Bring It On!
The realm is under siege!
Monsters and the denizens of Evil have spread across the land, driving citizens out of their homes and chasing innocent people into hiding!
Now it's time for you to take up your sword! ...and your shield! ...and your daggers! ...and your boomerangs... Fine! Take everything! |
Bristling with weaponry and items, there's just one thing left to say to the forces of Evil: BRING IT ON!
Bring It On! is a single-player auto-attacking 'monster'-hell shoot-em-up survival game. Take on MASSIVE hordes of monsters across several locations, earning experience points to level up and acquire new weapons and items. Can you survive long enough to bring out the Mid-boss and Boss of each area? Can you find and recruit all of the other fighters scattered across the land to your cause?
Features
|
Controls
- Arrow Keys/WASD moves the player and the cursor
- Enter to make selections in menus.
- P/Escape to Pause the game
- Mouse also works for Menu navigation.
- Gamepad Support
About
You may notice a sort of similarity between this game and another popular game. It is true that this game's development was inspired by the game Vampire Survivors by poncle
We wanted to see if we could make something similar, but different - to see if we could capture some of the fun elements of that game and then expand on them and see what kinds of challenges and/or obstacles such a project would create, and then overcome them.
This game is not intended to be a copy, a rip-off, a reskin, or an attempt to trick people into buying this game instead of the other one. We have dedicated real time, energy, resources, and money into making this the best game we could make, and trying to come up with our own version.
That being said, it is understandable and inevitable that we will be compared to that other game.
We only hope that this comparison can be seen as the flattery that it is intended and not something nefarious.
If you like this game, please consider supporting Vampire Survivors as well - and tell 'em Axol Studio says 'hi' 😉
Credits
Code: Tim Hely
Design: Tim Hely & Naomi Hely
Music: Dorian Kavadlo
Title Illustration: Mau Mora
Base Sprites by Oryx Design Lab
Made in HaxeFlixel
Status | In development |
Platforms | HTML5, Windows |
Rating | Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (5 total ratings) |
Author | Axol Studio |
Genre | Action, Survival |
Made with | Haxe, Adobe Photoshop, Tiled, OpenFL |
Tags | Fantasy, Pixel Art, Shoot 'Em Up, Singleplayer, Top down shooter |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad (any) |
Links | Homepage, Ko-fi |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- v1.0.7 - More Bug fixed, Radiant Aura change71 days ago
- v1.0.3 - Minor Fixes82 days ago
- v1.0.2 - Bug Fixes86 days ago
- v1.0.1 - Bug Fixes87 days ago
- v1.0.0 is Now Live!88 days ago
- Announcing: Full Release Date!Jul 24, 2024
- v0.14.20 - Balance and Performance TweaksMay 01, 2024
- v0.14.16 - Bug Fixes and Improvements Galore!Mar 22, 2024
Comments
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How long are levels supposed to be now? I was playing the second level and after 40 minutes the final boss still hadn't shown up. Ended up letting myself die at that point because it seemed like something had to be wrong. Windows version.
One other semi minor but pretty annoying thing. The into screen Haxel/Made in St Louis sound volume isn't affected by turning down the SFX volume. I have that pretty low to make the game volume balanced with other things I play. But the intro is so loud that it has sometimes hurt my ears because it's still at full volume despite SFX being turned low.
Pretty cool but a little too simple/too long.
I only played once and I guess there were too many enemies because the game crashed... and although it was fun, I didn't find any difficulty!
So... right before launching v1.0.0 we broke something in the math that made the game super-easy by accident...
Were you playing the in-browser demo or the Windows version?
The new build should be better balanced (although level 1 is not meant to be TOO hard)
Not sure about the crash, though... let me know which version you were on.
Thanks!
Great game!
I've been seeing intermittent crashes on the web version in Chrome/Firefox after ~15 min of play. Here are the errors in the dev console.
Thanks! Just to be clear, do you mean:
after playing for 15 minutes you will sometimes get a crash
or
I've only been playing for 15 minutes and I will sometimes get a crash
?
This *seems* to be the same issue ulgrude had before... On the browser, tilemaps seem to be despawning and causing issues...
This does NOT happen in the windows build.
I may have to take down the browser demo until I can figure this out...
