Fantascope Chasm
Since during the Jam we never implemented settings, credits, or how to play, here's how to play:
- Mouse to aim
- W to move towards mouse
- S to move away from mouse
- Left mouse for melee attack
- There is a short cooldown on melee attacks
- Right mouse to launch a fireball
- Each fireball costs 100 mana from your total of 300
- Mana regenerates over time
Update 4/9/25: 8:02pm CDT:
Finished second massive bugfix round. I think I'm done after this, as everything that was broken for what we got submitted to the jam now SEEMS to be working as intended.
- HTML5 export seems to be displaying correctly now (no more spinny boxes, YAY!)
- gate opening sound no longer plays upon entering boss arena
- spiders SHOULD no longer spawn extremely close to the player
- spiders correctly move slower when stunned
- when nudging player to unstick them from terrain, the game tries to find a spawn point NOT directly next to an enemy
- nudging ALSO tries to avoid putting player directly on the gate
- Number of spodes to be spawned by the boss are now limited correctly, so the boss doesn't just infinitely spawn additional enemies to fight
- spode collision correctly disabled after hitting boss so the player doesn't get stuck to or get bitten by small spodes during knockback animation
- corrected mana regen rate to non-debug value (0.75 instead of 0.6)
- boss hitbox and z-index corrected
- moved HP/Mana indicator updates to _process() from _physics_process() as they were freezing during tweens
- fixed exiting the depths to work as intended
- removed multiple extraneous debug prints and unused, commented out code sections
- fixed exit_depths animation upon defeating the boss (if you manage to beat him, he's kinda tough!)
Update 4/8/25 3:46am CDT:
Added HTML5 Export as well as Windows, along with bugfixed Linux version
The HTML5 Export looks strange, as the window size was only 512x512 in the game, and the embed size is larger, so you
can see outside what SHOULD be the visible area. However the world borders are still in place and keep you from exiting. Just ignore the spinny boxes 😜
Pressing "Quit" on the HTML5 menu screen freezes the game (So don't do that!)
Finished massive bugfix session. The main culprit was the health restoration hearts were being spawned on an incorrect parent node causing, but not limited to:
- Random crashes
- Index out of bounds
- Layers that should stop spinning to keep spinning
- Gates to next depth layer not opening when triggered
- Final boss to not spawn
- Other misc issues and corrections
When moving down layers, you will sometimes YEET across the screen, this is due to the game deciding that you were in an unwalkable area and relocating you (sometimes violently) to a walkable area.
Credits:
AnneArkey: for creating/modifying miscellaneous graphics to fit the theme we were going for, as well as creating/sourcing all the sound and music for the game.
RubixNoob13: The BIGGEST ball of spaghetti code I've made in a while, however it somehow (mostly) works
- Graphics -
Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Bat sprites by awesomeduck
https://opengameart.org/content/flying-monster-frames-16x16
Stairs tile by Oiboo
https://opengameart.org/content/stairs-2
Spider sprites by camacebra
https://twitter.com/camacebra
https://camacebra.itch.io/spider-pixel-art-pack-16x16
CC-BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Grass & Rock tiles by Buch
https://opengameart.org/content/outdoor-tiles-again
Magic Pixel Art by peony
https://opengameart.org/content/magic-pixel-art
Unknown attribution:
Rock tile set on Pixilart
https://www.pixilart.com/draw/cave-tileset-cea01fd577b0c69
All other art was made or edited in Aesprite:
https://www.aseprite.org/
Audio
CC-BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Throne Room by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_19_Throne_Room_-Loop-/
Eerie Mausoleum by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_29_Eerie_Mausoleum_-Loop-/
Inside the Tower by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_30_Inside_the_Tower_-Loop-/
All other sound effects were created in BFXR
https://www.bfxr.net/
- Mouse to aim
- W to move towards mouse
- S to move away from mouse
- Left mouse for melee attack
- There is a short cooldown on melee attacks
- Right mouse to launch a fireball
- Each fireball costs 100 mana from your total of 300
- Mana regenerates over time
Update 4/9/25: 8:02pm CDT:
Finished second massive bugfix round. I think I'm done after this, as everything that was broken for what we got submitted to the jam now SEEMS to be working as intended.
- HTML5 export seems to be displaying correctly now (no more spinny boxes, YAY!)
- gate opening sound no longer plays upon entering boss arena
- spiders SHOULD no longer spawn extremely close to the player
- spiders correctly move slower when stunned
- when nudging player to unstick them from terrain, the game tries to find a spawn point NOT directly next to an enemy
- nudging ALSO tries to avoid putting player directly on the gate
- Number of spodes to be spawned by the boss are now limited correctly, so the boss doesn't just infinitely spawn additional enemies to fight
- spode collision correctly disabled after hitting boss so the player doesn't get stuck to or get bitten by small spodes during knockback animation
- corrected mana regen rate to non-debug value (0.75 instead of 0.6)
- boss hitbox and z-index corrected
- moved HP/Mana indicator updates to _process() from _physics_process() as they were freezing during tweens
- fixed exiting the depths to work as intended
- removed multiple extraneous debug prints and unused, commented out code sections
- fixed exit_depths animation upon defeating the boss (if you manage to beat him, he's kinda tough!)
