I'm a sucker for a mecha game but this just ticks so many boxes it's not even funny. Everything is so smooth and responsive. The weapons feel and sound amazing. The movement is so fluid and natural. The UI is super cool. Art style is amazing. Animation quality amazing. 6/5 stars.
Favorite game I've played in ages. I'm weeping that this is just a short demo. Give me 200 or more hours of this please. A full game of this would belong right up there with Mechwarrior, C&C, and Brigador as my all time favorites.
Things I'd love to see added:
-A ton of lore and backstory and relatable characters/pilots.
-A campaign map maybe with territories to gain and or lose along side the main story events.
-More objectives like convoy protection, base assault, base defense (or wave defense).
-Hard bonus objectives that give you some kind of boon (or even just a moral choice with a little "thank you for rescuing me!" or happy ending).
-And if I can be greedy, a bunch more enemies, weapons, mechs, equipments, tech, and environments :)
This made me feel like a little kid again. Giddy and excited and a wondrous desire to discover. Even if nothing else ever comes of this, thank you for making it. I love it.
Hello, I made an account to comment this lol. Honestly one of the most promising games I've ever come across on itch. Destruction is super satisfying, the enemies are fun to fight and still challenging, and the immersion is amazing. I was wondering if there was anything out there like a discord or a reddit for this game? Would be cool to have a place to talk about it and get updates lol.
I'm an artist (or used to be, at this point) and I have to say, super jealous of anyone who can design a mech. My brain falls out when I try to do anything technical, I usually stick to organics, but I recognize that's a hurdle that I just need to clear. Seeing this page has ignited my spark to learn new skills and get better at making new things. Every now and then, itch proves to be the place for such inspiration. Awesome work. I'll post notes later after playing, I just saw the preview gifs and felt a fire ignite inside of me and had to share.
This game is awesome. The pixel art and aesthetics are impeccable. I can't wait for it to release. I have a few suggestions thought:
-The visual clutter in this game is part of the charm, don't remove it. But sometimes, the cursor can be a bit hard to see, so add toggles for an aiming line and for making the cursor rotate constantly so it's easily separable from the scene.
-Allow changing controls, obviously. I wanted to change the 'Fix camera' key to C because I use it often to stop and line up a good rocket volley, and Tab is a little far.
-The overworld looks gorgeous, genuinely beautiful, let me rotate freely with Q/E so I can get lost in it, it's really nice. Maybe make the Z key return it to North orientation. The red line is a great detail. I hope there are more planets or environments later because the feeling of floating around in the map with that music is unmatched.
-Not really that important, but a fun little Survivor-like mode where you could upgrade your weapons after defeating a few waves could be nice.
-Not sure if it's normal, but on Mission 3, a few enemies weren't moving (and they couldn't see me behind houses) until I threw some smoke grenades at them.
-Not that big of a deal, but I play on a 120hz monitor, and it sometimes looks a little blurry when moving.
I agree with the cursor bit, when im trying to focus on dodging and use my peripheral vision to aim all the enemy arrows get distracting really fast, i also like the idea of keybinds, which if i had to guess will almost certainly get added.
Also yesss a metal gear style enemy would be amazing, a large singular boss rather than many smaller hordes, that'd be super fun to fight against if balanced right!
Hey Mezzsoft, I come back every day to check on your comments because I love reading your enthusiasm for this project and the vision you have for it. I've said before that I love the game, but watching the process, your receptiveness on feedback and taking the time to answer questions is simply amazing, keep up the good work!
Game Concept is awesome, reminds me of armored core and chrome hounds. I am really interested in seeing where you take this game and you appear to already have a really fun foundation. The sound effects are excellent, although the boost could maybe use a volume increase. Enemies so far are fun to fight and offer different challenges. Visual design is impeccable.
I do have a few questions about your future plans for the game
Do you plan to have multiple mech types or just the one for the player to control?
Are there plans to have some form of progression in terms of unlocks?
Might we see boss type enemies such as rival pilots or near peer enemies (1v1, 1v2 style missions)?
Lastly, not a question but I think indirect fire weapons like an artillery gun that allows shooting at long distance over buildings would be awesome, such as an upscaled version of the current HE grenade with its own drawbacks obviously. Both as a weapon for the player and an enemy type.
I know developing games is not as simple as to permit scope and design plan changes on a whim but if anything I just think these things would be great additions the already solid game you have managed to put together. Regardless great work on the demo.
Do you plan to have multiple mech types or just the one for the player to control?
It will most likely be just the one, but with a lot more customizable options for loadouts and different parts that effect how it can move (i.e. dash, ram through buildings, etc)
Are there plans to have some form of progression in terms of unlocks?
Yes! New missions will unlock as you complete them. The plan is to have both story missions and also optional ones that'll explore the world a bit more and earn the player some special parts.
Might we see boss type enemies such as rival pilots or near peer enemies (1v1, 1v2 style missions)?
Absolutely, it'd be a waste not to have that honestly.
Lastly, not a question but I think indirect fire weapons like an artillery gun that allows shooting at long distance over buildings would be awesome, such as an upscaled version of the current HE grenade with its own drawbacks obviously. Both as a weapon for the player and an enemy type.
I'm working on a few new secondary weapons that will work like that, but I feel like letting the player always be able to shoot over buildings with a primary weapon might make things too easy like with the railgun. I could see enemies using flying drones to coordinate artillery strikes though.
I know developing games is not as simple as to permit scope and design plan changes on a whim but if anything I just think these things would be great additions the already solid game you have managed to put together. Regardless great work on the demo.
Thank you! It's a lot of work and it really does take time to develop these things, but hopefully it will all come together in the end.
