itch.io

This is a lot of fun! love it.

The card game was a blast! I enjoyed it a lot. The decisions were typically fairly simple, but it was still engaging. The dungeon exploration is sort of non-existent once you realize everything can be seen on the map (my own game had this problem too), but the movement felt good, and the gray dungeon looked fine.

Like others said, the story went by too quickly, but it seemed very appropriately creepy for the theme. I liked the design of everything, even if they didn't all fit together. The first encounter with something otherworldly in the basement was a thrill. 

The rock-paper-scissors combat has potential, but not in it's current state which is just entirely random. Maybe if you only had a limited number of each action, and you could see some hints about what the enemy might do.

The good: Nice use of three dimensions and multiple levels; nice, theme-appropriate story; a good amount of detail to the levels.

The bad: Falling through the floor; lots of empty space (needs more small enemies, and a better way to understand the grid); no sound?

The music was good, and the art style was interesting ... but I could not figure out what "square" I was on in the grid, so movement was very difficult. I got killed by a spike trap on the first run, and an enemy on the second run (on easy).

The web version took a long time to load and then went unresponsive. 😟

The game was very well balanced: mazes, the right amount of difficulty, the right amount of ammo. It was fun learning how to shoot through trees, and tactically withdraw in order to kill the bugs. I enjoyed the graphics and the sounds. A great entry!

A few things I'd like to see added: strafe movement; some additional graphics to make the world feel more intimidating (maybe a green sky so it feels like a radioactive wasteland?); some minor variation in graphics (trees, grass, dirt, stones) to help with navigation; some sounds for the bugs once they're aggro'd. The view angle seems a little off because I was frequently thinking I was further ahead, and would turn too soon.

Lots of fun!

Your video playthrough and feedback was great! Thanks so much for doing that. I was impressed at how you figured out the mechanics and beat the game on the first try.

Thanks for playing, and for the feedback. I had a heal/repair functionality planned, but didn't have time for it. And didn't know how to implement it without spoiling the reveal that you are actually a robot (of sorts). This health is high enough to make the game beatable, but it probably requires two playthroughs -- which is bad design for a jam game.

Your web implementation works great (curious how you got a C++ custom engine to run in the web). I think you'd be better off keeping it web-based, and spending your effort on the engine and game, rather than bothering trying to work around Windows scanning and signing.

There are definitely game-breaking graphical glitches in Chrome and Firefox in Windows for me. Another game I played that was made with Construct had the same problem. (If not everyone is seeing them, maybe it's video card dependent?)

That said, the graphics I did see looked really cool. The hand is nice, the fire is gorgeous, and it all fits together nice. The sound is also good. There's some talent here; I hope you can use a different engine for next time.

In Chrome in Windows I can see all the cubes of the world, including the blackness of the other spaces across the whole map, piled on each other. It's like weird psychedelic x-ray vision.

The sounds were superb! (Did you make them or find them?) I liked how your god and the enemies were all abstract - it added some mystery, uniqueness, and otherworldliness. The atmosphere and graphics were also nice, and the combat was a really interesting mechanic.

Some things that could be improved: More than one texture for the walls to make areas feel more unique. Some kind of health system so you don't lose the first battle you mess up on. (Jam rules require "some basic stats".) Slightly less bobbing when standing still would be nice; I thought I was drunk at first.

You could add some additional rooms with enemies that also move in a regular, repeatable pattern. The gameplay is just how well you can recognize the pattern and avoid each enemy.

I love the homemade-looking drawings (something I also did), and the music, and the refreshing outdoor town environment. Combat was simple but very satisfying due to the sounds and animation.

Yes, I drank all potions and disturbed anything I found. 😊 This is one of the few games that I beat. A really great entry.

Like others have said, the movement was satisfying. Also the wall texture was nice; I just wish there was a little variety so I could tell some hallways and rooms apart from each other. I liked the somber background music, but the combat music clashed too much in comparison.

Sadly, I got lost, and the music and lack of keyboard support made me eventually drained my sanity away. I like the basic core of this. If you keep working on it, please add keyboard support and a mini-map.

I would not advise people to add an exclusion to their virus protection! I ran this in the browser, and following your instructions I was able to move around. I like the graphical style and movement. Maybe next year (or the in the time between) this can become a game.

Graphical issues make the dungeon seem like a fun-house mirror hallucination, which is mostly unplayable. The cut scene dialog is a nice touch, but is so slow that I wanted to skip it. The themes are entirely missing.

That's most games.

I was definitely missing the ability to move backwards and strafe whenever I saw the spiders coming towards me. It's a neat game, although once I figured out the gameplay, the challenge was mostly just that my visibility wasn't great. I definitely enjoyed the simple, retro graphics.

