Dying Flame by BauBau
A short story about finding a lost soul!
How to play:
[Arrow Keys] to Move
[Space] to Attack
Play the game Here

Edit: We had to make an update, as the game could not be finished.
| Youtube | https://baubau.itch.io/dying |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/kindred-flame |
Ratings
| Overall | 1356th | 3.444⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 1745th | 3.074⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 2043th | 2.833⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1746th | 3.407⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 245th | 4.333⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 489th | 3.673⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1872th | 2.167⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 158th | 4.13⭐ | 29🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 24🗳️ | 24🗨️ |

The movement felt a bit stiff and attacks did not feel satisfying. I got confused on the 3rd room and bailed. Seemed like there was a puzzle to solve, but I couldn't figure it out.
- It looks like your attack animation's pivot is misplaced. I think if you placed the pivot in the same place for each sprite, the character wouldn't jitter during the attack animation
- I had a lot of trouble with attack animations when I started out. [This tutorial](https://aztez.com/blog/2014/01/06/anatomy-of-a-successful-attack/) helped me a ton, check it out if you want! I think the attack animation looks a little stiff.
The puzzles were great! I loved the second puzzle with the floor tiles, it felt really satisfying to solve. It's clear you meant to put more in the game, but I think it came out solid! Nice Work!
@camden-obertop Great to hear! We've added a hint for that one.
@guin36 Thank you for your feedback! There were a couple of issues with the ending, but now it's fixed.
@abhimonk Really helpful tutorial! Will definitely use this for the next project. We did manage to correct the pivot a bit, but the animations remain the same. Originally we wanted to add a lot more but time was of the essence. There is an updated version now which triggers the ending correctly. Check it out if you want and thank you for the positive feedback!
@gal-afik Thanks! We increased the speed just a bit.
@silentmrdave Thanks and I'm glad you got to the last room, hopefully the ending triggered! We did release a fix for this and the game can be completed.
@charlez245 Unfortunately there was an issue with the slider for time left to solve the puzzles. We released an update since and now everything can be completed and you most certainly can fail the game! Check it out if you want :slight_smile: . Thank you!
I made it to the third room, in which I died to all the skeletons, and I didn't want to play through everything again because I already knew that I could. I already had fought the skeletons and answered the riddles and figured out the codes, why would I want to do it again to get to the same spot? If you had checkpoints at each room, that would make it a lot easier for me to finish the game.
In the secret code made of tiles on the floor, I think you should make the tiles a lot more obvious -- different colors maybe, or at least very obvious designs in them. The X and I were fine, but the other two I couldn't really tell apart, and I was lucky to get the code at all.
Lastly, I agree with all other comments above about combat.
Summary: good mood, smart ideas, some adjustments could lead to a fun short game that feels rewarding to play -- you're not far off the mark from that! Great job -- I really do think you're close to a more flushed out experience.
If we have some time, we'll either add the checkpoints or a way to recharge the fire. Would prefer to have people finish the game, than get stuck and start over. This way everyone can experience the whole story, including you!
One thing I wish worked better was some indication when you were hit by the skeletons. As it is, it seems like the only way to know you were hit is to watch your fire's life meter. It's not very easy to watch that while also trying to maneuver for combat.
Excellent entry, thanks for sharing.
The puzzle game are cool, having a limited amount of time make them even more cool.
The fighting mechanics were a bit anecdotal though.
This is great entry, good job!
I had to do a few runs before finishing the game.
The little touch with the floor switch riddle was a great call. The fighting mechanics were very rough, though. Didn't really add much to the fun of the game. It was just button mashing until the enemy disappears. No strategy, skill involved and hence no satisfaction. But it was good that you didn't make it too difficult, would've gotten very frustrating otherwise.
Made it through in the first try :) Cool cutscenes by the way. It's rare to see those in jam entries.
Keep it up!
@kiddychris In the room with the riddle, if you get close to the door a bunch of skeletons come to life and one hints the word to use in the riddle, it's "darkness" :smiley: . Thanks for playing !
above. I only have two additional ones:
In the room with the many skeletons, the 4th one I think, I got stuck between a wall and all the skeletons the first time and couldn't move anymore.
I would suggest making the colliders pretty small, smaller than you'd think they'd need to be when looking at the sprites. You can almost reduce them down to dots and it'll still look okay when they get close to a wall, but feel better when maneuvering between them.
That way it's also harder to push the skeletons around by walking against them, which happened many times accidentally. Those little things remind you you're still playing a video game, despite the great atmosphere.
Also I didn't find it immediately obvious that the box at the bottom was a text input, took me a couple moments to realize. The hint the skeleton gives took my attention, so I didn't notice a box had appeared alongside it. So I thought it was just a speech bubble for flavor, like the ones before that with the fresh calcium.
Mood is a make or break aspect in video games for me. It's not easy to get right, because it's influenced by all the other elements. So congrats on nailing that part!
If you make use of the feedback you've gotten, your next game could become a really immersive experience that sucks people into it and makes them forget they're sitting in front of a computer.
About the colliders, it's so tricky to get it right. If I made them smaller, then it would look weird when close to to player or walls. I think it was a matter of mass, if the skeletons would've weighted more, the player shouldn't be able to move them.
I'm glad you've payed attention to what the skeletons were saying as it's a hint for the puzzle. I agree that the text input should be more obvious.
Last part of the feedback made my day, so thank you!
The only critique I have is that the Dying Flame element of the game felt a bit disconnect from everything else, like you couldn’t really recharge it, or do anything with it, it felt like a timer without a purpose.
Overall I like this game a lot and I hope you'll do more with this in the future :D