itch.io

After a few messages and some consideration, I've changed the format of the game around to remove the campaign from this playtest and center the game around freeform puzzles and allowing all difficulty levels, as mentioned in this post:

https://ilyos-games.itch.io/byelimination/devlog/1614604/game-format-update

Thank you to those that have played and messaged me so far!

Heya folks,

I'm looking for a playtest on my logic/deduction game, based on the Einstein puzzle and framed around various murder mystery scenarios. Mostly looking to know if the game feels okay, if the puzzles are okay and make sense and are solvable, if the UI feels alright.

There's five levels in the campaign available (with the full campaign having 15 ranging from cozy to hard difficulty) and a free play mode where you can play randomly created medium/hard puzzles, in case you want to test various other setups.

Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks

https://ilyos-games.itch.io/byelimination

Played through the demo, loved it! Died a couple of times, but overall the difficulty felt good. Not sure if I found all the hidden things and puzzles, there were a couple of times when the ghost hinted there might be something there but I might've missed it.

Is there a timeline for release or updates?

Fantastic entry. I really think this type of mecha control and mechanics work well with a grid based dungeon crawler. The mech itself is super super charming as is everything about the game. I loved the level of detail put into every little thing from animations to enemies and puzzles. Had quite a lot of fun with it. Didn't finish it in the first run, as I died eventually after being trapped in between two fish warriors. I am going to give it another go.

Oh, the level design is A+ as well, good job on the exploration and variety on the map.

A very unique combat mechanic and quite humorous. I ended up "preloading" my chords and just hitting the last key i the sequence when engaging the mob. I -didn't- do that with the dragon and died :( 

Enjoyed the roguelike upgrades in between floors, was happy that I also found a merchant just when I was wondering what the gold is for. 

Was a bit unforgiving in the sense that the mobs dealt a lot of damage and rather quickly while you fiddled with the sequence of chords.

This was a very smooth experience. Loved the graphical style (and not only cause I use it too, heh), the implementation of the theme was awesome. The humor of the characters and enemies was also great.

The combat was well executed, I liked the indirect level up approach where you unlock new spells and the combat always felt rather fair. I also finished the game with a hail mary where I had only the broom left and was one hit away from death, so that was some nice tension.

I had loads of fun with this one! And well done on making random encounters not feel boring. Having quick combat and snappy movement and clean interactions really helped. Well done, others should take a note from this if they want to use random encounters on the map.

Nice use of all classic DC elements, nice use of the dice roll mechanics for dialogue, theme was clearly implemented and in a nice smart way. Very well done!

Wait, I WROTE THE COMMENT IN THE WRONG WINDOW ahahaa and swapped them around. Damn. ONE MOMENT for actual review

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about this entry. The gameplay was good, the exploration was nice, the mobs in the dungeon and how they were linked to the "hero" was a very nice touch but... well, as a lot of others said, it was just over the top in crass content that it veered into eye-rolling territory. If that were toned down a bit or had a bit more nuance/subtext, it would be awesome.

The first run was somewhat confusing, but not in a negative way. After dying the first time and realizing I'm in a wave defense game, it all became so exciting!

Managing refreshment production and running around to resupply the dungeon minions was great. I loved the walk-through-walls mechanic.

On the third run I actually noticed you can rearm traps so that added a new cool element. I feel like this is an untapped idea and that it has potential to become more than a jam game. Very nice execution.

(I will say though, the adventurers get overwhelming very quickly, but that's fine, quick runs)

And yes, it is the cutest dungeon

This was an unexpected fun entry! Had all the proper elements, loved the mob designs and names. Nice progression for a gamejam, easy to follow, the minimap with explored tiles showing was a cool addition!

Very good job!

I think this was a great entry that was bogged down by the numbers. After reading Jimbly's review just below me, I realize I had the same experience (dark, left the first island before I could get anything, didn't turn in my trickster brother quest). 

Overall, a very nice entry but I ended up using the dude as a damage sponge, doing Block 90% of the time since he was absolutely useless at anything else. And the lady was absolutely fantastic at everything and just solo'd everything. I did notice the fact that you could injure fire creatures after hitting them with water, but the dude was still just better off tanking hits than trying to hit anything. 

It wasn't very clear when you could hit the fire serpents (something in the dialogue made me think I could damage them after getting the wind spell for some reason) and entering combat with them just to realize they're immune and having to wait until they killed you was kind of a slog.

So yes, great entry, fantastic graphics and look'n'feel but the numbers really need looking at.

This felt too close to real life. The metaphor is true... the tedium is there, the weight of the world is pressing. I need to look at cute pictures now to snap out of it!

