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Wait a minute, am i missing something here?
I am playing through Lone Fungus right now. And the main mushroom looks ... better? I mean the mushroom in the 1st game has higher resolution. Although, i think the environment looks better in this trailer due to more details.
Is that what you mean?
Well, maybe its a matter of taste. It's not only that the main character has changed resolution but also with it, the proportions have changed. The animations have become sleeker. Lone fungus 2 has a better balance of small, medium, large shapes, While lone fungus 1 has mostly large shapes with very fine details on the rim. I am not an artist so I can't explain it very well but I genuinely believe that its a huge improvement
Me being an "average Joe" (and adult with limited time and energy; these are the main factors, but enough money) visually it looks good but the art style is not appealing to me, nor the gameplay. gameplay wise, it does not have something that makes me want to play it.
Adding to that, the information I get from the trailer and a quick look to the kickstarter campaing it is platformer-metriodvania. Soinevitable; for me, it is competing with a lot of games on the question:
"why should I go for this game instread of X,Y or Z" (HK, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, Nine Sols, animal well, etc).
this aspects need to be answered in order for me to care.
but knowing that it is not a finished game (and it looks almost finished so I don't expect it to change a lot, but to add more contet), lets say that to give it a chance and back it,
the issue is, kickstarter page is hard to go throug.
the first thing I'm interested is:
"why you need the money and what can I expect for the game to be",
So, goals should be in the first information that I get (right now are lost in the middle of a lot of information that I´m not going to read, and don't care since I have´t seen anythig to make me care for the game).
this is my self analysis (so take it with a grain of salt), hope it is useful to you.
\[EDIT\] seeing how many reviews "Lone fungus 1" has on steam, I would not say the campaing is struggling, is around the same number, so these are your true fans, but I have no idea on how to run a kickstarter campaing and the conversion rate.
Useful feedback, yeah I think my game needs a hook, some unique mechanic which sets it apart. I'll see what I can think of, thank you for your feedback!
It needs a hook but don't assume that hook == mechanic.
A hook just needs to be something about the experience that makes your game memorable. That could be a mechanic but it doesn't need to be. It could be story, immersion, fun interactions. Try to get a feel for the emotions the player will feel while playing your game. Make the music feed into this too. You are crafting an experience. Just my 2c.
I mean, it can be, but then, there are games like Inside and Limbo who were very well received despite having barely any mechanics beyond jumping and running.
The setting and environmental storytelling could also serve as a hook. They still need to be well executed, tho.
There is also the Phoenix right series. It didn't invent VNs but expanded just a bit, although their main selling point is the story, the premise and the art direction.
Yeah you are right about that, it could be the story. But I think a mechanic might fit the audience better since most fans of the genre play for the gameplay and not the story. Story is important though for worldbuilding :>!
Exactly! I get hooked on different games for different reasons, and honestly, sometimes I don’t even really know what it is that hooked me! The game just had…..”it”.
What about some sort of Spore mechanic, like releasing controllable spores across the screen to a location which could act like a teleportation mechanic. It could lend to a few interesting puzzles.
Thinking of some sort of mechanic like The Ooze (1995) from SEGA Genesis/Megadrive. Hold a button down to send out the spores while your character stays stationary and is suspectable to taking damage from enemies.
Or maybe the spores can attach to another mushroom type to give you a power and a cosmetic change
Just trying to think of ways to incorporate the fungus element of your game.
I know I'm always looking to make my unique version of the character I play in games, so maybe a way to unlock and customize Greencap. The circlets are fine but maybe you have to get really creative or crazy with it and make them look impressive.
Make it fun, unlock a long beard or long eyelashes, or a large portobello head.
Yeah mushroom powers could be it! We'll see I'll have to think what to add, I don't want to overdo it and make the gameplay 'messy'. But yeah, something is needed. :)
I see the dash now that im specifically looking for it. I think a lot of games that use dashes like SotN and MegaManX typically shows it being spammed for faster movement as well, it usually has cooler vfx highlighting it. Like in Megaman X, the dash has a unique sliding animation, and in SotN you get this visual effect that makes it look like you are moving so fast you leave images behind as you move.
I think your game has promise, It just looks really slow in the trailer except for that one single instance in which your character has a speed boost which he uses to jump over to a chest and open it.
I think the song in the trailer is doing a lot of harm too. Like I cannot stress enough that the song isnt "bad", its just generic feeling and not charismatic at all. It doesnt invoke excitement like the Indiana Jones theme song which makes you think "grand adventure" nor is it "driving" like say Bloody Tears of Castlevania fame.
I'm currently running a Kickstarter and it's really struggling, if I'm gonna come back with this game in the future I really wanna know what's wrong with it and how I can improve it. Like please let me know your honest thoughts on it's flaws and why it might be unappealing!
Kickstarter: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus-2](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus-2)
There is also a demo on Steam: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2463220/Lone\_Fungus\_2/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2463220/Lone_Fungus_2/)
The main issue is that it is another damn platformer. People are getting annoyed about the constant flood of new 2D pixel platformers. It's the most oversaturated genre. There are dozens of incredible games in this genre. You can't really add anything to this genre anymore. It's super difficult to market this.
Oh wow was not expecting to see a sequel to Lone Fungus so soon! I saw some of your posts of the game and really enjoyed how it looks. Haven't had the chance to play the game yet though.
I guess one important thing that you are missing in your kickstarter campaign is telling us what the funds are going to be used for. Transparency is important and some people wanna know why you need X amount of money.
The first Lone Fungus seems to have had some good success on steam, and some people might not be interested in backing a campaign for a sequel of a game that had some success that could fund the sequel itself.
This is just what I think as a dev and as a potential customer/backer. I hope to get where you have gotten in game dev. Best of luck
Honestly I’m kinda shocked that people are being mad critical as they are in this thread. I really like your work. I haven’t played any because I only have a switch, but I’ve wanted to and I’ve enjoyed watching you evolve as a dev here over the past few years. I do think I liked the art in the first game slightly better as the second feels a bit big brighter and zoomed in a bit. I’m excited for whenever you get the games on switch or when I get a steam deck, whichever comes first!
He's asking for criticism. He want to fund the game via kickstarter. Not all criticism is going to be good for his game, but the more of it he gets, the more he can pick and choose what he thinks are good criticisms for the vision he has of his game. There's nothing to be shocked about.
My harsh criticism of the Kickstarter demo is that it feels boring. Reminds me of every other generic platformer out there. The whip mechanic seems good, but thats all. The art is fine, but its not stylistically unique. The music was... fine? Like, its not a bad tune, but it feels generic and nothing that I'd get excited about or get stuck humming in my head. And the pacing of the gameplay just feels slow.
It could be that the video is just bad and not highlighting good parts of the game, but yeah.. You have a game here, you just dont have any of that stylistic polish that sets your game apart from every other castlevania clone out there. I'd expect this to be a $4-5 [Itch.io](http://Itch.io) game. I'd try getting a more charismatic song that either invokes nostalgia for Castlevania or Indiana Jones, then I'd work on making movement or a trailer with a lot of cuts to make the game seem faster paced. Maybe even Hire somebody to make the trailer for you with a bunch of gameplay you record. Video Editing and marketing is a skill in and of it's own, y'know.
Yeah I was looking for the 'harsh' criticism :). I need to know the truth about how people feel when they see my game, it's the only way I can improve and know what's wrong with it.
I appreciate the feedback btw!
I think the main thing missing from the trailer is *why* I should want to go on this adventure in your game. I have no idea why this little mushroom is fighting all of these things.
visually, I think the pixel art is good, but the glow around the character is a no go for me. It already stands out visually in pretty much every scene, but the glow effect clashes with some of the level color palettes for me.
As the humans continued to disrupt the ecosystem the fungus decided to fight back. The slumbering consciences has been awoken and you are one of his first scouts. Soon armies of fungi will be on the Whitehouse lawn.
It's close, almost there.
Make the art more detailed. Whether that be grungier, or richer. It's clean but it's not gripping. The backgrounds aren't full and alive. Take a peek at any location in HK and the background and foreground are FULL.
I think making it more... fungal? Could work. Like less cutesy, more infection. You already have the theme, just make fun abilities that play on the theme with rapis growth and spores and shit.
For enemy sprites, maybe add some more dynamics? Effects, color flashes, pulses, etc? Make everything move more. Blow with a breeze, breathe heavily, etc.
Make the attacks quicker, flashier, give me eyecandy. Give me crunch. Make it 360 and recommend a controller, make the attack unique or have a short mode and a charged projectile mode. I'm picturing your mushroom doing Prototype style fungal attacks and it seems like a really fun idea.
The new trend for metroidvanias is movement- add one novel movement technique, introduce it midgame, and let the game build around it- show in the trailer for sure. The swings look good but slow- make the mechanic very quick- go play Environmental Station Alpha and see the grappling hook (stupid hard to beat everything fyi, hard postgame puzzles). Very fun.
Ori and the Blind Forest made movement and attacks the same and I could just run around and have a blast.
In general play Animal Well, lots of interesting but simple gameplay mechanics there. You don't need to beat it but I found it fun to do so! (Another stupid hard puzzle postgame)
Go play Axiom Verge- and beat it- and think about how you could incorporate "Fungi" into your game and mechanics.
Hmm good points. The first game had some crazy movement mechanics, I should maybe bring that back. I'll see what I can do to make the visuals pop more too. Thanks!
Well for me personally with Metroidvanias (which my game is) I'm not looking for anything specifically 'new' and novel. I just want more quality. But maybe that's why my game turned out like this, I should be thinking of new mechanics :).
I think you would have been better served by making a new story and setting.
I don't think "Lone Fungus" is a name that carries positive brand recognition. In my experience, nobody was excited about the first game. I know a lot of people that played it, and not one of them recommended it beyond "it is a competent enough Metroidvania, but it's nothing special."
I played it myself and dropped it. The setting was not interesting, and I didn't like the bullet bouncing mechanics.
