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@slembcke@mastodon.gamedev.place

Post #1951334

2026-05-03 18:27 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@VeridianExpanse/116508556036375113 Ok Fedi friends. This is my game's demo that I've been (mostly) solo dev-ing. Playable in your browser this moment. (the thread has a download with source code too!) I'm kind of looking for feedback if it's a good demo or not before launching it on Steam. It's a crafting game, and the demo caps the available materials. I worry that it will lead players to grind instead and end the demo on a sour note. It also still has some placeholder elements. Is that a turnoff? Boosts appreciated. :D

Replies (11)

  • Except for my placeholders, the pixel art is mostly made by @untiedgames, and the audio by Robert Frost III. Written from scratch in C, but uses a lot of libraries. Has minimal renderers for Vulkan, GL, and Metal. I'm pretty proud of my lighting system. I made it for a past project but went all in this time. It renders a 2D lightfield as fourier coefficients in an MRT, soft shadows and all. It's efficient enough to run on a Pi 4 or 5. I've written a lot of this up on my blog as well. :)

    Open ##1981773

  • @slembcke if you have an end screen for the demo (thanks for playing type stuff), I don't think you have to cap the resources - just let the player know they've seen all the demo has to offer but can continue if they wish (especially if you can still test more crafting stuff that way without having to retreat the beginning) if the shippy avatar is an indication of placeholder quality, then you don't have to worry about that - just communicate that in the startup message as well

    Open ##1981785

  • @slembcke this glyph is mixed up for me the button that brings up scanning for me is Y, not X

    Open ##1981790

  • @slembcke A DEMO, YOU SAY? [Zero intensifies]

    Open ##1981801

  • @slembcke yes yes yes (Also Masto's auto text recognition had trouble with the pixel font, writing "is" as "iz". Or maybe it was trying to be cool)

    Open ##1981802

  • @slembcke I would worry about more smaller annoyances that might have players bouncing off early things that annoyed me so far were the grabbing (even the upgrade is still tedious, right stick click is the worst binding for a repetitive task) the right stick moving the ship in some contexts (additional for grab, required for dig? very confusing) I first thought I had to claw to dig (hold dpad *and* move both sticks) - the dpad holding in general feels strange

    Open ##1981803

  • @slembcke Placeholder elements is not a turnoff, unless you use AI to make them, then I throw any possible interest in the game in the bin. My experience with collecting materials so far has been: Switch to grab mode. Attempt to click on item. Ship switches to shoot mode. Repeat a couple of times. Switch to grab mode. Grab item. Immediately release item. Grab item again. Immediately release item again. Grab item again. Shake item around a bit. Discover how to collect it by accident.

    Open ##1981812

  • @slembcke omg I need to play this! I just got back from camping so I'm too tired now

    Open ##1981821

  • @j12i@weirder.earth 2026-05-04 10:46

    @slembcke this is the viewport I get when I open it:

    Open ##1981822

  • @mtthgn@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 22:58

    @slembcke@mastodon.gamedev.place congrats on getting your demo released! Making it to this point is an incredible accomplishment! It looks great!

    Open ##2279828

  • @slembcke@mastodon.gamedev.place I finally had the time to play around with this for a bit! I like how it looks so far! There is a bug for me where sometimes the blue filter just stays around in normal gameplay? Otherwise I think the opening feels slightly slow? like its a twin stick shooter and I feel like i'm mostly just collecting things and not shooting often. Really excited to see where this goes tho!

    Open ##2508589