I love this game so far. The only issue I have with it is that the enemies are too hard to see occassionally, and I end up bumping into them without noticing. In addition, I do not think there is enough juice in tandem with actually killing the enemies, it doesn't feel as good as it should. So far, really great. You should definitely increase game feel with the killing, however.

Will a digital artbook featuring Val, crawlers, creatures, and other data be available on Steam?

Just want to wish you a successful completion of your game, without burning out and falling into scope creep, while having a lot of fun in the process. Seeing how this project develops is a ton of fun. Though, I'm a bit afraid that with all those suggestions from community your personal project vision might dilute.

Amo el juego :D, sus gráficos y jugabilidad son excelentes, espero que agregues más cosas como mejorar al mecha y poder tener una variedad de los mismos como también el personaje. Además de tener más selección de armamento. Este juego tiene demasiado potencial, en serio me encanta mucho, se podría decir que es mi juego favorito :)

Hello, MezzSoft!

After trying out, and subsequently, getting hooked on, Project Landsword, I want to say that absolutely adore a lot of what you have managed to make by your lonesome.

Let me start off with one thing that I can't get out of my head.

I love the design and art direction.

The art and designs of Valerie Sommers' M97A M/AC, the AM-1 Mantis F-AC, the K41A1 MBT, the WPZ.40 Minotaur AT-BR, The Grenadier Crawler(don't know what name or designation you have for it yet unfortunately), the (by the looks at least)Unmanned Attack Helo(don't know the name for that one to lol), and the VAC-3 Guardian UAV as well as the various Weapons, Weapons Systems, and Munitions of the M97A from the standard, run of the mill, but no less powerful and destructive Mark 7 Auto-Cannon, the capable Stacked Munitions Launcher and its capacity for annihilation, to the aptly described and thunderously devastating Electro-Magnetic Railgun(my most favorite weapon system in the game for obvious reasons(one of which I will expand on later)(love the fact you included the Saboted and Armatured Penetrator, you didn't need to add it, yet you did, and I love it)), to even the K5-2 Scatter Gun(Which I find quite enjoyable for the sheer width of destruction this mech-scale auto-shotgun is capable of).

Each design is unique in its own interesting ways, but what I love the most about them is the (possible)design references and inspirations from not only Sci Fi and Cyberpunk works, but real world examples of technology as well!

The fictional Spider Tank from the original 'Ghost in the Shell' 1995 movie, both the fictional and real world genetic splicing of organisms, The real world LOSAT program, Project Metalstorm, General Atomics Blitzer Railgun, Chemical Lasers like the MIRACL and COIL laser systems, the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV, the K2 Black Panther, and, most surprisingly for me(as well as quite beloved by me), the Man-Operable Quadrupedal Kuratas Mecha!

Safe to say, I absolutely adore not only the futuristic approach the game has to its world, but as well as the clear use of real world designs and technologies taken to their logical extreme in the game! Making the designs feel that much more authentic and original!

In fact, what really got me into the game was these designs, so much so, that after reading your development blogs and progress reports, as well as the article by Export Magazine(congrats on that by the way! you deserver it!), I decided to actually start drawing and designing my own art because of your work!

But i do have a couple of (personal)gripes.

I believe it would be cool to see the weapon pylons or the weapons inside them on Valeria Sommers' M97A change in appearance depending on what kind of weapon we have equipped, both inn the hanger, and in the mission, like having the pylons extend much further out or have the barrel visibly extending out with something like the Railgun, have them angle themselves up or have segmented box that angles up with the SM launcher and following the arc, and more.

You don't need to implement this at all though, I know its probably a lot harder than I think and would probably give you gray hairs, so it's up to you.

Now, the next thing I want to say I adore, is the sound design.

Missiles tearing through the air like death-seeking arrows, Kinetic Penetrators punching through the air like thunderous bolts of fury hurled by Zeus himself, the sound of breaking and failing concrete of buildings and skyscrapers as they collapse from the wave of destruction, to the deafening roar of the Vulcan as it bloats the air with Depleted Uranium.

