Fishfat - Vore Soulslike - Hanging Pits Update OUT NOW!

[empatheticapathy]

Absolutely. Attacks are aimed either left or right, depending which direction the player last moved in. Isn't that how it works now in fact?
And if there's going to be attacks that can be aimed in other directions, you could simply bind attack directions to the numpad; ie: 4 aims left, 8 aims up, and so on.
I'd really love an all-keyboard system because using the mouse and keyboard together is super awkward. It actually started hurting my hands after a bit.

While that might work for melee attacks, some offhands are aimed with the mouse. That's why the pointer points from the position of your character. I don't think that level of aiming is replicable on a keyboard.

I'd be perfectly willing to take that loss in attack angles in exchange for not having to use the mouse. Alternatively, how about a mode where the mouse is only used for abilities like that, so if you're not using one, you can go full keyboard?

[TheZDude]

I'd be perfectly willing to take that loss in attack angles in exchange for not having to use the mouse. Alternatively, how about a mode where the mouse is only used for abilities like that, so if you're not using one, you can go full keyboard?

Alright. What buttons would you use for attacking? I'd pick J and K, myself.

[leonthegreat]

J and K would work for me too. This game is fun. I like it.

[TheFetishist]

Excellent. nice game:)

[empatheticapathy]

I'd be perfectly willing to take that loss in attack angles in exchange for not having to use the mouse. Alternatively, how about a mode where the mouse is only used for abilities like that, so if you're not using one, you can go full keyboard?

Alright. What buttons would you use for attacking? I'd pick J and K, myself.

J and K would be perfect.

[TheZDude]

I've put out a small update based on your feedback.

Thanks for trying it out, everyone.

[KittyCoco]

I gave the game a go pretty late tonight. Though I had to go to sleep before I reached gameplay. The game reached "Day 1735 as fish fat" before i alt-f4'd though. So theres that!

[111hzx]

any form to play in Android?

[TheZDude]

any form to play in Android?

No.

[Anonymous111]

any plans for player pred abilities?

[TheZDude]

any plans for player pred abilities?

Not really, besides the absorption flavor text that's already in the game.

[MomoDaMouse]

Hello! Been around longer than my profile suggests. Anyways, not why I'm here. I'm an enormous fan of Fromsoftware and Souls-likes. I've played Elden Ring, DS 1-3, Bloodbourne, Sekiro; Shadows Die Twice, Hollow Knight, Nioh, Nioh 2... the list goes on. The gameplay so far is really smooth. I was only able to get the shield and restore (unsure if their is more). I recommend pulling a from software and, like choosing your soul color (nice touch btw), am able to choose between three basic weapons in the beginning. Maybe... bubbles, shortsword, axe? Axe could do more damage but be slow, (Therefore making the blue fishes mind worth more). If you're worried about ranged being an issue given too much, maybe adding a stamina bar to ranged weapons, so you have to aim instead of just pressing buttons?

Anyways, gameplay is smooth and I like it so far. Got to the boss but haven't beaten it yet. Catfish vore scene was cool, kinda wish it lasted longer. Maybe I'm just a masochist. Some vore enemies I could recommend; snake (there's ones in the amazon that swim from land to land), Clams, Slugs, Eels, and of course different versions of generic fish. Look up Sunfish for a cool boss idea.

Auditory cues are a nice touch btw, and help a lot with finding out if you hit something or not.

[TheZDude]

...The gameplay so far is really smooth. I was only able to get the shield and restore (unsure if their is more). I recommend pulling a from software and, like choosing your soul color (nice touch btw), am able to choose between three basic weapons in the beginning. Maybe... bubbles, shortsword, axe? Axe could do more damage but be slow, (Therefore making the blue fishes mind worth more). If you're worried about ranged being an issue given too much, maybe adding a stamina bar to ranged weapons, so you have to aim instead of just pressing buttons?

There is actually a ranged weapon already in the game, in the form of an offhand. Also 5 melee weapon variants. It wouldn't be too difficult to add more, but I didn't want to reduce the satisfaction of getting a new weapon by offering a bunch up-front.

Super glad you're having fun with it, though! Makes me feel like it was worth making.

[Horatius Horatio]

I may just be bad at this, but the enemies just swarm you and the attack range of the player is pitiful. No map also makes this hard to navigate. Plus I finally found the shield and it doesn't seem to work, even after equipt.

[TheZDude]

I may just be bad at this, but the enemies just swarm you and the attack range of the player is pitiful. No map also makes this hard to navigate. Plus I finally found the shield and it doesn't seem to work, even after equipt.

Are you spamming the attack button?
What happens when you try to use the shield?

[dagar]

Thank goodness for the Sardine boss nerf. XD Near the end of it's HP, it felt like if I didn't have full charge on the shield and use it to blitz the boss, that there was just no surviving it. He was firing so fast that he was calling the next volley while he was still shooting. It's a very fun little game though with interesting implications. I can't wait to see what else you can think up with this. ^_^

[TheZDude]

Thank goodness for the Sardine boss nerf. XD Near the end of it's HP, it felt like if I didn't have full charge on the shield and use it to blitz the boss, that there was just no surviving it. He was firing so fast that he was calling the next volley while he was still shooting. It's a very fun little game though with interesting implications. I can't wait to see what else you can think up with this. ^_^

Glad to hear it, thank you.

