Bit Kid

Seriously Discord, just some generic praise that after playing the latest build.... the game is simply amazing. With the new enemy death animations, the lanterns, the parralex backgrounds, and a whole huge big list of tweaks I've no doubt only subtly noticed the game has come a LONG way. The platforming is much better now, still requires accuracy but it feels a LOT less pixel perfect!

I've not played far into the game in any build, but I hope there will be more weapons with unique/better attack directions/ranges! Also the music is amazing! Some really lovely tunes. I really love the lonely, frontier style Town music.

Here, have some suggestions!

I kind of feel that the "smash lantern" sound could be toned down, in volume and/or length. At current it's just a little too stand-out for such a recurring sound. The crate smash sound, in contrast, is more or less perfect! Subtle and looty!

When you rescue townsfolk, a tiny bit of flavour text would be good. Players realise it's a game mechanism, but having the NPC not remark on their situation at all (how/why are they in a cage underground?) is a little world-destroying.

Would like to see the "altar" effect timer either be changed to something more subtle, or removed. Knowing the remaining, unquantified time for a minor effect like that isn't really important. I'd rather see some subtle particle effects on the player, instead of a HUD element!

As amazing and alive the environments look now, I'm still hanging out for some "foreground" details, like some small stalactites or something. Also would really love to see some "dust falling from roof" type effects to liven up even static empty corridors.

Would also be great to have the moving platforms creak and "settle" when the player jumps onto them. If they're going to be the major platforming elements in some rooms, they ought to be a little more visually interesting/interactive. Also some subtle background creaking machinery sounds would be a good addition, as long as it wasn't too intrusive! [Whoops, they already do "settler" when you land on them! Obviously too subtle for me!]

Would looooooooooooove to get an "intro" screen to each area. Like a fade in to a splash of pixel art (or even just the player entering the new area, with a letterbox effect and some impressive text fading onto the screen to introduce the new area) to really drive home a "congratulations, you're advancing!" Some flavour text would be fantastic too. Imagine the players characters internal monologue when he steps out from some dingy caves into a wonderous underground forest temple!

Oh and one more thing, is there any chance ever of having a "real lighting" mode! Imagine having a "lighting" overlay so lanterns provide the player with bubbles of vision (as well as a smaller innate light bubble for the player) as an added challenge mode. You could even have a lantern for the player to wear! Another way to do this would be looking at the game "Fez". When the player was in a leafy forest area, there was a subtle "lighting" filter across the whole level that looked like the light shining through a forest canopy. Really a simple masking effect to improve the atmosphere in such a great way!

Keep it up guys!

Here have some possible bugs!

Player can ground-slide up temple stairs, which is a little bit weird.

Would be good to see a cool down on the slide, since it's so much faster than running it is tempting just to spam it for faster movement, and that's silly...

Glad to hear you're enjoying it

Thanks for the feedback! We'll definitely be adding more details later, but right now the priority is content

Just some more random thoughts as I play some more Chasm!

- The club would be cooler if there were a "ground impact" sound and/or effect when you use it on the ground. Would make it feel meatier and weighty!

- Would REALLY love to see the players clothing change colour as you change outfits. I realise you're not going to be doing all that sprite work for all the outfits, but at the very least you could give him a red tunic when you're wearing the red clothes, grey for the chainmail etc etc Surely a palette swap isn't so hard!

- Some of the enemies (kobold esp) in the caverns really clash against the grey/earthy colour palette, and could do with toning down and making more... serious. Of course we have no idea what the story or plot is developing into so far, but it would be very interesting to see through the game some of the lore. For example, perhaps these trolls and kobolds are only violent in the mines because they are trying to escape something more sinister?

- The shiv would be a very interesting weapon if you could use it as a follow up attack. So you would use a sword slash with one hand, and then press the button to use the shiv immediately, and it would cancel the cooldown animation of the sword swing and give you a quick one-two punch, at the risk of having to be close in to an enemy. Even if the attack power and such were tweaked so that such a weapon combo was still less useful than other weapons the player has at his disposal, players would use this combo simply for cool factor. Hell, maybe even "shiv only" runs or something similar could be a player-made challenge for a game run! Would make for a good combo weapon for the player to use when they have no magic as well.