This is phenomenal sound design, each noise unique in its own way.

Though, I feel some sounds for certain parts might need to be more punchy, more brutal, more raw, and more powerful(this is purely my bias speaking, I adore the sound design of Trepang2, each gun sounds violent and brutal, like each one wishes to eviscerate yours or your enemies body).

Now, the gameplay itself.

I love it a lot.

Its refreshing to have a simple, yet fun game and gameplay loop, that, while repetitive, is fun and can never get boring in its receptiveness(in my opinion).

Now, I know its still in development, but I cant help but say that I wish there were more mission variety.

Now, I don't mean to be mean, but I have some ideas if you'd like, all up to on how you interpret these ideas and suggestions as well as whether or not you decide to implement them.

1 - Defense

Not like the grub horde, but one where Heavy lift Cargo Helos drop wave after wave of tanks, mantis', minotaur's, and so on while you(and perhaps an ally) fend them off from some key objective(like a missile launch(yes, I know its an AC6 reference), a Space elevator, or some other object of importance could be fun, purely because i think it would be cool to see how much of a wasteland the map would be at the end of it. 

2 - Search and Destroy

Not like with the current frequent missions in the game, where you hunt down any and all enemy units and destroy them to complete the mission, Instead of doing that, have it kind of be like MISSION 7, there are specific targets on the map the player needs to destroy, after they are all destroyed, they must reach the exfil point and keep it clear of enemies and enemy fire while a dropship comes to pick the player up to complete the mission.

3 - Kill Contract

Self explanatory, go fight and ensure the destruction of a specific target. Basically a boss fight or M/AC vs M/AC fight, think it would be absolutely exhilarating and chaotic to fight an enemy that is just as capable of destruction as you, Long range Railgun fights, dodging SM Launcher barrages while laying down counter fire with the Vulcan or Autocannon, trading barrages of missiles, and so on. Also, think it could be cool to see what kind of Boss fights you can think up of or make to fight the player.

4 - Recovery/Stealing

Basically MISSION 7, though I would like to see more of it in different environments and situations. Be it recovering a crashed Aircraft , a damaged friendly M/AC, and equipment, or even just Stealing an air craft, a M/AC, and equipment the potential is great. Think it could be fun!

Now, finally...

4 - (the dreaded) Escort mission type

Now, a lot of people don't like this mission type, for understandable reasons and critiques, but I feel a lot of those reasons and critiques fall on the fact most versions of this mission type have the target of escort be practically defenseless, and even if they are capable of defending themselves, basically do it poorly. One approach that I think could work, is to have them be actually capable of standing their own, though not in a way some would think. I believe the escort should be capable of fending off any enemies that managed to slip past the player, like three or five, maybe more. Basically, have the transport be capable of fending for itself, be it by itself or because of accompanying friendly units, but (this is the difficult part)have it be balanced in such a way that the player still needs to participate in defending it.

Again, all of these mission types would be up for you, as the dev, to interpret, heck, you don't even need to listen to me, I'm just a silly guy from the interwebs just throwing in my two cents.

Now, the other part of my recommendations and suggestions.

Valerie Sommers' M97A M/AC.

Its great, and I love the unique design, but (personal bias because I am a fan of the AC(Armored Core) games)I feel like there should be more Crawlers the player can use in the game to unleash carnage, though i feel that might conflict with what has already been set up with Valerie Sommers and her being the pilot of her specific type of crawler.

So instead, I think I would instead talk about the Armor Packages that you have hinted at in the demo.

You, probably, already have heard some suggestions on this.

Lighter Armor packages that allow the M/AC to move even faster and consume less coolant when boosting(overdriving? dodging? dashing? idk), but at the cost of being much weaker in the armor department.

Heavier Armor packages that allow the M/AC to be able to take a beating and walk through a storm of bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles unscathed, but at the cost of being much heavier and slower and consuming much more coolant.

