Interesting concept, though a lot of trial and error needed to complete the game fully - I quite enjoyed trying things around.
It reminded me of planning in desktop dungeon. In a good way.
NikaKh
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Dungeon crawler for a DCJam 2023, Escape from an abandoned space lab and decide the destiny of two prisoners
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Spooky!
For some reason first time I've picked up lattern - light area was really awfully small. Like 1 tile only (I saw only wall I was hugging). It was fine later on, when I light up another candle in it. Maybe shouldn't be such huge difference right from the get-go. I got terribly disoriented in that room because of it.
Cool, unsetling environments that felt somehow 'fleshy' not 'earthly' with the shapes and forms. Maybe played too much crawlers lately and got used to everything being square and simple.
Sounds give out a lot of creeps too. Especially those smiles oof!
Great entry overall.
It just got interesting and I got rudely pulled out!
Quite an interesting idea with everything being unknown at first. Would love to have colors for potions shown (randomized effects per game maybe?), but with unknown effect and you could identify them to learn that effect, maybe... and with future limited scrolls you would think twice if you want to do identification or not yet.
The game was too short to learn more about combat... leveling abilities by itself sounds fun, though, maybe, could be bad if there are too many choices and player could corner self with bad choice at the end.
Definately sounds like something cool may turn up with this one!
I've beat the last boss.
Several things - you can move diagonally when you move forward while turn animation still playing, as well as you can move by clicking position in the world with mouse - which is not really dungeon-crawley by itself and really sounds like a bug from the engine to be fair.
Gameplay felt like simplified old ff games basically, not sure there is any benefit to actually use fireball - same damage, but costs MP... so combat (except the last boss) was just mashing the attack button for me.
Enjoyed hidden chests, though would love if items from store would be worse than those, that you get by exploring or them to be much less affortable.
Arrow tiles could lead to neat puzzles, though there were hint that they could, but puzzles themselves weren't there, sadly.
It can turn into cool game for sure - all basics are there already.
Combat was unique indeed, liked the idea of combo-ability use. I got stuck in combat with one of the shield guys, where both exits close when you enter it. I killed the guy, but combat wasn't going away and the doors wouldn't open either.
Nice idea with the story bits given with certain action made (a key pickup) without interrupting gameplay itself. Real nice music and graphic that fits together. Ui was cool as well!
Liked it overal!
Felt like I am on a horse in the present and a chill dwarf in the past, based on the soundtrack alone! And then I ate some rocks to restore my health o,o
Game really need some explanation of what are we trying to achieve, though (inside the game itself). Spend some time killing mobs and digging walls, but had 0 keys drop personally. Interesting way of movement with turning mid-step, though personally would love a bit less shake during the move itself and a bit faster transition. Though it wasn't too bad because of possibility to turn while moving after all.
Cool theme implementation too. Liked the change of scenery and music.
Great visuals and audio. Happened few times that I was ambushed before I could even reach the fire - that killed me couple of times.
The only choice that I felt I really had was selecting which party members can join me... if they die - to recruit others. The rest was just spacebar mashing. Minotaur RNG was brutal - 2 hits for 60+ damage on same party member was quite annoying, considering that I killed it before few times too and it wasn't anywhere close.
Got farted a lot by goblins and bitchslapped by slimes? o,O
I wish for more combat controls maybe in future versions? Because right now there isn't much to play around, really... its stunning visually. I like different characters and their different abilities, but have no control over anything for now.
After I got teleported above the fist level - there was a bit of floor, one alien and no walls... I think it either bugged for me or it just ends here for now?
Stun gun didn't stun aliens, I think? Only was able to do the killing part...
Interesting idea of gun color being used for puzzles. Though had to read comments, since the first note didn't work for me.
Needs some work on, but base ideas, story and gameplay already there, so it can be an interesting twist with a shooter-crawler puzzle game!
Missed orange-guy access code, decided not to go through all of the corridor run again though, since running around was kind of long adventure as it is.
Map markers wouldn't delete for me, also it was really slow to move around with arrow keys.
