Play Cave of Past Sorrows
Cave of Past Sorrows's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Gameplay | #1 | 4.520 | 4.520 |
Theme | #1 | 4.627 | 4.627 |
Overall | #1 | 4.440 | 4.440 |
Originality | #6 | 4.440 | 4.440 |
Art | #14 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
Music | #23 | 3.893 | 3.893 |
Black and White | #29 | 4.827 | 4.827 |
Ranked from 75 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I really enjoyed this (even though I wasn't very good at it). I especially liked the bloops matching screen location of the wall hits. A very neat and clever game that gets full stars from me!
I finally managed to play this game too \o/ And it was really good!
Definitely the most polished entry I've played so far.
The concept and theme interpretation is very unique and creative. The idea of creating your own bullet hell and then surviving it is definitely clever and super fun! My highscore personally is loop 10 which probably isn't too good. :') I'll try it some more, once I'm home.
Furthermore I can say: the character is very smooth to control; the graphics are awesome obviously and the music is mostly very good too. (I love how much it gains in energy, past loop 5 or something!) So everything you'd wish for from a polished game.
Now on the counter side, I feel like the first two loops are a little too slow. At least when you have to replay them often, which is the case, when you are still dying very early into the game. Especially the second one feels a little tedious, since you are just watching yourself. But that's just a little nitpick. My suggestion would be to shorten them a little once you've played through them at least once. I understand, that they are good for the very first run as a tutorial.
Another thing I noticed is, that player-projectiles sometimes aren't reflected correctly, but just do a 180 degrees turn. At first I thought that might just be something they do, but when they reappear in a loop, they sometimes reflect correctly again and go an entirely different route! So I thought, that probably wasn't intentional.
I'm wondering if this is something that only happens on low fps or if others can reproduce the problem too.
Anyway, overall an extremely good entry. You did very well!
Thank you so much for the comment and the nice words, I'm glad you enjoyed!
I can totally see what you mean, and there is definitely something I could do to make the first loops feel less boring, and I'll look at that right after the jam!
As for the other point, this is indeed a bug (and one that is probably going to cause a lot of headaches to fix). I don't know if you were playing on the web version but it does have a few bugs that shouldn't happen on the downloadable one.
I'm very sorry about it and hope it didn't ruin a good run, thanks again!
This is really cool game!
The looping mechanic is really unique and incorporates the theme of the jam in a really interesting way. It also gets the game going to a hectic pace pretty quickly. Definitely a game that really grabs your attention.
One minor criticism I have about the sound effects is that I found them to be rather harsh sounding, even when setting the SFX volume slider pretty low. I think they could be mixed a little better or improved on.
Also, maybe this is weird but I really liked running to the center of the stage and flailing around at the end of each loop to try and create a dance party with my past loops lol (Protip: This doesn't help to get very far in the game).
Overall, very well done!
1) How did you get so many, views! It's nice.
2) Wondering how you did that trail in the object in this
Really cool, by the way. I value this gif XD.
Thanks! I don't exactly know how I got a lot of views, but I'm super grateful!
The trail is jus a basic trail renderer but it fits the game because the entire screen is rendered at a lower resolution, to make the pixel art really crispy.
This is really amazing, I would probably go as far to say that this is the best game of the jam.
Thank you so much! That means a lot.
Okay, first of all, I want to clarify: I’m going to be reviewing this game as a piece of art and not as a jam entry. Considering the games I’ve reviewed so far this is easily a TOP 5 for me and I consider this game to be beyond a jam entry.
This game is, very likely, the winner of this Black and White Jam. So if you’re reading this, don’t pass on the opportunity to give excellent game a shot!
THE GOOD PARTS
You’re not going to get bored with this game. This game starts slowly and goes full Sonic mode really fast; it indeed represents what a bullet hell should be and the little “rogue-like” element added to it ties it perfectly. There are not enough words to praise the game design of this game, seriously.
A strategic challenge. I wasn’t expecting this game to have such a well-rounded strategic challenge; I’m impressed. The winning strategy for this game is to always shoot for a “perfect bullet”, which is a bullet that’s shot in such a way that it covers most of the map while leaving some corners open for you to move freely and dodge enemy bullets. Sometimes choosing not to fire equates as equipping one power-up or the other in a rogue-like game which why I’m amazed at how much is accomplished in a single game design. Think well before you shoot, but most importantly THINK FAST!
THE BAD PARTS
As with any challenging game, this is not for everybody. This isn’t inherently a bad thing [all games have a target demographic], but I put it in this section because there will be some players that won’t be able to differentiate between their lack of skill and lack of polish from the game, will become frustrated quickly and will very likely make the rating suffer which can be unfair for the game.
Some minor bugs 1. Sometimes, the loops are not played 1:1 as their original counterparts in the same room size which led me to die a couple of times unexpectedly; not a big deal and it only happened literally two times in my 1 hour-ish playthrough and I was REALLY pushing the limits of the loop there so this is the edge case of the edge case.
Some minor bugs 2. In the browser version, the walls on the side go missing after a while (I’m guessing it’s because they go a little bit too far off the screen) but MAN DO I MISS THEM WHEN THEY DO THAT because my brain interprets “white in the border = expect a bounce” and when they go missing I have to subvert that natural expectation which led me to die more times than I’d like to admit.
