I like the concept and the adventure (and the creepy fish. That is a very nice touch). This is especially good for a Ludum Dare game made in such a short time. I look forward to future work from you.
However, I find fault with the fact that you can easily run into a fish by exploring because the screen doesn't show the player enough to allow them to see the fish and not accidentally run into them. Had the map showed nearby fish, it would have helped.
It kind of stunk that there wasn't a special ending from having collected all the gems. It just felt useless to have gone after them to have it not affect the ending.
Thank you very much for your feedback.
Your ideas are good and would make the game better. We tried to polish it as much as we can, especially making it bug free, adding a mini map, fishes variety, atmosphere and sound effects and we falled short on the timeline unfortunately to polish all that.
We could have put different endings (when all fishes are catched, when all gems are gathered) but we had time to put only one when you reach the bottom of the level.
We will let this game at this state for the LD, but we never know if that catches some attention, maybe remake it in a real little game and fix everything up, why not :)
Thank you again.
The graphics and music are not only good, but unique when compared to games being released now. I hope to see even more games from you. I find some faults with the story and game play. Let me elaborate:
Story
While I like the idea of a deluded hero, the game tries to portray the main character as the one at fault for the princesses' death when this isn't the case. It's not just his fault.
- The knight protecting the princess kept the main character from going after her. If he hadn't done that, the princess would still be alive. The knight also judged the main character based on his vision, which was clearly misleading and self-fulfilling.
- Why was the princess in a castle filled with monsters? If I were the knight guarding her, I would have worried more about them then the guy with a sword. Plus, why would she run out into the castle, filled with monsters she couldn't reason compared to staying where she was with a man, who would be more reasonable than the monsters?
(I know the game was made for a jam, but the story just falls flat due to this problem. He's not a deluded hero, he's a victim of screwed up visions and fate)
Gameplay
I like the limited attack options (the one attack), as it forces the player to be more careful when fighting and to spend more time putting themselves into the proper position for an attack. I wish their were more battle situations, but I understand the lack of them due to the time constraints. My only complaint is with the boss battle.
- The boss launches an attack as soon as the cutscene is over. Unless you know it's coming, there's no time to dodge it.
- Getting hit by the boss is devastating so I usually ended up jumping over him and then slashing at him from behind. If you're careful, the boss is easy and very boring. There were just too many ways to avoid the attacks for the fight to be entertaining.
My last criticism is with the fact that the last cutscene replays after the credits have been shown. To restart the game, you need to reload the page.
Wow, Thank you so much for this feedback man! I really appreciate it.
Yes you're right, that story is a complete mess, my original idea was something more complex than that, sort of like a Anakin going Darth Vader thing, with much more leading the main character turning evil. Unfortunately due to the lack of events in Construct 3 Free Version and planning of myself, I ended up simplifyng the story to its maximum.
Yes, that boss simply kicks you because of his "surprise atack". I hate to give excuses, but its the same thing that happend with the story, lack of events and planning. What really bothers me, is that I forgot to change the checkpoint spawn, which was a very simple thing that I needed to do.
Hehe, I rememer being like 11:15 when I finished that animation and put it in the game. I didn't test it to see what happend after it finished playing so I only realized that it looped infinitly after the game was uploaded.
Again, thank you so much bothering to create this amazing review for my dull game.
I can't beat the first level. There's no way to get up to the higher platforms. I've occasionally been able to reach some by trying to jump while next to a raising platform, but by the time this happens, I don't have enough time to beat the level.
The game seems interesting and the graphics are nice, but the fact that the sprite animations don't play when they should (it will look like I'm standing still when it should look like I'm running right or left). It would also be nice if the screen was wider so that the player doesn't run into enemies they can't see until the last minute.
I hope to see more games from you. If this is one of your first projects, it is very good. Good luck!
The idea is good, but something isn't right. I'm not sure whether or not it is your in-game explanation of air strafing or if the mechanic hasn't been polished enough (I'm guessing it is the last one), but, much like Hesiolite, I can't get passed the second section using your strafing technique. I'd like to bring up all of the problems I'm having with your game mechanic, as well as other aspects of your game.