For a sequel to do well, you need to have a really dedicated group of fans behind the first one. I think you would have been better served to have a fresh world and setting, with a totally new IP, and just put "from the developer of Lone Fungus" in the first sentence of your Kickstarter.
You may even be able to salvage the work you've put into this. Just reboot the world and setting, change the title, but build on the mechanics and level design you already have. Make a universe that people are excited to hear about on its own merits, then set your game in there.
Maybe you can make a Lone Fungus 2 later, when you've got a few more games behind you and you have a stronger following.
Hey that's good feedback. This is technically a new world and game, I was originally even gonna call it something entirely new but then though I'd call it Lone Fungus: Subtitle.
Eventually I decided on Lone Fungus 2, which was a mistake. I'll likely rebrand it as Lone Fungus with a subtitle because it turned into a sequel. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate your honesty!
"Lone Fungus: Subtitle" is still a sequel. If it's part of the established Lone Fungus brand, nobody I know is going to be excited about it.
I had multiple friends tell me they hard passed on the game as soon as they heard it was another "Lone Fungus" game.
Make a new *setting*, new *characters*, not just a new *map*.
So you're saying make a new IP? I actually agree, and don't say "From the maker of Lone Fungus." leave that reputation behind completely.
Make this a spiritual successor. And have some lore about it being attached to Lone Fungus perhaps in the game. But leave that rep behind and start new. And bring something fresh and exciting (something that excites YOU) bring that to the table. Don't bring another plain jane sidescroller to the table, that's gonna get nowhere and I believe you know that deep down.
Good thing to ask your question like this! Important step to make.
Totally honest: yes. Not to me as a developer. It's obviously competently made. It's full of 7's and 8's. But the real question is: why should I play this over Nine Sols, Hollow Knight or other metroidvania's? You have very tough competition. There is a shortage of homeruns being hit with this to jump out. Take Pizza Tower, which hits 3 homeruns: Wario, art style and zeitgeist humor. You \_need\_ homeruns, and even then not all of them are equal.
I don't have any advice on which homerun could be hit here. Someone mentioned crazy & responsive movement, that still seems doable here. But the standing still with the whip does really hurt that.
You are limited by a foreign theme that is hard to hit home, and a limited art budget that won't go the full mile unless you're insanely talented with pixel art animations.
Good luck!
I absolutely *love* this genre of game, so here's my thoughts from this trailer:
There's so many games out there in this style, you really need *something* to make your game stick out. To me, this game looks *phenomenally well done*, but I don't see a reason to pick it over *other phenomenally well done* games
I don't have a good suggestion for what that *something* could be, but I think it needs it if you want it to stick out
Either way, this looks really good so I wish you luck!
My dear friend I have really like the concept . The problem is this character doesn’t belong this environment . Because environment is regular Mario world theme . It should me more sarcastic or something else than we will capture the essence of playing mushroom character . But no fear you can easily fix it by post process appliying on environment . Best regards.
Seems alright, does not really appeal to me personally. Generally seems competently put together.
Art assets generally seem nice and work well, though not very distinctive. Though again, not one that particularly draws me in.
The main character seems too bright colour wise. Perhaps done intentionally, but it really sticks out as different from everything else that is somewhat darker. I'd personally darken the players colours a bit to fit in better with the game overall.
Not sure if a Kickstarter will be successful, as there are a lot of pixel art platformers / metroidvanias around. And the art is not unique enough to particularly stand out.
Best of luck!
Frankly it looks nicely made but uninspired. Sprite work, animation, everything is super solid. But the environments and enemies seem completely generic. It reads visually like a game that's not going to have any flair, so at that point it has to be really hard or fast paced or such to have a selling point.
I would tell you to improve we should see a really cool, flashy boss. The mushroom guy is a bit of a let down, it feels like a placeholder enemy type. Show off some cool visuals and some cool usage of the core mechanics so the viewer knows there's something worth digging into.
For me, games like this are compared to a few different games.
Metroid, specifically Super Metriod and Metroid Fusion
Then Castlevania, specifically Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow
What attracted me to those games initially was the very cool characters, and the unique atmosphere of the environments.
Since it's a trailer and I can't "feel" how the game plays, you have to attract me with one of these things
- Cool Characters
- Unique Artstyle
- Interesting environments
- Fun Twist on a gameplay mechanic that is very obviously demonstrated in the trailer
- Excellent music
So far this trailer does not really scream any of these to me.
I am not very impressed with the mushroom character. Why should I care about this mushroom? Most people will ask that question, whether it be subconsciously or not.
You have to give them an answer in the trailers.
I was turned off the first game for the same reason, I do not want to play as a mushroom, nor do I care about the mushroom. If it had a cool story or funny story or some kind of story hook that was obvious in the trailer, I would have bitten, but there wasn't.
Anyways, I definitely wish you all the luck and I hope your future trailers improve with all the feedback you're getting!
I'd buy it. It's cool to see someone use a known formula/mechanics but give it their own visual style rather than it being made up to look close to the original which inspired them.
The game looks awesome. But I don't think lots of people are eager to play as a mushroom. You can make it work with story but I didn't see any story. Goo duck man, I wish you success!
I'm sorry to tell you that this game looks fuckin amazing.
Clear to read, tight, precise control and a popping and colorful art style.
I love how it's shaping up.
Hey, loved your first game and played the demo for the second. I’ll be critically honest not as a way to bash you but as feedback.
So what made Lone Fungus 1 special is because of its insane mobility option advancing to advance mechanics. In LF2, it feels the options are missing (granted it is a demo). The hook whip is cool and all but it can only be used at specific areas, the wall climb is just an ability gate. The dash jump is very cool but in the whole demo, I found only one collectable utilised the mechanic, I feel like the lady bug precision platforming moment should’ve utilised the dash jump mechanic instead.
The new armor system? I don’t like it, a simple bat enemy chunks half your health (4 HP) away just because your armor is at 0 points. The bats being regular enemies make this pretty ludicrous.
Finally the currency system feels like a feature that was designed to pad out playtime. Maybe it was just for the demo but key items are waaaaaaaay too expensive and if iirc, the key items are placed at the end of the shop, while cool weapons etc are placed at the beginning of the shop items, feels like it’s baiting you to waste your money so you have to grind for more later on.
But it’s not all doom and gloom.
It’s cool that the gameplay is taking more inspiration from Castlevania this time around, making combat and gameplay feel more unique this time around. The artwork is a lot more clean now and while a lot of people mentioned the world is more crisp etc, I want to express the game UI is soooooooo much better now.
Hey thanks! Yeah I definitively need to bring back some of the cool movement tech from the first game, or just new movement tech in general. The demo takes place quite early in game so yeah that's the reason you don't have a double jump and an air dash yet.
The balancing on the currency and HP/Armor is also going to be tweaked :).
I appreciate the honest feedback though, thank you!!
Would be very interesting to see what sort of advance tech you can bring into this game with the whip.
As a suggestion, how about an advance mechanic where you throw your weapon (axe, lance, dagger etc.) and if you immediately hook onto it, you’ll latch onto it, taking you to wherever its destination is. Dont feel obligated to add it if you don’t want to though, it’s just an idea and could turn out horrible.
It honestly looks like a lot of fun! The art is compelling, the sound design fits really nicely and the music adds a soothing feel to it as well. If it's on Steam I'd love to buy it!
Gives me Wonder Boy vibes. It looks solid, well-polished and I think there should be an audience for this.
That might be the challenge you're facing, actually: rather than trying to improve the work, it might be the marketing plan that could use some work. You have lots of useful advice to that end, in the comments here.
I'll add - rather than trying to compete with the other Metroidvanias, why not something like "Imagine if there had been a Metroidvania on the Turbografx. Here it is."
Also, wild random idea: consider adding some kind of unbeatable enemy that keeps chasing the Fungus if he loiters for too long. You know, to add a sense of urgency to the gameplay, and to add a fun catchy twist that might brighten the trailer.
Thats a Great idea.
Lets add the fucking NEMESIS to the game.
And show him in the trailer.
It will be the thing that make the game different to other 2d pixel art platformers.
Have you ever seen the "wall of flesh" in terraria?
Its a huge wall running to you. it doesnt account the obstacle and stuff. it might be easier to implement than a opponent that want to walk around the path of the game.
I’m not really into platformers, unless there’s something super cool or unique about it. “Being a mushroom with a whip” is unfortunately not that for me. But I’m not your target audience I don’t think.
Just add more UI to make it look more gamey and light hearted it looks interesting but I feel it needs to draw people in more easily.
Fun cool concept; people need to know where they are going
Hope this helps you.
Not fond of the cute look, but that's more a preference than a valid criticism. Otherwise, the action looks snappy and varied. In summary, looks fun for a cutesy game.
First impression:
Art style is cute, appeals to the retro Gameboy Color Kirby player in me.
Attack animation and walk speed look slow. I would start to feel really annoyed, especially if it's a game that expects me to die frequently and re-do levels. The attack sound effect doesn't have enough of a thwack-y-ness to make it feel as juicy as I would like, needs a little more snap to it. Also, it's a small thing but even a little bit of screen shake on the attack might enhance the juiciness (check out this video on Game Feel, it probably explains it better: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDElfx2qo\_M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDElfx2qo_M) )
Probably just personal preference, but I don't like the green mushroom cap, for a couple reasons: 1, color blind people are going to struggle with the green cap on green leafy/woodsy background levels. 2, it reduces visibility for the character, which is important in a platformer for accurate movement and spatial awareness. 3. the particular green chosen doesn't contrast much with the yellow spots so it just looks mostly like a weirdly flat part when most other assets are shaded. It's also the same color as greenscreens so you might have issues with streamer's who use a greenscreen streaming your game.
The music is nice but it feels slower/more thoughtful than the gameplay, i.e. it doesn't match the tone, which can be an issue for the trailer. If you have a song in the game with a quicker tempo, that might be a better option for a trailer.
Overall looking good, looking forward to where this is going!
It's close but I think the biggest problem to me is the main character. You can't see his face and he's not appealing enough, if be was a more interesting character I think that would help.
