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Steps of the Fallen's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #4 | 4.656 | 4.656 |
| Audio | #14 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #28 | 3.732 | 3.732 |
| Originality | #29 | 3.906 | 3.906 |
| Theme | #38 | 3.969 | 3.969 |
| Controls | #47 | 3.438 | 3.438 |
| Accessibility | #65 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Fun | #68 | 3.156 | 3.156 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.4.1
Wildcards Used
All: Are We the Baddies?, Side Effects Uncludes..., and A Capella
Game Description
Send mercenaries on dangerous expeditions!
How does your game tie into the theme?
You send parties on expeditions and hope they come back with spoils of war.
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
Kaishido, InVeRnyako, Taylor
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
30+
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Comments
This was neat! The art was cool and everything generally felt very cohesive.
I didn’t realize items were an option until I saw the other comments here and then took them into account. It felt like the success rate bar was trying to tell me that I needed to significantly up my stats but I didn’t see a great way to do that. It was never clear to me if it was possible to get new party members, or generally how to gauge the risks involved, so I think I kept waiting for a clearer sign. I think the player would need to feel a bit more free to make mistakes in that regard before they would really engage with that system enough to figure out the best paths forward (at least given my experience and what I’ve seen from skimming through the comments a bit).
I also wished that something other than the mouse button was mashed as I found that a bit awkward with my specific mouse.
There’s a really solid foundation here, though, for a complex game that requires you to really consider your actions. Nice job!
I didn't really find it necessary to use any items, but that might just be because of my epic clicking skills (just kidding).
Besides that, I really loved the art style, and the music fits well with the vibe!
Love the little character portraits! Very clean work.
Artwork was immersive and clean. Well done.
Audio did its job, no more and no less.
Gameplay involved taking a set of people according to their stats to achieve a success rate high enough that you don't miss too much in the masher part of the cycle. Items exist that create sacrifices to consolidate these stats.
In my own playthrough, I did not interact with the items as I felt they were too risky. Once I got to Azure Cave (9 success rate pips), I could not get through with 4/9 success rate, and so that's where it ended.
Each encounter has a major stat (shown) and a minor stat (not shown). In the starter set for mercenaries, you can always get 4 pips of success rate for 3 mercenaries.
If I were to play again, I would interact with items as soon as I could in order to consolidate as much as possible into 3 people, one for each stat. Would this necessarily result in victory? No, but it would get me a lot closer.
Hi and thanks for playing :D
You are almost correct about stats, but there’s one important detail you seem to missed / forgot / decided to not mention ;)
Underuse of items happens to be common theme, but at this dark path you have to give something to get something. Almost none, of whom I’ve seen playing, used items at first run. Personally, I see that as win for item design.
Hope you had fun playing and thanks for detailed feedback.
Artwork is absolutely astounding. Took a hot minute to understand what i was supposed to be doing, but once it clicked, i really enjoyed it!
Great atmosphere, GJ all.
Phenomenal art and super clean UI. I was a bit lost at places and would have loved some tooltips to explain some icons. Really enjoyed playing the game!
Nice work! The atmosphere is so good. I’m skeptical of the success rate, I went into a harder level with it full and got cah-rushed so hard. To be fair I’m not sure I could actually get far without my hand cramping up, or maybe I’m just doing it wrong :P
The art is fantastic! The UI design feels very intentional and polished throughout. Good music, too. I experienced friction figuring out what I'm supposed to do at first, and then also with the party member assignment. I ended up getting impatient after a few easy victories and tried for a harder fight without items. My entire party died :-P. Another reviewer mentioned cheesing a fight with multiple-finger clicking, but that only seemed to make me miss/die faster. Either way, I enjoyed my time playing.
Congrats to the team on this gorgeous submission!
Amazing art and sound design! It was a good experience all together with a few minor complications.
The toggle click UI behavior took some time to get used to, and I'm not sure I was completely comfortable with it at the end.
It was great fun trying to pick apart how the mechanics work, but as we discussed, it may not be appealing to a large population of gamers. Consider having a codex or option to enable tooltips.
For the Loaded Dice, mentioning that it effects immediately and some type of audio/visual feedback would be very helpful.
The core combat mechanic requires mashing a button in a way that can't really be replaced by a Press & Hold control. Just be aware that this excludes a population of gamers that have motor control issues or are prone to repetitive stress injuries.
The game does have a possibility to lock the player out of further meaningful gameplay, usually this would trigger a game over screen and send them back to the title
During the stream we had a good discussion about how a player could dead end their run. If the end of a game is expected, the game over screen would prevent the user from thinking the run is salvageable. If it was salvageable, consider that the resources in the game are finite.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2464249643?t=0h26m26s
Thank you again for playing.
I was honestly surprised by some of UI issues you got at hero select screen, never seen that in anyone’s gameplay. But, that’s something I plan to fix post voting period, so thanks for making me aware of this issue.
