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Spiral's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #217 | 3.413 | 3.413 |
| Innovation | #225 | 3.370 | 3.370 |
| Graphics | #252 | 3.739 | 3.739 |
| Overall | #292 | 3.366 | 3.366 |
| Game Design | #322 | 3.348 | 3.348 |
| Fun | #407 | 3.196 | 3.196 |
| Theme | #469 | 3.130 | 3.130 |
Ranked from 46 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Spiral is a story of anxiety and perseverance. Every day with anxiety is a battle, some scarier than others. Spiral is about the calmer moments of anxiety and building up the courage to fight your biggest battle of the day, the storm that is the outside world.
In Spiral you battle manifestations of your anxieties in an effort to stop your spiraling mental health. But once you finally conquer your anxious paralysis you find that the world is still as scary as you thought it was. But that's okay, you're ready to face the storm now.
Controls:
Movement - WASD
Attack - Left Mouse
Parry - Right Mouse when enemy shines or to block projectiles
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
All of the code and assets were made from scratch by my fantastic team and I
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Comments
great concept and artstyle, the game was nicely thought out, the problems i cought out were that the main characters hitbox was so big and it could get you killed easily, and enemies could spawn too close without any indicators so you could get damaged when you least expected it, and also it could have been better if there was a score system so you could have a reason to kill all of the monsters...but now that i think about it, that wouldnt fit nicely with the main character dealing with depression and as someone who has been depressed in his life, i can understand running away is so much easier than dealing with the problems until you find out that you have to deal with them so maybe lack of score tracking can actually work.
aside from all of that, i think the game also fits the theme pretty well and i had a good time playing it!
Cool atmosphere and idea, reminds me a bit of omori. Last boss was very challenging, probably too difficult. The idea of spirals could have been more fitting through gameplay, but to be fair I didn't manage to beat the last boss and maybe there was something I missed. One more little critique: Ground traps shouldn't hit you if you graze your head on them, it just doesn't make sense in terms of perspective. Other than that though, this was a cool game and with great aesthetics.
Wait apparently you can block I didn't find that
You know, anxiety would be a lot easier to beat if I could cast fireball at it.
Quip aside, game was quite fun. Suddenly realizing you can right-click to do a block/parry/stun was a fun experience, and the game overall gave the vibe of one of those quirky rpg maker games. I would have rather not had to do a dark-souls style runback after every time I died to the boss, but that's probably more of a skill issue on my part.
Your team did great. Well done.
Your twist on the theme was very creative, good job!
It did scare me. I jumpscared a couple times, even couple seconds in cause the fireball audio peaked on my headphones and I almost yanked the headphone jack away.
Had some collision masking issues, where I got projectiles from nowhere and kinda got me stuck for a while. I thought it was meant to be like that, cause anxiety comes from nowhere, right? Bugs can be features if they’re on topic.
It’s not a game that breaks every conception of its genre, but it did deliver on what it aimed to be: determination cutting through anxiety.
Nothing’s gonna stop me, not even those stray missiles.
Even though the theme fits a bit loosely, I still like the metaphorical meaning. The gameplay is nice too, with you going through the same level but with more/harder enemies. However, I feel like there should be feedback on when your attack cooldown, maybe like a sound effect or two? Also, the hitbox for the player seems to be way larger than the actual size of the player, making enemies hit you when they seem like they're not. But despite the art style being a tad inconsistent, I liked the handdrawn style for the player. Great job!
Great graphics and atmosphere. Good music and sound effects. An interesting take on the theme. It was a tense experience, but the game's difficulty was quite high. I didn't get past the boss. It didn't at all feel like a fair fight, so I left it there.
One of the best aspects is the game's pacing. It knows exactly when to ramp up the tension and when to give you moments to breathe, making the whole experience feel perfectly balanced.
Thank you for playing! I was very conscious about enemy/spawner placements and the rate at which enemies spawn (It's random per room after level 1). I put a lot of effort into making the combat feel engaging, but not overloading the players with enemies.