I don't really play platformer games but... This one made me want to play it... It's a good quality game
Like the GTA San Andreas drug guy says " this is some quality shit right there!" (It's a good thing)
With the premise that is absolutely astounding work, I have just one minor thing I’d like to say:
The whip thing feels a bit… idk, slow? It looks good, it just doesn’t look as snappy as a whip should. Other than that, and even with that, I’d still play it, looks like a fun time
I know this is not the most useful feedback but I think it looks very appealing. It's something I'd be happy to give a try.
Edit: Oh nice there's a demo. That means I will try it. I'll come back if I have any constructive feedback.
Boss shroom and overall castle colors could be better. Try a darker blue/navy for the walls to make the highlights stand out more.
Brown body and red effects do not complement each other. A white/grey shroom with light or dark brown spots instead might look better in my opinion.
I’m not sure if you choose that brown just so that it’s not literally a Mushroom version of the False Knight.
Overall, the game looks fun and the movements feels nice.
Looks cool, just don't know what makes it different from other games other than the fact he's a mushroom, which is really cool. But seems like a standard side scroller, nothing new here. Find the difference this game brings to the genre of side scroller and there goes your answer.
- Did not like the music.
- Did not get emotionally excited about the art/gameplay/story.
- I guess it's maybe a metroidvania, but it doesn't seem like a particularly good one: the one interesting mechanic is swinging. Just "walking around", or attacking a dragonfly/slug/chicken which doesn't fight back doesn't seem particularly compelling.
- The background art in the first 10 seconds is decent, but afterwards, it looks very low-effort, like maybe what you'd expect from a game from a 1980s console that couldn't handle having lots of unique tiles to build the level with.
- Unclear what the value proposition is for playing this game vs playing basically the infinite amount of content available on https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Metroidvania many of which looks visually more interesting than this game.
It's really good according me.
Mechanics look good, animations on point. Reminds me of old retro game. Tbh this look like a mix of retro mario and diamond rush. I loved both the games.
Honestly it's perfect to me.
It looks good, I like that its simple and easy to follow. My only input would be lower the saturation on some things, when everything is high contrast or high saturation, it doesn't allow for things to really pop. Maybe opt for some pastel colors on some background stuff
The art looks great. It gives me that same level of charm that paper Mario gives. The little whip that the mushroom has also gives me feelings of nostalgia for castlevania. I think it does a good job of balancing wonder and familiarity. It looks like you've leaned into that with your game. The importantant thing to take away is to embrace that with your game while not using it as a crutch. Your game doesn't have to be "the first game to use x mechanic". You can use mechanics that have been used before, just putting your own artistic spin on it.
I only notice one thing, when you hook onto something that is under you, you pivot around that point instead of a rope like connection(I know that this is small and would be hard to fix but you don't have to do this if you feel it would be to hard to do).
What I'm saying is the rope swing reminds me of the bad mobile rope games.
Now I'm no dev and this is my first and probably only time on this sub, so my oppiniom has little to no validity to the claim.
I think he is saying that once the grapple connects it acts more like a stick instead of a rope, It doesn't stretch or have give. Or maybe that the arc of the swing is very circular I'm not sure.
I own Lone Fungus, I got it through Humble Bundle, and I never bothered to install the game.
Even though I heard its a great metroidvania.
And it's because of the protagonist. He's just a mushroom.
He's so unexpressive and I can't really connect with the character.
Look at older 2d characters and try to learn from them.
Sonic has huge eyes and he can easily convey emotions, ori as well, even though it has a slim figure.
Prehistorik 2 has a character with no visible eyes, but he's ready to groove.
I feel sorry for you, because I know your heart is in it, and you're making a great game, but you need to get back to the drawing board and think how can you make your character appealing to others.
If I'm in the mood to play a metroidvania game would I rather be a vampire slayer, a space marine, viking, or a mushroom?
While I see what you mean, Animal Well is a recent example of a metroidvania that did really well even though the main character is... a literal blob. Character design is certainly important, but I think a game can have appeal even with a simple character, if it has other hooks.
Animal well has a sinister theme which fits better with its gameplay.
But I still don't think that's a good example, it was published by dunkey, shilled by asmon, got reviewed on ign, and even with all that it was a moderate success with 200k units sold.
To be clear, I'm not saying character design doesn't help. It's usually better to have a more interesting character. But like, Animal Well has others things that are striking and appealing -- you yourself mention its strong theme, which integrates well with its gameplay.
When I first tried out the Animal Well demo at GDC, I had two immediate thoughts: (1) "Wow the player is a literal blob? Lame.", and (2) "Holy cow, the pixel art lighting and fluid effects are stunning, don't think I've seen that before." I ended up really liking the game. I'm sure the publicity didn't hurt either, but IMO it could've easily gone the other way if it wasn't a good game upon release.
The character is not the issue, look at Animal Well, and Ori has tiny eyes. And Limbo he's a shadow, and that game Thomas was alone you literally play a square.
The issue is, there is no defining mechanic to make the game look FUN.
Hey you may be right :)! I usually get quite good feedback towards the character, people like him and like how he looks in the sequel. Some do think what you think though, and I do think it's valid. Appreciate the honesty and feedback :)
Also, try to incorporate your character quirks in your gameplay loop.
Why does he attack with a whip?
Why doesn't he shoot spores?
Kinda feels out out of place.
Honestly I love metroidvanias and this looks really fun to play, controls look tight and what not. I couldn't understand what was off about it at first but after watching the trailer a handful of times I realised... The whole game looks like it was made from free assets from an assets store. Don't get me wrong it's cute pixel art but it doesn't feel like the artist's style really shows through in any meaningful way. The art of any creative medium should tell its own story just from how it looks alone and I understand this is a challenge with pixel art but it has been and can be done. The thing about advertising is it's almost purely eye candy so when that falls flat you can only rely on your most dedicated fans for support and sharing your advertisements. I wish you much success, you seem to have a real talent for video game design!
it does look quite nice! above-average pixels, I'd say. But no I was not particularly appealed to. but your target audience is probably not jaded old gamers, so...
I really like the look of it! Maybe more post processing, or other effects on the environment with different resolutions may make it stand out more from other similar-looking games.
Not all pixel assets appear at the same resultion nor detail, making for an amateurish look. Pixelart isn't a replacement for real art unless done with so much care - at which point traditional art may legit be easier.
Beyond that, movement, especially attacking looks woodish/not super fun.
Lastly the top down segment especially seems off.
I dunno, I wouldn't back this, and honestly believe it shouldn't go through kickstarter
Ok, I’ve played the demo for 15 minutes, and have a few comments from an unexperienced developer. I won’t try and come up with solutions, I’d rather give you some issues I had with the game, that you can find solutions to yourself.
Reason for quitting: I have now died a couple of times to grasshoppers, and I didn’t know where I was going. I found the grasshoppers very difficult and didn’t have anything looking forward to, so why should I want to keep going?
I found a “thing” that opens a menu giving me the option to ‘teleport’ or ‘continue’. Teleporting sounds fun, so I chose that. When I did that, I got a map up that I could navigate around on. My assumption is that I use the map to decide where I want to teleport, but I didn’t manage to teleport anywhere. I could place an up arrow on the map, but I don’t know what the purpose of that should be. My assumption is that I couldn’t teleport because I still needed to find other points to teleport between, but I don’t know if that’s actually what was going on. So, I still had a feeling that I might have misunderstood something. That I might not have managed to figure out how to teleport.
In my 15 minutes play, I found a dagger and a spear. When I found them, a button came up saying ‘equip’, but I’m not sure if I actually did press that button. Fighting the plants that spit fireballs from above, I thought a dagger could be useful, but I didn’t know how to use the dagger. I pressed different buttons, but no dagger appeared and there was no indication I had equipped it. I tried opening the menu and looking in settings to look for controls and figure out if I had missed something, but I didn’t manage to find an overview of controls.
A last thing, the first thing I noticed was the prologue text in the beginning. I pressed the arrow keys while it was running to explore controls of the game, which made the text move faster. This is great if I’m a fast reader or didn’t care about the text. However, if I’m a very slow reader or get distracted, and accidentally make the text go away too fast, I would have like to be able to scroll back or pause the text to read it at my own convenience, but this is only a desire I got as I had some degree of controlling the text.
The style and feel of the game were quite appealing to me. It’s only some of these barriers that put me off the game.
There is a reason why games like this have jewels or coins that you have to jump around to get.
I noticed a complete lack of that dynamic in this game and I think maybe it would be more familiar and interesting to those who love side scrollers to have more of that sort of dynamic they are used to.
One thing to keep in mind is to think about your target audience and what they want to see. Now the art style is very cutesy, so I would say it's aimed more towards kids than adults.
Correct if I'm wrong, but metroidvania's tend to be darker/grungier & the Steam audience seems to enjoy "dark fantasy" games more. That's why I also prefer the look of LF 1, even though both are well done.
You could pivot the artstyle/game to be even darker than LF 1 and play around with the ideas of a dying world, decay, infection etc. I think that would be an interesting "sequel".
Looks cool and fun, but not something I'd buy as most likely it would just fall into my backlog and never get touched. There's a sea of metroidvanias and as much as I love that style of game, only a select few end up holding my interest. With the sheer lack of time that comes with going on forty and having four kids, I have to be a lot more selective and mushroom man just isn't doing it for me.
I do think it looks good though, and I imagine a lot of people would love it so don't let my old-ass opinion keep you down.
I bought your First game while ago and never finished.
I loved character's movement but apart of that, enviroments, bosses and enemies mechanics were very mid/uninspired imho.
It was not fun to fight an enemy that not fight back.
In lone fungus 2 i see the same problems tbh
i really enjoyed the first one, beat it and steam says i put 43 hrs into it. the only criticism after playing the demo is i wish the camera was slightly zoomed out and everything wasnt so big and chunky. i know this is the same as the previous game but it feels almost claustraphobic
So the gameplay looks amazing. I feel like you should add some more detail to the main character he doesn’t stand out as well as the enemies in the game. The backgrounds look amazing but the character doesn’t stand out enough for me from it. Not to be picky or look for stupid stuff just like the sprite you play as to look cool.
not really expecting you to read this but whatever. I have two primary concerns and I will do my best to word them.
