Darkness Muse by Evil Villain Games

[raw]
made by Evil Villain Games for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

Darkness Muse is a light bullet hell, where your health determines how far you can see. Dive deeper and deeper into the dark cave in search of your muse.

Best enjoyed in full screen.

Controls: WASD : MOVE Left click and hold: Shoot

Song Credit: Dee Yan-Key , Angst, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dee_Yan-Key/2020-1/angst, CC BY-NC 4.0

(Updated Cover Image after submission period was over hope this was allowed) Music as a weapon.gif Cover.png OverWorld.png

Ratings

Overall 598th 3.702⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Fun 680th 3.49⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 597th 3.49⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Theme 730th 3.784⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 738th 3.817⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Humor 684th 2.966⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Mood 331th 3.971⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Given 63🗳️ 80🗨️

Feedback

Str8griz
26. Apr 2021 · 23:09 UTC
Soothing game to play, I ran out of notes to shoot way too quick... but I just have bad aim. LOL
DanCan
26. Apr 2021 · 23:10 UTC
Great take on the theme!
SmelJey
27. Apr 2021 · 00:08 UTC
I love the visuals, but it's getting really dark when you are almost out of light. Music is also nice and relaxing. Good job!
bufalloo
27. Apr 2021 · 04:15 UTC
love the visuals and mood!
Wintergatn
27. Apr 2021 · 04:22 UTC
I think the concept is pretty interesting, but it might be a bit easier for the player if shooting doesn't also decrease light (usually when attacking is detrimental to the player in games, the attack is extra powerful or somehow worth it). I found myself running out of light very quickly and then being unable to find any more. With some tweaks to mechanics though this could be an interesting dungeon crawler!
LDJam user 242787
27. Apr 2021 · 06:19 UTC
I liked the mood and visuals. The game got too dark at times though.
Ambear
27. Apr 2021 · 08:20 UTC
I like it very much
The mood is great, graphics and music too, idk why you didn't allow to judge your game of sound, because it's great
I finally found my muse! haha
Great Job
Work with lightning to make it briter)
Ironfred
27. Apr 2021 · 14:12 UTC
The visuals and general mood are fantastic and the game has a nice flow. I also really appreciate how you implemented the tutorial.
DaaWeeD
27. Apr 2021 · 16:28 UTC
I had a good time on your playing, I found the idea of the melody that is linked to the bounces of each note really brilliant.

Thank you for a great time, great work
Radowicht
27. Apr 2021 · 18:27 UTC
I like the Light-Mechanic and had a great time playing it!
At Level 2 (or some time in the middle) i hoped for a Boss fight at the end, and i have not been disappointed. At first i thought the Boss is a little too easy, until i realised he spawns enemies. But got him on the second try, by fully ignoring the small ones.

Liked it very much!
GamesBySaul
27. Apr 2021 · 19:32 UTC
Really cool idea for the game! I loved shooting notes and just listening to the random tunes it would create! :D Really nice work!
🎤 Evil Villain Games
27. Apr 2021 · 20:47 UTC
🎤 Evil Villain Games
27. Apr 2021 · 20:47 UTC
@
🎤 Evil Villain Games
27. Apr 2021 · 20:47 UTC
@
🎤 Evil Villain Games
27. Apr 2021 · 20:47 UTC
(sorry for duplicate notifications, the page wasn't responding and I clicked publish a few times...)

@str8griz
Thank you! mmm yeah I think we could have benefited from implementing a mechanic where the last note you shoot turns into ammo you can pickup when it breaks. Maybe well add this after the jam.

@dancan @bufalloo
Thank you! We put a lot of work into the Theme, Visuals, and Mood!

@smeljey @matterlinx
Thank you! Yeah, now I'm wishing we had the lowest light level be a bit brighter and also I think a gamma setting option at the beginning to adjust for screen brightness might have helped some. This could be a good change for us after the jam.

@wintergatn
Good point! I'd like to see a version where the notes you shoot keep bouncing forever until they hit an enemy.


