Was not expecting voice acting in a jam game! Very cool. I like the visual style though I had lots of things popping in and out in the background.
I got completely stuck at the start, had to look at other comments to learn about throwing the dagger at the lock. Its a bit annoying to have to do this repeatedly on the same doors, and in both directions.
Found the combat a bit frustrating, but very nice level of polish overall.
Thanks! Yeah a friend brought over a mic and helped me record the intro, so that's my voice. I learned a lot about sound this jam.
Yeah I couldn't figure out how to request from the game jam organizer how to upload a fix to the blacksmith dialogue after I got the initial comments. Sorry to hear about the annoyance. It was supposed to be an homage to Metroid, how you have to shoot the doors open every time. In testing I got really used to jumping and shooting the lock. I made sure that the next doors (which I didn't implement the skulls for) could be hit anywhere. I could have had the locks not reappear, I just didn't think of it because persistence was literally one of the last things I coded in on the last day so that the pickups wouldn't re-appear.
I'd love to hear what you found frustrating about the combat. This is only the second game jam where I've had enemies. Personally, I thought that the zombies were attacking a bit too soon, and perhaps should have had a slightly smaller hitbox so the player could time a strike first, instead of simultaneous.
I wanted to refine the jumping zombie boss too so that he had a more consistent pattern, but he was second-to-last day and I decided to say good enough and move on. He had about a dozen points on the map he could jump to and picks one at random that is visible to him and jumps whenever damaged or the player gets in his personal space. Maybe I just needed better level design.
If you're interested, I just put up a very comprehensive devlog: https://dragonforge-development.itch.io/eternal-echoes/devlog/968561/post-mortem...