- At most, my speed will rise from 9.5 (max walking speed) to 12 while using air strafing. This seems like it is barely enough to reach the distant platform in the second section.
- Even when I repeat my movements to perform an air strafing test, the results are almost random. I'll get anywhere from an unchanged speed of 9.5 to something like 11.21.
- Trying to "aim" your character while air strafing is also a problem. You've made it so the player needs to look toward where they are jumping, while the direction a player is facing determines which way the directional keys will take them (the "left" directional key will still take the player left, but once they turn left, they are now heading backwards compared to their original position). Why would you make a mechanic where the person's directional view and orientation needs to be shifted suddenly in order to gain more speed?
- The first challenge can be passed without using air strafing. All you need to do is jump at an angle to reach the platform blocked by the see-through wall.
- Even the directions provided in the game on air strafing don't provide enough information. Do you shift the camera once you've jumped or just before you jump? A video tutorial might have helped, such as showing the player what a successful jump looks like and how it is done.
- I discovered a way to move forward and use air strafing to some extent: while moving forward, quickly shift the camera's direction to the left or right and then jump. This will increase the player speed slightly.
- You put a speedometer and a line tracing the player's former path (after dying). I'm guessing you put them in to show to the player that the air strafing does increase your speed (or to ensure to yourself that the game is working), though if the effects of the air strafing were more dramatic, then this wouldn't be necessary.
- You have a top speed listing though falling will make the top speed for the player around 25. This seems kind of lame.
I don't like the sign that says "Persistence is Key". While many great games require persistence in order to beat them, these games have a legitimate difficulty, where when a player fails a level, they know it's their own fault, not because the mechanic literally sets the player up to fail in the first place (There's no skill in trying to figure out how far I have to turn the camera around after jumping, especially when the results are random). Since I can't beat the second section of this game, I can only assume that I'm not using the air strafing correctly, the game is broken, or the chances of successfully completing the jump are miniscule. This seems like an excuse for the flawed game mechanic. There's a difference between difficult and tedious (and randomness).
I hope that whatever the problem may be, whether it is the game or the explanation, that it is resolved because I enjoy 3D platformers like this. It definitely looks interesting and I would like to continue playing, but only if progress is more than luck. My apologies if this review comes across as mean. I wish you luck in your future in creating games.
Thank you for the detailed review I have added a tutorial to the description and have come up with a few fixes for the jittering/stuttering
-playing in Firefox
-lowering mouse DPI (using razor synapse or something is the easiest way)
-adjusting resolution (usually lowering it)
if you are still having problems getting above 10 speed please PM me and I will try and improve the mechanics and/or tutorial
This is a good parody of Castlevania. The art of the enemies and surroundings are clever and there is difficulty to punish those who carelessly play the game. I also like the secrets; they were well hidden enough to make me play multiple times to find them (though could you give me a hint on where I could find the picifier?)
I do wish that the game was longer. It was like eating an awesome dessert, but there just wasn't much of it. I have one glitch to report though; if you jump and press yourself against a wall (like the one at the very beginning) while whipping, you can get the character stuck in the wall.
After playing enough games that over explain themselves or playing a simple game that doesn't explain enough when they could, I found your game intriguing, annoying, and a little bit refreshing (don't take the annoying comment as a negative though. Annoying isn't always bad, especially when trying to figure something tough out).
Your game is like a new toy a child is given; the player is tasked with figuring out how it works and what is the extent of what it can do. I'd like to play more of it, but there are a few things I'd like to suggest for the game.
- You can get through the first few levels without paying attention to what's going on so by the time you realize this game is becoming tougher, you've already advanced beyond the introduction with no way back without restarting the game. Perhaps add a level select option.
- I wish that when the player selects a block that it would remain selected after putting one down so that the player wouldn't have to go back to the block menu on the left each time to reselect it OR you could make it so the number keys could switch between the different blocks.
Good job on creating the game and I wish you luck in your future endeavors.
Thank you very much for the very helpful review! It is extremely satisfying to see people enjoying the game, and the feel it should convey :)
I agree with all your suggestions, and to be honest I thought about them during development, but part laziness, part hastiness, I never included them. Perhaps I will do so now, or in a future version.
