Amazing game, my dude, I loved every second of it. The using-your-HP-as-projectiles is genuinely one of the most unique mechanics I've ever seen in a video game. Your world design is top notch and exploration felt super rewarding.
Only thing that I really wished for is an ingame map - would have made traversing the whole dungeon much easier. If you ever decide to work on this game a little bit more, a map would be the best QoL improvement any player could ever ask for!
(Also maybe an upgrade towards the end to reveal all missing collectibles on the ingame map - both times I've completed the game, I've finished with exactly 350 coins remaining, needing 400 to buy that last heart piece and it's been eating at me.)
Regardless, I really hope you work on more metroidvanias in the future - you're an extremely talented developer and I've fully enjoyed Blood Pressure!
absolutely top tier Metroidvania! Loved it. The exclusion of a map kinda drove me crazy near the end, one of the boss key thirds took me like 2 hours to find lol. But it added to the immersion and was super gratifying
Heyo, I have been trying for quite some time to get this to work with wine because there is no native linux download, but it doesn't at all work. So in your next update could you maybe consider releasing a linux update? I could test the linux build for you as well.
I am not a huge fan of plataform/metroidvania, but I tried anyway. After some minutes, I completly forgot about it.
It was so fun to explore. Sometimes I though that I was going to a completly different path that I was "suposed" to, but your game design was guiding me quietly. The player moviment is so precise and the blood preassure mechanic is fun to even look.
I didn't finished yet, but I'll be back to study for my future games or just to have some fun
I love the game, I find it really cool both aesthetic and from game design perspective. I think a gamepad controller option/mapping would help, cause at some points I find that keyboard controls are somehow chunky with some situations (at least for me, maybe it's a design decision, idk).
PS: I'm a former game developer and I've been wondering for a while to start learning how to use Monogame, as it's main language is C# and that's the one my degree teaches the most, soo... I was wondering if you had a devlog about the project where I could check the troubles and tips you've had and found.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the game. You can find the devlogs on the game's store page just under the download section, though they're mostly just patch notes with some design discussion.
MonoGame is great in terms of the amount of freedom it gives you to make what you want from scratch, but that also means you have to deal with some annoying technical stuff most engines would take care of for you. The default audio API in particular isn't very good, so it's recommended that you use some type of audio middleware.
If you need help getting started, I used GameFromScratch's tutorial series on YouTube. There's also plenty of documentation of the MonoGame website.
Cool, thank you, I'll take a look to that YouTube channel. Don't worry for the late response, we all have things to do daily, thanks for taking your time.
I find that having a custom engine gives me a greater degree of control, and I don't have to hunt down documentation when something goes wrong since it's all my own code. However, it can be pretty difficult building everything from scratch, so it isn't something I'd recommend for everyone.
wow you made your own motor :D I always wanted to make my own engine because game maker studios has 2 problems 1: it is not compatible with some PCs, and 2: it cracks too much, I liked the design of your game :D 100% recommended.
Hi I really enjoy the "paint" mechanic in your game and... I wanted to know if you could tell me how you accomplished that mechanic. Or at least give me a little hint.
The environment is stored as a 2D array of pixel object, which each stores its current color (black pixels are just null, with no pixel object).
When a blood drop hits a wall or passes over a pixel object in the background, the addColor(Color c) function is called on the pixel at that (x, y) coordinate.
If the pixel's current color is not c, then its color gets changed to c, thus coloring it in.
If the pixel's current color is already c, then addColor(Color c) gets called on all adjacent pixels, thus spreading the color.
(Make sure to use a set of pixels to keep track of the ones you've already visited so you don't visit the same pixels multiple times).
(You may also want to add a range to the maximum spread distance, or prevent color from spreading upwards depending on your needs).
That's the basic version of how it works. It gets more complicated if you want to add in color mixing like I have in Blood Pressure, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I should also mention that this system works well in Blood Pressure because of the simple, monochrome artstyle with a lot of negative space. IDK how well it would work with other artstyles, but feel free to experiment.
