Pillars of Anguish

by outfrost

co-authored: @666savior, @marek-domagala, @saveng0r

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.91

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.79

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.68

Theme★★★★★★★★★★4.09

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Humor★★★★★★★★★★4.23

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.91

You were running to catch a train, and you don’t remember what happened next. You have no idea where you’ve just found yourself, but you probably need to get out. Don’t worry, I got you. We’ll make it out of this maze together. That is, if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of your patience and sanity…

Long story short, it's a platformer. I'll let the game explain the rest to you.

Get the fixed v0.0.10 build. Let us know of your results in the comments!

itch.io page

Playable on Linux, macOS and Windows. Unfortunately, we couldn't provide an HTML5/WebGL build, because the HTML5 export for 3D projects in Godot was broken. Sorry about that!

Credits

@666Savior (itch.io) - 3D art, level design, writing
@Outfrost (itch.io) - programming, writing
@saveng0r (itch.io) - programming

Music by @marek-domagala (YouTube, itch.io)
Sound effects by freesound.org users aboe, cheatsman115, farbin, unfa

Tools: Godot Engine, Blender, GitHub Actions

Changelog

Submission hour (v0.0.9)

* Fixed SFX trigger in the wrong spot
* Made music track loop
* Fixed unplayable level entrance

Post-jam (v0.0.10)

* Added option to skip dialogues when they feel slow; press [X] to skip
* Fixed a sound effect trigger
* Adjusted sound effect volumes
* Fixed death counter not reappearing in level 1
* Removed an unwanted spoiler from the initial dialogues
* Adjusted collider size on spikes
* Added forgotten bits to the credits
* Level 1
* Rearranged platforms a bit in the final section to prevent player falling to their death and still finishing the level, and to make it harder to accidentally block the path
* Final level
* Improved visuals to make it clearer what's going on
* Fixed player falling off of platforms

Hall of Pain

@arthurds (PomoTheDog): 70 deaths
@wendel-scardua: 108 deaths
@ursagames (ursagames): 49 deaths
@honest-dan (HonestDanGames): 98 deaths
@codeman1010 (DragonTheoryGames): 49 deaths
@dummydojo Lenny (DummyDojo): 66 deaths
@coleslaughter (ColeSlawski): 48 deaths
@birdwards (Birdwards): 76 deaths
@trypants (Trypants_): 117 deaths
@thanielpin: 99 deaths
@eskooh (EsKooh): 158 deaths
@blue-pin-studio (BluePinStudio): 131 deaths
@killerkun (KillerKun): 70 deaths
@codertrevor: 88 deaths

Tags: #2d, #3d, #casual, #dark humor, #funny, #loop, #narrative, #side scroller

Genres: platformer

Tools: Blender, Godot

Comments55

MelekTaus6 Oct 2020, 17:26

Very funny monologues ..and got trolled :smile: It was definitely a very funny experience :thumbsup:

Outfrostauthor6 Oct 2020, 17:36

@melektaus Thank you! :D

Ethan Losten6 Oct 2020, 18:04

I loved the game duuuuude, real cool idea, loved the dialogues too.

Aless7 Oct 2020, 02:28

Nice dialogues and music, the SFX when you hit the ground made me laugh idk why haha
the overall idea is awesome

stephenwhoskins7 Oct 2020, 02:40

It's just like Minecraft! Only instead of resources... Oh my god, IT'S PEOPLE!!! IT'S ALLLL PEOPLE!!!!!! OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE. WHY?!!! WHHHHHHYYYYYYY??????!!!!!! :: proceeding to weep gently ::

Great game! I'm thoroughly impressed with your coding skills!

VPhyre7 Oct 2020, 03:15

Great mechanics. I really liked the game in general, very well elaborated, one of the best within the theme. Congratulations.

PopDaddyGames7 Oct 2020, 03:21

Very cool loop idea. The inclusion of the humorous jabs at the player really stepped up the overall feeling of the game. The inputs were nice and precise- so great effort there.

The game crashed on a pause after the joke 'press' escape', and so that's where I left off.

FernandaBatista7 Oct 2020, 03:24

A really good idea! A nice game with nice texts!

cyphyrGriffon7 Oct 2020, 04:09

I liked this! The fall damage was a little rough, but I understand the necessity mechanically. Still loved the implementation and made it all the way through! Good work.

Outfrostauthor7 Oct 2020, 04:40

@ethan-losten @aless @stephenwhoskins @vphyre @popdaddygames @fernandabatista @cyphyrgriffon

Thank you all so much for the feedback and kind words! So glad you liked it :sparkles:

BakemonoMori7 Oct 2020, 13:31

I loved it, really cool idea. Great submission!

Outfrostauthor7 Oct 2020, 16:03

Thanks @bakemonomori! I'll be playing your game as soon as possible :)

Bredera7 Oct 2020, 21:02

Got past the first levels with only 40 deaths in total not bad if i say so myself. Really fun little platforming game, liked the art and effects used. Good entry

Artyom Volkov7 Oct 2020, 21:25

A pretty fun Godot game with dark humor and dark gameplay. Nice entry.