For the artillery, maybe it's more like a howitzer and is direct fire, not allowing for arcs over buildings but still an explosive burst of damage at range, the explosion could even damage to player if used too closely. So far Landsword's only other weapon in the high damage per shot is the Railgun, a very endgame weapon. The rest of what we have are predominantly fire rate based, so more burst damage based weapons may be nice, like the aforementioned howitzer, High damage in a single shell, explosive aoe, direct fire without arcing over buildings, and a burst fire gun, likely firing 3 in each salvo, decent damage per shell but mostly for hit and run strats. I cant think of any other burst damage weapons but tbh idk if they'd be necessary, Maybe some form of charge up laser weapon but idk
how do you plan on expanding the game play? IK the game is about controlling a mech. But have you ever thought of making certain missions to where you control a helicopter like the enemy ones? Or will you only be playing as a mech? I’m not saying you should add this I just thought it’d be a nice suggestion.
For the most part, you'll be playing as the mech in game right now but I think there could be a few special missions where you're forced to pilot something unarmed or a completely different type of mech/vehicle entirely.
Thanks for playing! I'm working on some additional resolution settings and the ability to play in windowed mode, sorry the options are a bit limited right now.
Not that I know of. The engine it runs on is a bit old, so it probably sets it off due to the age of the software. Try running it in a VM if it won't let it launch?
Thank you for playing! Sorry about the scores always overwriting. I've since completely rewritten the save system so it saves new bests now, the next update will have it.
The only thing missing is a proper progression system and more levels, maybe even a fleshed-out story (outside of the texts already given) if you are up to it, which I believe is just a matter of time considering the amount of effort put into this.
Please make a Patreon/Subscribestar/Ko-fi so we can support you. You've made something truly incredible and there are lots of people who want to see you succeed.
That's very kind, thank you. At the moment people can donate a dollar on this page if they want to, and I think that's more than enough. I don't release updates frequently enough to warrant making a Patreon page, and I don't think it's fair to lock things behind a paywall. I greatly appreciate the support nonetheless though, thank you again.
Is there a possibility of having a melee attack or a solely melee mech?
Currently there is none in the public build, but I'm working on a melee attack that works like a close range slash or charging attack. A purely melee mech would be interesting. Maybe there could be a mission where you're not allowed to use regular weapons.
The movement of the mech is very good and I believe that if we could have some form of thrust to dash our mech that also deal some damage to enemy might be fun.
Putting it up on Steam is coming soon. I know it could be done right now technically, but I'd like a few things to be just slightly more refined before doing so.
It might be a while. I'd like the next update to double the amount of playable content and majorly refine a lot of aspects of the entire game, so please be patient. Best I can promise is it'll be out sometime this year, haha.
love the game, though it feels overly punishing at times, especially the grubs and stray bullets, a brief damage buffer would be nice, it would allow for strafing strategies that dont get countered by just spray n pray, but for the grubs they definitely need an attack delay, its easy to get surrounded and cornered in ways its nearly impossible to avoid damage, overall great game though, cant way for more
Thanks for playing! I plan on overhauling both the grub level and their behavior a lot, I know it can get a bit overwhelming right now. In general I'm not too happy with the second mission, I should've probably changed it to be the last one.
Fair, still an extremely enjoyable game, especially the Vulcan gun, another comment/suggestion ive got is collisions with structures, The player hitbox loves to catch on obstacles, I find it rather annoying to get caught against something while dodging because the edge of my crawler barely clipped a building, if its due to the hit box and not something else I think a rounded one may fix this (take this with a grain of salt, im no game designer)
Also, Val's character design is great, I found it while looking for concept art of the Crawler to build a model of it, if its not too much to ask, do you have any other angles of the Crawler that arent shown in the game or the magazine's(?, the only image has a crease down the middle so I assume its from a magazine)front view, there seems to be multiple version of the Crawler too
Anyways, have a great day!im looking forwards to more of this incredible game!
another comment/suggestion ive got is collisions with structures, The player hitbox loves to catch on obstacles, I find it rather annoying to get caught against something while dodging because the edge of my crawler barely clipped a building
Technically the hitbox is actually round - it's a circle around 15 pixels in size, but I've actually recently modified it so you can now destroy really small buildings - if they're 20 or so pixels in width, your crawler will just plow through and crush them like it does with a few select small ones currently.
Also, Val's character design is great, I found it while looking for concept art of the Crawler to build a model of it, if its not too much to ask, do you have any other angles of the Crawler that arent shown in the game or the magazine's(?, the only image has a crease down the middle so I assume its from a magazine)front view, there seems to be multiple version of the Crawler too
I'm glad you like the design! I'm afraid at the moment I don't have any other views/illustrations of it. There's going to be lots of different shots of it and other drawings in the game via cutscenes and an intel section I've been quietly working on. Technically the one that you see on the main menu and the current itch banner is an earlier version of the design that I hadn't finished fleshing out (the legs for example cannot rotate), but other than that there's only one variant of it so far, seen in the magazine and the hangar.
Anyways, have a great day!im looking forwards to more of this incredible game!
Oh? Odd that it catches on stuff then, destroying small buildings will be handy though
And yeah that's fair, not many design images, though i did find an old 3d model looking image of it from an old Itch.io post, but only a frontal view again, i noticed the banner one is an older design too, its tempting to make both of them as models now if only i had the parts, same for the enemy mechs if there were detailed pics of them, even the Heli that drops you off looks really neat!
The mayhem feels like the first two GTA games. Hogging the charged-up railgun seems like cheating. I'd fix it with an overheating mechanic that stuns the player if held charged too long.