@ambear
Thank you very much for playing! While we did edit some of the sounds and had fun figuring out ways to implement them. We didn't create any of the original sounds or music, so we can't take credit for them. But I'm very happy you enjoyed them and I hope it helped with the mood!

@ironfred
Thank you! It's helpful to know the tutorial worked! :D

@daaweed
Awesome! Happy you hear you had fun! Thank YOU for playing! :D

@radowicht
Awesome! Thank you for sticking it out to the boss! A major worry for us was that people would put it down before the boss.

@gamesbysaul
:D thank you!
Draconimous
27. Apr 2021 · 22:44 UTC
I love this game! love the idea of music being used as the weapon :D
MEGA Marlon
27. Apr 2021 · 22:57 UTC
The game was tough but fun! I liked how your light meter was connected to taking damage and dealing damage. It made you think twice before shooting at an enemy.
Marc Jones
27. Apr 2021 · 22:59 UTC
The graphics looked very good, and having your health be linked to your ammunition and vision is an interesting idea. I thought the feedback loop in the game was quite unforgiving though, as running out of light meant everything got worse and it was difficult to come back from. I also thought the combat could be made to have more variety. The mechanic of bouncing your shots off walls was interesting and implemented well with the audio cues, but wasn't utilised to its potential. Perhaps this could be a mechanic explored further in a post-jam version.
Evileptic
28. Apr 2021 · 01:31 UTC
I really liked the visuals, like everything else. 5 / 5 :smiley:
Spaghetti Inc.
28. Apr 2021 · 01:35 UTC
I love when music is a weapon in games!
Risk4Bisk
28. Apr 2021 · 01:37 UTC
Was very proud of having taken no damage and then I reached the final level... What a delightful game! I did not mind bullets costing health, especially since enemies and their projectiles are made so that they can usually be seen in low light, but that doesn't remove the tension either because at low light you can't tell if there's anything between them and you in the maze or if you're about to get shot. Though I did feel difficulty spiked at the very end, I thought I was going to breeze through it all until I hit the very end, but would not have minded giving it another go since I loved the way the musical notes bounced! This game gave me BOE Big Orpheus Energy, so I guess I should not have been surprised it got so poetic towards the end, but I did and in a good way! Great work, especially considering this was your first! Keep up the good work!
RunTRG
28. Apr 2021 · 01:50 UTC
This didn't run very well in my browser for some reason so I'll likely try to play it again. What I did get to play was pretty sweet though! The movement and the graphics were good, the idea behind using music as a weapon is always super fun for me. I think it gets a little dark, but hard to say if that would have been an issue if my performance was a little better. Overall GREAT JOB! :)
🎤 Evil Villain Games
28. Apr 2021 · 02:56 UTC
@draconimous @spaghetti-inc
Thank you! Yes music is a powerful weapon >:|

@mega-marlon
I'm glad you felt that way. We were aiming for a slower bullet hell. Almost like a bow and arrow feel.

@marc-jones
Yeah I think you are right honestly I wanted to add a special mechanic for when you ran out light but we kinda ran out of time. I think it would be nice to expand things in a post jam version.

@evileptic
Glad to hear its thank you so much :D

@risk4bisk
wow no damage all the way to level 3. That IS impressive! Also holy shit. The person I created this with suggested making a story about Orpheus when we started and we ended up twisting it a bit. But I'm really glad it shined through.