Wendel Scardua7 Oct 2020, 23:46

Finished with 108 deaths, and as I said on the stream I really hated your game in a good way :)

"10/10 would be bullied for taking a plasma ball in my face again"

ChickenChaser8 Oct 2020, 00:26

Loved the dark humour, great game!

Outfrostauthor8 Oct 2020, 03:22

Thanks everyone! ^^

@bredera just to clarify, that's 40 at the end or 40 on the 1st level? :)

José Bonilla8 Oct 2020, 03:34

Awesome game. I loved the humor and the game itself is really good. Best game I've played so far in the jam. Great job!

ursagames8 Oct 2020, 06:43

Your game was played on my stream ( https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos ) on 10/7. Thank you for sharing your game with us! You can find the timestamp of when your game was played here: https://tinyurl.com/yy4oycvv

Coding4rtist8 Oct 2020, 10:21

Really good game, enjoyed playing it. The dialogs are so funny, the level design is well made, I like that you can finish the level through various routes. Graphics is simple but does its job with a very cool lighting. Music is great and not too repetitive. I liked the controls, very responsive, maybe only in air it was quite difficult to control the character (I had to repeat the part with the bars several times).

SPOILER PART (don't read this if you haven't played it yet)
I almost ragequitted when I followed the ESC message, I knew there was something strange but I wanted to trust it 😢. In the end I repeated the first level, finished the game and never read any other message xD

Outfrostauthor8 Oct 2020, 21:22

Thank you @jose-bonilla!

@coding4rtist Do you mean the final part of level 1? Or a different one? Thanks for the review :)

Coding4rtist8 Oct 2020, 21:44

@outfrost yes, level 1

Outfrostauthor8 Oct 2020, 22:53

@coding4rtist Gotcha. That one's gonna be up for tweaking :)

Codeman10109 Oct 2020, 05:02

Such a fun mechanic, I would play more levels if you made them.

Honest Dan9 Oct 2020, 23:05

Outfrost! This game! You witness the impact it had on me :((((((((

the building a human bridge mechanic isn't so bad, just I felt that sometimes I had to run quite a long way to get back to my bridge, and that repetition was a little unsatisfying. Didn't help that I was rubbish either. But I finished it. And then your narrator made fun of me :(

exopunk10 Oct 2020, 00:33

Such a unique mechanic and the humour was spot on, Loved it! Great job!

Outfrostauthor10 Oct 2020, 01:43

Thank you all :sparkles:

You did finish it, @honest-dan. You had the patience and force of will, and you persevered. Repetition, noted! We're possibly planning some tweaks and further levels for the future :)

JUSTCAMH10 Oct 2020, 14:22

Heyo, I played your game on stream! Here's the vod if you wanna rewatch; https://www.twitch.tv/videos/765804766

Thanks for submitting your game!

svyatozar10 Oct 2020, 15:07

to whoever came up with "Esc" joke: that joke was not funny. --rating.humor

ubershmekel11 Oct 2020, 07:28

The biggest complaint about this game I have is that it doesn't respect the time of the people that are trying to play it. I lost all my progress, that I had to kill myself 30 times to get, because of the "hit ESC" moment in the middle of the first level :( Also in the first part of the game, having to use 10 bodies to survive the fall was a bit excessive, 3 dead bodies would have been enough, I think :)

As far as mechanics go - the dead bodies thing was cool, but did you need me to die 10 times before I could leave the first ledge? I personally like very hard games like "I wanna be the boshy" but you need to earn the player's trust and show very good mechanics and level design for the game to be fun once you go into the troll-game-designer territory. I think this game and concept has potential, and your visual and audio art was pretty good. So I would love to see this game with more polish. Thank you for the game.

elysiagriffin11 Oct 2020, 21:02

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/767497194?t=6h51m18s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

ColeSlaughter11 Oct 2020, 21:31

Eat your heart out @honest-dan :smiling_imp:

Thanks for submitting this to the stream last night!

I think the streamer leaderboard on your game page was an excellent idea, it certainly sparked a competitive fire in me I didn't know I had. While the core mechanic is fairly similar to a lot of games I've played, I think the personality you've added to this one makes a huge difference, nice job!

Raphiell11 Oct 2020, 22:17

The escape key troll was a big oof. Fun concept, but I found the platforming was a little imprecise. Awesome music and interesting environment.

Well done!

Outfrostauthor12 Oct 2020, 02:02

The game has just been updated! Have a look at the changelog to see what we've fixed. And give it a go!

Obviously not a lot has changed gameplay- and level-wise, but it should work a bit nicer now, so if you haven't finished all the levels, now is a great time to try again!

Outfrostauthor12 Oct 2020, 02:37

@ubershmekel Thank you for the detailed feedback! We're definitely considering making the starting area less tedious.

@raphiell Any particular bits of the platforming that felt imprecise? We know that jumping on a slope is finicky (you have to jump from a standstill and then start moving sideways), and a few people have said there is a bit too much inertia and a bit too little speed.

