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EMPTY HEARTBEAT's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art | #11 | 4.208 | 4.208 |
| Overall | #16 | 3.683 | 3.683 |
| Theme | #24 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Music | #24 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Gameplay | #27 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Fun | #29 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Great game! Sadly missed it during the jam.
I think one just needs more time to learn the controls. Maybe there should have been a longer training area where you jump, dash and attack boxes more to muscle memory that more. Also at least for me the hand placement is quite uncomfortable so close together. I would prefer something like attack = left mouse button, dash = right mouse button or shift, jump = space. That would be similar to Genshin which is like the only game I play regularly nowadays...
Also I had to look at the visual heart rhythm indicator at the bottom the whole time and could only follow the screen action out of the corner of my eyes during combat. Maybe that's just me being bad at rhythm games or the music really didn't help? Maybe a clearer metronome option for less musical people like me? Just as with 1-beat pacman of this jam: would be better if more of the screen has a visual indicator like a bloom/outline or shake/pulse and not just a binary on-off one but with an anticipation of the beat like 0, 0.5, 1, 0.5, 0 ... Or a smooth sine wave style clamped to 0.
nicely done, art and gameplay felt really polished.
though im not a fan of the controls, felt unintuitive at times. the enemy attacks felt a b1t unfair at times, and the attack matching the beat didnt feel very impactful as it lacked a proper feedback.
I was keeping track of your progress on this game from your posts on the discord, this game was one of my favorites to play through! I actually didn't mind the controls. Using z and x feels retro for the movement... I might just be used to it from other game jams?
It was fun to see the judges as bosses, SeeOne's art was awesome. The art style was fantastic, the stylized look really works with the 2 colors. Your utilization of the palette swaps was nice and brought a feeling of progression going from level to level. The only interruption I experienced while playing was when you heal, it gets rid of all the hits on the bar. I understand why this feature was added, but it was brutal during the tutorial at first!
Fantastic job on this one, had a great time playing through it. The music on level 2 was a banger
The game looks amazing – great graphics and the gameplay mechanics are top-notch. It's a lot of fun!
there is so much here for 1 week, it's crazy lol. i appreciate having multiple options for control schemes, but unfortunately neither one worked well for me to use; that was really the only thing that i had any issues with. i found myself pressing the wrong buttons all the way until i finished the game lol. also, i liked the difficulty!
So ambitious and impressive for the time. Really wish that the controls were simpler — too many verbs for keyboard controls in an action game IMO.
hmmm i assume this is about the inputs right? Alot of people commented on thst, can you tell me how to make it better :3???
Really detailed for the amount of time we had! Three levels and multiple enemy types and three songs is really impressive! The basics of the game feel really clean and smooth, it's really really solid all around once you get the hang of it. The difficulty curve is a little steep but it helps you pick up the game in the short amount of time we get with it.
I think the heartbeat concept kind of hinders the gameplay a little though. In games like Hollow Knight, there are already times where you're incentivized or disincentivized to attack by the enemy attack patterns or arena. For example when your flying boss is in the air or when you have attacks thrown at you. So filtering it through that extra level of "is my heart about to beat" is a bit awkward and it's really hard to focus on both at once. Hollow Knight x Crypt of the Necrodancer sounds like a dream and I see the vision, but I think it could have used some extra time to really blend those concepts together seamlessly.
yeaaa i couldve used more time def, ig there is a b1t jam postjam though so i mayyy polish it more :3, btw you dont actually need to hit the enemy to maintain your heartbeat combo and also missing doesnt give any megative effects, attacking when not on beat does but not attacking at all doesnt :3
Great game, I love the style!
Very fun game, I genuinely enjoyed playing through it. The boss designs and fights were well made, and the attack on heartbeat concept was really nice. I think a little audio cue on when you should attack could have been nice, but it still works.
The controls… yeah. I understand you can play using both configs, and I finished my run with WASD + JKL, but they felt very unintuitive to me. Better key placement, a rebinding menu, or controller support would’ve done wonders for this game.
The art is nice, the character portraits are well made, and the palette switching works very well too.