It is NOT happening on either of our test systems, one is Windows using Google Chrome, the other is a Chromebook using Google Chrome...
More research is needed...
Every run where I've survived has eventually crashed a few minutes after the first mini-boss. I'm guessing this is ~15 min of gameplay.
Yes, for the crash log I posted, I noticed the tile in the upper left was "blank", i.e. no textures/ruins/trees.
Chrome: Version 127.0.6533.120 (Official Build) (x86_64)
Mac OS X: 14.3.1 (23D60)
Hope this helps!
Show post...
like the game
The fun is back!
In hindsight the fact that the corruption was full strength even on the first level, with completely un-upgraded characters, was what made it so repellent. The way it's strong only on later levels now works so much better because by then you have characters upgraded that can deal with it.
There's not much to dislike anymore. It's great how the game is shaping up. I did see it mentioned elsewhere that development is winding down and there probably won't be many more updates. I have a few suggestions for things that could hopefully still be improved at some point.
1. If there's only one thing out of these that gets added, please, please do this one. The character selection is frustratingly clunky and slow still on a controller. Having to move left/right and then confirm, to go through each character one by one, is just far too cumbersome. The fact you have to scroll through all the characters again after beating a level if you want to use the same character again is especially frustrating.
Being able to hide locked characters would sort of help, but there's a much better way. Please, put in an extra screen where you see all the character portraits and can just choose from any character on the same screen. After choosing the character there, then you could see the character specific screen where you can upgrade. That would be so much quicker and convenient. Plus, there could maybe even be a random button to choose a random unlocked character to play as.
2. The level selection screen moves backwards. What I mean is, pressing right on the controller moves the level selected to the left, and pressing left moves the level selected to the right. I don't know how that got reversed but it's very confusing and causes me to select the wrong level sometimes.
3. When a relic shows up in a chest, there's no delay at all. If you were tapping a button when you opened a chest with a relic, it gets instantly selected. If you're very used to confirming the chest automatically because usually there's no choice, same thing. I've opened chests and instantly taken a relic without even seeing what it was multiple times. Some kind of delay or extra input (like maybe having to press left/right to select take or leave, instead of having take automatically selected) in the rare case that there's a choice to be made would help.
4. Some kind of indicator to know that you've unlocked all characters in a level would help.
I started from a fresh save so I have four levels unlocked right now. Playing the fourth level for the first time, I saw a red arrow and followed it to a character I then unlocked (fire). A minute or less later another character showed up which I also unlocked (axe). I don't know if one was tied to the other or I just got kind of lucky. But I had been assuming that there was one character to unlock per level (even though I haven't seen any in the second or third levels yet).
Now I have no idea how many characters there are to unlock in each level, or how to tell if you've gotten them all. Even if it's something that has to be unlocked (maybe after beating a level a few times, or with a few characters?) it would really help to have an indicator on the level select screen to let you know if you've gotten all characters in a level.
5. Chests can spawn where you can't get to. My first time in the fourth level I saw not just one, but three chests stuck inside unwalkable squares. They couldn't be reached so they couldn't be opened.
I took screenshots. I could upload them somewhere if you think that would help.
Maybe there could be a check to see if a chest is on a walkable tile when spawned, and if not the chest could slide toward a walkable space until it was completely on a walkable tile.
Btw it's excellent the way chests now remove corruption around them. Exactly what was needed.
Edit:
I was playing the fifth level and was pretty close to the end when there was a "null" error and the game closed.
--------------------------------------
filename: BringItOn
package: com.example.myapp
version: 0.14.15
sess. ID: bio-v0.14.15-65c6e1b4-1113-4e25-8d88-692ee217c073-2024-03-11_08'22'33
started: 2024-03-11 08:22:33
--------------------------------------
crashed: 2024-03-11 16:24:02
duration: 08:01:29
error: Null Object Reference
stack:
substates.ChestOpenSubState.openChest (substates/ChestOpenSubState.hx line 337)
substates.ChestOpenSubState.start (substates/ChestOpenSubState.hx line 101)
flixel.tweens.FlxTween.finish (flixel/tweens/FlxTween.hx line 707)
flixel.tweens.FlxTweenManager.update (flixel/tweens/FlxTween.hx line 1276)
flixel.FlxGame.update (flixel/FlxGame.hx line 747)
flixel.FlxGame.step (flixel/FlxGame.hx line 679)
flixel.FlxGame.onEnterFrame (flixel/FlxGame.hx line 552)
openfl.events.EventDispatcher.__dispatchEvent (openfl/events/EventDispatcher.hx line 402)
openfl.display.DisplayObject.__dispatch (openfl/display/DisplayObject.hx line 1399)
This got really long so I'm posting it as it's own comment.
