut at the top of the staircase by spawn and the gate the royal knights are guarding.
My issues besides this so far:
- Jumping up stairs takes forever
- Enemies being being able to hurt you after theyre dead
- Hard to understand what Im supposed to be doing at times, needs to be some sort of progression to follow
- General confusion with some dungeons and their purposes
- Some parts of the map are so laggy to the point where I have to reopen the game in order to play
I like the aesthetic, game was pretty fun and nice to explore around from what I was able to. I wish there was more chests and stuff hidden around, seems like a lot of missed opportunities with the structuring of the map. I wish enemy spawns were more random and their attacks differed a bit rather than just all being melee enemies you just keep a distance from. It would also be nice to have a bit more shrubage or structures to look at in some of the open areas. I think this game a has a lot of potential, hoping to see it expanded on a little more and fixed up.
First of all, let me just say that this is GREAT feedback and I really appreciate it. I'm gonna try and address your issues in order.
- Fava is located in Maras, the big city by the ocean. You will find him sitting in the park in the center of town.
- The places you're having trouble entering are actually designed like that. The glowing red shield is directly related to the main quest, as is the situation with the capital gate.
- The stairs note is something I've gotten from a lot of players. Originally it cost 5SP per jump but after feedback I cut it to 2. That being said, since it's still a grievance people have, something more comprehensive may need to be done in order to balance jumping. I'll look into it.
- The enemy death hitbox thing is something I'm actively working on. It should be fixed with the next patch (which will likely be in a couple days)
- I agree that the quest info could be more transparent. I need to come up with a clean way to bake that into the HUD without cluttering things up too much. Perhaps I will build some kind of combined map + quests screen separate from the inventory.
- The dungeons are all tied to the story, and thematically they make more sense when played as part of the main quest (there are actually some items and lore pieces that only show up when you visit for the main quest).
- The map lag is caused by the enemy AI. It's in the Known Issues. The problem essentially is that, once an enemy starts chasing you, they won't stop for any reason, and so the further you get from them, the more expensive it becomes for the game to compute the enemy's pathfinding. I'm working on a solution for that which causes the enemy to lose interest past a certain distance. It'll be in a future patch.
- Finally, a lot of the limitations regarding map scope and enemy variety really come down to the fact that the game was, for the most part, made in two and a half weeks by just one guy (me). It was a fun passion project. However, people are more into it than I expected, and feedback like yours really inspires me to keep working on it. I can't really say when, but trust me when I say that the variety and scale (including dungeons) of the game will grow in the coming period.
Thank you again for this excellent feedback. I'm super grateful to have people like you who take the time to give such comprehensive write-ups. I hope you know your feedback has been genuinely heard, and I will 100% be taking it into account with future patches.
Hope you continue to enjoy Wizzerd Quest. Don't forget, it's shareware, so make sure you share it with your friends!
No problem, Im glad that I could help with it. Ive now gone back and managed to complete the game, but Fava is still nonexistant. Me doing things out of order probably messed something up somewhere. Anyways, good luck with the updates and additions! Ill be sure to keep up and check things out.
Edit: I actually did see Fava at some point and just forgot. I thought he would be the one to unlock the place I cant enter up the stairs, but I guess maybe not?
hey hi, ran through it in a couple hours, enjoyed my time! I've got some notes for you!
Minor spoilers below this line:
-----
major glitches:
- random slowdown (possibly memory leak or something?) when traversing overworld, solved by entering a town or dungeon. only happened once, was not able to reproduce. between second to last and last objective. Possibly due to the noted above stuck enemy issue?
- all enemies retain damage ability and collision for a short time after death/despawn. This never killed me, but it did lose me a lot of health over the course of the game.
stuck spots:
bee guys tent - if you jump at the tent's slope, you can get stuck between it and the wall nearest to it.
near shopkeeper that sells "headcleaver" - two low walls near eachother can get player stuck if jumped at.
at collapsed tunnel in the mines - if you platform up to the hole, you'll get stuck.
on load after completing part 1, player will be inside of wall beside exit door. dunno why you'd encounter this in normal gameplay but i was curious.
additional notes:
stamina cost for jumping should either be removed or severely lowered (e.g. from 5 to 1.) At base, some stairs take nearly the entire stamina bar to climb, and it takes ages. This could be remedied by implementing some sort of collision-triggered movement that automatically lifts the player up when facing a "stair" wall. Just an idea, I have no idea how to do that.
Alternatively, removal of stamina cost for jumping entirely, as in the current version, there is no gameplay mechanic visibly impacted by jumping using up stamina.
cheesy/grind spot: it is currently possible to continuously run the mines dungeon and receive the frost spell every single time. It takes little time to do the dungeon, and the gains from the chest are significant enough that a trip to the nearest shop could net you 155 gold for every single run through. one could consider this a decent grinding method, and it balances out the gold loss if the player dies, but there might need to be a cooldown implemented (perhaps based on the time of day cycle?) in order to slow the gain of gold.