Thanks for playing. I've been working on adding a laser weapon that has a cooldown/overheat mechanic that functions similar to that. I think it's best to keep the railgun functioning as it is since it's less of a serious weapon and might end up just being a purposefully OP end-game unlock.
This game is absolutly incredible ! I haven't had this much fun in while. I do have some things to say though :
Enemy missles feel nearly impossible to dodge. Maybe add some sort of counter measures ?
Helicopters feel like the strongest enemy so far. They appear unphased by smokes (i love smokes, the most usefull and neat thing to use in the game imo), i cant seem to hit them with any missiles, they feel like they have the most health out of any enemy in the game and they do so much damage and fill up your screen very fast. My suggestion would be to make a heavy mech which has the same damage and maybe just a little more health then the helis while lowering the heli HP and making them vulnerable to smokes.
Now some things that I would love to see :
Battles where you have allied units attacking a hostile stronghold with you.
More mechs and boss battles (Pleaseeeeeee)
Infantry that could take cover in buildings and launch RPGs as well as peper you with machine gun fire
The health bar being out of 10 can be very confusing, sometimes you take hits and it looks like you dont take damage and sometimes it feels like you get hit once and lose 3 HP. Maybe making it out of a 100 or 100% would make this better ?
Different cores (which would give you an an amount of power/wheight ratio allowing for faster, smaller mechs and larger, tankier mechs), engines (tradeoffs between cruise speed and overdrive) and armors (again tradeoff between wheight/protection to different weapons, maybe even allowed an Active protection system to intercept missiles !) sort of how armored core 6 works.
Two different weapons systems at once (one of each arm) : as an exemple you could be able to pick duel gattling guns, auto cannon + railgun and things like that. I think it would really open up your options and how you fight against enemies.
I'll be following this game cause i cannot wait to see how you make it better !
PS: pls make a discord i have more good things to say about this amazing game
Enemy missles feel nearly impossible to dodge. Maybe add some sort of counter measures ?
This has been planned for awhile now. I intend to have APS modules that intercept missiles and also different armor kits like slat armor and ERA that has a chance to block/stop explosions from hurting the player.
Helicopters feel like the strongest enemy so far. They appear unphased by smokes (i love smokes, the most usefull and neat thing to use in the game imo), i cant seem to hit them with any missiles, they feel like they have the most health out of any enemy in the game and they do so much damage and fill up your screen very fast. My suggestion would be to make a heavy mech which has the same damage and maybe just a little more health then the helis while lowering the heli HP and making them vulnerable to smokes.
They are indeed some of the most heavily armored targets in the game right now. Try having your reticule directly on them, that will allow you to shoot over buildings and reach them. Admittedly missiles don't behave that way yet, I'll need to fix them to do so.
Battles where you have allied units attacking a hostile stronghold with you.
Sure!
More mechs and boss battles (Pleaseeeeeee)
Bosses are coming and so are more enemy mech types!
The health bar being out of 10 can be very confusing, sometimes you take hits and it looks like you dont take damage and sometimes it feels like you get hit once and lose 3 HP. Maybe making it out of a 100 or 100% would make this better ?
This is due to the fact some enemies do 0.5 damage with their bullets, and the armor bar is always set to round upward. So you can get hit by one bullet and it'll still say 10 / 10 armor right now. I'll probably change this to account for the fractional damage, sorry about that.
Different cores (which would give you an an amount of power/wheight ratio allowing for faster, smaller mechs and larger, tankier mechs), engines (tradeoffs between cruise speed and overdrive) and armors (again tradeoff between wheight/protection to different weapons, maybe even allowed an Active protection system to intercept missiles !) sort of how armored core 6 works.
This is an interesting idea which has been suggested before, and I'm definitely working on exploring how it can change the gameplay. A lot of people would like the mech to be more modular as well, so we'll see what happens. As said before, the APS as shields are also planned.
Two different weapons systems at once (one of each arm) : as an exemple you could be able to pick duel gattling guns, auto cannon + railgun and things like that. I think it would really open up your options and how you fight against enemies.
While this would be nice, I think it might be ultimately unnecessary due to how short the levels are currently. I feel like there isn't too much of a need to have that if they're only 3-5 minutes long...
I'll be following this game cause i cannot wait to see how you make it better !
Thank you!
PS: pls make a discord i have more good things to say about this amazing game
I appreciate it, but currently I feel like there's simply not enough content to warrant making a Discord server. Maybe in the future after the game releases.
great game i got an S in every mission (is there an S+?)
the vulcan is the strongest weapon by far the only other weapon you need to use is the scatter gun for mission 2 .
i loved every mission but 2 felt a little stale maybe add different grub types.
i absolutely loved the move and shot gameplay its so smooth and the sound affects (vulcan brrrrrrrrr) are so satisfying , great game would love to see expanded.
S is currently the highest rank you can get, though I could theoretically have an S+ for zero hits taken since the current S rank allows 1-2 hits depending if your time is really good.
the vulcan is the strongest weapon by far the only other weapon you need to use is the scatter gun for mission 2
It's true, the Vulcan will probably be a late-game weapon unlock.
i loved every mission but 2 felt a little stale maybe add different grub types.
Yeah, I'm not fully satisfied with it either. I'll be changing their behavior and adding other types of organic enemies eventually.
i absolutely loved the move and shot gameplay its so smooth and the sound affects (vulcan brrrrrrrrr) are so satisfying , great game would love to see expanded
I love the visual style, the gunplay, and the way the mech glides across the landscape! As others mentioned, though, I'd love to see a dash ability in addition to the sprint and more fleshed-out stamina/energy management mechanics.