I saw mentioned elsewhere that the game hasn't had too many sales. That's real unfortunate. It's clear a lot of work has been put into this. I think this might be about the fourth best Survivors like I've played. If that sounds low, understand how much of a compliment that is. Out of all of them I've played, I only consider three other ones, and this game, to be fun enough to be something to really keep coming back to.
I can think of a couple things that might have been a factor for this game not finding it's audience. It probably wouldn't help anymore with this one but might for future games. I don't say any of this to be harsh. I hope this can at least be somewhat helpful.
Obviously there's a lot of Survivor like competition which is a major factor for all games in the genre, so I won't go any farther into that.
In particular, I think the art style combined with the pretty generic name (I don't mean to be offensive, but does feel generic) didn't help it any. Honestly, I could imagine some people seeing that and thinking it was some port of a low effort mobile game.
I understand that the same artist as Vampire Survivors was used iirc, but the thing is no one ever said Vampire Survivors looked impressive. If Vampire Survivors wasn't the originator of the popularity of the genre, and was just another game in the crowd that came later, I do wonder if it's art style would have hurt it.
Back to the name, I think the problem is that it doesn't say enough about the game. Sure, it says that there's combat. But there's so many games which have combat. That doesn't set it apart from other games, or help to get it noticed.
There's several Survivor games whose names I think have helped them in a way a name like Bring It On could not. so I'll say those as examples. Vampire Survivors indicates a gothic theme, and is a wink at the clear Castlevania inspiration to it. Halls of Torment implies high difficulty (which it lives up to), and is an indicator of the hellish feel to it's look, and even it's music. Holocure is an outlier because it's based on an existing IP Hololive, so it benefits from that a lot automatically. But "curing" enemies is the lore for the game so cure being in the name itself adds to it's identity. And 20 Minutes Till Dawn is set at night, with 20 minute levels, so it's name is not only concrete and memorable but also describes the game well. Brotato isn't a game I'd be interested in playing at all myself, but the name shows a non-serious, and likely humorous tone.
All those names tell something about the game even if you've never heard of the game before and don't know anything about it. All of those names are unique, something that not just any game could have.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said about "Bring It On!" Once again, I'm not saying any of this to be mean. But Bring It On just doesn't communicate any real kind of identity. There's some attitude because of the way it's confrontational, but that's it. It's doesn't say anything about how the game might be themed or where it might be set. It doesn't say anything about tone or difficulty. It doesn't say what about the game stands out, why someone should play it, or put a memorable idea in someone's head. It doesn't draw someone's attention.
There's a whole lot more factors for a game than just a name, of course. But a really good name can really help. And a forgettable name, or one that doesn't say much about a game, can have problems drawing any attention at all. Since I found out that Bring It On hasn't sold well it's something that's been on my mind.
Ironically, now that Bring It On is almost done, the corruption that came in so late would have been a great thing to indicate in the name from the beginning (if it had been planned back then). That's a core part of the game's identity now, after all. And it sets it apart from other games.
Something like Scourge of Corruption for example, even though it's still kind of generic, could make someone curious to know more and check a game out in a way Bring It On just could not. At least there's a little bit of mystery (What scourge? What corruption?). Plus something like Scourge of Corruption is so much more likely to stick in someone's head and be remembered.
Honestly, after thinking about this and saying all this, I'm starting to wonder if giving the game a rename when it gets to the final version might actually help some. If sales are as unfortunately low as the impression I've gotten, I don't see how it could hurt. Except for having to redo the logo. Anyway, I'd suggest asking for opinions on this.
Thank you for your very verbose comments!
Yes, development is coming to a close (finally!) The goal was to have 8 levels in the game, and level 8 is being worked on now.
