Here's me with my constant complaining about clunky controls :P

Pressing an ability key to use active abilities is annoying in such a fast-paced game. Make the number key select the ability and the right mouse button use it instead, since the RMB doesn't do anything at the moment (it's really kind of an obvious choice, the E key is also a good option, if you need RMB for something else).

I guess my strongest recommendation would be: number key to select an ability, RMB to use the ability, E to quickly switch between current and previous selected abilities (it takes some time before you get more than two, anyway).

In the menu, differentiate active from passive abilities (and, if you go with my previous recommendation, also mark currently selected abilities). Changing the colour of the outline of the ability, for example (white for active, blue/green for passive, or something like that).

Other feedback:

I found the collisions rough sometimes, are you sure you're anticipating movement before collisions instead of bouncing off objects after colliding with them? ;) Because you should be.

Enemies with melee attacks (the weakest barbarian dudes) are a bit hard to fight with melee characters. Their attacks look kind of random, I'd suggest giving them a regular condition for making them swing their weapon and adding an AI delay (basically, when they get close to the player, they still wait 2-4 steps before attacking to give you a chance to respond).

Enemies also act weird when getting close to the player… maybe they should get timed attacks, move in to attack, and move away keep their distance from the player otherwise (unless the player explicitly runs towards them)? Something like that, anyway.

The graphics and the map feel a bit too tiny (this makes it easy to get cornered or bump into obstacles), especially since you're using zoom anyway and there are smaller resolution elements (like flowers or worms).

Corpses are hard to differentiate from enemies sometimes, make them red or turn them into skeletons, maybe? (well, skulls + bones of some sort)

At night, the player should be a light source, too (it's easy to get lost).

And finally, I'd suggest making the boundary of the level more natural, e.g. make it take place on an island surrounded by the ocean (the game style already looks Polynesian-esque, so…). This would also allow for some environmental abilities, like ones requiring water to regain health or for some special attack. The spawning portals could also be changed to something more natural, like pits or summoning totems, or enemies arriving on the island in canoes… okay, I'm starting to get crazy.*

* On second thought, that'd be fucking awesome.

So, that's it :) I like the idea and the style, the day/night survival system is really intuitive, and it feels much more fluid than the splitscreen version. Waiting for character selection.

Aaalso, you posted this blog twice. And I actually suggest keeping a single blog with all the character descriptions, editing it when you update the game, and linking to it, to keep everything in one place.

Heh, you mean this…?

@Cesque:

I only have one ability that uses the 'press to activate, click to use', Korak's 4th ability Vine. I like how it works, but I was worried for some of the skills that you'd want to activate on a twitch (Rikishi's Belly Bounce, Korak's Stomp) it would impede you. Maybe a double tap to activate and use the ability, and the default is set to the press/click functionality? I also considered moving the ability keys to somewhere else on the keyboard, maybe where the thumb of the left hand could press them (X/C/V/B). What do you think?

Definitely going to have more differentiation and information on every ability in both the menus and in-game, for sure.

You're right, the barbarians swing at roughly the same time, but only roughly. I added in some variance to their swing cooldown to maybe makes things harder to predict? But if that's impeding the game then I could take it out easily.

I also agree with making the map boundaries more natural. What I had planned initially was to make the area a 'clearing in the forest', where the bounds are more thick forestry with paths where the enemies spawn and run out of. But yeah for now it's just the black walls.

Thank you for your well-thought-out response.

@lasper

I have DEFINITELY been fucking around with online multiplayer. I'm still getting the feel for it and trying to see what works best but that's something I'd love to have here eventually. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

What do you mean by double tap?

I don't think selecting abilities with the number keys would be particularly annoying, but having to press them every time to use an ability is (in which case, any other key you have to press on the keyboard, regardless of its location, would be annoying, too).

So like, you can double tap to quick cast an ability AND can alternatively press the ability key once, and then right click to activate the ability. This way it's the best of both worlds. As you mentioned I could also add 'E' to maybe cast the last used spell? Or maybe the previous one? Then the currently selected spell would have a highlight around its box.

EDIT: Added in the 'press ability button to select, right click to use' and it works great.

Next I'll add Q and E to cycle through ability selections as well (back/next) and add the double-tap to fast activate.

Oh, okay :P

I'm still confused by what you mean by 'double tap'. Double click on the ability icon?

If that's the case, I think simply right-clicking the ability icon would be better. Left-click the icon to select, right-click anywhere afterwards to use ability, and right-click the icon to use that ability without selecting it… seems the most intuitive to me.