I did not complete the game cuz it was too hard, but awesome game! :D
btw pls make easy mode
I had stated a bug in a reply to a comment, hence I'm going to copy and paste it:
"I believe that it happens because he changed the settings, because I had first played the game without changing the settings, and it worked, but if I changed the settings and pressed continue (it's the same, right?) it crashed. I then changed the settings back and it worked again.
Thanks for the bug report! After reading your comment, I was finally able to fix the bug! As it turns out, it was being caused by the menu explosion effect when starting the game. If you assign jump to a button with lower case letters like "Space", the explosion effect isn't programmed to handle it. A simple one line fix. The fixed version will up shortly.
Also, thanks for suggesting an easy mode. That's definitely something I'll be looking at for the full version.
maybe there's a bug with my version but it won't keep my save file but it's no problem cause i got back to where i was and finished the game in one sitting
also half the time shooting the big spiky crusher boss thing when it's at full health doesn't do anything, maybe you could say it has armor or something but right now it's too inconsistent in both frequency and duration to say "it's a feature not a bug"
the game itself is really good, lovely music, controls not that hard to master, and i also like the concept of using up your health when attacking
Sorry to hear about the save file. I've heard some other people having problems with that, but I'm not sure what causes the issue. I cannot reproduce the bug on my end, which makes it difficult to fix.
When you go to the game folder, is there a "savedata" file? If so, what does it say inside when you open it with notepad?
Yeah, I'm just saving to the game folder itself, so I guess it might not have permission depending on where you put the folder. Not sure how to get around that :/
I think the “real” fix is to somehow look up the users AppData folder and save there instead ... not really sure how much work that is though, might not be worth it haha :P
I can't start the game. If I pressed the New Game button (after changing the controls) it exits the game. The game looks cool from what I can see from the gifs and title screen.
Sorry to hear that. I haven't run into this issue myself, so I don't 100% know what's causing it. My guess is that an error is occurring when the game attempts to save, since hitting new game creates a new save file.
Try playing the new version I just uploaded. If I'm right, it should no longer crash, though saving won't work.
Same problem. I guess the reason why the game quits is because when it creates the New Game folder, it fails to do so (because I have to much stuff on my computer) resulting with an error and when the game engine encounters an error, it closes the program. I'll delete some things and I'll tell you if it works or not. BTW how much does a new game save data take up?
I believe that it happens because he changed the settings, because I had first played the game without changing the settings, and it worked, but if I changed the settings and pressed continue (it's the same, right?) it crashed. I then changed the settings back and it worked again.
Hey, I just solved the problem! Turns out it specifically happens when setting the jump input to a key which contains lowercase letters, like "Space", since the explosion effect on the main menu wasn't programmed to handle lowercase. The new version I just uploaded should fix this issue.
It works! Thank you so much, I stopped playing at the first arena and it's great. And this fix doesn't apply to windowed mode BTW, but I like to play my games in full screen so it's not a problem to me. But thank you for fixing that.
I completed it and really liked it. Thanks for making it! Some things I'd like improved:
the spawning animation takes too long :) I am an impatient person, I want to restart as soon as I died.
don't force players to take fights for doors they opened in the past, the map is quite big, there are many places to come back to and it makes navigating the world a bit tedious
taking damage moves the character around, if there are a lot of enemies it is hard to move away and restore health, this along using your own health to shoot further promotes fighting slowly and strategically (avoid contact, restore health, shoot only when low risk) I don't want to say it is necessarily bad but at some moments I felt like I could enjoy more action and less "positioning myself in known safe spots". Maybe the fights could get more dynamic if the "damage cooldown" was removed or reduced?
I liked it. It takes a while to get used to using your health as a weapon and knowing when to attack and when to run. I discovered pretty late that I could heal while rolling, game-changer.
I encountered the secret wall bug twice on the same wall (the one where you ride a "thwomp" up, seemingly trapping you), I tried from both sides.