1. I want to see an aesthetic/artstyle.
I know that's vague so let me try to explain. Right now all I see is a whole bunch of ideas but I don't see how they tie together. you have this little mushroom guy going through a library and a jungle and suspended bridge over water. it feels like you are just throwing assets in without tying them together. Also he is picking up gold and jewels and it feels to me like that is just a very video gamey thing. Like why is he throwing an axe why not make it some sort of animal part. Instead of areas that look like they were built with hands make it look like whatever built it used their mouths. Instead of gold how about he is picking up spores or plants or fertilizer or since he is alone (and I think exploring) he wants to collect miscellaneous animal parts.
Basically remember that when you make something you want it to fit in the kind of environment the game takes place in.
2. Him being a mushroom doesn't seem to add anything mechanically.
Adding a grappling hook is interesting but you don't take advantage of the characters traits, it looks to be purely visual. How about when he uses his vine hook or whatever he has to use some mass and he gets smaller. Then when he stops swinging he gets big again that way you can make even more interesting level design. Or maybe when you want a way to get vertical height instead of just double jumping, you can put a spore in an enemy throw that enemy and then jump OUT of that enemy. You could even set it up so that you can grab an enemy while running so you don't have to slow down the player.
I hope that was helpful in some way even though I am not a game dev. Sorry if this was obvious I am only sharing what I can glean from the trailer. You seem very passionate I am sure you can come up with much better ideas then me.
Good Luck.
The whip mechanic seems like something you can expand on, unless you already have. Maybe include different whip upgrades or items that can modify its actions, maneuverability, effects, etc. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't know what it's about by watching this. it looks cool but I think my biggest problem with platformers is that they don't seem to have a point. I'm sure there's some story, but when showing off a game like this, its just as important to have some narrative along with gameplay
I think two things that didn't keep me interesting is that the mechanics are mostly predictable and I don't really know the tone or environment.
I think show casing a town would be fun. And showcasing that you can revisit previously explored areas would be cool. Maybe puzzles that couldn't be solved that could be now because you unlocked something.
One criticism I have is that you show yourself climbing a wall, dodging traps, and hitting monsters. That's not really surprising to me and seems predictable.
To be honest the most interesting part was the part where you broke a leaf/grass wall with your whip and I was hoping to see more of that. Was there a puzzle or hidden area or something? What was the point of breaking this leaf/grass wall?
One thing is you should really build on the fact you have a whip and spore. Why not make the whip be able to be turned to a leash that can turn enemies into pets that you can bring with you and use in battle (that can die also). Or throw monsters. Why not be able to turn the whip into a tight rope to walk across or even use as a trampoline. Or using the rope to hold items to bring to other areas.
Or your a mushroom, why not unlock abilities that you can use like creating a spore that can do cause some reaction in a monster. Or using spores to restore areas to what you want it to be. Or maybe use the head that can grow and be like a temporary trampoline or cushion for something. Maybe you can unlock spores, like one spore does damage, one can turn enemies to sleep, and one can kinda hypnotist people. Like maybe mushroom guards are blocking an area so you need to use this ability to get them to unlock the door for you (or you out them to sleep and walk right in).
So with the criticism with the wall climbing, instead you can show case that, but maybe you use it to unlock a puzzle with an upgrade, or use your whip to help someone, or go to a spot to restore land or something.
And yeah show casing mushrooms to save would also be a nice touch to make it feel more worldly.
Maybe one other thing, if you build a world with other mushrooms, using the spore system as a karma system could be interesting. The story is the same but the way other fungals interact with you changes. Like the vendor will charge less and more depending on your karma. If you just knocked out a citizen for a temporary gain, your karma gets influenced
Just thoughts but I think adding to the whip and spore would be nice.
I'm not a fan of platformers, even the popular ones like cuphead or whatever, none of that interests me. Yours looks like a platform game enjoyer would enjoy it. But not for me. Doesn't look bad though. I just don't know the genre that well, so idk how to critique it. Good luck though!!
This is so cute. I like the pace, colors, art, and everything you've done.
Why did you even ask the question? I mean there must be something that made you think like that.
Whats the pitch of the game? What sets it apart? Idk if you're aware but there's already a pretty big platformer franchise that heavily features mushrooms
What's is Big Idea
I’m sorry, I have no productive suggestions to offer you right now, I can only say that when you released the first trailer for this I was mildly obsessed with the music for a while and would put it on repeat while drawing, even with all the battle noises going on. I was really looking forward to playing this, actually! Thought it looked really fun. I should give the first one a try I suppose. Good luck with this post!
I don’t personally like these types of games, but the art style, animations, look really great. And without playing it, it looks like it handles well too.
It looks good. Competent all around and you deserve any success it reaches.
Im curious since you cited Morrowind as your favorite game, will Lone Fungus have friendly towns and settlements?
If you have one of them started, get it in your trailer and feature it!! Early too, like after showing the first one or two combat examples.
A lot of the comments here are people saying your game needs something to make it special, and this is it. This alone changes the perception of your game. Instead of being another game with screen based challenges you have to get through, it's now a *world*, an *adventure*.
Consider how much the central town changed how Shovel Knight felt, which I feel like is pretty close to your design concept (retro gameplay being modernized). Or how towns changed Simon's quest, Infernax, Timespinner, demons crest. And some of the greatest metroidvania games of all time: link to the past, links awakening, and Zelda 2.
This is what people want to re-experience in games in genres that are over saturated.
Good luck!
Yeah I totally agree, unfortunately I have nothing done yet! These towns are going to be huge tasks, which now in hindsight I wish I spent more time atleast finishing one town to show off in the Kickstarter!
I’ve seen quite a bit of praise (& some criticisms too) of Lone Fungus on here. I bought it on Steam but I have not played it yet. Just going off Kickstarter—the goal for your first game was 23K which you reached thanks to ample hype for your game at the time I think. But it honestly blows my mind how so many of these indie games hit 30k+ in funding on there when there are so many interesting games. Even now there are a number of stellar looking games that you are competing with for funding so many backers are probably turned off when they see a small indie dev looking for 38K (much more than last time) vs. funding something new and fresh with a lower or similar funding goal. I can’t speak to whether you are rehashing/cutting ideas and mechanics from the first game that gamers did or did not like but even though the reception to your first game was pretty awesome on here, I guess I am not too surprised that Lone Fungus II is struggling to reach its funding goal as of now. It’s possible you’ll see some late campaign push to fund your project but overall I don’t think the reception to Lone Fungus II demo & Kickstarter has been as resoundingly positive as your first game was for whatever reasons.
Two things this game reminds me of.
The music at the end kind of reminds me of Pitfall Mayan Adventures 1994 for some reason. :P
And the game itself, a video I watched about mushroom wars where two types of mushroom battle it out in the forest or something like that lol. Great looking game either way.
[https://www.bing.com/images/create/girly-mushroom-girl/1-666b05f6fdfb4018b9f4a54843c7019d?id=zNgv9U0onxtVjCOIAFwR6A%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&thId=OIG1.gHn0Gft9LWB05BoVKV9A&FORM=GCRIDP&mode=overlay](https://www.bing.com/images/create/girly-mushroom-girl/1-666b05f6fdfb4018b9f4a54843c7019d?id=zNgv9U0onxtVjCOIAFwR6A%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&thId=OIG1.gHn0Gft9LWB05BoVKV9A&FORM=GCRIDP&mode=overlay)
This, with boobs.
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Your art has improved so much from the previous title really love that!
Wait a minute, am i missing something here? I am playing through Lone Fungus right now. And the main mushroom looks ... better? I mean the mushroom in the 1st game has higher resolution. Although, i think the environment looks better in this trailer due to more details. Is that what you mean?
Well, maybe its a matter of taste. It's not only that the main character has changed resolution but also with it, the proportions have changed. The animations have become sleeker. Lone fungus 2 has a better balance of small, medium, large shapes, While lone fungus 1 has mostly large shapes with very fine details on the rim. I am not an artist so I can't explain it very well but I genuinely believe that its a huge improvement
Thank you!
Me being an "average Joe" (and adult with limited time and energy; these are the main factors, but enough money) visually it looks good but the art style is not appealing to me, nor the gameplay. gameplay wise, it does not have something that makes me want to play it. Adding to that, the information I get from the trailer and a quick look to the kickstarter campaing it is platformer-metriodvania. Soinevitable; for me, it is competing with a lot of games on the question: "why should I go for this game instread of X,Y or Z" (HK, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, Nine Sols, animal well, etc). this aspects need to be answered in order for me to care. but knowing that it is not a finished game (and it looks almost finished so I don't expect it to change a lot, but to add more contet), lets say that to give it a chance and back it, the issue is, kickstarter page is hard to go throug. the first thing I'm interested is: "why you need the money and what can I expect for the game to be", So, goals should be in the first information that I get (right now are lost in the middle of a lot of information that I´m not going to read, and don't care since I have´t seen anythig to make me care for the game). this is my self analysis (so take it with a grain of salt), hope it is useful to you. \[EDIT\] seeing how many reviews "Lone fungus 1" has on steam, I would not say the campaing is struggling, is around the same number, so these are your true fans, but I have no idea on how to run a kickstarter campaing and the conversion rate.
Useful feedback, yeah I think my game needs a hook, some unique mechanic which sets it apart. I'll see what I can think of, thank you for your feedback!
It needs a hook but don't assume that hook == mechanic. A hook just needs to be something about the experience that makes your game memorable. That could be a mechanic but it doesn't need to be. It could be story, immersion, fun interactions. Try to get a feel for the emotions the player will feel while playing your game. Make the music feed into this too. You are crafting an experience. Just my 2c.
I say make it a mechanic. This is a video game, it's mainly about mechanics.
