Amazing game! 5/5!

Excellent. I couldn't jump back up after going to a lower area on level three, unsure if level design issue or old person's lack of platformer skills

@sethr I know where you mean, forgot to tweak that. You can make the jump easily if you make a short jump by tapping jump lightly. And thanks for your comment! :D

@sethr Since everyone that played thought they got stuck, I made a post-jam bug fix and removed 1 tile from level 3 to make that jump easier. :)

Very solid entry, the concept fits the theme.
Sprites are nice, but it really lacks a bit of music.

Only confusing thing is the "bosses" attack. I used hit & run tactics on most of them without getting hit, got more and more greedy (landing up to three attacks before stepping back) and the only time I got hit it killed me, since I had no idea of how much damage they can deal (I kept approx 40% of my HP, on the fight with two of them on a roof). They would greatly benefit from at least one frame of animation to warn about their attack.

Also, jumping is a bit hard to handle precisely, I couldn't really understand where my body collision is.
Lastly, it really needs an instruction on the loading screens. It seems that only space works (I tried z/x/mouse without success and thought the game was frozen, or finished, until I finally tried space).

Aside from those details the game is very well made o/

@legulysse thank you very much for taking the time! All issues you mention were things I had planned but in the end, sadly, had no time to create.

Nice game ! i like the mood, it reminds me first Castlevania in some way. It would be great with music.

Nice catch on the theme.

GG

Solid little dungeon crawler. Sprites are nice although I assume you didn't finish the big guys attack animation. At least you can see the hitbox for the attack. Sounds are fitting and give good feedback, only thing lacking is a little music.

Pretty cool! Even though it was probably way too easy. There was so much blood that you could easily even skip couple of levels. I didn't even get hit once. Those floating eye thingies got close few times, I think just giving them some more movement speed could do the trick. And obviously other enemies could be beefed up some more too. Even the intimidating looking sword guys with their cheaty non-telegraphed attacks and missing attack animation sprite were no match for my dodgy skills.


And this thing also looks like you just didn't stretch the black background to be big enough :smiley:


Other than the difficulty, the overall gameplay was great. The controls felt good and responsive. The pixel art looked nice but could have used more variety. Same goes for the sound effects and the lack of music didn't help there much either. Could add in some more feedback when hitting the enemies like a flash them white or something along those lines.

The camera did have some issues like erratic and jittery movements mainly when jumping/falling. It probably was because it was so aggressively sticking to the player sprite. But yeah, 2D cameras (and don't even get me started on 3D ones) alone could eat a weekend from a developer and still be far from perfect.

Anyways, good job!

Nice concept! I like how you really end up compromising between going to the next level or making sure you'll have enough blood. It may have been too easy but it's better that way for a jam game I think. Too bad there was no music, the graphics have a nice dark atmosphere and a few organ notes would have been the cherry on top. I figured it was probably lack of time but the sword enemies lack a feedback before their attack, even if they're pretty easy as is (I never got hit), I believe it's unfair not to warn the player, even shortly before. Oh also I'm unsure but I think there was no coyote time? That could make the jumping a little less frustrating. Overall good entry, congratulations :)

@lucien-catonnet Haha, coyote time! Never heard that term before but immediately got what that means. I've kinda struggled when trying to explain it calling it something like a grace period when running off a platform or something like that but that is just perfect. Thanks for that! :smiley:

And yes, it pretty much always should be there on platformers. Sure this didn't require much precision platforming but it would have made a difference. There was few times when I failed the jumps when first going up those back and forth sections and was kinda missing such feature.

Really impressive game! Amazing how you managed to cram so much content in just 48h.
Tight controls (which is rare for LD entries), except for what has been mentioned before about the "coyote time". Very clean graphics, good sound design. I had a lot of fun.

Nice game, fun to play to the end! The controls felt very responsive. The final enemy was a neat change of pace, I wish there were more interesting / difficult enemy variations like that. Well done!

Neat game with a very intuitive concept. Enjoyed this one

Good game! Good level design, good controls. Didn't like the graphics at first, loved them after three minutes! (BTW, the view of the tower between levels was great!) Sound was OK (though some music would have helped a lot to create a mood). In the suggestion front, I can think of two things. First, the game started to feel a bit repetitive after some time (which is perfectly understandable for a 48-hour game!) Second, those big guys with big swords. I found it really hard to know when they are going to attack. For me, it felt as a matter of luck -- I was mad the two times I had to restart from level one because I was killed by the two of them in top level. Also, as other have pointed out, there is some visual glitch with their attack animation.

But a very solid entry for sure! Feels like a real, complete, polished game. Had fun playing it!

Solid game. I liked how the tower lights show your current level. I made it 7 levels up, and I died on the point where the altar was on a bridge between two knights. Most of the levels felt unique and the enemies were easy enough that I wanted to keep playing. I like how the knights gave more health, since they are much more difficult to defeat. I would have preferred if jump was mapped to the up key. Some background music would have helped.

A competent side-scrolling... *vampire-hack&slash?*

I like the ominous, sparse visuals; although atmospheric background music would have improved the mood even more.

The other easy points has already been given, so I'll think of something else... Starting with the gimmick.

Sacrificing health for an advantage is such a good idea that I find it strange that you didn't go for it! Here the only benefit from sacrificing health is reducing the amount of backtracking when reaching full health. Why not make the character more powerful for the duration of the level when the altar's thirst for blood is sated? Anything other than saving real-life time would have been much more thematic, really.

On the topic of time... You shouldn't reset all of the progress upon death. If this was a commercial project with great mechanical depth, level variety, and high quality graphics; I would replay from the start for sure, but not here and not in a jam; I'd much rather play another jam project instead! Resetting to the beginning of the current level is enough of a penalty.

Well, deeper combat would do of course, but there is a limit to what can be achieved in 48 hours so I won't hold that against you.

Good work, nonetheless. If the theme tied strongly to the combat system, risking health for other advantages, I would be all over this. Worth a post-jam version, in my opinion.

Overall: *Good (4.0)*
Fun: *Good (4.0)*
Innovation: *Above average (3.5)*
Theme: *Bad (2.0)*
Graphics: *Good (4.0)*
Audio: *Average (3.0)*
Humor: *N/A*
Mood: *Good (4.0)*

@huvaakoodia thank you for the in depth critique!

Very nice looking game with a surprising amount of content for a compo entry. Platform collision slightly annoying - bashing head on platform above when not wanting to happening slightly too often. Main gimmick fits the theme well and sparks the imagination to think of a few interesting ways to expand upon it which is one of my favourite parts of LD/jam games. Well done!

Cool old-school platformer.
I found the combat not entirely satysfying, as it was just mashing attack button with going back occasionally. Maybe different animation for mid-air attack? Or any mechanic that could make the combat a little less repetetive, something that wouldn't cost you too much work (it's still a game jam entry.)
Giving your blood is cool, but I believe here the concept is not well thought. Of course, you sacrifice your health, making you more vulnerable, but nothing stops you from sacrificing a little, then attacking and going back. This is more like resource management, than sacrifice.
Yet, I enjoyed the style. Controls seem responsive, just as they should in platformer. Jump grading seems cool too, it's not new concept, dunno why others found it weird/not intuitive :)

The concept is interesting. Blood is preserved and can be sacreficed between levels. It is much different from common platform games. Graphics and sound effects are well done. A great game!

I would like a save point between levels. Beating lower levers after getting killed are a little bored.