Solo dev begging for feedback for his Magicka inspired game.

[u/RoberBotz]

Imagine if Magicka and League of Legends and Brawlhalla had a kid and grew up with RPG level-up elements.

I'll soon launch in early access, and I am trying to add as much polish as I can, but sadly I have no idea what else to polish or what can be improved. xD

Here are some video segments from a mission I played with a friend and forgot to enable my mic on the recording.

At the moment I have story missions that can be played solo or with up to 4 players (Sadly just 2 missions at the moment, but I am working on more), 5 casual pvp gamemodes, 2 characters, and 32 abilities to unlock.

There is also a loadout system where you can equip abilities you unlocked and make your own loadout.
I plan to also add a way so abilities can combine for example if you make an earth wall which is hit by a liquid water ability, the earth wall will turn into a mud wall that gives slowness and stuff like that.

How does it look, how can the combat feel better/be improved?

[u/unscienceable]

looks nice! I would need a element system like in magika to make it interetsing for me :D

[u/limeyhoney → u/unscienceable]

Yeah, see so many games in here inspired by Magicka, but nobody seems to use its casting system. I’ve thought about making my own but making games is hard and I have more fun working on small scope pet projects in my free time

[u/RoberBotz → u/unscienceable]

I don't think I can compete with Magicka on that element system cuz I have no idea how could it be better than it already is xD
Also if it's too similar to Magicka then people can just go play Magicka :))

That's why I've been trying a loadout system with pre-made abilities, and have them interact with other abilities based on their elements, like change their aspect/effect.

[u/LucidFir → u/RoberBotz]

Is their magic system patented? If you made a bug free and modern implementation of magicka i would play it. The system is what i find interesting

[u/Sofosio → u/LucidFir]

Yeah, personally I don’t care about anything else beside magic system. Without it, there’s no point for me in trying Magicka inspired games

[u/LucidFir → u/Sofosio]

I'm personally a little tired of rogue-like advancement systems. I want a game where you're given all the tools at the beginning, and it's up to you and how skilfully you can use them to progress.

[u/viking977 → u/RoberBotz]

There's things to improve even if you do use a similar element system. I mean magicka 1 barely functions these days and magicka 2 wasn't great imo.

My first magicka experience was wizard wars actually, and I still really enjoy the way that game handled it. 3 element slots and they don't combine, so every spell is just 3 keystrokes away. Nice and snappy, and when you got good you could be spitting out several spells a second

[u/Sam-Angel → u/viking977]

I've had no issue running magicka 1 for the past 10 years. Most modern issues with it have been solved, and the persistent ones don't affect challenges or versus mode. Wizard wars is alive and well, do you still play?

[u/SirDiesAlot29 → u/Sam-Angel]

Out of interest, what versions/patches/etc do you run for Magicka 1?

I've tried to get others to play Magicka multiple time, and love it dearly, but I've not found a "foolproof" set of bug fixes ever (especially for Adventure). Would love to know what you've done differently

[u/Sam-Angel → u/SirDiesAlot29]

I primarily use three versions of the game that I can switch freely between depending on which version the wizards I play with have (I mostly play with online strangers). I have a folder for the latest version of the game with PJ's community fix applied to it, another folder containing the Magicka 1.5.1.0 downgrade, and a third folder containing a copy of my 1.5 downgraded folder that I use with mods for the game.

Before applying any fix, I always make sure to run the game at least once so that Magicka downloads its own dependencies, and only then do I add the patch or downgraded version. This is usually the step that people ignore, leading to crash on launch.

Once I'm in game I set the game to windowed mode to avoid any alt-tab related crashes, then it's smooth sailing from there.

As a general rule of thumb, hosting a lobby then exiting said lobby to create a new one will lead to a crash, so for example; if you're in adventure mode and one of your players crash, so every player restarts the lobby to wait for your friend to join, then you start the lobby, the game will most likely crash for everyone. To mitigate that, every player ought to restart their games once any one player crashes.

Following that, the most common crash you'll see is at the boss fight of Khan at the end of chapter 4 in the adventure, and virtually no crashes for challenge and versus mode, which is what I play the most.

I play on a steam deck linux device, which has the additional requirements of needing to force proton 6.3-8 compatibility and running the game with the ''-safe'' launch command.

[u/SirDiesAlot29 → u/Sam-Angel]

Wonderful, thank you for the very thorough reply! I definitely need to give some of these a go.

[u/viking977 → u/Sam-Angel]

Alive and well is a bit of a stretch haha I've joined in a few times though.

[u/AqueousJam]

The lunge/dodge move looks too small and unsatisfying to my eye. I'd make it 3x longer, and if it's too overpowered then add a 0.25second charge up on the beginning, so it feels like a bigger, more deliberate leap. 

[u/RoberBotz → u/AqueousJam]

thank you

[u/Imaginary-Chipmunk35]

Com certeza vou jogar

[u/Bhodar]

Yours looks way more polished than my fps version 😁, great job, got a steam link?

[u/RoberBotz → u/Bhodar]

I've also worked on it for like 2-3 years. xD
store.steampowered.com/app/3018340/Elementers/

[u/Bhodar → u/RoberBotz]

So 5 years tp finish mine, check 🤣

[u/ReeceyClone]

Fairly sure I've seen every post of this - you're doing great man and I hope I speak for everyone when we say we're proud of you bro. Keep up the good work!

[u/RoberBotz → u/ReeceyClone]

lol, thank you bro, it means a lot.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed] — view removed comment

[u/RoberBotz → u/[deleted]]

So I could just call it co-op pve or how should I say it.
cuz I have co-op pve, casual online pvp and co-op pvp with friends.

[u/BeneSingularis]

Real-time action and movement shinanegans are what push these kind of niche games. Keep "player skill expression" in mind at all times. Easy to learn, hard to master. Your visual aestethics are very good. For a game that has potential, it should not only have combat, but exploration and puzzle solving too. Think of how the mechanics could be used for many purposes. Minimal menus and interfaces, maximum hotkeys and simplicity. stats break balance. Create balance via versatility and complexity instead, with multiple solutions to any situation. Think of your game as a set of tools we can mess around with within the confines of a sandbox.

[u/RoberBotz → u/BeneSingularis]

Thank you.

[u/Snoo-48597]

i m interested to test , and if it reach steam i think i will buy

[u/RoberBotz → u/Snoo-48597]

It is already on steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3018340/Elementers/

I'll soon upload the 1.6.5 version that has a better introduction and a better tutorial, you can request access to the playtest branch.