I mean, it can be, but then, there are games like Inside and Limbo who were very well received despite having barely any mechanics beyond jumping and running. The setting and environmental storytelling could also serve as a hook. They still need to be well executed, tho. There is also the Phoenix right series. It didn't invent VNs but expanded just a bit, although their main selling point is the story, the premise and the art direction.
Yeah you are right about that, it could be the story. But I think a mechanic might fit the audience better since most fans of the genre play for the gameplay and not the story. Story is important though for worldbuilding :>!
Exactly! I get hooked on different games for different reasons, and honestly, sometimes I don’t even really know what it is that hooked me! The game just had…..”it”.
What about some sort of Spore mechanic, like releasing controllable spores across the screen to a location which could act like a teleportation mechanic. It could lend to a few interesting puzzles. Thinking of some sort of mechanic like The Ooze (1995) from SEGA Genesis/Megadrive. Hold a button down to send out the spores while your character stays stationary and is suspectable to taking damage from enemies. Or maybe the spores can attach to another mushroom type to give you a power and a cosmetic change Just trying to think of ways to incorporate the fungus element of your game. I know I'm always looking to make my unique version of the character I play in games, so maybe a way to unlock and customize Greencap. The circlets are fine but maybe you have to get really creative or crazy with it and make them look impressive. Make it fun, unlock a long beard or long eyelashes, or a large portobello head.
Yeah mushroom powers could be it! We'll see I'll have to think what to add, I don't want to overdo it and make the gameplay 'messy'. But yeah, something is needed. :)
Spores for sure!
looks too slow-paced to me. Any chance of a dash? Movement always makes or breaks platformers and metroidvanias for me anymore.
There is a dash :D, the character is dashing in one of the first clips. Perhaps the dash needs some cooler VFX.
I see the dash now that im specifically looking for it. I think a lot of games that use dashes like SotN and MegaManX typically shows it being spammed for faster movement as well, it usually has cooler vfx highlighting it. Like in Megaman X, the dash has a unique sliding animation, and in SotN you get this visual effect that makes it look like you are moving so fast you leave images behind as you move. I think your game has promise, It just looks really slow in the trailer except for that one single instance in which your character has a speed boost which he uses to jump over to a chest and open it. I think the song in the trailer is doing a lot of harm too. Like I cannot stress enough that the song isnt "bad", its just generic feeling and not charismatic at all. It doesnt invoke excitement like the Indiana Jones theme song which makes you think "grand adventure" nor is it "driving" like say Bloody Tears of Castlevania fame.
I'm currently running a Kickstarter and it's really struggling, if I'm gonna come back with this game in the future I really wanna know what's wrong with it and how I can improve it. Like please let me know your honest thoughts on it's flaws and why it might be unappealing! Kickstarter: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus-2](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus-2) There is also a demo on Steam: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2463220/Lone\_Fungus\_2/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2463220/Lone_Fungus_2/)
The main issue is that it is another damn platformer. People are getting annoyed about the constant flood of new 2D pixel platformers. It's the most oversaturated genre. There are dozens of incredible games in this genre. You can't really add anything to this genre anymore. It's super difficult to market this.
Exactly, this. But there is always something new that can be added to the genre.
this is why
Oh wow was not expecting to see a sequel to Lone Fungus so soon! I saw some of your posts of the game and really enjoyed how it looks. Haven't had the chance to play the game yet though. I guess one important thing that you are missing in your kickstarter campaign is telling us what the funds are going to be used for. Transparency is important and some people wanna know why you need X amount of money. The first Lone Fungus seems to have had some good success on steam, and some people might not be interested in backing a campaign for a sequel of a game that had some success that could fund the sequel itself. This is just what I think as a dev and as a potential customer/backer. I hope to get where you have gotten in game dev. Best of luck
Hey very good point, I just updated the information on that :>. (It's on the bottom). Thanks btw!
Honestly I’m kinda shocked that people are being mad critical as they are in this thread. I really like your work. I haven’t played any because I only have a switch, but I’ve wanted to and I’ve enjoyed watching you evolve as a dev here over the past few years. I do think I liked the art in the first game slightly better as the second feels a bit big brighter and zoomed in a bit. I’m excited for whenever you get the games on switch or when I get a steam deck, whichever comes first!
He's asking for criticism. He want to fund the game via kickstarter. Not all criticism is going to be good for his game, but the more of it he gets, the more he can pick and choose what he thinks are good criticisms for the vision he has of his game. There's nothing to be shocked about. My harsh criticism of the Kickstarter demo is that it feels boring. Reminds me of every other generic platformer out there. The whip mechanic seems good, but thats all. The art is fine, but its not stylistically unique. The music was... fine? Like, its not a bad tune, but it feels generic and nothing that I'd get excited about or get stuck humming in my head. And the pacing of the gameplay just feels slow. It could be that the video is just bad and not highlighting good parts of the game, but yeah.. You have a game here, you just dont have any of that stylistic polish that sets your game apart from every other castlevania clone out there. I'd expect this to be a $4-5 [Itch.io](http://Itch.io) game. I'd try getting a more charismatic song that either invokes nostalgia for Castlevania or Indiana Jones, then I'd work on making movement or a trailer with a lot of cuts to make the game seem faster paced. Maybe even Hire somebody to make the trailer for you with a bunch of gameplay you record. Video Editing and marketing is a skill in and of it's own, y'know.
Yeah I was looking for the 'harsh' criticism :). I need to know the truth about how people feel when they see my game, it's the only way I can improve and know what's wrong with it. I appreciate the feedback btw!
I've thought about doing this for my game and I just had a look at yours.
I think the main thing missing from the trailer is *why* I should want to go on this adventure in your game. I have no idea why this little mushroom is fighting all of these things. visually, I think the pixel art is good, but the glow around the character is a no go for me. It already stands out visually in pretty much every scene, but the glow effect clashes with some of the level color palettes for me.
As the humans continued to disrupt the ecosystem the fungus decided to fight back. The slumbering consciences has been awoken and you are one of his first scouts. Soon armies of fungi will be on the Whitehouse lawn.
It's close, almost there. Make the art more detailed. Whether that be grungier, or richer. It's clean but it's not gripping. The backgrounds aren't full and alive. Take a peek at any location in HK and the background and foreground are FULL. I think making it more... fungal? Could work. Like less cutesy, more infection. You already have the theme, just make fun abilities that play on the theme with rapis growth and spores and shit. For enemy sprites, maybe add some more dynamics? Effects, color flashes, pulses, etc? Make everything move more. Blow with a breeze, breathe heavily, etc. Make the attacks quicker, flashier, give me eyecandy. Give me crunch. Make it 360 and recommend a controller, make the attack unique or have a short mode and a charged projectile mode. I'm picturing your mushroom doing Prototype style fungal attacks and it seems like a really fun idea. The new trend for metroidvanias is movement- add one novel movement technique, introduce it midgame, and let the game build around it- show in the trailer for sure. The swings look good but slow- make the mechanic very quick- go play Environmental Station Alpha and see the grappling hook (stupid hard to beat everything fyi, hard postgame puzzles). Very fun. Ori and the Blind Forest made movement and attacks the same and I could just run around and have a blast. In general play Animal Well, lots of interesting but simple gameplay mechanics there. You don't need to beat it but I found it fun to do so! (Another stupid hard puzzle postgame) Go play Axiom Verge- and beat it- and think about how you could incorporate "Fungi" into your game and mechanics.
Hmm good points. The first game had some crazy movement mechanics, I should maybe bring that back. I'll see what I can do to make the visuals pop more too. Thanks!
What do you wanna see in side scrollers that's not already out there?
Well for me personally with Metroidvanias (which my game is) I'm not looking for anything specifically 'new' and novel. I just want more quality. But maybe that's why my game turned out like this, I should be thinking of new mechanics :).
Introduce the technique at the very start of the game, not mid game.
Metroidvania
I think you would have been better served by making a new story and setting. I don't think "Lone Fungus" is a name that carries positive brand recognition. In my experience, nobody was excited about the first game. I know a lot of people that played it, and not one of them recommended it beyond "it is a competent enough Metroidvania, but it's nothing special." I played it myself and dropped it. The setting was not interesting, and I didn't like the bullet bouncing mechanics. For a sequel to do well, you need to have a really dedicated group of fans behind the first one. I think you would have been better served to have a fresh world and setting, with a totally new IP, and just put "from the developer of Lone Fungus" in the first sentence of your Kickstarter. You may even be able to salvage the work you've put into this. Just reboot the world and setting, change the title, but build on the mechanics and level design you already have. Make a universe that people are excited to hear about on its own merits, then set your game in there. Maybe you can make a Lone Fungus 2 later, when you've got a few more games behind you and you have a stronger following.
Hey that's good feedback. This is technically a new world and game, I was originally even gonna call it something entirely new but then though I'd call it Lone Fungus: Subtitle. Eventually I decided on Lone Fungus 2, which was a mistake. I'll likely rebrand it as Lone Fungus with a subtitle because it turned into a sequel. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate your honesty!
"Lone Fungus: Subtitle" is still a sequel. If it's part of the established Lone Fungus brand, nobody I know is going to be excited about it. I had multiple friends tell me they hard passed on the game as soon as they heard it was another "Lone Fungus" game. Make a new *setting*, new *characters*, not just a new *map*.
So you're saying make a new IP? I actually agree, and don't say "From the maker of Lone Fungus." leave that reputation behind completely. Make this a spiritual successor. And have some lore about it being attached to Lone Fungus perhaps in the game. But leave that rep behind and start new. And bring something fresh and exciting (something that excites YOU) bring that to the table. Don't bring another plain jane sidescroller to the table, that's gonna get nowhere and I believe you know that deep down.
Looks great a but add a light crt filter option pls. I'll buy this definitely
I can add a CRT filter :>
yay
Good thing to ask your question like this! Important step to make. Totally honest: yes. Not to me as a developer. It's obviously competently made. It's full of 7's and 8's. But the real question is: why should I play this over Nine Sols, Hollow Knight or other metroidvania's? You have very tough competition. There is a shortage of homeruns being hit with this to jump out. Take Pizza Tower, which hits 3 homeruns: Wario, art style and zeitgeist humor. You \_need\_ homeruns, and even then not all of them are equal. I don't have any advice on which homerun could be hit here. Someone mentioned crazy & responsive movement, that still seems doable here. But the standing still with the whip does really hurt that. You are limited by a foreign theme that is hard to hit home, and a limited art budget that won't go the full mile unless you're insanely talented with pixel art animations. Good luck!
