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Ivory Tours's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay - How fun is it to play? | #1 | 4.133 | 4.133 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.787 | 3.787 |
| Graphics - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? | #8 | 4.267 | 4.267 |
| Originality - Does the game innovate or try something new? | #14 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Technical - Is there a technical achievement behind the making of this game? | #18 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
| Audio - Does the game have nice sfx and music? | #24 | 3.533 | 3.533 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I had to complete the game before commenting because it's probably my very favourite game in the jam.
I loved the combat system, Xp spending, the item roster, the maze and this central eye enemy, that you might miss an item if you're not paying attention.
Furthermore that the UI, gfx, sounds, settings and highly detailed and at least a bit interactive environment are all high points sure is an extra bonus, the game is very detailed and polished on top of being very fun.
Finally I would have said I thought the balance was very good at first, I'm not completely certain anymore, some parts may be both a bit hard if you don't abuse healing at all and easy if you do, but that's really just a detail, I had ton of fun with the game and think it's excellent.
Didn't get as far in this game as I'd have liked to, a bit pressured for time unfortunately - but I can say with confidence that I really love the theme and vibe of this game. The dice rolling mechanics are an immediate yes from me - that sort of system which can utilizes RNG as well as RPG like improvement can be really fun. The visual style was one part impressive and another part bizarre. The environment felt well detailed and considered while the enemies had a whimsical silliness to them that was fun and interesting. The HUD was stylish and generally the game oozes character. I would like to put more time in when I get the chance!
Nice work :)
#SaveTheNarwhal
I like the old school Doctor Who music.
And the far side dinosaurs.
Well done! Some of the best graphics in this jam! It took me a minute to figure out the combat, but it's really fun and interesting. Awesome job!
Awesome combat mechanic, smooth gameplay, pretty intense. Loved the whole dice thing to interact with everything, even keycards.
I liked the look and feel of the game itself. Combat took a little getting used to. Main problem I had (and I dunno if this was unique to me) is that the game window was locked at a quite small resolution and the UI was taking up a substantial portion of the screen. Didn't make it unplayable but it was a tad annoying. Other than that, looks great, plays smooth, good entry.
Thanks for playing! That UI and window size are currently expected, unfortunately, and like you I'm not really happy with how much of the screen the UI takes up. A post-jam build will unlock the window size (it will still render low-res for the effect, but it should upscale nicely), but UI screen estate is a trickier issue. A hypothetical HD PC-only version of the game could get away with a much smaller UI footprint, but I designed the UI with the possibility of touch control on phones in mind, so I wanted to make sure it would work in that worst-case scenario. I think the conclusion is as you say, it's playable, but it could be nicer!
Glad you enjoyed the game otherwise!
I really enjoyed this entry. The combat is really interesting and I love the low res graphics. For me it was very evocative of that dos era where everything was pre-rendered images.
Thanks! I think the 90s era is the hardest era to throw back to in terms of graphics, so I tried to reproduce the feel using modern techniques rather than recreating it as-was. I'm glad the results are appreciated!
This is the first entry of all I've tried that has movement and perspective that feels "right". The environment and visuals are really great and the combat mechanics, although it took me a little while to understand, is fresh and fun :) Well done!
Also, nice touch with the intro sequence seemlessly transitioning into gameplay :)
Thanks, that's great to hear! I know how important a game's first few moments are for making an impression, so I worked hard to make those feel slick (though I wish I'd been able to find a better font treatment!).
Glad you were able to push through the initial opacity and come to grips with the combat system; I was worried about having to omit a tutorial for the jam build, but fortunately I think most of the jam entrants have a solid backing in regular crawler mechanics so they only need to figure out my own weird additions. Of course the genre also has a lot of history of throwing players in the deep end and telling them "figure it out"... but still, I do think I'll be including more of a tutorial in any future builds!
Thanks again, and hope the rest of the jam goes smoothly!
This turn-based combat is so interesting! You've got a really nice gameplay mechanics! Maybe the most original one I've played so far, congratulations, you manage this really well, it's super fun to play!
I find the game a bit difficult and I would love to have checkpoint/save so I do not have to start the entire game again if I die. But it's a jam, and it was 7 days only, I'm not going to blame you for that.
Again, congratulatons for your game, I hope it will get more visibility, people have to try this! :)
Thanks! Yeah, the original design was for the upgrade stations to also act as continue points, but when things came down to the wire I had to choose between that or audio for the jam build. Really glad to hear you had fun with it!
Very fun idea, I hope this gets further development. I've encountered some weird collision issues (could walk through certain walls to reach other parts of the dungeon when it's clearly unintentional), but apart from that, feels pretty fun.
Darn; I thought I had found all of those before release, but obviously not. Because of the way the grid is set up, whenever walkable tiles are adjacent to each other I have to manually mark those edges as walls (or make them too high to climb, which only works in one direction). Do you happen to remember where it was? I did just find one next to the second upgrade station (fortunately that one only goes backwards, so no skipping ahead there).
Really glad that you enjoyed the game otherwise, thanks for playing!
I think that's the one I found.
Good idea for a dungeon crawler game, combat is hard and fun, really good job!
Thanks so much! I was quite surprised myself by how interesting the mechanics ended up becoming (I even found new fun and rewarding interactions while playtesting my own game, which basically never happens), so I'm glad that translates into other people finding it fun too!