The Game Idea is nice, but i hate the time component. At the start it feels too short and anoying and later you have so much time and no objectiv after the wall, except farming gold. Would be great if you could retreat in the run, to save time, if you just want to farm gold or something. Just an idea, but maybe instead of timer from the light tower, you expand the area your army can march. This keeps the light upgrade interesting and not like a anoying necessity
Thanks for this. The time pressure is the part of the game I go back and forth on the most, so having it laid out this clearly is really useful.
Some context first: the short-runs-early, longer-runs-later arc is intentional. Great Walk takes a lot of cues from games like Timber Rush and Agrivore, where the early loop is deliberately tight and each upgrade stretches it out. So the time pressure isn’t going away as a concept — but that doesn’t mean the current version of it is right, and a few of your points land.
Retreating mid-run — that already exists: press ESC and there’s a “retreat to town” option that ends the run early and banks everything you’ve gathered. You may have tried it before I added the end-of-run summary screen, which now lays out exactly what the march earned you — so both the option and what it does for you should be much clearer in the current build.
Too short early, too long late — the “short then long” part is by design, but the feel of “upgrade so the annoying thing gets less annoying” is a real problem. Framing the Lighthouse as expanding how far you can march instead of buying seconds is one idea — especially since the darkness is already a physical wall sweeping in from the right, so pushing that wall further out is a natural reframe of what’s on screen. No promises on a rewrite next week, but that’s one of the directions I want to explore.
Nothing to do after the wall — this is the part I’m actively building. The endgame goal is: unlock the infinite mode past the wall, get as far into it as you can, then reset the cycle to bank passive bonuses and push further on the next run. The latest build already adds a scripted run of escalating enemies past the wall — those waves are pretty thin right now, but they’ll keep growing, and I’m looking at extra incentives out there too, possibly tied to how many times you’ve reset. So it should already feel less like an empty gold farm than the version you played, and a lot less over time.
Really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out <3
Hey, tried to check it out, but now if you start a run it crashes into console.
I will check out your other game references, since i dont know them. I like the concept of your game and the army feeling to conquer something.
Its just my feeling, but these time based games are popping out like crazy and your game feels like it can do something unique,. I understand that you want a limiting ressource for the runs.
Just some ideas: HP and Defense Upgrade for survival and limiting factor - Just had this idea after you start entering lich teritory and there are arrows come flying and it was like "oh man would be brutal if they oneshot my units". Like you could make a whole barrage of arrows to gatekeep until the units are strong enough to survive the shots.
Levels for individual units, based on kills or like a verteran status - since some units storm ahead like a hero it would be funny to see them level up or something as attention retainer.
Lane Switching units - i really liked the vampires coming after your units. Would be funny to see some Tanky shield guys sidewalk your units and be like "your shall not pass"
Oops — that was an HTML-build-only crash, the other versions were fine. Fixed now, and thanks a lot for catching it.
I know a lot of these games have been coming out lately — Great March is meant to be my take on the genre. But your idea of dropping the timer is a really interesting one, and it genuinely could set the game apart. I’m going to experiment with it.
HP and defense upgrades — this already exists, but you need to reset the cycle at least once to reach it. The first reset gives permanent resource bonuses and unlocks new buildings. Right now each further reset just raises those permanent bonuses, but this “endgame” layer is something I’ll keep building out.
Units leveling up during the march — good idea.
Lane-switching units — glad you like the new Vampire mechanic! Noting down the idea of tanks that switch lanes when an enemy passes beside them instead of heading straight at them.
In the Expedition Summary, can you add a "Run again" Button? That would alleviate the pain a bit for the short runs at start.
And i was wondering: Is it intended not to be fully zoomed out? It feels more relaxing on the eyes, especially if your troops get much faster. Also the Pattern and color of the grass stings in the eyes, especially if it gets fast, maybe some patterns or lines horizontally along the march direction will be better, dont know, so that its in flow with the screen movement. Oh and just some finetuning, but it seems the grass is split in the middle, maybe the scene is not properly merged, but this is nitpicking now.
the big wall that the griffins have to fly over is kinda frustrating, i spent a lot of resources boosting my griffins speed only to find out they arent strong enough to take out the enemies in front of the wall by themselves, so they die before they can take down the wall, leaving the rest of my dudes to fruitlessly wail on it for like 30 seconds. maybe make the wall have a lot of hp but not infinite, so its still really good to have griffins but your guys arent boned if they all die before it goes down?