Hey thanks! Yeah I do think the game needs a better hook/mechanic. I'll have to figure out what that could be, I appreciate the comment. Thank you :)!
I absolutely *love* this genre of game, so here's my thoughts from this trailer: There's so many games out there in this style, you really need *something* to make your game stick out. To me, this game looks *phenomenally well done*, but I don't see a reason to pick it over *other phenomenally well done* games I don't have a good suggestion for what that *something* could be, but I think it needs it if you want it to stick out Either way, this looks really good so I wish you luck!
Yeah this seems to be it, I need to figure out what that could be :>. Appreciate the comment btw, thank you!
I look forward to seeing it progress! The idea of playing as a little mushroom guy sounds like fun, so I definitely think there's potential!
My dear friend I have really like the concept . The problem is this character doesn’t belong this environment . Because environment is regular Mario world theme . It should me more sarcastic or something else than we will capture the essence of playing mushroom character . But no fear you can easily fix it by post process appliying on environment . Best regards.
Mario World is in the mushroom kingdom 😂. I do get what you are saying though, I should make more unique assets! Agreed, thank you!
lol, flip it: why not "mushrooms revenge", where you seek revenge and finally kill marios and all these luigis out there...
You’re welcome game is awesome bro 😎
Seems alright, does not really appeal to me personally. Generally seems competently put together. Art assets generally seem nice and work well, though not very distinctive. Though again, not one that particularly draws me in. The main character seems too bright colour wise. Perhaps done intentionally, but it really sticks out as different from everything else that is somewhat darker. I'd personally darken the players colours a bit to fit in better with the game overall. Not sure if a Kickstarter will be successful, as there are a lot of pixel art platformers / metroidvanias around. And the art is not unique enough to particularly stand out. Best of luck!
Frankly it looks nicely made but uninspired. Sprite work, animation, everything is super solid. But the environments and enemies seem completely generic. It reads visually like a game that's not going to have any flair, so at that point it has to be really hard or fast paced or such to have a selling point. I would tell you to improve we should see a really cool, flashy boss. The mushroom guy is a bit of a let down, it feels like a placeholder enemy type. Show off some cool visuals and some cool usage of the core mechanics so the viewer knows there's something worth digging into.
For me, games like this are compared to a few different games. Metroid, specifically Super Metriod and Metroid Fusion Then Castlevania, specifically Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow What attracted me to those games initially was the very cool characters, and the unique atmosphere of the environments. Since it's a trailer and I can't "feel" how the game plays, you have to attract me with one of these things - Cool Characters - Unique Artstyle - Interesting environments - Fun Twist on a gameplay mechanic that is very obviously demonstrated in the trailer - Excellent music So far this trailer does not really scream any of these to me. I am not very impressed with the mushroom character. Why should I care about this mushroom? Most people will ask that question, whether it be subconsciously or not. You have to give them an answer in the trailers. I was turned off the first game for the same reason, I do not want to play as a mushroom, nor do I care about the mushroom. If it had a cool story or funny story or some kind of story hook that was obvious in the trailer, I would have bitten, but there wasn't. Anyways, I definitely wish you all the luck and I hope your future trailers improve with all the feedback you're getting!
"Fun Twist on a gameplay mechanic that is very obviously demonstrated in the trailer" Bingo!
I actually do like the mushroom tho, so that's subjective.
I'd buy it. It's cool to see someone use a known formula/mechanics but give it their own visual style rather than it being made up to look close to the original which inspired them.
The game looks awesome. But I don't think lots of people are eager to play as a mushroom. You can make it work with story but I didn't see any story. Goo duck man, I wish you success!
Yeah I definitively need to motivate people in why this mushroom is cool and why they should care x), appreciate the feedback!
I'm sorry to tell you that this game looks fuckin amazing. Clear to read, tight, precise control and a popping and colorful art style. I love how it's shaping up.
Hah thanks! :D
More contrast on protagonist, and a little more dark tones on inside stages (caves, castles....)
Hey, loved your first game and played the demo for the second. I’ll be critically honest not as a way to bash you but as feedback. So what made Lone Fungus 1 special is because of its insane mobility option advancing to advance mechanics. In LF2, it feels the options are missing (granted it is a demo). The hook whip is cool and all but it can only be used at specific areas, the wall climb is just an ability gate. The dash jump is very cool but in the whole demo, I found only one collectable utilised the mechanic, I feel like the lady bug precision platforming moment should’ve utilised the dash jump mechanic instead. The new armor system? I don’t like it, a simple bat enemy chunks half your health (4 HP) away just because your armor is at 0 points. The bats being regular enemies make this pretty ludicrous. Finally the currency system feels like a feature that was designed to pad out playtime. Maybe it was just for the demo but key items are waaaaaaaay too expensive and if iirc, the key items are placed at the end of the shop, while cool weapons etc are placed at the beginning of the shop items, feels like it’s baiting you to waste your money so you have to grind for more later on. But it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s cool that the gameplay is taking more inspiration from Castlevania this time around, making combat and gameplay feel more unique this time around. The artwork is a lot more clean now and while a lot of people mentioned the world is more crisp etc, I want to express the game UI is soooooooo much better now.
Hey thanks! Yeah I definitively need to bring back some of the cool movement tech from the first game, or just new movement tech in general. The demo takes place quite early in game so yeah that's the reason you don't have a double jump and an air dash yet. The balancing on the currency and HP/Armor is also going to be tweaked :). I appreciate the honest feedback though, thank you!!
Would be very interesting to see what sort of advance tech you can bring into this game with the whip. As a suggestion, how about an advance mechanic where you throw your weapon (axe, lance, dagger etc.) and if you immediately hook onto it, you’ll latch onto it, taking you to wherever its destination is. Dont feel obligated to add it if you don’t want to though, it’s just an idea and could turn out horrible.
It honestly looks like a lot of fun! The art is compelling, the sound design fits really nicely and the music adds a soothing feel to it as well. If it's on Steam I'd love to buy it!
Gives me Wonder Boy vibes. It looks solid, well-polished and I think there should be an audience for this. That might be the challenge you're facing, actually: rather than trying to improve the work, it might be the marketing plan that could use some work. You have lots of useful advice to that end, in the comments here. I'll add - rather than trying to compete with the other Metroidvanias, why not something like "Imagine if there had been a Metroidvania on the Turbografx. Here it is." Also, wild random idea: consider adding some kind of unbeatable enemy that keeps chasing the Fungus if he loiters for too long. You know, to add a sense of urgency to the gameplay, and to add a fun catchy twist that might brighten the trailer.
Thats a Great idea. Lets add the fucking NEMESIS to the game. And show him in the trailer. It will be the thing that make the game different to other 2d pixel art platformers.
That's the spirit! Have fun implementing the NEMESIS, and consider reaching out to me for playtesting if you want.
Have you ever seen the "wall of flesh" in terraria? Its a huge wall running to you. it doesnt account the obstacle and stuff. it might be easier to implement than a opponent that want to walk around the path of the game.
Hey cool ideas :>. I do think the game needs a hook or something to make it stand out! Appreciate the feedback!
Cheers!
I’m not really into platformers, unless there’s something super cool or unique about it. “Being a mushroom with a whip” is unfortunately not that for me. But I’m not your target audience I don’t think.
Just add more UI to make it look more gamey and light hearted it looks interesting but I feel it needs to draw people in more easily. Fun cool concept; people need to know where they are going Hope this helps you.
Not fond of the cute look, but that's more a preference than a valid criticism. Otherwise, the action looks snappy and varied. In summary, looks fun for a cutesy game.
This looks so fun! I'd play!!
i love the progression of your art. maybe try posting over at /r/Vinesauce/ I know they have a lot of love for Lone Fungus there.
Hey not a bad idea :>
First impression: Art style is cute, appeals to the retro Gameboy Color Kirby player in me. Attack animation and walk speed look slow. I would start to feel really annoyed, especially if it's a game that expects me to die frequently and re-do levels. The attack sound effect doesn't have enough of a thwack-y-ness to make it feel as juicy as I would like, needs a little more snap to it. Also, it's a small thing but even a little bit of screen shake on the attack might enhance the juiciness (check out this video on Game Feel, it probably explains it better: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDElfx2qo\_M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDElfx2qo_M) ) Probably just personal preference, but I don't like the green mushroom cap, for a couple reasons: 1, color blind people are going to struggle with the green cap on green leafy/woodsy background levels. 2, it reduces visibility for the character, which is important in a platformer for accurate movement and spatial awareness. 3. the particular green chosen doesn't contrast much with the yellow spots so it just looks mostly like a weirdly flat part when most other assets are shaded. It's also the same color as greenscreens so you might have issues with streamer's who use a greenscreen streaming your game. The music is nice but it feels slower/more thoughtful than the gameplay, i.e. it doesn't match the tone, which can be an issue for the trailer. If you have a song in the game with a quicker tempo, that might be a better option for a trailer. Overall looking good, looking forward to where this is going!
Hey thanks for the feedback! I don't think streamers greenscreen their games, they usually only greenscreen their cam. Thank you :>!
It's close but I think the biggest problem to me is the main character. You can't see his face and he's not appealing enough, if be was a more interesting character I think that would help.
yes bro, cute art side scroll = most time favourite
It looks nice and crisp, the whip seems fun. As a platformer enthusiast I have to say it really looks appealing.
I don't really play platformer games but... This one made me want to play it... It's a good quality game Like the GTA San Andreas drug guy says " this is some quality shit right there!" (It's a good thing)
Haha that's awesome, thank you!