This could be a great game and I do understand that you only had 72 hours to make this, but it is lacking things and has problems:
- The game refuses to end unless you either help or kill everyone or at the least 3 out of the 4 people. (I killed the old guy, ignored the snail guy, buried the beach guy's family, but it wouldn't end so I killed the voodoo guy and I get the evil ending).
- On the screen where the snail guy is (the guy who wants you to get rid of the fire breathing snail), invisible platforms will sometimes be there for the player to jump on. Also, I've been respawned inside the platform, a little bit below where the player is supposed to respawn, forcing me to restart. Also, if you jump up to the top of the screen and go off of the top of the screen, you instantly die (the same thing happens if you touch the beach scene's far right wall).
- I've so far only found 3 endings and I don't see how another ending is possible (either you are consider good, evil, or obedient. I thought there might have been something to do with "not killing the animals", but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome).
- The fact that it's the same boss every time really doesn't help a game like this (even the subtle changes in the way the boss fights doesn't help). The only real reward is the text you get at the end of the game and it gets old quick when you are trying to unlock the other endings and keep the getting the ones you got before, forcing you to start over at that point.
- It is also kind of lack luster when the ferry guy treats the game like a play rather than an actually adventure "I will now take on the role of this". It really takes away from the morality of it all when it is presented as this and it really takes away from the ferryman's character as he is now just a jerk who plans on trying to kill you in choosing whatever you choose.
- I got a boss battle where an endless number of animals came to attack, but I can't seem to get that again. Concerning this though, spiders can pop up everywhere on the platform, which leave little time or room to dodge (by the time I notice it's under me, it's over).
- You put the old man's wheel chair in the direct path of the player, making it impossible to ignore either him or the archer guy, seeing as you can't drop the wheelchair once you get it, preventing you from just using the underground tunnel to get to the beach and bury the beach guy's family.
- You say there are two secrets in the game. The only thing I could possibly identify as a secret is the place where you get the cucumber at. Other than that, I think I've gone and pushed against every corner and can't find anything else (the "ha ha" cannon is a little annoying in that if you are on the platform above it and walk toward it, you die).
- I thought the "dark flame" was an interesting idea and I liked how it could destroy the fire snail and the rock blocking the easy exit to the beach, but outside of this, it does nothing, but make the game harder (it doesn't even seem to affect any of the endings. It just makes the final boss fight harder).
- The description says "Your choices will affect gameplay in subtle ways". They really don't. The music goes away when you kill someone, quest items disappear sometimes, and the boss battle might be a little different, but overall, the gameplay remains exactly the same.
- It would've been cool if the black flame could reveal a secret or it could be harnessed. It would have also been cool if the void butterfly could have an effect on the ferryman. It's just different things like that could could have made a real difference.
I like the idea of the game, I can certainly see that it was influenced by Undertale and Don't Look Back, and I can see that work went into it, but it's just lacking in general: it's lacking in interactibility with the game (you can only collect some things and kill), lacking in effective story telling and invoking emotion (though the music cutting out was a neat little thing), and lacking in replayability (the first time through, it is okay, but as you play through it hoping to find something cool you can do or some different way to affect the world around you, you find you can only kill, help, or ignore, and you can't even ignore the people completely).
I liked the art, music, and the platforming was solid. I really do look forward to your future works as I know you'll make cool stuff.
Hey! I love getting detailed feedback and there are some valid points here, but there are also things that were intentional/misunderstood. I'll go over your feedback and clarify some points:
- The game refuses to end unless you either help or kill everyone or at the least 3 out of the 4 people.
A: The game will also end if you kill more than 50 animals, or if you just kill the beach-guy (murderer's) family. The quest you are sent on is to kill the beach guy with the two dead bodies. He is the murderer the ferryman mentions in the beginning (or he is a mourning father, both can be true). So you have 4 ways to end the game, and in the situation you described you didn't qualify for any of them, so it didn't end... if you ignore everyone the game doesn't end at all (this might not be perfectly intuitive and perhaps I can change the situation to end it if you just explore and don't do anything).