Out of curiosity, do you have a way to connect for business inquiries like Discord or email?
love the movement, but i feel like youve got more planned for energy management, but would like to see a tap shift to dash function and maybe a ever so slight buff to the decay over time on shift movement
Core gameplay is very satisfying! The art is excellent. This game has a solid foundation. It reminds me of the frantic chaos of Hotline Miami or Mass Effect as a Vanguard.
I especially like to sneak attack through buildings with the railgun, its a blast.
Text can be hard to read, especially in the hanger.
The crosshair being the same color as the enemy indicators makes it easy to lose track of in the chaos of combat. Color change or a line coming from the mech would minimize the issue.
I'm not a fan of mission 2, Kiting a (nearly) endless swarm gets old fast. Perhaps having a rush of worms to block shots for a more dangerous ranged attacker? Then the player can choose to break through the front, maneuver around the worms or try to break up the group using terrain. Alternatively use the worms to flank and block maneuvering against a more dangerous attacker? Then the player needs to prioritize, kill the flank to open up maneuvering room or kill the dangerous attacker to reduce the threat.
Text can be hard to read, especially in the hanger.
I've since changed and replaced a few of the fonts, particularly the small ones. The next build should be way more readable, sorry about that!
The crosshair being the same color as the enemy indicators makes it easy to lose track of in the chaos of combat. Color change or a line coming from the mech would minimize the issue.
I've implemented a settings menu where you can change the reticule and also add a laser line if you'd like. You'll also be able to change the position of the incoming enemy indicators too.
I'm not a fan of mission 2, Kiting a (nearly) endless swarm gets old fast. Perhaps having a rush of worms to block shots for a more dangerous ranged attacker? Then the player can choose to break through the front, maneuver around the worms or try to break up the group using terrain. Alternatively use the worms to flank and block maneuvering against a more dangerous attacker? Then the player needs to prioritize, kill the flank to open up maneuvering room or kill the dangerous attacker to reduce the threat.
Yeah, I'm not happy with it either. The final version of that mission will be a lot more fun and also have a proper map. It's not as fun if the enemies aren't interacting with the buildings and tearing them down. I didn't want to reuse the city level though, so I ended up having it take place on that cheap placeholder map.
Probably not soon, but they're planned. I've been writing down some ideas for them.
How's development so far since last update?
Slow, but very steady. I've been working on a lot of boring and not so flashy things like better settings menus and rewriting the save system to implement mission progression, so I haven't had many particularly visually interesting things to showcase in a devlog, but it's being worked on every day:
When I have some more interesting things to show, I'll put them all together and show them off. I don't want people to think I've stopped working on this game since the last update.
Game visual style, VFX and SFX are good! Shooting feels pleasant. Add some music tho :)
(What can be improved)
1) Environmental damage is annoying:
The game encourages me to destroy everything around, but at the same time, it feels very random to lose HP by occasional debris explosions. It is not clear what is dangerous and what is not. I wish I could focus more on enemy encounters and not be afraid some brick will scratch my mecha :)
2) Player Focus is split:
I focus far on the screen border to kill the enemy as soon as I see it, at the same time, I need to keep an eye on what's going on close to my mech.
3) Poor combat readability:
Enemies painted in environment camo are cool, but it's very hard to see them around because they blend with the environment too well! Spare the players a bit :)
4) Beat'em up or stealth action?
I think the game struggles a bit with its identity. It lacks the tactical depth to be a stealth action, at the same time it's very punishable if you try to run and gun in the enemy's face.
5) The flat mission structure is a bit dull
I have a feeling that designing missions similar to Desert/Jungle Strike games (sequence of objectives to complete) will fit your game perfectly.
(Conclusion)
I feel the combat distance should be reduced and taking damage made less punishing. Your game has a great shooting feeling and it's a big loss that as a player I can't embrace exchanging hits with enemies face-to-face.
Right now lonely enemies just occasionally wearing off the player's mech armor. It's beneficial to kill the enemy from a safe distance and avoid combat. While it makes total sense from a real combat point of view, it's not very exciting from the game design perspective. Why do I need a big armored mecha if it can't fight? :)
I think clustering enemies into small groups and shifting focus from "survive the mission" to "survive the local group encounter" would make the game more dynamic and fun to play.
1) Environmental damage is annoying: The game encourages me to destroy everything around, but at the same time, it feels very random to lose HP by occasional debris explosions. It is not clear what is dangerous and what is not. I wish I could focus more on enemy encounters and not be afraid some brick will scratch my mecha :)
I can understand how that can be annoying. It's mostly cars that tend to cause that. I might have it so they can't damage the player, though on the flip side I think it also helps incentivize one to be a bit more cautious with firing.
2) Player Focus is split:I focus far on the screen border to kill the enemy as soon as I see it, at the same time, I need to keep an eye on what's going on close to my mech.
I don't think I can fix that, sorry.
3) Poor combat readability:Enemies painted in environment camo are cool, but it's very hard to see them around because they blend with the environment too well! Spare the players a bit :)
Some clearer, less desert-esque environments will come that'll hopefully make them pop a bit more. I know it's easy to lose sight of them.
4) Beat'em up or stealth action? I think the game struggles a bit with its identity. It lacks the tactical depth to be a stealth action, at the same time it's very punishable if you try to run and gun in the enemy's face.
There will be some missions that prioritize stealth much more and also feature terrain that won't be as easily destroyed. As a result you'll have to play a bit more careful.
5) The flat mission structure is a bit dull I have a feeling that designing missions similar to Desert/Jungle Strike games (sequence of objectives to complete) will fit your game perfectly.
