ENTER THE ABYSS

@guitarbro That was pretty cool!

Loved the smokey mist you have going on, that's pretty awesome and I would love to know how you did it.
The attack animation for the slimes was epic the first time one hit me, really aggressive look on the attack, very nice.
Sound was ok, I think having multiple attack sounds or multiple creature "grarr" sounds make for a much nicer audio experience, so that' the only thing I would have spent a little more time on.

Overall the games really good, mood wise you're getting high points, the whole creepy atmosphere really works!
Well done.

Love the atmosphere, awesome effects and graphic style. Your game looks super slick, very impressive!

From a gameplay perspective it feels like you got in the same trap as me usually where you make the game look great, add enemies and spells and animations and everything and then run out of time to actually balance it :D If the different spells would affect the enemies differently it would add more strategy to it where you need so cycle through spells to fight the enemies. Or does it already do that and I just didn't notice?

Anyway, just an idea. Still pretty impressive game for the short timeframe, congrats!

I really love your animations in combination with the pixel art style! Great job!

Really nice art and mood!

I think the level could have used a bit more variety to help navigate and I also hit an invisible wall even though there seemed to be visible walls around the level.

@tolmera Thanks for the feedback! It was killing me that I ran out of time for more audio for the enemies, I hated to reuse sounds, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get it out in time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If I ever return to this game I'll definitely be adding more enemy sounds.

@marc-grabow You hit the nail on the head with that one. :stuck_out_tongue: All the time I burned at the beginning without a concept cut deep into my actual balance time. My original goal was for 5 unique spells and 5 unique enemies (with different ones being better matchups than others) but obviously that got cut back a bit. Oh well.

@d4rkweasel Thanks! Glad you like it!

@arzi Yeah, I wanted to add some more "unique" bits to the map and perhaps a bit of environmental storytelling, but I had to settle for some rubble here and there just to get by. Do you remember approximately where the invisible was? Unity's composite collider on the tilemap was giving me some weird stuff at one point, I may need to check it out again.

Very impressive.
Loving the spell effects and the spawn animation is totally awesome!

Perfect atmosphere, good job

This is a prefect jam game. Nice pixel art, good mood, and fun to play. Would pick this up as an actual game. (If it had more content, but still, it's a game jam!)

Yo thanks @vrerabek! Glad you dig the spawn animation (I spent longer than I probably should have on it lol).

@guitarbro Just the I was trying to go down.

Wow! Awesome atmosphere and particle effetcs, I love them, specially the player spawn one. I like the game, it's simple, but keeps you playing, more variety of spell will improve the gameplay a lot, specially if they appear random for each time you play, this will give a lot of replayability!

@arzi interesting, I'll take a look and see if I notice anything off.

@lonewolfdev Thanks! I wish I could add more (maybe we need a post-jam jam to respond to feedback :stuck_out_tongue:).

Superb amount of polish for a game jam game :star:

I like the attention to details for the effects (e.g shake, glow). In the next iteration, I'd suggest to tighten up the pacing and ramp up to a challenge within a minute or two (maybe shrink the playable area to a screen or two, spawn powers on a timer, make the monster spawn much faster). As-is, it took me a while to find the spells and feel challenged and I stopped playing before I was in any danger of dying.

@fre Hey thanks! Glad someone commented on the FX. Figured I may as well go all out on something since I can't make everything perfect. That's a good suggestion about map size. If I went back and did it again (in the same amount of time) I'd probably make it smaller.

Awesome production! The graphics, animation and general aesthetic was quite pleasing to the eye and the gameplay was enjoyable as is. Was easy to control and provide a few unique play styles with the spells you had access to. Although the gameplay was relatively easy and didn't really feel threatened in any situations. That said, a few different enemies may make all the difference. Perhaps ones with projectiles? Who knows.

@shroudofdark I really wanted to add a projectile enemy, but alas... time restraints. :wink:

Nice particles and design. I loved the feel and exploration of it. I only wish there was more content! Great job.

Wow!! Beatufil art animation and effects!! This game is great. I really liked it. It fells really polished. Great entry!

@drums Thanks. Tbh I wish I made more content too. :stuck_out_tongue:

@webox I appreciate it!

This game was a little bit scarrrrry for my liking haha, but overall it was really well done. It looked beautiful and the monsters chased me down and killed me ;-;

I'm not very good at this kind of game, but it took me half of my play time to realize I could click anywhere to attack, I think my brain is still mush from the weekend of coding.

But great job, it's a nice little world :)

Hey @sarah glad you liked it! Perhaps I should have made it more obvious that clicking was involved in-game. Glad you figured it out eventually though. :smile:

@guitarbro I honestly thought I had to click on the icon on screen to get it to work, and my first thought was 'Does my attack only go downward???' And then I was like, no... I must be doing it wrong xD

Amazing atmosphere. All the lighting and VFX set a fantastic tone, also it had a really nice color palette. I'm just really impressed by how much I was into the overall tone. Gameplay was tight, obviously it would be nice to have additional spells or items, but it's a gamejam! Enjoyed playing through it.

