itch.io

Beat the first level. Some seed packet flew out of the final enemy. It disappeared. I don't see it. Cannot continue.

I made it to the fairy fight. A lone character, having to keep another character alive, because that character tells you which of the 4 enemies isn't the four fairies to hit. Still a one in three chance to hit. If there's a pattern, I haven't figured it out after an hour of boss fight. Since I'm forced to keep someone alive, I went with the parametic. However, for a lot of it, I'm still stuck wasting a turn, having to take 4 enemy attacks. Hoping I don't have misfortune. I assume that means I hit the wrong one, even if I did damage? On top of that, I still have the typical chance to miss.

Edit: Found the trick to beating that boss. Just attack a single fairy, no matter how much you hit or miss.

I'm unfamiliar with the source material and I've never played the Amiga, but I played the first 2 levels here on medium difficulty. Good and challenging. Weapons feel good. Especially that bouncing grenade launcher. 

There are some tight coridoors lead the gameplay to be shoot first. 

Only real critiques I have so far is to ask if there's a way to eliminate GZDoom keys if they aren't used in game. Unless I haven't made it far enough for the jump key to be used.

I'm still at it. Reached the mountain. The "battle areas" in the game are good an engaging. Dodging guards rather than random battles. Picking up a guest character who I couldn't control, but who was still able to fight was fun. Then, having to sprint between the mystical traps was good too. Great diversity with the game. I got pretty far in that mystical trap cave, before game over. I just stopped caring about the traps and plowed through after realizing they let the characters keep 1 HP. That set me back. However, I kept at it. I used the knowledge from that failed trek like the bad statues to avoid. I also changed classes to be a medic, instead of an elementalist like my failed run. The change of classes is a welcome addition, even if I felt that unless I was forced to change a class, I would have stayed with the mage class.

The third character is interesting, a forgetful mage that uses massive AP, but can sleep to regain it.  So far the battle dynamic keeps things interesting.

Hey there, I enjoy these types of RPGs. I'm only 30 minutes in (chapter 1-2), and the fact you have voice acting makes it a stand-out already. I didn't understand a 4 GB RPG like this, but the voice acting makes it understandable. I play RPGs mostly for the combat and the ability diversity here is good already and I'm sure it will expand. The switches to open doors and disable traps is a nice touch. The only thing missing here is having a cave atmosphere that differs from the outside. Should probably be darker or dimmer. Just a note for your future games.

The systems are good. Seeing the experience bars go up at the end. Little details most games miss. Defending recovers health and AP. Enemy names in red when they're low on health. The help for people that have never played a RPG of this type or any RPG at all. I suppose one qualm I have about combat is the enemies tend to blend in with the backgrounds. Maybe a thicker outline would help with that?

Hello there. I like the look of the game in the videos. When I play the game, I can't cycle through the menu. When I pick a level from the menu screen, it gives me 15 seconds to get a key and a treasure chest. Then kicks me to the menu. I am unclear if I need anything specific to unlock the next stage? The one stage that is unlocked has 3 shadowy stars, and I collect a star with the treasure chest when it's opened, but no star appears on the menu. If the time runs out, it sends me back to the menu. I'm just confused, but eager to play.

Need different enemies than the two types. Probably want to make an arrow pointing to the sphere between waves. Maybe change the color of the floor between waves. Have enemies drop timed pickups to reward the player and make the player move to collect them.

Level 3 seems to be stuck in an infinite loop where there's a trio of enemies. One central before 2 purple to each side of the original.

When the player perishes, the shadow remains. I like the game enough, there just needs to be more to it. Like something to collect. Different weapon. Each level has a different weapon array, but that's not changing anything during the level.

That boss in the second level, you need to space out the sounds, because it builds louder and louder. Faster projectiles may also help, since the player can travel the same speed.

I'm 6+ months late, but I gave it a try. Problem is, I have already gone through chapter 1. My save file is gone. I'd like to start at chapter 2. Could you please include a save file that starts at chapter 2?

I found a post including me from 6 years ago and a negative review.  If I left a negative review. I can't find it. Sorry about that.

