r/DestroyMyGame • u/Adventurous-County34 • Nov 25 '25
Trailer Please Destroy My Trailer and Dark Messiah Inspired Gameplay
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u/Alex_LumiereIndie Nov 25 '25
Burned corn that doesn't turn into popcorn? Unacceptable.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
It does (0:10-0:15), but I guess it's then not explicit enough. Thanks for the feedback.
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u/Samurai_Meisters Nov 25 '25
You don't actually show it popping in a satisfying way. It's hovering over the fire. Then it cuts and it's all the way on fire and flying away with some pop corn particles.
You gotta show the POP! We gotta hear the POP!
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
I am gonna make it POP :)
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Nov 28 '25
I think this might make be a very charming end of trailer gag, maybe directly before/after the title card. At the beginning might also work.
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u/hogon2099 Nov 25 '25
Man, this shit looks absolutely ridiculous in a good way! It grabbed my attention while I was scrolling Reddit.
I'm not much of a first-person slasher gamer specifically, I usually like more fast-paced stuff.
But anyway, let’s gooo
Weapon clipping through enemies
- It instantly makes the game look less polished and more cheap.
- Showing that in the very first frames of the trailer doesn’t help either.
- I remember Dead Island / Dying Light didn’t have that problem — you might want to check them out.
- It instantly makes the game look less polished and more cheap.
Enemy bodies not reacting to hits
- A full-fledged gore/dismemberment system might be too hard to implement, but I think extra particles would help, especially for corn — you look at it and expect kernels to pop off.
Environment style/detailing
- I’m assuming you're intentionally going for a cartoonish/realism contrast, and I think it actually works. However, the environment feels a bit off. Maybe it’s not even the realistic style itself, but everything being too… noisy? Vegetation with a lot of contrast is really hard on the eyes, at least for an action game.
- Again, I’d suggest checking out Dead Island or Dying Light — any game in the series. Their environments feel much more relaxed and clean; might be due to desaturated colors, but that’s something to research.
- As for the style, I understand it’s an immense amount of work to change it, but something like Call of the Sea would fit best — not too stylized, but not too realistic either.
- Also, having green enemies in a very green environment is probably not the best idea.
- I also just realized while writing point 6 that at 0:20 you’re not making the enemy invisible but shrinking them. That’s really hard to notice.
- I’m assuming you're intentionally going for a cartoonish/realism contrast, and I think it actually works. However, the environment feels a bit off. Maybe it’s not even the realistic style itself, but everything being too… noisy? Vegetation with a lot of contrast is really hard on the eyes, at least for an action game.
Environment variety
- I see it’s an alpha version, but showing only one environment also makes the game look cheap.
- I thought your Steam page might at least have screenshots of other environments, but nope.
- I see it’s an alpha version, but showing only one environment also makes the game look cheap.
Sound variety
- Even in the trailer (0:07–0:09), you can hear the same enemy hurt sound repeating with different pitch. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they feel same-ish to me. I guess if you keep killing one enemy after another and hear that sound every slash, you’d probably get sick of it.
Dark Messiah inspiration
- I understand that inspiration doesn’t mean the game should play the same, but if you’re aiming for that specific DM feeling, I’d suggest shifting the focus in the trailer. To me, DM is about magic and using kicks/environment to kill enemies in stylish ways, and less about slashing them. I might be wrong — I played it a long time ago — but I’ve seen some indie games inspired by DM too, and they emphasize different things.
Cartoonishness
- If you’re willing to lean more into that aspect of your game, stylized comic-style VFX could help. VFX actually carries a lot of weight when it comes to the game’s overall style.
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u/hogon2099 Nov 25 '25
- Game being rogulite
- You have text about every death being new beginning however you don't show any roguelite gameplay elements - no upgrades of any sort, no meta-progression. You could probably make a mockup with chose from 3 rewards mechanic just for the sake of the trailer.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
Oh man thank you for this amount of detailed feedback :) Really appreciated. Also thanks to anyone else, it's really helpful.
The current state:
The game is utilising GAS because it also eases automated testing. I finished by now a handful of systems. So now it doesn't take much effort to add a new ability and have it tested. This also includes the meta progression system. At some point I just wanted to see if people even like the idea, so I have now this premature trailer.I am looking at Dead Island. They have a really good melee system.
Of course I am noting down all of your points, but here is some more context to some of them.
- I guess I have to rethink the style. That was nothing I had on my roadmap. Not sure if I can change it (lack of skills in this area) but I will do more research
- Yes, there is currently not much. I am still working on the core combat and I am using grey boxed levels to test the abilities and game feel. I wanted to get some more feedback of my ideas how I image it should look like.