When it's all said and done the development of this game took over 2 years - it was started on 02/20/2020 and we hope to have the Full non-Early Access version released probably Late April or May.
Of course, we'll come back and make fixes and tweaks based on feedback after that, but we probably won't add more content (unless the game suddenly explodes in popularity and people want more!)
We will add your comments to our list and we'll see if we want to try to implement or them or what we can do with them.
We figured out the cause of this crash and it will be fixed in the next release (which we hope to have our in a few days!)
I can't get past the level because of it so that's great to hear.
The chests being unreachable problem I mentioned is caused by knockback I think. The light aura for example, combined with the relic with 500% knockback, really knocks everything back so far. And I've seen defeated enemies/chests continue sliding into unwalkable tiles.
So the real problem might be that defeated enemies/chests can slide into unreachable areas and come to rest there, instead of continuing to slide until they're somewhere that can be walked on. Or if they were to bounce off of unwalkable areas instead of sliding into them that could work too.
Some other thoughts.
1. The balancing isn't quite right in the beginning. What I mean is it feels like most characters aren't ready to take on the second level until they're fully upgraded (except for the bonus 1% upgrades). It really would be more fun to feel like it's not a pointless waste of time trying to go onto another level beyond the first one before a character is fully upgraded.
There's no real reward for trying to take on a level beyond the first one until a character is fully upgraded either. Because with the deck stacked against you so hard past the first level until you're just about fully upgraded, and dying resulting in any time spent on the level practically going to waste (because you earned maybe a handful of soulstones if you didn't succeed), trying to play the second level until then is more an exercise in frustration than anything else.
But it gets boring having to play the first level multiple times with most characters before that character can reasonably move on from the first level. I've played the first level much more often than any other level specifically because of this - because I felt forced to by the level scaling rather than because I wanted to - and that's getting more monotonous with every new character unlocked because then you have to go do that again every time. Unlocking characters isn't exciting anymore. It just means I have to grind the first level yet again.
2. The damage from those obstacle trees in the marsh is excessive. I saw today that running into a tree a single time - just one hit - took an entire half of my health away. Why? Why have them cause so much damage? I did only have armor upgraded once at the time, but still. Half your health in a single hit? Why? Bosses don't even do that much damage. And this is only the second level.
There are also so many trees around sometimes that it's kind of ridiculous. I have had times where I have been lost with tons of damaging trees all around me and it's taken several minutes to find my way out of them to somewhere there was at least some reasonable area available to dodge.
The amount of damage caused, and the amount of damaging trees in some places, really does not seem in like with difficulty for a second level.
Will there be a way to turn corruption off?
I keep checking back in on this game after some months to see if the "you have to slowly grind from scratch for each character" mechanic has been toned down (it makes the game, which is otherwise fun, get old fast for me. I just don't find starting over from scratch for each character, combined with such a slow grind for each character, fun or engaging.).
This time when I checked on the game I was shocked to find that the fun was gone, and had been almost entirely replaced with frustration.
The corruption mechanic sounds like it could be somewhat interesting on paper. But boy is it not in reality.
Basically, the end result of corruption is that you can't ever go back to where you were before. But that's terribly at odds with how a survivor clone, and even this game itself, works.
A don't like having to say this to someone who's worked so hard on this game, but there are so many things wrong with corruption and I don't understand what value it's supposed to be adding to Bring It On.
Problems:
1. Corruption builds up SO FAST. If you're swarmed or have several enemies next to you, which of course happens often in a game like this, one attack can go from no corruption next to you to a 3x3 block of corruption right next to you, or even larger. And if you were positioned unlucky, you will be half over one of the newly corrupt tiles that instantly appear and immediately take damage with no time to even react. This happens often. It has killed me too, and feels like an absolutely stupid way to die.
Melee plays so badly now because of this mechanic.
2. Corruption never goes away. What's the problem with this? In a game where experience falls on the ground, and has to be collected, I don't really know of any way that's not gonna cause a big problem.
As the round goes on, there's an every growing pile of experience scattered all over that can't be collected because of corruption. I just keeps increasing how much experience you can't collect, through the entire round. That's not fun or interesting. It just feels bad and frustrating. And likely leaves you under leveled.