Update 4/8/25 3:46am CDT:
Added HTML5 Export as well as Windows, along with bugfixed Linux version
The HTML5 Export looks strange, as the window size was only 512x512 in the game, and the embed size is larger, so you
can see outside what SHOULD be the visible area. However the world borders are still in place and keep you from exiting. Just ignore the spinny boxes 😜
Pressing "Quit" on the HTML5 menu screen freezes the game (So don't do that!)
Finished massive bugfix session. The main culprit was the health restoration hearts were being spawned on an incorrect parent node causing, but not limited to:
- Random crashes
- Index out of bounds
- Layers that should stop spinning to keep spinning
- Gates to next depth layer not opening when triggered
- Final boss to not spawn
- Other misc issues and corrections
When moving down layers, you will sometimes YEET across the screen, this is due to the game deciding that you were in an unwalkable area and relocating you (sometimes violently) to a walkable area.
Credits:
AnneArkey: for creating/modifying miscellaneous graphics to fit the theme we were going for, as well as creating/sourcing all the sound and music for the game.
RubixNoob13: The BIGGEST ball of spaghetti code I've made in a while, however it somehow (mostly) works
- Graphics -
Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Bat sprites by awesomeduck
https://opengameart.org/content/flying-monster-frames-16x16
Stairs tile by Oiboo
https://opengameart.org/content/stairs-2
Spider sprites by camacebra
https://twitter.com/camacebra
https://camacebra.itch.io/spider-pixel-art-pack-16x16
CC-BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Grass & Rock tiles by Buch
https://opengameart.org/content/outdoor-tiles-again
Magic Pixel Art by peony
https://opengameart.org/content/magic-pixel-art
Unknown attribution:
Rock tile set on Pixilart
https://www.pixilart.com/draw/cave-tileset-cea01fd577b0c69
All other art was made or edited in Aesprite:
https://www.aseprite.org/
Audio
CC-BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Throne Room by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_19_Throne_Room_-Loop-/
Eerie Mausoleum by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_29_Eerie_Mausoleum_-Loop-/
Inside the Tower by Visager
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_30_Inside_the_Tower_-Loop-/
All other sound effects were created in BFXR
https://www.bfxr.net/
Tags: #16-bit, #2d, #dungeon crawler, #monsters, #pixel art, #side scroller, #spider, #sprites, #top-down
Genres: role playing
Comments39
My one complaint is the controls - this is definitely an interesting approach, and I was indeed able to play the game this way, but ultimately I think I prefer a more traditional wASD style of movement. That's pretty subjective, but I'm sure there are many who would agree with me.
Either way, good work and congrats on another completed jam!
@floppynub I'm so glad you liked the game! I tried so hard with the bug fixes, because there were a lot of things that broke when panic started to set in near the end. Pro tip, if you're using Godot, figure out a better way to do things than calling stuff like "get_parent().get_parent().get_parent().add_child()" because, inevitably, you'll end up putting something where it doesn't belong and something will break. Like, for instance, spawning a heart inside the node that's the container for your spinning cave layers, and then when you try to move to the next layer, it reads past your array because instead of the expected number of cave layers, you have cave layers + hearts :3 I wanted something that felt more like a twin-stick shooter for the controls, but I agree they do take a bit of getting used to.
@k48uto So far, it seems like people either love or hate the controls. I planned to add in options to let you use A/D to turn instead of mouse control but ran out of time. As for the enemy AI, obstacle avoidance was planned, probably using some raycasts to steer around obstacles, but I got sidetracked by some bugs that were making the game completely crash, and by the time those were squashed I was running out of time. I also realize that you can launch fireballs JUST a li'l bit farther than the aggro range of the enemies. I did consider trying to make them aggro if you did damage to them, but the enemy code was a spaghetti-coded mess at that point and I didn't want to risk breaking it again so close to the submission deadline. I may tinker with making the code less terrible just for more coding practice for myself and possibly add in all the things we wanted to add for the Jam, but no promises.
I like how you handled the theme, great job!
Update: I checked a few other games and any of them that had files hosted on the Ludum Dare site are saying the download isn't found, so I think the site may be having some issues.
I was motivated to get to the bottom of the game. Overall it was a little bit to slow in the gameplay. The levels are big and your character moves pretty slow. Having a faster pace would be great for the game.
The theme was definitely visible and I like the implementation of the theme in the level transitions. I was really surprised that you added a boss at the end of the stage. Great job!
Bravo again, the game has potential :)
I LOVED the rise through the chasm after you defeat the boss.
I never really dare to move backwards because it's hard to tell where the character is facing from the top-down view.
Overall, great execution and I had fun playing it!
Gameplay is very nice and controls, while unorthodox, works very well once you adjust to it.
I would say that lack of enemy variety makes a game a little repetitive but boss mitigates it.
For the graphics, we opted out of that category because they were basically all made by other people. Code being in one file isn't necessarily bad, depends on what exactly you're working on.
If you like python, I would recommend looking into Godot engine. It's what I use, and its scripting language, GDScript, is very close to python, so there's not a ton to "unlearn" if you've been working on python.