Hey, thanks a lot for writing this up — I really appreciate it, and you made some good points.
That wall section was genuinely broken in the version you played, for two reasons:
The enemies were spawning right up against the wall, so they’d swarm your griffins and the rest of your army while you were trying to break through. That’s why the griffins kept dying before the wall came down.
There was no visual damage feedback on the wall at all. Your army was chipping it down the whole time
— there was just nothing on screen to show for it, so it read as an indestructible object.
The high HP is by design — griffins are meant to feel really valuable there — but you’re right that it shouldn’t be infinite, and it isn’t. It just didn’t read that way.
Since that build I’ve:
pushed the enemy spawns back so they’re not beating on your units (or your griffins) while you work the wall down
added a crumble/damage effect so you can actually see it coming apart
Both changes are already live in the current build on the page, so if you’re up for another run it should be a fairer fight. I’ll post a devlog with the details soon.
Thanks again — this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps.
Thanks for the feedback! I assume you tried the HTML version. Please try the native desktop build (Windows, Mac, and Linux) available for download. Fullscreen should work fine there. If you still run into this on one of those platforms, let me know and I’ll look into it. Thanks!
Hello ! Sorry my comment was just about that and not the quality of the game ! It's pretty good and entertaining to look at my troops run toward the enemies !
My problem is I can't download anything because I play itch games on my work computer (like many of us here I think) to pass time when activity is low !
Sadly, saves don’t work in the HTML5 build - not sure why yet. If I can’t fix it shortly, I’ll take the html5 version down. Sorry for you trouble! You can try the native version though :)
love the game, you really need to make it bigger :) Don't know if it's a bug but I bought an Angel and when the darkness came a text saying The Angel stopped the darkness showed up and everything freezed with the darkness flickering over half the screen and then I couldn't do anything more. Was that the ending?
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The Game Idea is nice, but i hate the time component. At the start it feels too short and anoying and later you have so much time and no objectiv after the wall, except farming gold. Would be great if you could retreat in the run, to save time, if you just want to farm gold or something. Just an idea, but maybe instead of timer from the light tower, you expand the area your army can march. This keeps the light upgrade interesting and not like a anoying necessity
Thanks for this. The time pressure is the part of the game I go back and forth on the most, so having it laid out this clearly is really useful.
Some context first: the short-runs-early, longer-runs-later arc is intentional. Great Walk takes a lot of cues from games like Timber Rush and Agrivore, where the early loop is deliberately tight and each upgrade stretches it out. So the time pressure isn’t going away as a concept — but that doesn’t mean the current version of it is right, and a few of your points land.
Retreating mid-run — that already exists: press ESC and there’s a “retreat to town” option that ends the run early and banks everything you’ve gathered. You may have tried it before I added the end-of-run summary screen, which now lays out exactly what the march earned you — so both the option and what it does for you should be much clearer in the current build.
Too short early, too long late — the “short then long” part is by design, but the feel of “upgrade so the annoying thing gets less annoying” is a real problem. Framing the Lighthouse as expanding how far you can march instead of buying seconds is one idea — especially since the darkness is already a physical wall sweeping in from the right, so pushing that wall further out is a natural reframe of what’s on screen. No promises on a rewrite next week, but that’s one of the directions I want to explore.
Nothing to do after the wall — this is the part I’m actively building. The endgame goal is: unlock the infinite mode past the wall, get as far into it as you can, then reset the cycle to bank passive bonuses and push further on the next run. The latest build already adds a scripted run of escalating enemies past the wall — those waves are pretty thin right now, but they’ll keep growing, and I’m looking at extra incentives out there too, possibly tied to how many times you’ve reset. So it should already feel less like an empty gold farm than the version you played, and a lot less over time.
Really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out <3
Hey, tried to check it out, but now if you start a run it crashes into console.
I will check out your other game references, since i dont know them. I like the concept of your game and the army feeling to conquer something.
Its just my feeling, but these time based games are popping out like crazy and your game feels like it can do something unique,. I understand that you want a limiting ressource for the runs.
Just some ideas:
HP and Defense Upgrade for survival and limiting factor - Just had this idea after you start entering lich teritory and there are arrows come flying and it was like "oh man would be brutal if they oneshot my units". Like you could make a whole barrage of arrows to gatekeep until the units are strong enough to survive the shots.