(On a more serious note, a good grumpy dev entry as always. The SPLORR world grows!)

My favorite entry from this team so far. All your games have been great, but I think this clicked with me the most due to the style. Great graphics, solid gameplay, had fun figuring out things like the spinner puzzle. Enjoyed the characters and the humor and the overall classic vibe.

Instantly recognizable style (which is a good thing). Had fun with this one, even though I ended up just playing with dual mossy maces all run. The other weapons just seemed weaker in all cases. But I didn't mind. Whacking people was super satisfying. Well implemented real-time grid combat.

Ahahaha, what a lovely trip down memory lane. All of the elements that made win 95 memorable are there and it was so so fun to go through this game. 

And aside from that, the puzzles were really good, creative use of the sweeper and magnet, everything felt intuitive and nothing overstayed its welcome. One of my favorites in the jam so far!

This was pretty nifty. I think you nailed the aesthetics and the look'n'feel of the consoles. Exploration felt fine, movement was good but could've used queueing or being snappier. The weapons/combat was amusing.

And I know aaaaaall about overscoping and having to cut it all down towards the end. So many years in this DCJ and I still overscope all the time myself

This was a very cute entry.The match3 was enjoyable and it became better when I realized I was not constrained to swapping adjacent orbs only, hah. All the subconscious conditioning that match3 games have done on me made me not even try that for a long while...

The upgrade and leveling system was super interesting, as was the party adjustment system, each giving you different orb options. Controls were good, combat felt nice (I would've liked faster or no transitions when going to/from combat, think that was the only "slow" thing), the automapper was awesome to have.

Took a little while to figure out how the dangerous areas and making other areas safe worked but once I got the hang of that, the game SUDDENLY MADE SENSE, haha. I didn't bother much with the combat calculations, just equipped different armors/weapons and luckily equipped a blessed one (that I identified) and made it through to the end.

A very interesting concept and the themes were all there and implemented well. But I agree that it was a bit arcane and could have used a method to ease the player into the concepts and give better feedback when you did something right.

The idea is great, the look'n'feel is spot on,the "tedium" of the job is well done, as is the good implementation of the map that gives you the general layout without showing where you are (I had no trouble navigating based on that).

But, like the others said, the game could've used some better tooltips and information. And I think I had some issues with the controls as well. The more I played the game, the less responsive controls became, as if the game itself slowed down (memory leak somewhere?) and I even got unaligned from the grid a couple of times, with my rotation stopping at an angle that wasn't 90 degrees. This made interacting difficult, but I think I just caught some rare bug.

That was ONE.WILD.RIDE.

I totally did not expect going from chill, comedy infused clicker (I love idle/clicker games, so this was right up my alley) to FRIGGIN FIRST PERSON HORROR. Loved it. Was confused at first as to what I was doing in the second part, then was running while going oshitoshitoshit! then I figured out what I'm looking for and it became even more engaging.

A very unique, interesting experience. 

This is an improvement in every way over last year's entry. The gunplay was super satisfying, the controls were snappy, the exploration was spot on and it was the perfect length with just right difficulty for a gamejam.

I enjoyed thinking a little in order to figure out what the second ending might be and that was a super fun rush when enacting it, hah, so well done on that!

Really loved this one

This was a fun entry and it was very smooth once I got into the mindset of how combat works. Has the potential to be refined into something grand, as the mechanics are all there and just needs a bit of card balancing. 

I went for the daze/poison route which is insane towards the late game, where you can just dish out huge stacks of poison and stunlock enemies (or just walk away from them and they die to dots). I even had an encounter in the fire area where I fought and killed two enemies at once without being touched. And poor Dad had 21 poison stack on him, and never got a hit out. Gold becomes irrelevant from the second world on, as focusing on getting upgrade power is much more important and gets you cards with 3 turn stun or 5 poison damage (yum!).

The graphics was excellent, the polish was top notch, as we've come to expect from Jimbly&co, voice acting was great, the game was really smooth to play and I  had a lot of fun.

To critique, I'll join the others in saying that the one-way fire area was a bit meh, especially when backtracking at the end as I looped over and over in some areas until I found the way to go back again. Can't tell why that is, since nothing was hidden regarding the exits...

Not a bad concept at all. Cozy vibe, which I always enjoy. I liked the mechanics of the potion brewing and the separation of that process with the gathering of parts. Movement was responsive enough and the level was well laid out in that I could navigate it by memory quite easily.

However, I am not sure if the game had an end goal or a larger goal to work towards. Making potions was a core mechanic, but it wasn't framed as the final goal.

What a superb entry. 

