Gameplay - 6/10 Introductory objectives (i.e. find a weapon, find a vendor) would have been handy. Clicking menu items launches the game, and hitting ESC to go back doesn't work in chests, and seems to launch the pause menu in Vendors. Every step seems to cause damage, discouraging exploration of bigger rooms. It was common for me to get several vendors in a row with over-costed items which would get me killed because of the footsteps causing damage, that mechanic may make it unbeatable. After getting some equipment and finally fighting the first boss, there is some skill expression in back pedaling to dodge attacks and finding better equipment and healing items can feel rewarding at times. It plays similar to the old "first person" games from DOS/Win 3.1 era and I really enjoy that about the art direction.
Atmosphere - 8.5/10 The sprites do a great job of creating a gloomy visual and though the tiles and walls are repetitive, the overall visuals tie together nicely. The music matches the retro vibe, sounding like a "cleaner" version of the older DOS/CLI games of the 80's and early 90's, shifting to match the pace of the combat and general exploration. Vendor music would have been nice.
Overall - 7.5/10 - The core concepts and mechanics are there but there are some game breaking issues.
Viewing post in The Path of Ruin jam comments
Hey that for playing our game. Hopefully this clairify somethings and I can bounce some ideas off you to improve my game.
The object was to reach the boss room before your stamina zeroed out. I assumed the UI covered that but maybe I should have added NPC to talk to player and tell them stuff in the starting room.?
" seems to launch the pause menu in Vendors" I relplayed the game and wasnt able to access the pause menu will talking to shop owner is this a bug or am I miss reading this.
Esc should work on chest... the player should be forced to choose item before continuing. Its like vampire surives upgrade system or other roguelites.
As far as the "discouraging exploration" trap room have chest that are gold focused (used for shop). Monster room I believe has one chest hidden that focus mainly on weapons (with different weapon pools). Starting room chest I think has everything. I comes down to figure if you have enough stamina to risk killing an emey to gain gold or look for a chest to get another weapon.
webgl version doesnt like ecape button. Right mouse click let you go back in the shop menu as well.. if you getting stuck.
Next build I'll make it wont show you the same room twice in a row (it was on the todo list). After reading your post I considering disabling stamina damage in shop rooms. Also there 10-12 room before the boss and currently there is only 7 to choose from (not including boss and starting); so more room will help the game feed bigger. I am also conidering have a stamina station in the shop that a one time use and give you 20 points. There a healing potion basically help you win the game that will be nerfed as a one time thing (or x5 then it gone). Also strafe is an easy addition and wasnt added because of the equipment button placements. Also movement bug should be fix next build.
if you any gameplay improvement please let us know. We would love to hear back from you.