Some of the bosses’ attacks could be a bit more telegraphed (Misterdll’s dash was very hard to dodge, the gun-sword was annoying, and Blanket did not stop flying lmfao).
But overall, it’s a very good entry, really solid work!
lol the gun swords intended reaction was to juke him by dashing through him and hitting him behind, i am gonna do a no hit run video on all of them so ya :3,, and blankets intention was to aim up! and the rebinding menu.. i really didnt have any time its a 7 day jam and i was really busy sorry...
GUYS YOU CAN USE BOTH ARROW KEYS+ ZXC AND WASD+JKL TO MOVE!!!!!! its in the first screen on the first level :3DO NOT USE ARROWS + JKL OR WASD + ZXC THOSE COMBINATIONS BAD :(
The movement is confusing, keys for gameplay are so randomly put together, that you often just miss click them and then you need to start over. but overall game is good.
can you clarify? its just hollow knight but less movement options, also imo WASD +JKL and arrows + zxc is pretty standard
I don't really know how to describe it. I don't like blame you( never was a fan of hollow knight franchise) but personally for me movement was kinda hard and confusing :)
hmm what paltformers have you played? imo a simple move + jump and a dash isnt that confusing but alright!
I also found movement extremely confusing, if that additional data point helps you hear the feedback
hmmmmm, yea.... should i just remove the dash and heal? I think that adds alot of complexity, there is a b1t jam post jam so i will expand and fix this game more, thanks for the feedback!
Really cool game, great art and nice music, it does feel crushingly difficuly however.
Very polished game for a 1 week jam!
I like the pallet swaps feels right in this entry.
The bosses were hard,; but not hard to the point that I couldnt complete the game given a few attempts!
( Wondering if you as a dev managed to do a damageless run ;) )
So good job on that!
Few notes and things you could improve :
- Its possible to clip out of the map using the dash ability on lvl 1, this also allows you to skip some fights.
- A keybinds menu would do wonders in these types of games, but you did manage to show the correct label regardless of layout, ( even if it was a lil' hard to control on AZERTY )
- I think controller support would do well in this game too!
- having a visible hp bar on the bosses might be a nice2have too.
Overall really well made entry!
oo damagaless run yeqh actually! Dashig through bosses is op, ill record one and post it to the jam page!
Btw thanks for the feedback! Controller support was supposed to be added but i ran outta time!
nice artwork -fun game fits the theme but controls are confusing
heyyy whats confusing about it? / means or so you can either use c or l to dash etc
it says WASD to move I thought the W is for jumping but only A and D works and it jumps with Z it's not default for Qwerty keyboard
but... For was J to jump K to attack and L to dash both work dude
z or j to jump is in the first screen... well thanks dude for the rating, j is pretty default to qwerty cuz this is built for qwerty
fun game XD
I with it this game have controller support
I think it will be easier to control it with controller instead of keyboard
need time a bit to understand the controls XD
heyyy whats confusing about it? / means or so you can either use c or l to dash etc
hmm I think it's more about I don't accustomed with it
only realized after a while that it resemble a controller
Love the artstyle and polish of the game!
Had a bit problems with the movement, as it is pretty complex. (But that's not the game's fault xD)
I enjoyed this game, I like the concept but the controls were little confusing at first, I think slowly down the tutorial would be nice, great work overall, enjoyed it very much :D
where did you get on my game! :3
Cool game, the idea to sounds are great and the combat is just satisfying .
This was super fun! The controls threw me off a little at first, but once I got the hang of them, I was really into it. I actually felt like the tutorial boss was harder than the ones in levels one and two, which was unexpected. It’s a pretty challenging game overall, but in a good way. I kept wanting to play more just to see what the next level would look and sound like. The second level's soundtrack was my favorite — I was jamming too hard to focus B)
The visuals were great too, and some parts really reminded me of Hollow Knight, especially the room-locking fights and that enemy that felt like the lance sentry. Loved the enemy designs in general, they were super fun to look at. Really cool stuff! P.s my character's dialogue was scarily accurate.
Nice stuff-- didn't always feel like I was quite getting the on/off beat element but the combat was satisfying
if you attack on beat you lose hp, if you attack on beat you well attack +1 combo until you miss more combo = more damage