Played it all the way through to the end. Was suprised to get the [REDACTED] boss preview right as I entered the [REDACTED] area after the golem and BAM! HIT WITH THE SHAREWARE! I laughed very hard.

This is a testament of how much you can achieve with so little (I mean here the presentation with the color palette and the text and hotkeys for everything, just like back in the way). You don't need flashy graphics and effects to make an engaging game or tell a great story.

The game was super fun and very easy to follow through. I'm not 100% sure I enjoyed all the fiddling with switching between armors and weapons. It was a great implementation of the theme but I imagine that in a longer game it can get quite tedious. 

The level of detail was amazing, from all the funny lines and quips, to the variety of ambience and the fun lil quests and banter and equipment.

Amazing! Just amazing.

There's a good base here with the dice rolling mechanic. Would've been great if it were easier to match the dice to the moves, especially given that each number can only work on one move, so there's no need to select both the dice on the roll and the dice on the move. 

Can't seem to progress beyond the chest, so I'm guessing you ran out of time on this one, but still, good effort on what you made!

I have played for...several hours. 

This is a production ready game that can just be shipped out. Superb game! Liked the procedural floors, but they all worked and had no glitches. The difficulty was pretty good. Loot system, mobs, puzzles, bosses were all fantastic.

I didn't finish though, got to lvl 14, just after the Annihilator. I don't suppose there was much left to go but I didn't have any more time. 

If there's anything to complain about, I'd say that it's too long for jam game, but that's not really a complaint. THe variety was there enough to keep me trying one more floor, one more respawn. 

Am so impressed!

Good job making your first game. The controls were good, step size was well represented to fit on the map you made. The combat worked well and I had to restart a few times to beat all dragons until I realized each is more prone to use a certain choice.

There we go, managed to complete it, with just a few seconds to spare. The timer is very tight on the last heist.

Aaaaah, got it, ahahah I didn't read the brief fully then. I will give it another spin because I want to finish it. The length feels very good for a jam game.

At first I thought the tutorial was overbearing, but then I started enjoying the tone and realized it's part of the charm and I enjoyed it. Really enjoyed the concept of analyzing everything so that you might learn what they do (and it came in useful to discovering and understanding the game). 

Controls were good, the RPS mechanic/theme was creatively implemented, there was a fair bit of challenge in managing your inventory / delivering things to the chute / deciding when to use one-time items. 

Solid entry and creative concept!

Cute concept with cleaning up the prince's poop and turning it in for upgrades, hah.

Controls were SUPER SMOOTH, though I wasn't a fan of the J to attack necessarily. Got me to use both hands on the keyboard though. 

Appreciated having a map and the upgrade system and I got to the escape prism/portal, prince in hand. 

I will say, however, that the biggest enemy in the game is the music loop XD.

It seems like there isn't enough money in the first level + hideout to get you to the construction site. So I just had to constantly load the office level and return to the hideout to get that +100 cash each time for the last 500 I needed. Made it to the end of the construction level but sadly didn't find the exit to get back out and into the hideout :(

Great idea to use the essence for all things in the game, essentially (har har) consolidating it all into one resource. I haven't played with the traps at all and just opted to pour all the essence into upgrades, which seemed to get the job done. Finding all the health pickups helps a lot and I managed to finish the dungeon in a single run. Well done on this entry!

Such charm that it cannot be overstated!

I had a huge amount of fun with this entry and played it to the end. The itemization was great, allowing you to choose your passives and loadout worked very well. Controls were outstanding, the verticality and traversal worked really well and rewarded exploration. 

All the dialogues were super entertaining and the whole plot was just charming! My favorite entry so far!

Got 11 foes. The combat mechanic is interesting but figuring it out was a bit painful. Then it indeed turns into a little puzzle where you have to optimize moves and hope your enemy moves in the way you predict. Super impactful moves and effects, loved that. 

Quite the addictive experience. Good learning curve until you figure out how abilities work, hat/tome stacking. Then it's just a nice loop of I WANT A LITTLE MORE XP. Top quality as always

...I did not see it. I feel very silly now.

This was probably one of the most immersive entries this time around and I had great fun with it. The atmosphere was really good, I liked the graphics effects and the combat was quite interesting with the options given. I just went full into Agi/Mind and some Body to help survive. But speaking of the latter, dying late in the game felt super punishing, since you had to restart from the beginning :(

What a fun combat mechanic! So silly and yet offering some things to think about with the roguelike level up system. Had fun with it, though I never got to finish it. I think the control scheme sabotaged me often and I lost valuable moves strafing instead of turning and viceversa (habits...) and often died because of that.