Thanks for the kind words. How would improve the UI?

It is possible to beat (by me at least), but maybe requires knowing the route with the least enemies. It you want help, press "m" and you can see the map which allows some looking around corners.

Sorry, no way to gain health -- just didn't have time to implement something for that. My last game had healing on every wait, which had the complaint of being too easy. I may have swung too hard the other way. 

The tip I can give is that you don't need to kill every monster, so stay out of dead ends on a second run-thru.

Thank you so much for the thorough analysis write-up, and the video. I couldn't hear the sound though?

Your feedback hit a lot of things that I was also concerned about.

• Dying randomly by one hit -- that's definitely no fun. I thought: At least the game is quick to restart.
• Commanding only the leader was an early decision I made in hopes to make it feel more roguelike (and to satisfy a Berlin low value factor). If it was just a 4X, and not a 4XRL, I would definitely have you control any unit.
• The resources don't spawn until the game gets going. I think that means the initial world feels bare, and makes it harder to get started.
• I can't reliably reproduce that bug, but I have seen it. Work-around is to stay still for a few turns. Edit: I (think I) fixed this bug in v1.0.2.
• Those verbs are totally confusing! I don't know why I insisted in keeping them there.

Thanks again!

Yes, this is all true! It's open source though, so anyone is welcome to improve it.

Thanks for playing and recording that. Glad you persevered and got into space!

This is a great rendition of the game and good way to preserve history. I can't imagine how much paper would be wasted playing this IRL.

The mobile version's keyboard gets cut off on most narrow screen widths.

This game is gorgeous!

Great game!

I love the art style, but I got stuck on one of the hills before I could get enough wood. Also, technically the game isn't 64x64 resolution.

I agree with Raccoon. Seems like a good idea for a jam, but the jam page is so empty -- not even links to previous jams. It's unclear how this will be more fun than any other jam out there. Since historically there's been between 2-26 entries, it shouldn't be too many to get a someone to Let's-Play them all.

I looked over the odds for ratings:

• Zero = 16.7% chance of 1 success
• 1 = 37% chance of 1 success
• 2 = 61% chance of at least 1 success (a "partial"), 14% chance of 2 successes (a "full")
• 3 = 76% of at least 1, 32% chance of 2
• 4 = 85%, 48%
• 5 = 90%, 61%
• Etc.

If you want characters to feel a bit more like experts at the start, then it would be good to allow them to take one or two aspects at 3, 4, or 5.

Thank you for the excellent, detailed feedback!

Some answers...

1. I might have to tweak the odds of leveling up aspects. My hope was that a rating of 2 was significant enough to feel somewhat skilled, and that since each player has unique skills they'd feel special. Would moving some of the ratings to 3 help? Did players spend XP for the +1 (which should help activate "growth")?
2. Risk dice are a draw with respect to the odds of success. They just make the roll more "swingy" -- more chance of a rare success or a big failure, but otherwise same odds of success. (Edit: I was wrong about how this works in v0.8, but I made this true with v0.9!) The Danger Offering is definitely not great odds, but is meant as a something to try when you're in dire straits, similar to Blades in the Dark's Devil's Bargain. I suppose both of these could be removed to keep the game more focused. (Edit: Removed Danger Offering in v0.9)
3. The wording is confusing. New Aspects that you gain will start at 1, but any unknown/un-owned Aspects are treated as a rating of zero (can only be rolled with d6 risk dice).
4. I need a better way to describe this, but the idea is that defying danger has the same odds as other rolls, and to defy is completely really requires 2 successes. I might change all the language to: 2 success dice = full success, and 1 success dice = partial success.
5. A supplement would be great. 😃
6. For items that add effectiveness, I was thinking it would be handled purely narratively by giving out worse conditions ("mangled limb", "deep wound", etc.). If you hit someone with a sword they're more likely to be taken out of combat than if you just hit or pushed them, for instance. Adding an extra die to the roll has the disadvantage of making growth less likely.

What browser are you using? It works for me on desktop Chrome, and it is even visible (but not playable) on Firefox Mobile app.

Does anyone know of mods that have been made for bitsy? I'm curious if there's a standard way to implement them. All I could think of is rewriting the `_update` method.

This was way more fun than it has the right to be. A 'clicker' game combined with a retro FPS - weird combo. I actually completed the game, and enjoyed it. The sound glitches were absolutely terrible though.

"Quit this game" it told me. Phew! The music was almost great, but too loud and sounds were too chaotic. Maybe not by accident. I'm not sure if I should be dying faster ...or trying to avoid death?

I couldn't get this to start. Looks interesting though.

Agree 100% with Borna's comments below!