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Thul The Barbarian (Metroidvania Game Jam Entry)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #7 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Execution | #19 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Sensory | #26 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #26 | 3.550 | 3.550 |
| Metroidvania | #42 | 2.900 | 2.900 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Unity
Team/Developer
Daitomodachi Labs
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Comments
Posted these comments on Discord, but I'm reposting here in case those are taken down. Apologies for the long text bubbles.
Nice short experience, from what i played. The 'initial' camera sensitivity feels a tiny bit small for my liking, but there is a setting for that, so that isn't really a problem. I like that the combo system rewards using different moves, and things such as the projectiles being deflectable with a block. Making health being regenerated as you deal damage to encourage aggressive gameplay was a nice touch. I think I hear a small sound to telegraph enemy sword swings, but I would prefer if it was louder, so that that way it is easier to tell when to block. This is especially nice if you can block while 'surrounded' (I haven't experimented enough to determine if this is the case or not). Making the fellas that shoot fireballs taunt you afterwards is also a nice and charming touch.
The wall climb is also a nice touch. Pretty easy/intuitive to trigger, since you just need to adjust where you are looking, yet also constrained to keep the player from climbing up entire skyscrapers (I'm about 90% sure it is time based. could see a lot of combat potential in this, especially based on the challenge rooms)
The only part of the game that is a bit buggy to me, is the text boxes. The actual text inside them is pretty nice, and using capitalization or alternate styles to emphasize words and emotions is cool. But I had a few times where the dialogue box would freeze/wouldn't let me continue, which required me to restart the game, including the first time I got the axe. My guess is that this is due to a value or state switching at the wrong time, or the same input being read twice, leading to the textboxes getting stuck. It might or might not be related to the ability to make the text show up if you press the button again, while it is still writing (which is a nice feature). (edited)
I think there might also be at least one set of doors where if you enter it, you are left facing the door you just came from, which can lead to confusion or loops where you enter a room, forget to let go of forward, and then run back into the room you just left.
Still, very cool game, and the challenge room idea is pretty great. Adds some reward for exploration without making players that just want to unlock more movement upgrades or the next ability wait.
Why am I so small? Is Thul a short king? Who knows? Maybe the necromancer was a giant. Now it makes sense why Thul would not be able to please her.
This was great. Short and sweet. Feels like a complete game aside from some polish. Menus are nice too. Good art. Funny dialogue. Agree that the announcer feels un-needed. I could never rack up a combo that was good but hey, maybe I'm trash. Combat was a little same'y, wish there was more than one swing animation because it could add that illusion of more variety of attacks without having to do much in terms of actual gameplay. Maybe a charged swing? Steal that idea.
Overall - 8.9/10 (for a jam that's good)
Nice! Parrying and healing are obviously inspired by Ultrakill (which is a plus in my book) and make the game super fun to play. People have already commented on all the good parts, so I don’t have much else to add in that regard. I’m just going to list what I think could be improved:
Other than that, this was a very fun experience and I’d love to see more!
Yeee! Thanks for the feedback! We'll try to fix them for the longer demo version!
This was so cool, I love the style and the writing, great job! Also it's really satisfying whacking away at your enemies, really good job on the effects and animations. It was really hard for me to judge how close I was to the blades running through the blade gauntlet, maybe like a scratch mark on the ground or something would help on timing your way through. Or maybe it's my depth perception lol been playing too many 2d games!
Cool concept ! Vibe of the game is neat, artstyle is very cute. For a gamejam project, this is great ! Fighting is good, but it would require some polish after gamejam, especially kicking, and enemy distancing, because i was sometimes too close to glitch through their face :D Overall, pretty great, I'll be looking for updates !
Yeee! Thanks for the feedback! We're planning on doing a longer demo around the summer and taking all the feedback we can get for this! Hope you enjoy what we have planned!
Fun melee combat that feels good, and it being first-person really makes it stand out. I looooove the art style. Environment art is a little repetitive, but that's not a huge issue for a jam. Character feels kinda too short? Or everything else feels very big.
Nice work overall!
Yeee! Thanks for the feedback! Will keep trying to improve from here!
Hello,
The game is really nice and genuinely fun to play :D Gameplay is really polished and I like the 90s FPS feeling. This is a very solid entry to the jam.
I would just appreciate more variety in the color palette of the walls and ground instead of grey most of the time. I think this would allow for better player orientation and enjoy exploration more.
Congratulations!
Cheers
PS: don't hesitate to play our game :)
That was very fun, I always love me some ultrakilling.
I also specially love the interactions between Thul and Kromgar, now those are two goofballs I wanna see more misadventures of ngl. Also, the fact the dialogue of pushing the switches changes depending on wheter you interacted with the door or not was chef's kiss, that's the kind of detail I really appreciate x3
Voice acting is also always a big surprise on a game jam, even if it's just an announcer, so that gets a plus too.
Gameplay is also top tier as other people already mentioned, altought I do have a few nitpicks, like the fact you can't cancel the attack animation in order to guard, so even if I am fast enought to react in theory, I still take damage because thul was still with his arm stretched from the previous swing (This is not an actual issue tho, it can work as an actual mechanic, and it's just a matter of learning the timings really). I would also have liked better if the stamina meter was shown somewhere near my crosshair on the center of the screen, it was hard to tell wheter I had stamina or not while I was surrounded since I had to take my eyes out of the mess for that. It's also really easy to get backstabbed by enemies and projectiles you don't see, so some sort of radar indicating wheter there is something approaching from behind you or not would have been really welcome as well. I think the spikes on that one room also felt a little off tbh, I took damage by just staying near them, imo that kind of wall hazard should only do damage when I'm activelly touching the wall they're in, or I'm inside them enought for their models to cover my screen, and same goes for the swinging axes tbh, I personally think those kinds of hazards on first person games should only deal damage when they're actually visible on-screen, if that makes sense. (Granted, I never made a first person game before lol, nor do I play lots of them)
Skill issue aside, behold, gaemplay vid!!!
(I played it 3 times because I was trying to beat Kases's record, so you don't need to see all of it. I didn't manage to, but now that I discovered where the challenge room 1 is I might try again later if I'm still feeling competitive, who knows)Awesome and thanks for the feedback! I'm thinking about working on a post jam update and going to try to add the feedback you mentioned to it! Hope you enjoy more of what we're planning to do with Thul and Kromgar.
Peak Ultrakill gameplay, but melee.
i did think the Gravity was a bit floaty, while having a low Jump, but that was about my only gripe,
Great Job!
Thanks and yeah the jump is very floaty. I'm going to see if I could edit it in a post jam update as long as I have the time. Either way, glad you still enjoyed it!
This game was AMAZING! My little ultrakill brainrot heart is pleased <3
The movement is just fantastic, every aspect of it, at most I would've asked for some more vertical options, since the player jump is kind of weak and doesn't do anything. Everything else is a blast! Axe feels great to swing around, and as soon as I figured out the parry it was sublime.
I just really wished that it was longer. The potential here is off the charts, combat is such a joyful experience. Please expand on this game, add more rooms and more enemies, it's great.
Good job!
Yo! Thanks for the feedback and it's great to hear that the game wasn't a complete mess despite areas of improvement.
The team and I will defo think about expanding the game with a longer version while fixing glaring issues that are present in the game jam version.
Hope you enjoy what we have coming