Very impressive for a solo entry.

I played two rounds of this and they felt like a completely different game each time. First time I found the shield spell but never managed to find the firball. And it was a game of kite. I had so much fun searching around the field for the last spell, dodging enemies, strategically using spells and managing cooldowns, abusing the fact that you move faster than even the fast enemies when going diagonally - all this was pure joy!
And then I started all over again eager to see what other defensive spell I missed. And pretty quickly I found out that the third spell was not defensive at all. It was a fireball with almost no cooldown. And it was nothing but a disappointment. Game instantly lost all of it's fun, challenge and most important of them all - uniqueness. I pretty easily got over 8000 score and just let the enemies end me.

I think it's really worth exploring this concept of a room survival game, but with a lot of kiting and dodging tools instead of all the weapons. I've never seen anything quite like this before.

That out of the way, I really enjoyed the visuals of this game. It's really cool seeing pixel art mashed together with some downsized and pixelated smoke, fog and fire effects. Adding some dynamic lighting and shadows (and also some 2d fluid dynamics simulation) can go a long way with such visual style.

@hi-im-greg Thanks! Glad the tone came across well. That was a big focus (as you can probably tell).

@detectivelosos That's quite a review, lol. Really interesting how you enjoyed the defensive spells more than the offensive one since when making the game, I felt quite the opposite. It certainly would be interesting to push the game further in the defensive direction. Regardless, glad you enjoyed at least one round! :smiley:

WHOA, this is incredible! I absolutely love all the visual effects and atmosphere of it, I genuinely made a :O face at the opening summoning VFX ahah.
Really great work dude! One of the best games I've played on here :D

@cybikitty Thanks a lot! It makes me go :D when people go :O lol

Wow, that opening particle effect with the camera shake... Gorgeous. The gameplay felt fairly standard but the graphics and mood are what set this entry apart for me. Nice work!

Thanks @morrilet! Wish I had some inspiration sooner so I could have beefed up the gamplay a bit more. Glad you liked the graphics though. :smiley:

I really liked the look and colors of this game especially how the fire contrasted with the rest of the world. One problem I would point out is the shield and push spells are basically never useful. I dont think I once felt compelled to use them before or after getting the fire spell. Otherwise still a great game.

@smileyface Did you notice the shield deals damage as well? :wink: Excellent for getting out of a tight spot. I appreciate the play and the feedback though!

Nice mood, lovely game, well done!:)

@brallex Thanks!

On my first playthrough I also didn't find the fire spell (Found it on my second run) and I have to say the the first plaything was certainly more engaging! When the enemies with the red eyes came from I'd 'Old tome them back to hell, and by the time there was tight spots I'd use the rubble in the environment to give me an edge, and use the shield as a last resort.
I knew the 2nd spell I missed was surely an attack, and on my second playthrough I must admit the fireball did make me feel overpowered, whereas without it i was on the edge of my seat the whole way. Maybe if the fireball had a long, Long cooldown that I would be able to atleast defeat some enemies, but keep the excitement of constant near death experiences?

The mist and spawn animations were on point btw. Great job!

@jake-bekker Hey, thanks for the feedback. Interesting, that's two similar opinions about the defensive playstyle. Always cool to see how different people approach things differently.

Great execution on the mood and style. was pretty scary until i found the fireball, then i basically couldn't die until i decided to. This was a super good entry overall I'm impressed

Thanks @benpeterson! Hopefully it wasn't _too_ scary. :wink:

Looks epic and plays very well. Not that much depth as I will agree with a few other comments that once I had fireball i became unkillable but this was fun anyhow. Great Job!

Man, I gotta say this game hooked me right away. That warp-in animation is SICK! Then the music, the fog, the spoopy-ness! Pretty amazing, although I kept trying to find a "heal" spell lol!

@pokenoufl And a thanks to you as well! I appreciate the feedback, even if it's echoing what other people said. Still valuable information to me.

Ayy glad you dig the FX @rubixnoob13! Fun fact: a heal spell partially exists in the code but I didn't get to finish it in time. :frowning2:

Beautiful game, and the music is lovely as well. They both lend to an awesome atmosphere.

Hey, thanks, @nisovin! Good to know I hit my mark with the atmosphere.

Hey ! this game is very cool, and very nice to look ! The spell have beautiful effect, and the atmosphere is cool as well !

Hey thanks! Glad you like the look, @ninben!

The VFX and mood are absolutely beautiful! Good job!

Really great aesthetic, sound, and mood.

@falu @plazmaz thanks, guys!

Graphics are amazing, fireball is little bit overpowered, it lost all the fun after i get it. but really good game. Good luck with your entry.

This game was really fun to play. Even though it has only 3 types of enemies, the movement, the spells, the overall design of the game were so satisfying that I've got captured by it for quite a while. I think if you continue working on it, it can become a very solid dungeon crawler game. The interpretation of the theme was a little bit too straight forward, but that just a minor complaint :slight_smile: Great job!

