itch.io Spring Selects Series A
On Sale: GamesAssetsToolsTabletopComics
Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
A jam submission

I Tried Making a Game Which Got Myself Reincarnated Into My Own Rogue-likeView game page

A straightforward arcade style rogue-like where time is a precious resource.
Submitted by AppleJacks (@AppJacks_Devs) — 1 hour, 1 minute before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

I Tried Making a Game Which Got Myself Reincarnated Into My Own Rogue-like's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Gameplay#83.7063.706
Audio#103.3823.382
Art style#213.7063.706
Overall#213.4003.400
Creativity#343.1473.147
Matched the theme#373.0593.059

Ranked from 34 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted(+1)

A seriously satisfying game! I love the feedback on hitting enemies, the combination of particles and camera shake makes combat really fun to play, especially as you zip around the levels with the grappling hook. The timer mechanic felt good when paired with this, as this meant you couldn't just slowly single out and approach each enemy, though perhaps the game would benefit from a small explanation of this in-game, as by the time I tried out the gun I had forgotten that it cost precious time to fire, which ended a few runs (though the blame for this might rest on me!)


Overall a really nice game. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you appreciated the small details, tried to make hitting guys as satisfying as possible! You're right about the explanations though, I wish I kind of put a little bit of time to add text blurbs to describe some of the elements in game. I was going to add one final description because of the one hour deadline extension the hosts game, but I was really stressed out and exhausted with turning in the game one minute before the original deadline that I was just satisfied with turning it haha. Thanks for taking the time to play the game!

Submitted(+1)

This was a fun game! The title screen animation was a nice touch. I liked the mechanic of choosing a weapon before you starts since if you die you could always try something else ( at least for me ), which I thought was a nice way to address the theme. The music was also fun and added to your game well! All in all your game seemed really polished!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the title screen, was something quick I made to clear my mind and de-stress myself from all the small bugs that I was dealing with during the middle of development haha. I put a lot of small things in order to try and make the game "mechanically" fit the theme (procedural generation, weapon choosing, palette swap), but I wish I gave a bit more time in making it fit lore wise. I'm also glad you liked the music, it makes the couple of hours it took to make all worth it! Again, thanks for the feedback and taking the time to play my game!

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful design and good mechanics. Definitely tough but fun. Only issue is sometimes I would die randomly it seemed. Not sure if enemies were invisible  or I stepped on something I didn't realize was a hazard. But overall nice submission. Love the random generation as well

Submitted(+1)

oh and love the funny little intro lol

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked the intro, put a bit of time on that cuz I thought it was worth it haha.

Just in case you weren't aware or I didn't relay the information properly enough, this game is timer-based, so the characters health is based on a timer with how much time they have left. The timer represents real-life seconds, so the value of the timer goes down for each second. You start off with 60 seconds and gain time if you kill enemies and lose time if you get hurt yourself. You die when you run out of time, which I made to encourage aggressive play and discourage players from taking their sweet time with the game. So thats most likely what happened. If you already knew that already and were dying when you still had time on the clock, I would really love to hear more about your experience and what happened, so I could fix it in a later update. Regardless of what happened though, I think you just unintentionally gave me an idea to experiment with in this game... so thanks for that! Also just thank you for taking the time to play my game!

Submitted(+1)

just WOW...

honestly this game look so polished its amazing !
even the main menu, which already made me laught.
 every single hit just pops and makes you feel good.
also the variations of color added a nice touch to it !

However it took me some time to figure out how the time system works. I was wondering why I sometimes could take some hits and then sometimes suddenly die from the first hit.

For my experience the grappling gun was the number one to go, scince the pistol was powerful but costs you some time every shot. 

If youd add a little "comeback" mechanic like collection money each run, that you can spend on a store for characters for eg. I could easily see this game on a platform like steam :D !

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked the game! Really should have put in a bit of extra time in explaining the time mechanic and how much you gain / lose from certain things (getting hurt, killing enemies, shooting the gun), but build errors kept me from implementing some more stuff, so it is what it is. I'm really glad with how everything came out in the end though! I still plan on doing a post jam update of the game addressing a lot of the issues found in the comments (balancing being number one), but I'm not sure when I'll get on to that haha. A shop for different characters / items does seem interesting and enticing. I might explore that possibility for a bit and see how that pans out,  so thanks for the idea! I put in a lot of work into it and delved into a lot of areas I'm not comfortable with (art and music are firsts for me haha), so I'm glad that people seem to enjoy it! Thanks for taking the time to play my game!