This is also planned. There'll be missions where you need to complete certain objectives rather than just kill everything.
I feel the combat distance should be reduced and taking damage made less punishing. Your game has a great shooting feeling and it's a big loss that as a player I can't embrace exchanging hits with enemies face-to-face.
You'll have different armor modules which will boost your armor and protection, right now you only have 10 layers but there will be upgrades to it.
In a long line of disappointing games and the trust issues I have with todays games, this game gives me hope. I cant wait for future updates. Love this game.
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Ok. How is it THIS good.
I'm a sucker for a mecha game but this just ticks so many boxes it's not even funny. Everything is so smooth and responsive. The weapons feel and sound amazing. The movement is so fluid and natural. The UI is super cool. Art style is amazing. Animation quality amazing. 6/5 stars.
Favorite game I've played in ages. I'm weeping that this is just a short demo. Give me 200 or more hours of this please. A full game of this would belong right up there with Mechwarrior, C&C, and Brigador as my all time favorites.
Things I'd love to see added:
-A ton of lore and backstory and relatable characters/pilots.
-A campaign map maybe with territories to gain and or lose along side the main story events.
-More objectives like convoy protection, base assault, base defense (or wave defense).
-Hard bonus objectives that give you some kind of boon (or even just a moral choice with a little "thank you for rescuing me!" or happy ending).
-And if I can be greedy, a bunch more enemies, weapons, mechs, equipments, tech, and environments :)
This made me feel like a little kid again. Giddy and excited and a wondrous desire to discover. Even if nothing else ever comes of this, thank you for making it. I love it.
i love this game
Hello, I made an account to comment this lol. Honestly one of the most promising games I've ever come across on itch. Destruction is super satisfying, the enemies are fun to fight and still challenging, and the immersion is amazing. I was wondering if there was anything out there like a discord or a reddit for this game? Would be cool to have a place to talk about it and get updates lol.
I had a similar question! I just didn't wanna bother Mezz more, a discord would be great
I'm an artist (or used to be, at this point) and I have to say, super jealous of anyone who can design a mech. My brain falls out when I try to do anything technical, I usually stick to organics, but I recognize that's a hurdle that I just need to clear. Seeing this page has ignited my spark to learn new skills and get better at making new things. Every now and then, itch proves to be the place for such inspiration. Awesome work. I'll post notes later after playing, I just saw the preview gifs and felt a fire ignite inside of me and had to share.
This game is awesome. The pixel art and aesthetics are impeccable. I can't wait for it to release. I have a few suggestions thought:
-The visual clutter in this game is part of the charm, don't remove it. But sometimes, the cursor can be a bit hard to see, so add toggles for an aiming line and for making the cursor rotate constantly so it's easily separable from the scene.
-Allow changing controls, obviously. I wanted to change the 'Fix camera' key to C because I use it often to stop and line up a good rocket volley, and Tab is a little far.
-The overworld looks gorgeous, genuinely beautiful, let me rotate freely with Q/E so I can get lost in it, it's really nice. Maybe make the Z key return it to North orientation. The red line is a great detail. I hope there are more planets or environments later because the feeling of floating around in the map with that music is unmatched.
-Not really that important, but a fun little Survivor-like mode where you could upgrade your weapons after defeating a few waves could be nice.
-Not sure if it's normal, but on Mission 3, a few enemies weren't moving (and they couldn't see me behind houses) until I threw some smoke grenades at them.
-Not that big of a deal, but I play on a 120hz monitor, and it sometimes looks a little blurry when moving.
-Add a Shagohod :D
Again, great game! I wish you the best.
I agree with the cursor bit, when im trying to focus on dodging and use my peripheral vision to aim all the enemy arrows get distracting really fast, i also like the idea of keybinds, which if i had to guess will almost certainly get added.
Also yesss a metal gear style enemy would be amazing, a large singular boss rather than many smaller hordes, that'd be super fun to fight against if balanced right!
I love Val, I wish there was a picture of the booklet with her in higher resolution
Samee, tall buff woman whos a smidgen crazy based on the dialog ive seen, peak character design
Hey Mezzsoft, I come back every day to check on your comments because I love reading your enthusiasm for this project and the vision you have for it. I've said before that I love the game, but watching the process, your receptiveness on feedback and taking the time to answer questions is simply amazing, keep up the good work!
What programming language/game engine did you do this in?
It's all written in GML.
Game Concept is awesome, reminds me of armored core and chrome hounds.
I am really interested in seeing where you take this game and you appear to already have a really fun foundation. The sound effects are excellent, although the boost could maybe use a volume increase. Enemies so far are fun to fight and offer different challenges. Visual design is impeccable.
I do have a few questions about your future plans for the game
Do you plan to have multiple mech types or just the one for the player to control?
Are there plans to have some form of progression in terms of unlocks?
Might we see boss type enemies such as rival pilots or near peer enemies (1v1, 1v2 style missions)?
Lastly, not a question but I think indirect fire weapons like an artillery gun that allows shooting at long distance over buildings would be awesome, such as an upscaled version of the current HE grenade with its own drawbacks obviously. Both as a weapon for the player and an enemy type.
I know developing games is not as simple as to permit scope and design plan changes on a whim but if anything I just think these things would be great additions the already solid game you have managed to put together. Regardless great work on the demo.
Thanks for playing!
It will most likely be just the one, but with a lot more customizable options for loadouts and different parts that effect how it can move (i.e. dash, ram through buildings, etc)
Yes! New missions will unlock as you complete them. The plan is to have both story missions and also optional ones that'll explore the world a bit more and earn the player some special parts.