But there is potential for more... unconventional ones, that I'm sure you might have already heard of as well.

1 - ERA Plating 

causes HE munitions like HEAT tank shells, Missiles, Rockets, and so on to not be as fatal and deadly as they usually are, but at the cost of having a limited amount of times where the plate could stop those munitions.

2 - APS 

Counters any and all incoming Missiles, Rockets, and HEAT shells by either making their navigation computer malfunction(for the missiles(Soft Kill)) or shooting them out of the air(rockets and HEAT shells(Hard Kill)), but has an even lower limit of usage(for Hard Kill) compared to ERA.

3 - EMRA Plating 

Electro Magnetic Reactive Plating, where ERA focuses on countering HEAT and Missiles, EMRA focuses on kinetic penetrators and hypersonic munitions like LOSAT missiles, has a similar limited amount of uses as ERA.

4 - Composite Armor(NERA) 

works in the more classical sense of armor of taking and sustaining hits.

Now, again, these are just ideas I think would be cool to see, but its up to you, the dev, whether or not you wish to add these features and suggestions.

I won't hold it against you, I will understand because, well, not everything makes it to the final version.

Now, onto the lore, and the hinted at story.

I like your approach of, well not directly telling it to us, but I think that can only go certain distance.

I think it would be interesting to have some elements be told to us, but not in a 100% direct way.

Perhaps a comment from Valerie or the Dropship pilot as the mission starts about the defecting MDF forces or their personal feelings, grievances, and so on about them. Perhaps some comms chatter from the enemies themselves that might hint at why they defected, revolted, or decided to try and coup the Martian Government. Some comments from Valerie herself or an ally about the government, and so on.

Doesn't need to be direct, just a show of the characters and their own biases, feelings, and so on about the matter.

Could do the same with the lore as well.

Have Valerie go through a the last parts of a start up checklist as the mission begins that hints at what powers the M97A, have the dropship pilot that drops Valerie off at Chateu du Mars telling Val to make sure she's not swarmed by the grubs while jokingly and mockingly referring to the grubs with a term that hints at their Bio-Engineered nature, and more.

Or don't.

I'm not your boss, this is your game after all, lol.

Anyway, thank you for reading my long ass rambling about your game(if you did, if not, no hard feelings), hope what I wrote at least gives you some ideas!

Now, as for the rating i would give? 9/10, purely because I want more, lol.

Thanks for making this amazing project, you have inspired me to try and pursue art, Thanks again, and I hope the best for you in the future!

Please forgive me for any errors in the text as I am using a translator.

Dear Project Landsword developers, I was delighted after completing this game. True, there are still a couple of controversial points. in this comment I want to share my opinion and am not trying to insult or belittle this wonderful game.

PROS:

Perhaps we should start with the good, Project Landsword offers unique gameplay based on the possibility of COMPLETE map destruction, interesting enemies and fast-paced combat.

It is also worth mentioning that weapons in this game are not just “another way to destroy the enemy”, weapons in the game open up new tactics and play styles

CONTROVERSIAL POINTS:

The decision to combine bellows and wheels seemed extremely unusual to me. Personally, I find this extremely strange, though. Perhaps this is somehow written into the lore or maybe I just don’t understand something.

Another strange thing is physics. Sometimes the mech does not feel like a big killing machine, because this machine can be pushed by a larva or an enemy several times smaller than the player.

I would like to see the mechanic ramming or attacking the enemy, this would allow me to feel the mech as a full-fledged unit created for survival alone.

What I would really like to see in Project Landsword.

Be that as it may, Project Landsword is exactly the game I've been looking for for so long. and I hope that the game will continue to develop. Personally, I would like to see more variations of weapons, hulls and the like, as well as several classes for mechs (something like heavy, medium, light, support) and AI of allies on some missions (for example, on particularly large maps), as well as artillery weapons.

