itch.io

metrovia?  I like that.  I am totally stealing that one. :D

I don't know how you would tolerate a solitaire game...

Most games, no doubt, work better with music, but I do think there are exceptions where it would be more of a distraction than beneficial, plus not 'all' music is good.

You know, I could swear you based this game off of what is really going in Toronto, but that is just me being delusional... right?

That was a fun demo! :D

I was hit in the Norfair wanna-be area, along the left half of the area somewhere, though I suppose the problem relates to if every warp trigger is coded separately (which I have seen people do) or if you made a 'jack of all trades' function and treat the warp areas as objects (which is what I do).  I think it was down to the exact frame where I was hit as I was being warped to the next room, so I would call it a rare bug, but one that happened to hit me (pardon the pun).

I got to the "To be continued" screen, yes.  I remember seeing that room with the tall thing and the four different coloured blocks that resembled your key system setup, so it was not hard to figure out.  I was a bit surprised to see a lack of final boss, given all things.  

I started around 11pm or so and finished around 1:30am, though I had a 15-minute break during that, so... 2 hrs, 15 minutes, which is about as long as some of my longer games.  I did die a lot while I played this. On another note, this is the first game I have actually played in a long while.

The biggest complaint?  Well...

• A lack of save game capability and I am inclined to agree.  The unlimited lives concept helps, but there is no way to resume the game if you have to stop for a while, something that could be a bigger issue if you plan to port this to consoles with a limited battery life capability. 
• There is a lot of horizontal backtracking that happens throughout the game, so much I would nominate you for the "Magmoor Caverns" award.  What might help to mitigate it is some sort of unique transport system that could take you back and forth between the left and right sides of the game?   I would not worry much about the vertical stuff, but having to solve the same puzzles in the same rooms over and over again starts to feel a bit tedious after an hour+ of gameplay, especially when they offer nothing new along the way.
•  I had a heck of a time timing my double-jumps; this caused a number of in-game deaths.  Maybe it has to do with how fast the jumps are? I guess I am just used to coding in slower jumps and handling the multi-jumps on those...
• You mention a 'level 1' weapon, which implies there could have been upgrades to your weapon system... Of course there are none, so that was a heck of a tease. :P

As for the good?  Well...

• Your map concept is fine, I would leave that untouched.  The whole concept of new rooms is not a bad idea, because it gives a sense of direction and 'where to go' as you play, which is a nice touch.  
• The background ambience...  I admit it is odd, but I would leave it; it seems to work for this sort of game (which sounds very familiar; I place a music track for a game area which I don't think works, but I find it grows on me as time passes, so I leave it there).
• The bosses work well and I would stick with them.
• I liked the idea of hidden messages scattered through the game.  I am not actually sure how that contributed to the storyline (to be honest), but there is nothing wrong with adding in a little in-universe lore, especially when you go to such trouble to draft such ideas in the first place.

Overall?  You did a heck of a solid job. Your dedication and effort reminds me of what I go through to make my own games.

Hey, I will appreciate that someone posted a game that my current archaic and outdated system CAN play! :D

Yeeeeah, but...  The game needs to finish being developed.  Well, more like it needs a total overhaul and ported into my updated system.  The setup that game uses is ridiculously outdated.

Managed to find 4 of the hidden messages.  Could not find #5 or 6.

It is an interesting game, though I found the backtracking to be a bit excessive.

I noticed two bugs while playing:

* If you are hit while you warp from one room to the next, you can survive the hit.

* If you are at the save point prior to the top-left room (new area for the final 9 batteries), get hit and sent back, the music remains does not revert to what the current room's music should be.

Is there any real hard limit to how many games could be submitted?

This is as close as I got, I think...

There is no incentive to (I know my games and projects will never see any money) and given my difficulty in learning anything, I don't want to waste months on something I will (not likely) have a use for, anyway.

Losing my coder.  

I was working on a fan made remix of an ancient game around 15 or so years ago.  After we put two demos out, my coder disappeared.  Since I knew nothing about Game Maker (And still do not; my coding base is something entirely different), the project was useless to me, so it had to be abandoned.  I still have most of the project resources from back then, including all the music I sequenced for it.

I would have totally stolen  claimed that name for my own use, but you beat me to it.  I'll just have to settle for some less popular name, now, and hope that someone might play a game on my account one of these years...

I would be a slime in a classic JRPG, the kind that everyone steps on over and over to build up their strength early on, then eventually become completely ignored when the hero becomes too powerful.

If your team cannot even agree on something as simple as a name, I would submit that your team has bigger issues.

That said, being a solo dev is far from easy.  You have to be a jack-of-all-trades to make a game look presentable, playable and fun.  You have to know how to code; to make your game function in the way you want it to.  You must have some background in the arts and music, even if it is self-taught and lots of practice.  

Try out some smaller jams to give yourself a chance to practice, even if the game does not score well; it will build up your capabilities and help you tackle larger projects down the road.  It never hurts to start small.

https://kurogamedev.itch.io/the-second-best-key

The Second Best Key is a First-Person perspective RPG / Dungeon Crawler style game using a Gameboy theme that honours it's palette, resolution and music channel limitations.  You assume the role of a Sir Roden who has been taksked with finding the ultimate treasure hidden in the land of Tenor.

Thanks.  I even went to the trouble of building my own resource editor and compiler that creates my own custom binary resource files for my games.

Yeah, if it's web browser, it's pretty much free, unfortunately.  The most you can hope for is maybe someone feels generous and contributes to your game making cause.  Honestly, your odds of winning a lottery prize will be better than hoping for that to happen. :/

You know, one of these years, I am going to make a game and it is going to be bug-free.  I don't know 'when' that will happen, but it will!