Enemies became repetetive for me quite fast, since the only difference for them was input code and it just tab-space gameplay after it with different time needed for each.
Input code was really awkward to use for some reason - sometimes focus would just clear from it or I would have to focus input field several times before I could actually type. Defocus while command was partually typed also didn't allow me to finish that comand - had to delete and re-type several times. And then I sometimes couldn't press enter because focus would be gone again (and that is while taking damage). At the end I just copied all the commands into notepad and pasted as needed before combat even started. That copy-paste gameplay ruined this aspect of the game for me completely, making it uninteresting and just clunky at times...
Controlls being all over with both keyboard and mouse involved was clunky. Tab-Space-Enter + mouse (and all the buttons you need to press for commands or ctrl+v) - it just felt off. Not hard to use, just could be more easy on hands basically.
Stun command felt useless, since it didn't stun for longer than enemy attack cd - so it wasn't helping me with typing other commands in. Which, in my opinion, would be really awesome - I couldn't type commands fast enough without taking at least one hit (also that de-focus from field wasn't helping). If stun could last at least 2 attacks - it would be much better.
Overall idea is really nice - I liked it, it can use some de-clunkyness with controlls, though. It has great potential for sure and if I had less issues with typing in codes (and less pain in my wrist with tab-space spam!) - I would enjoy it quite a lot.
Story was nice too. Not sure where I missed the orange code though :(
Not sure what is happening, but first two mobs were immortal and just killed me. In death log it was saying I got 15 or so kills meanwhile and maybe they were stacking on eachother? It happening for me at first couple of seconds for multiple reloads and its quite confusing.
Mixing instant movements with slow turns is disorienting due to so different time each action takes. It always better to stick to one or the other.
Also mobs tend to go through the player and it also hard to understand if we are to kill them or to run away from them and even if we damage them in that possition or not.
I didn't get to the chopper :<
Needs some polishing.. worst offender was, of course, movement that sometimes would take a long time to become active. Sounds and anything visual about hitting an enemy (and killing it) also would do it a lot of good. I wasn't sure bugs were dying or just running through me for a while, especially since they did run from me a lot - pain to chase.
Foundation is there and it can turn into a really awesome game indeed.
Interesting concept, though at the current stage it is quite raw. Random generator would sometimes make passways that you cannot travel (placing couple of mannequins to the side that block the path completely), I also encountered big tv being rotated 90 degrees and also uninteractable/unpassable so had to quit the run also.
I've run bunch of level1 though, but it was quite difficult to understand which weapon is better. Max damage and raw damage. Cooldown field blank. Attack speed - not sure it even works. Passed both a dagger and an axe due to their cd being so long - palm tree just was beating it out straight down. Even though damage looked bigger on an axe from its tooltip - it did like 2 damage, while tree was doing 9..
Movement was dizzy due to that bending motion, but after several minutes I got used to it.
Didn't understand why hitting enemies against the wall would do less damage and knock me back instead (making weapon cd, both block and attack, longer).
Loved the menu and overal feel of the dungeon. Music and sounds were good as well. Adored that manneqin on the palm tree. A bit clarity with weapons (damage/cooldown), fixes for impassible dungeons (and maybe make them longer, but 100% have some loot in them - some runs had 0 for me..), and its a very interesting game indeed that I totally would enjoy play a lot more!
True Bard: Duality Labyrinth jam comments · Replied to Evgeni Doudar in True Bard: Duality Labyrinth jam comments
Without hint about drinking from the sink - I would never find it to be honest! That was the only sink... Finished the game completely bloated with water!
On start the console was giving warnings btw: "
iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
At: drivers\png\image_loader_png.cpp:71"
Playing with a keyboard alone was tricky. A lot of hints came through mouseovering stuff (including the sink). Would also love a bit faster movement since sink-drinking is constant running back and forth.
In general really nice game. I've escaped, I think? Wonder what exactly happened and who we actually play as. Device, I guess, was a time traveling one... how did we get it?! So many questions!
