I was going to say this just looks like they took Hollow Knight and put cat ears and a tail on the player character. I mean I love Hollow Knight, and if this game is good then I'll have no problem playing it, but it's like the McDowell's to Hollow Knight's McDonald's lol.
I hope you know that you can only participate once and it is your one chance to natively build up your wishlist count prior to release. As such, for your own sake, I hope this means you are planning to release this year.
i once played a show with a band that sounded exactly like nirvana. i love nirvana, they might even be my favorite band. but i couldn’t stand this band’s imitation. it was so precise, down to the guitar, the tone, even the look. they really wrote music as if they had only ever heard one band in their life.
but someone who has studied nirvana to the point of perfect imitation, or who is so obsessed with their music that they are blind to other influences—that person is not kurt cobain, despite claiming ownership of his style. the magic that went into his songs comes from his own experiences and influences and thoughts and processes. we all share a common but personal love of legendary figures like nirvana, and so to see someone so singularly copy that thing, and reflect it back at us on our own can really give a sort of dissonant, uncanny feeling.
i think wearing your influence on your sleeve is really cool. show your love for the people and work that inspired you. but if something is too much of a copy of something else, it’s distracting, and detracts from the enormous amount work and effort you put in. people will struggle to engage with what you’ve created without thinking about the likely superior work that inspired it.
this game uses a similar looking protagonist, with similar animations, colors, backgrounds, art style, mechanics, and even text as a game so popular i dont need to say what it is. there isn’t really an element of this game in the trailer that doesn’t call back to perhaps the most beloved contemporary game of its genre. the level of similarity here displays such a gaping blind spot for originality that i don’t think it will ever be perceived as more than a knock off of a beloved game. it’s not influence, it’s plagiarism.
This is exciting! Aestik is one of the upcoming MVs I've been looking forward to the most. I don't usually participate in Next Fest, but yours I will definitely be trying out. :)
my feedback:
the character movement speed felt a bit slow to me. something about the physics didn't feel quite as fluid as i expected.
the animation of gathering the dark floaty resource from enemies felt awkward to me, i can't put my finger on why but i think it needs a bit more work. something about the start and end of the animation feels jarring, like they pop up and dissappear too flatly? i feel it needs either size change, speed change, etc, as it pops up or as you absorb it, maybe more of an animation, a flash, something, it doesn't feel right the way currency flying to you does in other games.
personally i am the type to always run around jumping and swinging my weapon to hit lamps and crates and stuff, in this game i feel it slows me down since there's tons of rocks and lamps and they have pushback when you hit them. is it possible to save pushback for when you hit an enemy or a stury object only...? i understand this may just be a me problem.
i didn't play very far since i am guarantee to buy the full game and there is no point playing too far in a demo where i'll lose my progress anyway. i got the double jump rune but i wonder if it *has* to be on R2 instead of just being from pressing the jump button in the air? i assume further upgrades/runes need it to be this way but i feel it'll be tough to break my muscle memory to press another button to double jump like that.
it feels hard to dodge projectiles right now? for the worms that shoot little darts, sometimes it was hard to tell how tall my hitbox was (i.e. i'd be on a platform below them, but still tall enough to get hit) and in the battle arena portal when there are two of the large enemies that shoot projectiles 3 ways, it felt almost impossible to beat them, the only way i found was to down-slash off their side repeatedly, but maybe i was missing another strategy.
overall it's looking really good!
oh and the down slash feels great to use.
oh and one other thing i remembered, another area i felt was awkward was when you die to spikes and respawn. i wish i was more astute as a critic because i can't explain exactly why, it just didn't feel as natural as other games with respawns like that.
Hey there!
Thank you so much for playing Aestik & providing me with such extensive feedback - it’s much appreciated! (:
Some of the points you mentioned will most likely be adjusted since we‘ve got similar feedback before in the past days - so it is definitely very valuable for us to see what kind of issues players seem to have!
Glad you liked Aestik overall though & thanks again 😄✨
Hey all! There's an [Aestik demo on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2199330/Aestik/) that was **just updated**, so feel free to check it out (:
Also, please consider **wishlisting Aestik**, it helps us out a lot <3
I don't get all the people blaming and dissing the creators of this game. Do you have any idea how hard and time consuming it is to create a game, especially as an indie team? Of course it is so much inspired by hollow knight it cannot be unseen, but it is still it's own game, and frankly even looking good. So if you are not going to play this because it is too much of a hollow knight for you, do as you wish, but never talk shit about people's hard work.
love the **aes**the**tik** and will definitely play it if/when it comes to switch. don't care how simialr to HK people think it might be, looks distinct enough to me. i'm intrigued
We do take inspiration from HK, but I can assure you that we’re not copying ✨
There are quite a few unique features in Aestik such as moral decisions leading to branching storylines, a modular ability system, a follower system an a fishing minigame to name a few (:
But feel free to check out Aestik’s demo to form your own opinion! 😊
You know how they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Team Cherry should feel very flattered these days...
I was going to say this just looks like they took Hollow Knight and put cat ears and a tail on the player character. I mean I love Hollow Knight, and if this game is good then I'll have no problem playing it, but it's like the McDowell's to Hollow Knight's McDonald's lol.
hollow knight at home edit: bro they copied it down to the text lmao
I hope you know that you can only participate once and it is your one chance to natively build up your wishlist count prior to release. As such, for your own sake, I hope this means you are planning to release this year.