Utter silliness. The hawk screech is a bit loud.

I'm happy you used it and I'll check it out. This is my first time seeing a game on gitHub.

I gave it a play. A lot of good effects here. Enemies breaking on defeat and the city atmosphere are the highlights. Needs key rebinds for the run, because some of us use the arrow keys to move. Checkpoints felt like a bit too far back. The game is also listed as "third person template" despite being a first person game. Enemies and the player can walk on top of the crumbled pieces of defeated enemies. Not sure what would be worse, seeing them snap above or seeing them clip through. Might want to have those pieces dissolve away or something. You have a realistic gun in the game, but not a realistic sound for the gun. After a few attempts, I couldn't make it past the large crawler enemy and I didn't seem to be doing any damage.

Very basic as you know from your own description. Doesn't feel like it gets more challenging. and it's easy. Needs to be some sort of stage end or difficulty ramping up. That cloud goes far too fast for a parallax to be in the middle of the parallax layers.

About your key binds. I can't key bind CTRL, SHIFT, NUM PAD or HOME / END / PGUP / PGDOWN.

There was a door with a lock on it. I opened it. I didn't have any kind of key since it was the first few minutes of game, just wandering around the settlement. Cyberdata sales were in there. Building needs a sign. If anything, to cover up the door that clips through the ceiling. The other door with a lock icon on it did not open. Maybe have an explanation why it unlocked when locked or why it doesn't. 

Save might want to display that I already have data in the slot. Town might want to have a path around there as a guide to doors. More doors, more obvious the path. Need more dark outline around text to make it more legible.

Needs a map or markers of some kind to guide me to my quest. That's the game's current flaw. Lack of direction.

I gave it 20 minutes. Looks good. It's a great start. There's a lot of potential here. Please keep going on it when you can.

What you have here is fantastic. Hint button sharing the same button as the psychokinetic feels like an issue. Might want a hold + move = run button. Defeated a bat and it dropped something I can't pick up. At the demo's end, there is a menu, but no mouse cursor.

Kinda shocked I've been using the Itch app for 6 years now. Time flies.

Really enjoyable mini soundtrack. Some good jingles that are a bit too happy for a spooky soundtrack, but still very viable for game music. The standout sound is definitely Xenolation. Great ambience with that one.

FireFox, but I have them all. I'm not using the browser version, I'm using the downloaded version from the Itch shell program. Not sure if I have hardware acceleration. I can't seem to find it in the nVidia control panel.  I can see the cube. Thanks for the help.

After the Construct screen, it seems to be a black screen for me. Pressing space and mouse buttons do nothing.

Price is already low enough for the high quality and ambience. 10% is a fair discount to get eyes on your assets.  3 character classes is a great bonus and makes the pack more desirable.

More better!

Delete the game page right? Not the game file? I've always deleted the game file first. It has never affected the rating.

Downloadable version. Web version is fine.

Game seems to have 2 screens on top of one another? Like a smaller screen and a larger screen beneath?

Thanks for taking a look. One day I'll update to the current version.

Slightly old: 2022.0.30

If you were to continue:
 - Setting to remove GUI.
 - Gamepad support for menus.
 - Scale down winter houses, they look laughably huge compared to the car.
 - CPU speed to setup difficulties.
 - Consecutive events rather than getting kicked to the title screen.
 - Gamepad button to alter views.
 - Third camera option that still chases the vehicle, but not so far behind.

Seems like mine always crashes from the static vertex = Drago3D_Internals.Vertex;

in the d3d_draw_block.

New encyclopedia looks good.

I see that you mention old save files won't be compatible. That's okay as long as you include a generic save file at the end of the first chapter or whatever you're calling them. It will be great for testers to have that jump-ahead too.

I'll play it again when you have chapter 2 ready.

Itch won't let me paste in a review, so I'll paste it here as a comment:

Sword Lords is an 8-bit style RPG with a deep combat system, and an openness of using equipment to truly customize your party of 3 to your liking. Took me 2.5 hours to complete the demo, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The big appeal is the game managed to hit that 8-bit NES vibe with art, characters, and music. The boss music is particularly good.

