Dora Diginoid [2022 Concept version of Project Yora: Zero]

a new update? what's new?

When the demo is polished I think I'll share it, they still have too many bugs to promote it except with my friends gamedevs.

visually it's beautiful and unique, it inspires me to make my metroidvania game that I've been wanting to do.

i get link from lootboy (You can claim this reward until 04/06/2023) why i no can claim game for my account?

Zadonatil. You will succeed, full speed ahead! Cheers! :)

Is this the new "I AM RICH" App? :-D

Please Add controller support.

Donated. Cheers!!

Donated! Good luck!

This looks promising! I'm going to try it out but will definitely donate if it plays as well as it looks 😁

Are there plans to release this on GOG, Steam, XBLA, PSN, and Switch?

I tried to play this and I don't know what I'm doing. I have no idea what keys I need to press in different menus, because they are displayed as gamepad buttons even though I don't have a gamepad plugged in (or own one).

The only tutorial sign I found says to "not waste ammo" and does not explain any controls or mechanics, which are unnecessarily complicated (why is pressing A and D move you left and right if it's not a WSAD game?) and the only way to find them out is to press a key after quitting to main menu - and you have to guess which key, because like I said, it shows gamepad buttons.

You have to do that every time you want to remind yourself controls, and quitting to main menu quits your game without saving - without any warning or a dialog asking you to confirm quitting, so you can easily lose progress by accident. To jump back in back to start of the game, you are forced to sit through the unskippable intro which isn't that bad once, but after sitting through that intro like five times I was fed up.

Obviously if you don't have controls explained in-game, player will try to press buttons to test them - which here can easily waste your precious ammo. Which I did by accident, and then I was stuck on a bat enemy - as it didn't just hurt me, but physically blocked me from progression, so I couldn't even damage boost past him. I can jump over him, but he will chase me forever with no respite. Then I found another tutorial message that the door needs "10 ATOMS" (whatever they are) to open, jumped on the roof, fell through the roof into the facility walls, and fell out of the map.

It doesn't help that pressing up and down also fires weapons, wasting more ammo.

I think I'm done for now. There's makings of an amazing game here, but it definitely needs more polish. The graphical style is great, I really like the whole concept of Mega Man meets Metroid (with clear references to both) the platforming controls are responsive (weapons seem a bit clunky but I'm assuming that is because they can be upgraded later) - if you keep developing this, this can genuinely become an amazing game.

I don't want you getting discouraged by this comment, I see that it's version 0.1 - so it's pretty much an Early Access release, so it makes sense. The graphics are very polished, I especially like the pixelated rain effect, platforming feels nice, and the game is technically playable, so that's a lot for a beta.

Anyway, I wish you best of luck think maybe you should make some kind of a Discord for future development of the game? So people could help you test builds and brainstorm ideas?

Keep going! :)

Yo! Just claimed your game and sent a donation. I want you to be encouraged and stay motivated. You're very brave! I remember being this fearless as a musician when I was your age. I hope you continue to improve and achieve more success. Keep going! 😊

Hey buddy!

I saw your game in a discord and it catched my attention. So I created an account to write you some critique. First of all: I didn't played the game, and I just saw your gameplay trailer on your Youtube channel. So this whole wall of text will be written by someone who randomly searches for games. One small tip: Create two channels. One for your Dev-blogs and programming progress and one for all the random things you want to upload. This adds a little bit more professionality.

All right. I hope I don't write to much gibberish, since it's hard for me to write down my thoughts without drifting off topic. I will try to write everything chronological when i saw it.

1. It's really brave to develope a game all alone (I assume) at such young age. You have my respect! I hope you will keep programming and keep the joy :)

2. When I saw the thumbnail I recognized Mega-Man. Just as a woman. You have to decide what your character will look like, but I think it's too close to the original. Maybe Dora could loot outfits and one of these is a Mega-Man homage. Or a weapon looks like the blaster. You have creativity and you are eager. I bet you can create your own IP. Hints to other games or TV shows are nice to have, but Dora looks more like a copy of Mega-Man than an original. Other mentioned Ochako from MHA. Again: A homage to her powers would fit better. Try to implement antigrav as an ability and as a gameplay mechanic.

