Hey, I am glad that you played my game!

oh, thanks for your kind words :) Yeah, this is my engine and its a quite old one. I started creating its first incarnation around ~1999-2000 or something. I am going to release the engine's lib's and all that along with my other game The Darkness Below, in due time :)

I love working on consistency of a game and old retro  look/feel, until it finally "clicks". Although, for jam entries, this was a double-edged knife and had to sacrifice from other things; but regardless, I feel great about the UI and am glad that you liked it too, that was the intention. Indeed, not many games do that anymore; actually, your game Sanctuary's Grasp was one of the few that satisfied me in that department :D

Yeah, I made the game in such a way that you really need to think a bit in the end, otherwise you'll end up dead pretty quickly. I had plans to add more content but luckily my full job obligations caught up with me. Regardless, I have loads of feedback to make this another good entry in my own  games.

Thank you so much for the comment :D

Hey, thanks for playing my game :D

oh, that's a lovely comment and I so appreciate your comment about consistency; I do like to spend a lot of time trying to match graphics, sounds and all that, its definitely not an easy job for a developer :) Glad that you liked that!

Yeah, the event system need more love and really had not time to improve that; I had to sacrifice working on that to fully complete the game. I am definitely going to change the way, based on the lots of feedback that I got for that :D I am also going to provide some predefined battle tactics to give more control in battle.

Thanks again for your valuable time and writing down this feedback :)

Hey, I appreciate that you checked my little game :D

Lovely comments, thanks! Yeah, I had to do some shortcuts and trim some expected functionality to get this out before deadline :( Definitely I am going to add some simple predefined battle tactics and a bit more complex item / party management, although without changing the fast pace of combat which is what the game is all about.

Thanks for the useful feedback, I am glad that you liked it so far :)

wow, what a lovely comment :)

Really tried to reproduce  that kind of retro look and feel and spend a nice deal of time wrapping the interface up :) Although, a bit more than necessary perhaps, as I had to sacrifice some content time, but can't everything :) Still, I like it myself and I glad that you liked the aesthetic, it was mostly what I was going for.

Yeah, I had perhaps lots of feedback regarding the event system and understand its less than "good enough" and I fully agree. I was planning to add some nice sound around it but I didn't had anything quick. I tried some fanfare and stuff sounds but they all ended up being weird and stuff. Perhaps, it would be lots better if I could just had lowered the music volume.

Oh really? I thought Luther was programmed to heal the ones that are mostly wounded :) Perhaps there's some bad blood between them indeed, who knows :D Definitely I am going to add some quick predefined tactics to give a better control over battle in future versions.

I loved your last paragraph, I mean its the best compliment that a developer aiming for a traditional / retro cRPG can get :)

Glad that you liked it so far, definitely I am going to continue developing it :)

Heh, I guess that low resolution old-man wasn't too convincing after all :) It would be funny to make a nice cutscene where the village is engulfed in flames and destruction because you were convinces by an old man :)

Yeah, I am considering to change these billboarded buildings into full normal cubes and add some events. Initially, I wanted to use them to hire different people from there. In reality though, I barely completed the game :)

Thanks for kind words! yep, I already have some great ideas to improve on the game, after I finish the demo for The Darkness Below at last. Yeah, the mace sounds exactly how it sounds in TDB, I really had no time testing all that stuff.. I liked the sound thought but need something heavier :)

I really wanted to make a game that plays fast and doesn't require much time from players to equip stuff or going through lots of text and epic quests and all that. Casual yet retro gaming :) Not going to satisfy all players for sure but I am all about fun :p

Yep, I am all about optimizing everything and mostly file sizes, being a game engine developer and all that :) Coming from that old era of cRPGs, I can't stand big file sizes and I always have the habit to shrink everything down to absolutely necessary, even though I know that isn't really necessary nowadays :D

I am glad that you liked my game :) even in this rushed version. Definitely, more to come out of it :)

Hey, thanks man :)

yeah, the autobattler was both a quick idea that would enable me to show some effects fast and also because I really wanted to make something that can "stand" between traditional battle mechanics and an autosolver, in time. Definitely requires some quick predefined tactics and other things to become meaningful. For sure, the player has to have a say at least per round for a start :)

Yeah, I loved the skills and the experience gained in your game, very classical implementation, loved it :) In my case, I ran out of time and had to go for some content and "completion" and I also had to work 2 hours after my submission, meaning I didn't slept at all for doing it :D. I guess jam inexperience and not much preparation.