Absolutely, it'd be a waste not to have that honestly.
I'm working on a few new secondary weapons that will work like that, but I feel like letting the player always be able to shoot over buildings with a primary weapon might make things too easy like with the railgun. I could see enemies using flying drones to coordinate artillery strikes though.
Thank you! It's a lot of work and it really does take time to develop these things, but hopefully it will all come together in the end.
For the artillery, maybe it's more like a howitzer and is direct fire, not allowing for arcs over buildings but still an explosive burst of damage at range, the explosion could even damage to player if used too closely. So far Landsword's only other weapon in the high damage per shot is the Railgun, a very endgame weapon. The rest of what we have are predominantly fire rate based, so more burst damage based weapons may be nice, like the aforementioned howitzer, High damage in a single shell, explosive aoe, direct fire without arcing over buildings, and a burst fire gun, likely firing 3 in each salvo, decent damage per shell but mostly for hit and run strats. I cant think of any other burst damage weapons but tbh idk if they'd be necessary, Maybe some form of charge up laser weapon but idk
how do you plan on expanding the game play? IK the game is about controlling a mech. But have you ever thought of making certain missions to where you control a helicopter like the enemy ones? Or will you only be playing as a mech? I’m not saying you should add this I just thought it’d be a nice suggestion.
For the most part, you'll be playing as the mech in game right now but I think there could be a few special missions where you're forced to pilot something unarmed or a completely different type of mech/vehicle entirely.
Hello - I am loving this. Only thing I think is missing is a resizable window mode - the native one is v.small on my large screen
Thanks for playing! I'm working on some additional resolution settings and the ability to play in windowed mode, sorry the options are a bit limited right now.
I get a Microsoft Defender alert on launch, is there any way to make windows happy with this?
Not that I know of. The engine it runs on is a bit old, so it probably sets it off due to the age of the software. Try running it in a VM if it won't let it launch?
:The game is beautiful, I adore the art style, the flow of combat is really smooth, definitely could add an endless mode
Thank you! An endless mode would be nice, I agree.
This game is so clean! If it became more developed, I realllyy want to have an endless mode!
Cheers!
I am in love with this game! My only issue with it is that it shows the most recent run on the score for a mission, not the best one.
Thank you for playing! Sorry about the scores always overwriting. I've since completely rewritten the save system so it saves new bests now, the next update will have it.
Thank you both for fixing the issue and replying to my comment!
Very well made thus far.
The only thing missing is a proper progression system and more levels, maybe even a fleshed-out story (outside of the texts already given) if you are up to it, which I believe is just a matter of time considering the amount of effort put into this.
Can't wait for the full release!
Runs really well on my Steam Deck with Proton. Can't wait to play the full game!!
Awesome, glad to hear that!
Please make a Patreon/Subscribestar/Ko-fi so we can support you. You've made something truly incredible and there are lots of people who want to see you succeed.
That's very kind, thank you. At the moment people can donate a dollar on this page if they want to, and I think that's more than enough. I don't release updates frequently enough to warrant making a Patreon page, and I don't think it's fair to lock things behind a paywall. I greatly appreciate the support nonetheless though, thank you again.
I can't wait to play the full release!!!
Thank you for playing and making a video!
I would love to see a full version of this some day. Keep at it!
Thank you! I'm still working on it.
Amazing game! Is there a possibility of having a melee attack or a solely melee mech? It would be amazing if there is!
Thank you!
Currently there is none in the public build, but I'm working on a melee attack that works like a close range slash or charging attack. A purely melee mech would be interesting. Maybe there could be a mission where you're not allowed to use regular weapons.
A only melee mission sounds really cool. Thank you for your hard work :)
The movement of the mech is very good and I believe that if we could have some form of thrust to dash our mech that also deal some damage to enemy might be fun.
With a demo this good, how on Earth are You not on Steam? The mission with with the worms was especially satysfying!
The only major criticism I have is that the mecha has good camouflage (sometimes hard to see player)
Thank you for playing!
Putting it up on Steam is coming soon. I know it could be done right now technically, but I'd like a few things to be just slightly more refined before doing so.
I really wanna coop
I could see it being fun, maybe in the future there'll be one!
Next update when?
It might be a while. I'd like the next update to double the amount of playable content and majorly refine a lot of aspects of the entire game, so please be patient. Best I can promise is it'll be out sometime this year, haha.
Heya, I'm loving the game so far. I would suggest adding more types of armor like for example:
-Reactive armor
-Super heavy armor
-Shield generator
-Scout armor
My overall experience playing the game, 9/10.
Thank you for playing and the ideas!
love the game, though it feels overly punishing at times, especially the grubs and stray bullets, a brief damage buffer would be nice, it would allow for strafing strategies that dont get countered by just spray n pray, but for the grubs they definitely need an attack delay, its easy to get surrounded and cornered in ways its nearly impossible to avoid damage, overall great game though, cant way for more
Thanks for playing! I plan on overhauling both the grub level and their behavior a lot, I know it can get a bit overwhelming right now. In general I'm not too happy with the second mission, I should've probably changed it to be the last one.
Fair, still an extremely enjoyable game, especially the Vulcan gun, another comment/suggestion ive got is collisions with structures, The player hitbox loves to catch on obstacles, I find it rather annoying to get caught against something while dodging because the edge of my crawler barely clipped a building, if its due to the hit box and not something else I think a rounded one may fix this (take this with a grain of salt, im no game designer)
Also, Val's character design is great, I found it while looking for concept art of the Crawler to build a model of it, if its not too much to ask, do you have any other angles of the Crawler that arent shown in the game or the magazine's(?, the only image has a crease down the middle so I assume its from a magazine)front view, there seems to be multiple version of the Crawler too
Anyways, have a great day!im looking forwards to more of this incredible game!
