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Cyclopean's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall fun and playability | #11 | 3.774 | 3.774 |
Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
This is a retro Cosmic/Lovecraftian Horror inspired dungeon crawler that takes place in the Dreamlands mentioned in the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The location is the Vaults of Zinn, referenced in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" which is inhabited by Ghouls, Ghasts, Gugs and other more horrible creatures.
The story is a kind of short fan-fiction about the main character, Randolph Carter, and the rift that formed between the cats and the zoogs.
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Comments
I know the rating time is over, but this is one of the games on my list that I didn't get to play in time but I still wanted to leave a comment :)
First off wow, I love the visual style of this game! The geometry looks so cool and the verticality really breaks the space up and makes it seem more natural rather than a flat maze. Sound design was also excellent, I loved the ambient background track. Definitely worked well with the visuals to give an oppressive vibe to the dungeon.
The movement was implemented well, I just wish I could move a little bit faster.
I escaped before I saved all the cats, I didn't actually mean to but I should have realized when a door was leading off the map that it could have been an exit. I actually used a map to navigate, I think the minimap was a cool idea actually, it gave me enough information to locate myself but not enough that I was playing by staring at the minimap and it prompted me to explore and learn about the space.
Yes, I totally should have made a different looking exit door! Thanks for the feedback :)
You had me at "Rescue cats." Visual style is cool, although I think the scan-lines on the main viewport was a bit much (doing something like just duplicating every other line and dimmed by half, like you seem to do on most of the interface itself, would probably give a similar feel but not be quite so hard on the eyes). The UI and framing around the viewport looks stellar. Monsters are great too.
I didn't like that rotating counted as a turn, more than once I tried to turn to face an enemy, but strafed into the square instead (stupid game I played before this one with backwards turn/strafe controls confusing my brain!), and then I got attacked, and then got attacked twice more as I turned to face them, instead of getting the first attack in as I'd planned and thought I instructed my character to do ^_^. Having no queuing of movement nor being able to hold down a button to keep moving made navigating the dungeon a bit of a chore. I would have liked a little more choices in combat, there didn't seem to be anything I could do to increase my longevity, no healing or anything, so whether or not I survived just game down to luck of how many times I missed between now and my next level up :(. I got down to 2hp before my last level up, so, luckily, didn't die, but it was close!
I would have appreciated a compass somewhere instead of having to look at "moved north". The fact that the map just showed a general overview was really nice, made me feel like I had to keep track of where I was exploring, but still got a general sense of where I was.
The verticality was great, those rooms really had a nice sense of place and were fun to explore (and recognize, as I learned my way around).
There's a bug/issue where if the game is not in focus it's still capturing my mouse, so if I alt-tab to another program, my mouse is locked to a tiny corner of my screen ^_^. Overall, cool entry, glad I rescued all of the cats!
Right off the bat I have to say I love the name, very Lovecraftian.
Visually I love it, the old school green monocrhomatic aesthetic is beautiful. Looks crunchy, but clear and readable. I also like the enemy and environment art, gives off a very foreboding mood.
The sound was also much better than I expected for a game with this aesthetic.
The control scheme is straight forward and feels good, though sometimes I wish I had continuous movement. I found in other entries I haven't been crazy about using forward movement to interact/attack but I didn't mind it here.
The progression mechanics while simple also worked well. Though I wish there was some way to heal other than levelling up. If the player is unlucky enough to run into a Gug without near full health, the run can be over pretty quick.
I'm not sure if I'm a fan of turning being counted as a move, I lost a fair bit of health just trying to find the first enemy I encountered.
I also wish there was proper fullscreen support, but I can understand that being out of scope.
I should mention I did reach the win screen, though accidentally as the exit didn't seem to stand out as anything special. I don't know if there's a different win screen when you find all cats, but I'm happy I managed to reach an ending at least.
It's no Star Explorers, but I really liked it. Great work!
Its a bit different game for sure. Finding cats was a strange objective, but I guess it could have been crystals or idols or whatever. The mechanics of gathering swords and shields to power up the character is a nice and easy way of progressing. But it felt a bit like the player got overpowered. I never had any clue on where I was going in the dungeon, I just wandered around aimlessly trying to reach new areas until I got out. The soundscape is super nice and it works with this kind of graphics. Super nice retro feel over it. Would have liked the controls to be a bit more snappy, but they worked. Nice work!
Oh wow! That was fantastic. Phenomenal work for just 3 days!
I thought the art direction was distinctive, making your game stand out. I enjoyed the exploration a lot. Well done!