I hope my comment is not too long, thanks for your attention and good luck with the development of the game :D

i love this core,hope you add more oc guy

Hi, sorry if this translation is a bit grammatical. As a fan, or member, or whatever they call me, I'd like to offer some feedback...

Dear Project Landsword Developers,

I've been very enthusiastic about following the development of the Project Landsword "demo" and have successfully completed the game up to mission level 7, even though I'm still a beginner and don't know what awaits me in the future, especially the top-down mecha shooter concept with its focus on total destruction. I'm confident this game has great potential!

I have one specific suggestion regarding gameplay and narrative design that might improve the gameplay experience, particularly regarding our main character, Valerie Sommers:

1. Adding a Wingman Hire Feature

To reduce the feeling of Valerie Sommers fighting alone (which can often be very difficult), and to add depth and strategic elements to the gameplay, I suggest adding a feature to recruit random wingmen or AI/bot companions:

Concept: Upon completing Mission 7, players can hire additional wingmen (e.g., 1-2 units) from the male or female division, piloting regular crawler mecha.

Unit Variety: Each recruited pilot has a different division specialty or combat ability (e.g., Heavy Weapons Support, Recon & Jamming, Repair).

Cost System: Recruiting these units should have a cost in the form of in-game currency or Recruitment Points. This would add an interesting layer of resource management.

2. Damage and Pilot Safety Concept

Regarding the escort unit defeat system, I suggest a concept that reduces the overly harsh penalties to encourage players to use this feature:

Mecha Damage Only Concept: If an escort unit is defeated on the battlefield, the focus is on the total damage to the mecha, and the pilot (Wingman) successfully evacuated or ejected.

In-Game Penalty: The penalty imposed is a financial loss of -3kpoints, -5kpoints, -8kpoints (the cost of repairing the mecha is sunk), rather than the permanent loss of the pilot. This makes battles feel realistic and have financial consequences without punishing players with the loss of support characters.

With two supportive escort units alongside Valerie, battles will feel more epic and strategic, and reduce the pressure of difficulty for solo players.

I hope my suggestion from one of the game's fans will be considered and incorporated.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication in developing Landsword!

Absolutely awesome game, love how interactive and gadget-y everything feels, can't wait for harder level's and more stupidly detailed UI.

My only criticisms would be on balance:

-HE and Fire grenades feel very underwhelming, especially compared to the sheer utility and AOE of smoke, They could both use some generous range buffs. Fire from the grenade could linger a bit longer too. HE feels like a downgrade from Fire. I would personally make HE mid damage and very numerous with relatively low AOE to have it as a way to poke/finish off enemies without leaving cover +cause explosions (clears rubble and attracts NPC's) for as a damage-utility option, while having a Cluster Grenade as a more limited and dedicated AOE option.

-Stacked Launcher feels over-tuned. Great AOE, DPS and the ability to shoot over cover with minimal downsides. The last ability is most powerful, and I think the minimum range for it should be increased to the point where you have to leave yourself open if you want to shoot over a piece of cover, to make shooting over cover a choice to make rather than objectively better than leaving the cover to shoot. Also more min range means you would have to be farther from the enemy to shoot them over cover, which reduces the range at which you can SOC (shoot over cover), because enemy far away from the cover that you want to shoot over would be offscreen. I also think the reload should be longer (reloads in general should be) and firing it should alert the enemies to your position like real artillery. Lastly the spread should be crippling especially at long distances, not making the attacks weak but rather making it hard to reliably hit single targets. Overall I think this would nerf it nicely while making it more akin to real artillery.

-Spider bombs are a very powerful explosive that don't require engaging with the enemy. They should be shootable and take longer to detonate to necessitate ambush (or at least coming in from a direction the enemy aren't looking in.) to not outclass it's more direct secondary cousins. + I think it would be fun to have to lead one around the enemy and detonate it behind them while they're chasing you down, especially in tight spaces like level 7.