Really nice. I loved how it seemed like a leveld game, but it was all 1 level. I'd give it an 8/10. T
heres a few problems though, let's start with the annoying controls. WHY JUST WHY, wasd would have been so much easier, also i would have loved if you could aim and shoot with the mouse, and also heal with RMB. If you don't want the mouse to be included, then at least WASD, spacebar to shoot S to heal and up arrow to aim.
My next problem is with the map. Because it's all 1 level, it gets hard to navigate (this might be a problem only i am having, sry my 1 brain cell cant handle that much). I like how it's made but a map that would gradully be unlocked while you explore would be really usefull.
One last thing, the boss fight was kind of a let down. He was predictable and there weren't a lot of other enemies in the room. There were regular arenas that were harder than the boss fight. In my opinion the whole boss fight needs a redo. It should be in a giant room, the boss should be ENORMOUS, and enemis galor. Just pure chaos. That would be a lot of fun. ž
Another thing that would be cool to add is a long room where you have to either fight loads of enemies or doge them and run trhu. Also the blocks that fall should hurt enemies. Also also an item that would restore your health/blood would be great for rooms with more enmies. Also also also, why can't I full screen the game.
All that being said the game was really fun, the music was great and on the whole, a great exprince.
Great game! The blood effect is amazing, is there any general algorithm or pseudocode to make an effect like yours? if its possible, can you give me some ideas that helped you to reach this effect? Sorry by my bad english :( and also thanks in advance :)
The environment is stored as a 2D array of pixel object, which each stores its current color (black pixels are just null, with no pixel object).
When a blood drop hits a wall or passes over a pixel object in the background, the addColor(Color c) function is called on the pixel at that (x, y) coordinate.
If the pixel's current color is not c, then its color gets changed to c, thus coloring it in.
If the pixel's current color is already c, then addColor(Color c) gets called on all adjacent pixels, thus spreading the color.
(Make sure to use a set of pixels to keep track of the ones you've already visited so you don't visit the same pixels multiple times).
(You may also want to add a range to the maximum spread distance, or prevent color from spreading upwards depending on your needs).
That's the basic version of how it works. It gets more complicated if you want to add in color mixing like I have in Blood Pressure, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I should also mention that this system works well in Blood Pressure because of the simple, monochrome artstyle with a lot of negative space. IDK how well it would work with other artstyles, but feel free to experiment.
Very fun, the idea of hurting yourself to kill enemies is very interesting. However I unfortunately got stuck on the "death from above" arena. However, I noticed a bug where if you press ESC while the screen is fading out from a death, the game soft locks on a blank screen. Also, I love the arena music.
Mac and Linux builds are definitely something I want to do for the full release! Unfortunately, I'm a solo dev without access to Mac or Linux machines to build/test on, so they will have to wait for now. I'll let you know if/when builds are available for those systems.
creative graphics mechanics reasonable but the controls need to be changed eg W, A, S, D instead of the arrows and the C could be changed by the right mouse button
Thanks for the question! The game is made with MonoGame. It's not an engine, but rather a framework which handles assets, inputs, etc. The rest is really just written by me from the ground up. I like it because it gives me a lot of freedom with how I program the game, although it does mean I have to program most of it from scratch.
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Needs a map.
I've played this game 3 times now and I'm still amazed at how much Interesting it is. Please add this game to steam :)
Amazing game, my dude, I loved every second of it. The using-your-HP-as-projectiles is genuinely one of the most unique mechanics I've ever seen in a video game. Your world design is top notch and exploration felt super rewarding.
Only thing that I really wished for is an ingame map - would have made traversing the whole dungeon much easier. If you ever decide to work on this game a little bit more, a map would be the best QoL improvement any player could ever ask for!
(Also maybe an upgrade towards the end to reveal all missing collectibles on the ingame map - both times I've completed the game, I've finished with exactly 350 coins remaining, needing 400 to buy that last heart piece and it's been eating at me.)
Regardless, I really hope you work on more metroidvanias in the future - you're an extremely talented developer and I've fully enjoyed Blood Pressure!
absolutely top tier Metroidvania! Loved it. The exclusion of a map kinda drove me crazy near the end, one of the boss key thirds took me like 2 hours to find lol. But it added to the immersion and was super gratifying
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Maybe I should've added a map, lol.
its like staring, with your eyes wide open, watching those dancing fruits on YT eat each other.