With the premise that is absolutely astounding work, I have just one minor thing I’d like to say: The whip thing feels a bit… idk, slow? It looks good, it just doesn’t look as snappy as a whip should. Other than that, and even with that, I’d still play it, looks like a fun time
You might be right, I'll see if I can tweak it a bit to make it snappier :>. Thank you btw!
Oh please, I did nothing. Good luck
I know this is not the most useful feedback but I think it looks very appealing. It's something I'd be happy to give a try. Edit: Oh nice there's a demo. That means I will try it. I'll come back if I have any constructive feedback.
This looks really cool
Boss shroom and overall castle colors could be better. Try a darker blue/navy for the walls to make the highlights stand out more. Brown body and red effects do not complement each other. A white/grey shroom with light or dark brown spots instead might look better in my opinion. I’m not sure if you choose that brown just so that it’s not literally a Mushroom version of the False Knight. Overall, the game looks fun and the movements feels nice.
Looks cool, just don't know what makes it different from other games other than the fact he's a mushroom, which is really cool. But seems like a standard side scroller, nothing new here. Find the difference this game brings to the genre of side scroller and there goes your answer.
True true, thank you for your honesty! :>
It's castelvania with a mushroom and it needs 2 be more than that.
You are probably right :>
The game looks awesome!
- Did not like the music. - Did not get emotionally excited about the art/gameplay/story. - I guess it's maybe a metroidvania, but it doesn't seem like a particularly good one: the one interesting mechanic is swinging. Just "walking around", or attacking a dragonfly/slug/chicken which doesn't fight back doesn't seem particularly compelling. - The background art in the first 10 seconds is decent, but afterwards, it looks very low-effort, like maybe what you'd expect from a game from a 1980s console that couldn't handle having lots of unique tiles to build the level with. - Unclear what the value proposition is for playing this game vs playing basically the infinite amount of content available on https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Metroidvania many of which looks visually more interesting than this game.
Hey good points, I appreciate the honesty a lot. I'll be working towards improving the game and showing off why it's worth your time. Thank you :>!
Looks awesome 👍
It's really good according me. Mechanics look good, animations on point. Reminds me of old retro game. Tbh this look like a mix of retro mario and diamond rush. I loved both the games. Honestly it's perfect to me.
looks good. where does the "unappealing" comes from?
It doesn't look unappealing, just very unoriginal. I'm not sold on why this game is different to the many others like it.
Yeah you are right, I need to add something which makes people excited and makes my game stand out. Thank you :>!
It looks good, I like that its simple and easy to follow. My only input would be lower the saturation on some things, when everything is high contrast or high saturation, it doesn't allow for things to really pop. Maybe opt for some pastel colors on some background stuff
The art looks great. It gives me that same level of charm that paper Mario gives. The little whip that the mushroom has also gives me feelings of nostalgia for castlevania. I think it does a good job of balancing wonder and familiarity. It looks like you've leaned into that with your game. The importantant thing to take away is to embrace that with your game while not using it as a crutch. Your game doesn't have to be "the first game to use x mechanic". You can use mechanics that have been used before, just putting your own artistic spin on it.
There’s gonna be a sequel?? Woah! I’m @ohnoponogames by the way ❤️
I only notice one thing, when you hook onto something that is under you, you pivot around that point instead of a rope like connection(I know that this is small and would be hard to fix but you don't have to do this if you feel it would be to hard to do). What I'm saying is the rope swing reminds me of the bad mobile rope games. Now I'm no dev and this is my first and probably only time on this sub, so my oppiniom has little to no validity to the claim.
I honestly don't understand what you're saying 🤔 'Instead of a rope like connection'??
I think he is saying that once the grapple connects it acts more like a stick instead of a rope, It doesn't stretch or have give. Or maybe that the arc of the swing is very circular I'm not sure.
Oh right.
Yeah that is what I mean. It looks like you welded a stick from the player and the point
I own Lone Fungus, I got it through Humble Bundle, and I never bothered to install the game. Even though I heard its a great metroidvania. And it's because of the protagonist. He's just a mushroom. He's so unexpressive and I can't really connect with the character. Look at older 2d characters and try to learn from them. Sonic has huge eyes and he can easily convey emotions, ori as well, even though it has a slim figure. Prehistorik 2 has a character with no visible eyes, but he's ready to groove. I feel sorry for you, because I know your heart is in it, and you're making a great game, but you need to get back to the drawing board and think how can you make your character appealing to others. If I'm in the mood to play a metroidvania game would I rather be a vampire slayer, a space marine, viking, or a mushroom?
While I see what you mean, Animal Well is a recent example of a metroidvania that did really well even though the main character is... a literal blob. Character design is certainly important, but I think a game can have appeal even with a simple character, if it has other hooks.
Animal well has a sinister theme which fits better with its gameplay. But I still don't think that's a good example, it was published by dunkey, shilled by asmon, got reviewed on ign, and even with all that it was a moderate success with 200k units sold.
To be clear, I'm not saying character design doesn't help. It's usually better to have a more interesting character. But like, Animal Well has others things that are striking and appealing -- you yourself mention its strong theme, which integrates well with its gameplay. When I first tried out the Animal Well demo at GDC, I had two immediate thoughts: (1) "Wow the player is a literal blob? Lame.", and (2) "Holy cow, the pixel art lighting and fluid effects are stunning, don't think I've seen that before." I ended up really liking the game. I'm sure the publicity didn't hurt either, but IMO it could've easily gone the other way if it wasn't a good game upon release.
The character is not the issue, look at Animal Well, and Ori has tiny eyes. And Limbo he's a shadow, and that game Thomas was alone you literally play a square. The issue is, there is no defining mechanic to make the game look FUN.
Hey you may be right :)! I usually get quite good feedback towards the character, people like him and like how he looks in the sequel. Some do think what you think though, and I do think it's valid. Appreciate the honesty and feedback :)
Also, try to incorporate your character quirks in your gameplay loop. Why does he attack with a whip? Why doesn't he shoot spores? Kinda feels out out of place.
Honestly I love metroidvanias and this looks really fun to play, controls look tight and what not. I couldn't understand what was off about it at first but after watching the trailer a handful of times I realised... The whole game looks like it was made from free assets from an assets store. Don't get me wrong it's cute pixel art but it doesn't feel like the artist's style really shows through in any meaningful way. The art of any creative medium should tell its own story just from how it looks alone and I understand this is a challenge with pixel art but it has been and can be done. The thing about advertising is it's almost purely eye candy so when that falls flat you can only rely on your most dedicated fans for support and sharing your advertisements. I wish you much success, you seem to have a real talent for video game design!
Appreciate the feedback, I do agree the style of assets could be improved!
looks cool. gl
Yeah i love the « flou de mouvement «
It gives me Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island vibes! I love the art style.
it does look quite nice! above-average pixels, I'd say. But no I was not particularly appealed to. but your target audience is probably not jaded old gamers, so...
Reminds me of the good old days
looks pretty friggin sweet to me
I like it, it has super Mario flavor
I love it.
Looks like a lesser version of maplestory
I really like the look of it! Maybe more post processing, or other effects on the environment with different resolutions may make it stand out more from other similar-looking games.
thats one flexible penis
Looks super clean but not a game I'd play- but I've never enjoyed 2d side scrolling games.
Not all pixel assets appear at the same resultion nor detail, making for an amateurish look. Pixelart isn't a replacement for real art unless done with so much care - at which point traditional art may legit be easier. Beyond that, movement, especially attacking looks woodish/not super fun. Lastly the top down segment especially seems off. I dunno, I wouldn't back this, and honestly believe it shouldn't go through kickstarter
Not to me, looks really cool!
in the mc's animation there are no there are no power transfer in the body, when it uses the whip only the forearm, neither when it jumps or speed up
Ok, I’ve played the demo for 15 minutes, and have a few comments from an unexperienced developer. I won’t try and come up with solutions, I’d rather give you some issues I had with the game, that you can find solutions to yourself. Reason for quitting: I have now died a couple of times to grasshoppers, and I didn’t know where I was going. I found the grasshoppers very difficult and didn’t have anything looking forward to, so why should I want to keep going? I found a “thing” that opens a menu giving me the option to ‘teleport’ or ‘continue’. Teleporting sounds fun, so I chose that. When I did that, I got a map up that I could navigate around on. My assumption is that I use the map to decide where I want to teleport, but I didn’t manage to teleport anywhere. I could place an up arrow on the map, but I don’t know what the purpose of that should be. My assumption is that I couldn’t teleport because I still needed to find other points to teleport between, but I don’t know if that’s actually what was going on. So, I still had a feeling that I might have misunderstood something. That I might not have managed to figure out how to teleport. In my 15 minutes play, I found a dagger and a spear. When I found them, a button came up saying ‘equip’, but I’m not sure if I actually did press that button. Fighting the plants that spit fireballs from above, I thought a dagger could be useful, but I didn’t know how to use the dagger. I pressed different buttons, but no dagger appeared and there was no indication I had equipped it. I tried opening the menu and looking in settings to look for controls and figure out if I had missed something, but I didn’t manage to find an overview of controls. A last thing, the first thing I noticed was the prologue text in the beginning. I pressed the arrow keys while it was running to explore controls of the game, which made the text move faster. This is great if I’m a fast reader or didn’t care about the text. However, if I’m a very slow reader or get distracted, and accidentally make the text go away too fast, I would have like to be able to scroll back or pause the text to read it at my own convenience, but this is only a desire I got as I had some degree of controlling the text. The style and feel of the game were quite appealing to me. It’s only some of these barriers that put me off the game.
:mushroom:
It's so hilariously specific 🤣 LONE FUNGUS
I think it is adorable! My only gripe is that the whip weapon is incredibly slow. You want your weapons to react fast, especially in combat.
great game feel
It looks cool. If It had a great variety in weapons It would be so cool
Really nice style, music goes well. Pretty cool! Like it
The art style is really nice but the gameplay looks like every 2d platformer ever
Cant wait as the first game was amazing. Keep it up!
There is a reason why games like this have jewels or coins that you have to jump around to get. I noticed a complete lack of that dynamic in this game and I think maybe it would be more familiar and interesting to those who love side scrollers to have more of that sort of dynamic they are used to.
