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A jam submission

In the Shadow of StarsView game page

Trapped on a distant planet, hiding from the toxic rays of a foreign sun, gather resources to withstand the light
Submitted by Salchworks — 19 minutes, 12 seconds before the deadline
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In the Shadow of Stars's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Playability#2584.0004.000
Artistic Style#4014.0004.000
Theme#6533.0003.000
Cleverness#7553.0003.000

Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Overall, decent game! Has potential to be a short-fun indie game on steam when fleshed out and completed! However as a game jam game its themeing is a bit lackluster on the shadowy side, the alchemy is there with the gathering and crafting of resources, but there is nothing that uses shadows as a mechanic. I would work on this more and expand on this on your own!

Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes

Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes

Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes

Tell us about your game!
This is a sci-fi roguelite where the player uses space-age alchemy to create a new power source to survive in the light of the star they are orbiting. Players need to manage resources and fight monsters to get upgrades to become more powerful and save their crew.

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Comments

Submitted

I wanted to like it, but it's too grindy. The cell batteries having the same sprite as the other type confused me, because I wasn't aware the inventory button was a button ( I thought it was labelling the bottom bar as inventory. ) I also was not aware you could melee enemies until much later. I'll try it again when you finish it.

Developer

Oh dang, I'm sorry you had those problems with it! It would be really frustrating without those features. Thanks for playing regardless

Submitted

The intro was really promising! I did find the gameplay to be a bit unclear. Like there seems to be so much to do at the same time that I didn't know where to start. The art style is nice, but there is so much polish to be done (hit animations for enemies to name one). And one more small thing, let me replay the dialogue of the starting NPC. I tend to skip it quickly but in this game you really need to read it. So give a stubborn player like me the chance to replay it :p 

But the concept stands, and your long list of bugs is a sign of the crazy big game you have made for this jam. Nice job! 

Developer

Thanks! The NPC is actually supposed to repeat his whole thing if you talk to him again. I'm still trying to figure out why that doesn't work right now. I appreciate you playing!

Submitted

This is quite a complex game, it has a really cool opening, a really nice plot, cool art and atmosphere, and lots to do.  Will definitely make a great full release game. It's a liiiittle grindy, but lots of people like working hard for their progress so that's not necessarily a flaw. Overall, I think it's terrific, good job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much! Your game is great too! It's super pretty and addicting! 

Submitted

Loving the sci-fi setting. The intro really builds some good atmosphere and the permanent eclipse is something I haven't seen before, but is a really cool idea. Good job!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted

Wow, I really enjoyed the title screen music! It's eerie and yet calming at the same time. The cutscenes are also really cool!

I share the sentiment of the others regarding the tutorial and grinding, so I'll list other aspects:

I really like the enemy designs, they're definitely on the creepier side of things. I also enjoy that you can outrun enemies and if you're far enough, they stop chasing you.

A suggestion I have would be to extend the collider that triggers melee attacks. It felt like I had to click super close to the player to use it, and it caused me to shoot my gun unintentionally at times. A melee attack to the other 3 directions (left, right, down) could also be a nice addition!

Another thing I noticed is that shots end up getting caught on enemy corpses. Noticed it when I'd have a group of enemies chasing me, would kill one in the front and attempt to shoot the others behind. My bullets wouldn't connect.

One thing I'll point out is that the game is able to create the dystopic ambiance and environment that it sets out to do. Things look desolate, the creatures are horrific and the music and ambiance helps to reinforce that, for sure.

Once you implement the rebalance, I can see this being super fun. Could also introduce different enemy types, places, amongst all sorts of things. The second area was definitely very pretty!

And don't be discouraged if things didn't turn out as you intended. You guys made a game and were able to submit it, so you're already winners in that department! It just needs a couple of tweaks that can elevate things a lot! 

Keep making stuff!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I showed your comment to our artist and musician, they loved the feedback! Dispite all the issues and how sad I feel sometimes that the player experience isn't exactly what I wanted right now, we are all super proud of what we've done. You're game is super cool too! I'm working through it right now and loving it, very fun. 