Submitted(+1)

That grapple is so fun and well done! The grapple and melee alone could create a really fun game.

The art is nice - easy to tell everything apart. Great sounds. I felt that I couldn't easily tell how low my health was so the adding of a clear health bar would be a nice improvement. The stats at the end also gave me a another good insentive to continue playing for a better time and level reached.

Very fun game. Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! The grapple was there since day one, so I had a lot of time fine tuning it and making it fun to just swing around. I'll try to experiment with the timer to make it more clear how much time they have left (I'm thinking about maybe adding visual and audio indicators / effects that are on screen whenever the timer is at a critical condition, but we'll see if it gets too annoying haha). The stats at the end were last minute addition to the game, so thankfully it was worth it. I plan on making an update of the game with a bit more content that matches my vision of the original scope of the game (not sure how long that will take), so your feedback is really appreciated! Thanks for taking time off of your day to play!

Submitted(+1)

This was a pretty fun game! The enemies felt like a threat without being to difficult to kill. I felt like killing enemies didn't reward me with enough time to keep going (maybe I just need to be better lol). I really liked the grapple mechanic but felt like the gun was pretty much useless. Over all a really well made game that was fun to play. Nice Job!

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback! I didn't prioritize my time properly, so I was only able to try balancing the game a few hours before the deadline, which is why it caused some issues (like the amount of time killing enemies rewarded). I wholeheartedly agree with the gun critique, it was supposed to counter a ranged enemy that was supposed to be in the game, but due to the build breaking last minute I had to remove the enemy, making the gun pretty much useless as you said haha. I still plan on updating the game after the jam, and those two points are the main ones I really need to address. Again, thanks so much for taking the time to play my game!

Submitted(+1)

I have to say that it is a simple idea but a very well done one

it was a good idea to let the player choose an action and you really nailed the theme

but I think that the timer is too short and you need to extend the timer but other than that it a very nice game

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! From all the feedback I've gotten these past few days, difficulty is definitely going to be my number one priority to fix after the jam! I'm still deciding whether I should just extend the timer or just change the values of each game element that reduces / adds time (or maybe both?). I'm plan on adding a few more enemies and items to the game (ones that are still in the code but haven't been fixed yet), then I'll try to spend a couple of days balancing all the values! Thanks for taking the time to play my game!

Developer

Hello!

I uploaded a WEBGL version of the game so that it's easier for people to play! The WEBGL build of the game is the same version as the original downloadable version (no bug fixes, patches, etc.), so you can play either if you want! I'm not sure if I configured the project properly to suit WEBGL or if I'm missing something (still pretty new to this haha), so I still highly recommend you download the original version!

Thanks for your time!

Developer

Check and see if the WEBGL version works first though, and if not, send a screenshot here and I'll try to see what I can do :)

Submitted(+1)

This game is really smooth and has a lot of great features. The color change along with the the overall feel for the game is really smooth. The music is very nice compared to mine and I feel like this game overall has a lot of potential. I read through some of the comments below and saw that you did use procedural generation which is really cool! For my next game after I fix this game I am planning on doing a survival game which will use procedural generation which I still need to learn how to do. While the game does not fully go around the theme I feel like this game and pretty much all of its elements are really well done in such a short period of time. Overall, the mechanics and the grapple/gun feel very nice and I really like this style of art and game play. Thank you once again for the awesome advice on my game sorry my response is not as long but I feel like your game is really polished which is very nice. Great game and keep the work up!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! No need to compare in terms of both in terms of the game and writing length, I think we both did really well individually and I really appreciate all the feedback given (plus I don't write long comments because I want to but I'm pretty sure I'm just bad at getting straight to the point and go on long tangents haha). Yeah, I really wish I just spent maybe little bit more time to think about the theme rather than jumping straight into coding. Also good luck on that procedural generation survival game! Youtube was my best friend throughout this jam (probably like most people) and covered up a lot of my inexperience with areas I'm not familiar with in Unity. I really appreciate the feedback and hope that you continue to learn the things you need in order to create games you're proud of!