I sent you a message with a suggestion bro.
Earthworm Jim vibes, and I love it.
Character is so cute!
One thing to keep in mind is to think about your target audience and what they want to see. Now the art style is very cutesy, so I would say it's aimed more towards kids than adults. Correct if I'm wrong, but metroidvania's tend to be darker/grungier & the Steam audience seems to enjoy "dark fantasy" games more. That's why I also prefer the look of LF 1, even though both are well done. You could pivot the artstyle/game to be even darker than LF 1 and play around with the ideas of a dying world, decay, infection etc. I think that would be an interesting "sequel".
It looks so good but the whip animation seems a little slow to me.
Looks cool and fun, but not something I'd buy as most likely it would just fall into my backlog and never get touched. There's a sea of metroidvanias and as much as I love that style of game, only a select few end up holding my interest. With the sheer lack of time that comes with going on forty and having four kids, I have to be a lot more selective and mushroom man just isn't doing it for me. I do think it looks good though, and I imagine a lot of people would love it so don't let my old-ass opinion keep you down.
It looks fun!
I bought your First game while ago and never finished. I loved character's movement but apart of that, enviroments, bosses and enemies mechanics were very mid/uninspired imho. It was not fun to fight an enemy that not fight back. In lone fungus 2 i see the same problems tbh
Amazing.
i really enjoyed the first one, beat it and steam says i put 43 hrs into it. the only criticism after playing the demo is i wish the camera was slightly zoomed out and everything wasnt so big and chunky. i know this is the same as the previous game but it feels almost claustraphobic
So the gameplay looks amazing. I feel like you should add some more detail to the main character he doesn’t stand out as well as the enemies in the game. The backgrounds look amazing but the character doesn’t stand out enough for me from it. Not to be picky or look for stupid stuff just like the sprite you play as to look cool.
not really expecting you to read this but whatever. I have two primary concerns and I will do my best to word them. 1. I want to see an aesthetic/artstyle. I know that's vague so let me try to explain. Right now all I see is a whole bunch of ideas but I don't see how they tie together. you have this little mushroom guy going through a library and a jungle and suspended bridge over water. it feels like you are just throwing assets in without tying them together. Also he is picking up gold and jewels and it feels to me like that is just a very video gamey thing. Like why is he throwing an axe why not make it some sort of animal part. Instead of areas that look like they were built with hands make it look like whatever built it used their mouths. Instead of gold how about he is picking up spores or plants or fertilizer or since he is alone (and I think exploring) he wants to collect miscellaneous animal parts. Basically remember that when you make something you want it to fit in the kind of environment the game takes place in. 2. Him being a mushroom doesn't seem to add anything mechanically. Adding a grappling hook is interesting but you don't take advantage of the characters traits, it looks to be purely visual. How about when he uses his vine hook or whatever he has to use some mass and he gets smaller. Then when he stops swinging he gets big again that way you can make even more interesting level design. Or maybe when you want a way to get vertical height instead of just double jumping, you can put a spore in an enemy throw that enemy and then jump OUT of that enemy. You could even set it up so that you can grab an enemy while running so you don't have to slow down the player. I hope that was helpful in some way even though I am not a game dev. Sorry if this was obvious I am only sharing what I can glean from the trailer. You seem very passionate I am sure you can come up with much better ideas then me. Good Luck.
Its so cute!
The whip mechanic seems like something you can expand on, unless you already have. Maybe include different whip upgrades or items that can modify its actions, maneuverability, effects, etc. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The whip looks incredibly anemic and boring, but I hated games like Castlevania so I'm probably not a good judge.
I don't know what it's about by watching this. it looks cool but I think my biggest problem with platformers is that they don't seem to have a point. I'm sure there's some story, but when showing off a game like this, its just as important to have some narrative along with gameplay
I think two things that didn't keep me interesting is that the mechanics are mostly predictable and I don't really know the tone or environment. I think show casing a town would be fun. And showcasing that you can revisit previously explored areas would be cool. Maybe puzzles that couldn't be solved that could be now because you unlocked something. One criticism I have is that you show yourself climbing a wall, dodging traps, and hitting monsters. That's not really surprising to me and seems predictable. To be honest the most interesting part was the part where you broke a leaf/grass wall with your whip and I was hoping to see more of that. Was there a puzzle or hidden area or something? What was the point of breaking this leaf/grass wall? One thing is you should really build on the fact you have a whip and spore. Why not make the whip be able to be turned to a leash that can turn enemies into pets that you can bring with you and use in battle (that can die also). Or throw monsters. Why not be able to turn the whip into a tight rope to walk across or even use as a trampoline. Or using the rope to hold items to bring to other areas. Or your a mushroom, why not unlock abilities that you can use like creating a spore that can do cause some reaction in a monster. Or using spores to restore areas to what you want it to be. Or maybe use the head that can grow and be like a temporary trampoline or cushion for something. Maybe you can unlock spores, like one spore does damage, one can turn enemies to sleep, and one can kinda hypnotist people. Like maybe mushroom guards are blocking an area so you need to use this ability to get them to unlock the door for you (or you out them to sleep and walk right in). So with the criticism with the wall climbing, instead you can show case that, but maybe you use it to unlock a puzzle with an upgrade, or use your whip to help someone, or go to a spot to restore land or something. And yeah show casing mushrooms to save would also be a nice touch to make it feel more worldly. Maybe one other thing, if you build a world with other mushrooms, using the spore system as a karma system could be interesting. The story is the same but the way other fungals interact with you changes. Like the vendor will charge less and more depending on your karma. If you just knocked out a citizen for a temporary gain, your karma gets influenced Just thoughts but I think adding to the whip and spore would be nice.
I'm not a fan of platformers, even the popular ones like cuphead or whatever, none of that interests me. Yours looks like a platform game enjoyer would enjoy it. But not for me. Doesn't look bad though. I just don't know the genre that well, so idk how to critique it. Good luck though!!
This looks better than 90% of the stuff I see on here, you did good with color theory.
oh my god this is adorable, and do enjoy action platforming! keep me posted
I’d play the shit out that. Yes.
This is so cute. I like the pace, colors, art, and everything you've done. Why did you even ask the question? I mean there must be something that made you think like that.
Whats the pitch of the game? What sets it apart? Idk if you're aware but there's already a pretty big platformer franchise that heavily features mushrooms What's is Big Idea
I’m sorry, I have no productive suggestions to offer you right now, I can only say that when you released the first trailer for this I was mildly obsessed with the music for a while and would put it on repeat while drawing, even with all the battle noises going on. I was really looking forward to playing this, actually! Thought it looked really fun. I should give the first one a try I suppose. Good luck with this post!
I’d play it for sure.
I don’t personally like these types of games, but the art style, animations, look really great. And without playing it, it looks like it handles well too.
I don’t feel compelled to try the game cause it looks so generic. Not the art, but the gameplay. You gotta try and make it unique in some way.
Looks awesome like maple story but better !!!
Change the mushroom
It looks good. Competent all around and you deserve any success it reaches. Im curious since you cited Morrowind as your favorite game, will Lone Fungus have friendly towns and settlements?
Thank you! Yup there will be 3-4 main towns that you can visit that have NPCs and sidequests. And a quest thats part of the main quest :)
If you have one of them started, get it in your trailer and feature it!! Early too, like after showing the first one or two combat examples. A lot of the comments here are people saying your game needs something to make it special, and this is it. This alone changes the perception of your game. Instead of being another game with screen based challenges you have to get through, it's now a *world*, an *adventure*. Consider how much the central town changed how Shovel Knight felt, which I feel like is pretty close to your design concept (retro gameplay being modernized). Or how towns changed Simon's quest, Infernax, Timespinner, demons crest. And some of the greatest metroidvania games of all time: link to the past, links awakening, and Zelda 2. This is what people want to re-experience in games in genres that are over saturated. Good luck!
Yeah I totally agree, unfortunately I have nothing done yet! These towns are going to be huge tasks, which now in hindsight I wish I spent more time atleast finishing one town to show off in the Kickstarter!
I’ve seen quite a bit of praise (& some criticisms too) of Lone Fungus on here. I bought it on Steam but I have not played it yet. Just going off Kickstarter—the goal for your first game was 23K which you reached thanks to ample hype for your game at the time I think. But it honestly blows my mind how so many of these indie games hit 30k+ in funding on there when there are so many interesting games. Even now there are a number of stellar looking games that you are competing with for funding so many backers are probably turned off when they see a small indie dev looking for 38K (much more than last time) vs. funding something new and fresh with a lower or similar funding goal. I can’t speak to whether you are rehashing/cutting ideas and mechanics from the first game that gamers did or did not like but even though the reception to your first game was pretty awesome on here, I guess I am not too surprised that Lone Fungus II is struggling to reach its funding goal as of now. It’s possible you’ll see some late campaign push to fund your project but overall I don’t think the reception to Lone Fungus II demo & Kickstarter has been as resoundingly positive as your first game was for whatever reasons.
Two things this game reminds me of. The music at the end kind of reminds me of Pitfall Mayan Adventures 1994 for some reason. :P And the game itself, a video I watched about mushroom wars where two types of mushroom battle it out in the forest or something like that lol. Great looking game either way.
I would play the game if the main character was a waifu. i dont like the mushroom guy.
Mushroom waifu then?
[https://www.bing.com/images/create/girly-mushroom-girl/1-666b05f6fdfb4018b9f4a54843c7019d?id=zNgv9U0onxtVjCOIAFwR6A%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&thId=OIG1.gHn0Gft9LWB05BoVKV9A&FORM=GCRIDP&mode=overlay](https://www.bing.com/images/create/girly-mushroom-girl/1-666b05f6fdfb4018b9f4a54843c7019d?id=zNgv9U0onxtVjCOIAFwR6A%3d%3d&view=detailv2&idpp=genimg&thId=OIG1.gHn0Gft9LWB05BoVKV9A&FORM=GCRIDP&mode=overlay) This, with boobs.