What a polished jam game, really well done! Artwork and cohesive design was really well executed, and the narrative and progression were really satisfying. I had a bit of a tough time dashing using the arrows, but many game jam entries don't have any lefty support at all and this was still playable without the dash. Overall I really enjoyed this one, thanks for submitting!
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Armonia's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Presentation (graphics, audio) | #35 | 4.378 | 4.378 |
Fun | #89 | 3.568 | 3.568 |
Theme | #105 | 3.730 | 3.730 |
Originality | #219 | 3.162 | 3.162 |
Ranked from 37 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game represent Mode?
We based our game on the musical modes as a font of magic.
Our protagonist is a sound sorcerer that can manipulate the magic within these modes and switch between them in combat.
Comments
This is a fun action game with a great presentation. The art for the characters, the pickups, ui, main menu and dialogue are all very polished and make the game feel shippable tbh. The gameplay itself is very fun, and I enjoyed switching modes in combat. My go-to was using the aoe gravity move on shooting mode and then swapping to the sword to hit big groups of enemies for huge chunks of aoe damage. I also liked that exploring the map rewarded me with attack boosts. The final boss was fun to fight and had interesting and varied ways of attacking which was really cool. This was a fun game to play all around, great job!
Really fantastic art, though the animation was a bit choppy on my computer. I like the general gameplay idea, though I think the modes could be a bit better balanced, I found the game was just easier on perma ranged. Would love to see this extended to a full game, really interested in seeing how the other musical modes would be interpreted!
Thank you for your feedback! I believe the animation issue you mentioned might be related to performance, and we plan to investigate and address it. We agree with you and we are committed to introducing new mechanics and incentives for mode swapping in the future. Once again, thanks for your support!
Always nice to see the music theory interpretation of mode out and about. Interpreting it as literal combat modes is a nice layer too. I was a little sad to only see the 2 modes but I get it, so I'm interested in seeing your interpretation of Phrygian or Lydian should you continue this.
Amazing job! The art is fantastic, the character, the environment, the enemies and the abilities all look great. I love the aesthetic of this world you developed. The shooting of magic and the different modes were a lot of fun and I enjoyed making my way through and fighting the enemies. Great work!
I gotta say, the art style, music, dialog, and gameplay really gets me. The level design could do some work though. There's a bit too much enemy spamming in areas and there's no real reward for defeating them. There's nothing stopping the player to just run past everything and straight to the boss for a boss fight and win under 5 minute of playtime. (Which I kinda did)
I don't really see why there was a different attack moveset in the beginning of the game only to get replaced by the musical mode immediately after the first enemy appeared on the screen. I do like the movesets to be honest, but I don't really see incentive to change mode and fighting the mass mobs. (I tried in the beginning, but I gain nothing. No experience or anything)
However what this game excels at is definitely how the combat feels, it feels really nice and I actually want to do more battles. Personally I think this kind of gameplay might work better in a roguelike where player can be forced to fight mass of enemies before continuing to the next room/screen while finding the way to reach the boss. In an open RPG level design really need to work better to company the playstyle, and enemy waves need to be rewarding (either by story/key items/etc.)
Really great work tho! I'm really enjoying it. That to be continued is a real evil cliffhanger. Would be great to see more of this.
Incredibly well done. The look is really awesome it reminded me of Binding of Isaac and Hollow knight while being completely different and with it's own style.
After the boss I was eagerly waiting to swap in and off a new rune and create a different build but that was too much to ask for the Jam! Great work I found these two stone has a really good sinergy as I was using the pull to group up the enemies and then getting up close to swipe them and stun them. Looking foward to new updates!
I am happy that you found the game has its unique style.
It's wonderful to hear that you saw synergies between the runes and had a satisfying experience with the combat mechanics. We talked about being able to make your own builds! But definitely out of the scope for this jam
Thanks for playing and sharing your thoughts!
Solid action RPG! You guys managed to pack a lot of gameplay and assets into this jam game. The boss fight was super fun and very impressive. The art is amazing and the gameplay felt well-tuned! There is the groundwork for a robust combat system laid out in the game! I love the feeling of stunning a bunch of those teethy slug guys and dicing them up! Great work guys!!
Thank you for your fantastic feedback! I am thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the boss fight.
It's actually the first time I set up a boss fight like this and I wasn't sure how it was gonna come out, how fun and how difficult it'd be so I am happy to hear you liked it!
