ROG LD53 - Relic Courier

the attack with the first enemy is broken, i hit left click to start the attack, they both take there stances, then nothing, game kind of soft locks. so i tried the guy through the invisible wall and the combat froze aswell. so yeah the game looks fun, but might need to fix the combat and get it working.

Hey @jcmonkey - This is a bug with the webgl version it seems. I'm going to try and fix it before the weekend but it works fine on the MacOS and Windows version. Cheers.

so yes the downloaded version was much better to play. and im way better at parrying in this game then i am in dark souls :D i found another bug with the combat though. when you come from behind on an enemy he stays facing the other way, instead of turning around.

Thanks for trying again @jcmonkey - I've uploaded a new WebGL build that fixes the combat bug. I'll make down the enemy facing problem thanks for the report. Glad you had fun!

Completed the game and quite enjoyed the combat and sounds, nice entry, a lot of content as well, spent good 15 minutes here :)

A bit of feedback:
- it would be nice to make parry window shorter, (maybe even almost as short as in mordhau or chivalry) in the current state it's just a way better block. Also you can spam it without loosing energy and there's no cooldown which makes you sort of unkillable haha
- on the last level I found a green guy way before the relic, maybe it's also worth marking him on a minimap
- Having one enemy type if fine, but just for the sake of diversity you can give them different weapons / hats / shield. Normally this shouldn't take a lot of time, but would add a lot of flavor to the game

good stuff! a surprising number of mechanics and everything was well executed. definitely felt the dark souls sorta vibe. I think it would be nice if there were a bit more to the combat, after learning the parry everything was very easy, overall fun though!

Neat fusion of Dark Souls gameplay and classic dungeon crawlers.

AI seems to be a bit simplistic, I found I could just do 3 fast attacks then parry, and pretty reliably not take damage. Perhaps some kind of stun lock behavior? Not sure.

The hidden door in the first room was tricky; I almost gave up on finding the route. Couldn't find the relic in the forest, and getting to the end of the level without it is a bit of a downer. Maybe I missed something super obvious?

Overall plays quite nicely, feels tight and is fun. Didn't hit any obvious bugs or game breaking issues.

Nice work!

This is great! There's a lot in here for jam game! Even options menus, which is quite fancy. Audio options are key, and I'm guilty of skipping for too many jams. I wasn't able to get my xbox controller to work on the web5 version, but keyboard works just fine. The myst-style controls took out some of the immersion, I'd perfer a little more degree of freedom in how I explore a dungeon like this. But the minimap was really cool and helpful, and that's a super big plus! Thank you for sharing this :)

Great game! I think I got to the end boss of level 2 but lost, and then when I was kicked back to the beginning of the level, didn't feel like running through again after losing all that progress, so I stopped there.

I found the visuals confusing and easy to get lost, but if I simply navigated while the map was open, exiting the map only for combat, I had a much easier time navigating. I don't know if that was intended as a way to help the navigationally challenged like me.

Very well done! Simple and effective mechanics. Great graphics and mood. The combat is both straightforward and compelling. Minimap is clutch too. Great job!

Good game. I like your combat mechanic system and how the AI reacts to player actions. However, smoothness is required for player and camera movement. Even with a minimap, getting to the delivery location is difficult. In the game, it must demonstrate where to deliver in some form. Overall, a great game!

Well done game! You got all the classic grid-based dungeon crawler mechanics into it, and I didn't run into any issues or bugs. The UI could have used a little more theming to fit the nice look of the in-game visuals, but overall it was really fun to play.

Great game! The hidden rooms and blocking are designs that I really like (too bad the stamina bar doesn't support multiple blocks, but I found that the stamina depleted due to being archived recovers very quickly, so that's not a problem!). I have reached the second level that is full of forests and will continue playing.

Such a fun game should not have only these ratings, and I will invite my friends to experience this game and rate it.

@bukaanka - Thanks for playing and glad you have found. Ya parry is too powerful its difficult to balance difficulty for a LD game since the audience is so wide.

@vknauss - Ya that was the intention with the combat system I just didn't have enough time to add more mechanics like special abilities and such. I'm thinking about turning this into a fully game so if you have any ideas let me know.

@fireslash - Ya a poise damage system would fit really well into this - Thanks! As for the relic in the 2nd level - its right there at the start - a couple of people i've watched play the game have missed it. This is a failure of the tutorial setup i think with the relic not coming in till later.

@hwaet - Thanks for playing - ya i tried to stick to the typical dungeon crawler setup - maybe adding a "free look" would help?

@carraka - Thanks for the feedback - i do think the level layout needs a slight bit more "variation" to help with getting lost. Definitely something that could be improved upon - Thanks for playing.

@the-neon-shark - Thanks for playing glad you have fun!

@nizanth-p - Ya an HUD or Compass style system (like in the open world games) would help iron that out I think. Thanks for playing!

@tony-li - UI is definitely the area where i struggle the most. I'm gonna work on that skill untill next jam.

