itch.io

Hi! I’ve been working on a small hardcore roguelike prototype called Ivory Keep. (Ivory Keep by Scewps)

A single run takes about 5–15 minutes, depending on how far you get.

I’m mainly looking for feedback on the difficulty curve (especially in later areas)

and whether items meaningfully help overcome that difficulty and shape runs.

Gameplay

Details:

- Genre: Roguelike

- Platform: PC

- Status: Early prototype

- Controls: WASD move, LMB attack, RMB shield/secondary, E interact, Tab inventory

Feedback questions:

- Did you understand the core mechanics without explanation?

- Does the difficulty ramp feel fair, even when it gets punishing?

- Do items feel impactful enough to influence how you play a run?

- Did you get stuck or confused anywhere?

- Would you play more of this? Why or why not?

Thanks for your time. I’m happy to return the favor and playtest your game as well.

Thanks :) it was a last minute addition 

Short but sweet, I like the first person animations

Thanks for the kind words! No I never heard of Quantum Break, but I'll definitely look into it now :)

Thank you for the feedback :) 

thank you for the feedback :)

Very fun platformer :) I did struggle with the controls a bit since Z is in a weird spot for german keyboards, but it was doable. Loved the secrets!

Thank you for your nice comment! Your criticism is justified, but I'm glad you had fun with the game :) This made my day

Thank you :)

Sick entry! I didn't make it to the end because of the bomb dropping phase but I played it a lot longer than expected, had lots of fun. I especially liked the intro cutscene.

Fun bossfights. After dying the first time I couldn't re-enter the bossfight though, the door stayed locked for some reason.

Like other people already said, it's a really cool concept and the artstyle is very nice, but too difficult (especially for the first boss). I feel like this could be a very good game with some more work on balancing and fluidity of the different mechanics.

Thanks :)

Thank you so much for the nice comment! Appreciate your feedback and I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

Good call on the crossbow, it does work but I never properly explain how to use it. You need to load it with an arrow first by using "Attack Secondary", which is the right mouse button by default. Maybe I should include a short description on how to use certain special weapons in the future. Also you're right about the theme haha, the game got further and further away from it as I kept working on it.

About making a custom engine, I hope it goes well! It can take some time to build your own tools, but there is something satisfying about knowing every puzzle piece inside out. Also being able to tailor your workflow perfectly to your own needs is very rewarding. Don't be afraid to reach out in case you ever need help :)

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah you're making a good point about the replayability. Might tackle that after the jam. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Thank you very much! The randomness is a good idea, I might add that after the voting period. Also I'm really happy you liked the music, this was my first time composing something for a game :)

Thank you for the extensive feedback!

Thats a good call on the contact damage, I originally added it when I was working on the first few basic enemies but now that you mention it, it might be better turned off for some. I'm not sure if that would make the game too easy as a whole, but maybe it could also shift the focus more towards the bosses attack patterns themselves, so its worth a shot.

About the spell select button, you're right! I completely forgot to add it to the options. In case it still helps you, the default is either Mouse Wheel Up or I. For the time being you can also change it in the settings/InputBindings.config file. Will update the build when I can too.

Also dual longswords sounds pretty sick ngl, might try that myself later :)

Thank you for playing :)

Fun game :) I think there could be more contrast between background graphics and important objects like projectiles, spikes, etc since there can be a lot of bullets. But cool entry nonetheless!

Thank you :)

Very short and simple game, but fun nonetheless :)

Very fun game :) 

Really fun game, I like that you added some backstory but also didn't dump a bunch of lore on the player all at once either. The fact there was lots of variety in the type of gameplay (sometimes platformer, sometimes top down, sometimes rhythm game) was also a cool idea.

I had a bit of trouble judging how well the knight was positioned, a lot of times it looked like the sword should hit but didnt. Other than that it's a very cool idea and interesting take on the theme :)

Cool design! I struggled a bit with the second boss, because the dash often didnt work that well, despite timing it correctly. I don't know if it was just because of the small size of the arena or if I misunderstood how it works. Otherwise fun entry :)

Very cool game! The overall vibe was very interesting. I liked that there was some exploration but for others it might be a bit too much to get to the boss. If there were multiple bosses you could find in different parts of the level the exploration would be a really good addition. It does seem like more was planned in terms of bosses, judging by the different buildings, multiple checkpoints and the cat statue. But only so much can be done in a month, so it's totally fine. The boss itself was fun to fight, even though it only had 3 attacks.