- On the screen where the snail guy is (the guy who wants you to get rid of the fire breathing snail), invisible platforms will sometimes be there for the player to jump on. Also, I've been respawned inside the platform, a little bit below where the player is supposed to respawn, forcing me to restart. Also, if you jump up to the top of the screen and go off of the top of the screen, you instantly die (the same thing happens if you touch the beach scene's far right wall).
A: The invisible platforms are there on purpose. They offer a way for the player to cross the water and get to the beach without having to help or kill the huntress (snail guy is a gal :P). Do you spawn inside the platforms only in this screen, or does it sometime happen in general? Either way I didn't have a lot of time to test everything 100%, so I am sorry for that :( about dying when you hit edges of a screen, that happens when there is nothing on the other side and I just forgot to put an invisible wall there... apologies!
- I've so far only found 3 endings and I don't see how another ending is possible (either you are consider good, evil, or obedient. I thought there might have been something to do with "not killing the animals", but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome).
A: From what you wrote a bit later on, you also found the 4th ending :) The game can end also if you kill more than 50 animals (I think that was the number, perhaps slightly more). If you don't kill as much animals, you will get one of the three endings you mentioned.
- The fact that it's the same boss every time really doesn't help a game like this (even the subtle changes in the way the boss fights doesn't help). The only real reward is the text you get at the end of the game and it gets old quick when you are trying to unlock the other endings and keep the getting the ones you got before, forcing you to start over at that point.
A: The original plan was to have 4 different bosses, but I just ran out of time to be honest :(
- It is also kind of lack luster when the ferry guy treats the game like a play rather than an actually adventure "I will now take on the role of this". It really takes away from the morality of it all when it is presented as this and it really takes away from the ferryman's character as he is now just a jerk who plans on trying to kill you in choosing whatever you choose.
A: The game starts off very weird and without explanation (it is vague on purpose, I like players interpreting things for themselves), you fall asleep and wake up someplace you don't know... why? Maybe you died and this is a divine test... Maybe the ferryman is just a very powerful wizard... Maybe it actually IS a dream even though the text says it isn't. I wanted to enforce the feeling that anything regarding the story is possible (the setting has its strange things... cucumber forest O.o? Flying wheelchair O.o? Fire-sick snail O.o?) Maybe the warlock stole the old man's chair to try and excape? Maybe the warlock is a good soul who is trying to kill the fire-snail to help the beach guy bury his family? The ferryman clearly has supernatural aspects, and so he will stress the fact that this is a "game" or an island where anything regarding the story is possible, because like in the old pulp fiction, the story didn't matter all that muchin the end. You were there to read about heroes killing shit and going on adventures and sleeping with beautiful women, and you didn't care if the plot made sense or had any meaning or layers to it. It's not that I didn't want the story to matter here, I did, and I also wanted to enforce the theme of choice and consequences, which when translated into the story, resulted in treating the story like a canvas more than an actual story, and the ferryman at the end embodies that. He assume the role you want him (by reaching that ending) assume.
- I got a boss battle where an endless number of animals came to attack, but I can't seem to get that again. Concerning this though, spiders can pop up everywhere on the platform, which leave little time or room to dodge (by the time I notice it's under me, it's over).
A: This is actually the 4th and worst ending (and you actually got all 4 endings :P). It is the calamity ending. You get it when you kill a certain number of animals. The boss fight is supposed to be frustrating and "not fair", but it is certainly winnable. Generally the easiest boss is the good run boss, then the "normal" boss is the obedient man boss, the vile murderer boss is hard (Fire from sky), and the calamity upon nature boss is hardest.
- You put the old man's wheel chair in the direct path of the player, making it impossible to ignore either him or the archer guy, seeing as you can't drop the wheelchair once you get it, preventing you from just using the underground tunnel to get to the beach and bury the beach guy's family.
A: That's a great point! Didn't think of that.
- You say there are two secrets in the game. The only thing I could possibly identify as a secret is the place where you get the cucumber at. Other than that, I think I've gone and pushed against every corner and can't find anything else (the "ha ha" cannon is a little annoying in that if you are on the platform above it and walk toward it, you die).
A: The other secret are the invisible platforms in the screen with the huntress (snail gal), which allow you to cross the water without helping/killing.