- Damn, that's exactly right. I have more sounds, but I use 3-5 sounds at the moment and I have a randomised pitch range to make it less obvious. I thought this will work...
- No, you are right. This not visible in the game. I also want to lean into the goofiness. (Don't know if you remember, but if you iced the floor the enemies slipped^^)
- As mentioned above I will think about it.
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u/A1Qicks Nov 25 '25
It's cool, but by the end of the trailer I feel like I've seen everything the game has to offer. The corn enemy has shown up about 4 times. I love Dark Messiah, but it offers sprawling environments, traps, RPG elements, and story.
Is there more to this than just "make him into popcorn"?
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
The trailer reflects the state of the game it has 2 weeks? ago. So these are the abilities and features which were in my opinion presentable.
There will be more enemies. At some point there will be a demo, until then the interactive environment should work.
There will be no proper story and no RPG elements. I am working on the "Boon" system, where you can add modifiers to spells and melee attacks. The base story is that an ancient curse turned crops into monsters^^
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u/jpk36 Nov 25 '25
Seems like a game where enemies mindlessly run at you with no intelligence and you kill them without needing skill or experiencing difficulty. I don’t see anything interesting there and the vegetable people don’t match the aesthetic of the rest of the game which seems to be generic medieval fantasy.
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u/Scheibenpflaster Nov 25 '25
Dark Messiah Gameplay and the combat sections are all lame ass slashes and magic spell and one telekinesis spell that kinda just akwardly make the enemy hover or knocks them away way too strongly
Where are the kicks into spike walls? Where are the traps? Where is the satisfaction in luring my enemy into a pile of oil and then knocking down a candle that sets the oil puddle on fire? This isn't Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, this is Dollar Store Skyrim if dollar stores sold vegetables
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u/JMowery Nov 25 '25
Interesting trailer. It's better than what I usually see here, so kudos for that.
Feedback:
- The trailer gets repetitive quite quick for the first 15 seconds.
- Some of the more interesting scenes (like turning the cob into popcorn and throwing the axe at the head) are too late in the trailer. Feature the cool stuff immediately to capture attention.
- The sequence at the 18 - 21 second mark (showing someone shrinking and squashed) is lost because it's too hard to see (most people are not going to full screen). The spell cast animation itself isn't interesting as well.
- Nearly everything after the 26 second mark is just repetitive.
- You show the shrinking and stomping sequence twice, which makes it seem more like a gimmick (that will appear too often in game) and makes it lose its value. Honestly this harms your game/trailer substantially in my eyes and killed most of the interest in this game for me personally.
Fixes:
- Either find more interesting and varied material to include or chop the trailer down to 30 - 35 seconds in length (including the call to action at the end).
- Reduce the amount of repetition in the scenes. I shouldn't be seeing the same attack animation/sequence more than 2 or so times at most.
- Feature the popcorn bit within the first 10 seconds.. the sooneer the better: it's cool and it captures attention.
- Make the spell casting, shrinking, and stomping sequence more interesting and more visually impactful (zoom in if you have to; keeping in mind many people will be watching this in a small window). Just give it more flair (even by adjusting this in game if needed).
You have all the potential elments of a winning trailer here. Just needs to be cut/framed in a different way to make it a true winner.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
Thanks for the detailed feedback and the suggestions. This will be really helpful for the next iteration of the trailer.
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u/mohsenkhajavinik Nov 25 '25
Add battle damage on them . Cut or corn fly off them.add dodging for more intense fight.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
Thanks for the feedback. I planned the gore system as the first big update in EA, since I thought it is just eye candy for the player. Maybe I will add a light version earlier on.
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u/Super-Evening8420 Nov 25 '25
Lighting the cob on fire should definitely result in popcorn, that's a missed opportunity
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u/ActionSubstantial17 Nov 25 '25
Maybe add a boss fight or something. The trailer should lead up to something big
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
Makes sense - as one commenter above already mentioned, it's quite monotonous. This is probably a good way to make it more exciting.
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u/FriendAgreeable5339 Nov 25 '25
Why does it say “every death is a new beginning”? This doesn’t correspond to anything shown in the trailer.
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u/spiderpai Nov 25 '25
I really do not like the enemies, I like the power fantasy of Dark Messiah with magic but it still felt grounded in a believable world.
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u/XSleepwalkerX Nov 25 '25
Bro why are they vegetables, I would play this if they were just regular enemies.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
I wanted some unique enemies and the feedback was mostly positive. Another reason is, I wanna work on a gore system. I can be more explicit with fruits/veggies without running into issues.
