Hi CryptRat. I would like to have a word with you regarding the award you won in the jam :) I need info where to send. Can you maybe hop on our Discord or let me know how to reach you. :)

Couldn't finish this one since I was down to just the doctor and miner by floor 4(?) and I kept dying to stuff I couldn't even see. It was sometimes hard to tell I was taking damage, hence why I lost my soldier (Didn't see a bunch of mosquitoes behind me). Aside from that, the game was enjoyable with some interesting mechanics, and I really like how it looks.

I could probably get through it if I tried again, but it's late here at the time of writing this comment and there isn't much rating time left. :P

Overall, love this!  Visuals are cool, although maybe a little less variance on the font would have made it easier to read =).  Monsters are really cool.

I made it through the 4th, I think, level (lots of invisible walls), and on the next level my one remaining character committed suicide shortly after entering the level.  So sad.  I can't remember if anyone died along the way (besides the scripted events), but if I had lost no one, was there potentially more content after that?  I liked having to choose who to sacrifice along the way, although I couldn't imagine playing with automap!  On that note, the dungeon design was wonderful and devious, all of the elements I'd love to see.  Unfortunately after my scout left me, it turned into a bit of save-scumming (just reload if I stepped on a trap).

I couldn't tell where consumables were coming from, seemed often like exploring the dungeon wasn't providing much of anything except danger?  Were consumables just coming from combat drops?  I was definitely low on medkits the whole time, thanks to my Doctor being the first one to go mad, I guess =).  I had *tons* of ammo though, so started just minigunning through everything.

Great job on this!

Very cool game mechanic! Choosing who to get rid of adds a nice twist to the game :D

I'm torn on the visual style. It's very nice and distinct, but with the instant step it's hard to see how you are moving because sometimes the screen stays exactly the same. For me it makes navigating the dungeon very difficult without the minimap as I have no visual reference of my movement. Also after a while my eyes started to hurt a little due to the wobbly animations, which is something I haven't experienced in a long time lol. But this means that I won't be playing this game to completion :'(

I thought a dead end was a dead end, but it actually was stairs to the next level. Could use a visual for that I think :D

One problem I (as a player) also have with instant step games is that I sometimes move a lot while being attacked and I don't notice it until it's too late. There are sound cues here but they don't invoke the need to stop moving for me until it's too late. But again, that's mostly a skill issue from my side :D

I like that the UI has everything I need to know about what I can do. Excellent way to show all that information without having to jump into tons of menus.

Overall though, pretty solid game! Really loved the main game mechanic :D Well done!

Fun game, I really liked the combat mechanic, the wobbly art was cool in theory, and i loved the animations for the enemies, but it gave me some pretty bad motion sickness so I couldn't  finish the game, but overall a solid entry

Felt queasy with the wobbly art and text and didn’t make it all the way down, but I think this is a very mechanically deep entry. Props for the variety of enemy types, unique character classes and so on. I like the UI and control scheme / game feel otherwise.

I’m very fond of gameplay mechanics that keep you from taking common elements (like your automap) for granted, and the sacrifice system is great for that. Also good call that you can skip a sacrifice for each extra you’ve lost in combat.

Others have likely said anything else I would think to add. A few things really should be communicated better, like the presence of items and stairs. I was taking damage at some point on every step (on 3F I think?) and didn’t figure out why. Maybe my trap guy was dead and I didn’t notice, or maybe you have invisible enemies, or some kind of starvation system I wasn’t paying attention to…?

So yeah in a nutshell, great design but needs to communicate better visually.

I liked the rough animation sketch style, suits the feel of the game well.  Also like the music, it sounds like something from an 80s science fiction movie.  The rogue-like events that hinder your characters instead of buff them was cool too.  Added to some tension to the game.  Really nice game jam entry, good work!

I failed on fourth floor. I will retry to actually finish the game later.

I really like the desperate feel the game give as you lost your characters one by one.
Solid implementation of the themes (Solitude + Cosmic Horror).

I was surprised to see that you could walk on some kind of invisible teleporter that move you elsewhere on the map. I assume its intentional, as this remind me of the sort of tricks you found in Dungeon Master. I managed to navigate the environment thanks to the automap, but if you choose to lose your mapper early, the teleport trick become really devilish. Mapper, my main character for sure.

Nice graphics. I liked the constant variations of the graphics, it bring life to the game, but also could become a little unpleasant after some time. Some adjustments would be necessary to be perfectly enjoyable.