-I hate mines but I think this is more of a skill issue on my part. Still I think they should have a bigger detonation range (and a slight delay to blowing up so they detonate in a group of enemies rather than at the edge of one.)

-Scatter Gun could use more kick. Not even like a buff just a bigger feeling of impact because it just feels flaccid to use.

-The lazer def seems like the strongest weapon. Perfect accuracy, very high dps, very high ammo and zero commitment when firing (no windup or nothing). I think it could use longer reload(s), faster and more punishing overheat, a windup and/or a miniumum firing duration (for example with a min firing dur of 0.5sec it would fire for 0.5 sec even if you let go off, so no tap firing). But I think the biggest strength of the lazer is it's ability to ignore it's weakness, no penetration. Why penetrate from behind cover when you can leave cover for a very tiny moment and just dodge the inital barrage of enemy bullets by strafing? Usually not a viable strat but the lazer can melt enemies quickly and precisely enough to make it work. I think it should have a heavy movement penalty when firing to make you commit to the shot would be good. Better yet, make the penalty not apply to the boost (shift) so you have to actively manage your coolant as a resource, dashing from one piece of cover to the next as you mow down every enemy in between. Finally, I am of the opinion that the best way to implement all these changes into the gun would be to make it bigger, brighter and louder and with hella more knockback to re-imagine it as a "clunky, overkill superweapon" personality rather than it's current one-size-fits all lazer pointer.+ a way to discourage firing in very short tap-fire bursts would stop you from evaporating enemies as they come around the corner, to differentiate it from the rotary cannon('s best strat).

-Guided missile can't hit anything in remotely dense areas, they should mow down weaker objects like trees

TLDR: Awesome game I love it

(Also where can I sign up for translating the game? I would like to translate it to Turkish)

i swear to c this game is the 1st best game for me this week,i love astronomy ,discovering new world,yeah my dreamjob is to put a foot on moon and maybe mars,and this game has every of my type,chill song,llook like a nostalgic song that really combine with the game and of course Mars surface + the idea of a terraformed Mars + Oasis is very good,i've also thought about a Oasis + Plains Mars before and by chance i discovered this game,your imagination is very good,keep it up bro

Hi, I was just wondering how do you switch to secondary weapon?

I was not able to find it on the Options>Controller menu.

Шикарно я бы дальше играл если бы...

any news on the youtube channel yet?

i think it'd be fun if you added game over by bakrupcy (like in armored core)

This game looks like it would amazingly on console

when i click on "deploy" button when i try to start the mission 1, this appears :

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Man, this game is a amazing. Completely loved it. The art is beautiful and the mechanics and interaction with the world is very smooth. I'll keep an eye on this project.

Oh my god this is great in so many ways. It feels very good to play and there are so many different options. I would however, like to point out some issues.

1. Flame, laser, stacked munitions, and smoke all work underwater for some reason. I think that there should either be a diegetic reason for this or the weapons should be disabled (or just not work properly when brought in).

2. When smoke is deployed, it can't be shot through. At least not with the laser. It's like there's this hitbox blocking projectiles from passing. I think there's the same issue with other grenade types.

3. I also don't know how to use the melee, so... how?

Other than that, it was perfect!

The amount of talent this guy has is genuinely mind boggling.KUDOS.

Macbook?

i really like the difficulty balance, if you're just playing, the game is preety chill, but still manages to keep you on your toes, but if you're getting an S rank, then it starts to lean towards darks souls like difficulty

Nice game! Cool weapons!

Suggestion: when you get intel, the notification could preview what it’s about.

I hope there will be an upgrade for dash instead of acceleration.

I got an S rank on level 7 using a shotgun and spider mines, but it was very difficult compared to other levels. I was too curious about the new intel to step back. The pixel art there looks great.

Is collateral damage bad for the rating?

Id like to report a funny bug. When you tab out to a different program, like Discord, certain colliders dissapear. It is very noticeable in level 7 where if you tab out during the loading sequence the enemy to the right of the entry elevator will phase through the walls and shoot you, but when you tab in the colliders come back so it cant shoot anymore. I was very confused and had to replicate the bug through sound only lol.