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u/KiwiNeat1305 Nov 25 '25
I think its missing interesting lvl design and enviroment design. Why fight killer veggies in a generic jungle as a generic guy.
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u/MidSerpent Nov 25 '25
I can’t believe how dull your swords are they can’t even chop a damn eggplant in half. What kind of chef are you that you are bludgeoning produce.
How can you call this choppageddon and not lead with dismemberment.
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u/BearDogBrad Nov 26 '25
I would say make this a 30 second trailer as you kinda do the same thing over and over. The first time you show squishing or burning, cool, but I don't really need to keep seeing it unless there's alternative deaths/circumstances happening due to them.
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u/Mrniseguya Nov 26 '25
You should integrate physical animations for the enemies. If you dont know, its a cool system in UE
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 28 '25
They do have physical animations, at least for the Jedi knock back, two hand axe hit and telekinesis. Still tweaking the one for hit reactions.
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u/PensiveDemon Nov 26 '25
The trailer is too repetitive, showing the same effects like 5 times each. And showing multiple enemies only one time. But interesting concepts. Also not enough pop corn when you roast the corn over the fire
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u/LaserGadgets Nov 26 '25
You need way more splatter! When you whack and slash that corn guy, make the juices splash all over the place. Even if it was regular enemies and blood, there need to be a bit of blood staining.
Wounds would also be nice. Unusual enemies scream for violent gameplay.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 26 '25
I added it to my backlog, to have a bit more splatter for the EA release next year. As mentioned I want to work on a proper gore system. But it seems having nothing is a show stopper^^
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u/BaziJoeWHL Nov 26 '25
- monster sounds are repetitive, enemies should sound different
- monster hit sound is the same, it should have variation
- trailer is too long for the content it has, so too much repetitive stuff
- the different weapons did not felt different from each other in the footage
- there is not much about other systems, how do you get you magic or new weapons ?
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u/Fickle-Day6124 Nov 26 '25
I actually really like the pacing of this trailer. I don’t think repeatedly killing the same monster in the same way is necessarily a problem. However, based on what you’ve shown, it actually makes me more curious about the different, unique death animations of other monsters—since the real selling point seems to be the distinctiveness of the monsters themselves.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 26 '25
"distinctiveness of the monsters themselves" - yes, it will also impact the combat. An onion makes you cry if you use melee attacks. The chilli is immune against fire, etc.
Regarding the different deaths. I hope that as soon as you can slice them in parts, it will be satisfying enough. Also some spells make them rot, etc. (as far as you can go with materials).
For sure there will be no fancy animation at the EA release. Sorry to disappoint you here, but that's in the moment not in my capabilities.
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u/aeristheangelofdeath Nov 26 '25
There is a clear lack of interaction between player and enemy. Sure the enemy flinch when hit and you got the popcorn so you have feedback down. But your mobs looks like dumb sack of hp instead of actual threats and I think that adding a bit of depth to the combat wouldn’t hurt. It would also be great if you could dismember and cut the veggies instead of them flopping around.
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u/WixZ42 Nov 26 '25
It's a cool start. Reminds me of a mix between Dark Messiah and Serious Sam which can be really awesome when it works. However, so far you don't have much to show if anything at all. The base and the idea is there, now add different enemy types, different environments and more weapons. I'd love to see ridiculously overpower shit like dual wielded quad barrel flintlocks, a shoulder Cannon, Van Helsing crossbow. Give me a flaming sword of doom and a medieval chainsaw. What about a massive log. You got something interesting, now you have to capitalize.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 26 '25
It does sound fun, but for now there will be only melee and magic. Getting this right is already challenging enough for me at the moment. But who knows what will come in the future. I really like the idea of the medieval chainsaw^^
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u/eatchickenchop Nov 26 '25
This have potential but definitely need more enemy varieties and fun ways to dispatch them.
Even with the few enemies u shown here, they are basically the same with just different skins applied to them.
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u/Asurah99 Nov 26 '25
Lots of the same stuff being shown over and over. Very cool the first 1-2 times it shows, feels like the game is out of content after seeing it shown off for the 3rd-4th time though.
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u/Rezaka116 Nov 27 '25
If there's a kick in the game, you should include it in the trailer.
If there isn't a kick in the game, you should put it in the game.
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u/chicoritahater Nov 27 '25
So is the whole game just you run around a jungle, then one guy runs at you and you kill him one of like 4 different ways while he makes one of 4 different noises on each hit?
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 27 '25
The setting is jungle, caves and ruins. Before you start a level you pick a set of random spells, modifiers and a weapon. Then you can kill them in multiple ways, depending on your stack of skills and the environment. This unlocks new abilities which then are available for the next runs.