- Being able to find an item or altar or something near the "end" of areas, which highlighted on your map exits/doors/corridors that you HAVE NOT YET been into would be EXTREMELY helpful. Would certainly mean for much less squinting at the blue rooms on the map screen, looking to see what I missed. Even if the player bought a map from an NPC. From memory, Super Metroid would allow you to get an area map which was very helpful in making sure you didn't miss anything.

- Alternately, having some sort of visual cue that an exit from a section will lead to an "important" room would help the player. When faced with a left and right path, it's annoying to go down one to find it's the continuation of the level, then backtrack and find that the other path was indeed a single room for an archaeology dig or a chest. If you had some atmospheric visual cue near the area transition it would give the player something to get excited about, whilst removing a little of the annoying "have to check every pathway manually".

- Heal/save points seem a little close together, which remove some of the sense of lonely danger which these types of game really benefit from.

- Being able to use projective weapons to smash multiple lanterns is extremely satifsying. Being able to cut the lantern ropes and make them fall to the floor would be even better. Especially if they could damage enemies. (Remember, smashing world items is one of the most important features in a game! Remember the joys of rolling into piles of crates and barrels in Dark Souls?) At many points in these types of games, enemies merely become annoying obstacles instead of challenges to the player, so keeping the environment interesting for the player to interact with is quite important.

- Will we get to see jump somersaults or something like that? Even if it's not a gameplay mechanic, being able to press JUMP again midair to start flipping or something would give the player something to do whilst we jump around and backtrack.

- Getting flavor text when the player encounters a new type of room would be both interesting and helpful. With some internal-monologue type text, you could build up the player charater, add some flavor and give a hint as to what the room or currently-unusable-world-entity is. Later the player could discover some lore or text (hidden extra stuff?) which explains in greater depth. I'm talking about things like the altars, save rooms, elevator machines etc

- Would love to see a "hold attack to charge a power attack" feature in the game, especially if it affects the range and speed of the weapon you are using. (think the power attacks in Secret of Mana)

- It'd be nice if the teleporters were more thematic. For example we see abandoned minecarts in the background of the mines, why not make the mine teleporters be a minecart station. It'd be cutsey and implausible "oh hey I'll get on this rickety minecart and ride to who knows where!" and would fit the environment better than magical teleporters scattered in even intervals.

- Being able to hold down UP and quickly flick through the teleporters is cool, but the HUD flickers back in for a second as you do it which looks silly. Perhaps add in a delay for the HUD reappearing after teleporting?

- Some sort of health pickup would help the game immensley. Not sure how much you want the game to rely on potions and the gold economy, but I'm yet to be able to return to the surface (can't find my way back, WE MUST GO DEEPER) and I am dying a LOT. Health really doesn't feel important until you're on the final units, at which point the game becomes dangerous and that last blow will set you back a fair way. Health pickups would be very helpful in the early game, even if they are small and rare.

- A lot of the sprite animations (blacksmiths fire, lit house windows, many NPCs) seem to be way too quick. Having them slower might promote a more laid back atmosphere, easier on the eyes. The same can be said for some of the level music, with percussion taking the foreground just a little too much. It would be nice to see a more mellow shift in the music for the early, creepy and abandoned areas. The heavier more action packed stuff could come later on at higher difficulties where perhaps the enemies are more purposely malicious...

- With the proposed difficulty levels (or New Game+?) it would be great to see some of the platforming vary in the "fixed" areas. For example where the player first encounters swinging ball spikes, just after getting the ledge grab, it would be great to see in easier modes more handholds or vanishing platforms to help out inexperienced players who need it. I'm a seasoned platformer and even I came across some sections that took half a dozen attempts, just enough to go from being challenging to slightly annoying!

Oh yes, and a QUESTION! Will permadeath mode offer the player any advantages to make it worthwhile, or to help them? ie more loot drops, occasional health drops, rewarded with more fluff and story....