Thanks for your positive words and support!
Very pretty! I did start running past enemies at one point since it got a little tedius. I wish there was like, intense battle music or cool sound effects to go with the musical theme. It feels really weird and almost buggy that the whole game plays the same, melancholy song. Otherwise, great job!
Hey! Thanks for taking the time to play our game and sharing your feedback. We didn't have too much time to work on the sound design because we prioritized other aspects of the game. However, we're eager to improve it in the future, incorporating specific music for the boss fight and various cool sound effects, as you mentioned.
Very cool! Impressive visuals, especially given the time frame. While the gameplay was pretty solid, the sound design left me a bit wanting; given the musical theme, it feels like there should be more audible feedback to the player's actions, as well as things like the boss winding up attacks and such. I also found that in general, there was no real impetus to switch modes, and I remained in green mode most of the time. I appreciate the nod to musical modes! I'd love to see how you all improve this down the line, there's a lot of potential here. Great work!
i can’t believe how GOOD this game looks! honestly, every single asset in this is a masterpiece, and there’s quite a lot of variation, too - i’m surprised your team’s artist was able to draw this much, this beautifully, this quickly. i also loved how it felt to play! the decoy ability in particular was very unique and allowed me to make use of some fun strategies. i do wish there were more modes in the game, though. the dorian mode felt like it was directly better than the ionian mode, and there wasn’t much reason to switch back. i hope you’ll be able to keep working on this, i’d love to be forced to switch modes mid-combat!
Thank you for your fantastic feedback! I'm really glad you enjoyed the visuals and had a good time playing. I do agree our artists are awesome 💙 We are fortunate to work with such talented people. Your insights on the gameplay, especially the modes, are spot-on. We will be exploring ways to add more strategic depth, encouraging players to switch modes during combat. Your support is truly appreciated, and we're eager to continue refining the game! And again, thank you so much for your words!
Cool game, I feel like there is a lot to explore with the themes and overall feel. The sound could be way more reactive to modes and the environment. I had fun blasting the bug enemies, but couldn't help feeling they were a bit out of place. Great job making such a solid game for the jam!
This was amazing, each aspect of the game was really well thought out and polished from the theme to the art and animations to the gameplay synergy and the controls. The art in particular is so pleasant to look at.
I was really impressed with the use of musical modes as a core gameplay mechanic, I briefly thought of musical modes as a potential idea for this jam but didn't think to tie them to gameplay modes, I think that's brilliant and it really makes me want to see the full game with all 7 musical modes (or just a select few, 7 sounds like a lot of attack-sets to create and balance even for a standalone commercial game).
Definitely looking forward to a full game, it already plays and looks like one, I was very glad to see To Be Continued at the end. The attack combos in each mode are so satisfying!
Heyyy, thank you so much for the feedback! Your words made us really happy. We're pleased to hear that our effort to polish the game finally paid off.
We considered the possibility of having seven modes, but, of course, that was a huge scope for a game jam. We also discussed the idea of unlocking and using a third mode after defeating the final boss, but it proved to be too much as well. Consequently, we opted for the "To Be Continued" ending, leaving room for imagination 😁.
We would love to keep working on this project, so your words mean a lot to us! Thanks again!
This game is super cool, I had a great time playing! The art is very beautiful.
I wish with the dash I could pass through some elements of the scenario and not take damage while I'm dashing.
I hope the development continues, I think it has potential!
Really cool work :D
Wow! Amazing! Art is awesome and the game feels very polished! Enjoyed this one very much! I liked that melee mode was an AOE attack, so I did use melee mode for defeating the hordes of small enemies.
My one complaint would be when I am standing still and I press dash, i kind of expected to dash towards the mouse, but it seemed like I would dash in the direction of my last movement instead.
Thank you for the kind words!
I think you're the first to mention AOE on the melee attack and why was it useful! Most people prefered the ranged mode
The dash thing you mention was actually a discussion we had, if it should follow the mouse position or the direction you were walking in! Might have to reconsider that one then!
Thanks for playing :)
Awesome aesthetic on this!
The art was absolutely top notch and the gameplay was solid as well. I primarily used the ranged attack, as I felt it was better. I think the melee needs to deal a bit more damage to make it worthwhile. In addition, the game was a bit jittery when playing it, like it was struggling to chug along for some reason.
Overall though, great entry!
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