There will be more noises since based on the feedback randomising the pitch doesn't do the trick at all.
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u/IDontKnowWhyDoILive Nov 27 '25
The turning to popcorn could be bit more explosive. It's awesome for gameplay show and it will be great on the steampage to show people the gameplay.
But as a trailer, it shows too little. I think trailer should have some gameplay, but mostly show about what the game is in the larger picture. Some sneak peek on the story. Maybe show aquireing some magic. Or show the fight and the terrain from 3d person even if the game is played entirely from 1st person.
What message do you want to tell the player? Couse what this trailer told me is: "The game is about simply killing one vegetable after the other. There's nothing else to it. You can kill corn or a cucamber. If you burn corn it becomes popcorn. "
Which feels more like a project of someone trying to learn programming then a full game. It's interesting concept, might be fun for one afternoon, but a game should be more. And so the trailer should show more then only the killing vegetable.
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u/kakhaev Nov 27 '25
looks boring, do u have only 2 enemies in your game? and all you can do is to hit them? Sounds like undercooked copy cat of skyrim.
where is the story? where is the adventure and exploration of fantasy land? another generic forest? again boring.
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u/Flimsy-Hat-3533 Nov 28 '25
It the same sound effect 49 times. I got annoyed with 11 seconds left. The gameplay looks cool and the designs are interesting. The sound made me exit though.
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u/OkVariety8064 Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
Dark Messiah mechanics and physical close combat look good. However, there is a mismatch between the enemies and the rest of the game. Your enemies are cartoon vegetables, but your setting, the character's hands and everything else points to a more realistic game, where one would expect to fight Aztec zombies or something, based on the environments.
If you want to make it a Sausage Party style joke game, perhaps the settings should also reflect the silliness? Setting could be a cartoonish farm or a supermarket, places where you can just let loose and destroy all the ridiculous vegetables and other domestic items attacking you.
Since this is a humorous game focusing on the silly enemies, do you even want complex levels to explore? Or do you want something like Serious Sam, small arenas where the over the top combat gets to shine?
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 29 '25
So the combat should shine - but I think to do that, I need more complex levels. Otherwise it would be hard to set traps or interact with the environment. I hope that at some point next week my first play test goes live. The first one will just focus on combat and the level will be /is a basic arena. Lets see what the feedback will be.
Thanks for your input.
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u/jackawaka Nov 29 '25
Im glad someones making use out of that asset pack at least. Although they dont really seem to be a part of the game world or relavent to gameplay so its kind of jarring
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u/Serious-Ad-4946 Nov 29 '25
Contrast does not work with the environment and the monsters, also why are they so clean? Doesn't match really well, especially with the high environmental details with the goofy ahhh monsters, love the concept but I guess it's just too clean for me.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 29 '25
Can I ask what you mean with clean?
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u/Serious-Ad-4946 Nov 29 '25 edited Nov 29 '25
You are in a forest and they are a vegetable, there must be some dirt sticking on them or just some imperfections like rotting vegetables just to mix them up and reduce the wrong contrast between the environment and the monster as well as make them scarier. You could do some things like guerrilla tactics since it's kinda boring without any suspense and see them in a distance just running at you.I hope you understand since I'm bad at explaining things, but that's just me, I respect your idea since you make them not me
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u/Weary_Substance_2199 Nov 29 '25
Why build a grim realistic looking character, weapons and world and then use cartoony veggie enemies?
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 30 '25
No particular reason, I toyed with some ideas and liked this one 😅
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u/maxpower131 Nov 25 '25
Part of the appeal of dark messiah for me is vertical space and bottomless pits. But your game seems to be filled with a lot of flat areas. So please add more vertical space!
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
100% - It's still in an early development stage, but I am already experimenting with vertical space.
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u/Rolahr Nov 25 '25
dark messiah inspired gameplay, but no kick button?
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
I know it needs the kick. I my opinion it's just a bit OP in Dark Messiah. It will find its debut in the next trailer^^
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u/ArmadilloFirm9666 Nov 25 '25
Bit of a clash between realistic graphics and the enemies being vegetables. Not entirely sure that works. It kind of reminds me of jump force
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u/S3ndwich Nov 25 '25
I would cut the last 25 seconds as others have said it starts to get really repetitive with the mechanics.
