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A jam submission

Sol AmokView game page

Submitted by GDeavid — 13 hours, 4 minutes before the deadline
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Sol Amok's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Execution#153.2143.214
Overall#302.9462.946
Enjoyment#312.9292.929
Sensory#353.0003.000
Metroidvania#422.6432.643

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Godot 4.2

Team/Developer
GDeavid

External assets
CC0 Sounds from freesound.org

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Comments

Submitted (3 edits) (+1)

Overall:

  • I enjoyed this one.
  • A lot of little nitpicks felt like enjoyment/execution things, so you'll see a lot of those listed in one or the other of those places.
  • You have a lot of good building blocks in terms of ideas. It feels (in a good way) like some of what I've experienced of Soulsborne titles
  • Some of the points below might seem contradictory or even lead to weird results if taken too seriously. In particular I want to recall as a fellow dev that as the critiquer of course, my job is mainly to tell you what I'm seeing and if I happen to provide a good suggestion or solution, that might be a lot of things but it's not the expected result
  • I made a number of comments about speed and world size--I think I stick by the speed one, but just wanted to note that whatever you do I think will work as long as it solves the (to me) central issue of feeling like one is walking through a fair bit of empty space

Enjoyment 4/5

  • Enjoyed my time with this overall
  • Boss was pretty baller for a first boss
  • Please make everything move like 30% faster, except maybe the spears

Execution 3/5:

  • (Apologies here is where most of my design nitpicks are going)
  • Actual fighting feels decent. Not sure the basic dudes really needed to take 3 hits
  • Spear dudes feel more annoying than challenging, though to be fair I didn't do a great job of blocking them
  • Not always clear on the intended LOS for the soldiers
  • Quality of Life request: Start the player with a potion and have it refill automatically on re-spawn
  • Ran across some visual glitching on the web, desktop seemed fine

Sensory 3/5

  • Visuals do the job. Music isn't really noticeably complementary in a good way but isn't noticeable in a bad way either
  • SFX were good, ambience a nice touch. More audio feedback when getting hit by enemies would be nice
  • This could go under Enjoyment or Execution, but in terms of worldbuilding and enjoyment alike I think it would've done well to consider a game area of about 50% of the size of this one for your jam entry. I feel like I spent a lot of time...walking through areas that felt empty. Walking through relatively full, if smaller, places that once appeared to be inhabited might have helped the overall sensory experience. Right now it kind of feels like someone built some pre-fab apartments for the cult or whatever it is you're intruding on but nobody's really moved in yet
  • You might have a slight conveyance issue on how the boss hands work, the first time, though I'm hard pressed to tell you what I think the alternative would be

Metroidvania 3/5:

  • It doesn't really register much as one right now but I feel like even though it's only used once or twice, there's at least non-negligible effort made to give a mobility/area unlock ability here such that had the game expanded, its Metroidvanianess would have similarly done so
Developer(+1)

Thanks for the verbose feedback! 

All valid points.

Reasonings for some of them:

  • Spear dudes aren't meant to be challenging, they are there to lure you into ambushes, and force you learn how to kite enemies into chokepoints.
  • Flask was a last minute addition, they are as jank as can be, my apologies.
  • Emptiness of the world: absolutely fair. I had planned for weapons, consumables, props, etc. ( and a max HP upgrade, hidden until you get the brand) to be littered in the environment, but ran out of time. Currently, neither exploration or combat rewards you in any way, outside of progression, so that is a point I'd definitely address if I decide to develop this further.
Submitted(+1)

Wow, you know what you are doing! Hotline Miami and some nice difficulty. Good game design, good presentation, good sounds. I like the premise. Maybe the camera should zoom in a little more, or have the characters a bit bigger in terms of proportion with the environment. Keep the good work!

Try to find the sequence break in our game :D

Developer

Thanks for playing the game!

I wouldn't go that far to say that I know, but I try :).

There is a "cursed design" problem of combat and exploration taking place with the same controls, and the movement speed is too low for exploration, but would make the combat unbalanced if it would be higher... so...

I won't promise to find the sequence break, but I'll give your game a try RN.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

May I propose: if you don't see any other solution like drastically changing the game, your last option could be to do both. I explain. During normal gameplay (exploration), the player has a specific speed. Then when there are enemies, the room and characters enter "combat mode" and there you change the rules a bit to mitigate your design problem. The player will understand that in-combat and out-combat rules are different, with different mechanics and different thinking process needed to play.

Developer

I was thinking more on the lines of:

  • Reducing directional movement penalty (min player speed is 75% of base speed, currently its 50% while moving backwards)
  • No stamina cost on actions, while not actively being targeted by an enemy

The combat. non-combat suggestion also works, but I think that would move it away from being action/adventure focused.

Not that it's currently leaning one way or the other, or that I concretely decided what direction it would take, but currently I would nudge it more towards Hades or Rune, then Gothic, or KCD, for example.