Thanks for the unlockables, though. The palette unlockables are not really that impressive (although I’m deeply grateful for the one that’s “easy on the eyes”); something more noticeable like a skin change or skins for the bullets would have made it feel more rewarding when it came down to overcoming those dreaded 10+ loop levels.
Maybe one more color would have helped?. I want to clarify, this one is way too subjective and it’s more like a suggestion to experiment because I’m not 100% sure if it would work well; maybe adding a third highlighting color would have helped me see many bullets because the screen gets clogged with elements really quick and since there are no actual patterns (like in most bullet hell games) it becomes a necessity to SEE the bullets coming at you instead of PREDICTING where the bullets will be based on the pattern they’re following. This applies particularly to the enemy bullets.
CONCLUSION
[Please remember that my previous comments to the game were made thinking of this as a piece of ART, because I consider this game to be beyond a jam entry.]
I can only applaud this game. Seriously. It has potential to be sold (with some additional polish), you have a gem here and I hope you keep developing it into a full game! You’re one of the best designers in the jam! Congratulations!
This has got to be my favourite comment. So much good feedback, thank you so much!
I am super glad you liked the game (and apparently also did super well, what is your highscore?)
Also thanks for the bug reports! I wasn't aware of those and will make sure to fix them as soon as the jam is over.
The difficulty sure is hard, and I can understand why it could frustrate some people, even though it was a choice to make the game challenging.
The skin idea is absolutely great, and definitely something I'll look into! I would definitely make the progression more interesting. Thank you for the suggestion, it's gold.
As for the additional colour, it was something I wanted to do during the development, but to respect the rules of the jam I had to limit the game to two colours. I do think it would add to the readability and again, it's probably something I will add when I update the game after the jam.
Thanks again for the valuable feedback and nice words, really made my entire day!
My 2nd all-5s rating so far!! Such an air-tight mechanic and setting, it's a joy to play and replay. Dying is always your own fault and it drives you to do better. I think the only thing I find odd/unnecessary is the screenshake when you jump, but it's a stylistic choice that increases the intensity of the gameplay. Excellent work, seriously, let's jam together next time!
Thank you so much! I'm super glad you liked it.
Thanks for the feedback as well! I hadn't heard anything about the screenshake before, but it's definitely valuable! If I end up updating the game after the jam, I'll add an option to disable screenshakes or I'll just turn the jump screenshake off by default. I thought it gave the jump a "crispy" feel but I can see why you don't like it. I would be glad to jam together next time!
Wow that game feels very finished and juicy, great job! Never have I felt that paranoid about my own bullets :D
Yup you're kind of your own enemy in this one! Thank you so much!
Incredible! This game is amazing! It has great art, addicting gameplay and lots of replayability! If you expanded this with multiple levels and some more enemy types and stage hazards, I would pay good money for it!
Thank you so much! It means a lot.
If I end up ranking well and people want me to, I'll definitely update the game with more content! I've already got quite a few ideas!
I would promoted this game for game of the year!
Ahah I wouldn't go that far but thank you!
This game is very well polished! it can get VERY chaotic very quickly!! One small request would be to add a warning symbol in front of ghosts when they're about to fire!! The game feeels very responsive and your actions have consequences! I love the take on the theme!
Thank you very much!
As for your request, that would be a great idea! I wanted to do something like that but due to the way the ghosts were coded it would have been pretty difficult and long to implement, and I was already getting pretty short on time, so for this version, players need to remember when they shot in the past.
I do plan on making a small update after the jam to incorporate the feedback I've gotten, and this is definitely something I will add, thank you!
So polished and juicy! That was really fun, I liked that you discourage the use of spamming bullets, it's fresh! Great artwork and feel all around, well done :)
Thanks a ton!
This is awesome! I can't believe it was made in 11 days!
The fact that this is a solo-developed game is beyond impressive. The game feels really polished and is, most importantly, so much fun to play! I’ve found a couple of strategies so that it’s easier to survive for later rounds (like shooting the bullet vertically), and doing that made me feel smart for a short amount of time until my own bullet hit me in the face.
I don’t want to spoil my ratings for the game, but let’5 5ay it wa5 awe5ome!
Ahah thank you so much! That means a lot and I am so glad you liked it!
Fantastic game, could see this being a fully fledged game by itself.
Thank you so much!
This was super fun and a very original take on the concept. Loved it.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed :D
One of the best I've played so far!
I kept planing ahead an shooting less bullets as possible so I didn't made things hard and could still kill every monster, even like this it has a great difficulty curve and I had fun. You did great!
Hey thank you so much! The game is definitely difficult but if you were planning your bullets you were playing right! Thank you for playing.
Woah this is so good! Even though I suck and this is really difficult I think this concept is so cool.
Yeah!! This is soo cooool! A lot of juice and everything. Plus it's a bullet hell so extra points. If only it were portable...on android XD Can't have it all I guess. How did you get so many people to rate your game so quickly?
Thank you very much! I do have experience with porting games to Android, so maybe I could? Really depends on how much people would be interested, it would require a ton of optimization though.
As for the ratings, I don't really know how nor why, but that makes me super happy to see people playing and liking my game!