As other people already pointed out, this isn't really a metroidvania, it's more of a "Vampire Survivors" kind of game, but hey it's still a pretty solid one at that. I like the atmosphere and the enemy designs, and the bosses also have very cool patterns to dodge so they're pretty fun, at least the 2 ones I found that is.
The node system is also an interesting twist, I bet there could be some pretty crazy builds and fancy skilltree mosaics you could do on it, and it's definitelly super creative. However, I didn't see much reason to not just do a straight line to the next big upgrade like the poison dash and bullet split, and the order the game processes the nodes didn't seem to really matter either (I mean, there are nodes that does stuff in percentages, but honestly, the numbers are all so minimal that I don't think optimizing the best positions to put them would actually make much of a difference instead of just throwing them into the end of the conga line).
I didn't really bother playing to the end sadly, because dying and restarting from zero is very unforgiving, not to mention every single time I died, it was to a laser I didn't see coming. I did notice the little red arrow telegraph you added to the laser attacks from enemies, and that's appreciated, but since they're so small, and the screen is usually flooded with enemies they definitelly weren't enought, since I could barely see them most of the times.
Also, the game takes a little way too long to actually get fun to play. This may be my personal unfamiliarity with the genre, but the one single Vampire Survivors kind of game I played (A mobile one called "Clean Earth Project" iirc) had pretty much the same starting point, with the char being kinda slow and having a single shot with a lot of cooldown, but it gets way more fun way more quickly because the upgrades actually felt like they did something, even the ones that are barely stat-ups actually increase like, 10% of that stat when minimun. So I think what you should've done would be to either have stronger stat buff/debuff nodes, or more nodes that actually did something special (like the one that gives you extra bullets according to how much max hp you have, I think that one was really neat, and it also actually worked pretty well with the thing of putting the nodes on the right places, since you gotta be sure it comes after every node that increases hp and before every node that decreases it. Honestly, now that I think about, I think that might be the one best designed node on the game.)
The way the game progresses right now kinda forces me to grind for nodes in order to actually beat any of the bosses, since they're both a little too tanky (wich is not a huge problem per say, since that's usually the norm on this kind of game, and their patterns are also pretty fun despite the sometimes poorly telegraphed lasers.) and there's also always a lot of enemies around them to tank your bullets too, so I either grind before the boss, or I end up grinding during the boss accidentally anyway lol (wich actually wouldn't be a bad thing at all if the nodes had effects that are a little more significant.)
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Gods Penumbra's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #35 | 3.083 | 3.083 |
| Design | #38 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Presentation | #65 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Overall | #68 | 2.625 | 2.625 |
| Metroidvania | #111 | 1.583 | 1.583 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Unity
Team/Developer
Zerschnetzloar
Comments
Thank you very much for your comment!
I personally think aswell that the variety of nodes is overall to small. My main balancing problem was that to complex nodes push the complexity and accesibility of the game very quickly. Furthermore a friend who playtested the game, was in the beginnning able to outfarm the whole game in 5 min oneshotting everything. The trick of getting through the game easily in the current state of the game, is to make very important nodes count multiple time, by placing them in a spiral like shape (so you can make them count 2 times before the first boss, and up to four times after the third boss, etc.). In the version i am trying to remake in Godot 4.0 I am trying to get rid of the multiple count mechanic, because it seems to be unaccesible, instead I want to improve my node creation workflow and include more branching nodes and nodes with more active and unique effects.
I see, I see.
That thing about making the node to count multiple times actually sounds pretty interesting, I probably would have done that too if I actually tought on that.
I think you shouldn't get rid of it, instead try embracing it, since this is actually a very clever way to strategize with the node queue. The only problem I assume would be that it may be a bit difficulty to balance that out tho...
But hey, it's your game, you don't need to do what I tell you to do, I'm only giving biased suggestions x)
Even though the game doesn't fit completely in the metroidvania genre, I think it's a cool game. Good job!
The node based upgrade system it's very interesting and fun to fiddle with! I think the game it's really fun, although I think you could make it a bit faster from the start (enemies and attacks be a bit faster)
I didn't really saw how this one fits into the metroidvania genre though, which would be my biggest complain about it. But ignoring that it's a very solid game with very good potential.
I must admit that the metroidvania elements are not obvious at all, since there are no typical metroidvania elements on the map. But you could theoretically defeat the bosses not in the main order, unlocking certain parts on the node board much earlier + the unique nodes are are meant to represent new abilities.
I think this game is quite interesting. I like the visual style and the particle effects. I think the idea of building up the abilities from nodes is cool. The attack was a bit slow for my taste, and I struggled to find direction in the game. But cool stuff!
Nice, stark visual design. Quite original in theme and presentation.
A few suggestions for improvements:
Although I appreciate the minimalism, it would have been nice to have at least a bit of background features.
The attack felt too slow. Enemies tended to accumulate even when I was focusing on combat.
It would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to open the menu, especially since the mouse is used for aiming.
Cool game! I haven't seen any upgrade systems like this before with selecting the order that buffs get accumulated, but I like the strategy it adds. Unfortunately, I encountered a bug where the game froze after closing the upgrade menu. I fixed it by clicking resume from the pause menu, but then I couldn't reopen the upgrade menu for the rest of the run. Besides that, I thought the game was well done. There's good variety in the bosses, the aesthetic is simple but looks good, and as I mentioned the upgrade system adds an interesting layer to the gameplay. Nice work!
Thank you for that comment. If many people like the idea of the upgrade system I am planning on rebuilding the game in Godot as a longer and more serious project. Unity seems to be a bit limitating when it comes to creating dynamic UI-Systems. Unfortunetaly two scripts of the game broke for no reason when I made the OpenGL build in Unity, meanwhile the game works completely fine in the engine itself. Propably the time has come to leave Unity behind.
Things I Like:
- appears to be an interesting mini game of setting up your abilities
- consistent art style
- in game explanation of controls
Things I Would Change:
- couldn’t find the metroidvania aspects, only the bullet-hell game-play
- better UI for setting up the abilities, was very unclear
- increased base RoF
Broken Stuff:
- n/a
The metroidvania aspects are that the boss order is completly free, so you can unlock certain game changing abilities on you node board completly out of order. I must admit though that the map itself could be more involved in the metroidvania part of the game. (this is game is much more focused on the mechanics) Thank you very much for your comment.
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