Hey everyone!

I'm a game developer that's been working on a new type of platformer for the last 6 months, and I'd like to share it here. It's designed for speedrunning.

Here's a trailer of the demo: Here's my speedrun of the demo: Here's a 30 minute playthrough exploring the demo:

You can get the free demo from these sites: https://mrgrak.itch.io/lazr https://www.indiexpo.net/en/games/lazr-a-clothformer https://gamejolt.com/games/LAZR/474906

My aim here is not to advertise, but to find speedrunners that can provide feedback to improve my game. What bugs and exploits can you find? What challenges and issues do you experience when playing the game? Does input feel good? What can be improved, in your opinion?

Thanks, and I hope everyone is doing well! //mrgrak

@_mrgrak

Hi! I tried your demo. I liked the concept and graphics, and it has potential! It is basically Celeste with guns, huh?

I had many issues with the input/controls, and some with the game itself.

I will start with the menus layout:

• Keyboard layout in main menu is overall weird. Why do you have only the "K"/"L" buttons as confirm or cancel? Space, Enter and Escape should work as well.
• While inside a level, I expected Escape to open the menu, but no, only Space opens and closes it.
• (Xbox) Controller buttons in the menus were fine for me.

Overall keyboard controls: I felt very restricted in what I could do. Personally I like to use the WASD buttons for movement if my right hand is using the mouse. But if it is a keyboard-only game, then I prefer using the arrow keys for movement with my right hand, and the left hand is using action keys. I played like this for years. Using both IJKL keys and arrow keys is super uncomfortable, your hands are too close to each other. Either make several keyboard control schemes to choose from, or just let us set custom keys binding, like many games let you, and that problem is solved. I tried playing with both WASD and IJKL, which I guess was your intended control scheme, but couldn't get my mind into it.

Xbox controls for movement: So, I ditched the keyboard and moved to an Xbox controller. Here, my biggest issue was movement while dashing in the air. Using the analog stick was quickly out of the question because it felt like the character did whatever was on his mind. Using the arrows pad was better, but in some parts that require precise maneuvering (like between lasers) it still was hard to control as precisely as I wanted. Suppose you are going up, and then immediately want to stop and go right instead. You will probably move your thumb in such a way that the character will move diagonally in up-right direction for a few moments, and sometimes it's all it takes to kill you. I got the hang of it after some time, but I still died a lot of times because of dashing into wrong places, and it was frustrating.

I guess I'm more used to use a controller for 3D games, not 2D games. There are exceptions, like Rayman Legends and Super Meatboy, but there you don't need to do fast movement maneuvering in all possible directions.

Note that I liked the dash movement, it was fun, but not on my controller.

Input for other actions:

• The grab action for nets and walls didn't always worked, I think? Probably if I press it too early or too late, and it seems to happen if combined with some other fast actions like dashing or shooting at the same time.
• If you are wearing a heavier gear, the base jump height is too low, and it is hard to even start a mid-air dash because you fall back to the ground fast.
• If you fall from a platform instead of jumping off of it, sometimes it is possible to air-dash and sometimes not, don't know why. If I can't dash then I am most probably going to fall to my death.

Now for some game related stuff:

• You should probably make the training level be more accessible. I first found the boss battle, and after he pwned me several times I quit, and then started the mission 1 level, and still had to experiment with all the controls myself.
• You asked for exploits. Well, the gear you are wearing can make a HUGE difference in many places. Altering it can turn a level either into a piece of cake, a moderate challenge, or just plain impossible. I guess it is intended, yes? Having to figure out the "best" gear for each level, each with its pros and cons? It still took me some time to figure out what I was doing wrong. When doing mission 1, I actually replaced the default bulletproof armor to someting else (I think I still tried to figure out the menus). Boom, the level is almost impossible now. Didn't help that I still tried to learn the controls (withou practice from the training level) and the two ships anihilating you as soon as you fly upwards.

But when I figure this stuff out, it kinda felt like a cheap way to pass the levels, I think? For levels 1 and 2, use bullet proof. Level 3, explosion proof. Level 4, laser proof. There, you are now almost invincible. Level 4 was especially easy, you just stand in the corner and always shoot right, and the ship can't do anything.

For challenges, I used the fragile gear with extended dashes, and you can dash your way through large sections of a level, and skip some (intended?) nets/parts. As a speedrunner, not gonna complain about that one :) My overall best challenges total time was something around 54 seconds, with this way.

• At mission 5, which has a different gameplay style, the movement with my controller was much more smooth and comfortable, and it was a nice change of pace. It certainly didn't feel like fighting the controls as in the other levels (as stated above). Still don't know what to think about it in terms of speerunning, because it is an autoscroller.
• Instant respawn was very sweet, and you did it exactly how it should be.
• I liked the ingame timer, and the controller overlay that shows the buttons you are pressing at any time. I guess it will be weird if you use the keyboard, though.

Now for some overall bugs/issues regarding other stuff: (This is a free QA test at this point, isn't it)

• Challenges times are not saved if you quit from the game and go back.
• The challenges list save the LAST time you got on the level, not the FASTEST. C'mon.
• Normal levels or missions should be speedrunnable as well, I think. At least save and show their best time as well?
• After finishing a level, be it a challenge or not, the ending screen should have a "replay", "continue" and "exit" options, not just "continue". Having to continue to next level and then quit is just messy.
• If you touch a checkpoint in any level, dying returns you to the checkpoint, but also restarts the ingame timer. It should only happen if restarting from start of level.
• In the level menu, "Restart Level" actually restarts from checkpoint if you touched it. You should fix that to actually RESTART the level. And maybe add a "restart from last checkpoint" as a separate option.
• If you touch a checkpoint, quit the level, and enter the level back again, you start from the checkpoint.
• You should maybe add an option to turn in-game dialogue off. While it is not relevant to the challenges themselves, if you try to "speedrun" a story mission you will always have to go through the dialogue whenever you start, die, or restart the level.

Amazing feedback, thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time to play too! :) I agree with everything you've posted, and will work to improve the input and fix the timer issues as well. Thank you so much, it really means a lot to me!