- I thought the "dark flame" was an interesting idea and I liked how it could destroy the fire snail and the rock blocking the easy exit to the beach, but outside of this, it does nothing, but make the game harder (it doesn't even seem to affect any of the endings. It just makes the final boss fight harder).
A: Yeah... that's the payback for using dark magic to cross the area :P it makes the game harder. In general, a lot of the choices make the game harder in certain areas even though they can potentially help you. If you kill people you can jump higher, but try platforming in a restricted area (underground for example, crossing the flame cannon or jumping to the platform with the spider in the wheelchair room) is much harder.
- The description says "Your choices will affect gameplay in subtle ways". They really don't. The music goes away when you kill someone, quest items disappear sometimes, and the boss battle might be a little different, but overall, the gameplay remains exactly the same.
A: They actually do! Like I just wrote above, certain platforming challenges will become much harder if you murder people, and if you help the warlock the dark flame is in the boss fight and it is harder. If you choose not to kill animals the boss fight is easier but the platforming is harder. If you kill a lot of people it isvery hard for you to jump during the boss fight, etc.
- It would've been cool if the black flame could reveal a secret or it could be harnessed. It would have also been cool if the void butterfly could have an effect on the ferryman. It's just different things like that could could have made a real difference.
A: Nice ideas! I know this sounds like an excuse by now.. but I just ran out of time to make neat additions like that.
I'm glad that overall it was all right, I realize there is a lot of places for improvement obviously, and you live and you learn! Perhaps the next jam entry will be better as a result of this feedback. Thank you again for writing in so much detail!
This could be a pretty good game. I like the voice acting, the sound effects are good, and the story is okay, but it has its problems.
- If you kill everyone early on, the game won't advance. There will be no one for the creature to possess and replace. There were a few people left alive and I took blood samples and none of them were the creature. I know this for certain because I killed the rest of the people. You could have made it so the creature could possess or hide inside dead bodies or if everyone, but you is dead, you could try having a surprise attack inside the building or have it come after you outside. You could also have it where it can shrink down to its smaller size and jump out of the vent at you.
- The game doesn't offer multiple endings, right? It could offer four endings, one if you beat it without killing any innocents, one for if you accidentally kill an innocent, one for if the creature takes over everyone except you (killing them all), and one for if you murder everyone. There wouldn't have to be much of an ending for each. For killing everyone, you could show him in jail or show everyone who survived.
- Things about the game’s logic don’t add up. Based on Astrocreep, these creatures can reproduce yet only one of them is present in the game and it jumps from body to body. Why is there only one? What happens to the body it originally jumped from? Why does the bloody wetsuit disappear after the creature is first attacked? You could have made it really creepy and had it so the creature would stash the bodies in different places, like one in the fringe, another under the bed, etc.
- Starting the game over and having to swim through the credits is boring the second time through. Perhaps add a skip function.
- You don't offer the player a way to restart the game if they get stuck or if they just feel like starting over. You can refresh the page, but the game takes kind of long to load.
- You can’t leave a room once the creature reveals itself, which kind of stinks, especially if you run out of ammo (if I ran out of ammo in that situation, I’d get out). Also, why is it that you are only allowed to run during attacks? Why not provide the run option outside of this? I understand wanting to build suspense, but if you designed this game for multiple playthroughs, players are going to get annoyed by this.
- During the “take blood” part of the game, you can’t interact with Trevor. He’ll just stand in the corner of the lab (though you can shoot him).
- The text doesn’t always fit in the dialogue boxes, making it difficult to read (one example being talking to Uma after the first appearance of the creature).
- Dean, your character, will know that the microscope has been damaged before he even goes back to the lab (if you talk to anyone after encountering the creature a second time, this will be revealed even without going back to the lab).
- You can turn on the air conditioning unit without the screwdriver. I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.
- The audio for a character will cut off if you advance usually, which is good, but if you get to a choice screen, the other character’s audio will keep playing even if you tried to skip it.
- The creature attacked me after getting the gun and going back to the party. How would it have known to do that? What’s worse is that the character (who I knew the creature was) was off screen and I walked to the second screen, but the person was right there as soon as I got there and the creature transformed and ate me. This isn’t very fair at all. It also isn’t right where you are shooting at the creature and he is still approaching you. You don’t provide the player with much room to fight and this is also bas because you can’t control where the creature is going to walk before it transforms (for example, if the creature in human form is coming to the left wall than right, then you’d want to go to the right wall and put as much distance between you and creature as possible, but you’d have to pass by it. What’s stopping the creature from transforming when you try and pass it?