Really fun game! Enjoyed all of the bosses and the spinning top mechanic was interesting :)

Couldn't get past the first boss because there was so much going on at the same time, I would have liked a slower introduction to the mechanics and combat system. Other than that its a very cool take on the theme, and the art and music are well made :)

Saw this last feedback friday and wanted to try it for myself. The game has a really well done atmosphere, especially in the office. The tracking on the melee attacks of the bosses is a bit sharp, I got hit a lot of times by the second swing after dodging the first one because they did a 180 degree turn towards me. But other than that very cool entry :)

Thank you for the kind words!

Development is paused at the moment because its currently too big of a project for me to finish but I'm planning to get back to it when I can. I have a lot of ideas for this game so I hope I will find the time to work on it again.

I'm glad you're enjoying it for the time being:)

Thanks a lot for the feedback, much appreciated :)

Noted, I'll look into the shield hitboxes and attack animations!

You parry with the same button you use for blocking but while holding Ctrl. It's also called the "ActionModifier" key in the InputBindings.config file. You're right, maybe I'll add a readme file or something that can explain the most important things.

Jerry is a homie for sure.

Then its most likely one of the dependencies thats missing. Do you have OpenAL and Visual C++ installed? The links are in the description of the game page and also before the download. Hope this helps

https://scewps.itch.io/mumblewizard

Are you sure the file called RainfallNative.dll is in the same folder as the executable? The files also need to be unzipped before running it

Very cool writing! I also liked the camera effects.

Really fun entry. Simple concept but developed it in a cool way. Only negative thing was that the movement feels very floaty at times. Otherwise my favorite so far

Very nice

Cool art style! Short but sweet

Very challenging and fun! I like the chromatic aberration effects

Thank you so much! CoD zombies was exactly what I was thinking of when designing it haha 

Very fun demo!

Just beat it on easiest difficulty. Will try the other ones next but I want to write down my first impressions here.

I really liked the changes of pace, from calm beginning to action packed and back to calm at the end of each level. Game feel was good and the controls were precise. Sometimes though I got hit by the red missiles and it looked like it shouldn't have. Other than that the hitboxes felt fine.

My biggest criticism is the visual contrast. I love the art style and colors but it was sometimes very difficult to distinguish between dangerous moving objects and the background. I feel like in a game where there is a lot going on like in this one (which I love btw) it should be easy to see at a glance what's to be avoided and what isn't. That way when the screen gets more and more crowded like what I'm assuming you want to do with later levels, the brain can easily filter out objects and details that are not dangerous. I think the hazards were perfect, it's mostly because of the background that was maybe a bit too busy. One thing that I think could maybe work to tackle this without having to make the art itself less saturated or dull, would be something like auto exposure, where the background gets slightly darker the more bright things are on screen. That way it scales well with different amounts of enemies and the calmer parts of the level also don't have to be changed.

Another thing that kind of plays into the contrast thing is that it was a bit hard to see the mouse cursor at times, especially when it was next to the white toothpaste. I had to look for it a few times while trying to dodge the laser :D Could maybe add a custom cursor that people can enable/disable in the settings or something.

It would be cool if there were ways to get extra money to open up some more options for upgrades. Right now there is only a limited amount of upgrade combinations since the money you get every time is fixed. Maybe you could get a small bonus if you are fast enough, or if you beat the level without taking damage.

When I first encountered the missiles I thought it would be fun if you could somehow damage or destroy them. Something that is risky to pull off but rewards the player for getting close without getting hit. Or maybe toothpaste could have an effect on them, like make them short circuit and explode after a few seconds.

All in all I really liked the game and the demo ended just when I was most excited to see what comes next. Sorry if I was a bit nitpicky but I know from my own experience how important it is to get constructive feedback on your games without any sugarcoating, so I tried to be as honest as I could. Hope this helps and good luck for the rest of the project :)

Now onto the harder difficulties, time to clean some t e e t h