Liked the concept of banishing the evil spirits, though something visual was clearly needed to make it understandable that pressing space does indeed work. So there is everything for a good fondation - movement is fast, small inventory-like system with interactions. It looked neat enough too and dark corridors were mixed with lit ones as well as spirits luring around - quite a creepy experience.
Just need a couple of sounds for better atmosphere + a little feedback for an attack and it would be a very solid little game indeed.
Art is gorgeous. Music and sounds are great. Movement is responsive and nice. Writing made me laugh more than once. And I mean... DOUBLE HIGHT CELLING! That double points right there right away.
I also hit the boss somehow with new 'crystal'. I am impressed about my skills! (didn't hit much of usual double-damage things for the record, but stiiiiil!).
I need a breather - my tummy hurts now from giggling too much :D
Interesting idea, but didn't work so well for me because all the notes was hard to hear - ambient sound was a lot louder than the notes and I only heard that they are there after reading comments and looking at the example of the first level. Also I am not sure having invisible note tiles is a good idea... its difficult to find them sometimes (level 2 was the worst with them positioning quite randomly!) and it harder yet to remember all of the positions and notes relative to eachother (with notes being hard to hear and imposible to hear again after failed step). Starting from second level it became just "try all and see if it sticks" for me :(
I did defeat the melody lich though. It just... could be so much better if I could actually hear the notes and repeat them somehow after fail step too.
So sad that there are no sounds!
All those IV cards hidden everywhere... Lloyd is a good fella...
Great game, nice combat mechanic with cards, though I wish I could see which ones and of which type I own so I can delete cards with no worry. Odd thing is that controls on computers and such are not doubled with WS buttons. Had to switch back and forth between arrows and WASD, since movement worked perfectly on WASD and I would automatically use that.
Enjoyed beating all those gang members around after a bit of training muhahah!
Oh they have some nice names! Would love that bit of lore on one of those stickers!
Fought a lot of Grey Matters and they are cool. By the way, I've remembered one thing - there looks to be movement queue for dodging puzzles and it kind of double edged sword especially on skelies - you can press button and move 2 tiles in it, passing the safe spots. It felt a bit sensitive to jump several spaces so even if i tap the button - it would still sometimes move more than one tile. Maybe something to do with frame rate affecting it.
Music and sounds were a bit out of the balance - some sounds (especially one when you finished dodging after an attack) just much louder than everything else. Would love to put music a bit higher (music is good, by the way!) and that sound of dodging to put a lot down. It is just too sharp and loud compared to everything else.
Combat was a really nice concept. I am not sure why would anyone want to use anything but the sword, though. Bow was too fast and because of it - hard to use. Magic was way too slow to use and sword seemed to do more damage overal (maybe different enemies take different damage from weapons, but difference in speed was so huge that it was not so tempting to test around - couple of tries with magic didn't show me anything good and bow was just... too fast to react!)
Collected 12 shards and got to the room - already saw comment that that is where it ends for now.
Monsters not always attacking - by design? I was running atfter one for a long time until I just decided to walk past and ignore everything, unless they will trigger combat themselves.
Had fun reading the notes too!
Pills - do they decrease which mobs spawn or how many of them around? I wasn't sure, because ghosts were always running, then skeletons appeared and after I took pill - skelletons were still running. But concept of mobs spawning based on sanity levels is a nice touch!
Overall, I enjoyed the run. Maybe it would be better to make some indication that you can swap weapons (hints with arrows on book while in selecting mode?) and also put some hint that i NEED to press spacebar to start the battle :) A lot of embarasing staring contests with the mobs were there for me!
I've prevented the eclipse!
This game is amazing. Theme is clear and awesome to play around. Only card and UI design break the illusion of a complete and polished game.
First launch for some reason it didn't show 'start game' and all - just background and music. Restarting fixed it. And couple of times camera would look the other way from the mob, but the rest of the game looked and played flawlessly.
Balancing deck around sun/moon switches and screwing up opponents was fun! Definately my cup of tea right here!
