Amazing amount of polish and content in such a short amount of time! I haven't played Hollow Knight much, but this one really reminded me of it. The whole concept of racing against time before enemies get stronger is really cool, and the juice and animations really support it. I don't really have anything to critique besides that you've done an amazing job. good game!
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Witch v Necromancer's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #1424 | 3.648 | 3.648 |
| Audio | #1878 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Artwork | #1989 | 3.704 | 3.704 |
| Narrative | #2022 | 3.056 | 3.056 |
| Creativity | #3574 | 3.463 | 3.463 |
Ranked from 54 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?
The Countdown Spell makes enemies stronger every 100s, but it counts the enemy's army down too!
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Mostly authorial pixel art, except for terrain. Some music is licensed via a paid EpidemicSound subscription. The font is Brackey's pixelart font. See description for full credits.
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
roo.oliv (Rodrigo Oliveira)
Comments
Oh wow, the level of polish and game juice is - *mwah* Chiefs kiss 👌From the animated UI to the coins flying into it when you collect them and the healing effects, all work so wonderfully together, paired with the great music choice. Good work on the game; really satisfying to play. Would definitely pick it up if it were a Steam Deck game!
Submitted
Merge ConflictI think this is my favorite game of the jam that I've played so far. The little witch sprite is sooo cute, and the movement/attacks felt really great. The healing and killing enemies and collecting coins to unlock upgrades were fun twists on the usual versions of those mechanics. I noticed that some of the upgrades specifically mentioned sword attacks or spells, but I never found how to use those, I just used the basic broom attack the whole time. Really great game!
Submitted
Stranded at Second ZeroOhh, thank you! Heartwarming to read your feedback ❤️ Yes, there is only the broom attack. I thought of including other weapons, but it would take too much time, and also a witch wielding a sword feels wrong, right? But yes, the powerups read sword because I did them generic first and didn't have time to revisit them in time until the deadline.
This is really well polished for a game jam entry. I'm loving the Hollow Knight inspiration for the combat and platforming, but still with its own unique premise and aesthetic. I thought the choice to unlock items via chests was a refreshing departure from the "choose 3" mechanic. It also rewards planning your routes ahead of time via the mini-map, which is a mechanic that adds a lot more depth and intention to each run. I'll say I got to world 5 and did find myself wishing the enemies would get a bit more varied and challenging. With how clean the movement feels, I think dodging projectiles and juggling different enemy types would be really satisfying. Overall really well done, I think this one has a lot of potential for a post-jam update or even a full game!
Thank you for this wonderful feedback ❤️ It's amazing that you enjoyed it that much! I've drawn a lot of inspiration from Hollow Knight and Celeste for movements and combat. I borrowed the chest idea from Risk of Rain 2. For sure, with more time, it would be great to add more depth and variety to combat. Seriously considering taking this to a full Steam release eventually. I deeply enjoyed creating this game :)
easily one of the most fun games i've played during the jam, i just wanted to keep going!
could definitely see this expanded into something even more with additional enemy types, varied level design, etc.
the map showing the chest and enemy locations is a really smart addition, as it lets you optimize your route without getting lost which i really adore.
amazing work!!
Submitted
Pal! Pal! Panic! - GMTK 2026The movement was SO SMOOTH, no really, butter like. The polish levels are over the roof, wow, this is such a great entry! Kudos! :D
Submitted
Detective Goblin: Last Minute CaseThis one is pretty great! I could see myself spending a lot more time playing this. 😎
Submitted
UNIDENTIFIED COUNT - DOWNthe controlling feels good and the map is incredibly huge that the player have so much place to explore, even in their 2nd or 3rd play. However, there's a obviously bug with the restart button.
Submitted
Pull Down Till ZeroOh. A lot has been accomplished for four days.
I don't think the platforming really fits the theme of the jam, but that doesn't change the fact that the game is well-made and enjoyable. There are a couple of bugs here and there. The character's knockback when attacking is a bit annoying; it needs to be made smaller.