Technically the hitbox is actually round - it's a circle around 15 pixels in size, but I've actually recently modified it so you can now destroy really small buildings - if they're 20 or so pixels in width, your crawler will just plow through and crush them like it does with a few select small ones currently.
I'm glad you like the design! I'm afraid at the moment I don't have any other views/illustrations of it. There's going to be lots of different shots of it and other drawings in the game via cutscenes and an intel section I've been quietly working on. Technically the one that you see on the main menu and the current itch banner is an earlier version of the design that I hadn't finished fleshing out (the legs for example cannot rotate), but other than that there's only one variant of it so far, seen in the magazine and the hangar.
Thank you! It means a lot.
Oh? Odd that it catches on stuff then, destroying small buildings will be handy though
And yeah that's fair, not many design images, though i did find an old 3d model looking image of it from an old Itch.io post, but only a frontal view again, i noticed the banner one is an older design too, its tempting to make both of them as models now if only i had the parts, same for the enemy mechs if there were detailed pics of them, even the Heli that drops you off looks really neat!
Thanks for sparing time for another reply!
Do you make physical models? If you'd like, I'd be happy to make and send you some reference photos if you contact me on bsky or Twitter.
The mayhem feels like the first two GTA games. Hogging the charged-up railgun seems like cheating. I'd fix it with an overheating mechanic that stuns the player if held charged too long.
Thanks for playing. I've been working on adding a laser weapon that has a cooldown/overheat mechanic that functions similar to that. I think it's best to keep the railgun functioning as it is since it's less of a serious weapon and might end up just being a purposefully OP end-game unlock.
This game is absolutly incredible ! I haven't had this much fun in while. I do have some things to say though :
Enemy missles feel nearly impossible to dodge. Maybe add some sort of counter measures ?
Helicopters feel like the strongest enemy so far. They appear unphased by smokes (i love smokes, the most usefull and neat thing to use in the game imo), i cant seem to hit them with any missiles, they feel like they have the most health out of any enemy in the game and they do so much damage and fill up your screen very fast. My suggestion would be to make a heavy mech which has the same damage and maybe just a little more health then the helis while lowering the heli HP and making them vulnerable to smokes.
Now some things that I would love to see :
Battles where you have allied units attacking a hostile stronghold with you.
More mechs and boss battles (Pleaseeeeeee)
Infantry that could take cover in buildings and launch RPGs as well as peper you with machine gun fire
The health bar being out of 10 can be very confusing, sometimes you take hits and it looks like you dont take damage and sometimes it feels like you get hit once and lose 3 HP. Maybe making it out of a 100 or 100% would make this better ?
Different cores (which would give you an an amount of power/wheight ratio allowing for faster, smaller mechs and larger, tankier mechs), engines (tradeoffs between cruise speed and overdrive) and armors (again tradeoff between wheight/protection to different weapons, maybe even allowed an Active protection system to intercept missiles !) sort of how armored core 6 works.
Two different weapons systems at once (one of each arm) : as an exemple you could be able to pick duel gattling guns, auto cannon + railgun and things like that. I think it would really open up your options and how you fight against enemies.
I'll be following this game cause i cannot wait to see how you make it better !
PS: pls make a discord i have more good things to say about this amazing game
Thank you kindly for the feedback and playing!
This has been planned for awhile now. I intend to have APS modules that intercept missiles and also different armor kits like slat armor and ERA that has a chance to block/stop explosions from hurting the player.
They are indeed some of the most heavily armored targets in the game right now. Try having your reticule directly on them, that will allow you to shoot over buildings and reach them. Admittedly missiles don't behave that way yet, I'll need to fix them to do so.
Sure!
Bosses are coming and so are more enemy mech types!
This is due to the fact some enemies do 0.5 damage with their bullets, and the armor bar is always set to round upward. So you can get hit by one bullet and it'll still say 10 / 10 armor right now. I'll probably change this to account for the fractional damage, sorry about that.
This is an interesting idea which has been suggested before, and I'm definitely working on exploring how it can change the gameplay. A lot of people would like the mech to be more modular as well, so we'll see what happens. As said before, the APS as shields are also planned.
While this would be nice, I think it might be ultimately unnecessary due to how short the levels are currently. I feel like there isn't too much of a need to have that if they're only 3-5 minutes long...
Thank you!
I appreciate it, but currently I feel like there's simply not enough content to warrant making a Discord server. Maybe in the future after the game releases.
great game i got an S in every mission (is there an S+?)
the vulcan is the strongest weapon by far the only other weapon you need to use is the scatter gun for mission 2 .
i loved every mission but 2 felt a little stale maybe add different grub types.
i absolutely loved the move and shot gameplay its so smooth and the sound affects (vulcan brrrrrrrrr) are so satisfying , great game would love to see expanded.
Thank you for playing!
S is currently the highest rank you can get, though I could theoretically have an S+ for zero hits taken since the current S rank allows 1-2 hits depending if your time is really good.
It's true, the Vulcan will probably be a late-game weapon unlock.
Yeah, I'm not fully satisfied with it either. I'll be changing their behavior and adding other types of organic enemies eventually.
Thank you again!
me encanta el tipo de juego el arte la ambientación y el como se juega amo este tipo de juegos y me gastaría saber como ayudar
I love the visual style, the gunplay, and the way the mech glides across the landscape! As others mentioned, though, I'd love to see a dash ability in addition to the sprint and more fleshed-out stamina/energy management mechanics.
