Hi guys! It was nice meeting you in person at the InfoGamer game show.
The game looks really great! I love the comic book style cut scenes, they are fantastic. The look of the game is great, it's unique and appealing.
I found the gameplay was pretty tough, it took some time to adapt to the controls. Even after gaining some muscle memory, I didn't feel I had a lot of options in shootouts. I think the biggest reason is that the aiming mode is a bit clunky. I'm not sure I like it at all, it requires complex inputs and it stops the action. You might try having the right joystick shoot immediately at the angle it was deflected. I don't like that the default shooting aims low as a way to force the player to use the aiming mode. I know you want the player to use the aiming mode and to not rush through your content, but you should also consider what is fun for the player. Killing motherf-ers is fun! Being frustrated by complex controls isn't fun. Space your content out more so the player can move more quickly without you needing to create lots more content, then you can throw more at the player and use more platformer and movement mechanics.
Also I guess reloading breaks up the action. It's frustrating to be stuck without bullets, especially when there is no cover. I'm left with no options but to duck and reload. Enemy interactions come down to shooting all my bullets and then going behind cover or crouching, reloading, then repeat. That's not a lot of options for the player and I expect would get old quickly. Give me enough tools so I always have decisions to make in combat. Combat shouldn't be super hard, especially in the beginning. It should be easy to kill everyone. The difficult can increase later, not through having few options, but by having more powerful enemies that require more care to deal with. You might experiment with the reload button reloading all 5 shots at once, instantly. Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-click-click-reload-boom-boom... It still limits the player from machine gunning everything and it gives them one extra thing to think about during combat, but it's a lot less frustrating.
I think experimenting with the extremes is good. It lets you explore crazy stuff, some of which you might like. You might be surprised at what you find fun and you can find ways to include that back into a more well balanced version.
You have platformer mechanics, you might consider doing more with movement. Maybe the player can hang from the ceiling? That may not be worth it since there isn't a lot of ceiling. You have a sort of falling hover, what if you could stay in the air for a while? Maybe you could dash out of the hover? You'd fall out of the dash. I'm thinking you see enemies shoot at you so you jump and hover to avoid the bullets, fire back, they shoot at you in the air, you dash to avoid the shots, falling the the ground, you fire again, etc. A roll or dash that is immune to bullets could be used to close the distance. Maybe enemy bullets are slow enough to be dodged, or maybe time always slows down when enemies shoot?
I think enemies having health (taking more than one bullet) might also be hurting the game's pace. There's something fun about running in and shooting 5 guys and having them all fall dead. And if you miss one, then you need to reload while the enemy retaliates. When there are 3 guys and they each take 4 bullets to kill, I can pump one full of lead and then I eat it while I reload. Instead of 3 enemies that take 4 bullets, you could send in 4x3=12 enemies which will be way more satisfying to kill.
You might think about a wider range of enemies. You don't need many different enemies, just a handful of enemies that look very distinct so the player knows what to expect/fear and that behave very differently to give the player a variety of challenges. Think about how Super Mario does it. The standard enemy sucks and fires back at you slowly and wildly, killed in one shot. A distinct version of the standard one fires at you quickly and accurately, also killed in one shot. Maybe another version is a little slower to start shooting, but empties his clip at you when he does, so you'll die from eating 5 bullets if you aren't careful. Maybe another sort of charges up or gets angry before firing a big shotgun that is very fast and does huge damage, you'd want to take him out first. Maybe a big fat enemy takes 6-8 shots to kill. Alone he isn't much challenge but he's more dangerous in a group. Maybe another enemy type doesn't shoot at all? Or maybe when it runs out of bullets it charges you? It's a western style game, so it's mandatory to have an enemy that hides (you can only see part of his hat), then pops out, shoots, and hides again. Even Contra has this, in fact look at Contra for ideas. Have a building with many windows, all empty. As you walk by, an enemy or enemies could pop out of the window and shoot at you from behind.
I think it's important to make the enemies very distinct so the player can very easily tell them apart. This lets the player develop a strategy. For that to work though, the player needs enough options during fights to keep it interesting. I guess that means either variety in movement or attacks.
At any rate, I don't mean to be overly critical. You guys have done a lot of work and the game looks really great! I think if you can find the fun in the gameplay you could really have something amazing and successful.
Here's the cowboy game I was talking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Noon_%28video_game%29
It's not a side scroller, but it's fun and it might have something interesting for you in there. Specifically the shootout between rounds is neat. If you want to play it, I suggest this remake:
http://www.istarion.de/?page_id=4#download
Ha, I see my old high scores are still there! I'm #3, see if you can beat me. 🙂