Thanks for sharing :)
Thank you for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!
System Shock definitely was one of the major inspirations for us, though we tried our best for it not to be too obvious. And for sure we will work on making tutorial and checkpoints post-jam... we did explain mechanics by text on our game page after we saw how many people struggled at the start, but I mean... its not ingame, so it only can help a little in that regard (tbh, who reads it anyway? :D). There are bunch of things we can and should improve on for sure! Including some that we had no time to implement and it kind of not helping with understanding the game mechanics bit...
As for how tutorial about dodging would look like.. we will need to think about it a bit more so it won't stand out from theme too much. We have couple of ideas, but they need a bit of work and testing to make sure it would fit right in. We will try our best to make it good, of course!
Mini Minos Labyrinth - Game Jam Version jam comments · Replied to Nik Mirza in Mini Minos Labyrinth - Game Jam Version jam comments
How did I open inventory?! I saw it once. I don't know how and I cannot open it again!
The game looks so great, I liked combat even though I clearly miss perks from inventory... movement felt a bit tricky at the start with how it animated, but I got used to it quite fast and had no issues with it at all. Nice touch with sideways being highlighted when you aproach them too. Got beaten by sphynx, but I really need that inventory I would guess!
Please, tell me how to open it so I can try it proper this time around :) would love to see whole story!
Stunning art and music. Needs a bit of sound effects for actions and little more clarity of what happening. Its really difficult to understand who is attacking right now and what their abilities are. How defending works and how to protect weakest (currently) party member (if possible). With critter hp and capture points invisible its also hard to plan ahead.
With a bit more clarity and sped up movement that game could be a real gem! I will give it few more attempts later on for sure.
Loved the story by the way. Its sad story though. Damn those miners grrr!
Thank you for playing. Yes, we decided to pick engine that we were completely unfamiliar with for the jam and it was indeed Unreal. Health bars was funny bug that we didn't have time to fix - it indeed is a strange thing!
I am not our programer, maybe he will answer much better for technical portion later, but dithering was applied mainly so sprites and everything else wouldn't stand out from eachother. Basically without grain on everything it looked so much different that it was a bit unpleasant for an eye. With couple of tricks we managed to make it feel more in line with eachother.
Was my mistake with combat being that way. Went to turn-based tactical route, completely forgetting how usual dungeon crawlers are played... and that lead to huge spike in dificulty to understand how it supposed to be played at the end... we had to make some sort of tutorial for combat for sure. Telegraphs on ground should've been also explained. With Cyberspace its kind of the same. Its a mix of us not making 'teleport back' feature in time and puzzle mechanic being not clear (when you start second door you appear at the same place you ended on so you have to walk back... safe runes are removed from the ground so path is visible, but, looks like, people think new rune is a safe one and die horribly there). We wanted also to make checkpoints, but run out of time...
When you say about free look you mean looking around to check combat situation? We did it so turning is not an action and you can turn in combat without fear of getting hit... but again - never explained that in game! Time being rough on us with lack of experience with jams and such... we also went hardcore aka never prepared anything beforehand haha!
Foliage was supposed to be halftransparent when you enter it, but... yeh >_< never finished it. By design you were supposed to be safe there from monsters, but we couldn't implement it and monster visions fully so it now mostly a decoration.
And terribly sorry about card art being hard to see... we hoped that both cards and doors have good-enough visibility, but never actually checked with color palete table for different colorblindness :( Thanks for mentioning it - it is something to think about for a future fix for sure.
Thank you again for playing! And such detailed feedback - it will help us a lot to make everything better postjam and also improve future jam's checklists!
Yes, its our first time using the engine, so we didn't knew about issues we would encounter. Sorry about that - we will try to check and solve issues postjam.
Combat is not build on reaction time, though - everything is turn-based. Your turn comes before enemy. You can look around (turning doesn't end your turn, moving, attacking and skiping the turn does) to check sittuation freely. Telegraph on the floor shows danger zones that will cause damage next turn, so you can move to the safe position without taking any damage.