You begin with a single character, and over time, expand your party into three. Combat is where the game shines. Characters have typical fighting, and magic, but they also have skills that use skill points which build during battle. Increasing your character levels through combat will unlock new skills. Runes when used in empty equipment slots will add magic to a character. Some characters are worse with magic than others, but you have that choice for customization with plenty of spells. With each party member able to have two relics, that rounds out the customization nicely with certain bonuses anywhere you want them, whether it's more attack strength, defense, magic power, luck, or speed. These elements arrive very early in the game, but never feel overwhelming to grasp, despite there being so much.

With this being a demo, there is a single region to explore with 4 settlements. Each settlement has a surprising amount of exploration in towns with rewards everywhere for those willing to check every dresser drawer. It could almost be considered a thief simulator from how much you can pilfer in a single town. Beyond that, the mine rewards those for exploring every nook, and cranny. Most of the dungeons aren't nearly as rewarding, and a bit more straight forward.

Each town has several shops with a wide array of items to keep you fighting, runes to customize your arms, and a few select pieces of equipment. Inns recover health, and magic points at a fair price compared to the greater expense of coffee to restore mana, and crosses to revive your deceased allies. This is one of the few RPGs where items felt useful, even when magic became so abundant.

The quests were formulaic, someone would tell you where you need to go, you go there, the story unfolds, you enter a combat area, defeat a boss to get a special item, then you return to get a new quest that will be unlocked with the special item you just earned. It all fits into a bite-sized 30+ minutes each. The story didn't feel overbearing. Every character had motivations, and connections to the world, but that didn't really feel like a standout like the combat, and style. The world would also change as the series of quests built to something. A town would be on fire, with smoke all around. Merchants would mention what's changed in town, but still be willing to sell their wares. Townspeople, and soldiers also point out that they know only you can accomplish a mission, and so they'd give you things, rather than simply selling them to you.

The only real down-sides that I see are lack of full screen. Maximize works, but full screen just doesn't. Once you've gone into the final dungeon, you're not allowed out. However, you have plenty of save file slots, and auto-saves to go back to. It's still beatable, even if you might have no choice, but to press on in that finale. There needs to be battles with more, but weaker enemies, and enemies that have different shapes and sizes. Bosses are big, but there can be some common enemies that are large as well.

Hopefully the game continues with more of this formula of several missions, each building to a finale of the region, and then driving you to a different region. If it doesn't make it to that point, this demo was still very enjoyable.

YouTubers need content? It's not just itch.

Not my game, but I went through it recently. It hasn't gotten attention, and I quiet enjoyed it, especially when I started to upgrade things. It's a platforming adventure with selectable levels. It has a fun, homemade charm to it:

https://pig-hippo-games.itch.io/pandaland

I'm the type that downloads a few hundred games a year from Itch. There are red flag projects, like no art, people in the comments saying "dude, it's a virus." There's only been one game that my 2 (or 3) antiviruses labeled as a virus. It was quite a popular horror game too, from a group that had made several popular horror games, so I assume it was a false positive. I've worked on a project that registered the game a false positive, because there was a version checker to let players know if they had the most current version.

Perhaps making it private, so only members of your club can participate? I'm unsure if such an ability exists. The games would still be posted, even if the jam isn't public. I've seen plenty of games that state "made for college project."

Assets are a good way to limit things, so you know they were made for your game jam. Most game jams go with a theme, or 3 themes "dark," "pink," "world shifting." Bonus points for including all 3!

As for the 1 week, seems fine. I've seen others argue 1 month is lower commitment, if you're busy with stuff for 3 weeks, you might not be busy that one week. Then again, people like me, might work that entire month.

Best of luck to you and your game development club.

Thanks so much for playing it. You're a  person that gets it. As for playing all the levels, there are a lot. I went on a spree with making levels. Perhaps it's time to break it up into a few episodes.

A 3 floor house without a bedroom?

Your 2022 song is definately better than your 2020 work. The 2020 work feels like you used the wrong sound, that makes it unpleasant to listen to. Like the melodies in the 2020 songs are good, but the sounds used to make them are not.