Unstable Shadow Trials by Almog
2D Top down shooter
Jonathan was just sleeping another night as usual but then he woke up to a different reality.
He woke up to the sight of the shadow trials master and learnt that to go back to his life he will have to complete the trials.
What he didn't know is that those trials were very unstable, the arena will start collapsing the more damage it gets(projectiles hit the walls will rise the meter when it reaches 100% it will cause random instability event)
(earthquake , ground breaking or thunders)
and the enemy's themselves are unstable as well , when they get annoyed they will use chaotic moves that might even sacrifice their own lives.
As Jonathan go in the trial he will face to choose between Chaos and Peace decision , if he choose Chaos he will get a power up but become unstable as well(Get a random Debuff Passive).
Jonathan will collect gems that will allow him to buy some perks to help him clear the trials.

Dev thoughts:
What a ride this ludum dare was for me, I was not even sure if I am gonna try to enter the jam but with a morale boost from a friend I decided to just do it. this experienced made me prove myself I can finish a game after a long time I doubted myself, even though it is not a perfect game by any means for me this game means a lot and I am really happy I decided to participate in LD49. Had some struggles in the process but I am happy that I overcame most of it.
it made me push myself beyond what I thought I am capable of and most important I had fun doing it and hope you will have fun playing it ;]
(quite fitting unstable journey for the theme lol)
Notes: The Debuffs are only applied to current run, upon death they disappear, shop perks are permanent . If you have more then 10 Passives(Both shop perks and RNG Debuffs) it will show only the first 10 acquired. The Dub and text might not align 100% because some changes happened during making the game. (Weapon overheat is not included in the game even though it might be mentioned in the dub/text didn't manage to add it in time) Game some time crash when player die's , I didn't have time to investigate the cause sadly, sorry about this.

Changelog: 1.1 fixes small stuff that i overlooked in the rush of the game jam(i hope its okay , i read that its okay to update small fixes like this one but if its wrong let me know and i delete the update) that changes:the tiles that was placed in wrong layer ,saving and loading and fixing iframe problem with multishot perk.
Assets and help Credits: Golan,Yanny,0x72 ,Crunchpix,Wenrexa ,LoadedInReverse ,caffi_nate ,Datagoblin,Pekschi Gurpreet Singh Matharoo,Anjuu,Clembod ,Seabass ,Tasudei ,Pixelatedpope ,Shaun Spalding FriendlyCosmonaut,Gamemaster Audio ,Ansimuz ,Sweenus,Pensumbic
| Link | https://almog0113.itch.io/shadow-trials |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/unstable-shadow-trials |
Ratings
| Overall | 397th | 3.778⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 187th | 3.944⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 810th | 3.25⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 524th | 3.778⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 11🗳️ | 18🗨️ |
- Ranged enemies need to telegraph their attacks so the player can know when to dodge incoming projectiles. You could do this with a sound cue and a delay, I think that would be enough for this. You could also make the enemy flash and change their sprite to make it even more obvious.
- There's no feedback when I hit an enemy. A little scuffy sound would add a lot to the combat. I know time was limited but particles effects and sprite-shaking would also beef it up.
- The hole in the floor generated near an exit once and I kept falling in. Not a huge issue but annoying. Maybe make safe zones where holes can't spawn?
- You cannot dodge the lightning, and there is no warning or telegraphing when it's going to come. You lose health unavoidably and that's not fair ;_;
With all that said, this was still a good game! It just needs some fixing up is all, if you decide to elaborate on this project. Thank you, and good luck with the Jam!
https://youtu.be/RqaGwyKqieU
you are absolutely right with your points , some of them are actually already in but i guess not enough(there is a small feedback with slight red tint when hitting enemy and slight knockback that usually not visible due to them staying near walls
also there is safezones to try and prevent those exit block incidents but i missed some areas it seems :( )
Thank you for playing and giving the feedback much appreciated!
in this time frame is super impressive and it kept me playing for a while! Well done!
@mavvy I am really happy to hear that you loved the game! Thanks a lot for the kind words! :)
@morcado @lubek-enterprises @jitspoe Thanks for your feedbacks , much appreciated!