Personally, I’m not sure about end screen. I’ve seen players just stop at preparation screen, looking at dead heroes. That pause of combination of “what now” and “oh no” fillings atmosphere seemed way more emotional than any end screen. Imo, good game should bring emotions. And bad feeling of fail will only amplify enjoyment of winning. You can always try again, if you want. And I fits lore, since you, as leader, are still alive.
As for button mash, I agree that some players will not be able to fully enjoy that part of the game, but that okay. In perfect world - would be great to have mechanic that would be both enjoyable for someone looking for skill challenge and someone who physically unable to use that skill. But I don’t see how that would be possible. And I’m personally against cutting out part of the game because some of players don’t/can’t enjoy it.
“A game for everyone is game for noone” (Arrowhead motto)
Special thanks for streaming your experience and sharing your opinion. It’s best form of feedback to ask for.
Thanks for the play and the feedback - you're absolutely right about adding audio cues to the item effects!
I was able to progress pretty smoothly thanks to the time I spent watching Odenhir play the game last night. The game is telling me I won, but the party died so I don't know what to make of it! This game has in my opinion, among the few games I played, the best looking pixel art and the best sounding acapella audio. On the game design side, the way you only have access to items with pretty costly side effects made for a very interesting experience. The only gripe about my time playing was having to wait a bit too long before each fight, then having to mash the left mouse button.
Very well done everyone!
If you did see win screen - you won, since you finished final mission. No matter the price :)
Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed the game
appreciate the compliments on the sound! Thanks for playing
Such a gorgeous game! Great palette, extremely beautiful pixel art and delicious sound design. I clicked my way through the first three locations, but I have to admit that if I didn't read other comments I would have not figured out there were items. It still took me a little bit to find where to buy them even with the knowledge. I guess the stats are rock-paper-scissors and there's some contributing and some subtracting from the success rate? With that (potentially wrong) realization and items on my side, I went to end the demon straight away. I condemned to death 3 of my heroes by drugging them and doubling their stats, while turning the only surviving one (with bad stats for the task) into a chaos imp, the only survivor incapable of telling the tale of the heroic sacrifice of their companions. Grim!
Impressive work, well done! @Kaishido, I'm now a fan.
Thank you for playing and finishing the game :D
I was a bit worried about shop button been not obvious, but decided that rewards should be noticeable hint, that player could spend it somewhere.
Glad you enjoyed it. (I’m also now fan of Kaishido :D )
very fun
Very good game, awsome atmosphere. The menus, and interface are superbe, the art style is great and fits well the the general vibes. I don't think I can add any more relevant comment to what has already been said in the previous comments ^^ I just had trouble understanding the stats mechanic at first, but it gets clearer thanks to your well implemented game design.
Well done !
Great experience, and very polished!
The art was amazing with a great tone and style.
The controls/ mouse clicks felt nice and responsive.
Sound was ominous and fitting.
I love the art of this game, especially the use of color palettes and the contrast of elements of the game. Character looks great and the mechanic is fun as well. However, I was able to cheese the final fight with no item because I switched to clicked the mouse with multiple finger. Interesting concept and beautiful game.
Thank you your review and special thank you for finishing the game :D
Will try to do something with balance post voting period to prevent that cheese. Personally, would prefer player to have to use at least some items during their progression to beat final level.
Still glad you enjoyed it :)
I like the art style but I didn't expect it to be a clicker game
It’s not :)
The art and sound really shine!
Really amazing visuals and thematic. Reminded me the "slice and dice" visually and I love that game. Thematically similar to my game but definitely different genres. Items suited the wildcard with %100 precision but that made me not want to buy anything until my party got massacred XD
I was drawn to this by the cover art and wasn't disappointed. The art direction and visual presentation of this game is amazing. I really like how cohesive the UI elements are, which is crucial for such a UI heavy game.
The game design was solid too. The explorers each had their strength and constraints, and the items' double-edged design forced players into making non-straightforward tradeoffs (great implementation of the wildcard!)
Was playing off a laptop, so the combat mechanic wasn't ideal for me. Small nitpick might also be the accessibility angle for players with limited dexterity. But I do find the concept of ramping difficulty of clicks against predicted outcomes of success.
Ambience was also aptly set, with the clear acapella theme in play here. Having new, intensified music as we draw closer to the final boss would make it even more amazing!
A very well-rounded submission! Great work to the team!
A really good vibe and art direction. However I feel like the whole button mashing resolution for expedition does not really help the gameplay. You seem to have designed an interesting system with the item mechanics but from a new player perspective, it feels like only the button mashing matters.
Anyway it was a good experience. Well done
Hi, thank you for your comment
Balance goal was to make button mashing non-trivial, so player feel engaged to mash harder. Seen some people play it, I can safely say that goal is reached.
On other hand that might get a feeling that it’s overwhelmingly important part of gameplay, specially at early stages of game. We tried our best for that to not be actual case.
And some players just hate ButtonMashing (reasonable and understandable), can’t do much with that.
Glad to know you still had fun playing