Heyo, I have been trying for quite some time to get this to work with wine because there is no native linux download, but it doesn't at all work. So in your next update could you maybe consider releasing a linux update? I could test the linux build for you as well.
I am not a huge fan of plataform/metroidvania, but I tried anyway. After some minutes, I completly forgot about it.
It was so fun to explore. Sometimes I though that I was going to a completly different path that I was "suposed" to, but your game design was guiding me quietly. The player moviment is so precise and the blood preassure mechanic is fun to even look.
I didn't finished yet, but I'll be back to study for my future games or just to have some fun
Thanks <3
EDIT: nice beginning animation btw
loved it!
great aesthetic and mechanics, and the level design is solid!
I love the game, I find it really cool both aesthetic and from game design perspective.
I think a gamepad controller option/mapping would help, cause at some points I find that keyboard controls are somehow chunky with some situations (at least for me, maybe it's a design decision, idk).
PS: I'm a former game developer and I've been wondering for a while to start learning how to use Monogame, as it's main language is C# and that's the one my degree teaches the most, soo... I was wondering if you had a devlog about the project where I could check the troubles and tips you've had and found.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the game. You can find the devlogs on the game's store page just under the download section, though they're mostly just patch notes with some design discussion.
MonoGame is great in terms of the amount of freedom it gives you to make what you want from scratch, but that also means you have to deal with some annoying technical stuff most engines would take care of for you. The default audio API in particular isn't very good, so it's recommended that you use some type of audio middleware.
If you need help getting started, I used GameFromScratch's tutorial series on YouTube. There's also plenty of documentation of the MonoGame website.
Sorry for the late response!
Cool, thank you, I'll take a look to that YouTube channel.
Don't worry for the late response, we all have things to do daily, thanks for taking your time.
I made the engine myself using the MonoGame framework: https://www.monogame.net/
I find that having a custom engine gives me a greater degree of control, and I don't have to hunt down documentation when something goes wrong since it's all my own code. However, it can be pretty difficult building everything from scratch, so it isn't something I'd recommend for everyone.
wow you made your own motor :D I always wanted to make my own engine because game maker studios has 2 problems 1: it is not compatible with some PCs, and 2: it cracks too much, I liked the design of your game :D 100% recommended.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
:D
Hi I really enjoy the "paint" mechanic in your game and...
I wanted to know if you could tell me how you accomplished that mechanic.
Or at least give me a little hint.
-Finn
Sure thing! Here's how it works:
That's the basic version of how it works. It gets more complicated if you want to add in color mixing like I have in Blood Pressure, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I should also mention that this system works well in Blood Pressure because of the simple, monochrome artstyle with a lot of negative space. IDK how well it would work with other artstyles, but feel free to experiment.
Thanks for your quick respond. I think I now know how you've done it thanks again. : )
I saw this game on the front page of itch.io and I just HAD to check it out!
It looks absolutely amazing, I must say.
I just have one bad thing to say, and that's it's too hard for me :(
Maybe can you make and easy mode plz?
Apart from that it's really just a great game.
Well done!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
Sorry about the difficulty; balance is something I'm still tweaking.
If you could tell me what you got stuck on and what was giving you the most difficulty, that would help me balance the game.
Thanks again for playing!
I think I mostly had difficulty aiming and moving at the same time.
I might just be a total noob to this type of game though, idk
If I were to make an easy mode for myself to play, I would probably just lower the health of the emenies, I think that's all I needed.
Also another idea is to maybe aim with the mouse
But it's your game though, so do your thing :)
Also I just want to say that this game looks amazing, and as a designer myself, I really appreciate it.
Okay, thanks for the feedback!
Okay, thanks for the feedback!
I realized why it didn't save, it downloaded a SEPERATE game, so I still have my game save, it's just the original version
Ah, that make sense. Thanks for letting me know!
