i am happy you don;t do the wolf idea i have… i have feeling that idea does relate eat other to live idea… or vore…
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Now now, they could just be barbaric and conquerors, not everything wolf related would be vore.
Well, except for maybe some joke lines.
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A former menace perhaps, defeated and driven out of the lands? Wolf raiders certainly sound like a credible threat worth uniting over so as to usher in an age of prosperity. Kinda like the Mongol Horde.
Heh, the “Mongrel” Horde.
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If you add wolves then I will buy your game
I don’t care if it’s free! I will buy it!
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You mean like donate? Most games on itch.io are like that
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Hey everyone!
Here’s the link to the movement demo. I’m quickly posting it here without much fanfare so people can try it out. I’m taking a much needed break to get some fresh air and then I’ll make a proper write up and devlog tomorrow.
Let me know what you think!
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And on the third day, HE FUCKING ROSE!!!
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Amazing job! The wall jumping, where you can just flick left and right without needing to hit jump, was smooth as hell. Also I love how expressive the knights are! You can just hear Bird Knight thinking “Ugh, why…” when you force her to keep eating 
Also worth a shout because I know it’ll get some players: there is a bespoke “challenge area” for each knight. The Bird Knight’s challenge area is to the LEFT of a checkpoint where it looks like they can almost make a jump on the right (the sheer wall), but that’s the challenge area for the Cat Knight.
As far as I can tell there were no secret bags, just 7 x shared bags and 1 x knight-specific bag.
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I played and finished the demo with all 3 knights and then filled the survey.
Difficulty wise was alright even if I’m not a big platform games player. At the beginning I started panicking a bit when I met the first Pig Knight lmao, they’re clever, I even trapped one of them under some breakable floors that repaired, but after a couple of failed jumps he managed to escape, and I liked how they return their position if you moved them too much and escaped from them.
I loved the animations (especially small things like when you hit your head on a ceiling) and the designs of the characters.
The background and the scenery can always been improved later but are nice enough and functional.
My only real criticism in terms of graphic is the size of the sprite of the Mouse Knight, the sprite it’s either too small or the problem is the resolution that makes it pretty pixelated and ruins the amazing artwork, something very noticeable in fullscreen.
Good job, you’re creating an amazing game and I’ll buy it/donate when it will be completed! (or in a more complete state at least)
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Alright, so I forgot to put this in the survey, but I have 2 major observations:
- You’re not really rewarded for trying to stay fat after getting fat. It’s only really used for breaking platforms and tanking hits which are easier to avoid if you’re skinny. I think we should either get some reward for acquiring a bag of food at the highest weight possible, or we should have more areas that you need to be fat to enter/beat.
- The mice are considerably smaller than the other animal races, but can break platforms at the same BMI and knock out fully-armored knights just as easily. This means they are essentially Ant-Man, and yet they’re somehow the weakest of all animals when, in reality, they’re probably the most powerful. Fear the not-so-giant rat that makes all of the rules.
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I submitted a survey, but wanted to react here anyway. Overall this is already a huge improvement visually and mechanically. I missed the knights’ helmets when you showed us the new designs, but wound up liking their expressions so much I didn’t even think about it during this test. I love the weight gain and loss system and how it affects your movement throughout a level. I like the bouncy mushrooms. I Like being able to stun the pig knights. Everything feels a little more fluid and a little easier to control.
My only suggestions are:
The mouse knight is so small she’s hard on the eyes. Maybe she could be just a little smaller than the others, enough that only she could fit through certain spaces but without requiring visual strain to see her adorable model?
The bird knight’s flutter feels kind of sluggish. It doesn’t seem to start until after the peak of a jump and you fall a little no matter when you press R2, so timing seems taken out of the equation. I can’t tell if this makes it harder to use or easier, but it would feel better if you had more control, taking flight right when you press the button so that getting the most height is more up to skill.
It would feel nicer if a wall grab happened faster when you hit the direction pad, but I like the gradual slide a lot better than the burst-climbing and sliding from the original version.
Maybe weight could affect how long you stun pig knights? Add a second for each weight stage? If that doesn’t work, maybe getting a bit more reprieve when you jump on a pig knight at all weight stages could be considered, and/or slightly increase the size of the area you have to hit on top of them to stun them so you don’t feel like you definitely got them but die instead.
This is looking amazing, I can’t wait to see what’s next.
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By the way, as the bird, you can actually get up here. Climb up the first try and just fly to the left. If you’re at 1 HP, you’ll be able to make it up here. There’s nothing here, but I thought it was neat.
