The art is lovely and leaves me nostalgic for more than one 80's anime & the Little Nemo movie. Despite being an early build, there really is already so much to love and very little to criticize as it's very clear you've put a lot of love and attention even into the demo. I also love the dark, ethereal undertones coursing throughout this demo from start to finish. I really cannot wait to see where things go from here!!!
The only bugs I've found so far are thus: 1. If you press the action key (Z) enough times during a cutscene or at the start of a new level, you can make Moira blink in and out of existence.
1a. If you press the action key (Z) fast enough during a cutscene, her animations begin to overlap. These may be bugs or maybe you intended them, but I definitely feel like if you wanted there is gameplay potential in these two things.
2. When fighting your first Dream Slimes as opposed to abusing Ciel's slime, it's possible to be knocked off the edge of the map if you are near the starting point to the left of the slimes, falling down and remaining trapped there.
3. This is probably the only design criticism I have so far, but the bouncy ball level is frustrating for two reasons.
3a. There is an exploit at this level that I've struggled to reproduce given how touch & go the balls are, but the one time I nearly managed to reproduce it it involved hitting the jump button 3 times, falling from the second highest ball back to the starting point/giraffee which produced not only a sort of white screen tear but also a slingshot effect. I thought it may have been intentional, though I was only ever able to barely reproduce it once or twice by being able slingshot up the giraffe's neck back to my starting position at the ledge in front of the giraffe. EDIT: Jump onto the far left tip of the invisible edge on the center ball and let yourself fall towards the giraffe for a slingshot effect, but you may also need to press jump while touching the wall parallel to the giraffe's neck.
3b. This isn't so much a bug/exploit report as it is a criticism. This level is a bit too annoying tbh. A very key location like the item shop (which you'd need to get to buy soda) shouldn't be hidden behind all of that. It's definitely a good motivator, but the level as it is right now would make this impossible for casual players to reach without a bit of luck. As it is you barely breathe on the balls from the side, you are sent flying! This is pardonable tho since this is in fact a platformer. I'd only change one thing, make the dash take you just a bit further. I honestly had to drop my third playthrough after leveling up and acquiring over 200 candies because I ran out of dash points which was slightly disappointing. I'm definitely not saying to get rid of the difficulty but as it is, unless you are aware of the invisible edges to the balls, it's possible you'll end up wasting all of your dash points or potentially an entire playthrough. I did figure out the timing, but what about players who cannot figure it out before running out of their first set of allotted dash points? It happened to me on my second playthrough, so I had to start over :(
4. I think an extended dash would change this, but the boss fight can be a little frustrating. It'd be cool if he gave some cue that he was about to plop down from the sky, like a creepy laugh or a shadow appearing where he intended to land (tho, that may hurt the difficulty unless you extend the level, the speed and the amount of times he drops down at you.) Overall though, from start to finish, I'm enjoying the Midnight Carnival so far! Also, have you consider
That all being said, this is one of the very few games I WANTED to playtest thanks to both it's art and it's gameplay. Keep it up, this is a very interesting game with loads of potential and I'm very excited for your next iteration!
Thank you so much for playing Dreamtrotter & sharing your notes with me, Chimerick!! This helps me out a BUNCH!
Your comparison to Little Nemo and 80's anime has made me so happy--Little Nemo is actually one of the inspirations behind this game. The green hair design for Apollo was partially inspired by the little clown kid from Slumberland (I forget the clown's name or if they gave him/her one) And Flip remains one of my favorite characters ever! He's a bad influence, but he is also a ton of fun to watch lol
1. "Z" is usually the key to advance text & interact, so I don't know how I missed this one T-T I've found a fix for the sprite flicker issue and am working on adding the fix to each instance of dialogue.
1a. I wanted there to be a bit of overlap during her attack animation, but I didn't want her to disappear completely, which is happening sometimes. Hmm.... maybe I can work it into the game somehow, like you said...
2. Oh no!! Get back up there, Moira! That's a big one; thanks for catching that! I'll see why that might have happened and what I can do to stop that from happening.
3. Good points! I've been thinking that the design of the bouncy ball level might be a bit too much for so early in the game. I wanted players to feel like they were being rewarded for exploring, but I ran into a lot of issues such as if you're out of Dash Points, you're also out of luck in getting to Sandman's Shop. Redesigning the level might fix the slingshot effect on the center ball and make it a more fun experience! I'm planning on increasing Moira's Max DP & adding Boost Juice enemy drops in that area. There's also a character named Memory who will appear in the full demo who you can travel back to if you're low on health & DP.
4. I love these ideas!! I've had a lot of people mention his difficulty, so I'm looking into ways to make his part more fun and less hard
Thank you again for these kind & helpful comments! It helps so much to know that there are people out there interested in this project of mine! :)
Wow, then that inspiration comes across in a very unobtrusive way which is easier said then done. Nonetheless, happy to help and thanks for hearing me out! I'll be looking forward to your next demo and seeing what's next in Moira's journey, so don't ever think no one's paying attention to what you're making here. Good luck!
Woah, that was so cool!! Especially for a game made in RM, I didn't expect it to feel so clean to control. Took me a little bit to get used to (and it doesn't help that I suck at platformers), but it started to feel pretty natural by the end. The art is gorgeous too, love the character design! Super excited to see how the project progresses! Big good luck with development! ^^
This gets me so hyped! xD I was so nervous about trying to make a platoformer in RM, but the plugin by Tomoaky has really saved the day. Thank you for the compliments and for giving Dreamtrotter a play!
![Dreamtrotter [Test Demo]](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzkwMTYyOTYucG5n/original/Z45u%2B%2B.png)
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This game looks and sounds very interesting; I'd love to give the demo a shot but unfortunately it appears that there's no download option?
