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THERE'S SOMETHING TERRIBLE LOOSE IN THE FACILITY. REACTIVATE THE ELEVATOR AND RIDE IT TO THE SURFACE WHILST AVOIDING THE CREATURE.

Dark Facility is a combination of classic grid-based dungeon crawler and survival horror, in particular stalker horror-style games. Explore the facility, collect keycards and use control consoles to enable your escape. Use the map to track the hostile creature's location and, whilst you cannot kill it, you can sprint to escape its clutches.

Play in browser now: https://machinescreen.itch.io/dark-facility

This is a cool game that I enjoyed playing even though I don't seem to be very good at it! I don't think I've ever played an anomaly hunt game but I'm aware of the concept and this seems like a great mash-up of the genres, especially with the corporate themeing. I love the aesthetic, particularly the colour choices, and the sound and music work well. The mini-game is fine but maybe it could integrated into the world better somehow.

Sometimes the camera can end up inside objects - I noticed this specifically with the water cooler. Pressing the key to open doors seems to be unreliable, sometimes the first time I press the key it doesn't seem to be registered and then I need to press it again. Also I wish there was a v-sync option as I experienced some tearing.

Great game and a cool genre-mashup (I have too many hours in Vampire Survivors...). The crawl gameplay was excellent and I really like the 3D pixel art. I enjoyed the chicken voice acting.

The Survivors gameplay was okay but I think there's some things missing. It should show the time remaining and how many kills before the next upgrade. It's also possible to kill all the monsters before the timer runs out and then you're standing around with nothing to do, potentially for quite a while. Either the sequence should end or monsters should be infinite. One time I also seemed to encounter a bug where a battle sequence never ended and I had to restart.

Really enjoyed this overall. I guess I'm not so great at finding the crystals though - I only got 5.

Excellent game. It looks great (though part of me did wish for a little more resolution - it felt like a LOWREZJAM game, especially with the 1:1 aspect ratio), sounds great and I enjoyed the puzzle-style gameplay.

I noticed it's possible to leave the first room without the spacesuit - I understood what was happening but that could confuse players. Also it's annoying that the chicken blocks your movement, especially when it stands in the doorway for a while! The only other thing I wished for was the ability to look around - I think it would have helped with some of the puzzles and generally taking in the atmosphere.

Innovative idea for a theme and the visuals work well. Cool to see rhythm based combat but, as many have mentioned, I really struggled with it. I think more feedback would have gone a long way to helping me out!

Thanks for playing and for the video.

Playing on hard-mode without using the map! Yeah, the normal movement speed has been increased a bit in the post-jam version as it wasn't initially intended to be quite that slow.

You're not the first to mention that it's not super clear what needs doing, I'm currently mulling over what can be done about that without it being too spoonfed.

Thanks for playing and for the video! It was especially useful to hear your thought process throughout so thanks for including that.

It's good to know it can be completed without using sprint. Really the sprint is intended to be used to escape the monster if it sees you (you can sprint slightly quicker than the monster can run) so it's not essential if you can successfully avoid the monster. I don't know whether sprinting makes the game easier per-se but you can probably play less carefully if using it and, of course, if you use it outside of encounters it generally speeds up the game as you're able to explore quicker.

I'll have a think about the to-do list but my initial instinct is that will make it too frictionless and might decrease the tension. It was the intention that you don't know much until you explore and part of me quite likes that it's possible to think you can escape but you can't. On the other hand I can see how it could be frustrating. I guess if players always went to the elevator first it's alleviated because it tells you it needs power and a keycard. However I'm unsure how to encourage that to happen.

Yeah, hopefully! Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for playing and for the video!

Ah, I actually hadn't thought about the fact someone might assume the keycards were colour coded - it would definitely make more sense if they were red! I can sort that in the post-jam version.

Yeah, I've sped up the turning in the post-jam version. With regards to accidentally turning too many times, I'm unsure why that be. Holding the key doesn't work with turning so pressing once and holding will only ever turn you 90 degrees. The only thing I can think is that it's to do with the fact that it queues up (a maximum of two) inputs so you're able to tap a turn key twice and do a continuous 180 degree turn. The queue system also means once a turn is initiated you can queue up another. So, for example, I guess it's possible to quickly tap twice and initiate a 180 degree turn (either by accident or design), part way through that turn think you need to tap again to continue the turn and then you would have turned a total of 270 degrees.

I think you're right that the pacing can suffer once the shutter is open. Opening it has the unfortunate effect of suddenly almost doubling the size of the level and so naturally the monster is less likely to be on top of you as much. A lot of horror games are heavily scripted but that doesn't happen here so, while it has the advantage of the monster being more unpredictable, it's perfectly possible to have a very quiet sprint to the elevator. There is some stuff I could tweak though with the monster to at least encourage it to keep the pressure up more towards the end.