Ranged suffers from that just as much as melee, especially with how enemies (and the dropped experience) can get knocked backward from the force of the killing blow and land in corruption.
And then there's chests. Having to stand still a moment to open a chest used to be an interesting mechanic that added some spice without being frustrating or obnoxious. You just had to time it well. Now it's often frustrating and obnoxious. If you couldn't get it open in time, once a chest gets covered in corruption might as well not exist.
Add on top of that--combined with how you can go from no corruption to instantly a several tile wide pool of corruption from one attack--you can have chests get spawned inside a corruption pool that didn't exist a moment ago, literally never having a chance from the moment it was spawned to ever try to open it.
All of this stuff just frustrates and repels. I can't honestly say I find it fun to play the game now. Corruption just gets in the way of the fun every single time.
I'm confused what the point of corruption is supposed to be? If it's to make the player move around, there's already stuff that drops health potions, and stuff like hidden characters. If it's to add excitement or fun, it's very much adding frustration instead and not fun.
Once again, I'm sorry to have to be so blunt about this. I can't think of a better way of saying it. While it might have been an interesting idea for an experiment, I honestly don't see how corruption is anything but an ill-fitting mechanic for this game.
We have already been making lots of changes to corruption.
The initial version of the mechanic that is out now turned out to be close, but not exactly what we wanted from the mechanic.
Changes are coming in a future release.
You will not be able to disable it entirely, but some of the changes should help with some of your frustrations.
1: Corruption will spread at a rate relative to the difficulty of the level. So in the Grasslands it will spread very slowly and take a lot of time to build up.
2: Some attacks will be able to 'burn away' and/or repel corruption. Chests and (lit) bonfires will also repel corruption.
3: Some enemies will have effects that spread more corruption, or interact with it in different ways.
Also, the corruption mechanic will play a larger part in the overall story of the game.
Also, also, the idea that the Corruption on the ground is so dangerous that you should never touch it might be a bit overkill. Corruption damage starts out very very small and then builds up the longer you are touching it - but it will take awhile to become super perilous. And, it will reset back to 'small' damage the moment you step out of it.
The idea behind the mechanic is to present more choices to the player - do I risk taking a few hits of damage to stand in corruption if it means I can kill more enemies or do I move to get away to somewhere clear all the time? Do I run through a small patch of corruption take a few hits to go collect XP or a Chest? what about a large patch? Do I go find potions enough to heal up and then come back here to collect those things?
While we would agree that in the version you are playing now, the mechanic is a bit rough, we have been working to make it better.
I hadn't played this in a while. I saw it was updated so I decided to check it out again. But hitting Launch in the itch client, the game doesn't launch at all. It tries to pop up a window that closes right away and that's it.
I'm on a Steam Deck so playing itch games through the client is the only reliable way I've found to use itch games. Bring It On was working in the itch client on Steam Deck last time I tried to play it (probably a couple updates ago). I don't know what happened between then and now that's making it not launch through the itch client.
Edit: I tried switching to the previous build (39) and that launches with no problem, but I don't want to be stuck on an old version. Apparently there's something about the latest build specifically that's causing an instacrash. Hope that helps to figure it out.
Sorry to hear about your issue. I don't have access to a Steam Deck to test, but on Windows, downloading the latest Itch build (40) and running it, and using the Itch client both work for me... and as far as I can remember, nothing really changed between the last 2 versions that would cause what you're seeing.
Can you try uninstalling and re-downloading the latest version in case the download somehow got corrupted?
Can you try the Demo version - which is built using the same code as the main version - and see if that works?
Does the Steam Deck have any kind of crash reporting or anything that might say what's happening?
If you want, you can respond via email: tim@axolstudio.com
I don't know where to find crash logs if there are any.
Uninstalling the latest build and reinstalling still has the same result (window tries to pop up for a split second and then it's gone and the game is no longer running).
The demo also behaves the exact same way.
After reinstalling build 39 and running it again, I can see I have borderless selected in the options. I don't know if that could be a factor but I don't really have any ideas what could be the cause.
All I can say for sure is that some change between 39 and 40 must be causing it.
