Spark in the Dark

C'est SUPER !! J'ai passé pas mal d'heures sur la démo à me faire tuer et à avancer doucement, je ne l'ai pas encore fini en jouant au niveau du milieu. Merci pour cette démo du premier niveau qui est vraiment à la hauteur, c'est un très bon travail. Bonne ambiance sombre fantasy bien sombre, à trouver des indices afin de comprendre ce qui s'y passe. Des armes et des objets dans tous les sens, des passages secrets comme sur les aime, des ennemis pas faciles à ce débarrasser... bref, tout y est, il me tarde d'en découvrir plus au niveau du bestiaire. Le jeu est difficile, mais je dirais plutôt "exigeant" que difficile, et j'adore cela, et c'est parce-qu'il n'est pas facile de progresser qu'il est très intéressant. Mais une fois qu'on l'a bien pris en main, faites attention pour ne pas tomber sur un chevalet qui change à chaque nouvelle partie de place, comme pour les objets. Ce qui fait que l'on peut y jouer plusieurs fois, et ça, c'est super. Les décors sont grandioses, bien sombres, avec beaucoup d’objets et très délirés, et cela donne de la richesse et de l’immersion à l’aventure. Coté jouabilité, j'ai une grande préférence pour le chasseur, qui peut utiliser les pièges et empoisonner ses armes. Le fait de pouvoir trouver un artefact afin de pouvoir revivre et qu'il y ait peu est une très bonne idée, cela donne de la tension supplémentaire au jeu, ce qui est très appréciable et quand on est mort, et bien, on est mort et on recommence un nouveau personnage, et c'est très bien comme cela. bravo à toute l'équipe et vivement la suite :) très beau travail.

I LOVE this! Cant wait for the ability to save to be in the game. Still havent made it past the first level of the forbidden dungeon though...

Edit: FOund a bug that seriously wounded my spirit with this game. I had some badass armor, a two handed axe that did 63 damage, was killing corpse spiders and undead in two swings. Had the bronze key and went through the relevant door. An undead came out with a two handed hammer and we swung at each other at the EXACT same time. My weapon flew from my hand, fine but THEN I WAS STUCK STANDING straight up! Couldnt move, attack, or do anything at all except watch the undead kill me... It made me so sad I dont think Ill be able to give this another go for a good while.

I am looking forward for your game. The difficulty is from my point of view OK. I died many times and had to restart the game, but when you start use your brain and avoid damage, its fine. 

The atmosphere, monsters - wow, really piece of art.

What I was missing is some kind of marker, where I already was. I understand that you dont want minimap, but if you give the player Chalk fo example, so I can write something on the wall or floor, it would be amazing. 

Thank you for the demo, gold luck with finalization and launch :)

Congrats on this project. I think you're really onto something special. I've spent 29 hours testing your recent demo and it already has very polished look. Lightning sets up perfect atmosphere, combat is demanding, movement has good feel already, animations are smooth.

 I've already read some complaints about difficulty. Dont dumb this game down guys. As im sure you know, every game has its target audience. This game feels rewarding and satisfying mainly because its not easy to progress. It was great to see that every enemy can roll your toon with ease if you let it. It's a good path and I hope you go down this road with your finish product.

About combat - when I noticed its a good practice to kite spiders around, I got surprised they can attack with their back legs, too? Lol that was great, or I missed something and it was just glitch. if not, very well done.

I've never left any comment related to demo or full game, but your work deserve recognition. Good luck with future release, I'll be following.

Logan

Good day! Can you tell me if Ukrainian will be in the game? Because your studio seems to be from Poltava

After 11.9 hours I finally managed to get all ten stars on my character, super fun demo can't wait for the game.

He jugado la demo y me ha parecido increíble. Tiene un gran potencial, tiene todo lo que alguien fan del género dark fantasy podría desear. Y parece bien cargado de lore. Estoy ansioso de ver cuando estará disponible la versión completa para poder disfrutarlo. Si hay alguna fase de feedback o kickstarter estaría dispuesto a ayudar sin duda! Mucho ánimo y seguid así! 👏👏

This game is great, the atmosphere is amazing and the combat is exciting. I love that there are different subclasses of opponents with different strengths and weaknesses, and the whole design of the dungeon is top-notch.

My selling point though is the story. The combination of desolate and ruined aesthetics, showing that this dungeon once used to be an advanced society, and the scattered lore books and tablets which only hint at what might have happened to it really spark imagination and make the player terrified of what might be lurking in the next room. The fact that enemies get more horrific the more you explore also amplifies the anxiety and really makes you think: "If these creatures wiped out an entire race, what chance do I have?"

Overall this is one of the best dungeon crawlers I've played, and it's just a demo! I really hope they keep expanding upon the history of Dargoth, and I cant wait to see what monstrosities await us in the second level!

EDIT : I would advise the developers to advertise this game a bit more though. Make a subreddit, a youtube channel, anything really. It would be a real shame to see a game with such big potential fail due to not enough people hearing about it!

Is there a GoFundMe for this? This game tickles my SoulsBorne brain is such good tingly ways. Addicted to it already, and this is just a demo! I need the full game in my life already.

I downloaded this demo yesterday and played it for over 7 hours in total because it was so amazing. I always had a thing for games with brutal difficulty and dark fantasy setting. This game seems like a true spiritual successor to Diablo 1. 

Anyway, I wonder if you gonna add more armors in the game? More realistic looking heavy armor would be especially cool (you know with bascinett/houndskull helmet types and such).

