Reverie for a Prince (Postmortem)

Well uh, that was one hell of a week.

This game was a lot of fun to make! The process had its ups and downs (mostly with blender lmao) but the process was mostly enjoyable and I learned a bunch of new things!

However, I definitely don't think my game is a flawless gem that everyone should beat, so I wanted to bring up a few issues that I had with it.

First off, the combat. Hoooo boi, the combat is rough. Now, most of the issues could've been solved with more time, but that wasn't something I really had. There's no feedback as to when you've hit an enemy, no feedback for when you've been hit, the attack range feels way too small despite it actually being pretty big. Someone even complained that they couldn't attack and move at the same time, which is a fair argument but my animation system didn't like that idea.

I think I should've made the enemies flash red when hit, or just given them all 1 HP (With how hard this game is, maybe that's a good idea), make the player flash too, maybe even add a little screen shake and a sound effect. Maybe some knockback would've helped sell the force of the impact. (There isn't even a death effect for enemies)

The second issue, the key pieces. (I think I really fucked it here) Unless you're told exactly where they are, it's basically impossible to find them all. (there are subtle hints, but I think they're too subtle) I think that would've been okay though since they're hidden until all of the enemies in the room they're in are killed. the issue is, that's only the case 2/3 of the time. One of them isn't guarded by enemies and is simply sitting there, waiting to be picked up. If the player finds that one first, it will signal to them that they'll find all of the other pieces just laying around.

I should've telegraphed the pieces more, maybe had them sticking out of enemies backs or something, making it clear that there was a piece there. If I had the time, I would've added the little text spiel I had on the game page into the game, so that it's super clear that the player actually needs to get the pieces. That or signal to them that they need to get the key to actually enter the dungeon.

Okay, some closing thoughts. Chances are if you thought of an issue, I thought of it first, so I'll quick fire a few.
An automap would've been nice.
August should've probably moved faster.
Maybe I hid the dungeon a little too well.
The map is actually alarming linear when you analyse it.
All of the rooms (bar a few exceptions) all look the same.
I should've made the map a little smaller.
The player accumulates damage way too fast.

Well uh, thanks for reading this far if you did,
and thank you if you actually slogged through the game and beat it.

If you have any other issues you had with the game, please tell me!

Foxybutt!