Event and text scrolling is pretty weak, I definitely agree. Regardless, I am going to work on the project as I really like it. It plays quite different from TDB and will be quite different when fully completed.

Thanks a lot man, it seems we're going to end top #20 in this jam :)

Yeah, I am going to change the event mechanics and text scrolling for sure, its not ideal. No worries at all, thanks for the feedback, I really want to know all the wrongs of my game :)

You did a pretty good job as well, I was actually very short in content so I kinda failed in that department :) Regardless, I understand that my game is not for everyone, its just another perspective of what I wanted to do. I am already developing my other traditional cRPG The Darkness Below so I really wanted to make something more casual and fast :)

Glad that you liked some parts of it :)

Thanks for your good words :)

Yeah, the combat plays in automated mode and the player is pretty much responsible only to find items for equipping characters, explore the world and solve riddles. It's a lighter version of cRPGs and another take I wanted to try. I will definitely add some complexity in next versions for sure.

Glad you've liked it so far :)

Hey Dan, thanks man <3

Thanks for your kind words, definitely the engine has matured over (many) years of working its internals and finally I felt it was ready to give a game or three :)

Definitely I am going to add some controlled complexity on the game, while keeping the auto-battle option open. I love the light-hearted gameplay already on it but understand that a bit more complexity will do wonders :)

I absolutely love your comment as I know you have too an eye of what is truly "retro" so I am glad that I came close to it with that game. Definitely more to come out of it after the review period :)

Yeah, I am already wrapping up the final demo version of The Darkness Below. If it wasn't for Worlds Apart, you would probably already playing with it :)

Thanks man :)

Thanks, what a lovely comment <3

Although I am not an artist all, basically a game and engine software engineer :) I am always glad when things are coming well visually so I can focus on the developing part. And visually I am always trying to re-create the old look & feel charm of the older games and will continue to do it :) This will definitely get better with coming versions, as I plan to continue the work on it.

Glad that you've enjoyed my game :) More to come out of it for sure!

Thanks, I appreciate that :)

Definitely put a lot of work wrapping up the graphics. I am always trying to create something that's visually close to older games, I am all about that if you checked my other game as well The Darkness Below :)

Thanks for your time!

Thanks for the comment :)

Yeah, that was intentional, as I have another game The Darkness Below that has a full blown combat mechanics and simply wanted a much "lighter" take on this one. Definitely can be improved and add some complexities while still keeping it automated, which is the basic premise of the game.

The engine (Jolt3D!) is really a very old project of mine, actually much older than Unity and on-par with first versions of Unreal (1999-2000)  and had lots of incarnations through the years. There should be traces of my very old websites when I was still publishing versions of my engine, before turned to game development. 

Yeah, it has an insane amount of work internally, mostly to support multiple OSes, mobiles and all that. Definitely adds multiple layers of complexity and increased time when you're making games with it, but its faster to fix your own bugs that way and add new low-level stuff :)

Glad that you've liked it and for your time :) Keep coming for improved versions!

Hey man, thanks :)

Yeah, it takes a bit of time to get used since everything takes one square, including town buildings, floor tiles etc. It might need some tweaks to improve the movement look & feel to open world as everything there is bill-boarded and there are no "cubes", something that changes in dungeons.

I will probably turn these bill-boarded building sprites into proper cubes to give a better impression, as well improving on these ground tiles :)

On dungeons, definitely the fov can be improved for sure, glad that you found it good enough :) It was made really quick as the deadline was already looming. Yeah, the boss, special weapon and wells were put in such a way so you had to think a bit before taking on final boss.