Submitted(+1)

No problem! Good luck with your next games and thanks again for the tips!

Submitted(+1)

Love the overall polish, the colour change was great idea and adds enough change to each run.

i felt there wasn't much choice out of the starting items; im almost forced to use the grapple as it offers mobilty which, in a time-based game around moving to things and killing them is kinda important and it, afaik, doesnt remove time unlike the gun. Perhaps making it consume time if you missed may improve things?

im presuming you did procedural gen for the map? if so props to you for that! The transitions between runs you added were great too and i loved the music! Overall great game well done!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! Yeah the I did procedural generation for the maps and just kept reloading the same scene every time you go to the next floor generating a new map. Yeah I totally agree with the starting items, I implemented the the grappling hook in the first day of the jam which is why it feels well tied with the time-based gameplay and added the gun during the last day haha. The gun was supposed to be added along with a projectile enemy that started bugging out the when I finish building the game, so I had to remove that enemy and the gun became pretty much a vestigial part of the project (I feel like the submission would have looked better if I just removed the gun entirely and made the grappling hook my main focus). Also, I love your idea with the grappling hook! I'm probably going to implement that in an updated version of the game (might turn the gun into a more useful option too, plus add more starting items like I had in my original vision). I'm actually surprised that people are receiving the music so well! It was my first time making music, so I wasn't sure how it was gonna turn out, but I'm glad you liked it. Anyway, you gave me some really good input and I'll be sure to take it into account when I eventually update a game a bit more. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Fun game that feels very polished, nicely done. I enjoyed the title screen, it got a chuckle out of me. It's extremely difficult, though I'm not really known for my gaming prowess. I found that the enemies move way too quick for me to be able to handle much other than wildly attacking and hoping I'd hit them. Great job on the game. :)

Developer

Woah, thanks for the feedback! Don't worry about the difficulty, you weren't the only one (probably should have put more time on balancing than messing around with the title screen haha). The enemies were actually supposed to be a bit slower than in this version, as they would have been accompanied by another enemy variant who shot projectiles at the player. It played nicely in the Unity editor, but something wrong happened with the build so I had to take the projectile characters out unfortunately since it I didn't have enough time left to fix it. After taking them out, all the basic seemed slower and less intimidating so I just bumped up the speed, which made the game significantly harder.  I plan on balancing out the game play soon and adding a bit more features to match my original vision of the game, so thanks for the feedback!

Oh yeah, just want to say that I literally found your Youtube channel maybe a week before this game jam through Miziziziz's "Four Developer Jam Off with Same Art Kit" video. A friend showed me the video and was the one who suggested that we should do our own Jam Off with this game jam (except we were supposed to make everything ourselves, and unfortunately due to scheduling I was the only one to finish), so its kind of a crazy coincidence seeing you here haha. Haven't used Godot, but I watched some of your videos and am very interested to try it out! I just want to say that without some of the cool content you and some of the other cool game dev content creators out there make, I probably wouldn't have been inspired to put myself out there and challenge myself with game jams, so thank you very much! Again, thanks for playing my game and keep up the good work!

Submitted(+1)

That makes sense. Enemy variation plays a major role in the games difficulty and strategies that you use while playing the game. I'd be interested in seeing what you add in the post-jam version. :)

Clearly I'm a big fan of Godot. :) It's such a fantastic engine, especially for 2D development. I used Unity for a while some years ago but felt generally meh about it. I tried Godot and that same day I was all <3 <3 <3. Funny you should mention that video though. During this jam I went back to take a look at that video to get inspiration from Miziziziz's boss in his game, since I found it so enjoyable.

Glad you were inspired enough to join game jams, your game was quite nice and I think you have a lot of potential as a developer, so keep it up and good luck!

Developer(+1)

Thanks, that really means a lot! I'll try my best!!!

Submitted(+1)

What a really nice game ! This timed roguelike remains me minit. Even it is really hard, the game is really fun thanks to this cool and fast gameplay (I choose the grapple to be the fastest man in town ! [¨n¨]). The music is a bit repetitive but the color swap is really pleasant and break the routine !