[dagar]

For the record, I left it open while I went to work overnight. Came back to 80k days as fish fat. XD

[xtradubious]

Hey! So, I really enjoyed this, the movement felt smooth, and I especially loved the vore attack on the big fish and how the struggle game was implemented. The way the soul slowly faded and frantically clicking the bubbles was really cool, the game was aesthetically neat, and like, it actually played pretty damn well. Honestly, the boss was little bit long, but the combat had good "feel" and felt very active and that's something really hard to capture. I'm definitely going to be revisiting this game at each update.

I'm not beating this four times to try out the 4 weapons you can get at the end so I'll give my thoughts on the weapon I started with and the weapon I picked, the spear:

1. I really like how the shortsword has 3 charge levels, and how they're used for different things! Candidly though, in most situations, it was always best to use the "medium charged slash." The medium slash 1 tapped crabs and reliably pushed away the sardines. Honestly, I don't think the fully charged slash should hit crabs, I like how it's more narrow - but I might make the top of the hitbox a little bit more generous. Because, ideally, you want the medium slash to be good in some situations, and the full charged stab to be good in others. The full charged stab does NOT feel good for hitting the sardines because if they're even slightly too high they whiff over it and hit you with their charge move, so even though it one hits the sardines, it felt bad to use. The only time the full charge slash was good was against the boss, and even then, I was hitting it with the medium slash more.

2. The spear felt BAD. The light attack was the only one that could hit crabs, and it was not able to one-tap crabs. Given the attack speed of the base spear I think making it able to one tap crabs would be perfectly reasonable. Also, the fact that the second and third charge attacks had the same "forward stab" hitbox made it feel kinda bad for the same reason the full charged slash felt bad, fish being even slightly too high meant the charged spear moves whiffed. Honestly, I'd give it a little more range and make the basic attack one hit crabs because in the current game I can't picture myself ever picking it over the shortsword.

That's my main criticism and thoughts, but a couple minor things:

3. Oh, it's a little bit of a shame that the boss - at least, as far as I saw, beating it - didn't have a vore attack. You could do something really cool with the 3 heads where maybe like, after they suck you up, two of them fight over the character before 1 swallows you. You could also make them suck up from 3 directions with the 3 heads or something. It just kinda felt like a missed opportunity because I REALLY liked how the vore worked with the big green fish which made me go "oh wow I bet the boss will have a really cool vore move" but then it just had the 3 attacks.

I LOVED the 3 attacks having different tones, by the way. It made them feel super choreographed even when the boss was off-screen. That was a really great and really intuitive-to-play design choice.

4. I don't love the "transparency as health" on the player. Maybe it's just because I picked pink but it was hard to judge, in the moment, how many hits I had left. I would have loved a health bar.

5. maybe a dim glow outline when you're going to do a medium charged slash and a bright glow outline when you're going to do the full charged slash would be nice, because as it stands, the "low shoulders versus very low shoulders" was a little hard to tell.

[TheZDude]

1. I really like how the shortsword has 3 charge levels, and how they're used for different things! Candidly though, in most situations, it was always best to use the "medium charged slash."

I envisioned the medium attack was the "default" one with the fastest one being almost a punishment for not committing, or something quick to finish off a low-health opponent. Holding down the button is sort of a replacement for the stamina system that's often in these sorts of games. I can see why that doesn't make as much sense to other people, though.

2. The spear felt BAD. The light attack was the only one that could hit crabs, and it was not able to one-tap crabs. Given the attack speed of the base spear I think making it able to one tap crabs would be perfectly reasonable. Also, the fact that the second and third charge attacks had the same "forward stab" hitbox made it feel kinda bad for the same reason the full charged slash felt bad, fish being even slightly too high meant the charged spear moves whiffed. Honestly, I'd give it a little more range and make the basic attack one hit crabs because in the current game I can't picture myself ever picking it over the shortsword.

The spear is a weird one, I'll admit. Its niche is a relatively low-damage option that has extremely reliable knockback. The moveset is also limited by the theme. Spears are for stabbing, and very little else. I'll consider bumping up the base damage, though.

3. Oh, it's a little bit of a shame that the boss - at least, as far as I saw, beating it - didn't have a vore attack. You could do something really cool with the 3 heads where maybe like, after they suck you up, two of them fight over the character before 1 swallows you. You could also make them suck up from 3 directions with the 3 heads or something. It just kinda felt like a missed opportunity because I REALLY liked how the vore worked with the big green fish which made me go "oh wow I bet the boss will have a really cool vore move" but then it just had the 3 attacks.

I didn't give the boss a vore attack because it's not really supposed to be 3 big fish stuck together. It's a conglomeration of hundreds or thousands of souls operating in unison. The shape they take on is mostly a time consideration. Even with the relatively simple animations present currently, the time investment was pretty substantial. Those big sprites take ages to do, and it would've taken even longer if I drew each individual fish moving on its own. With that said, I probably should've just added a vore attack anyway. It's got the size and the shape for it. Maybe I'll go back and add one. I don't think it can be as complex as what you suggested, however. Sprites that big are an astronomical amount of work. Even the animations I did for the catfish took hours each.

4. I don't love the "transparency as health" on the player. Maybe it's just because I picked pink but it was hard to judge, in the moment, how many hits I had left. I would have loved a health bar.

There's already an option in the settings menu to add health bars.

5. maybe a dim glow outline when you're going to do a medium charged slash and a bright glow outline when you're going to do the full charged slash would be nice, because as it stands, the "low shoulders versus very low shoulders" was a little hard to tell.

That should be easy to do, and I bet it would look nice too.

Thanks for your feedback, mate. I'm super glad you enjoyed my game so far.