Really cool concept with having to manage 2 people at once. But man is this game tough. I love the torch shadow effects though.

Also the talking menu buttons were a nice touch :)

@lb01 Thanks!

really cool concept! It was hard keeping both of these little idiots alive :)

@drewstillwell Thanks! They are idiots, aren't they?

Very nice! Making it so that one Deeper goes straight when the other Deeper is being controlled is a good way to force the use of torches, and making the torch checkpoints be unlimited (with a cooldown) is a good feature.

I do feel like Right Deeper's path was way harder than Left Deeper's path, I found the end for Left Deeper almost immediately but I spent an extra ~20 minutes trying to find the path for Right Deeper.

Overall, a good, well thought out game! You definitely nailed the theme, and I really liked the fitting music.

Oh, and I did find a bug, at one point Right Deeper managed to go outside of the level somehow. I was trying to navigate Left Deeper away from the ghost and I noticed that Right Deeper's screen was getting rather dark. I didn't notice where Right Deeper glitched through the wall so let's see if anyone else finds this glitch.

It was quite tough controlling both of them :smile:
Maybe you could have a compass to help direct the players.
Really like the torch idea though

Nicely done! One of my brainstorming ideas was the two brothers idea! But couldn't think of a game to make with that. I found it pretty hard to control...should have my son try it.

as others have said, I found this really difficult aha. the only thing I can think of is that it would be nice if there was a two player mode where one player used wasd the other the arrow keys so you could play together.

That ghost keeps following me haha. Good game overall. This concept can be expanded even further. Nice job!

An excellent maze game! Forcing the Deepers to always march forwards was an excellent design decision, leading to lots of frantic swapping while I'm steering one away from a ghost and the second away from flame arrows. The music fit the environment perfectly, and speaking of--the environment was beautiful! The rocks and tile flooring were all clean, but it was the lighting that stole the show for me. The torches' glow was excellent, the rock shadows were perfect, the ghost's ominous glow was awesome (and it helped alert the player danger was near if they were steering the other Deeper). All of the above combined to make a deeply atmospheric experience that made stumbling through the dark a pleasure. I'd love to see what the full maze looks like!

Love the style, found the micromanagment challenging and the dead ends (mostly on right Deeper) frustrating. Maybe if they were just a _smidge_ slower when uncontrolled, and a _smidge_ faster when controlled?

This is... quite hard.

Maybe if it were a bit more forgiving it wouldn't be as frustrating? Perhaps lives, or a health bar. Might also be good to make the fireball launchers more visually obvious so you don't miss them, right now it's easy to get sniped.

@breadstick thanks for the kind words! Here's what the map looks like:
Starting locations and chalice are circled.

@fireslash Yeah it can get frustrating. I think you're right about the fireball launchers. Did you discover the torch feature that gives you checkpoints? I think we need to make that more obvious.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

@chris-dirkis That's an interesting idea!

@tomas-poblete Thanks!

@simex Thanks for playing! Would be fun as a co-op but would have to find another way to make it challenging. Maybe a way bigger map?

@funemaker Yeah the controls are a little goofy. I can't decide if they're more _buggy_ or _"challenging"_.

I keep seeing games with themes we considered too.

@jafcraze Hmm, a compass is an interesting idea. Pointing toward the chalice, I'm guessing? Thanks for playing!

Thanks @peace-of-cake-games! @the-beefy-boy wrote the music, I can't get it out of my head!

Thanks for the bug report, I guess there are still some holes in the map.

Cool visuals and concept. Tanks controls were a bit unintuitive, and I would have preferred some other system.

Nice concept, I really like the story.

The controls feel nice, the graphics are a bit simple but they are very clear. The lightning effect are really great though.
The audio is decent, it seems it was evolving depending on where I was but I'm not sure ?

However I htink there is something missing to force you to really manage both character, there is a loop-hole where you can just make one go in circle in a safe spot and wait for the other to find him. My guess is that it's easier to reunite the brothers if you make them both move and leave clues (torches), but because there is no timer it's safer to just control one.

@rhoff95 Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I think the controls could be better.

@marcenat Thanks for the feedback!

> it seems it was evolving depending on where I was but I’m not sure ?

It was!

> I htink there is something missing to force you to really manage both character

Should have made this more clear, but the goal is to have them meet in a particular place in the game.