- Having to check the blood tests again after dying is a pain and it can be avoided. Why not have it so you have the blood tests, but randomize them upon respawning so that the result might be different. If you want to indicate the player that they should check them again, have a “to do list” or a menu that details what the current mission is.
- When the helicopter appears, it takes a long time for the game to end. Please speed up this process. I don’t hear anything special while waiting for it to end except for the sound of a helicopter.
- I don’t know this for certain (because after three times where the game either freezes or doesn’t let me advance, I’m not playing it again. Getting through the opening again is a pain), but it’s possible if you try to rapidly shoot bullets, the game will only shoot at a certain rate while if you press the fire button faster than this rate, then your ammo will go down. Maybe check on this.
- It’s a small detail, but when you shoot a bullet, the direction of the sprite does not change.
- There is a locker in the last building on the left. I’ve spoken with everyone, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is offering a key. I even got the blonde woman to offer her key (originally, I got it from killing her).
- You allow the player to open the refrigerator, but you don’t let them take a beer. You could make it so you can just ignore the scream and party for a while until the creature attacks or something.
- When you take away the beginning credits portion, the beginning introduction to the characters portion, the game is pretty short and doesn’t offer a lot of replay value after beating it because it doesn’t offer anything new. The game will play out in the same way each time with different characters being taken over. So far, Trevor or the scientist woman haven’t been taken over at the beginning because this would interfere with the streamed line storyline. There are no surprises after playing it through the first time.
- There might be more problems, but I don’t feel like playing the game again right now. Below, I’ve listed some definite glitches.
Glitches:
- After turning on the air conditioning unit and dying after facing the creature, the game over screen came up and then game screen went black. You could still hear the rain for a little while though. This happened to me at least twice, forcing me to restart the game if I wanted to continue.
- The game flashes white when you leave a building. Is this intentional?
- The game window shifts slightly to the left or right when you are about to walk off screen.
You’ve been making games for at least 12 years and I’ve seen the things you can make and they are good, but recently there is almost always problems with them whether it be glitches, they aren’t finished, or something else and a lot of the time, they are glaringly obvious problems. Now, glitches and lacking gameplay you will find in nearly all games, but putting in safe guards that prevent the player’s progress from being lost is vital (I played Psychoscape and I wanted to make a walkthrough for it, but I got trapped on one of the levels, I wasn’t able to restart and I wasn’t able to reload the game without starting all over. That turned me off immediately). Also, as interesting as playing the game was, I wouldn’t mind (and I’m guessing many others wouldn’t mind either) waiting for it to be good and done instead of releasing a beta or releasing it with problems. Many people lead busy lives and they don’t want to risk wasting time playing something that may fail on them (also there’s less motivation to play a game you played once before, even if it is the “complete” version). I’m willing to help you test your games and I’m sure many other people are willing to help as well because it is clear, both from past and present projects, that you have talent and you can organize the creation of games and work with other people on them (the voice acting in the game is well done).
I would really like this game if it took place inside of a house or hospital, somewhere where there is room to move about and danger could come at any moment.
I wish you luck on your future project and let me know if you want any help with them.
I enjoyed playing the game. The story draws you in like a funnel and I like the art though I wish the cutscenes would move faster or could be skipped (this includes the times when sound effects are playing, like a ringing phone. Cutting it short may not be a bad idea).
Also, some of the puzzles are kind of abstract, like the tutorial puzzle. Was there any hint that you needed to take the first number of the first number, the second of the second...? Without putting a hint there, it's like dumping a pile of numbers on the floor and asking the player to figure out what the answer is.
I am a voice actor, singer, writer, beta tester, and video maker. If you would like my help with anything from games to animations to almost anything really, let me know.
The Fishing 
Deluded Hero 
Anima Daemonium-Beta 
Abaddon Ascension 
Pencilvania 
Phase Socket 
Pulp Fantasy 
Aquacreep 
Third Exit Chapter 1 