The atmosphere of the game is great! And I really like the hand drawn art style and the melancholic music at the end where you see the "storm". (Yes, I have beat the game and the difficulty was brutal :-D) Btw. I am still listening to the end music while writing my post here.
If I can suggest something, I'd say, maybe have a music track with a longer melody in the loop for the main part? It became slightly repetitive, especially because I tried the boss multiple times and had to walk all the way back to it.
All in all I really like how you interpreted the "calm before the storm" theme.
The boss theme goes so hard! Sending this straight to our composer. He's gonna love the feedback/critiques. Thanks for playing!
The game hooked me. Perfect art, great atmosphere and sound. And also quite a good variety of enemies, which sometimes cause difficulties. An interesting way to convey the theme, well done!
Astounding atmospehre and the story, i really love it. Now it's ur turn to Try & rate us. Thank u
The atmosphere of the game is great. Art style music and all. It lacks animation to make it feel alive, but still great. Balancing is a big issue though. Doing a little research on how to make good "bullet hell" (this game is not a bullet hell, but not sure what to call it) would help. Main problem is the collision and ranged enemies, it is near impossible to dodge when being horizontal in a lot of situations. The boss covers too much ground whilst the player having too big collision and moving too slow to dodge consistently (if at all) and the boss attacks too fast, making the fight annoying. Put on top the fact you need to go through the level again to try fighting it which takes too much time considering the boss kills you too fast, because of the aforementioned reasons. I didn't even know what I was supposed to do and dying almost instantly didn't give me a chance to understand. I see you put effort in the game and it shows, but the boss is just too much.
I appreciate the feedback! Balancing ended up being the last thing we did and due to the time we took setting up core functionality, we weren't able to get it exactly where we wanted it. I'm glad someone mentioned it, we'll be allocating our time better on our next project.
No worries, we also left balancing for last and didn't have time to do it right. That's why the game is endless, didn't know what is a good timer to having to reach.
This was pretty fun! I wasn't able to beat the boss, though :(
You can watch my gameplay here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2252577785?t=00h08m07s
Really enjoyed it, The weapon mechanic that serves to attack the enemy and to provide vision is a really good idea that is well executed
Great game! I really liked the graphics, sounds and all the little details in the game.
The Atmosphere and story are great and scary!
Good Job :)
That's a cool idea! I didn't know the controls at first so I kept dying xD After realizing I should control the light and defend myself I made it to my room!! A beautiful submission, good job!
Wow. This is clearly a submission that came from the heart, and it shows in the gameplay. The fact that I couldn't see all the way in front of me completely changed the feel of the game. Even when I died and repeated a level, I felt immense anticipation as I waited for the moment the next enemy would appear in front of me. I especially appreciate how sometimes an enemy would spawn right outside your bedroom door, chasing you down the hallway and making it so difficult to even get out of your bedroom. The eyes as a damage indicator are genius too.
The combat also feels really good. I like that my weapon was also my method of seeing a bit further, and the fact that not getting hit was done by simply moving in the correct direction reminded me of Undertale boss fights, especially as I dodged projectiles.
All in all, this game is both very well-made and well-inspired. I commend you on the vulnerability it takes to release a game modelled after your own heart, not only simply releasing it into the world, but into a competition. What an incredible submission. Best of luck :)
You're gonna make me cry dude ;-;
We worked really hard on this and I'm so happy that you enjoyed it. Your kind words mean the world to me <3
The artwork and audio are phenomenal. I especially like the whispers and eerie music. I also like the light that you control. thought that was pretty cool. If I had anything to add, I would make the player movement a little faster or maybe add a dash or a roll.
I like the art style and the sounds. The story is also relatable to my own life :’)
I think the player should get some more movement abilities because the movement is somewhat repetitive. But still a Great game!
Hee-ho. Cool style and look