Amazing game. So far the only one I'll probably play after the jam. Good job.
Play game
Exaltator Nil's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| CONTROLS | #4 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| FUN | #5 | 4.188 | 4.188 |
| Overall | #13 | 3.802 | 3.802 |
| BOSS DESIGN | #22 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| SOUNDS / MUSIC | #23 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| USE OF THEME | #75 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| ART / VISUALS | #76 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game's take on the theme
After every boss fight, you are given several reward options. Some of them let you exchange your current weapon for another, others may offer powerful bonuses in exchange for HP or other things. You are free to play safe and choose free options, or take a risk and exchange your life for power.
Did your team create the vast majority of art and music during the game jam?
All soundtracks were created by Cybershroom during the Jam (except Second Round's Alert 1 and Alert 3 themes, which are his previously created tracks he allowed me to use). For art, asset packs have been used.
Did your game use PlusMusic?
No
Did your game use Playroom?
No
Did your game use generative AI art?
No
Comments
Old school top down shooter game, or with the name they use nowadays a bullethell. I'm not particularly a fan of this genre but nevertheless a fun game which you don't have to think so much. I like the boss design but player ship is sticking out a little. It's too big for this kind of game. This makes it hard to evade projectiles although i think you made the hitbox of the ship smaller to mitigate this.
Controls of the game are very responsive. It's pretty good in terms of gamefeel, the feedback and all. It really is a good game to relieve stress after a hard day at work.
Theme of the jam is implemented very well. There's
When you compare it to the top tier games of the jam, i think it's close to B tier. So i scaled the ratings according to that. But if i judge this game independently of this jam, i think it's a very solid game. I appreciate the hardwork and time you invested in this project and wish you good luck on future projects!
Submitted
Immortal BladeI don't really understand what "Top tiers" and "B tier" means in the context of this jam, so "scaled the ratings accordingly" sounds like it implies that the jam's games are not all on an equal playing field. Oh well, ultimately your ratings are up to you. Glad you enjoyed the game and thank you for the detailed feedback!
I think that came out wrong. Could be a wrong choice of words maybe, sry if i offended you, that wasn't the intention. I used the word "top tier" in a subjective manner. In another words i tried to say "This game is good but there are better games than this one in this jam in my opinion,so i need to rate this game according to that scale". That's my own sense of scale. Reviewing and rating a game is a subjective thing, it's not generally valid. Someone else may think that this game is the best game of the jam and they're entitled to their opinion. Also in a competition there's no such thing as "equal". It's against the nature of competetion, otherwise all games should be No 1 game of the jam. In my opinion your game is better than my game, i don't exclude my game from this principle either.
Thank you for the explanation ^^ I agree that reviewing/rating a game is subjective no matter what, and as long as the rater applies same logic to every game they play, there's no problem with that imo. Personally, I base my ratings off of "expected quality for the jam" and rate higher/lower depending on if there are issues or a game performs a lot better in a category to the point it feels like part of a full game. I think our rating styles are similar for this reason, I just apply it to each criterion individually and don't take other jam games into account.
By "equal playing field" I didn't mean that "every single game can win" but rather "exactly 1 game can win, but everyone has a chance regardless of how good/bad the game performs in a specific category", hence the multiple voting criteria. A game could generally be rated 1 star in art for instance, but 5 stars in everything else, and it wouldn't disqualify it from winning. No offense taken, just wanted to understand your point of view and share mine. Thank you again!
Another bullethell classic by Aru 😤 this time backed up by the incredible work of Cybershroom.
It's really funny that I probably would've had a more challenging time with this if I hadn't played your previous game so much, but regardless I found the concept of a roguelite bullethell pretty fascinating! I didn't even really make the connection until you said it, but once I realized the format it was a pretty interesting design choice. As always, I enjoy the little text flashes in response to your decisions, similarly whimsical as Rotschwert but a little more bombastic with the greater color selection and energetic music.
The sprites were very professionally on-point for the genre and the backgrounds were impressive in 3D. But I almost kind of regret that there wasn't a satisfying death animation that played when taking the devil's deals, I would've welcomed a warning screen popup or something before my ship explodes. Or even better yet, have a russian roulette-style wheel appear that decides your fate whenever you take that 10% chance to die. Would really feel like the stakes were raised.