Submitted

Finally completed the game, nice one. I was originally not liking the game much, but somehow the grindiness caught on me and I am enjoying it till the end. The game design and graphic are nice, and the progression system is great too!

I just wanted more direction on what to do next, may be more dialogue or signs explaining the game a bit more? Especially during the late game where you fixed everything, I eventually did stumble across the light area and got some sunflowers, but it was more an accident rather than an ah-ha moment, which take away a bit of the excitement. I also miss clicked numerous time, trying to harvest but shoot instead, wasting precious energy. Probably changing key will do.

Anyway, I think you did a very good job on the game! Well done!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing, and for the feedback! I agree, the tutorial definitely needs work. I wanted to make it a step by step guide with more hints rather than a wall of text, but I ran out of time. I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed it, after the judging period ends I want to lower the cost of the repair components, it makes the start of the game way too long and I want people to be able to mess with the power cell mechanic.I just played your game and really enjoyed it! Super fun, I love puzzles. 

Submitted (2 edits)

The premise is neat, and I wanted to like the game a bit more, but I ran into a host of pain points along the way.

  • There seems to be a little too much information being thrown at the player from the start, presented by the Engineer’s speech. For example, it seemed a bit much being told what and where all the machines were when realistically all I needed to know was where the crafting table and drill were.
  • I found myself very frequently pressing the wrong button, firing a laser when I meant to use a melee attack or gather a resource node. I think it may have been better if these different options had unique controls, rather than all being on mouse. If you’re already using keyboard controls as well as mouse controls, I think E could have been used for interacting in general, and perhaps for Melee attacks if there was nothing to interact with.
  • Rather than forcibly respawning when firing one too many lasers, I feel the laser should just lock up, preventing you from ending your own survivability.
  • It took me one or two random deaths to realize that I had been taking contact damage from enemy corpses. I see that’s already on your list of known bugs, but I think it would have been nice if there was a bit more responsive feedback for taking damage, which would have helped me realize sooner that I was in danger. I could see, for example, a red aura filling the screen while taking damage or something as a simple way of doing that while continuing to allow the game to feel as free as it does movement-wise and hit-wise.
  • As far as audio goes, the home base music was pretty good, but the field music, although good, was comparatively a bit too loud. The sound effects were pretty good, though the drill sound loop bleeding into the field was a bit unfortunate.

Once I realized how to play around all the pain points (clicking my own character constantly for melee attacks and gathering, and kiting enemies vertically to get around the shifted hurtbox and inability to use melee attacks in any other direction), there was a pretty fun game to be had! The audio and visuals overall was pretty solid. I think if you polished up the issues above, made it easier to control, and added a bit more variation to each trip to the field, it would shine a lot more!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing, and for the feedback! You have some awesome suggestions that I'll totally implement, having the lazers lock up is brilliant, I've noticed a lot of people getting really confused with why they died at the start. It will also be much better to let the player use 'e' for melee attacks and resources outside too, I dont know why I didn't think of that. Having all these issues, especially the high cost of repair components and the lack of spiders make me feel really bad, but that's just what happens in such a short time span. 

Your game looks so cool! I'll definitely be checking it out. 

Developer

Hey everyone, we hope you enjoy! This is our first jam together as a team. Let us know what you think and be sure to show us any bugs you find!

Developer (2 edits)

Current bug list:

  1. Corpses near the player will continue to deal damage after the enemy dies
  2. Some dialogue from the Mechanic stretches outside the screen
  3. The player is sometimes unable to access the inventory menu near the Engineer
  4. The player can be soft-locked if they remove their original Power Cell before they make a new one
  5. Adding monster parts to the refiner multiple times deletes the parts added
  6. Spiders only spawn once when they should spawn in the base each time after a certain point (this is really, really bad)
  7. Bullets will be blocked by corpses even after they collapse
  8. The Engineer will say <Null> if you talk to him again after he is done speaking instead of repeating his dialogue. 
  9. The area to click for melee attacks is ambiguous
  10. The camera is off center in the second map