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The Blood Mage (Jam Edition)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Completeness - Is it an unfinished tech-demo, prototype or a complete game? | #30 | 3.938 | 3.938 |
| Theme - How well does it incorporate the theme? | #36 | 3.563 | 3.563 |
| Gameplay - How fun is it to play? | #38 | 3.563 | 3.563 |
| Overall | #68 | 3.325 | 3.325 |
| Audio - Does the game have nice sfx and music? | #125 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
| Graphics - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? | #152 | 2.813 | 2.813 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Interesting concept, though a lot of trial and error needed to complete the game fully - I quite enjoyed trying things around.
It reminded me of planning in desktop dungeon. In a good way.
Thank you!
Roguelike experience where the path does not change. Only the path taken can be changed.
It does feel a little like a trial-and-error game but hey, it is pretty good for this jam.
Thank you for playing and your feedback!
A pretty complete game! Even has a translation :) Nice, thanks!
Thanks! :)
Good game.
Thank you!
Reminds me of Desktop Dungeons. I tried to make a game like that last year, but without a procedural dungeon and a little extra depth it came out as a math game without a clear formula to solve. Same problem here. I think a clear representation of the damage and experience exchange before committing to an action and an undo button would alleviate a lot of the frustration.
I played Desktop Dungeons even though this was not the direct inspiration I can see where you are coming from. With clear represantation you mean like for example: If you see the enemy and have a specific spell selected, you get like in another color -5 next to your health or something like that? That the player doesn't need to figure the math for themselves and the consequences of this specific action are displayed?
In Myth Bearer and Deep Rune you can reset the room, this is not really possible here, except I would divide the game in room building blocks. Undoing a step would also be possible, even though I like the idea that death is at least a little bit punishing.
Thanks for the feedback!
Good game. I enjoyed it quite a lot even though I found it to be difficult. I wish there were a way to regain health other than the potions and level ups. Also, I don't think the Save works.
Nailed the movement and perspective. Well done!
I actually draw a fountain for health regain like in Sonucido but scrapped it. It is intended to be hard and to be replayed but I get why it can be off-putting (that's maybe why titles of this genre are so niche).
Mh, the save should work, what exactly didn't work? I should mention, it only works for the case that you save, close the game later and start the application again. If you die there is only restart and quit, to reload, you would need to quit and start the application again, maybe I should have added a load button in the death menu. It was less a if-I-fuck-up-save and more a I-get-back-to-the-game-later-save.
Thank you for playing and your feedback :)
This is a very interesting approach since its not a kill-everything-on-sight dungeon roamer, but an actual puzzle game. It took me a bit of a time to get things going, and not dying to monsters all the time, but then it went much better. I like that there is actual more than one order/way to advance with things, that makes it feel more organically.
Graphics-wise it does it job. The monster sprites actually look a bit creepy, since its hard to tell what they are, haha. Its an interesting game but I guess not for everyone. I had fun with it. :)
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it :D
Good game. it's great that you can make addictive gameplay with such minimalistic approach. Love it. Nice work with sound, by the way.
Thank you :)
I loved the stylized MS-Paint graphics! They went together really well! Seriously, enjoyed them thoroughly!
I had a lot of fun with this one… died a lot! But, was still fun!
For me instant move / rotate is a plus. Loved it.
Great work!
ouch, haha
Thanks for playing :)
Instant step was a plus, so movement is snappy.
I liked the idea of the different available routes and that the game takes "try and die!" very literally.
Thanks for making it.
Thanks for playing! :)
The theme interpretation was a little bit of a stretch, I think.
I fought a dude and got hurt, then I went outside a fought some turds.
I killed some of the turds.
This was fun. If I had more time to dedicate to these, I'd have prolly played this longer.
I wish I would have had armor for the guy. His large, pupil-less, soulful eyes beckoned me.
Haha :'D
Thanks for playing! Btw. even if you bring him the armor, it doesn't fit very well unfortunately.
Nice touch having a game restart guy inside the game. Nice touch also spelling out the theme upfront. Fast movement felt good. I never felt terribly lost.
I might have gimped myself by choosing the key spell, and accidentally hitting F instead of C once or twice.
Game might need an easier onramp? Or is it supposed to be a puzzle game?
Hey!
The route with the key spell is certainly harder (it is possible to still make it but I think the hardest route of all). I had a few miscasts, hitting c when I wanted to hit space :'D That's the reason I made it possible to chose no spell to prevent accidental casts, but hitting F instead of C didn't happen to me - do you think the keys should be further away or just a learn thing if it happened only once or twice?
And it is supposed to be a puzzle game :)
Thanks for playing the game!
Not sure what you can do about miscast potions. Most players probably won't hit the f key accidentally like I did.
I'm personally a fan of minimalist control schemes, so I'd consider removing the potion key altogether and make it auto-consume when needed. But I guess then you'd loose the implicit press-your-luck mechanic that manual potions offer.
I guess the ultimate solution would be user key remapping, but coding that means time not spent coding something else.
Minimalist control schemes have certainly their appeal but I think it is important for this game to fail sometimes simply manually. And you are right, remapping would be the best way.
Really interesting concept, love how well it's incorporated the theme of the jam into it
Thank you :)
While this does fit the theme quite well, and I like the vertical aspect to the levels, the way the game plays out is off-putting to me. It seems as though I must perform a series of actions in a very specific order to progress, and this can only be solved through trial and error.
If the map was proc-gen I would enjoy the game a lot more. I enjoy the transitions to open areas quite a lot however.
Thank you for supporting linux users!
"It seems as though I must perform a series of actions in a very specific order to progress, and this can only be solved through trial and error."
Yes! In the beginning it is only trial and error, it is not expected that you get it first try. There are several orders possible but the puzzly way of it is intended :) And it's certainly not for everyone, the genre is super niche and has no agreed name to it yet. I thought about proc-gen for games sometimes but I think it is more fitting for another type of game, and I like the one handcrafted world approach.
I'm using Linux to develop the game and Godot is great at Linux support so it is a no-brainer :D
Thanks for playing! :)
I got the blood crystal!
The presentation is rudimentary but the game is very fun to solve. I like that the player has to choose in which ordrer they get the spells.
I also really like that I can walk as fast as I want, having verticality is always a plus and blood magic is a cool use of the theme,
Good job.
Congrats and thank you! How long did it roughly take you with all the restarts to complete the game?
I'd say a little less than an hour.
Thanks! I had no idea how long one would need to complete the game, you lose every sense of time, especially if it is about figuring out/solving stuff.