I did notice there's two save folders for Bring It On in AppData\Roaming:
Axol Studio, LLC\BringItOn - with 2 files: axol-bringiton.sol (1.4kb) and flixel.sol (126 bytes)
Axol-Studio, LLC - with 3 files: axol-bringiton.sol (1.4kb), BringItOn.sol (126 bytes) and flixel.sol (126 bytes)
I doubt that has anything to do with the problem but it seemed strange there were two save folders for the game.
When you run Itch version 39, what number is in the bottom-right of the Title screen? (Itch has it's own version numbering, so I'd like to see what version does work for you)
At some point we did change the way our save files worked, which may be why you have 2 folders. If you rename those folders and try the new version, does it still crash? If so, there might be something wrong with the old save data that is not loading properly... we tried to make sure that every version was compatible with the one before it, but if you hadn't played in a while, there might have been something in a build you skipped that was changed? Not sure...
IF the new update does launch with the renamed save folders, then we have 2 options:
1: If you don't care that much about progression, and don't mind starting your save file over, we don't have to do anything, you can delete the old save files.
2: If you want to see if we can save your old data, then let me know which folder was re-created by the working version, and then email the old version of those files to me so I can pick them apart. This might take some time to figure out where the problem is, but you should be able to recover you saved data once we figure out what went wrong - and it may help someone else in the future.
Totally up to you!
If the save files DON'T fix the issue then I am really stumped...
Yep! It was the save version being old that was the cause. After renaming the save folders, the current build launches.
Version 39 from itch says v0.10.3 in the corner. Strangely, the game recreates both folders (although "Axol Studio, LLC" is empty).
But looking at my progress it wouldn't be worth the effort trying to figure out what went wrong with the save.
I did encounter a different problem with the latest version while playing my first game from a fresh save. After I got stoneskin from a chest , the game turned solid green and closed. My progress wasn't saved. It says I have 0 soulstones after loading the game.
I would suggest saving your updated soulstones whenever you pick some up (or anything else important), to avoid lost progress in case of a crash.
Am I remembering wrong that you used to be able to aim manually where your weapon would attack by using the second analog stick?
Maybe I am. I would suggest having manual aim as an option. After playing some other survior-likes which have that option it's hard to go back to one without it.
Edit: I got another bug after picking up an item which increased xp or loot (I don't remember which) by 100% and reduced pickup range.
I noticed after that enemies stopped dropping xp entirely. There were literally no more xp drops showing up at all for several minutes. I didn't have any upgrades which increase pickup range. I don't know if that was a factor.
In the end all I could do is let myself be killed because it was impossible to level up.
Last update the game stop responding always on 10:08
Thank you. We dropped the ball on this update with several avoidable bugs and errors and are very sorry. We have been working almost non-stop since release to try and get everything fixed and hope to have a new build out ASAP (today!) which fixes the crashes and improves the performance...
Just stumbled upon a unforeseen circumstance:
Simultaneous dying and gaining a level causes the game to break and loop. Mobs are spawning, the ending message box disappears and the character is gone.
The only way to get back is by ESC > Restart or Exit.
Apart from that I am going for my last 64 EXP in order to unlock the knights special skill :)
The time needed to fully complete a character feels exhaustively long compared to the EXP gained. How do the others feel about it?
I've added the bug to the list.
The soulstones needed to buy skills is kind of high but we will be adding more ways to earn them soon - like chests and challenges.
Hopefully that will alleviate some of that exhaustion.
Hey ty for the games bro, i just hope u get better days the rest of the year so, again ty and its great that u face this bad situations in a good manner keep doin
I died the first time I played because I had no idea my health was so low. If there could be a health indicator bar right above or below the player that would be very helpful, especially on a Steam Deck where your face is so close to the screen. I also don't see any indicator of when your armor is recharged so I don't have any idea when it would be safe to take a hit or not.
I understand this is early access, but is there really no win condition? I know my way around a Survivor-like so the second time I played I was a lot more cautious about my health early on and prioritized upgrades a lot smarter. I was surprised that it took more than 45 minutes to max all the upgrades. That's really long for a single Survivor-like session. I was even more surprised when the clock got past 59:59 and rolled back down to zero. That's when I realized there was no end. Which was disappointing even if it's in early access.
