This game looks BEAUTIFUL. So many NES homebrew have graphics as an afterthought, while this looks better than most major commercial releases. I love it!
You succeeded! I love how the terrain is lush and detailed with strong color schemes, while monsters are more subdued. Reminds me of games like Little Samson or Crystalis.
I finished the demo (beat the boss and found 1 secret room with health upgrade), and want to say really well done! A couple things I think would elevate it further (in order of importance imo):
Spend more time polishing the feel of the sword attack. Look at Zelda 1 & 3, and copy what they do. Currently it feels sluggish and unsatisfying. It is the core of the game and should feel GREAT.
NOTE: Because of this, I found that bombs were a better primary weapon, which I doubt is the intention. Since they explode on collision, they basically act as a stronger, faster sword.
Save at least the last few screens of state. Backtracking is a chore due to needing to clear blocks and enemies over again. Again, just copy Zelda 1 :)
Remove the 8 way movement on enemies. It makes them feel more random, and less predictable which makes them less fun to play. Lock them to 4 directions.
I'm not 100% sure about this, but I would consider not giving items from blowing up blocks. Because bombs are free, blocks are abundant, and rooms reset, there is very little reason to fight enemies. You can get everything you need from blowing up blocks.
Again, nice work! I'm looking forward to seeing the full game!
Definitely Zelda inspired. Neat little game. Clearly a good amount of effort went into this! If I could offer some constructive criticism for the general game design:
Making the "A" and "B" buttons alt and ctrl when using keyboard is a very odd choice. Consider picking keys that are more comfortable to use with WASD.
There are too many screens that serve no purpose besides having some obstacles and enemies on them. It makes backtracking and navigation tedious rather than exciting. Make sure every screen has a "why is this here" answer for it. For example, in the OG Zelda, every overworld screen contained something. Whether it was a secret, a shop, a dungeon, an item, or served as a biome shift. There was rarely, if ever, a screen that just had obstacles and enemies for the sake of obstacles and enemies.
Consider making obstacle destruction permanent. If you've obtained the item that allows you to bypass things like boulders, having to blow them up again every time you re-enter the screen is annoying. Edit: Actually the fact that everything resets totally softlocks you in the first dungeon.
P.S. - Is the music supposed to be an Always Sunny in Philadelphia reference? It sounds like "Dayman" hahaha
where in the first dungeon did you get soft locked? It would be useful information to know how you got stuck. Also I am still working on the overall maps and flow so layouts depicted in the demo are not final. And both ninjapad(web player) and the standalone emulator have keybinding if you do not like the button mapping you can change it how you like.
It was the room where you need to place a bomb next to a switch and quickly run past the barrier before the bomb explodes. I had figured that was how to continue through, but no matter how many bombs I placed on or near the switch it wasn't setting the switch off. It eventually worked but seemed random. So when I left the comment I assumed it was broken or perhaps bombs couldn't set off the switches. Now I understand they can, but I went back to try to replicate the issue and I did have issues with the bombs not setting off the switch, sometimes even if the bomb was directly on top of the switch.
![Knight on The Moon [NES]](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzIwMjU4NjE3LnBuZw==/original/51NOET.png)
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This game looks BEAUTIFUL. So many NES homebrew have graphics as an afterthought, while this looks better than most major commercial releases. I love it!
thank you, I wanted the game to look similar to the later year NES games.
You succeeded! I love how the terrain is lush and detailed with strong color schemes, while monsters are more subdued. Reminds me of games like Little Samson or Crystalis.
I finished the demo (beat the boss and found 1 secret room with health upgrade), and want to say really well done! A couple things I think would elevate it further (in order of importance imo):
Again, nice work! I'm looking forward to seeing the full game!
thanks for the feedback, I am still working on the flow and feel and clearing out bugs and glitches.
Hey, I hope you don't mind, but I featured Knight on the Moon in the best NES homebrew games.
I definitely don't mind. Thank You!
thanks
I loved the demo enough to force myself to stop playing towards the end of the first dungeon... can't wait for the full release!
Uhh... how do I attack on keyboard?
wow it's a great game! I would love to make games as good as yours. It's fucking crazy 🤘
Thank you!
Dayman! Ahhhh ahhhh! Fighter of the Nightman! Ahhh ahhhh!! Champion of the sun!!!
Yeah I hear some similarities.
Definitely Zelda inspired. Neat little game. Clearly a good amount of effort went into this! If I could offer some constructive criticism for the general game design:
P.S. - Is the music supposed to be an Always Sunny in Philadelphia reference? It sounds like "Dayman" hahaha
where in the first dungeon did you get soft locked? It would be useful information to know how you got stuck. Also I am still working on the overall maps and flow so layouts depicted in the demo are not final. And both ninjapad(web player) and the standalone emulator have keybinding if you do not like the button mapping you can change it how you like.
It was the room where you need to place a bomb next to a switch and quickly run past the barrier before the bomb explodes. I had figured that was how to continue through, but no matter how many bombs I placed on or near the switch it wasn't setting the switch off. It eventually worked but seemed random. So when I left the comment I assumed it was broken or perhaps bombs couldn't set off the switches. Now I understand they can, but I went back to try to replicate the issue and I did have issues with the bombs not setting off the switch, sometimes even if the bomb was directly on top of the switch.
ok thanks ill look into it.I just added a fix. The switch should work as expectedWow! Awesome.
Thank you for the demo
Enjoy!
Really enoyed the demo! Good work!
awesome thank you, hope you look forward for the full release.
Nice game!
thank you, I appreciate that. thanks for the video demonstration.
Kudos from Venezuela!
hello, hope you enjoyed the demo!