@runtrg
That's unfortunate I knew the web player would be a bit problematic for some. We will try and release a downloadable version at some point as well. Thanks so much for playing!
g11
28. Apr 2021 · 11:24 UTC
Shooting at enemies? Nah
I shot all the sphere because I was playing MUSIC
carpaccino
28. Apr 2021 · 17:43 UTC
Beautiful game, very enjoyable with the notes hiting the walls. Nice work!
Legolula
28. Apr 2021 · 17:53 UTC
Beautiful game with a lot of great mechanics that could each be expanded upon. I do feel however some of them are in conflict with each other. For example, shooting notes that play a song when them bounce several times is a lot of fun, but the player is discouraged from shooting too much as they lose health when doing so. For me personally not tying health to ammo would greatly improve the game and make it more fun. Otherwise its an amazing entry to the jam
LDJam user 250825
28. Apr 2021 · 18:08 UTC
Really like the core gameplay, the charging time before shooting notes makes it a lot more satisfying!
Guardaro
28. Apr 2021 · 18:29 UTC
Very nice work! The visuals really stand out; this is probably the nicest-looking game I've played so far in the jam. The harp sound is also really satisfying, especially when it bounces off several walls.
Vitor Milioni
28. Apr 2021 · 19:08 UTC
What a great great game, truly, i loved everything about it, from the little sounds your projectile makes when you shoot it, to the way it looks, and mostly the game design is very smart, your health also being your projectiles AND your vision range, the way light goes around the levels, the pace... with a cool main character holding the lyre and a few more bosses/levels/enemies i would for sure buy this as a full game!
🎤 Evil Villain Games
28. Apr 2021 · 22:18 UTC
@g11
XD

@carpaccino
Thank you!

@legolula
Yeah the health as ammo thing seems to be a polarizing issue. I think if we could have done more with it that might have helped. Thanks!

@bqq
Thank you! We really wanted to make precision/sniping important.

@guardaro
Thank you! Very happy that you enjoyed it!

@vitor-milioni
Wow thank you so much! Making the boss fight was a lot of fun. I think I'll have to do more work like that in the future.
sharkmax218
29. Apr 2021 · 18:06 UTC
Very good funny game! It shows the force of music!
BDenis
29. Apr 2021 · 18:47 UTC
Yep, i agree that health system made this game less fun. And instead of reducing view range, i think it would be better to reduce saturation. But otherwise game look cool and love idea of bouncy notes.
FloGames
29. Apr 2021 · 22:19 UTC
Wow, very impressive and very polished! It has an intro, multiple stages, characters, a boss fight, a proper ending... The atmosphere created by the lighting and textures is really well done and although I found the game challenging I was motivated enough try again and again until I reached the end. Awesome!
cpv
30. Apr 2021 · 06:52 UTC
So much was done in this game, awesome! Nice poly graphics, the music fits a bit the atmosphere underground, and the shooting notes + their bouncing + light mechanics + dungeon crawler kinda of make it unique, although at times a bit hard. The slowdown before the shooting make it a bit hard to face multiple enemies, and as mentioned, you can easily run out of light at some point. But overall it is a great submission!
lesinvisible
30. Apr 2021 · 21:10 UTC
Amazing soundtrack and very innovative visuals! I liked the overall corky style of graphics which remind of something like old Nintendo64 games.
Fabian G
30. Apr 2021 · 21:19 UTC
Very nice game, liked the atmosphere! Seemed random how much life enemies would drop, which made it not so attractive to fight the enemies. Good job with the game!
Krapht
30. Apr 2021 · 21:39 UTC
Loved the concept that your art (in this case music) is your life and your enemies are those that wish to put you down.
Huntrox
30. Apr 2021 · 21:51 UTC
very polished game
visuals,sounds,gameplay really well made on this game
Good job awesome work !!
MrsTari
01. May 2021 · 12:18 UTC
Really good work ! it makes alot fun :)
Meta-link
02. May 2021 · 11:54 UTC
Cool game ! Fun to play, the artstyle is nice and the music hint on hit is a really good idea.
Good job :slight_smile:
CG_Fred
05. May 2021 · 19:22 UTC
Awesome concept with the light and also that it fades out as your HP gets low. Really enjoyed that you could wall bounce your music hits. Well done!
felo07
10. May 2021 · 02:52 UTC
Amazing graphics and sound effects, the music brings up a chill atmosphere. The lights are for sure the most important thing in the game and you guys worked very well on this. The character could be a lil bit faster, and I missed an animation when I went inside the hole. Great game.
LDJam user 96965
16. May 2021 · 02:30 UTC
The graphics and animations are good, and it is quite atmospheric. The idea of shooting at the cost of your health and surrounding light was well done, but the player notes are too slow. I would just go through the maze without shooting and that wasn't too much fun.