Submitted
Arms Sacrifice: Aku no MoriThe devil deal death is kinda supposed to jumpscare you with the dark background, red text and eerie sounds, without any warning. I guess it didn't really have an effect because you, me and Magna were talking about stuff when the screen appeared lol. Russian Roulette is an interesting suggestion, albeit it may remove that element of surprise I think. Worth considering for other chance-based elements though 👀
Very enjoyable game. Music, sound, visuals and atmosphere were there. The game was challenging, but fair, and I got quite far! (Though I had played Shmups before.)
If the bosses were randomly generated, seriously awesome. I mean, it's awesome either way with some killer designs and fun bullet patterns. Reminded me of an old game called Warning Forever where you would face similar kind of robots which learned from you and got stronger each time.
Overall solid game that I would play again! Only nitpick is that the controls were somewhat confusing. The bomb button was not labeled appropriately, and I was confused at what "Shot 2, Shot 3" were representing.
Submitted
Fools GoldWarning Forever was great! And now that you mentioned it, Exaltator Nil really looks similar to it in many ways, even though I didn't really think about it during development... Almost uncanny.
The weird labeling was a result of time trouble, I didn't have enough time to edit the defaults. Glad you enjoyed regardless, and thank you for playing!
Our influences creep in in all the little details. But it came out great! In fact my main gripe with Warning Forever was that the arena was too small, and the bosses eventually got so massive that it was almost impossible to maneuver around their body. This game doesn't have that issue, and I could easily see you even possibly implementing a similar kind of "Learns from the player" system if you continue to develop this to make it a true spiritual successor!
Hey! Very fun; I enjoyed it a lot. Sick and beautiful bullet hell patterns.
I've always wanted to collaborate on a bullet hell game! If someday you're in the mood to create another one for another jam, count me in.
Wishing you success in this jam!
Submitted
Swashbucklers Inc.Amazing. I had a lot of fun playing this game. The art and the music is solid. Good Job. The controls are responsive too. Good Job.
If you are interested, could you please rate my game. I would really appreciate it.
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Birds Of PreyWow, i love your bullet hell. Your game is amazing. Also like art style and sounds! Solid entry!
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MEAT SENATEI thoroughly enjoyed playing the game – it's truly awesome! Overall, everything worked seamlessly for me. However, I did notice a minor issue: the siphon charge bar and enemy HP bar didn't scale properly with the container. Apart from that, everything else was fantastic! Great job!
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KartenonAbsolutely loved it! I honestly feel like it could be more punishing on the player, but overall loved the bullet hell.
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Luminimpetus PrimeThere was a plan to implement dynamic difficulty - boss attacks would become more intense as Alert level goes up, as well as after taking certain Overclocks. The logic is in place, but I didn't have time to finish the extra attacks and test them. I agree the difficulty turned out a bit too easy as a result, and more inclined towards absolute beginners.
Thank you for playing!
WOW! That was great! I was completely sucked in for the run. I like how y'all focused on just the one way the bosses could attack (shooting the same lasers) but pushed it to the limit and created all these different bosses with their unique attack patterns and feel! It makes the game feel very cohesive/homogeneous and creates that gradual difficulty scaling. The music kept me jammin and the credits gameplay was also a nice touch. Great job!
Submitted
Luminimpetus PrimeGreat take on the theme. I think the bullet hell format really works well with the boss rush theme as a whole - and your usage of the exchange mechanic by embedding it in a roguelite format, found in many modern games, is a great take on this.
I just want to say:
- Entering the game from the get go was a positive surprise and I'm taken aback by the art and sound that went into this. Asset pack usage aside, it is clearly very intentional how it was used and I love it.
- Sound design is exceptional (and very important for this kind of guy) alongside the music. Music is INSANELY good. Props to the composer.
- Only notable thing to highlight is the cursor can be hard to see in this game, especially since its no longer in the traditional top-down Touhou-style bullet hell where aiming doesn't matter. Since aiming does matter, I think there needs to be a better way to aim towards the boss(?). Not sure how that's fixed.
Excellent use of the engine to create a very polished experience. I had great fun from start to finish. Also Backdoor B OP
Submitted
Chaos VectorThank you for your kind and detailed comments, and welcome back to the Slam ^^ Cursor visibility and uncomfortable aiming are common points of feedback, and I would like to fix them when SHMUP Creator gets more updates.
(and yeah it was very naive of me to think that going to the final boss early, with a weapon that the boss was tested with in the first place, is a penalty lmao, makes me wonder how many people miss the superweapons you can get after beating Boss 16...)
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