Demon Well by blobo
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play an escort mission from the perspective of the idiot constantly dying? You know, the best part is saying the same stupid voice line every time you die.
In Demon Well, you are a demon summoned in a plot to assassinate a necromancer. The hero that summoned you says he'll split the XP points 50/50 with you, but what if there was a way to scam him out of his half too?
Controls (Can be rebound in-game)
- WASD - move
- Spacebar - jump
- Mouse - look around
- Left mouse button - advance dialogue
- F - zoom
- Esc - pause
Additional comments
This is by far the most voice acting I have done in a jam game (and my fifth game in a row to feature acapella music). The last time I had cutscenes of this scale was my LD46 game, Morose, and I'm very glad to say that I was able to add voices, and make even more dialogue while still delivering a full game. Progress!
Screenshots

Ahhh! Errors with github, as there's apparently a file larger than 100 Megabytes. Will figure this out in a bit, for now the stuff will be on dropbox.
Please leave a comment if able. All feedback is appreciated.
Ratings
| Overall | 21th | 4.196⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 22th | 4.196⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 56th | 3.909⭐ | 57🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 60th | 4.08⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 83th | 3.973⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 3th | 4.482⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 2th | 4.777⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 32th | 4.045⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 22🗳️ | 68🗨️ |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyy5Yj2aLGk
Anyway, I loved the VA & cutscenes here, they were amazing!
Was a fun play.
Of all the humor, the "Look how long this cutscene is - I could have easily prevented this!" had me cracking up the most. And of course, the genre subversion of intentionally trying to die during an escort mission is quite clever.
I tried the dynamite level (the third one?) over and over but couldn't figure out what to do after I had gathered the dynamite. Some more feedback about that would have been nice. I only advanced because I got hit accidentally - I was looking for a way to actually craft the explosive after collecting the ingredients.
But I'm so glad I stuck through to the end because that final level was a thing of beauty. The acapella was wonderful, and using the enemies to solve platforming challenges was a great payoff.
This is another one of the very few games I've given 5 stars across the board. Really good work!
I love the sound you make - it's just gold! Was laughing pretty much all the time xD
In addition to what I say in the video, I would also like to highlight the creative designs, I really like the characters you made for this game. Art, Audio, Writing, everything was not only top-notch but also felt like it fit together really well to elevate each other. Really a great game.
Really loved the visuals, audio and humor. And all that with a take on the theme that is not so common. Great job!
The negatives:
- I wish the art had been a little more polished. I realize that obviously this is a pretty big game and a lot needed to get done, but even just some flat color would have really added to it for me. Especially considering how good most of your art looks!
- The dynamite level wasn't super engaging to me, since it just boiled down to running around the whole map quickly enough. The boosts from the enemies were nice, but it still dragged a bit, imo. Also would have helped if the dynamite was a different color to be able to more easily see it amid the large map.
- Honestly I just felt the area was a little too large in general. I don't think any level really utilized the space, and it made a few levels go on a little longer than they needed to.
- In the final level, now that it was actually about platforming, a shadow on the player character would have been nice. Those first steps in the back section are pretty narrow and I spent a bit just not lining myself up properly, especially given the 2D nature of the characters.
The positives:
- This game is overwhelmingly funny, even for one of your projects. You really outdid yourself, and the voice acting really just added to it. Great stuff.
- The background and environment was really nice, and really sold the magical world you were going for.
- Music was great as usual, and the acapella track I think is one of your best. I would have no idea you rushed it in so late if you hadn't said so.
- The final level is really intuitive, even with the limited instructions you gave. The writing in the overworld was both a great guide for the player as well as a way to sell the inherent goofiness of the boss, and it worked really well. Despite it being relatively short, it did a great job at combining all of the prior mechanics in an interesting way.
All in all this was another great entry! The jump to 3D in your last few entries has been very cool, and you just keep upping the bar.
I never laughed so hard at a LD entry.
Great job man 5* for humor, audio and overall.
Also I never imagined there'd be a span of 10 minutes in my life that all I'd be saying would be "Fucking Henrik" over and over again. (I didn't understand how to play the explosive-chasing part until it was over.)
The dorky demon is a real treat, and the attention to detail, like the stars. I actually felt bad for poor Henrik :joy:
Awesome job, always a pleasure to play your entries!
I exploded.
