Play game
Tomb of Aeon's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall fun and playability | #32 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
Main theme is solitude, it's incorporated as our main character starts alone in game, and later at the ending this theme is reinforced.
Additionally themes of ancient ruins and cosmic horror are incorporated into the game. They're represented by art, enemies and the events surrounding the main narrative.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Beat it.
Not too long and pretty fun
I felt very disoriented. The teleporters, hidden walls, and a very samey tileset contributed to it. Not sure if thats a bad thing or a good thing though.
The art direction could use some work, didn't really feel like a tomb.
Liked the weird abstract enemy designs.
That had a lot of potential. It was great to see classic dungeon crawler elements like fireball emitters (very nicely done), hidden walls (brutal from the first room though), secret door with secret buttons, teleporters (aggrrr), random rotations (very disorienting). You were only missing push/pull blocks, pressure plates and pit traps for the full monty.
The opening screen was nice, if you made it by hand especially. The logo could perhaps have been more solid, rather than as soft as it was. It didn't stand out enough from the background art style. Font was just the Unity default, it would be nice to have seen a font choice made to match the art style in some way.
The first voiceover had us impressed, it sounded good (for AI we assume). But then there was too much of it, and too much narrative text that didn't add enough to the start of the game when you just wanted to start playing. One paragraph, start the game and then maybe reveal some of those lines as you progress through the game. When you added narrative in game you blocked the player until they pressed Next which affected the flow of the game negatively. It didn't add enough to the "fun" or "playability" of the game to warrant forcing you to take notice of it before continuing.
Movement was OK, but it was very fast and snappy, not very smooth and the movement between tiles was very linear and didn't suggest you were walking. Tile size and camera angle seemed on point. There was no free look, which would have been nice in the larger rooms.
Combat was OK, although it wasn't very satisfying when you did damage, or eliminated an enemy. They just disappeared with no sound effects or graphical effects to indicate you'd won. We actually looked around to see if the enemy had run away. We only found two attacks you could do, close up melee or a ranged attack. Some enemies fired diagonally at you, which was a surprise, and not in classic grid crawlers. It also meant you could easily two step and range attack on the other square after it shoots. We died almost instantly, after 35 mins of player when we encountered a brutal guy with demonic symbol behind him. With them all being sprites there was no rotation element to their movement which might let you get a side attack in before they could launch an attack. This may have been deliberate but then it's attacks perhaps shouldn't be so devastating.
The lighting and shadows were a bit confusing in places. Sometimes they cast through walls from other rooms when they shouldn't have, making it disorienting and immersion breaking. The textures were OK but they didn't seem to fit with the lighting and shadow styles somehow. In some cases, like the brickwork, the textures didn't tile correctly so it was visually jarring to see. The lighting seemed to be blown out in places too (possibly a Unity URP issue). The textures were all just diffuse, possibly with a specular component to some parts, but no normal maps, ambient occlusion, etc. They might have enhanced the atmosphere a bit more, and disguised some of the texture tiling problems as well.
Sound effects were OK with the ambient background noise and doors opening. We didn't hear any music at the start or during the game, which might have added to the combat a bit.
Overall, a good entry with lots of interesting aspects, but perhaps it didn't come together quite as cohesively as your NeuroNexus entry last year. We had some fun in places, but we had more fun with your previous entry.
Overall look and feel of this entry are nice, it feels like a dungeon crawler with a weird, futuristic setting, which is unusual (unusual being good).
A solid game with a reasonable length for a jam game. The visuals are very nice (although the delayed lights feel a little odd), and the enemy sprites & combat FX are both pretty and (mostly) clear. I did struggle a tiny bit with depth perception on the mostly-transparent enemies and with ranged attack hitboxes, but nothing terribly impactful. Exploration felt rewarded, which was nice, and while I felt lost I was, as far as I can tell, never actually lost.
Here's my full no-commentary playthrough:
A solid package! Nice call backs to classic DCs without being too annoying. Game is the perfect length for a jam. I loved it.
You can rewatch my play through here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2114770109?t=00h48m58s
Thank you for playing!
I liked this one, the graphics were good, I liked the Metroid Prime style curved UI look, and the atmosphere was great!