That was an attempt to provide a much "lighter" cRPG experience from my other game The Darkness Below, something that could be played casually and be full of auto-combat, riddles, mini games and such stuff and you the party, would only be responsible to explore and find stuff. Combat can definitely be enhanced to make it more interesting, like selecting predefined battle tactics or adding multiple opponents in front of screen, while still keeping it automated but that was definitely out of scope :)

Thanks for your kind words on the game overall! The game development will definitely be continued :)

Thanks man :)

Yeah, I have two (2) games already that are using my engine (Jolt3D!).

I actually wanted to make a much lighter version of my other game The Darkness Below as I felt that I would never manage something more complex, knowing myself and my tendency to wrap everything to an "appropriate" level, even if that's a  7-day jam :) So, auto-battler was really a quick idea that turned out pretty good.

Definitely not a game that plays like the typical crawling titles; it was more of a traditional cRPG meeting Wonder Boy or something, where your only weapon / skill determines how far you can go or you simply die. No tactics :)

Although, I really wanted to put a lot more content, but had to fine tune the fov, movement and all that.

Glad that you liked, definitely I am going to work a lot more on this one :)

Hey, thanks :)

Do you mean more action logging, text and all that? Yeah, I definitely need to fix that event button first and make the text or the bar larger or something. I like the idea as the auto-battling is so simple that definitely asks for additional details and will for sure be necessary on a full version with lots of items!

Thanks for your kind words and feedback :)

Hey, thanks man :)

Yeah, simplicity was the intention of this game, as I am following the more classical approach in my other one The Darkness Below :) I wanted to make something that auto-resolves in combat and that you're only responsible to find items and follow events, clues and all that. Definitely can become a little bit more complex, for certain character managemennt (hiring, attributing etc) and combat (pre-made tactics etc.) that will improve its current behaviour.

Thanks for the great feedback, kind words and your time checking this :) Definitely going to work on this one as it scratches another itch :)

Hey thanks man :)

Loved every second of developing that and had to go frenzy the last hour to provide what I could. Glad you liked it aesthetically, that's always my priority and I am a sucker for old retro look and feel, if you know my other game as well :)

Yep, options is one of these things that I didn't forgot, it was just that other things were more pressing, like a lot. Yeah, stopping the sound on events was simply a quick solution as I none of my sounds was fit at the moment. Actually I had plans to add not only event sounds but also cutscenes so  lot of stuff didn't make it.

The real intention for this game to provide a "light" take on cRPGs. But definitely needed some decision making on events. Keep in mind that this game was made by my own custom engine so a lot of code was engine-based so lots of time went there as well. Definitely will consider inventory managing. I also had planned to hire your party through these buildings on village :)

Regardless, thanks for your time and valuable feedback, loved it :)

Thanks man, I am glad that you liked it :)

Yeah, pleasing-to-the-eye is what I am striving for in both of my games (so far), always trying to reach that golden standard of the 90', with an addition of good enough mechanisms to back the graphics / audio up. This game is different than The Darkness Below, which is the classical cRPG experience, with tons of items, stats and all that. This one is a very light version of such an cRPG, like a Dungeon Crawler meet Wonder Boy / Golvellius / Zelda mix. You improve one thing at a time which start making some areas "manageable" to beat. On next version I will expand that to allow other gears and / or skills... Not just for improvement, but actually opening content up. This is a very different approach to other games and my own above.

Yep, I know about the small text and general mechanism; Unfortunately, deadline was looming at the time and had to move on :) But rest assured, this I will get it fixed on the second version.

So, thanks for giving this a try, I so appreciate it.. I know its difficult when you have like ~200 lovely entries to try. Yep, regarding The Darkness Below, I have already a huge (in terms of changes) new demo coming up... if it wasn't for the jam, the new demo would have been already released. Keep in mind that the new one coming in few days is vastly changed from the one on itch.io (old version), so be sure to check both versions :)

Thanks for your time!