Note: There are spoilers in this dev log. In the very unlikely case scenario that you haven't played my game as yet, stop reading this and give it a go before proceeding.

I can't believe it's been one week already since I've shown this game to the public...

Anyway, hello there, this is Kurenai.

東方雷秘儀 ～ Strike in the Holy Apex has been getting way more attention than I anticipated when it was released last week, so much that it's been able to accumulate over 250 downloads so far, which is an insane amount (and I thank you deeply for it)!

I've been experienced with GameMaker for 14 years, but I never actually bothered to show publicly any of the stuff I've created with it, not just out of insecurity but mostly because they could barely count as "games" due of gameplay unbalances and what not. I mean, I was literally a teenager when I made those games, so I barely had any grasp about the concept of quality. Years have passed, and I've finally got to develop a larger project (this game) with the intent of showing it publicly. Now that I've done so, after I've been refraining to do it for a very long while... all the reception I've got from my game's demo has been quite overwhelming to me. So much that I actually had to look away from my PC and walk outside for a couple of hours because it genuinely was too much for me to handle. Regardless, most of it has been quite useful to gather information on what needs to be polished.

With that said, I'm going to first provide a list of the most common things that were criticized from my game, which in turn also serves as a list of what should be fixed by the time the full version is out:

• Reimu feels underpowered in contrast to Marisa: This one kinda took me by surprise, considering that her damage output seemed alright during the many many, but many times I've been playtesting the stages. But then, after I gave the game another go after its release, I noticed that her damage output is almost equivalent to that of Marisa only if enemies/bosses are being hit with pinpoint precision, which... is a thing that obviously not every player is gonna think it's an optimal strategy, even after giving the game a decent number of tries. With that said, I'll make sure to adjust her attacks so they feel just as powerful as those from her magician partner.
• Enemies are tank-y: Coupled with Reimu's underpowered shots, this is a frustration that's undeniable, given that some enemies are able to escape outside the game's bounds with just a tiny sliver of health. There are also enemies which take a horrendous amount of damage to defeat, even when the player character has maxed-out power. Taking that into account, I'll be subtracting at least one fourth/fifth of their health. Coupled with the damage adjustments from the previous bullet point, I also gotta make sure the enemies don't feel too weak either.
• Lunatic difficulty is unforgiving:  Again, this was surprising to me. The stages in Lunatic difficulty were the first ones that I've created for the game, thus the ones I was playtesting the most. Even though they seemed doable in my end without the need of using the game's bullet-cancelling resources, it seems most players were strongly against it, even those who favor the harder difficulties. I even read a few comments saying that Hard mode seemed more accurate to the Lunatic mode from the official Touhou games, so yeah.

Those are the most common observations I've seen. Here are also some minor suggestions that were brought out, which may seem trivial, but are also worth considering once I resume development:

• Dialogue could use some rewriting: Not only there are a couple of barely noticeable typos, but the way the characters talk also seemed a bit robotic and out-of-character for some.
• Adjust some sound effects so they don't override the music.
• Adjust textboxes so they fit only the text shown.
• Add a button that can be held down to fast-forward dialogue.
• Clean up the UI.
• Make rare items (Bomb/Brave) more noticeable.
  
• Allow players to re-map keyboard keys in the options menu
  
• Give adjustments to the Brave mechanic, which involves doing the following:
  
  • Halt its filling behavior during dialogue.
  • Add an extra decimal to its multiplier, so players can know right away that it's increasing.
  • Increase the radius of the Brave Release, so players can be incentivized to use it as a tool for survival, since some of them felt it was "pointless" in contrast to the Bravest Release.
• Improve the pause menu: This involves not only adding buttons to restart the game and/or go to the menu quickly, but also making the manual and options accessible through it.
• Reduce the Stage 2 boss's blurring gimmick: While some people liked the uniqueness of it, others pointed out that it can be harsh to the eyes of some players.

And that's pretty much it in terms of the criticism I've got so far. Despite all these flaws, I'm very pleased that the thematic centered around Greek mythology, and the overall audiovisual presentation of the game has been receiving plenty of praise from the players.

So yeah. I wanna thank each and every person who decided to give my game a go and vocalize the stuff that they liked/disliked. I really want this to be enjoyed by as many people as possible, so I'll do everything in my power to make the full release an unforgettable experience.

As I said in the game's OMAKE file, I'll be in the need of playtesters once I resume development so I can balance the gameplay accordingly, because I definitely won't be able to please a wide player demographic if I test everything on my own. I still don't have a clear date when I'm gonna resume working on my game, but I'll write a post on that when it happens.

That's all I have to say, have an unused angry Gidapiria.

I've drawn this face as part of my workflow, but it ended up being unused in my game's demo, haha. Maybe it'll be put in use during the full game, who knows.

See ya later!