Existential by LukeZaz

[raw]
made by LukeZaz for LD31 (JAM)
What you see on screen is what exists. Once it's no longer visible, it gets deleted.

Collect chests to upgrade your characters abilities, and defeat enemies (read: chunks of stone and dirt) to level up and gain health. Get all four artifact pieces from chests to win.

Controls and information also available in-game.

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall(Jam) 2.67 908
Audio(Jam) 2.54 554
Fun(Jam) 2.74 730
Graphics(Jam) 2.41 863
Humor(Jam) 2.55 528
Innovation(Jam) 2.46 834
Mood(Jam) 2.69 745
Theme(Jam) 2.39 980

Feedback

TheMonsterFromTheDeep
09. Dec 2014 · 03:07 UTC
Pretty good! I especially liked the music and I think the concept of getting new skills and stuff from chests is cool.
cyrus
09. Dec 2014 · 04:45 UTC
yes, smash those ... crates! :D nice procedurally generated platformer. pretty basic drawings...
goodbadokay
09. Dec 2014 · 05:50 UTC
Lol) The game feels very fun)
One of the boxes got on top of my head and killed me in a few seconds :D
bukt
09. Dec 2014 · 05:54 UTC
Fun, but not very original.
SinistraGames
09. Dec 2014 · 06:56 UTC
This is a nice base for a modern roguelike type of game. I can see that the work on programming is heavier than the art. There's nothing wrong with that! I liked it!
oscarabraham
09. Dec 2014 · 06:56 UTC
It is a nice idea. The game is too easy. If enemies were stronger, or smarter, or faster, and if your health didn't fill up so fast, it would be more fun.
JNyknn
09. Dec 2014 · 06:58 UTC
Nice game.
ShadowStryker
10. Dec 2014 · 02:24 UTC
Your website or whatever website is hosting the file seems to be down.
LostCodeStudios
10. Dec 2014 · 03:13 UTC
Really like the procedural generation, but having issues with crate mechanics :)
JoshuaBurr
10. Dec 2014 · 03:27 UTC
The web version doesn't seem to load.
elvaq
10. Dec 2014 · 04:15 UTC
Has a nice feel but it's crazy ambitious for the jam and thus, not really very balanced or polished. Could be cool to keep working on!
Lynx
10. Dec 2014 · 04:31 UTC
Super creative game, I like the generous treasure chests. And those darn boxes kept ganging up man!

One suggestion, in art darker values of colors represent foreground while lighter represent distance and background (look at mountains in the distance, they get lighter the farther away they go)

Might want to apply this rule to your game because I kept think the dark blocks were ceilings and floors
pkenney
10. Dec 2014 · 04:47 UTC
Kinda cool, especially getting the upgrades. If the sword swing was just a bit more satisfying, and hitting the enemies had a crunch, it would add a lot to the experience. At first I wasn't sure when I was hitting them, but then I did notice you flash the enemy a bit.

One nice thing about the balance was that you had to be careful. You think you're in control, but as soon as you lose it things can fall apart fast because you get multi-hit to near death quickly in a bad position. Also there was a balance between careful play killing each guy, vs sprinting past them.

I tried to use the screen mechanic to kill guys by moving so they'd go off the screen and stop existing, but I didn't have a lot of luck with this. That was when I got surrounded and ran for my life.
🎤 LukeZaz
10. Dec 2014 · 05:45 UTC
ShadowStryker & JoshuaBurr, I've put a itch.io link as the main one - the old one has been moved to be a mirror. Hopefully now you'll be able to play.

Lynx, thanks for the tip on the art. I didn't realize this.

pkenney, thanks for the comment! When it comes to the screen mechanic, it's not entirely true. There's a small 'buffer' where tiles will stick around so that you don't see them getting destroyed, so the enemies might have hidden there.
Crefossus
10. Dec 2014 · 08:45 UTC
I love the random generation, although it could be more noticeable.

The biggest issue for me was the animation not matching the actual attack range. Some random powerups in the chests would go a long way. Items that change your strategy would be really neat.
hypnoticbytes
10. Dec 2014 · 13:13 UTC
Pretty cool arcade game. A bit easy but good in overall.
Warboys
14. Dec 2014 · 09:36 UTC
Really like the idea of stuff going off the screen being destroyed, I just wish you had a level design that promoted backtracking or whatnot to make use of it more.
MrBadIvan
14. Dec 2014 · 20:26 UTC
Nice idea, fun game=)
ShellfishGames
17. Dec 2014 · 22:27 UTC
"What you see on screen is what exists. Once it's no longer visible, it gets deleted." - sounds really good, I think you should've focused more on that and used it as a central game mechanic. This way it doesn't really matter all that much, and everything seems quite generic. Wouldn't even have noticed that feature if I hadn't read it beforehand.
Otherwise a pretty solid game, the chests were a nice touch. It just was a bit monotonous.. :)
rodobodolfo
17. Dec 2014 · 22:39 UTC
Really liked it, I love the stats grinding, and the fighting, though quite weird, it feels satisfying. Good Job!
Xanjos
18. Dec 2014 · 22:18 UTC
Pretty good concept and I like how the levels are procedurally generated although it's a bit annoying when an enemy box lands on top of you and you can't shake it off.
maxmetallica
29. Dec 2014 · 20:27 UTC
nice work