Mystic Castle by xerohuang
(New links were added after Compo, not in 48 hours. With bug fixes and optimised controls.)
You are in a mystic castle where there is an inner one in another dimension. Can you see the truth?
It's a Action/Puzzle/Platformer game. With your "see" skill, you would see something disappearing/appearing.
Left/W/Right/D to move, alt to "see", ctrl to attack, space to jump. Or just use the joystick. You can configure controls with Windows version.
But No sound, No musics, No menu, No boss... had not enough time to do it. As my first LD.
You are in a mystic castle where there is an inner one in another dimension. Can you see the truth?
It's a Action/Puzzle/Platformer game. With your "see" skill, you would see something disappearing/appearing.
Left/W/Right/D to move, alt to "see", ctrl to attack, space to jump. Or just use the joystick. You can configure controls with Windows version.
But No sound, No musics, No menu, No boss... had not enough time to do it. As my first LD.
Ratings
| Coolness | 52% | 3 |
| Overall | 3.19 | 544 |
| Fun | 3.16 | 427 |
| Graphics | 3.35 | 428 |
| Humor | 2.61 | 431 |
| Innovation | 3.35 | 365 |
| Mood | 2.92 | 619 |
| Theme | 3.23 | 588 |
Good job anyway !
Guess I wasn't meant to do that... had to restart to complete it. Cool mechanic and level design.
The 'two worlds' mechanic was an obvious pick for the theme, but it was very well executed in this game; the environment-changing bubble is not unique, but it's definitely a fitting choice for overlapping worlds, and the way it was executed was really good; you really had to be careful about when and when not to activate the bubble. The level design was great and forced me to think about how to progress multiple times. The areas look a bit too similar, though; minor visual differences (paintings on the wall, sets of armor, other decorations) would make it easier to recognize where you are (and with that, whether or not you have visited that room before). The combat unfortunately sucked donkey balls, mostly because of the extreme slipperiness of the castle (seriously, what was it built out of?!). The death penalty is also rather severe; with no way to heal, your third time of accidentally running into a skeleton comes soon enough, and suddenly you have to walk back to where you were again - a lot less fun once you've finished solving the puzzles. In fact, I feel the combat didn't really add anything to the game, and it might've been better off without it.
I also feel that sound would very much improve the game. When you flip a switch or press a button, you might not even notice that you did so, let alone know what happened from pressing the button/flipping the switch. A simple *click* sound would help recognize when you press a button/flip a switch, and things like sounds of doors opening (for multiple-use switches) or a you-solved-the-puzzle jingle (for single-use switches) would help hint towards what just happened because of the switch. Music would add a lot too; once I started playing 'Fearless Challenger / Guidance Gate' (from La-Mulana) in the background, the game got several times more awesome.
Overall, great game, looking forward to seeing what you make after this LD.
Thanks guys and thank @VDZ for your helpful advice!
Other than sound and whatnot, try implementing some friction! It'll really help with the platform feel.
Like it.
To clarify what xerohuang says: There is a 'front layer' and a 'back layer'. The front layer is visible outside of the circle and around you when you have your power disabled, when when you enable your power you see only the 'back layer' of the level in the circle around you. Enemies will hit you when you bump into them regardless of whether or not you can see them; switch to the proper layer to kill them.
At the very start, you have a 'closed room' with only an enemy. Kill the enemy and activate your power to notice the back layer has a hole in the wall that you can walk through. The rest of the game is just like that; there's platforms that are or aren't there depending on the layer, etc. You'll probably find yourself wondering where to go next and thinking maybe the game ends here because of time constraints, but there's always a way to continue until you get a clear 'you win' message. I urge you to give this game another chance, it's quite good apart from the combat.