Out of curiosity, do you have a way to connect for business inquiries like Discord or email?
Thanks for playing! I think a dash function would be cool as well, I'll see what I can do.
I know it's not ideal, but I have a Twitter and bsky account if you'd like to message me.
I sent you a message on Bluesky :)
Really hard and really fun (i probably just have a skill issue tho.) would 100% recommend this game!
Thank you!
love the movement, but i feel like youve got more planned for energy management, but would like to see a tap shift to dash function and maybe a ever so slight buff to the decay over time on shift movement
overall good work! keep it going!
A dash as an upgrade would definitely be cool. I'll buff the overdrive time by maybe 2 or 3 seconds, I think it's lasts too little as well.
Thank you! I'm trying.
Core gameplay is very satisfying! The art is excellent. This game has a solid foundation. It reminds me of the frantic chaos of Hotline Miami or Mass Effect as a Vanguard.
I especially like to sneak attack through buildings with the railgun, its a blast.
Text can be hard to read, especially in the hanger.
The crosshair being the same color as the enemy indicators makes it easy to lose track of in the chaos of combat. Color change or a line coming from the mech would minimize the issue.
I'm not a fan of mission 2, Kiting a (nearly) endless swarm gets old fast. Perhaps having a rush of worms to block shots for a more dangerous ranged attacker? Then the player can choose to break through the front, maneuver around the worms or try to break up the group using terrain. Alternatively use the worms to flank and block maneuvering against a more dangerous attacker? Then the player needs to prioritize, kill the flank to open up maneuvering room or kill the dangerous attacker to reduce the threat.
Thank you for playing and the feedback!
I've since changed and replaced a few of the fonts, particularly the small ones. The next build should be way more readable, sorry about that!
I've implemented a settings menu where you can change the reticule and also add a laser line if you'd like. You'll also be able to change the position of the incoming enemy indicators too.
Yeah, I'm not happy with it either. The final version of that mission will be a lot more fun and also have a proper map. It's not as fun if the enemies aren't interacting with the buildings and tearing them down. I didn't want to reuse the city level though, so I ended up having it take place on that cheap placeholder map.
What is this? A font size for ants? Dope game.
Sorry about the font! I assume you mean the ones on the hangar screen. I've since changed them to a larger and more readable one.
Wonderful game. Asking if there will be bosses soon and how's development so far since last update?
The game is seriously Underrated and great.
Thank you for your kind words.
Probably not soon, but they're planned. I've been writing down some ideas for them.
Slow, but very steady. I've been working on a lot of boring and not so flashy things like better settings menus and rewriting the save system to implement mission progression, so I haven't had many particularly visually interesting things to showcase in a devlog, but it's being worked on every day:
When I have some more interesting things to show, I'll put them all together and show them off. I don't want people to think I've stopped working on this game since the last update.
Very good. Really excited to see where this goes. Railgun my beloved.
Glad you liked it!
It is definitely a nice game. I look forward to this game launching new gameplay and more mission.
Thank you! There will be more types of missions.
That's a nice take on the mecha genre!
(What I like)
Game visual style, VFX and SFX are good! Shooting feels pleasant. Add some music tho :)
(What can be improved)
1) Environmental damage is annoying:
The game encourages me to destroy everything around, but at the same time, it feels very random to lose HP by occasional debris explosions. It is not clear what is dangerous and what is not. I wish I could focus more on enemy encounters and not be afraid some brick will scratch my mecha :)
2) Player Focus is split:
I focus far on the screen border to kill the enemy as soon as I see it, at the same time, I need to keep an eye on what's going on close to my mech.
3) Poor combat readability:
Enemies painted in environment camo are cool, but it's very hard to see them around because they blend with the environment too well! Spare the players a bit :)
4) Beat'em up or stealth action?
I think the game struggles a bit with its identity. It lacks the tactical depth to be a stealth action, at the same time it's very punishable if you try to run and gun in the enemy's face.
5) The flat mission structure is a bit dull
I have a feeling that designing missions similar to Desert/Jungle Strike games (sequence of objectives to complete) will fit your game perfectly.
(Conclusion)
I feel the combat distance should be reduced and taking damage made less punishing. Your game has a great shooting feeling and it's a big loss that as a player I can't embrace exchanging hits with enemies face-to-face.
Right now lonely enemies just occasionally wearing off the player's mech armor. It's beneficial to kill the enemy from a safe distance and avoid combat. While it makes total sense from a real combat point of view, it's not very exciting from the game design perspective. Why do I need a big armored mecha if it can't fight? :)
I think clustering enemies into small groups and shifting focus from "survive the mission" to "survive the local group encounter" would make the game more dynamic and fun to play.
Overall, cool game, keep it up!
Thank you for playing and the feedback!
I can understand how that can be annoying. It's mostly cars that tend to cause that. I might have it so they can't damage the player, though on the flip side I think it also helps incentivize one to be a bit more cautious with firing.
I don't think I can fix that, sorry.
Some clearer, less desert-esque environments will come that'll hopefully make them pop a bit more. I know it's easy to lose sight of them.
There will be some missions that prioritize stealth much more and also feature terrain that won't be as easily destroyed. As a result you'll have to play a bit more careful.
This is also planned. There'll be missions where you need to complete certain objectives rather than just kill everything.
You'll have different armor modules which will boost your armor and protection, right now you only have 10 layers but there will be upgrades to it.
Thanks!
In a long line of disappointing games and the trust issues I have with todays games, this game gives me hope. I cant wait for future updates. Love this game.
Thank you! I hope the final release won't disappoint.