I did not complete the game cuz it was too hard, but awesome game! :D
btw pls make easy mode
I had stated a bug in a reply to a comment, hence I'm going to copy and paste it:
"I believe that it happens because he changed the settings, because I had first played the game without changing the settings, and it worked, but if I changed the settings and pressed continue (it's the same, right?) it crashed. I then changed the settings back and it worked again.
This is just my guess, I'm no coder."
Thanks for the bug report! After reading your comment, I was finally able to fix the bug! As it turns out, it was being caused by the menu explosion effect when starting the game. If you assign jump to a button with lower case letters like "Space", the explosion effect isn't programmed to handle it. A simple one line fix. The fixed version will up shortly.
Also, thanks for suggesting an easy mode. That's definitely something I'll be looking at for the full version.
Thanks for your help!
Wow i did not think I would be helpful at all. Thx for the compliments! :D
maybe there's a bug with my version but it won't keep my save file but it's no problem cause i got back to where i was and finished the game in one sitting
also half the time shooting the big spiky crusher boss thing when it's at full health doesn't do anything, maybe you could say it has armor or something but right now it's too inconsistent in both frequency and duration to say "it's a feature not a bug"
the game itself is really good, lovely music, controls not that hard to master, and i also like the concept of using up your health when attacking
Sorry to hear about the save file. I've heard some other people having problems with that, but I'm not sure what causes the issue. I cannot reproduce the bug on my end, which makes it difficult to fix.
When you go to the game folder, is there a "savedata" file? If so, what does it say inside when you open it with notepad?
Where did you put the game folder? If it's supposed to save the game to the game folder itself, it seems like it could be a permissions issue
Yeah, I'm just saving to the game folder itself, so I guess it might not have permission depending on where you put the folder. Not sure how to get around that :/
I think the “real” fix is to somehow look up the users AppData folder and save there instead ... not really sure how much work that is though, might not be worth it haha :P
Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it!
I can't start the game. If I pressed the New Game button (after changing the controls) it exits the game. The game looks cool from what I can see from the gifs and title screen.
Sorry to hear that. I haven't run into this issue myself, so I don't 100% know what's causing it. My guess is that an error is occurring when the game attempts to save, since hitting new game creates a new save file.
Try playing the new version I just uploaded. If I'm right, it should no longer crash, though saving won't work.
Same problem. I guess the reason why the game quits is because when it creates the New Game folder, it fails to do so (because I have to much stuff on my computer) resulting with an error and when the game engine encounters an error, it closes the program. I'll delete some things and I'll tell you if it works or not. BTW how much does a new game save data take up?
It's tiny, just 5KB, so I doubt storage is the problem. Sorry, I'm really not sure what causes that issue :(
I believe that it happens because he changed the settings, because I had first played the game without changing the settings, and it worked, but if I changed the settings and pressed continue (it's the same, right?) it crashed. I then changed the settings back and it worked again.
This is just my guess, I'm no coder.
Hey, I just solved the problem! Turns out it specifically happens when setting the jump input to a key which contains lowercase letters, like "Space", since the explosion effect on the main menu wasn't programmed to handle lowercase. The new version I just uploaded should fix this issue.
It works! Thank you so much, I stopped playing at the first arena and it's great. And this fix doesn't apply to windowed mode BTW, but I like to play my games in full screen so it's not a problem to me. But thank you for fixing that.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Can you clarify what you mean by "this fix doesn't apply to windowed mode"? Is it still crashing for you in windowed mode?
Yeah
Okay, thanks for letting me know!
I Lost my save file
Sorry to hear that :(
If you tell me where you were in the game, I can recreate your save and send it to you.
It's ok I returned to where I was
linux?
My only problem is the fact that you only jump 50% of the time when you press x, but i really like the game
also when you die, the music gets really choppy and hard to listen to.
This game is amazing!
(The arenas didn't have to last that long tho)
I wish you made it whereas you can configure the controls and also make the moving crusher move 20% slower in the 3rd arena.P.S I like the game alot.
I honestly really like this game! The developer really has some talent! top for me!