Well done man (or woman, or other), you're game is really cool ! (^u^)/

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Man by the way, probably should put that in my bio somewhere haha. Yeah, everyone seems to gravitate towards the grapple (and I totally see why). The gun was like added the during the last day of development, and it was going to help against projectile enemies that I failed to implement on the last due to some build errors in my project (gonna update the game someday though)! Also, thanks for pointing out the music! It was my first time making a song (made in Bosca Ceoil) and I didn't have any experience beforehand (probably spent 3-4 hours fumbling on there). Its a very interesting process and I'm very eager to learn more! Just gotta say though that your music is incredible, so your advice / remark means a lot haha.

Thanks again for taking the time to play my game!

Submitted(+1)

Really well done and polished! The grapple and gun mechanics provide a really good amount of playstyle variety, and the melee is really fun to swing around!

The music is great! Really fits the theme. The visuals are also on point! 

Every aspect of this game is really great, however i feel like it loosely fits the theme, rather than being based on it. 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the feedback! The part on it loosely fitting the theme is extremely valid haha. I was planning to develop the gameplay first, then implement some story to fit the theme afterwards, but due over-scoping and time constraints I wasn't able to finish it in time unfortunately. Anyway thanks for taking the time to play my game! I might  work on this game a little bit more in the near future in order to complete my initial vision of it, so feedback is greatly appreciated :D

Submitted(+1)

REALLY POLISHED omg so good.

Developer

Wow! Thanks so much!!!

Submitted(+1)

Wow, nice little game here.

> The title screen is well done, clean, neat, you immediately want to launch the game.

> The game is well polished : the screen that shakes when you attack, the particles, the sound effects, the ground that gets stained when you kill an enemy... All these little details are very important and contribute to make the user experience very pleasant.

> Colors that change each time you restart a game, it's great, it avoids too much repetition.

> There's one thing I didn't understand : how to switch between grappling hook and gun? I felt like I couldn't really control the action I wanted to do.

> Ideas for improvements : more musics, maybe more weapons, a shop...

> I think the game's a little too hard : we're running out of time too fast, and the enemies are hurting a little too much. Or maybe I'm the one who really sucks ahah Anyway, to improve this, I have a few suggestions : set the time back to maximum when you go to the next level, or make the enemies sometimes drop an item that add time.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this little game, good job =D

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback :D! Yeah, I'm aware that balancing and telegraphing the player what to do is some of the big faults of this game. If you look at what time I submitted it on, you can probably guess what happened XD. Should have probably made it more clear, but you can only choose one action in the beginning of the game by bumping into the icons. This should have been stated not only in the game, but in the itch.io site too. I just learned that you can edit your pages, so I'll just clarify some of the details in the description later. As for the difficulty, it was sorta intentional. During the final day of development, I still had problems balancing the time mechanic (it was either running out too fast or was never running out). I was afraid that people were only going to play it once and never find out about the color palette switches / explore the other options if the game lasted for too long, so I kinda just went with the harder difficulty on that one.

I plan on updating the game in the near future to add more features, fix bugs, and add some of the feedback gotten here from the comments, so I really appreciate the suggestions here! Thanks for playing!

Developer

Whoops, sorry. I was so tired yesterday that I forgot to put some credits in the itch.io page. I don't know if I can edit the page while the jam voting is still going on, so I'll just post them here and add it to the page after the jam is done.

THANKS TO:
Aron Granberg - A* Pathfinding Project (a nice flexible unity package)
https://arongranberg.com/astar/

Camellina - Rainy Hearts font (cool pixel art font used for some of the text in the game)
https://www.dafont.com/rainyhearts.font

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Cool game.. I like the music and grappling mechanic.. this is the best i can do with the grappling hook, when  I use the gun it also reduce the remaining time for me 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! It was my first time making music so I'm glad someone liked at least haha. The gun was supposed to be a sort of panic option where it would used to sort of deescalate some of the pressure from the enemies in more tense situations (costs a bit of the players time in order to avoid taking the -10 seconds if you were to get hit from the enemy). I couldn't really finish balancing the gun to that vision, so it isn't really that useful to use (as you can probably tell haha). 

Submitted(+1)

Was a fun game i liked it!

Developer

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

(+1)

Reached floor 5   :^)

W o w !

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Wow! Now thats epic ;)