Unstable Shadow Trials by Almog

[raw]
made by Almog for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

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. ecbbb09875317f93cf4f47586b0a8752.jpg

9cc61222e9994465d407bfacfc1d77d1.png 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.

d8a631c57b6f54c92ed452e2511cd1df.png

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

Ratings

Overall 397th 3.778⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 187th 3.944⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 810th 3.25⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 524th 3.778⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 11🗳️ 18🗨️

Feedback

MDX
04. Oct 2021 · 21:19 UTC
Very interesting game ! Congratz bro ! insane work :D
Moonblast
04. Oct 2021 · 21:22 UTC
cool but it seems a little confuse when I touch the crystal
UkuleleFury
04. Oct 2021 · 21:27 UTC
:) Very cool game! I really like it. So many bonuses and extra improvements! Geeze, it's like you had no time limits to make this! Nice art, nice mechanics, I like the falling-apart level. VOICE ACTING!! Very, very cool.
Michael Faragher
04. Oct 2021 · 22:34 UTC
Some feedback: Voice effects usually only work well for mechanical actors, I had a bunch of floor detail sprites on top of me and the enemies, and at one point my screen went black, I hit escape and the game turned tiny in the middle of the screen and the mouse no longer lined up. It's neat, and you managed to actually get your voice acting into the game, so that's something we didn't manage. Good work, just try to check your mechanics constantly to make sure nothing goes funny.
Dangogo
05. Oct 2021 · 07:19 UTC
Cool! I like the rhythm of the game and the game sound. And a nice voice actor:D Well done!
metalboyrick
05. Oct 2021 · 07:22 UTC
Game flow looks polished! very comfortable controls as well. However i found some bugs while playing, and found a game breaking one (crashed when i tried to press restart run)![Capture.PNG](///raw/112/04/z/46d2a.png)
Saurabh
05. Oct 2021 · 07:41 UTC
Fun game, a bit confusing at the start and has a crash on restart/death. The integration of the voices and the whole upgrades system is innovative and quite cool.
Phobos001
05. Oct 2021 · 16:01 UTC
This could have been a fun little shooter romp, but there were some things that stuck out to me that made it hard to enjoy.

- 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
Marin0104
05. Oct 2021 · 17:03 UTC
Nice game. Very convincing voice acting! Some glitches, but that's okay. A lot of content one can find in the details, e.g. all the perks and the enemy types. Nice!
🎤 Almog
05. Oct 2021 · 18:14 UTC
@phobos001 oh wow thanks to your video I also realized if you play credits before playing the game for the first time it skips the whole intro cutscene ;p thank you for taking the time to do the video and the feedback.
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!
🎤 Almog
05. Oct 2021 · 18:19 UTC
Thanks everyone for the feedback! appreciate all the kind words and the constructive stuff!
jitspoe
09. Oct 2021 · 04:24 UTC
Interesting take on the theme. Ran into a game breaking glitch, but after the patch it seemed OK.
morcado
12. Oct 2021 · 04:54 UTC
This is fun to play, there are some thigs to polish like audio glitches and collisions. good job
LDJam user 233659
16. Oct 2021 · 02:33 UTC
Wow! Loved the game's visual style and voice acting. I encountered bug where a textbox was covered by another layer of background void and another bug where I spawned outside of the level after falling into a hole. The depth
in this time frame is super impressive and it kept me playing for a while! Well done!
Lubek Enterprises
17. Oct 2021 · 07:37 UTC
Interesting and fun overall!
🎤 Almog
20. Nov 2021 · 01:18 UTC
Sorry for the delay in reply i have been away for a bit.

@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!