Thanks :)
I completed it and really liked it. Thanks for making it! Some things I'd like improved:
Really good game ! I wait for the complet game !
I liked it. It takes a while to get used to using your health as a weapon and knowing when to attack and when to run. I discovered pretty late that I could heal while rolling, game-changer.
I encountered the secret wall bug twice on the same wall (the one where you ride a "thwomp" up, seemingly trapping you), I tried from both sides.
Really nice. I loved how it seemed like a leveld game, but it was all 1 level. I'd give it an 8/10. T
heres a few problems though, let's start with the annoying controls. WHY JUST WHY, wasd would have been so much easier, also i would have loved if you could aim and shoot with the mouse, and also heal with RMB. If you don't want the mouse to be included, then at least WASD, spacebar to shoot S to heal and up arrow to aim.
My next problem is with the map. Because it's all 1 level, it gets hard to navigate (this might be a problem only i am having, sry my 1 brain cell cant handle that much). I like how it's made but a map that would gradully be unlocked while you explore would be really usefull.
One last thing, the boss fight was kind of a let down. He was predictable and there weren't a lot of other enemies in the room. There were regular arenas that were harder than the boss fight. In my opinion the whole boss fight needs a redo. It should be in a giant room, the boss should be ENORMOUS, and enemis galor. Just pure chaos. That would be a lot of fun. ž
Another thing that would be cool to add is a long room where you have to either fight loads of enemies or doge them and run trhu. Also the blocks that fall should hurt enemies. Also also an item that would restore your health/blood would be great for rooms with more enmies. Also also also, why can't I full screen the game.
All that being said the game was really fun, the music was great and on the whole, a great exprince.
I agree with the wasd controls.
The controls was a nightmare.
Great game! The blood effect is amazing, is there any general algorithm or pseudocode to make an effect like yours? if its possible, can you give me some ideas that helped you to reach this effect? Sorry by my bad english :( and also thanks in advance :)
Sure thing! Here's how it works:
That's the basic version of how it works. It gets more complicated if you want to add in color mixing like I have in Blood Pressure, but I'll leave that up to you to figure out. I should also mention that this system works well in Blood Pressure because of the simple, monochrome artstyle with a lot of negative space. IDK how well it would work with other artstyles, but feel free to experiment.
Oh amazing. Thanks a lot! This is very useful.
Very fun, the idea of hurting yourself to kill enemies is very interesting. However I unfortunately got stuck on the "death from above" arena. However, I noticed a bug where if you press ESC while the screen is fading out from a death, the game soft locks on a blank screen. Also, I love the arena music.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll check out that bug and see if I can fix it.
I'm also stuck at arena 3
Im also stuck there :(
On the arena, not the softlock.
I honestly really like this game! The developer really has some talent!
Check out my video!
i absolutely love this game! i cant wait for the full version! :D
Great game! It is in my Top 5 of the week!
Check my video!
i played your game and it was really fun! It would help me a lot if you could check out my channel and possible subscribe! Thank you!
Brings me back sorta to the good old days of playing Megaman or Metroid on my Gameboy. Hope you ejoy the video!
So, its Metroid but instead of a hyper futuristic arm cannon you use your blood? That might be a banger.
AWESOME game <3 i want a multiplayer <3
Wow! It’s Like You Can Shoot Blood?
i would recommend if you want more feedback make a build for mac and linux
Mac and Linux builds are definitely something I want to do for the full release! Unfortunately, I'm a solo dev without access to Mac or Linux machines to build/test on, so they will have to wait for now. I'll let you know if/when builds are available for those systems.
creative graphics mechanics reasonable but the controls need to be changed eg W, A, S, D instead of the arrows and the C could be changed by the right mouse button
I agree
What engine was this made in?
Thanks for the question! The game is made with MonoGame. It's not an engine, but rather a framework which handles assets, inputs, etc. The rest is really just written by me from the ground up. I like it because it gives me a lot of freedom with how I program the game, although it does mean I have to program most of it from scratch.
Oh ok cool. Thanks for answering! The game looks fun and I cant wait to play when I get back home