Phew—after releasing the demo on April Fools’ Day, I’ve been working nonstop. I fixed around 20 issues based on the feedback I received. The biggest changes were to the chat window and the boss battle.
Some players mentioned that the old chat interface broke the flow of gameplay, so I updated it so that chat messages now appear in the bottom-right corner even when the chat window is closed. Important quest-related lines are highlighted, and you can check your current objective by holding the Tab key, so there’s less need to constantly open the chat or map—though now that dialogue just flows by on the right side of the screen, it’s easier to miss what’s being said.
As for the boss fight, I adjusted the tempo and hit detection to significantly lower the difficulty. It’s surprisingly hard to guide players all the way to the more Metroidvania-like parts of the game. I hope these changes will be received positively.
I posted on Twitter and r/metroidvania to get more feedback. While there weren’t many replies on r/metroidvania, the ones I got were sincere and truly helpful. I was a bit nervous it might be like r/gaming again, but the difference really surprised me. I’m now thinking about posting updates there once every week or two, as long as it doesn’t come across as spam. I’m also looking into whether I should post on other subreddits as well.
Back when I made the prologue, I didn’t even think about how many people would play it or where I’d get feedback from. But this time, I’m carefully considering when and where to release updates, how to gather feedback, and what goals I should aim for before applying to Next Fest.
Making decisions while looking at reality directly—it feels like I’ve just stepped onto the path leading up a 1-kilometer-tall mountain. It’s not unbearably difficult, but there’s still that lingering question: will I really make it to the summit?