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Bastion of Entropy's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Overall fun and playability | #111 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
The game takes place in an ancient ruin which is about to completely crumble.
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Comments
Finally! I am free! ... Or am I?
The game was very fun, I don't think I've ever played a game which works exactly like that, just replaying a little piece of time inside falling ruins, it was very original among my own experience. I think you can say most games in the jam feature "Ancient ruins" but now you've got a cool way to implement it in a mechanical way (not only ancient ruins but rather ancient ruin+endless of course). I love jam games fully based on one original gimmick which is fun to deal with and this was one.
I think getting through the end of this one without dying and retrying quite a bit is delusional? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind at all but can see how opinion may differ. In my case I like trying the full range of the timer to get the following path while I was actually inside a dead end, that's fun to me. I like getting further and further each time.
Also one thing I really like is as you advance you get much more time that you need as you follow the route you've been planning better and better so the further into the game the more you can take some time to observe, analyse, plan and possibly explore the dead ends and get back. This is great because the further you are the longer it takes to replay up to where you died, which is not exactly the more exciting part of the game. The very last sequence on the roof I actually passed through on my first try because of that, when I got there my timer was on 5, I owned 15 orbs and could see just going 3 to 5 to 3 to 5 ... (which is probably close to what you have to do but how close I could not tell as no platform ever moved during my walk through the roof, also this part of the text is hilarious if none of these platforms actually ever move) would get me to the opposite side without having to die and retry there, that was actually super satisfying too.
From my own experience the one piece of level design which could be done a bit differently is that you could have to mandatorily use a platform to get you upwards sooner into the game because by the time I had to do it I already tried a couple of times and always died so I totally thought it was not possible and would not deliberately try again, I went upwards only by chance and was actually surprised it did not kill me.
This is a very cool game, thanks for sharing.
Sir, allow me to metaphorically tip my hat to you, as your exceptional achievement in completing my game leave me in utter admiration and awe. Whenever I create something to challenge even myself and then completing it having a surprisingly hard time in the process even though I know everything about my own game, someone comes and achieves the same without the necessary knowledge due to my complete failure of communicating them within the game itself, and I just can't comprehend the superiority in intelligence and the incredible dedication towards something I made. So let me add some more fun facts that you might find interesting, and that would make me completely shocked if you figured out yourself within the time you burned on my humble creation:
Features that ended up on the cutting room floor due to the lack of time even though some of them would have made the game a lot easier to beat:
And finally features that I tried out then removed because even though they were cool it made the gameplay itself really weird:
So that's it, a nice, long, reply to a nice, long, review.
Interesting to have a mechanic that changes the entire dungeon on different time steps. Had trouble understanding how it worked though. Sometimes it felt like I just couldn't move even when I though I should be able to.
Thank you! Yes, there is a hard stop of movement at 0 second backwards and 7 seconds forward time, in which cases your can only move again if you reverse time. But for sure I should have communicated that better, maybe by disabling the movement buttons and flashing the reverse button.
Nice puzzle game but not exactly a dungeon crawler. I admired your creativity anyway. Like the visuals too. Nice job!
Thank you!
Man what an interesting idea. Took me a few tries to figure out that there was like a global timer that I could predict. I died from debris quite a few times, and I think the mechanic needs to be explained a bit and maybe some work done in the UI (I didn't figure out at first that it bounced back and forward) but concept is really cool and pretty trippy too.
Definitely could do some polish, sounds, etc because the actual visual vibe is also quite intense but it's missing something. Theres a strong vibe here to build on.
Great idea, and one of the more unique gameplay mechanics I've seen for sure. Nice work!
Thank you very much for the kind words! I learned a lot from the feedbacks, and will definitely consider them next time.
This is one of the more original ideas I've seen so far. It was impressive. A massive crawler puzzler. I agree that the concept could be explained a bit better in-game, but I figured it out after some playing and messing around. Didn't get to finish it, but it feels like I got quite high on the bastion. This could be a very good puzzler if expanded and polished a bit.
Thank you very much! I'm glad that you figured it out. Did you reach the part where you need to pass the long bridge crossing the large room? Sounds like you have reached the farthest part so far. :) I'll add my playthrough to the game page in case someone would like to see the ending. :)
I did have to wait at one point for a bridge to lower to cross a room, not sure if it's the large one or not. Then I hoped that bridges work in reverse too and they can boost me up when they reset if I'm on top of them, but sadly, I just died :D
Check my playthrough, you will now. :)
Super cool idea, I liked how you can optimize your path through the dungeon if you know timings of certain event. Was killed several times with a debris while exploring, but overall it felt like quite a nice puzzle crawler.
I didn’t had any sounds though, that could add a lot to the atmosphere and reversing sounds when you’re moving back in time could sound soooo cool.
Thank you very much, I totally agree, so much so, that I already added back and forth music and a half a second future view to help the player avoid falling blocks in the post jam version. ;)
Very very pretty.
A might bit confusing, and so further development should include better splaining.
Good game.
Nice job! great presentation and atmosphere!
Thank you! So much more I wanted to add, so little time.
thats jamm time for you!
Exactly
This really f****ed with my brain. Very cool idea here, which you should iterate on a bit more. I wish there was some sound for the ambience.
Yeah, time constraints... I'll add some "music" after the jam, which only plays when you move, and plays backwards when you move back in time. Guess I can do that with foot steps too, and crumbling sounds. Stay tuned!
What an awesome idea! A map that shifts back and forth between 14 states and you must unlock the mystery / learn to navigate it. “Only 7 seconds” Ha!
Great work!
Thank you! Glad that you tried and liked it!