-----
overall, very pleasantly playable, if a little confusing on directions at times. Might need some road signs. Being able to access most of the dungeons before they were called for was interesting. I look forward to the next update!
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I promised you to play it "tomorrow" a few weeks ago.
Promise broken.. but completed today. Here are my thoughts and some bug reports in the description.
Great video! I certainly appreciate all of the feedback you provided, and I will 100% take it into account for any future work! I also appreciate that you linked the Itch page in the description. Hope you enjoy the rest of the game. Look forward to a big update soon!
I also want to add that although fixing the stairs thing isn't something in-scope for this project, I have already fixed it for future ones. So stay tuned on that. For the most up-to-date info, I recommend joining the Discord. There you can provide direct feedback and see what's coming up before everyone else.
I played for about 15 minutes so far. Great job! Really captures the feel of some of my favorite old school RPGs!
Somethings to note:
That's all I have so far. I would also suggest maybe randomizing enemy placement a bit. I killed a Roblin, went into a cave, came right out and it was back in the same spot. Other than that, I really enjoy what you created!
This looks amazing I'm finishing up on something similar and I wanted to see what other fans enjoy especially fans of dragonfall
Really fun game! Played and followed its releases since v1.02, but with the AI chase lag being fixed in v1.04 I decided to give it a go with a speedrun. Lots of room to improve but I'm glad I gave this a try. It even includes the all-important "phantom drowning" invincibility glitch ;)
Edit: Woke up this morning to see that my request to start a leaderboard on speedrun.com has been approved. The challenge is open to everyone! https://www.speedrun.com/Wizzerd_Quest
Fantastic job! I have to admit, I never thought I'd see someone beat my game faster than I could do it. You did an incredible job. Of course, since you successfully managed to break the game with your drowning glitch, now I've got the classic gamedev predicament: do you patch an exploit used by the speedrunning community, or leave it in? It's a real head-scratcher...
Hey! Fun so far!
The barter menu will not let me use up/down arrows or mouse hover to select what to buy/sell. I can only select the bottom 3 buttons (buy/sell/end).
Hi! You use the mouse wheel or controller bumpers to cycle through all the bartering options, like you do when switching inventory items. My intent was to make it easy to simultaneously tab through items while also switching between Buy and Sell. However, I definitely could have done a better job of conveying that functionality to the player. A lot of the feedback I'm getting is that it feels good once you get used to it, but it's super clunky at first. That means I need to make this system easier to understand for new players. I'll note your feedback down and make some improvements to the system in a future patch.
I really value your feedback. It's super rewarding to have notes like this that allow me to improve the game in ways I didn't even think of. As soon as the inventory gets addressed in a patch (and trust me, it WILL), I will note it in the patch notes. Worry not: patches do NOT affect your save file.
Thank you again! Share Wizzerd Quest with your friends and keep the feedback coming!
I completed it later that day, used a controller because I didn't figure out how to interface with it (I had not seen this message at the time XD). When I had to use the bumpers I realized I probably didn't try the correct button on PC.
Anyway, I loved the game. I was sad when it ended where it did. I thought it was going to and *after* you see what's going on in that place.
Games like yours makes me wish there was a better way to browse itch.io to find good games... it's not easy to find the gems! I think I may have happened to scroll by a reddit post to find your game tho, don't quite remember.
I really appreciate all the well-wishes! Trying to keep quiet because I don't want to accidentally do a "Sean Murray hype train," but there will be another, larger update to the game this month that will lengthen the plot and add much more to do! Hopefully that will help you get the satisfying conclusion you are hoping for!
Thank you so much for playing my game. Remember, it's SHAREware, so make sure you share it with your friends!
says archive is corrupt whenever i try and extract
Hi there! I think we may have talked already but just to be safe, I recommend trying to install from another device. We also just released another update that should make the game more stable so it wouldn't hurt to update as well!
alright, it seems to be working now!
Not sure if I softlocked my game somehow, but I have no idea how to progress and Ive circled the map like 10 times. I found Favas tools and I keep getting told to look for Fava, but I cant find him. Theres also like 3 places I think Im supposed to enter but cant figure out, such as the red portal thing in the wall at the back of the map, the hut at the top of the staircase by spawn and the gate the royal knights are guarding.
My issues besides this so far:
- Jumping up stairs takes forever
- Enemies being being able to hurt you after theyre dead
- Hard to understand what Im supposed to be doing at times, needs to be some sort of progression to follow
- General confusion with some dungeons and their purposes
- Some parts of the map are so laggy to the point where I have to reopen the game in order to play
I like the aesthetic, game was pretty fun and nice to explore around from what I was able to. I wish there was more chests and stuff hidden around, seems like a lot of missed opportunities with the structuring of the map. I wish enemy spawns were more random and their attacks differed a bit rather than just all being melee enemies you just keep a distance from. It would also be nice to have a bit more shrubage or structures to look at in some of the open areas. I think this game a has a lot of potential, hoping to see it expanded on a little more and fixed up.