I wonder, also, is the game still being developed?
The art is lovely and leaves me nostalgic for more than one 80's anime & the Little Nemo movie. Despite being an early build, there really is already so much to love and very little to criticize as it's very clear you've put a lot of love and attention even into the demo. I also love the dark, ethereal undertones coursing throughout this demo from start to finish. I really cannot wait to see where things go from here!!!
The only bugs I've found so far are thus:
1. If you press the action key (Z) enough times during a cutscene or at the start of a new level, you can make Moira blink in and out of existence.
1a. If you press the action key (Z) fast enough during a cutscene, her animations begin to overlap. These may be bugs or maybe you intended them, but I definitely feel like if you wanted there is gameplay potential in these two things.
2. When fighting your first Dream Slimes as opposed to abusing Ciel's slime, it's possible to be knocked off the edge of the map if you are near the starting point to the left of the slimes, falling down and remaining trapped there.
3. This is probably the only design criticism I have so far, but the bouncy ball level is frustrating for two reasons.
3a. There is an exploit at this level that I've struggled to reproduce given how touch & go the balls are, but the one time I nearly managed to reproduce it it involved hitting the jump button 3 times, falling from the second highest ball back to the starting point/giraffee which produced not only a sort of white screen tear but also a slingshot effect. I thought it may have been intentional, though I was only ever able to barely reproduce it once or twice by being able slingshot up the giraffe's neck back to my starting position at the ledge in front of the giraffe.
EDIT: Jump onto the far left tip of the invisible edge on the center ball and let yourself fall towards the giraffe for a slingshot effect, but you may also need to press jump while touching the wall parallel to the giraffe's neck.
3b. This isn't so much a bug/exploit report as it is a criticism. This level is a bit too annoying tbh. A very key location like the item shop (which you'd need to get to buy soda) shouldn't be hidden behind all of that. It's definitely a good motivator, but the level as it is right now would make this impossible for casual players to reach without a bit of luck. As it is you barely breathe on the balls from the side, you are sent flying! This is pardonable tho since this is in fact a platformer. I'd only change one thing, make the dash take you just a bit further. I honestly had to drop my third playthrough after leveling up and acquiring over 200 candies because I ran out of dash points which was slightly disappointing. I'm definitely not saying to get rid of the difficulty but as it is, unless you are aware of the invisible edges to the balls, it's possible you'll end up wasting all of your dash points or potentially an entire playthrough. I did figure out the timing, but what about players who cannot figure it out before running out of their first set of allotted dash points? It happened to me on my second playthrough, so I had to start over :(
4. I think an extended dash would change this, but the boss fight can be a little frustrating. It'd be cool if he gave some cue that he was about to plop down from the sky, like a creepy laugh or a shadow appearing where he intended to land (tho, that may hurt the difficulty unless you extend the level, the speed and the amount of times he drops down at you.) Overall though, from start to finish, I'm enjoying the Midnight Carnival so far! Also, have you consider
That all being said, this is one of the very few games I WANTED to playtest thanks to both it's art and it's gameplay. Keep it up, this is a very interesting game with loads of potential and I'm very excited for your next iteration!
Thank you so much for playing Dreamtrotter & sharing your notes with me, Chimerick!! This helps me out a BUNCH!
Your comparison to Little Nemo and 80's anime has made me so happy--Little Nemo is actually one of the inspirations behind this game. The green hair design for Apollo was partially inspired by the little clown kid from Slumberland (I forget the clown's name or if they gave him/her one) And Flip remains one of my favorite characters ever! He's a bad influence, but he is also a ton of fun to watch lol
1. "Z" is usually the key to advance text & interact, so I don't know how I missed this one T-T I've found a fix for the sprite flicker issue and am working on adding the fix to each instance of dialogue.
1a. I wanted there to be a bit of overlap during her attack animation, but I didn't want her to disappear completely, which is happening sometimes. Hmm.... maybe I can work it into the game somehow, like you said...
2. Oh no!! Get back up there, Moira! That's a big one; thanks for catching that! I'll see why that might have happened and what I can do to stop that from happening.
3. Good points! I've been thinking that the design of the bouncy ball level might be a bit too much for so early in the game. I wanted players to feel like they were being rewarded for exploring, but I ran into a lot of issues such as if you're out of Dash Points, you're also out of luck in getting to Sandman's Shop. Redesigning the level might fix the slingshot effect on the center ball and make it a more fun experience! I'm planning on increasing Moira's Max DP & adding Boost Juice enemy drops in that area. There's also a character named Memory who will appear in the full demo who you can travel back to if you're low on health & DP.
4. I love these ideas!! I've had a lot of people mention his difficulty, so I'm looking into ways to make his part more fun and less hard
Thank you again for these kind & helpful comments! It helps so much to know that there are people out there interested in this project of mine! :)
Wow, then that inspiration comes across in a very unobtrusive way which is easier said then done. Nonetheless, happy to help and thanks for hearing me out! I'll be looking forward to your next demo and seeing what's next in Moira's journey, so don't ever think no one's paying attention to what you're making here. Good luck!
Woah, that was so cool!! Especially for a game made in RM, I didn't expect it to feel so clean to control. Took me a little bit to get used to (and it doesn't help that I suck at platformers), but it started to feel pretty natural by the end. The art is gorgeous too, love the character design! Super excited to see how the project progresses! Big good luck with development! ^^
This gets me so hyped! xD I was so nervous about trying to make a platoformer in RM, but the plugin by Tomoaky has really saved the day. Thank you for the compliments and for giving Dreamtrotter a play!