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It should come as no surprise that all of your feedback is making my day–I’m waiting on reading any of the surveys for now, but I do want to respond to the comments before I call it a night.
@Shugoki This is probably my favorite comment ever–thank you. Thanks for bringing up the extra observations too:
- There are a few more weight-based mechanics in the works (one being wind that affects you differently depending on your weight) that I hope will make the weight feel slightly less like a “lock & key” sort of deal, and more of an alternative approach option. The current gameplay isn’t really centered around staying fat though, since I do think the knights feel best when they’re a bit more nimble haha. My intent is for the player to move in and out of the different stages based on the obstacle.
- To try and keep in line with the game jam game, I originally had the mouse unable to break platforms, and only able to stun enemies when at the high weights. However, making levels that accommodate the three characters (soon to be four), was already a lot, and I ultimately decided to simplify things for my sake
That said, I like your all-powerful Ant-Man theory.
P.S. I do still plan to add optional collectable items, so it’s good to see you’re already exploring the outskirts of the map!
@AlexKay My roommate saw me do a literal fist pump when I read your wall-jumping comment. I was definitely nervous about how players would take to it since, in my experience, most games use the standard “press a” scheme. I am super pleased to hear you found it smooth. And I had a ton of fun making the knight’s faces–as you know, I can’t wait to get back to working on the Queens!
@Horseless_Knight Thanks for filling out the survey and providing some additional feedback here! I love your Pig Knight story–I really wanted to surprise players who were used to the unintelligent enemies from the original game with something a little more challenging! I’ll definitely take another look at my options for the Mouse since others have expressed similar thoughts about the visuals. It’s a little tricky since the sprite IS very small, but I’ll see what can be done.
@EarthboyJAK Thanks as always for the support and for the well-thought-out suggestions! As mentioned above–I’ll definitely take a look the Mouse to see what I might be able to do to improve the visuals. The Bird’s flutter does require that little bit of a dip before you are able to activate it. Visually, I liked how the drop in altitude sold the weight of the character before the flutter kicked in, but I certainly don’t want it to feel sluggish. You make some good points about the timing aspect, so I’ll make a note to take another look at that power. I had a few run-ins myself with some slippery Pig Knight hitboxes, so that’s definitely going on my to-do list–thank you!
Anyway, I’m wiped out and heading to bed, but I plan to post a thorough devlog tomorrow for anyone interested. You all are so awesome and keep me going–thanks for playing the demo!
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I found that it helps to hold the flutter button along with the jump so that she flutters at the earliest moment near the peak of her jump. Even with this there is a delay so you won’t be able to nail flutter at the peak of her jump, but it does take out the guesswork!
I know I left some feedback in the survey regarding some things but a couple more thoughts:
Re: Wooden Platforms and Weight Levels. I admit it surprised me how quickly they broke upon stepping on them. Maybe an audio cue would be useful?
Weight 1 - no effect
Weight 2 - a slight creak
Weight 3 - a crack with a slight pause, allowing the knight time to jump off, then break
Weight 4 - immediately break through, as shown in game.
Also to further help delineate the weight stages, I agree with EarthboyJAK’s comment on heavier weight = longer stun time on the pig knights (with a different audio effect for the heavier hit). A little compensation in stopping power for the loss of speed and mobility.
I also like how you bounce off the pig knights- I could see some trickier platforming challenges in the future utilising this “piggy backing”!
Edit: I might as well keep tacking on ideas to this. A thought for a Hard Mode: not only fewer checkpoints but also at the point where you cross a hazard sign, the game resets the food pickup if you die before hitting a checkpoint again. It’s easy to go though the obstacle and then die to skip having to traverse it on the way out with your prize secured. Good for speedruns, but I think a reasonable challenge should be to make it back through the obstacle unscathed.
Re: Mouse Knight, I don’t mind her small sprite (although it doesn’t look like her expression changes when she eats, unlike say the Bird Knight). It would be nice to capitalize on this small stature. Along with getting into small nooks and passages, perhaps their small stature makes it easier to shake off pursuit? Either it’s easier for pigs to lose sight of them or they can hide behind scenery, perhaps.
Adding to an earlier point about the MK’s weight, then perhaps this can be reflected in the above ideas- MK can only break a wooden platform at Weight 4, at Weight 3 the wood cracks but doesn’t break. Also, MK stuns the pigs for the least amount of time due to her small weight overall.