3. I like the start screen. The "old"  design looks cool and can create a kind of nostalgia. I like it. When the controls showed up I was a little bit disappointed. These are the basics of every flash jump'n'run. You are in an early stage of developement, and I hope you will use the other buttons aswell (R1, R2, L1, L2). E.g. activating abilities or switching items.

4. I like the water drops on the screen when it rains. It's simple and not annoying. But you should increase the FOV. It looks a little bit small and it will be hard to see where you are jumping/flying when you run down a cliff.

5. The enemies and the combat need more polishing. Again: I know it's and early stage. As my previous commentator said: let the enemies react to your attacks. Let them scream, retreat, engage again, shoot something, grab you so you have to escape with button smashing... And your standard blaster needs unlimited ammo. A small amount of damage, but when it's not possible to kill your enemies without shooting, this is your only choice. Especially when you need your other weapons against walls, buttons or special fiends.

6. Tone down the voice. it's too much. Let Dora say something when she falls down a specific hight, gets hit or when she jumps after a certain time (imagine it like "exhaution").

7. When you ran into the bat I saw to indicator for your health. It seems like you have a shield, but it would be nice to know how much of it, so you can save an item for later.

8. It seems like there is a kind of weather change? At first it was a little bit dark outside and later there is a rainbow and it was lighter! If that was not intended: Make it a feature. It would be pretty cool, as long it doesn't decrease the gameplay experience (e.g. the surrounding are too dark to see an enemy).

9. The underground facility was really interesting. Add some computers or terminals with some information to these Diginoids or what happend at Base 17. Until now I have to idea whats going on.

10. Make it more obvious when a level will end. Or write in the mission book (I hope this will be added, just as a map) that you have to return to your ship. Maybe the player wants to explore the world more or looks for secrets. It would be disappointing if you can't do that.

All in all it's a good start. But I have to tell you honestly: Until now it's just an unoriginal jump'n'run. You have ideas, but these need to be expanded a lot. The world seems  to be kind of unnatural, try to involve this in the lore. Write a small intro text before you start the mission (not just the small log, but a small explanation). Show your audience what can happen in your game. Show possible abilities, like an icebeam which stuns enemies for a small time, so you can blast them with a big attack. Light up a tree, so you burn insects quickly, slow down the Diginoid with water (since they are robots), make yourself faster with slime, so you can jump over a canyon. And maybe try to increse the whole speed of the gameplay. Until now it looks relativly slow. Give the viewer a fast pace scenario to hook them. 

Look at it like this: If Nintendo would release Super Mario Bros. in 2022 and would show World 1-1 as a gameplay trailer, nobody would care. In 1985 this was a BLAST. And since Nintendo build up their IP with new features, a kind of lore and better gameplay, they still sell a lot of copies.

I hope I could tell you what I mean. Again: A good start, but not catchy enough to be more popular, in my opinion. Look at other 2D games and take these as inspiration. Build up an idea and fill the holes with cool gameplay and features or lore. Even though this whole text sound a little bit harsh, keep up your fun with programming and gamedev and become a cool creator :)

P.S.: Keep in mind that the jumping out of your ship and shooting door really looks like Samus. Get inspiration from other games, but don't copy them.

Alright, so I played around with this for about half an hour.

I recognize that you're a younger/less experienced dev, and I will start by saying that, as such; you do have potential.  You did a great job with setting the atmosphere, I especially liked how you did the rain drops hitting the screen along with the fog and the rainbow that you have displayed in your screenshot.  ^_^

Having said that, I do have some critique I could offer; but I'd like to ask how thorough you want me to be.  I could focus solely on the "critical issues" I have with this game, or I could spell out what I believe would improve your game overall.  Either way, I hope you'll continue practicing your craft.

Good luck with your projects! This one looks great!

A well-made retro arcade game featuring a title screen with a cool scanline effect and cute 2D pixel art graphics!! Thank you for your efforts!! I have one suggestion. It would be nice to provide a small window mode in addition to the full screen mode. Then, many users seem to be able to enjoy it often on Windows. Thanks again!!

lol megaman in the ochako suit.

Thank you. It looks really nice

dora looks like ochako with the uravity suit, so pretty ♥

thank you for the freebie