I really like the sacrifice system. I know in the description you say that you spent to long on it but I really dig it as a mechanical idea. Also the begginning dialog is really enjoyable. My only complant is that when "The Sacraficer" got super speed how did he not get the ability to also stop on a dime I mean its like asking to live forever and not also saying "but like still look young and not turn into the worlds oldest human".

@theseusinabottle Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I fully understand your complaint, and I should spend more time tweaking some of the physics.

I do see what you mean in the description about the gameplay falling behind a bit, but yeah, the sacrifice system was interesting. Unfortunately I couldn't really appreciate it as much as I would want as the gameplay didn't really do it for me. The controls were pretty awkward (at least for me), and using the sword was really just suicide as the movement was so fast it was basically impossible to deal damage without also taking a hit.

Really funny! I was like "What is this sliding?!" and then I saw the downgrade message and I had myself a good chuckle.

@doomshmuck - Can you say more about the controls? Most of my testing was with WASD, Shift + Mouse. Were you using CTRL + ALT?

@Ravarion - Glad you liked it!

@pennycook I was using wasd. I guess it was more that I couldn't get in range with the sword without also taking a hit. I don't know if that makes sense or not...

@doomshmuck It makes sense. I toyed around with trying to make the sword more useful (it does more damage than the bullets, for instance) but I agree that the risk isn't worth the reward. Thanks again for the feedback.

Good game, but very frantic, I was a bit lost in the beginning

Cute graphics & I liked the way you used the theme. :)

@relampmarquin, @garygreen -- Thanks for playing!

I played on WebGL and had quite the difficulty playing the game where the player kept sliding around the place in addition to encountering bugs such as selecting to sacrifice speed but then speed isn't sacrificed in the end.

Perhaps for the sword you could have implemented knock back so that it would be more useful.

I did like the idea on how encouraged players to fight instead of survive since only surviving would just end in your untimely demise.

@naihto - Sorry to hear you had problems.

The speed sacrifice isn't actually a bug, but I agree that it isn't clear... Both "Speed" and "Vitality" can be sacrificed multiple times, halving the associated value each time and stopping when speed = 0 or vitality = 1.

Implementing knockback for the sword is a good idea. Thanks!

The movement was really hard to get used to, sliding like this is really weird.
In the end I just found that going back and forth and just spamming the gun is the best way to win, no risk taken, as the sword is just not rewarding enough to use.
To me, the problems are the movements as said above, and that the sacrifices are not a choice, there are the good one and the bad one (sacrificing movement or gun is just death).

A great little game. Really enjoyed the humour at the start. Controls took a little getting used to (kept on going full wasd) but got there in the end.

The game is cool, I loved the intro. The gun is a bit overpowered compared to the sword, maybe decrease the attack speed (or increase the sword's attack speed and its range so that you can hit without being hit a bit more easily) would make the choice between the 2 a bit more difficult. Also, the speed sacrifice lead to an ackward situation where I had 3 enemies standing up on my head that I couldn't touch (they didn't hit me either except for when the first one got on my head) and I couldn't make them move as I had sacrificed all my speed.

Overall, it's a great game :)

@vodish, @vivien-fargette - I'll definitely try and spend a little more time post-compo on making the sword more useful. I should probably make the enemies a little smarter too, standing on the player's head doing nothing won't get them anywhere.

@andrewl - Yeah, in hindsight maybe WASD wasn't a great idea... I left a lot of the controls at the Unity defaults; next time I'll give it more thought.

Leveling Down's a mighty fun system. For the sequel, I'd love to see an extended blade! Speed boost was a joy to use.

A really smart take on the theme!(This was the first game idea i thought of doing but eventually changed it XD) Theres a way to stick to walls by holding the movement button, but should be a very easy fix if your'e using unity's physics(because iv'e also encountered this before in another one of my games). I like the use of the "cutscenes" at the start to help set the story of the game. Overall, this game could have a lot of potential if the mechanics were a bit more polished.

@snugglehero - I think you're the first person who enjoyed the speed! :laughing:

@generictoast - Thanks for reminding me about the about the sticking to walls bug. At one point I thought about making it a feature (you could even jump while sticking to walls at one point) but since it didn't add anything I took it out. Forgot to fix the physics, though!

I quite liked the level-down feature, however the way the sacrifice menu was devised suggested that I was gaining something, instead of losing. Things like "Increase your health by 2x" makes me feel like I'm gaining it, but of course, I'm losing it. Could have made that more clear in the design of the menu. I was also surprised that some sacrifices had multiple levels, could have maybe shown how many levels were remaining in that 'skill tree'?

The graphics were quite nice, however there was some oddities. Dead enemies sometimes flipped onto their feet, and it was hard to tell that they were dead. Could have maybe had a dead enemy sprite to fix this, or just prevent them from landing on their feet. The cutscene went a bit fast, particularly since there was two sources of text. I always read the middle text first, then the bottom one, but since the cutscene moved on its own, I missed some of the text. It is common for dialogue systems to use input to move to next textbox.

There was also a few gameplay issues, particularly the problem that bullets were blocked by you moving forwards (since you go faster than the bullets). I know that this was said in the downgrade menu, but this feels silly, and my first move was to almost always sacrifice this, since that sacrifice actually helps. I also didn't like the sacrifaction meter, as this felt rather limiting. I believe this exists because otherwise you could stick to the wall and do nothing, but there is a simple fix. Don't let the player stick to the wall. Otherwise, you are on the floor, and will die eventually. It then could be a strat to jump around, but you gain score from killing, so delaying the inevitable isn't really useful. With the sacrifaction meter gone, the player would be able to survive as long as they can before sacrificing. I also disliked some of the sacrifices as they felt way too destructive. Particularly the health. When killed, the enemies remain, so after sacrificing health, you often take damage and instantly die again. This could be fixed by killing all enemies upon the player's death.

Otherwise, this game was pretty fun, and the graphics actually weren't that bad. You did a great job creating a game in such a limited time! Hope this helps, and good luck with future development. :thumbsup:

Really interesting game I must say :) It was fun and the sacrifice system was quite nice in its sense.
It was a bit difficult to not touch anybody without losing life, I guess your attack of the sword could have been a bit bigger. But nonetheless, it was really cute and fun :)
well done

Not bad for a compo entry! Congrats!