itch.io

This one's wild, hard to know what'll be around the next corner.  It's a fun game to turn your brain off and just explore.

Did you make the music yourself?  I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the RTP songs, but I don't recall hearing any of these tracks before, and they add a lot to the atmosphere of each room.

I'd say that this is the most polished entry I've played so far.  Every part of the game feels finished, and there's a high attention to detail.

The combat is consistently great in this one.  Even though I've never played your other works, the variety of inspirations are carried into an RPG format in creative ways that give the combat a ton of flavour while also being amusing.

Each character has a strong voice that presumably reflects the tone of their game, though I can imagine that I didn't get the full effect since I'm not familiar with their games.  The fact that you have five characters and only allow me to use four makes me want to revisit this one after trying some of the others.  But not until after playing the rest of the Game Jam games, there's already enough on my plate. hehe

The non-fictional meta-story is insightful.  As somebody who's on the other side of the gamedev fence, having made exactly one game for this jam, hearing the thoughts and feelings of someone who has spent longer in this space will shape how I think about it going forwards.

Rest assured that all avatars are treated with dignity and kindness.  The positive review is appreciated though!

--Craise

Thanks peb!  With respect to Zack, my original plan was to use the RPG Maker defaults for as much as possible, but I drifted away from that more when I felt they didn't meet my needs.  Using Zack as the main character (including the original name and starting stats) was a holdover from that design choice, as he was the default main character.

But yeah, he isn't avoiding the "protagonist hairstyle" allegations. haha

Thanks a lot! :) I'm glad to hear that the game was impactful.  My biggest worry going into this project was that I wouldn't be able to generate any emotion with the writing, so I'm glad to hear that it's hitting home with people.

I like how a certain character's motivations feel a bit like an onion.  You just keep peeling back layers until you reach the center. lol

This game feels like a bizarre dream in all the best ways. XD I had no idea what was going on half the time, but I had a smile on my face regardless.  And with all the silly going on, the handful of more serious bits have more impact since they get past your guard, in a sense.  This game kinda feels like the afterparty that happens after a wacky world-saving RPG adventure.

But seriously, what kind of weirdo has a number in their name?

I'm glad to play as such an upstanding gentleman.  He cares about the hobbies of the commonfolk, he hopes for their good health, and he notices their absence when they're gone.  More than anyone deserves from their gracious ruler!

This game is an excellent baseline for the jam, and it has a little bit of everything.  Overall, more than any of the other entries, I've played, Demon's Keep gives the vibe of "a normal RPG, but scaled down".  The story doesn't do anything fancy, but the execution is solid and it manages to get more than you'd expect out of the short runtime.  There's a nice flow to the combat, with every mechanic having a purpose.  The penultimate boss fight especially is surprisingly tactical despite its apparent simplicity.

Just finished this one and had a blast!  It's a tight resource optimization puzzle, and it can only be solved by learning the mechanics and understanding what a "good" result for each fight looks like.  The resting mechanic rewards you for balancing risk and reward, routing the fights in an optimal order, and understanding which characters are needed for which fights.  That last one requires more thought than in many RPGs since this very much isn't a rock-paper-scissors battle system, so there are genuine trade-offs with every decision that are more than "use character X to beat Y".  Every mechanic has a purpose, and the best way through each battle isn't always the most obvious one.  The end result is that you really need to understand the game to do well; a fight that "seemed okay" might not be good enough in the long run.  New mechanics are introduced over time so that you're constantly introduced to something new before the old mechanics start to get anywhere near being repetitive (despite each fight being relatively long in itself).

While there's enough leeway that you don't need good RNG, you absolutely can run out of resources if you let mistakes stack up over time.  It's worth taking the time to redo fights that went poorly and fix any mistakes.

We are glad that you enjoyed our Game.  As an aside, we would like to assure all readers that our adventures are complete and highly polished.

--Craise

We are glad that you enjoyed the experience, and we hope that you will choose us again in the future.

--Craise

I don't always like these sorts of quizzes, but I thought this quiz looked fun.  The Fairy - Fairy/Dragon result was the top result, and the Water - Psychic/Water is what I resonate most with from the available options.

Interestingly, my percentages for these types were really low. It looks like I don't correspond that well with any particular type. Somehow it feels like I got Fairy for my secondary type just by being picking responses that were moderately assertive.

I find it bizarre that my Speed (prioritizing efficiency) is lower than my Defense (physical resiliency) or my Attack (which includes a physical competence component).

If I designed my own stat spread based on the listed criteria, it would be the following:

• HP: 80
• Attack: 50
• Defense: 30
• Sp. Attack: 110
• Sp. Defense: 90
• Speed: 90

Managed to get a win on the first try.  My build was an uncreative "hit stuff with a stick and chug food" build, but it worked.  Don't mind the pointless mana; I replaced the ring of Fury it was attached to with the candle.