First of all, let me just say that this is GREAT feedback and I really appreciate it. I'm gonna try and address your issues in order.
- Fava is located in Maras, the big city by the ocean. You will find him sitting in the park in the center of town.
- The places you're having trouble entering are actually designed like that. The glowing red shield is directly related to the main quest, as is the situation with the capital gate.
- The stairs note is something I've gotten from a lot of players. Originally it cost 5SP per jump but after feedback I cut it to 2. That being said, since it's still a grievance people have, something more comprehensive may need to be done in order to balance jumping. I'll look into it.
- The enemy death hitbox thing is something I'm actively working on. It should be fixed with the next patch (which will likely be in a couple days)
- I agree that the quest info could be more transparent. I need to come up with a clean way to bake that into the HUD without cluttering things up too much. Perhaps I will build some kind of combined map + quests screen separate from the inventory.
- The dungeons are all tied to the story, and thematically they make more sense when played as part of the main quest (there are actually some items and lore pieces that only show up when you visit for the main quest).
- The map lag is caused by the enemy AI. It's in the Known Issues. The problem essentially is that, once an enemy starts chasing you, they won't stop for any reason, and so the further you get from them, the more expensive it becomes for the game to compute the enemy's pathfinding. I'm working on a solution for that which causes the enemy to lose interest past a certain distance. It'll be in a future patch.
- Finally, a lot of the limitations regarding map scope and enemy variety really come down to the fact that the game was, for the most part, made in two and a half weeks by just one guy (me). It was a fun passion project. However, people are more into it than I expected, and feedback like yours really inspires me to keep working on it. I can't really say when, but trust me when I say that the variety and scale (including dungeons) of the game will grow in the coming period.
Thank you again for this excellent feedback. I'm super grateful to have people like you who take the time to give such comprehensive write-ups. I hope you know your feedback has been genuinely heard, and I will 100% be taking it into account with future patches.
Hope you continue to enjoy Wizzerd Quest. Don't forget, it's shareware, so make sure you share it with your friends!
-T
No problem, Im glad that I could help with it. Ive now gone back and managed to complete the game, but Fava is still nonexistant. Me doing things out of order probably messed something up somewhere. Anyways, good luck with the updates and additions! Ill be sure to keep up and check things out.
Edit: I actually did see Fava at some point and just forgot. I thought he would be the one to unlock the place I cant enter up the stairs, but I guess maybe not?
hey hi, ran through it in a couple hours, enjoyed my time!
I've got some notes for you!
Minor spoilers below this line:
-----
major glitches:
- random slowdown (possibly memory leak or something?) when traversing overworld, solved by entering a town or dungeon. only happened once, was not able to reproduce. between second to last and last objective. Possibly due to the noted above stuck enemy issue?
- all enemies retain damage ability and collision for a short time after death/despawn. This never killed me, but it did lose me a lot of health over the course of the game.
stuck spots:
bee guys tent - if you jump at the tent's slope, you can get stuck between it and the wall nearest to it.
near shopkeeper that sells "headcleaver" - two low walls near eachother can get player stuck if jumped at.
at collapsed tunnel in the mines - if you platform up to the hole, you'll get stuck.
on load after completing part 1, player will be inside of wall beside exit door. dunno why you'd encounter this in normal gameplay but i was curious.
additional notes:
stamina cost for jumping should either be removed or severely lowered (e.g. from 5 to 1.) At base, some stairs take nearly the entire stamina bar to climb, and it takes ages. This could be remedied by implementing some sort of collision-triggered movement that automatically lifts the player up when facing a "stair" wall. Just an idea, I have no idea how to do that.
Alternatively, removal of stamina cost for jumping entirely, as in the current version, there is no gameplay mechanic visibly impacted by jumping using up stamina.
cheesy/grind spot: it is currently possible to continuously run the mines dungeon and receive the frost spell every single time. It takes little time to do the dungeon, and the gains from the chest are significant enough that a trip to the nearest shop could net you 155 gold for every single run through. one could consider this a decent grinding method, and it balances out the gold loss if the player dies, but there might need to be a cooldown implemented (perhaps based on the time of day cycle?) in order to slow the gain of gold.
-----
overall, very pleasantly playable, if a little confusing on directions at times. Might need some road signs. Being able to access most of the dungeons before they were called for was interesting. I look forward to the next update!
Thank you so much for your feedback! Version 1.02 has just released, with several changes that hopefully address your issues.