VERY fun, and polished. Needs some expansion to be like a full "game" but I already enjoy it as is. Here's a video of a playthrough if you are interested!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/492220256

@baski Thanks, glad you like the graphics!
@annie-owl Hah, yeah I wasn't a huge fan of this theme. But glad you enjoyed it anyways.
@jake-marks Thanks again for the play! It was great watching you play through it.

Theres soooooooo much to love about this! Full game please!!!! THe art, sound, the controls. We just need a bit of story and a whole lot of levels. Should be doable by end of the voting, no? :) Seriously, though, great job! And thank you so much for a linux build!!

@jason-lothamer Woah, full game release? Let's not get too crazy here. :wink: Thanks for playing, and you're totally welcome for the Linux build (thank Unity)!

Absolutely LOVED the atmosphere! This game is really great!

Yo thanks @flashviper!

Visually game is perfect! And very good mood. This foggy clouds with ambient sound really looks amazing. But gameplay is pretty boring. Hope, you'll polish this game and make it sweetty, you can, I know =)

@saintheiser Thanks for the play. I wish I could have gotten more content in, but unfortunately the time limit was too tight. :pensive:

It was worth dying to see that spawn animation again! Really cool and music was great too! Well done!

Mood is definitely 5/5. Nice work on the aesthetics and music. Effects are brilliant and my favourite part of the game. Did you use Nodewerk for those? Where can I get this program? :smile:

Content of the game was pretty easy. I found all the spells in 5 minutes I think. After that enemies were quite easy to beat. With the quality of effects, I'd definitely would like to see more spells. Some AOE ones like meteor storms etc.

Shield was pretty OP, as it did damage to the enemies. I ended up massing huge amount of enemies, activating shield and then just diving right in. Score text was too blurry for my eyes, but that's just nitpicking.

Nice work overall!

The art is beautiful and amazing and the effects and character animations are simple but smooth and satisfying specially the enemy's animations. The music goes well with the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the game. It would be nice if the spells could be changed by the mouse scroll wheel as pressing the numbers are kinda hard and gets annoying. Except for that the game is awesome. Nice work :smile: !!!!

let's be honest, poorly fit the theme. Start without abilities? In all games you start without something... The visuals are incredible, the atmosphere is good. Gameplay...meh. I stood in the corner and started shooting fireballs all over the map, points are earned, I'm safe. So you can stand indefinitely.

@cybersoftuk Lol thanks. That's a good way to think about dying. :wink:

@keppu Appreciate the review. Nodewerk is a node-based image generator (think like Substance Designer, but more generic) that has unfortunately been pretty much abandoned. Used to be Peacock by Aviary until Adobe bought them out, but luckily they were allowed to make it available to download under the new name. Unfortunately [the site](http://nodewerk.com/) is pretty much dead right now and the program no longer receives updates so it's a bit buggy. But I haven't found anything quite like it so I still use it. I _think_ it's portable, so I could perhaps send you a zip of it, if you're really interested.

@noobdev Thanks for the feedback! Scroll wheel to swap was planned but unfortunately got cut due to time. Nice to know someone else was thinking the same thing.

@shabbyrtist Arguably, it fits the theme greatly and the theme was trash. :stuck_out_tongue: But I do agree it's not nearly as creative as I would have liked. Regardless, I appreciate your feedback.

@cybersoftuk I would appreciate that. If you don't have any place to upload it, you can send it to -removed-. Thanks!

@keppu Sure thing, you can find it here: https://mega.nz/#!eldTwQzK!2xwlhTR_a1WqbD_6d70Qv-hBVxnKcYRH7eKWhh_EwVI

You'll need Adobe Air to launch, but hopefully it runs fine.

(You may want to edit your comment so your email isn't public on the internet. :wink:)

@guitarbro Trust me I know the struggle, but you still managed to make a good one.👌👍

Thats a nice little game :)

I would have enjoyed some variety with the monsters and maybe some more speels, and in the end i was overrun, but hey, its gamejam! Running out of time is part of the fun! Its a cool game, i really enjoyed it. I really love the graphics, i think its fitting, same goes to the animations.

@raomer Hey, thanks for the feedback. Always nice to know someone enjoyed the graphics and I'm right with you on the wanting-more-spells-and-enemies thing.

Yeah, Really nice game you got there. I got a bit confused at first about how to use the spells and stuff, but, I can see a really nice concept you have there.
after a little while the monsters growling got a bit annoying, but that aside i have no more things to say but great job!

@chaos Appreciate the feedback! Would have liked to add a bit more variation in the monsters' noises (in addition to all the other things that had to get cut :wink:) for just that reason. Good to know I'm not the only one thinking about it.

lighting and visuals were amazing -- would have like to be able to switch skills with mouse wheel -- nice game

Thanks for playing, @paulhocker!

I really love the sepia tone and the dark aesthetic here, it works really well, and the particle effects / glow look beautiful, great job with the visuals! Gameplay wise it feels a little dry, I wish the spells had more synergy between them instead of you mostly wanting to spam them everywhere, and I wish there was a little more progression, but for a game jam game I totally understand why that isn't possible. Great work!