I know from other Survivor games that if you don't win or die your progress doesn't get saved, so I assumed that's true here too and killed myself. The end game screen said mini-boss and boss were killed, level completed "No". But then looking at the achievements it said level 1 was completed, so I'm confused.
I also didn't get any unlocks that I can see, so what do you have to do to unlock a character? I played over an hour straight in that level and was getting the same wave of enemies endlessly for quite a while. I don't think I even saw another new enemy type after the big red knight died. It's very unexpected that wouldn't unlock anything.
Speaking of that red knight, it looked like he dropped something when he died but I don't know if I picked it up or not. Immediately when he died I got a level up. After I chose what to upgrade, whatever the knight dropped disappeared so I don't know if I got it or not. What was that supposed to be? Oh yeah, what are the maps that drop sometimes supposed to do? That and exactly what Luck does are the two other things that are unclear.
Sorry for asking so many questions. I do understand it's in early access, and I will say it's already more fun than some other Survivor-likes I've played.
So each of the levels has a mid-Boss that shows up at the 10 minute mark and then a major boss that shows up at the 20 minute mark.
Defeating the second boss should drop a map that ends the level and unlocks the next level.
If that didn't happen, that's a bug that I have not seen. Maybe has something to do with leveling up with the exact same time is picking up the map and it overrid something but I'll have to look at that. Sorry about that.
As far as progression and unlocking characters, every level has a hidden character available to find in it. It has a chance to spawn as you move around the map, but it's not guaranteed every time you play. Your luck stat increases the chance of it. Spawning as well as increases the chance of things like crits and more experienced dropping from enemies and so on.
I do plan to eventually add an in-depth guide/ dictionary in the game to explain a lot of these nuances.
Unlockable character should have an outline like the elites and the bosses do. And after you defeat one they drop a crystal that unlocks that character when you pick it up.
Also each character has five talents that you spend the soulstones you earn at the end of the level to upgrade. Each character has a mastery skill which is unlocked by upgrading all five of their skills to make level. Some of the characters mastery unlocks a new character. Others add a new weapon to the pool or something.
So in general the gameplay loop is sort of designed to be:
Pick a character.
Play a level.
Try to find the hidden unlockable character by exploring more and more of the map and not just stay in one spot.
Defeat both bosses in that level to finish the level.
Spend soulstones on upgrades to eventually master the character.
Repeat in harder levels/ new characters/ the same level.
Currently besides the Knight, there are five other characters in the game. Mastering the characters to unlock some of them is meant to take some time/effort.
Thank you for your feedback and I'm sorry about the bug.
Hopefully that bug is so rare that you don't happen to get it again. Like I said I had not heard of it and not seen it myself but I will look into it.
I have a lot of changes planned for the presentation and some of the inner workings of the game. I just need more time to refine some things before I get the next release out.
You're right about making it your own and expanding on the concepts. I like this more than VS because of the interesting features like ranged enemies and terrain. It was also cool to see at least one boss change behavior based on remaining HP (or time or something). There are a few problems, though:
Thank you for the feedback!
This game is still a work-in-progress. One of the things that has been implemented (but not yet released) is a complete overhaul in AI pathfinding - enemies get "stuck" inside walls almost never, and they will try to work their way around obstacles to reach you instead of just getting stuck in corners.
Trying to find a good balance of difficulty is tough - each of the ~6 characters in the game play totally differently, but the intent was to always make the Knight character be the 'introductory' character and have him be easier (especially for new players) in the early-game to let people get used to the game and everything - but, he doesn't scale up as strongly so that he ends up being underpowered in the later levels, giving players an opportunity to break out the other characters who might be more powerful or at least have specific strengths for specific challenges... (well that's the INTENT anyway... whether it ends up feeling like that in the end is the hope).
The next update is being worked on. It's turning out to be a lot bigger in scope than previous updates but I will add the other issues to the list to check out.
I hope that you can keep enjoying the game as I keep adding to it and refining things - and can experiment more with different characters/levels/builds.
Thanks again for playing - please tell your friends to check it out, if you want :)
Interesting variation on Vampire Survivors. Looks ok so far, my main issue though is that the game spikes and lags for a while every time I gain a level.
Just revisiting this. The game still lags and spikes every time I gain a level. In windowed mode there are also artifacts on the edges of the sprites.