The interface and sounds are quite pleasant and not distracting.
I also liked how short, clear, and unobtrusive the tutorial is.
Submitted
THEY WILL DESCENDThank you! The theme is present in the core roguelike mechanic of the game: each time you exhaust the countdown, enemies in that world get stronger and stronger (and they are also sacrificed, counting the enemy countdown as well), making you balance how much you'll explore in that world vs deciding to take on the necromancer to go to the next world. And yes, the knockback could be a bit more subtle! Thank you for the feedback ❤️
Amazing work! Very cool game idea and story and it’s really impressive that you managed to make the world dynamically generated (although some enemies got stuck sometimes)! D:
The game feels really polished and the visuals, animations, and sound effects are beautiful! I’d love to see more of it, maybe with the ability to fly with the broom or use/brew potions.
I enjoyed it a lot! :)
Submitted
Mission Control: 3, 2, 1, Liftoff!Played at 3:01:57 @ https://twitch.tv/hedge_in. This is a really great submission!! It almost feels like a complete game in its entirety on its own! Giving Hollow Knight/Dead Cells vibes fsure.
Submitted
Don't Potty, Bella!Honestly, what a standout for a solo effort in such a short amount of time — this would be impressive even coming from a full team. Kudos, seriously.
The visuals and music really got me — great atmosphere, everything feels cohesive and polished. And that intro tutorial is a nice differential too, teaching you as you actually play instead of just dumping instructions on you like most jam games do. Super intuitive, smooth learning curve.
The narrative idea is creative, and that countdown mechanic adds a nice bit of tension without feeling gimmicky. Physics and animation are polished down to the small details too — you can tell a lot of care went into how everything moves and feels.
Add a few more maps and honestly, this is ready to publish as-is. I would buy this game in a second. Incredible work. (* ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉｼ
Good game! The combat of this game reminds me Hollow Knight. A little bit of feedback ,the knockback is very high and a personal thing is that the controls felt a little bit unlikely for me. Anyways, great work!
Submitted
Before the last grain of sandThanks! Yes, Hollow Knight was the main inspiration for combat. But yes, the knockback is a little too much. The controls clicked to me after I changed with which hand I pressed Space (left hand WASD, and right hand Space, H and J). I'm not used to play these kind of games on the keyboard, I may very well have picked a bad keyboard layout. Generally, I prefer connecting my gamepad but I didn't had time to properly support gamepads. Thanks for the feedback!
Super fun game! I'm still playing to see how far I can get, but life is getting in the way, so I'm leaving it up and will report back if I see any unusual bugs due to the game running for a long time lol. I wish the necromancer fight was a little more involved, but other than a few minor polish issues, this was a spectacular game! No notes!
Submitted
The Same SideYeah, since the number of enemies only increases eventually it would break. Using ECS is what delivered most performance wise. But to support infinite amounts of enemies I'd have need to implement some kind of standby state on rooms off the camera so enemies there don't consume as much processing.
Thank you very much for playing this long! I really appreciate it ❤️ and I'm glad you had fun!
Dang I loved playing this! You NAILED the character movement, she controls flawlessly. I've toyed with platformer movement so many times and know how challenging it is to get right, so huge kudos. <3
I really love the enemies reducing in number but getting stronger as the timer counts down, and the balance of gaining power-ups as you go.
So much fun, definitely gonna play more when the jam is over.
Submitted
Digging Down DebtThank you for the kind words! It was a lot of effort yes :) The generation bit I used a trick I learned from the Dead Cells devs: hand-designed room layouts, and then the generation algorithm just randomly picks those to assemble the world. The only difficult thing is guaranteeing all rooms are accessible (this is what makes the game freeze for a while when generating a new world, by the way)
Wow! The amount of content in this is so impressive!
Your animations and art is incredible. Great work.
Submitted
Every Bullet CountsAlways impressed how polished some games are here!
Love the colors of your pixel-art. :D
Congrats! <3
Submitted
FEED THE MACHINE
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