Thanks for playing and for the video! Always super useful to watch people playing. I hope the lack of audio isn't a problem on my end.

Yeah, so, whether conciously or not, running away has definitely not been designed with strafing in mind. Whenever I'm playing the game and need to run away I never strafe, I always rotate. Rotating does also make you vulnerable but I've just run the numbers now and it is indeed slightly quicker to rotate twice and sprint between the rotations than to strafe. The difference is increased when you take into account how the monster moves as he can start moving to a tile as soon as you've started to move off it. So when you start strafing the tile you're leaving is immediately available for the monster to occupy and he could be much closer to you.

I definitely think I should try and make rotating and strafing around obstacles equally viable in the post-jam version. The normal speed has already been increased in the post-jam version which has probably closed the gap a bit. To fully close it maybe it's as simple as allowing sprinting to slightly increase the strafe speed.

I actually thought I'd fixed the monster not being able to kill you if you just keep going at the normal speed but it looks like there are still circumstances where it struggles in this build. This is definitely (hopefully!) fixed in the post-jam version, mostly by speeding up his attacks.

It make sense to me that tapping sprint would increase your average speed but I also don't know how effective that is as a strategy.

Thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing! Yeah, I'm torn about the creature's location being on the map. I like the planning element it introduces - 'the creature's over near that room so I'll explore this other one first' or 'it's coming this way, I need to find an escape route' but it does decrease the tension somewhat and is probably less horror-y.

Thanks for playing! Yeah, sorry about the lack of window controls - it was always intended as a web game and in the last minute conversion to a download I forgot some stuff.

Thanks again for playing!

It plays great, it looks great, it sounds great. This is basically a commercial-level game. I particularly enjoyed the hats and the unexpected asteroid avoidance mini-game. My only nitpick is that I wish passing by characters when they can't move out of the way felt smoother. Currently the camera seems to just clip through their sprite - maybe they could fade out when the camera is very close to them or something. It's literally the only thing I noticed that didn't feel super polished. Oh, and civilian only has one 'L'.

Cool game. I like the aesthetic and the card combat mechanic works well. The terminals are also a cool addition. As others have mentioned it's unfortunate when turning that the camera seems to clip into the wall behind it. I  missed there being a sound when picking up a card. I also seemed to encounter an issue where I couldn't move - WASD seemed unresponsive but everything else still worked fine so the game hadn't crashed.

Thanks for playing! Interesting that you think the sprint could be slower. Unfortunately I can't immediately think of a way to increase the walk speed but decrease the sprint speed because of how it all mechanically works together. The player needs to be able to sprint a bit faster than the monster can run so you're able to get away, the monster in turn needs to be able to run significantly quicker than the player can walk so that he's able to easily kill you if you've run out of stamina. Head bob and player footsteps were on the list for the last day but alas I didn't have time.

With regards to visual variety yes and no. I like the fact it can have a labyrinthine 'all these corridors look the same' feel but it's probably not great if players need to entirely rely on the map for navigation. I did originally plan to include some props to break up the environment a bit (again I ran out of time) and I guess they might have helped with locating yourself.

Yeah, I did consider having an instant game over the first time the monster catches you but I figured that it might be super frustrating, especially if you were near completion. So I included the personal protection device as a one-time 'have another chance' mechanic. It's not mentioned before it happens so I figured it shouldn't reduce the tension a player would feel (at least on their first playthrough of course).

Thanks for playing! Yeah, the base speed was originally a third faster than what it is now. However near the end of development I realised there was an issue where if you just kept moving at the base speed the monster would have great difficulty in attacking you (due to it pausing to run its attack animation). I tried various things to fix it but decided that the thing that had the potential for least repercussions elsewhere (especially as I was running out of time!) was the player's movement speed. Given more time there is probably a better of way of fixing this which would allow for a faster base speed and I'll definitely see if I can do something for a post jam update.

Hey. Thanks for playing, you're too kind. I don't think any of my other games touch on similar themes, at least not so explicity.

Great little jam game and a cool interpretation of the theme. Everything seems very polished - love the visual style and the audio works well. The only thing is that it seems to be... uh... maybe a little too hard for me to complete so some sort of difficulty variation would be appreciated! :)

I really like the core mechanic here and it's a great interpretation of the theme. It forces you to not spam one type of attack and to consider which attack is best for what enemy type and what order you should engage them in. Nicely done! :)

Thanks for playing

Yes, the gun was definitely inspired by Metroid Prime! Thanks for playing and for your feedback. :)

Yup, the repair mechanic definitely needs to be clearer! You just hold down the R key and if you have Energy it will be converted at a certain rate into Integrity. The conversion rate is upgradeable. Thanks for playing!

