Light From Within Demo

[Bucket Mouse]

Also Bucket Mouse, is your name from Link's Awakening?

Yes. There actually is not a Bucket Mouse -- the line was a reference to a bait and tackle shop in Japan called The Bucketmouth. The error is still in the Switch version.

[Mugi]

I also noticed that on my NES the hud gets cut off from the top. I was not on a CRT tv. Are these things something I need to compensate for? Would building the game around a smaller play area eliminate those problems?

the CRT thing is called overscan.
on a CRT enviroment, the edges of the screen can and will get cut off to a various degree depending on the TV used,
it is generally adviced to not use the top and bottom 8 pixels for gameplay critical information to avoid having it rendered invisible. (I.E., leave the top row of your hud empty)

[Elarath]

I also noticed that on my NES the hud gets cut off from the top. I was not on a CRT tv. Are these things something I need to compensate for? Would building the game around a smaller play area eliminate those problems?

the CRT thing is called overscan.
on a CRT enviroment, the edges of the screen can and will get cut off to a various degree depending on the TV used,
it is generally adviced to not use the top and bottom 8 pixels for gameplay critical information to avoid having it rendered invisible. (I.E., leave the top row of your hud empty)

The top row of the hud is just a border, so it is empty essentially. But I may shift the text or textbox around if there is a danger of it not being seen.

Does this same thing happen when hooked up with HDMI say with the AVS system?

[Raftronaut]

This is outstanding work

great presentation

[Elarath]

This is outstanding work

great presentation

Thank you!

[Basty]

While I understand aesthetic of the concept, using Ä as A and Ö as O is a terrible design choice especially considering european audience.
I can give you a voice clip why if you don't believe me. XD

And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

Bugs found
- A heart from bush will hurt you if you contact it before it appears on screen. This happens in a screen with a secret.
- Two hearts and a hole appears on leftmost side of the screen once in a while in dungeon. "It seems like it happens outside of the dungeon as well but with different sprites"
- Sword won't work on grass when facing up and being too close to it.
- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.

[Elarath]

And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

Bugs found
- A heart from bush will hurt you if you contact it before it appears on screen. This happens in a screen with a secret.
- Two hearts and a hole appears on leftmost side of the screen once in a while in dungeon. "It seems like it happens outside of the dungeon as well but with different sprites"
- Sword won't work on grass when facing up and being too close to it.
- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.

I'm not sure I follow...

Also, those are known bugs, but are pretty low priority until I have the rest of the mechanics working. They aren't game breaking and are more minor inconveniences, but thank you for bringing them to my attention. If by worm enemies you are referring to the ones that dig and disappear, this was more of a choice to give the player an opportunity to see what direction they are moving.

[Basty]

And good lord I thought I was having a fricking stroke when I went to heal my character. Thanks for trolling me.

I'm not sure I follow...

Sudden language change when I was reading the healing tomes.
I wasn't really expecting that 4am in the morning especially when it was already quite eye straining to read the text itself for Ä and Ö are
in alphabeth especially in scandinavian countries and has their own vocals.

- Worm enemies move sometimes after they are being attacked.

If by worm enemies you are referring to the ones that dig and disappear, this was more of a choice to give the player an opportunity to see what direction they are moving.

Yes those. Personally I think that is pretty poor design choice especially if they're only intended to hurt player when they are on above the ground.
More than often I took damage from their moving than suddenly popping up.

[dark_crow_66]

Great game play and story, but that corridor with them three blades require precise movement. Maybe if blades were slighly slower giving a little more room for errors.

[Slime Stack]

Wow, this game is very impressive. I got all the way to the spider boss before I stopped playing. I just couldn't beat him. I had a hard time telling which parts of the spider I could hit for damage. I had the same problem with the little spiders too. Maybe I'm missing something about their design or clues that indicate where to hit them. I'd have stood a better chance if the health refill respawned in the room before after each death.

The intro story scene was really touching. I was not expecting that when I booted it up. It got me invested right away. Well done.

The graphics are looking great. I love the skeleton sprites! And the colors that the NPCs wear having significance to the story is great world building!

Another thing I noticed was on the first screen you can see that little dude across the water but you can't get to him yet. Was that an homage to Dragon Quest? When you start the game you can see the Dragon Lord's Castle but can't get to it right away; I may be grasping at straws here, but that part made me smile.

I agree the font is hard to read. Some of the characters have seriffs while others don't, because of this they don't read easily next to each other. It seems like you're going for an elegant italicized text. I haven't come across any nes fonts like this that I can remember off the top of my head, but the font in Link's Awakening on Gameboy might be a good place to start. (attached below)

The difficulty spike was high as soon as I got in the basement. I had trouble with those super fast blades too. I'm playing on the AVS so there is probably some input lag, but it felt too fast. It required such precise inputs, it felt like maybe those obstacles would be better later in the game when the player is a bit better at the game.

Also, I went through the top right path before I got the shield so there is that to consider. Do you want the player to find the shield before they get to those fast death blades? Even with the shield they felt too fast imo.

Those stationary spinning blades slow down when you hit them, can you stop them completely, or are you meant to use the shield on those?

The shield was a cool new gameplay mechanic. Very cool how it will make you invincible for a few seconds, hence blocking the attacks. The sound effect that plays when using the shield is jarring at first, it sounds like the player is being hurt. I would choose a different sound effect that lets the player know straight up that they aren't being hurt.

Also, having the enemies get some invincible frames is neat. It makes the combat feel more important. It kind of reminds me of the combat system in the Secret of Mana, where you have to wait to strike your enemies. Oh yeah, I killed that super strong bat. I was hoping for a bunch of acorns but all I got was a spirit drop and I didn't even have the shield yet

I found one graphic glitch part in the dungeon. I walked to a screen on the right and got hit by a rat and got knocked back to the other screen. When I immediately went back to the rat screen there were some missing sprites on the left side of the floor. I also saw a grey heart Sprite in a wall in the dungeon, I'm not sure if that was intentional or a glitch?

The music is wonderful. Well done there also.

Good luck on the next part of your game! I'm looking forward to it!