@ishmandoo adaptive soundtrack for a jam is really neat !

*Should have made this more clear, but the goal is to have them meet in a particular place in the game.*

I see ! But my point still stand, you could manage one character then the other.

I loved it so much! It's so simple but very different take on the theme than what I've been seeing around the jam. Oh and I also reached the goal. One thing I had a hard time with was the sound, it was crashing for me at times, but nothing major. Good entry, congrats!

Wow, that was pretty cool! I think Deeper had a harder time reaching the chalice than Deeper, with all those narrow dead ends. But once I managed to find Deeper with Deeper, guiding Deeper towards the chalice with Deeper waiting for him was no problem, save for that pesky phantom.

Very fun concept and atmosphere!

Love the "Brothers: a tale of two sons" vibe. I also really liked your humor in doubling down on the theme so many times. The game is far too hard for me to get very far, I'd maybe take a page out of Brother's book and let me control both characters at the same time. background music is pleasant and unobtrusive. overall great entry!

Overall i really like this. Creative use(s) of the theme, unique gameplay and solid visuals and audio.

You probably should have made it more clear (in the LD description or within the game itself) what the actual goal is. Upon finally reuniting the characters i was a little confused as to why the game isn't over and had to check the comments to realize that it had only just begun ;) But this isn't really a problem with the game itself, just a superficial communication issue.
Unfortunately i wasn't able to finish the game after finding out about the actual goal but since I really like the concept I'll maybe revisit it at some point.

I would say that there are 2 main gameplay loops: exploration (the maze aspect, trial and error) and the navigation aspect (based in quick reactions and mechanical skill).
My biggest criticism is that you probably should have committed to either of those, for example to the latter one by supplying the player with a map, effectively eliminating the maze aspect. It's definitely possible to have both gameplay loops play an important role (and I can see the vision behind that), but in its current form the game lacks the required polish to make it work - which is of course completely understandable, name a more iconic duo than game jams and overambition ;)

Yes, the game is hard, but imo not in a negative way (for the most part) since the frustration i occasionally experienced plays perfectly into the concept of trying to manage your two dummies and prevent them from running into their demise. But, while I really like the sprite and sounds of the ghost enemy type, I feel like in its current implementation it shouldn't be in the game. I think homing hazards are too hard on the player considering the control scheme.

As a minor nitpick, i think the visuals would greatly profit from higher contrast / stronger colors, but take that with a grain of salt since these matters largely come down to personal preference and maybe you deliberately went for this style.

@marcenat

> adaptive soundtrack for a jam is really neat !

Thanks! The music is by @the-beefy-boy.

> I see ! But my point still stand, you could manage one character then the other.

Yeah, true. Hmm, something to think about.

@villanelle Thank you! Oof, yeah we've got some audio issues in the version built for HTML5.

@rashcan Thanks! Yeah Deeper definitely ended up with a harder path than Deeper.

@aditya-kumar Thank you! Yeah, the game might be a little more fun if it were easier. @the-beefy-boy wrote the music, I love it.

@hoichael Thank you for all these thoughtful comments.

> You probably should have made it more clear (in the LD description or within the game itself) what the actual goal is.

Definitely.

> My biggest criticism is that you probably should have committed to either of those

You might be right about this. When _I'm_ play-testing the game, I know the map well so the exploration half of the game is effectively turned off.

> I think homing hazards are too hard on the player considering the control scheme.

Also, the ghost will just follow you forever, as implemented.

> As a minor nitpick, i think the visuals would greatly profit from higher contrast / stronger colors

Thanks for this tip!

Such a nice game! Interesting and unique concept, and I really enjoy to play this. Also, visuals and sounds are amazing.

soooo strange, but cool!

Deeper has been waiting patiently by the Chalice, passively avoiding a mysterious ghost, until finally his long lost brother Deeper made it to the golden cup aswell! It was all worth it to finally rejoice together.

Really fun game, I love the fully-voiced story-telling!

I would love a desktop build though, the web build had quite some lag on my end (firefox), especially with multiple light sources rendered at the same time. With enough torches on-screen, it could lag enough to not let me change character or effectively dodge traps and/or ghosts (ate my inputs), which was frustrating at times.

Other than that, I had a really fun time playing this and getting both brothers to re-unite again :)