The opening cutscene was cool with the AI voiceover that allowed me to skip when I wanted, and talking about how the hero had been betrayed. It sets the story up nicely and efficiently imo.
I especially liked how the lights would only turn on once the player moved near them or on scripted triggers. It felt like you were bringing peace to the dungeon as you progressed. I also liked the use of hidden doors as shortcuts or secrets, something I wish I had time for in my entry.
The combat was a bit confusing at first though, it wasn't until the second enemy I realized the target had to be in range to work. I did like the effects and the cooldowns, made my thinking a bit more tactical in that regard.
Though I wasn't a big fan of the enemies being able to attack diagonally, especially when I can't. I don't know if thats a bug or something, but it sometimes made projectiles impossible to dodge if the enemy had a high enough attack rate.
Also I think I might be going crazy but I swear to god there was a hallway with a fireball thrower that had a tile that turned me 90 degrees to the right whenever I stepped on it. Damn near killed me lol.
I do thank you for making the healing rooms placed in convenient locations, felt like whenever I really needed a heal there was one nearby.
Overall this was great, good work!
Yes, there is a bunch of things we needed to fix for the enemies and combat systems.. enemy able to take a step and attack is one of them - it does look like a diagonal hit that way. Character also has a little bigger hitbox than he should... so he gets hit with projectiles that look like they should've missed. And visibility of when and how to use abilities too. Projectiles are usable in range and line of sight, not nessesary in a straight line. Its a bit unusual after all...
And you are not crazy - 90 degrees rotator does exitst :)
Thank you for playing and for a feedback!
This was a good game. Clean graphics and I liked the combat system based on attack abilities with cooldowns.
Thank you for playing!
Nice smooth gameplay and well polished. Played all the way through to the end only took me 2 attempts. I really like the minimal number RPG elements and the skills you unlocked throughout the game. The level layout was good and I liked the textures and colour theme of the game. I didn't like the way walking on floors would change direction of the player, at first I thought it was a bug but then realised shortly after that it was a game mechanic to make dodging fireballs harder. The text-to-voice sounded really nice and the story was great too. I like the way that even though you escape the dungeon there is just a different type of hell waiting for you. Nice work guys, was good fun to play!
Thank you for playing!
Yes, that rotator in there to stop you on track :) You need to plan movements to avoid it basically. We probably needed to introduce it somewhere less letal first :)
It was great and quite a thrilling game. Thanks heal room. I was happy when I stumbled upon the hidden passageway.
I died a few times, but I wish I could have retried from the middle instead of the beginning. But I enjoyed it very much.
Yes.. saving game is something we really need to do. We run out of time for that one - healing rooms were supposed to also work as checkpoints, but couldn't make it in time ;(
I had a bit of a rough start, not realizing that combat was restricted to enemies within range and not finding the invisible wall in the beginning made me think it wasn't working. But after reviewing the comments found the wall and continued on my adventure. The atmosphere in this game is GREAT. I really liked it when entering a new area and the lights glowing when you get close to them. Really cool idea. I found combat to be tricky and a little clunky, but also intense and rewarding. Those dudes with the fireballs were terrifying. Story fit the theme of solitude well and the enemy art/designs were 10/10. Great job!
Thank you!
I have an idea how we can make that wall more discoverable... If we will be making fixes - we probably will try that one! Glad you liked it at the end :)
I finished it! Pretty cool entry. The movement is nice and snappy, which is great especially for the ranged enemies and traps you need to time yourself to get through and dodge around. The first time I was surprised by an enemy (first boss I suppose) and died, but didn't have enough health so I was a little more careful the second time around but explored alot more to get more health, so that was a good reward for exploring. I also liked that you got some new skills on the way through. Solid entry all around!
Thank you very much for playing!
I completed the game!
I find the pace of the game good, and there is always a way forward. Sometimes you are just missing an item to proceed so you need to trace back and check again. But I did get through finally. The buttons took me a while to even find, maybe one could have been in the beginning to teach player of their existence. The voice over is a nice ad-on but maybe a bit to much for my taste sometimes. I think it was supposed to bring me along the journey, but I got lost somewhere in the middle.