The combat roll is fun (my favourite thing is diving mid air at a pig knight’s head to stun 'em - pow!). To compensate for the loss of stopping power, perhaps the combal roll can be used as a dodge to safely move through baddies (short cooldown in between)? Heh, if you do dive at a baddie’s head, the extra force could confer a higher strength stun.
I feel with the MK being so physically different to the other two knights, the gameplay (particularly the combat/enemy engagement) should reflect that.
PS: Also props to the music. It’s pretty groovy!
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Hi everyone! I finished playing the demo and I have to say WOW!!! I really like the evolution you have given to the game. Really well done!
When I started playing I immediately chose my “main character” which is the mouse knight and I must say that I had a hard time playing it! Not for the gameplay but for the graphics at the beginning I struggled to see it but then I got used to it and I played without problems. Whit the other characters it was not a problem to play them. I really like the skills of all three knights.
@Roops if you have a problem with the queens do not hesitate to send us the feeding demo 
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This was well worth the wait! Such a good job on this Roops, it’s so improved in so many aspects compared to the game jam build. The 3 knights now feel really distinct from one another thanks to fleshing out their movesets just that bit more, especially the mouse knight. In the original game mouse knight felt like a slightly simplified version of the other two but with the combat roll/ air dash it’s probably my favourite one to play now!
Everything is better here from the sprites, to background, level layout, just a massive improvement. Also a lot of little things really suprised and impressed me like the knight’s changing expression when they eat at different weights or the crossbow bolts getitng stuck in terrain for a bit instead of vanishing. This is a really strong base and I’m sure it’ll feel even better when you add in the feedback from everyone and add the 4th knight.
My only major critiscism is that I struggled to pull off the cat’s shift wall jump, which may be down to me using a keyboard, but it felt awkard to do without accidentally holding down the left or right key too long and killing my momentum in the air. Other than that though everything felt great, especially the how fluid things feel at low weights compared to how heavy and plodding you are at high weights. Thanks a lot for putting so much time and care into this game, I can’t wait for the finished thing!
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@AlexKay Yes, I was holding down the R2 button mid-jump to start flying as soon as possible, which is how I became reasonably certain that I couldn’t make the power activate any earlier but also that I could count on achieving the most height possible without much fuss. I can see @Roops point about feeling the weight by letting the jump play out some arc before flying. Obviously we all like weight here 
It affects the rhythm of play a bit not to be totally in control of the timing but it isn’t major, it just means when it comes to making it over hazards or enemies while reaching platforms one has to remember they’re going to go down a little before they take off. I’d get used to it.
I can see how making lots of different things possible for different knights at different weights would be a lot. I like that the mouse can still crash through floors while heavy now like the others, even if it might not make real-world sense. @Shugoki had a point about what other rewards could be possible for remaining at the highest weight. Though some paths becoming available and gaining more health are certainly big assets (lol), I don’t think it would be too powerful to also add some stunned time to enemies you bonk for all the knights considering how hard it is to get away from them while fat. But I can also see how it would be so much more work to change the game mechanics even more for each individual knight at different weights. Making the mouse’s weight affect stunning, breaking floors and weighing-down triggers differently than the other knights sounds like a lot.
Adding to the conversation about the mouse’s size, maybe the only thing that needs to be bigger is her head? It would give her more of a cute chibi look and maybe would be a little easier than making her overall taller?
Sorry if I’m rambling, but this progress is very exciting.
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It’s amazing! I love it. The original game was a lot of fun but this really feels like a professional game. It’s challenging, and the abilities are really cool. My only issue was that the wood broke immediately even at weight 3, which felt a little odd. Still, 10/10 and I cannot wait for the full game!
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I think the enemies are too frustrating. They recover from jumping on them after only a few seconds, and the hitbox to do so is really small, which ends up with you just dying instead. I’d rather they just respawn off-screen once you’re done with the platforming puzzle stuff in the area. And the archers shoot too quickly, so if there’s more than one of them able to shoot at you it’s a huge pain to avoid. The fact that your health is limited by your weight makes it even more frustrating. I’d honestly prefer health and weight to be separate, since 90% of the time you’ll be thin which means dying in one hit no matter what.
Linking HP to weight actually creates an interesting dynamic wherein the player has to choose between having more defense so you can afford to slip up more and having more mobility to avoid everything and go through the obstacle course faster. I didn’t find the archers terribly brutal for the most part; their aim is terrible and the bolts are slower than the cat queen probably will be by the end of her campaign, so you can just run past them. If it’d help, I could record some gameplay footage of how I dealt with them.
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