King_Cacti12 Oct 2020, 03:08

a cool concept! controls felt good and the sound was good too. the only thing i would say is to maybe add checkpoints, it was quite annoying have to start from the beginning over and over again and that made me enjoy the game less

Outfrostauthor12 Oct 2020, 03:29

Thanks @king-cacti! The levels getting a bit long from the replays is something many people have said so we'll be looking into that later!

Trypants12 Oct 2020, 15:21

Cool concept! I felt like you had to die too much to get to the end and the physics felt weird from time to time. Overall I had fun playing the game! Which is the most important thing. Great job!

ThanielPIN12 Oct 2020, 17:50

The level design was pretty clever! I also loved the music and the 3D environment. Another one of my favorite entries!

eskooh13 Oct 2020, 00:11

Good job folks! made it through with 158 piles on the ground crumpled forever. Good concept but the controls a bit floaty but not so bad to get ahold of. Good luck creating another!

Marcos Tulio Cavalcante13 Oct 2020, 03:41

The mechanics of using the dead body to go through obstacles is very interesting, but I could have check points for not returning right at the beginning, it would still be a loop, but I don't see a direct relationship with being stuck. The level design is very good. It can get better with the better elaborated models and with more colors, the character could bleed and maybe have some kind of influence, for example shorting a trap or the player slipping. This concept can be further explored. Congratulations.

Jenny Bourke14 Oct 2020, 02:00

Thank you for submitting this!! This game rules

pee-thief14 Oct 2020, 02:00

Nice ;)

Blue Pin Studio15 Oct 2020, 04:28

Out of over 100 games, this is one out of two games that i've rated 5/5 overall. The game design kept me playing a long time, determined to win even though i wasn't enjoying the experience. I think the main reason for the frustration is some of the hitboxes and lacking coyote time on the jumps (a slight delay that lets you jump after you've walked off a platform). Overall, great submission, can definitely see this as a full commercial game with more levels and perhaps some kind of player progression. I'll leave you to figure that out :p

Trexxak15 Oct 2020, 22:13

Oh man I died so many times...

You really got me with the "press escape and see what it does" thing. I was infuriated! :'D

Couldn't finish the second level, though I gave it a lot of time. I think you did a great job with the pacing of the game still, as I have the feeling I'll try it again later on and don't fear level two too much, now that I somewhat know what to do!

Super cool concept, a great sense of humour, and a lot of pain, this game!

Outfrostauthor15 Oct 2020, 22:50

Thank you all so much for the feedback! :heart: We want to continue working on this project, and your comments are going to help us a lot :)

deviantdear20 Oct 2020, 01:40

Had a lot of fun playing this on stream! Here is the highlight of my playthrough ^_^ https://www.twitch.tv/videos/775831580

killerkun25 Oct 2020, 07:02

That one ramp jump, man!
I really enjoyed this, I love puzzles that involve skill as well. I would love to see more levels and I will be waiting to see that post-jam version. Keep it up guys! :)

coderTrevor25 Oct 2020, 22:32

Oh that narrator is so mean! :cry: I think this could have been improved by letting the player respawn closer to the death point. It was usually easy to figure out what I was supposed to do, but took a long time to execute it. I managed to get through it after dying 88 times. It would have been great if the mean narrator would get their comeuppance after all that abuse and tricking me into pressing escape. :cry:

I liked the gameplay and the minimal graphics. The audio and mood are good too. Overall it's a very complete game. Good job!

Outfrostauthor25 Oct 2020, 23:18

Thanks @codertrevor! What do you mean by _comeuppance_? I'm trying to imagine what it could be in the game.

PS gottem :laughing:

coderTrevor25 Oct 2020, 23:54

@outfrost Hmmm I don't know exactly. Like on the last level there could be a guy holding a microphone and the player could push him onto spikes. I really don't know exactly but I just wish there was some way beating the game would result in him being unhappy since he was so mean to me. :laughing:

And yes, you got me, lol. :laughing:

Outfrostauthor25 Oct 2020, 23:56

@codertrevor Gotcha! Thanks, we'll think about it for post-LD development :)

fabula_rasa26 Oct 2020, 16:02

This is hilarious! The narrator really made this game for me. I DIDN'T press escape when he told me to - I figured he is just trolling me :wink:

The game is fun to play and I really enjoyed the music. It would get tedious to just go through the same motions over and over again until you manage to leave enough of your dead bodies behind - but the narrator makes even the tedious part fun!

Beginning of the first level is great for "building" fun shapes from your own dead bodies! Great work all around :)

Outfrostauthor29 Oct 2020, 09:48

I made a compilation video of streamers playing the game!

Peace Of Cake Games11 Nov 2020, 20:25

Hey everyone! I had a great time playing this game and ignoring the narrator's "press esc" trick. Here's an abstract-ish artwork I whipped up to celebrate 46th in Humor!

(I have now learned I can draw with a controller in Paint 3D. I can actually draw a straight line! 😅😆)

Other games by @outfrost

★2.70

★4.05

★2.92