Combat was a bit strange but worked out fine once you got the mechanics.
The spaced out healing rooms was a good and necessary ad-on that helped the game be more fluent to play. It might be hard to understand what the rest does though, but once you try it you will certainly use it.
The hollow walls was nice, but maybe some kind of mark on them would have made sense. Something out of the ordinary.
Movement is spot on.
A great game!
Thank you for playing!
Yes, certanly could introduce buttons... we wanted to keep them for hidden places and use levers for open places, but kind of run out of time and decided to stick with buttons... could try to make them bigger for visibility though, really.
Invisible walls did have something special to distinquish them from others. Once you will see it - you will have easy time locating the rest (except couple that are designed to be harder to find). Was planning to make them as accident discovery. Now to think about it - could use button in first room instead and keep walls as a secret hmm..
Combat was scrapped and replaced.. and it kind of shows. Couple of things stayed there as unintentional consiquences of switch :( Like move with instant attack.
Time... never enough time! :D
I really liked the premise and the monster design! You were very sneaky with the teleporters and spinner LOL :D I’m sure zooperdan must have loved that! :D
The movement feels good and I enjoyed the combat too.
Great job!
Thank you for playing and glad you liked it ;D
Fun game! In my first attempt I went into the fireball room, misjudged the pattern once and then died by two blasts. On my second attempt I went to the library room first, which increased my health to ~25 iirc thanks to the secrets, so I felt more comfortable to go through the fireball room again. This time I dodged all the fireballs \o/ so I didn't even need the extra health lol
Combat felt nice, and the bossfights were cool. One of them gave me a light panic early on, but I didn't have much trouble getting rid of them. The spinners did their job quite well and the teleporters were also confusing but not in a frustrating way.
Could use some more variety in the dungeon itself, as it does look quite same-y all the way through. Some more visually distinct areas would be pretty neat, I think. Some rooms felt like they have purpose, while others are just there. I think adding some purpose by adding visual clues and whatnot would go a long way to make the dungeon feel more interesting. I know there's furniture, but the architecture itself and the styling could use some love.
Other than that, not much to comment on. Pretty solid game, good job!
Thanks for playing!
Yep, we focused more on the mechanics themselves and levels were not as diverse as they could've been as a result. Its more visual clues than what we had in previous jam, but still a lot to improve on :)
This was really good! I enjoyed pretty much everything about this entry and it had a very old school vibe. It really encouraged exploration, though having to restart from the beginning is a bit daunting if you die later on in the game (like I did once in that room with the two buttons that open up a lot of side doors). The room with a spinner had me puzzled for a bit until I realized what was going on. I think there is a sound effect for when you step on it, but it's a bit too quiet, could use with some volume up.
Very well done!.
Save game feature is our arch nemesis hahaha! Those healing rooms were planned as save locations, but we kind of run out of time and left them as a healing only instead. Exploration would be less stressful if they would save game as planned.
Thank you for playing!
The spinner at the fire trap was bullshit, it toggled, when I wanted to step of it while strafing (at least I think). That felt unfair and I had quite some fun until that part. The map is quite big and your systems are pretty complete, for what you wanted to accomplish, I think. Graphics and sound may be a bis sparse, but fine and moody. Maybe make the enemies a bit slower and give more in terms of hit feedback, when hitting an enemy. Fine entry!
Oh yes. We were a bit worried that we won't make spinner that only activates when you are looking certain way on time... so our is simple - it just always rotates you fixed amount. And combat was re-done in haste really late into the jam, so some things were left unfinished... we just tried to do as much as possible with what we got. Always that lack of time that gets us in the end!
Thank you for playing!
I emerged from the depth of my confinment.
I think I ended with a little more than 50 HPs, not sure how many hidden passages it means I missed.
This was ton of fun, I loved everything about the game . A weird settings and unique visuals, instant movement, actual dungeon mechanics (traps, spinners, teleporters, small buttons, hidden doors ...). Combat was suprisingly fun too, the lethality, your abilities, the enemy behaviour, enemies shooting you out of the grid, everything made me enjoy it at lot and especially ton more than the usual real-time fare on a grid. The encounters are good and the difficulty right on point. Besides you feel the rise in power, ridiculing the two enemies at the end which used to be one strong enough boss was super fun.
