A downloadable game

Hey folks, thanks for checking out my project!

Helmet Head (working title) is my in development, 2D action roguelike project. This page is for me to upload test builds of the game in order to gather feeback.

You can follow me on Bluesky and/or X/Twitter if you are interested in updates on this project :)

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Current State of the project:

The game is still quite early in development. I am currently working on the first zone/biome and establishing the main combat, exploration and progression mechanics. Much of the art and audio is missing, unfinished or placeholder; and general content, such as evironmental variety, weapon and upgrade variety, enemy variety, is still quite lacking.

This little demo consists of a single level that endlessly regenerates each time you finish it. You keep all your upgrades, weapons and gold until you die, at which point you can start over from scratch.

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Feedback:

First off, all feedback is welcome, no matter how large, small or nitpicky. I want it all :D. The environmental tilemap generation is a little buggy and produces some jank at times, so no need to point that out though haha.

That said, here is a list of aspects I am particularly interested in getting feedback on at the moment:

  • Combat feel/smoothness: does the combat feel responsive and good to play? Are there any aspects that feel awkward or annoying?
  • Combat difficulty: do you find the combat too hard or easy? Does the combat ever feel unfair, or are you taking unavoidable damage?
  • Character movement: does the movement (running, jumping, rolling, climbing ladders) feel responsive? Does the movement and/or level traversal ever feel awkward or cumbersome?
  • Ranged combat: so I am considering removing ranged weapons (like the bow, staff and blunderbuss) from the game altogether. Combined with the ranged special weapon attacks and throwable objects it seems a bit like an unnecessary mechanic that dilutes the gameplay experience a bit. But I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter! Do you feel the ranged weapons add enough fun/variety to the game, or would it be better if they were removed?
  • Fun: is the gameplay overall (considering the lack of content) fun?

You can leave feedback using the discussion forum at the bottom of the page, email me at hedgeknightdev[at]gmail.com, or contact me on Bluesky or X/Twitter using the links above.

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Instructions:

  • To run the game, download "Helmet Head Demo - V0.1.zip", extract the "Helmet Head Demo - V0.1" folder to a location of your choice, open it and run "Helmet.exe".
  • Settings file loaction: 
    • "C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Godot\app_userdata\Helmet Head\"
  • Healing: when you defeat an enemy they will drop little red orbs. These are heart fragments and will slowly restore lost health. If you are on full health, however, these fragments will start to build up new hearts. For each half heart you build up in this way, you will increase your max health.
  • Upgrades: you can find upgrades as well as new weapons in treasure chests. You can equip upgrades to your "upgrade chain" using the workbench, found at the end of each level. These upgrades are applied from left to right with each weapon strike. So upgrades that are based on "current damage" use the modified damage value of the weapon based on the upgrade's position in the chain. Upgrades that are effected by "base damage" use the weapon's base damage value, so their position in the chain has no effect.
  • Special Attacks: each weapon has a unique, powerful attack. Each time it is used, the attack must be charged up again by defeating enemies. This is indicated by the small, blue bar at the top left of the screen. When it is full the special attack can be used!

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Controls:

Controller buttons for xbox/playstation controllers respectively (would recommend a controller if you have one):

  • Left stick to move (left stick up to start climbing a ladder).
  • Right stick down to look down.
  • A / X to jump/double jump.
  • X / square to attack.
  • Y / triangle to use the weapon's special attack.
  • RB / R1 to interact (pick up items, use the workbench etc).
  • B / circle to roll (the roll has iFrames), and drop off ladders.
  • Hold left trigger to pull out your ranged weapon. Use right stick to aim, and right trigger to fire.
  • Start / options button to open the pause menu.
  • Back / create button to view the stats of a weapon that's lying on the ground.

I haven't tested out the game with other controllers, so I'm not sure how these mappings will work in such cases. Would be happy to hear of any issues though!

Keyboard controls:

  • WASD to move.
  • W to climb ladders.
  • Space bar to jump/double jump.
  • Left click to attack.
  • Middle click to use the weapon's special attack.
  • F to interact (pick up items, use the workbench etc).
  • Left shift to roll (the roll has iFrames), and drop off ladders.
  • Hold right click to pull out your ranged weapon. Use the mouse to aim, and left click to fire.
  • Escape to open the pause menu.
  • Q to view the stats of a weapon that's lying on the ground.

While holding an item above your head you can throw it by using the same controls as shooting.

Bag of Holding:

While holding an item above your head you can store it in the magic bag of holding. For controller, press one of the d-pad buttons to put it in the corresponding slot. These can be seen on the bottom left of the screen. To take it out of the bag, press the d-pad button for the slot you want again.
For keyboard, press the 1, 2, 3 ,4 number keys to assign it to the corresponding slot (shown on the bottom left of the screen) and take it out again.

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System Requirements:

This demo is for Windows only. I have only tested the game on my machine or more powerful ones, so I can't accurately say what the minimum requirements are other than 200mb of storage space. However it runs at 144fps with some dips (still need to work on perf) on my machine with the following specs:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 6-Core Processor  3.79 GHz
  • Ram: 16.0 GB DDR4
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER

If your PC has similar or better hardware it should run fine. If you do run into performance issues please let me know!

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Audio Attributions:

More information
Updated 1 day ago
Published 3 days ago
StatusIn development
AuthorHedge Knight Games

Download

Download
Helmet Head Demo - V0.1.zip 84 MB