@yuriscat - Thanks I would really appreciate that. Glad you had fun. Do note there is no save system implemented so once you quit you are back at the beginning.

This is a very ambitious game, and I really like what you've done with it. The combat is simple but intuitive and the movement helps enforce the mechanic. I found the navigation a little bit frustrating and got lost a few times (resorting to follow the wall.. :)) but considering how much you've managed to cram into this, really good stuff.
I did eventually start using the map when I realised I could move while having it open, but until then, I found it hard to read.

The minimap was a great addition as well, loved that touch.

I would have loved some kind of music as well. Also, you should update your blog with all your ludum dare entries! it's very out of date.

Great work with this entry. :) Also OpsLevel is cool (and you guys keep messaging me ;))

Overall this is a very solid jam entry! A great homage to classic dungeon crawlers with an interesting take on real time combat. I found the shield wasn't worth using because the parry also restored my stamina and "blocked" as well :sweat_smile: I ran into another odd thing, I think most modern gamers would come at this thinking its real time movement, but instead it queues things up in turn-based/grid movement which can be a bit disorienting when you stop the input and the character keeps going for 5 more seconds :joy: Given the time constraints of the jam and everything acomplished here you should be proud! Keep on making games you two!

Really solid entry! I love my dungeon crawlers =). Movement is nice and smooth, map works great. Combat was simple but surprisingly engaging, I wasn't sick of it by the end of it, and it always felt pretty fair. I managed to get all the way through to the end.

Got through a few levels. Decent amount of content. Felt like an homage to Legend of Grimrock. The block vs. parry difference was lost on me and combat was very easy. I think I was most impressed by the solid inclusion of helpful maps/minimaps and the thoroughness of the sfx. Would have liked more from combat and awkward keybinds.

I think this was pretty cool! I really liked the combat system, which really felt like it was easy to learn but hard to master. The moody forests were also really cool and very fitting for this game. The only thing I missed from the game was more of a difficulty curve. After the first two levels I got the hang of the combat system, and could beat basically any enemy. Perhaps if the enemies had some new moves, or some faster moves, the game would have felt a bit more interesting in the later levels.
But that said, I still really enjoyed my time with the game! The unusual movement mechanics also gave the game its own feel, together with the moody lighting and sound effects I think this was a very solid submission! Great job :D

Looks really interesting!

As first, I would like to say that I really appreciate that the game has a complete flow and works till the end without issues. It is something that is not to be taken as granted for a jam so good job on that!
You also have lots of stuff, animations, UI, levels, a menu screen with credits and options, a combat system, the minimap, and so on, which is a lot to handle and balance, but is can also be a problem, as I will explain later.

I think that the atmosphere is kinda good, and the ambient music was very nice albeit simple.

At first I did not understand what was going on with the controls, but quickly figured out it was grid based. I like the idea of having it grid based, with this wolfenstein sort of feel, but I also think there was something off with the controls, maybe some lag due to the transitions, especially while turning, and also because of the close 3rd person view, which was maybe too close.

The combat, it works very well on a technical level, and it looks good at first, but is first shallow, and get boring fast. The red enemies, which are basically the same as the others, are a pain just because of how many hits it takes to kill them, and kind of halt the pace of the game too much.
As someone else said, the parrying was also super easy, which made the combat even less interesting, but at least made it not a pain to get over, not a good thing tho since it means it was not funny

Visually, the trees are nice, but it made so hard to navigate in the grid. I used the map often, which btw I think it is very well done, but it not for good reasons, just because it was so hard to understand what path between trees I missed. It is almost always not a good indicator when people look more at the map than the game.
I would have also made it so u would have discovered one more cell radius speaking, sometimes I had to go back because it seemed that a cell may lead somewhere while it was just a corner.

The game is visually nice, but it is kind of a double edged sword, since the UI is so bad in comparison that it makes the huge difference very jarring. You could have made the dialogs smaller, removed the close button and just close them on a generic button press, and picked a better font. Not much time required and it would have looked less bad!

The credits, it is just 4 people, I think it would have been better to just show them without scrolling, which was kind of hilarious, especially since it takes so long to even show the first name. I see you put effort in adding the scroll with the mouse also.

I'm also a bit sad that the web version did not have full screen option, especially since u had so many for other things. I think that unity automatically adds that so it was kind of weird.

I would also advise you to opt out of the humor rating, since this game does not have any, it does not really make sense.

The first level, that works as a tutorial, is a good idea, but I think u had planned only a specific enemy to trigger the combat tutorial, which I encountered almost as last, so it was kind of pointless. I guess either u trigger the tutorial on any of the first encounters, or just put the first enemy on the only path u have at first.

Overall I appreciate the effort on lots of systems, which is a good idea to test your skills and try something new, but I guess this came at the cost of the overall polish of the game.
Not inherently a bad thing, since u are now more skilled at a lot of different things, and will probably manage to have a more polished game the next time while also having all those features!