This is easily among my favourite entries so far (I've played about 1/4th of the entries), congratulations.
Thank you for playing! Glad you liked it - we tried to do as many of classical features as we could, considering we were building everything totally from scratch again! Two enemies at the end felt like a must after getting ultimate power!
This was a scary one! I had lots of fun playing it. Though at first it felt a little unfair how the enemies were so quick to attack. Once I abandoned melee more or less entirely and used corners and strafing to get around enemies, I managed to survive. I played with two hands. One on the 1-4 and the other navigating. Might work really nice on a controller btw (don’t know if you had that support).
It really added to the suspense too that the game didn’t say if there was any save or checkpoint, but it might have been nice. I died once early on, and if I had died later again I don’t think I would have wanted to start over. There are people that like that sort of loop though… so I who knows which is best.
In general I only got lost once even though the map was quite big and that was at the very end because I didn’t find the door that just opened and there was another that remained shut that sort of begged to be opened.
There were some really evil level design, and I liked it since I survived, but if it would have killed me I think I’d be upset. In particular the spinner in the stressing fireball sequence.
There was also a the repeated pattern of: Here’s a big room. There’s nothing in it. We promise. Just a button, why don’t you press the button. And how first couple of them I could run out and be safer but then came another room…
Really good drama in that level design.
Over all, I think it was a splendid entry!
Playthrough: https://youtu.be/Iewie-421Eg
Thank you so much for the video! You was SO CLOSE. You killed the last boss and all you needed to do is to return back to first golden door (the one right at the start and you kind of had shortcut to that one in the boss room, but never turned to the right!). We run out of time and didn't make it clear enough :( We really needed some text for that. Or some other way to lure you better to the ending.
And UI also could be much clearer that you can shoot not in straight line, but as soon as you are in range with enemy and can see it.
And yes, we might be going full evil on some parts of the dungeon!
Thank you again for playing and the video!
Hey,
nice Crawler. I liked the fat snappy movement and fast combat, plenty hidden rooms with red orbs. The Style was not so much my cup of tea. The Lighting was also a bit off. And I did not like the turning trap, it killed me. :D (Hope it was a trap and not a bug. ) Or rather the fireball did. But I liked the “Gladiator” Suprise Room.
Nice Entry. :)
Thanks for playing! Glad you found hidden things :) and yes, it was a trap! It would rotate you same direction each time and you need to kind of notice where and plan your movement with that in mind to pass it. We have couple of those, though two are hidden away.
We think we would 'teach' mechanic next time... something like we did with exit from the room... though not sure how many noticed transparency on the illusionary walls from certain angle... probably too subtle after all!
Basic dungeon crawler which works well but didn't pull me in so much to be honest. I find the dungeon too dull and sterile. I don't understand what kind of setting the gameworld takes place. Is it modern day? There are couches and bookshelves in some of the rooms. I mean it looks interesting but confusing at the same time. I don't know what to make of it. Enemy designs didn't appeal to me much. Combat is not very fun and engaging.
My final opinion about the game is, you managed to make a grid based dungeon crawler game with basic gameplay mechanics mostly but i think you couldn't manage to make it fun and interesting. But regardless of all my ciritiscms i appreciate your time and hardwork. It is something, better than nothing. Good luck on your game development journey. I wish you success!
Thanks for trying our game out :) Couches and bookshelves (and training dummies) are maximum that we could do with basic Unity tools and lack of modelling skills in that time frame hahaha. Better than nothing, but gives us push to maybe learn some more tools for the future.
Its fine not to like the game too. Especially combat is a fair game, since we scrapped our initial idea, once saw we cannot flesh it out in a way we wanted it to be. Better 'simple' than 'too raw' in our opinion. Maybe next time we will do it how we planned it to be.
We still are in our stage of 'finding engine' so each time we learn a new one :) meaning we 'start from scratch' each time and see where it can get us. Bit to hard to make something too complex with that... but we improving each time we do jam!
Thanks again for the feedback :)