Also I love this game but getting an S rank on level 6 and 7 is so difficult, especially with the targetting difficulties of level 7. Very fun tho. Keep up the good work!

this is so fire! my only gripe is the lack of sick action synth music, but i have a feeling that’s temporary :3c

ITS A AMAZING GAME ,  I have played all the missions of this game honestly its the first indie game i am actually waiting to get famous i have A+ in all my missions love the intel area i hope you ppl keep valerine in the end game of this video game bc i want that mascular dommy mommy to be piot than anything else

Game short

Hello! First of all, this game is amazing, expect a bit of lag through wine on mac, but its peak. It truly does remind of Armored Core 6. But I do have a few questions

Are you going to post a new demo or is this the last one.

Are you going to add more legs? Not just quad, maybe Bipedal or even tracks.

Some of improvements you can add to this game is maybe like, a new melee type, or dash. Also, when there is too many explosions, can you highlight the enemy or even highlight yourself so it's more visible, its like the smoke grenade. Also one fun idea you could do is double weapons, one side shotgun and the other side machine gun instead of missiles. Also, I just read the new report, does it mean Smoothbore cannon is gonna be faster in firerate, because it would make it 10x better. Ok thats all I have and btw, did I mention this game is peak?

I hope there will be more weapons that use two barrels, like the MK7 autocannon.

This is really cool, looking forward to how it develops

you should make a discord server and also the melee is nearly usless

Is there anywhere I can find the art you make for the game? Just generally all of it. You don't seem to have a social media presence outside of Itch.io, and I'd really love to use some of you art as references!

Since you are adding cool crabs, i can suggest adding them cool scorpion friends, who can shoot their stinger and regrow it to thoot again and are very greeen

I was expecting nothing but this game deliveries everything! Great graphics in pixel art, great gameplay but no history, just a background... seek and destroy!

Following the game, wishlist on steam and waiting new update!

Hello, how have holidays been? Hope good.

I'm here cuz i was wondering when will the next update be. (Yes, i need a new update cuz i have beaten every mission with every variability :,) )

Not to place more pressure on you. Only wondering.

Happy new year my friends, I'm still waiting for next update and keep working, love the game, best wish to you and have a good day!

Idea: add a drill unit(for the grenade slot) that barely does anything to enemies but specifies in breaking large amounts of buildings, landmines and sturdiest of walls

I just realised! I found another bug, when i was playind Mission7 with da flamethrower and accidentally destroyed a wall! it looks like any type of fire, that sits on the ground(like fire from the laser or flamethrower) can destroy mis7 walls!

Hey, The game crashes when i press deploy on the first mission. I have re-downloaded the game and started multiple new games, but this still happens. 

Crash Report

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I find myself checking this page almost every day because i want to see an update. Hope you are having a fantastic christmas and not reading this. Take your time making the game i'll still be here waiting.

i really liked this game, so much so i made an account on itch.io just to say how good of a game it is and how much i liked it. i play it every day, and i first saw a gameplay of it when i searched up the spider mech from patlabor on youtube a few months ago. i think what would be really cool is a jungle map with dense foliage covering where your enemies are and also maybe smaller but weaker allies, maybe slightly humanoid. the game is very good at this demo stage, but i notice the crawler's legs sink in the walls in the last map, but other than that the game is a masterpiece. also can you add a map where you fight boats? would be very nice to see. merry christmas!!! danke!!!

I keep playing and playing, and a certain point love becomes obsession, and man, my beat moment in this obsession is one shooting an entire reinforcement group with one fully charged railgun shot 😭, let's just say there were millions in damages from random crao falling out of the sky because one fker decided to get rid of that direction lmao. I am very much looking forward to a full release to this game. Keep up the good work man, also kindly add a howitzer to the demo of it's not too much to ask ;)