Still, good solution if the game should take a more immersive approach.

Submitted(+1)

I get that! Your potential solutions make sense to me and are worth trying them. My proposal was mostly a "last option" to consider as I said. A couple of prototypes to test the different approaches are probably needed in this case to better get the feelings,

Cheers

Submitted(+1)

I love the attention to details, for example the reverb effect on sounds when going inside.
Some simple things like having destroyable objects and being able to sneak and kick enemies down are pretty nice additions, somehow I felt empowered.
The fact that walking is slower when not going forward feels realistic but I couldn't get used to it.
I appreciated the intro, together with the audio, it certainly sets the mood.


Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game!

Super happy that you noticed the tiny details!

Having these insignificant interactions with the world - if your game is not super focused, or arcade like - gives a sense of immersion and depth.

The movement speed and mechanics definitely need some time in the oven, if nothing else, then cutting the directional movement penalty by half.

Glad you enjoyed the game!

PS. Chancla was very well put together, if a bit rough around the edges in the term of bosses, but I was very impressed that cheesing a boss, and defeating him in a non intended way didn't break a single thing! Hats of to that!

(1 edit)

It was tiny. It needs to be bigger. When you fullscreen the look ability goes haywire. I would like to try this game its just too small to understand whats going on without a fullscreen.

Will come back and check this out later

Developer

You can press ctrl+f on the windows build to make it fullscreen.

What do you mean by "lock ability"?

The fullscreen was the problem. The look** ability doesn't seem to work well in fullscreen for me

Submitted(+1)

despite some bugs and visual glitches here and there, it was good. The only thing i didn't enjoy was that exploration felt too time consuming and not rewarding at all, i checked inside every house just in case i missed some secret but sadly all were empty. btw, I don't know if it was intended but you can just walk out of the main zone from a house in the upper right section of the map, i thought we were on a ship flying in the sky so that was weird. The combat was good and the boss was fun, i liked that you get a peek into the boss before actually fighting it. Good job on this game.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Another project fell through 2 weeks into the jam, so I made this one, to have something to submit. A lot of things are broken or half baked, and adding detail and clutter to the environment was one thing I couldn't get to, unfortunately.

But yes, I absolutely agree that exploration without reward or progression is just wasting the players time.

Submitted(+1)

Really juicy game, and the combat is pretty hard but seems fair.  I think the character movement speed is too low, but really liked the presentation!  

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Great game! The presentation is top notch. I like the intro cutscene & the lighting. The combat is quite fun & reminds me of Hotline Miami mixed with Dark Souls. I tried running past the enemies & was impressed that they follow you for a good while. I couldn't find where to go in the game & the slow movement made me bail. I think the map needs better visual direction to the objectives.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

"...reminds me of Hotline Miami mixed with Dark Souls"....

That was the starting concept behind the game!

Yes, the movement speed has been bought up a lot, and will definitely be getting updated moving forward. Would you mind sharing where you got stuck, in terms of map exploration?

Submitted(+1)

this is nice! i really liked the boletaria gate opening lol, i was like why does this seem so familiar. it's a nice tribute. i think the combat is decent and manages to get a good back and forth. like it manages to make the tools you have feel useful and necessary. i think the speed of the character and the distance of the dodge are both way too low and make the character feel a bit like a dump truck. it may even be an issue of scale, given that the camera is zoomed so far out. i like how you mixed up the enemies, pairing ranged units with melee, and it was especially fun trying to get the ranged units to hit the melee ones. there was also a nice progression to the encounters. i had a lot of strange hangs, where the game would hang for up to 5 seconds after i hit a box or enemy. there would also be random hangs where the camera would teleport somewhere and quickly lerp back to the player. all told, great work on this! 

Developer(+1)

Hello fellow Demon's Souls enjoyer :)

Thanks for playing the game and the verbose feedback!

The web version is not ideal, since it hangs on loading in shaders, and when the tilemaps get modified. Didn't have time to solve those issues unfortunately, but they aren't prevalent in the desktop build.

Same goes for the mouse issues. Had to change Godot versions the last minute to lessen the shaking bug, but It still didn't fix it.

The character speed and dodge need some tweaking, but since it also impacts combat heavily, it's not just a simple matter of turning it.

Thanks again for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

brutality of combat is good, pixel art is great, screen shake is buggy making the camera move sideways violently at times making game unplayable. other than that good job.

Submitted(+1)

The combat system is nice, the art look nice too, I like the top down view of the game. 

 The boss fight is interesting but when the player is inside a building, the music stop, so not sure if there are any music for the boss. Also everytime when you killed the guy that can block your attack, the audio start lagging and stopped. It only return to normal after you go back to fountain.

But still, cool game!

Developer

Thank you for playing, and for the feedback as well!

The blocking enemy music lag bug is known, and I'll be fixing it... once I actually nail down the reason for it.