Mini Minos Labyrinth - Game Jam Version jam comments · Posted in Mini Minos Labyrinth - Game Jam Version jam comments
Quite frustrating at the start, more enjoyable after couple of levels.
To kill first mob I had to restart 12 times. I am not even kidding - I was counting. Dice was against me the whole time, as you can imagine... died to next mob after it to start streak of losing once more.
First level was quite annoying, since each 100exp would take me long-long time to grind with death/reset/death/kill/save/death tactic... taking about 5+ attempts each time. And dice rolls were too slow for that with no ability to skip.
Once I did level and got +1 to all stats it started to be a lot easier. At +3 it already felt 'just right', but I still would run to the fire so I could save progress.
EXP worked strange. I got first level at 1100exp (+1 to stats didn't appear at 1000, but only after next mob died) and then two more before 1800...
Turning was slow - after defeating a mob it would take around 1sec to start reacting to any controls.
At the end I've defeated Minotaur at +7 stats EXP was 3700/4k, but game didn't end :<
On the bright side - I loved how the game looked overal, liked lights and sounds of burning torch. For it to feel better some exp smoothing at the start is needed for sure (faster first level maybe? easier first mob for first level?) and faster dice rolls or ability to skip it with clearer log to see the results. Also faster movement could be also really nice overal. Game have a lot of potential - that is for sure!
Loved it. Sounds that warn about incoming threat, music, effects - all was really-really good. To the point I felt sad when the main menu popped back.
Neat mechanic with bating big enemies out so you can pass through. Took me couple of tries to figure out the tactic/mechanics, but it was enjoyable run afterwards.
Sometimes I would miss enemies, because they would be sideway to me and I guess my speed was too high for them to turn around? Was surprised by sudden damage taken from behind that way several times. They also had issues with light sometimes that wouldn't make sprite anything, but black outline - was bit hard to see in dark corners.
Would love some feedback on attack actually connecting - I wasn't even sure how far my ranged weapons could reach and decided to just rush melee to the end as a result. Worked better that way too!
There is also a bug of sorts that I was able to enter into cave mid wall section, I believe one of the enemies did the same - he suddenly appeared next to me in what looked like teleporting maner.
Mobs also moved towards me from 'main' room (I was regenerating in the corner), which made me miss that prompt about it being the final boss. I know its there, since I died first time by being reckless!
But overal - quite impressive that you managed to do whole stat system with inventory on top of it. Neat interface with bunch of interesting actions (like look around). Game is rough around the edges, but looks like it has a solid foundation to be something really nice indeed. I didn't find anything to destroy though! I wanted it so badly too, after reading all those stats :) Guess that is also for a future update... or i missed hidden wall somewhere (like I often do!).
We will try to launch it on another computer, since it looks like on mine fire character stuck all the time for some reason :< And first launch of the game there was no sound through whole my play - so it didn't return for some reason (I might alt-tabbed, though there was no sound at start either I think. Bug didn't repeat itself for me, so it was a bit odd one)
UI and art - top notch! Music is awesome!
Gameplay-wise I am not sure if defend button helps in any way - it looks like it takes same turn as monster does and doesn't give you any benefit overal, since you still will need same amount of hits (and damage taken +/-) to kill a mob. Several times had dungeon spawn with no stairs at all, which blocked my progress. Its a sad moment :(
It looks like my fire character is stuck at the start of the game and is not moving, while ice character able to walk freely, but I seem to unable to find a way out on it. Maybe missing some turns, but looks like I already run through whole area and through all available spots without traps. Is there some kind of trigger to make fire character move or it just not working for me at all? :(
Sounds and music also were not playing for some reason on my first run. Works fine now, though - no idea what fixed it either.
Thank you for playing!
Well, we do have regen mechanic (5 turns tick, we didn't make it visualy showing that its working - hope to add that after jam so it will be visible and easier to play around) and everything hits for 1 with telegraphed attacks - so I though giving more would be a bit too easy! Though checkpoints missing is the biggest offender here, of course :< will add that one for SURE after the jam!