I found the problem and fixed it.  I scoured the rest of the dialogues and could not find that problem anywhere else.

Thanks for your review.

That must mean you had an ... UNFORTUNATE time dealing with the collision detection...   :D  Huh?  Huh?  :D :D :D

You are right on both counts.

Yes, I have played that game and while I was not examining it in any intense manor as I was making this game, it did serve as a bit of inspiration. This style game was on my list of ones I wanted to try making, some day.

And yes, it was missing a semi-colon.  I moved the script because the end music was not running when the ending was being played.  I put your name down in the bug catcher, but I think you ended up with the Weedle (I think someone else already caught the Caterpie, sorry). :/

...I also just noticed one of my dialogues was in the wrong room.  Fixed as well.  :')

None.  I have never used an engine.  All my projects are coded from the ground up.

There is not enough love for raw javascript games out there.  Nicely done!

So...  What exactly am I supposed to do.  It seems to be stuck at the opening title.  

You have to press "R" to get the game going!  

I was able to get to the final leg of the game where the final key awaits.  I did note some problems:

• Some of the pathing was tight, making it fun to not get hit by spikes.
• That annoying death scream (while you can still navigate, get keys, flip switches, etc.).
• The end text was cut off; the game probably would have benefited from a 'full screen' option.

Overall, it's a fine game.  A good contribution to the jam.

Nothing like using a key in a very different way, for sure! 

Yeah, I felt like I was stuck as level 1, though it is certainly an interesting concept and fun to play.  Nice job!

Wow, I only died six times.  :D :D :D

I have no doubt you will beat me in this jam! 

The door may be locked...  BUT THE FUN SURE IS NOT!  Just when I thought you could not out-weird cats in grocery carts, well...  surprise!

Fun fact: 

• You can through most objects if you get close enough / try hard enough.  XD
• If you open a door from the wrong direction, the door goes right into you.  XD
• It glitched one me really weird at the final door, but after enough clicks, it eventually opened.  I never saw a list of keys.

Unfortunately, I do not not have arcana cards or a tarot deck, so my Moon, Sun, and other cards are not available for this game.  I would describe the idea as interesting.

Interesting concept.  I like it.  The only problem with the game is it is kinda easy to cheese the whole unlocking concept and always get a chest unlocked eventually.  Got some hand, hand-drawn art as well.  It ticks off most of the checkboxes in what I look for in a jam game. :)

I like it, but I'm not really sure what I am supposed to do. It felt more like a case of mashing buttons and hoping I was doing something.  I looked around on the page to see what I was supposed to do, but...

This has potential.  You need to finish this!  No, seriously, stop eating the cookies, stop playing Modern Warfare 9000+ and get... this... done!  :D :D :D

I kept getting massacred.  I would get 10 coins, then die, then 20 coins, then die... :(  I am terrible at this game... :(

It is definitely a lot of fun and I love the Megaman audio vibe you had going there! :D

The recharge time on the fire magic should be faster, and it is a bit annoying to die after getting a key, but I freakin' like this one.  This is chaos incarnate and there is little more fun THAN chaos incarnate! :D

It's alright, for sure.  I Managed to reach the unexpected rocket ship on the first try (277.4 seconds), though I think I was low on health when that happened (Could not tell 'what' that bar in the top-left corner was supposed to be). 

I like that it has a few metroidvania elements in it, such as a platforming upgrade you can find and the means to unlock new paths as you travel, through the lack of health recovery means you have to be 'real' careful with your progress.

Good job.  Hope to see you in future Alchemy Jam games.

TAKE THAT, YOU WIZARD!  Now I can have Roasted Wizard for dinner!  My final score was 460. It took me only three tries to win! :)  BTW, you are right, the hit box for the dragon IS small.  It is not as difficult to dodge the attacks as one might think.

I like the changing backgrounds as you make progress.  I like that the key is used to unlock a new level!

I wish you could have move forward or backwards a bit. That would have dodging a bit easier.

This showed up as an error in the javascript when I booted it up on Firefox:

draw() { ctx.drawImage(this.image, this.frameWidth * this.frame, 0, this.frameWidth, this.frameHeight, this.x, this.y, this.width, this.height) }

As a fellow js coder, I salute you for your efforts!  You have done an outstanding job! You are a contender for the Kuro Bread Award!

Thank you for the catch.  I fixed it (along with two other minor glitches I found and I added some post-victory dialogue for the people in huts).  What happened was there was supposed to a control that says if the game is paused or not.  It turns on when you 'pause' the game and off when you resume.  It did not shut off, which is why the OPTIONS and LOAD GAME pages would go back to the game instead of the menu.  This has been fixed! :)

So, IF you feel up to finishing off your RPG journey through the lands of Tenor, you should have no problems now.  Thanks for the find!  Credit is posted on the page.

Thank you to everyone who waited.  The project is online.  I don't have all the 'how to play' details posted on my page, but the basics are included in the game.  This also has game controller support if you have a web browser compatible controller you want to plug in.

Hi.  This project is still a WIP.  I am trying to finish it up as quickly as I can.  I will post when it's good to go!

Got the 7 pieces (or more than 7 if you go back to the house with boxes), but the guard would not let me through.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!  Since I cannot patch the game during the game to fix the two glaring platforming issues, I patched it on my domain.  It's the game, just now it's playable to the end of the game.

Alternatively, you can go into the dev console (F12 , CTRL+1), go to  'console'  and enter something in the command line (until I fix that, here):

pUpgr[5]=1;  => Gives you the Escape Scroll, allowing you to leave the mines and return to the world map.

pSelect=0; => In case the pointer for selecting an item disappears.

pY=140; => For the one room where the exit is higher than you jump onto. This will put you in the air, allowing you to move over and reach the exit.