Really love your work so far and I can't wait for future demos/full game release.

Hi there fellow dev!

I just played your game and I loved it. I’m definitely going to play some more, when I have some more time!

I cannot believe, I haven’t noticed this game before today. Looks like it's been out for a quite a while.

I have listed some feedback. Hope you can make good use of it.

Pros

• Great level design. Also, all the 3d models look amazing and unique.  
• The artwork is really well made. Both all the UI and the loading screen.
• All audio is spot on.
• The combat system seemed to work pretty good, and quite simple to use. This includes the tumble and speed ability too.
• Animations are top notch
• The way of resting the player, seems like a unique and good mechanic for this type of game.
• The quality of life feature, when looting an item it gets showcased if it’s an upgrade or not. That’s a big plus!

Cons

• Missing something to display the player’s health. I had no idea how much health I had.
• Way too many weapons lying around. You should remove some of those.
• Missing some additional inventory space to collect more weapons, armor etc. You could then make an option to trade or disassemble them for crafting materials. Otherwise most of the equipment lying around seems uninteresting to me.
• Unable to change mouse sensitivity. Default sensitivity is a bit high.
• Another QoL could be to automatically pick up coins when looting. Just a suggestion.

All in all, I think it’s a very good game. I’m excited to see how this game develops and I would love to play the full game, when it’s ready. Keep it up!

I also have a few questions, because I’m a little curious. 

• How many devs are on your team or are you working solo?
• Are you using Unity’s URP/HDRP?
• Do you have any plans for multiplayer play also?

First of all, I thought this was a good demo. It was engaging and the atmosphere is great. The lore is intriguing from what I've gathered. I second a save system. It would be handy to have. Is it going to be a permadeath thing or if you die, you just respawn back in a checkpoint? I actually did a video of this game for my channel. I had fun playing it overall. I can't wait for the release!

I am a developer myself and love sharing my advice or replies about a few games that look very promising. I do believe this game has alot of potential to rise in the ranks with the likes of POE, NWN, ddo, diablo, dark souls, but I honestly think this can achieve alot more altogether when compiled into a larger broader brush stroke of devoted engineering. It has all the bells and whistles to really become a unique filler gap from old to new. I think this game harkens back to NWN 1/2 in higher fidelity and that is a good thing.

Here is my advice...

I have played/researched alot(35+ yrs) of old school tsr table top rpgs and of course 2nd edition/3rd edition(wotc)aD&D/D&D , including pathfinder which this material(fantasy)is related to(not by source material I mean). Don't forget what those TTRPGS used to create the best experiences(npc encounters, scenery, traps, imagination, story and lore, good vs evil, kingdoms and empires).

Spark in the dark seems to begin this cycle...I love the randomness of equipment on the floors and corpses and the foreboding essences presented. I like the lighting dynamics as a good use of assets to generate actions/responses, the enemies and creatures have great design/animation and the combat while good needs a boost by parrying abilities and more dynamic dodging, but not too much as over imposing to much movement like in neverwinter online is to twitchy...the tighter the better I say. 

A 3-6 gig game is not big enough by todays standard seeings how most exceed 15-20+gigs of data. 

Making use of imagination to offer gothic/dark fantasy experiences devs have to delve deep into the tropes and look to other sources(sometimes) for fundemantals in order to keep the game actively interesting. Dark souls may or may ot hinder that process so becareful if delving into such genres. 

A perma death games can be modified later on to facilitate or lavish  leniant gameplay experience and still retain it's original formulae albeit turned downed system called a difficulty setting modifier(2nd, 3rd playthroughs??)

Don't forget the tools of a balanced "grind" system injected into game design as alot of players don't mind replaying levels or areas in order to "perfect" thier own characters designs...making it wholly more satisfying to some and NOT so much to others. 

A balanced leveling system with experience point to skills/perk/abilities injected into the game will create a larger intersted mass of players due to longevity as long as ever increasing amounts of content are SURE to come.

Including controller available gameplay should never be absent entirely.

More updated advice soon.....

Watched some playtime on youtube and it seemed interesting. I love souls like and difficult games. Got the demo and the vibe is amazing right away. pulls you into the darkness, love it. would like a map maybe. would love to know the control tried all my keys and only found move, journal and inventory. maybe a dodge would be nice. most enemies destroy block quickly so that seems like ill never use it. also zoom our just a little bit. it to close especially if you pull multiple enemies. also stat explanations would be great. Overall there is a lot to look forward to here, ill will be following with interest for sure.

¨Played demo on steam. Looking for best place to leave feedback. Point me in right direction if here is not appropriate.

First off, awesome concept, great visuals, feel, lore, in depth systems and mechanics. Overall very positive.

However some issues:

1) Need a save system, I cannot play this game long enough in one sitting to finish it, nor do I have the skills to do so. (Use of safe rooms and gold are my first go this for this mechanic)
2) Need context boxed to pop to better understand what things do and what they mean. ( like +2 dex, Dexterity normally means how well you can hit something, how ever int he current system I dunno if +2 is significant or not or what it truly changes about my character.)
3) Need a map system of some kind. (make it only update in the "safe room" and only readable when In light. For the looks of the map have a look at how the game "The long dark" draws it's map.)

Would love to write more detailed ideas but need a better space to do so.

I played the demo on Steam. Awesome atmosphere and gameplay! Looking forward for the final game :)