I'm not sure how much further I'll develop this idea but at the very least I'll probably do some sort of post-jam version of it with various fixes and small enhancements. Yeah, you're completely right about repairing. There was meant to be a more obvious indication on the UI that repairing was happening but it was one of the smaller things that remained unticked on the to-do list at submission time! And, yes, there were also meant to be two other enemy types but again I just ran out of time. Thanks for playing! :)

Yeah, I had originally planned for more airborne enemy types which I think would have made the jetpack more useful but it was just a case of running out of time. I'm not sure yet whether I'll develop the idea much further but there's certainly lots of options for adding more variety. At one point I was going to have different fire modes for the gun but that got cut very early on to keep the scope manageable. Thanks for playing!

I'm surprised to hear you were always nearly running out of energy - I'm assuming you were using the other abilities quite a lot. I did wonder whether to have shooting be a 'free' action but ultimately I figured it fit the consequences theme better to have it cost energy. You also can't actually ever completely run out of energy as it does recharge by itself (just very slowly). Thanks for playing!

I actually had originally planned two more enemy types which would have both been airborne. Unfortunately I simply ran out of time to get them in. And, yeah, completely agree about the font. It's just the Godot default font! I regret not finding a few moments to change it up but at the time it didn't seem like the priority! Thanks for playing and for your feedback. :)

Great to hear! Thanks for playing. :)

Really glad to hear it felt good to you - that was one of my primary aims. Thanks for playing!

What a visually stunning game, amazing job! It also sounds great too. Gameplay loop is simple but solid and fits the theme well. Overall it's just an awesome jam game.

Thanks for playing!

Great to hear! Thanks for playing. 🙂

A really lean, polished entry with all the elements being consistent and in harmony with each other. Both of the 'shoot back' mechanics are cool and rewarding to use. Fun little game! No complaints. :)

Cool game! First off the visuals are top notch and the audio fits well. The upgrade system works great and it was genuinely interesting to see how they could enhance your moveset or provide another useful utility. I particularly like how there's actually more options in the movement than there intially seems because of how 'bouncy' it is and how small your hitbox is - like I was able to go under the water to avoid enemies travelling across the surface. Only issue I came across is I think it's possible to accidentially skip through the end screen showing how many waves you survived as it seemed to disappear instantly for me so I didn't even know what the number was. :(

Didn't think I'd see Bullet Hell combined with logic puzzles but here we are! Nicely done. It's a cool idea to have a more 'chill' section in a BH game and a good implementation of the theme. The minimalist graphics work well and the sounds and music choice all go together great. My only gripes are that I wish the clues from the chests didn't disappear when destroyed and inverted controls in this kind of game is maybe too harsh a consequence!

Part of me sort of likes that you were initially confused when the first battle started as that fits very well thematically! However maybe there should be a short instructional message that first time just to clarify what the player is meant to do.

Yeah, variation in the environment and non-interactable props is something I really wanted to include but unfortunately ran out of time for. I note you don't mention the map. I do hope you were using it as otherwise you were definitely playing the game on hard mode!

Regarding clicking in the battles, there is indeed a cooldown as indicated by the cursor/crosshair animating and this is intentional design to limit the player's power as otherwise it becomes very trivial (and can also devolve into a pure dexterity game of who can click the fastest which I wanted to avoid). I don't think I would want to default allow the holding of the button to place blocks as I think you'd lose something with the less direct player input and no longer having a one click, one block relationship. It also runs the risk of being frustrating if blocks are placed unintentionally. However I guess something like that could be an accessibility option.

Thanks for playing!

Incredible graphics and atmosphere but I'm a sucker for this 3D pixel art aesthetic anyway. :)  I think your sanity drains frustratingly quickly. I felt like there was a mismatch between the atmosphere which said to me 'be cautious' but then the meter is saying 'dash about like a madman'. I really dug the lock picking minigame, super simple idea but works well. Movement-wise I missed being able to hold keys for continuous movement. Also, unsure whether this is intentional but I completed the game on my third try but never had an encounter with any enemies. Overall, really enjoyed playing this one. :)

Everything is really cohesive here and it's very 'complete' for a jam game. The setting and back story is interesting and the graphics really add to the overall mood. I did find the combat a bit dull and repetitive but I'll be the first to admit I'm not the biggest fan of JRPG style combat so it might just be me! Random thing I noticed is the UI would show 'Open (Enter key)' on doorways that you could just walk through seamlessly. Finally I have to mention that the battle music is an absolute jam - love it! Really solid entry. :)