Levels for individual units, based on kills or like a verteran status - since some units storm ahead like a hero it would be funny to see them level up or something as attention retainer.
Lane Switching units - i really liked the vampires coming after your units. Would be funny to see some Tanky shield guys sidewalk your units and be like "your shall not pass"
Best Regards!
Oops — that was an HTML-build-only crash, the other versions were fine. Fixed now, and thanks a lot for catching it.
I know a lot of these games have been coming out lately — Great March is meant to be my take on the genre. But your idea of dropping the timer is a really interesting one, and it genuinely could set the game apart. I’m going to experiment with it.
HP and defense upgrades — this already exists, but you need to reset the cycle at least once to reach it. The first reset gives permanent resource bonuses and unlocks new buildings. Right now each further reset just raises those permanent bonuses, but this “endgame” layer is something I’ll keep building out.
Units leveling up during the march — good idea.
Lane-switching units — glad you like the new Vampire mechanic! Noting down the idea of tanks that switch lanes when an enemy passes beside them instead of heading straight at them.
I love your feedback, massive thanks <3
Best!
Hey, glad i can help.
Just some last things i want to give feedback:
In the Expedition Summary, can you add a "Run again" Button? That would alleviate the pain a bit for the short runs at start.
And i was wondering: Is it intended not to be fully zoomed out? It feels more relaxing on the eyes, especially if your troops get much faster. Also the Pattern and color of the grass stings in the eyes, especially if it gets fast, maybe some patterns or lines horizontally along the march direction will be better, dont know, so that its in flow with the screen movement. Oh and just some finetuning, but it seems the grass is split in the middle, maybe the scene is not properly merged, but this is nitpicking now.
I will look forward for new releases!
Best Regards!
the big wall that the griffins have to fly over is kinda frustrating, i spent a lot of resources boosting my griffins speed only to find out they arent strong enough to take out the enemies in front of the wall by themselves, so they die before they can take down the wall, leaving the rest of my dudes to fruitlessly wail on it for like 30 seconds. maybe make the wall have a lot of hp but not infinite, so its still really good to have griffins but your guys arent boned if they all die before it goes down?
Hey, thanks a lot for writing this up — I really appreciate it, and you made some good points.
That wall section was genuinely broken in the version you played, for two reasons:
The high HP is by design — griffins are meant to feel really valuable there — but you’re right that it shouldn’t be infinite, and it isn’t. It just didn’t read that way.
Since that build I’ve:
Both changes are already live in the current build on the page, so if you’re up for another run it should be a fairer fight. I’ll post a devlog with the details soon.
Thanks again — this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps.
No fullscreen ? It's tiny
Thanks for the feedback! I assume you tried the HTML version. Please try the native desktop build (Windows, Mac, and Linux) available for download. Fullscreen should work fine there. If you still run into this on one of those platforms, let me know and I’ll look into it. Thanks!
Hello ! Sorry my comment was just about that and not the quality of the game ! It's pretty good and entertaining to look at my troops run toward the enemies !
My problem is I can't download anything because I play itch games on my work computer (like many of us here I think) to pass time when activity is low !
Good one, nice job
Thanks for playing! <3
love it! more please
Much appreciated <3 More is on the way!
It didn't save.
Sadly, saves don’t work in the HTML5 build - not sure why yet. If I can’t fix it shortly, I’ll take the html5 version down. Sorry for you trouble! You can try the native version though :)
love the game, you really need to make it bigger :)
Don't know if it's a bug but I bought an Angel and when the darkness came a text saying The Angel stopped the darkness showed up and everything freezed with the darkness flickering over half the screen and then I couldn't do anything more. Was that the ending?
Thank you for the kind words, much appreciated <3
Yes, it is a bug - shouldn’t freeze. But it’s also an ending of the content I’ve prepared so far :)
Currently I’m working on the endgame and replayability. Keep an eye on this page and devlog or just follow me for the updates. Stay tuned :)
Update: fixed in the latest (0.26) version. For the update details please see https://dudek.itch.io/great-march/devlog/1641214/the-darkness-wont-let-up-so-neither-can-we
Have fun!
Excellent, really nice game so far! I got to the end of what there is currently. Hope to see more added!
Glad you liked it! I appreciate your kind words <3 the proper endgame will be added soon :)
Hey, I added new content to the game in the latest version (0.26). For the update details please see https://dudek.itch.io/great-march/devlog/1641214/the-darkness-wont-let-up-so-neither-can-we
Have fun!