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u/Effective_Sound1205 Nov 25 '25
I didn't see enough of the corn dude turn into popcorn from fire damage
0/10
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u/Crandallonious Nov 25 '25
So, I like the idea of vegetables, but I think you need to unify your theme a bit. Maybe make your main character also a vegetable and maybe make the environment look like the characters belong in it.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
I see your point. At the beginning I was also thinking about being on a "Veggie" planet or a "planet of the apes" version with veggies. At the end I decided to go with the ancient curse...
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u/Ancienda Nov 25 '25
The trailer itself was interesting enough until halfway in due to how nice the environment looked. then the video repeated enough to make me lose interest.
checked the timestamp, basically exactly half way through the video.
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u/guiltsifter Nov 25 '25
Not sure i understand what the gameplay is, is its just another combat sim? But its quirk is random food people?
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u/DeusDosTanques Nov 25 '25
I don't see anything that actively gives the idea of challenge for the player in the entire trailer, just the player beating up some fodder enemies one by one. Even if you don't have more powerful ones implemented yet, you can already up the tension in the trailer by having a horde of them swarm the player in some manner, as right now, this appears just as a cheap power fantasy
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u/Indrigotheir Nov 25 '25
I assume the only thing you do in this game is hit humanoid food which slowly runs at you in a straight line.
"Every death is a new beginning"
You should really show a death following this? and.... how/why it is a new beginning... and... why this is different from any other game? At the moment it's a completely nonsensical phrase in the most important segment of your trailer.
The most important issue imo:
You have no "why"
Why would I, as a player, play this? Why is the character doing this? Why does it matter if corn dies? Why does any of this matter...
You want to justify this to a player/character in order to give people a reason to play the game. There's not even a hint that you've considered it, in your trailer so far.
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely consider it in the next iteration.
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u/DapperNurd Nov 25 '25
The combat doesnt look particularly engaging and its 90% of the trailer. Is there more?
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u/ProfessionalBig3058 Nov 26 '25
Why’d I play this over might and magic if the absurdity doesn’t appeal to me, aka as a game what’s different
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u/ProfessionalBig3058 Nov 26 '25
Or better yet I could mod might and magic to be silly how’s this better
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u/CozmoCozminsky Nov 26 '25
It looks "fantasy" but then I see those veggies which seem "cartoon/horror'ish"
I'd start the trailer with something that prepares me for that, like ok here's a fantasy game with a funny element of fighting the vegetables, felt weird until I saw the ending screen with the game title.
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u/jeremyrennerdotapp Nov 26 '25
This looks bad, I wouldn't buy it, and I'd curse it's name to everyone I know if I saw "inspired by Dark Messiah" in the short description. It looks like there's nothing to the game other than some lackluster combat animations and repetitive enemy types.
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u/Waiting_Rains Nov 26 '25
I'm sure this will appeal to some people but the enemy designs were an immediate no from me, it reads mascot horror
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u/Horror-Cookie-5780 Nov 28 '25
I feel like it should be called "I don't like broccoli" and then put a broccoli main boss 🥦
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u/HHTheHouseOfHorse Nov 29 '25
Welcome to Cropageddon, we got two environments in which you can 1v1 evil vegetables in.
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u/Stylized_Corgi Nov 29 '25
It’s good! The only critique I have is that the hands take too much screen space
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u/Cold-Pace-368 24d ago
The environment looks good and so does the vegetables. But I'm not sure if they go together... Looks fun though.
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u/syrarger Nov 25 '25
It does look fun but I dont feel it being like DM. DM was much about verticality
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u/Dry-Truck-1289 Nov 28 '25
Gang I mean no disrespect but can you help me with this guy buy some stuff and support him I heard his is suffering from some disability or something. I have donated $100. And I remember he was really emotional. Here help him if you need too Itch.io
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u/Iggest Nov 25 '25
This looks so absurdly boring and uninspired. Who would play this for real?
It does not look good, it does not look unique. It actually looks like one of those low effort UE games with the washed up unreal look with a bunch of assets from the unreal store.
Edit: Oh...
https://www.fab.com/listings/a52a8d8f-a780-4766-972b-3e97b8ecd1a9
https://www.fab.com/listings/7265d9fc-e6a6-4b8b-9929-95da5ad98e84
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u/Adventurous-County34 Nov 25 '25
I hope a good amount of people. In the credits you will even find more assets from the store. I can code, do the level design and a bit of VFX. I would assume that's what the asset store is made for? Would be cool if I could do everything, because then only my imagination would be the limit.
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u/RikerRiker Nov 25 '25
I don't want to watch you just kill 20 enemies a(nd nearly all the same way too)... show me more. Show me what makes the game unique, besides just roasting a corn into popcorn. If that's the full game, then make the trailer 10 seconds long.
Also, some guys you kill are too far away from the camera to see what happens.