Genuinely one of the funniest game jam games I've played. Amazing work on that
Apart from that, I'm not exactly sure how to critique this since it seems like that was your main aim with it lol
Admittedly the section where you have to collect dynamite was really annoying up until I realised that I had to bounce into them. I thought I should avoid them until the end. ( Though I'm probably just pig-headed so you can ignore this tbh )
Also the platforming at the end could've been a little more responsive
But again, this game focussed on it's humour above all else and everything was admittedly very hilarious. Let it be the dialogue, or even the animations themselves. Wonderful presentation across the board
So yeah, A fantastic entry all things considered
What a one man army to make a game of this caliber in such a short time. The graphics work well, contrast between the colourful environment with the cutout paper characters just looks fun and add to the comedy wonderfully, great voiceacting and writing. I also can't stress enough how the pacing is perfect.
I'll remember my journey from my first suicide to levelling up fondly. :smile:
* I really like that moving-circles gradient around the summoning circle
* Those are some nice looking trees
* I like the unique low perspective, haven't felt that short since Katamari Damacy
Well done!
PS: I just realized, was this your idea for You Don't Play As The Main Character?
https://youtu.be/c9SO3tlrBa0
And I'm the host for the ludum dare score chasers tournament this Ludum Dare. Wanted to ask if youre fine if I put some gameplay of the game in an intermission video. Last year for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_eIvjBmIQ
I recorded my first playthrough with commentary. https://youtu.be/Aon5ltKDKLA
A true gem, this one is.
Also, I see what you did there with famous theme (you are not the main character) making a cameo.
While this game didn't make much of advancing clever game mechanics, it had humour to make up for it. 3D background graphics looked good and artsy and hilariously clashed with character graphics. I especially liked the demons with cute dresses and great singing voices in the last act.
I struggled some time with the jump right after the demon up the stairs and wasn't sure if I did something wrong, but after wandering around I went back trying it and finally got it right.
All in all polished game with nicely built comical mood where the mimimalistic music support the cartoony/playstation1-style graphics.
Good job, got some laughs out of me :grin:
It's a really wild, humorous game.
I notice that your art has improved a lot. Impressive!
Finally made it to playing yours after dodging it on at least one stream to avoid spoilers... and it was worth the wait!
As always, the characters, writing, and humor shine through. I'm always impressed by your ability to create games that are extremely different from each other while still being instantly recognizable as a Chris Siebert game.
Highlights for me:
- The first ~30 seconds of the game that set up the premise, the characters, and the delightful exchange of "Oops, I exploded!"//"Yeah... can we talk about that?"
- The freeze frame on every single exploded
- The design of the necromancer
- The a capella boss fight music
Also a relatively small detail, but I really liked the objective recap at the beginning of each level. Especially since you're being told to do one thing by the characters in-game and another thing by the game, it helps that it's laid out very clearly and there's never confusion about what your goal is. (I also like that the dialog box has demon horns)
The gameplay itself is pretty barebones, and sometimes led to some feels-bad moments where you narrowly lose because Henrick is too fast. But it does its job well enough since it's primarily there in service of the story and premise, and it switches up frequently enough to not get stale.
The player's focus on the graphics side is often on the characters and props, which are intentionally in a very simple black-and-white hand-drawn style, but I found myself looking at the environment a lot because it was so well done! I particularly liked the look of the trees and the grass.
Great work, and good luck in the rest of play and rate!
I drew a doodle of the demon:

Henrick is pretty good at his job, I have to say. He is really trying his best (unlike me)
I think it's a pretty cool take, and the game feels unique! Some of the visuals seem retro and I like it.
Voice over is fantastic!! And such a nice thing to add to make the game feel more alive +_+
You've really outdone yourself with voice acting this time, wow. I don't really have much to say; congrats on another #1 in humor and probably audio as well. I wish the game was longer, but the intensity and non-repetitiveness made up for it. I also think this is, so far, your best take on 3D; white sprites paired with a dark purple world look surprisingly good.
My favorite parts of the game were:
* Story, this rivals "The bountiful" in both in terms of humour and story telling.
* Theme, completly unique entry. This time the theme kind of produced a lot of same'ish games, this is not one of them.
* Package, How how how is this so complete? Like @belle said, you are truly a one man army.
Obviously it took 0.1 seconds to rate your game, if this isn't 5/5, then nothing is. Heck I would be giving you 5s even if it was a jam game! The fact that you have _not_ won an LD so far is nothing short of a robbery. I am rooting for LD55 being your turn!
https://youtu.be/L98bTuW4wDE