There is only one "music" track for the game, sadly, I solo-ed it and I ain't no musician :)

Submitted(+1)

Sorry for the late feedback. Recording and uploading these takes a bit of time. Enjoy!

Developer

Oh WOW!

Thanks for taking the time to play through the game and make this.

Highlighted some bugs and oversights I wasn't aware of.

On the topic of movement speed. The player speed is "penalized" for not walking in the direction he is facing, put simply, sideways movement will be slower, and backpedaling will be even more so. I'll fix it by not having a stamina cost on sprinting if the player is not in combat.

The thing that concerned me more, is that you didn't enjoy, and actively tried to cheese the combat. I didn't see you using the dodge to get out of the way of attacks, or block ranged attacks. I think moving the tutorial hint on blocking to the first javelin enemy encounter could fix the non-use of blocking, since it would be reinforced by example. Dodging... I have no idea to fix, which is a shame, since it's a pillar of the combat design.

Thanks you again for taking the time to play and record this! It's a very, very valuable insight!

Submitted(+1)

No problem!
 

The thing that concerned me more, is that you didn't enjoy, and actively tried to cheese the combat. I didn't see you using the dodge to get out of the way of attacks, or block ranged attacks.

I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. I definitely tried once or twice to block the spears but the moment I was successful, another one impaled me.  I think tweaks like slowing down projectiles and balancing out  hitboxes and hurtboxes for the entities would fix those issues. I too have no idea on how to improve the dodge.

Also, I think I was so worried about stamina drain and how long it took to drink a potion. I think that also caused me to skip dodging and cheesing some combat where I could.

Developer
  • Slower projectile
  • Less stamina cost of actions in general
  • Improve flask use (Ability to trigger into Potion Drink State from Idle, Walk, Run, etc.)

I would separate stamina cost and projectile speed into a difficulty setting though, cause the current state is very close to the intended experience. Still, making an easier or harder experience, for people who want to just enjoy the atmosphere and exploration, or get one shot killed makes a ton of sense.

Thanks for the great and verbose feedback, once again!

Submitted(+1)

I think that perfect sums up the changes I would make if it were my game. And no problem, this has been very fun!

Submitted(+1)

Wow this game is so cool in so many ways! At first I was like "man it would be interesting if the combat would require me to do more than just smack three times", and then the armored and ranged enemies come in! The kick was very cool, and the dynamic shadows and rooftops were awesome. I did eventually have performance issues - the game would lag when I did a certain action, and about right after the first armored enemy, the screen began to shake so violently that everything would turn lime green and I couldn't see what was going on? Weird bug, but very well done!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for trying it out, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I had to cut a lot of content out because of time constraints (being able to use throwing and alternative weapons) so I needed to diversify the existing features, hence the different enemy types and unhealthy amount of ambushes!

I know about the bug, but I'm absolutely dumbstruck on what causes it, other than it only happens in the web build.

At least I hope you encountered it in the web build? :D

Submitted(+1)

Great entry! I liked the top-down combat, though there is an issue with blocking where the player character doesn’t block if you hold right click during the attack animation.

Developer

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

Yeah, there is a system for buffering input, and I do recall attacking and dodging get checked in the attack state, but not blocking it seems.
Will fix in post-jam version.

Submitted(+1)

I had some stutters in the browser, so I tried the windows build, which worked fine.I just had troubles figuring out where to go.

I really dig the Hotline Miami aesthetics!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing it!

The browser version was a hassle to get up and running. Had problems with transparent shaders becoming visible, toggling tilemaps lagging the game heavily, and a random issue, where the mouse would just go crazy.

Desktop version is more stable.

Submitted(+1)

So, I played it again and here are some remarks:

  • it would be cool to play the game in full screen
  • gamepad support would be awesome. You basically support every action already, but not the aiming
  • sprinting should be using less stamina or the walking speed should be little higher
  • There were spots where I got stuck, because it looked like there were walls where there were not (I attach a screenshot)
  • I caused a bug by attacking the first armoured enemy, after he just vanished and the music started to be bugge (see video)

I hope this helps! I think you did a great job with that game.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for picking it up again!

  • CTRL+F makes it fullscreen on desktop, it's in the game just didn't have time to properly debug it, so it's not communicated.
  • Gamepad support is also in the game, but needs to be toggled for aiming, but it's a very good idea to have it, still.
  • Agree! Movement needs to be tweaked all around. And stamina cost lowered, on most actions
  • Don't know about invisible walls, so I have no idea about that, but will check nonetheless
  • I unfortunately know about that bug. It's - probably - related to the player and enemies kinematic bodies colliding, and velocity getting transferred, probably launching the enemy to the know borders of INF float and NaN :D. It fixes on the fountain, cause using the fountain resets the enemy positions

Thanks for all the feedback and bug reports!

I'll definitely refer to it if I continue to develop the game after MVM.