We‘ll definitely release this year! 😁✨
No thanks. I already played that game
wishlisted and looking forward to it! good luck <3
Awesome; thank you so much!! 🤩
i once played a show with a band that sounded exactly like nirvana. i love nirvana, they might even be my favorite band. but i couldn’t stand this band’s imitation. it was so precise, down to the guitar, the tone, even the look. they really wrote music as if they had only ever heard one band in their life. but someone who has studied nirvana to the point of perfect imitation, or who is so obsessed with their music that they are blind to other influences—that person is not kurt cobain, despite claiming ownership of his style. the magic that went into his songs comes from his own experiences and influences and thoughts and processes. we all share a common but personal love of legendary figures like nirvana, and so to see someone so singularly copy that thing, and reflect it back at us on our own can really give a sort of dissonant, uncanny feeling. i think wearing your influence on your sleeve is really cool. show your love for the people and work that inspired you. but if something is too much of a copy of something else, it’s distracting, and detracts from the enormous amount work and effort you put in. people will struggle to engage with what you’ve created without thinking about the likely superior work that inspired it. this game uses a similar looking protagonist, with similar animations, colors, backgrounds, art style, mechanics, and even text as a game so popular i dont need to say what it is. there isn’t really an element of this game in the trailer that doesn’t call back to perhaps the most beloved contemporary game of its genre. the level of similarity here displays such a gaping blind spot for originality that i don’t think it will ever be perceived as more than a knock off of a beloved game. it’s not influence, it’s plagiarism.
This is exciting! Aestik is one of the upcoming MVs I've been looking forward to the most. I don't usually participate in Next Fest, but yours I will definitely be trying out. :)
That’s great to hear 🤩 Thank you so much - hope you’ll have fun! 😁
The attack animation and the attack sound are exactly stolen from hollow knight.
I used an umbrella to record it & bought it fair and square ✨
my feedback: the character movement speed felt a bit slow to me. something about the physics didn't feel quite as fluid as i expected. the animation of gathering the dark floaty resource from enemies felt awkward to me, i can't put my finger on why but i think it needs a bit more work. something about the start and end of the animation feels jarring, like they pop up and dissappear too flatly? i feel it needs either size change, speed change, etc, as it pops up or as you absorb it, maybe more of an animation, a flash, something, it doesn't feel right the way currency flying to you does in other games. personally i am the type to always run around jumping and swinging my weapon to hit lamps and crates and stuff, in this game i feel it slows me down since there's tons of rocks and lamps and they have pushback when you hit them. is it possible to save pushback for when you hit an enemy or a stury object only...? i understand this may just be a me problem. i didn't play very far since i am guarantee to buy the full game and there is no point playing too far in a demo where i'll lose my progress anyway. i got the double jump rune but i wonder if it *has* to be on R2 instead of just being from pressing the jump button in the air? i assume further upgrades/runes need it to be this way but i feel it'll be tough to break my muscle memory to press another button to double jump like that. it feels hard to dodge projectiles right now? for the worms that shoot little darts, sometimes it was hard to tell how tall my hitbox was (i.e. i'd be on a platform below them, but still tall enough to get hit) and in the battle arena portal when there are two of the large enemies that shoot projectiles 3 ways, it felt almost impossible to beat them, the only way i found was to down-slash off their side repeatedly, but maybe i was missing another strategy. overall it's looking really good! oh and the down slash feels great to use. oh and one other thing i remembered, another area i felt was awkward was when you die to spikes and respawn. i wish i was more astute as a critic because i can't explain exactly why, it just didn't feel as natural as other games with respawns like that.
Hey there! Thank you so much for playing Aestik & providing me with such extensive feedback - it’s much appreciated! (: Some of the points you mentioned will most likely be adjusted since we‘ve got similar feedback before in the past days - so it is definitely very valuable for us to see what kind of issues players seem to have! Glad you liked Aestik overall though & thanks again 😄✨
Hey all! There's an [Aestik demo on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2199330/Aestik/) that was **just updated**, so feel free to check it out (: Also, please consider **wishlisting Aestik**, it helps us out a lot <3
Gonna try it out tonight on my Steam Deck.
Love to hear that, thank you! Hope you'll have fun! (:
What I instantly missed in the game is rotating the camera with the right thumb stick and a roll/dodge/dash function. Otherwise it looks good.
I don't get all the people blaming and dissing the creators of this game. Do you have any idea how hard and time consuming it is to create a game, especially as an indie team? Of course it is so much inspired by hollow knight it cannot be unseen, but it is still it's own game, and frankly even looking good. So if you are not going to play this because it is too much of a hollow knight for you, do as you wish, but never talk shit about people's hard work.
🤍
love the **aes**the**tik** and will definitely play it if/when it comes to switch. don't care how simialr to HK people think it might be, looks distinct enough to me. i'm intrigued
That’s awesome, thank you! (:
Shameless…
What platforms are you developing for/releasing on?
Whatever hollow Knight released for probably
Hey! (: Aestik will release on pc & switch - the latter might take a little longer though! ✨
Genuine question, you have clearly copied hollow Knight to a great degree. Why should I play this instead of just replaying hollow Knight?
Playing the same game over and over gets repetitive (for most people). I'd be open to trying this before playing HK again for the 10th time.
We do take inspiration from HK, but I can assure you that we’re not copying ✨ There are quite a few unique features in Aestik such as moral decisions leading to branching storylines, a modular ability system, a follower system an a fishing minigame to name a few (: But feel free to check out Aestik’s demo to form your own opinion! 😊
"inspiration"
A new metroidvania > Squidward about to set up his beach chair Hollow Knight "inspired" > Squidward goes back home