Confession by Transylvanian Blacksmiths
As a crime journalist, Arthur, explore his childhood home while also battling his unstable mind . Uncover dark secrets about his past and fight your way in through the dark rooms of the house.





| Link | https://gitlab.com/transylvanianblacksmiths/ludum-dare-49 |
| Link | https://transylvanian-blacksmiths.itch.io/confession |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/confession |
Ratings
| Overall | 510th | 3.697⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 856th | 3.329⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 1181th | 2.882⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 776th | 3.513⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 351th | 4.037⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 1122th | 2.279⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 88th | 4.171⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 33🗳️ | 53🗨️ |
Just please don't use .rar again. (use zip or something).
I did have some trouble figuring out how to beat the game because I could only make it to the end of one direction before I inevitably died. I think it would have been more doable if the enemies were less tanky and there was more room to move about.
But the game looked incredible and I love the paranoia theme you added in! I don't know if you do this later in the game, but having boss fights or certain enemies that trigger paranoia outside of its random cooldown would be really cool
Some points that could have improved my experience as a player:
* More feedback on the things that were happening, it could be sounds or even an effect in the world (particles or something) for example for events like bullets when hit, enemy spawns, health lost, sometimes i were about to die and didn't notice.
* Some difference in some enemy, i know is a jam and we have little to none time, but some change in color or something to felt enemies different, even bosses, i fought only one and i think it was the same that small enemies. I am not sure about the respawn enemies decision, maybe too difficult if you want players to complete the experience with no problems
* Some different room or different sounds on rooms, game felt repetitive at some point
* Maybe more explanation in game, i killed a boss and the game restart and i lost my items, that was confusing and i didn't get the journal i unlocked, maybe it was just me, but did not totally get the lore behind without reading the itch page
Anyway, good job guys, keep working this great.
Currently the only difference in the enemies are a change of color, there is three kind of enemies.
Currently the only way to access new journal entries is via the main menu of the game in the journal section.
The graphics were lovely.
I'm not sure how it relates to the theme, because the player get paranoid and then unstable?
It was quite hard and unforgiven, I wish it was a bit easier and that you would gain more from the enemies, maybe some ammo life etc. it felt like every room was the same.
Great job.
Good job!
Addressing some comments:
- The remaining time we had after finishing didn't allow us to balance the game accordingly so the increased challenge was a result of that.
- The "Unstable" part is that the main character's mind is unstable as a result in part of his troubled past. In game this is represented by the "Paranoia" mechanic in which his vision is impaired, HP is replenished and the damage taken from the ghosts is reduced because his awareness to his surroundings is increased. After paranoia wears off, his health is reduced to half HP. This state is random so you, as a player, don't know when it will trigger.
- The game has a knockback mechanic which is triggered when the ghosts touch the character but we're aware it's not polished enough.
- A little research about paranoia revealed to us that increased awareness and hallucinations can be side effects which is represented in game by hearing voices, reduced vision and increased health while having paranoia.
- The game will 100% be expanded in the future with new mechanics, improved visuals, additional story and more!
Some gd issue (bad feedback for player):
- no impact on shots
- i dont understand why door closed
- why i fully healed?
You can add some sound and vfx and it will be looks great.
Like for menu and pause.
The opening and closing of the doors should be given to the player better, the enemies coming in the 2nd wave felt as if I had triggered a trigger box.
At least seeing the health of the enemies would help me know if I had hit or not.
Apart from these, mental illnesses and game-changing parts were well fed. Legit game! Well done!
At the start we planned more that could've been done in 3 days so a number of features were left out like finding notes/letters and damage feedback on player and enemies(impact on shots, muzzle flash on pistol, enemies changing their colors on impact, etc.). We will continue working on the game and those features will find their way into the game.
Doors closing down when player enters a room for the first time is a technical limitation and also a design choice. We got inspired by roguelike games at the beginning and took some inspiration from other games hence closing doors. Also the spawning of the ghosts are done when the player enters the room and the movement logic is simple because of time constraints so closing doors help with this.
Paranoia limits your vision so we fully healed the player to balance the game a little. The downside is losing half HP when out of paranoia.
The only problem I felt was that in most room I got stuck because I couldn't understand clearly what was an obstacle and what not.
Overall: nice game. Great job for a first LD!
Hello @jupiter-hadley thank you for adding our game in your video, before release we thought the game was easy and changed some stats on the enemies, we did not take in account that we tested the game a lot in those 3 days and we got used to the feel of it. After a few days thanks to you guys we realized we made a mistake by buffing up the enemies. In the future we will improve the combat system of the game along with other interesting things planned !