I missed some feedbacks for looting. If I understand correctly, items are placed on the map but are invisible (like upstairs/downstairs) ? You only know there was some loot after you walked on it ? I like the classic tabletop RPG stats (3d6 for damage).

The save system and separate options for sounds/music is a very nice touch in a jam game.

From one azerty user to another, merci pour ce jeu, c'était bonne ambiance (˚3˚)～♪ .

Really nice and disturbing visual style, felt really crazy. UI is a bit unintuitive and requires to pay a lot of attention to backgrounds of your characters to figure out which one is selected (for changing weapons and that stuff). Also I had to pull volume all the way down as some of the SFXes, like falling through a hole in a ground and taking damage from the traps were so loud.

Loved the idea that each party member has a certain function and loosing any of them actually reduces your party utility, that is really cool.

Great job!

I think this is the game with the most unique artstyle in the jam. It's like a cartoon sketch with low framerate animations, i totally like that but it was kind of disorienting  because i can't tell if i'm moving or not. Animation style make me feel that i'm always moving. Also the movement being instantanous make it hard to tell which way i'm headed but automap negates that issue mostly. 

Love the old school RPG storytelling with narrative text boxes. The UI of the game is prett unique too. At first it felt ugly but you get used to it quick. It bolsters the old school feeling that all UI is text based, i like that too. I couldn't beat the game yet but i think as you progresss through the game some events are triggered and you lose a team member in each of them, by selecting who you are gonna let go and at the i end  you remaining with one part member thus using the theme "Solitude". Also losing each team member make you lose a specific power like breaking the cracked walls and such. This is absolutely a genius idea i have to say. Really loved it.

My overall opinion about the game is that this is totally an arthouse game with very cleverly designed gameplay elements. I wish you best of luck in this jam and for your future projects!

This was fun! The snippets of story were really intriguing, and the mechanic of losing your party members broke my little heart ;_; A little bit more audio/visual feedback on things like losing your party members would be really nice though! (Also, visible stairs please!!)

Very cool game! I liked the art style and the music was great! I also really enjoyed the character losing mechanic and thought it was quite unique and well executed!

This is the most retro dungeon crawler I've played this jam so far!

The artwork was nice, though admittedly I got sick of the wobbling after a while. Beside that, I liked how it was consistent throughout, and the enemy sprites looked good. The only areas I had a problem with the visuals, aside from wobbling, was the lack of visuals for stairs, and it made the mosquito enemies kinda hard to notice I found. I kept the mapper through the length of my run until my party kept getting wiped, but I imagine navigation without a map could be confusing with all the walls and floors looking the same.

The use of the multiple characters slowly disappearing was really neat! As my crew got widdled down the decision got harder and harder. I tried keeping the soldier as long as possible as I thought he was the only one with a gun. I learned from reading another comment that multiple characters have guns and you can find new weapons. I noticed the change weapon and tried it on the soldier and saw he had the SMG and Knife, and since the others all had a Knife equipped that it must be the only weapon they carried. I guess my own implicit bias of thinking of it as a default fallback weapon lol. In any case I never bothered selecting change weapon on any other character, and I never noticed any picked up weapons.

One thing I did find confusing with the characters being sacrificed was the soldier being dealt 2x damage as the option. I assumed that meant the Soldier could possibly survive, but of course they did not. The rest of the descriptions were clear, and the story moments were well written and fittingly cosmic horror.

The combat was like the turn-based dungeon crawlers of old, and while it controlled fine I did find the lack of feedback concerning the party health a bit confusing. I was probably playing it too fast, but I'd basically just press 1 to kill enemies as quickly as possible and heal between fights. And of course there'd be numerous times where I'd be in the middle of a fight and then be teleported somewhere randomly. Which I only realized after the second time it happened that my party all died 🙃. Or there was a couple times across my playthroughs where I'd be walking around and suddenly noticed I'm missing a character that I hadn't left behind. For idiots like me it felt like "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, wait what happened?".

I will mention though the sounds and feedback when attacking enemies are good.

I also liked how punchy the sound effect for bumping into a wall is. Makes it impossible to ignore, AND doesn't deal damage to the player!

The level design I liked, providing the multiple paths and even the optional destructible routes was great! Never stepped on a trap as I didn't want to lose health, but that goes to show they were an effective barrier.

I guess the biggest issue for me playing it was there wasn't enough information regarding party status being broadcast to the player. Like a stock "AAAH!" sound when a party member dies would be helpful, and a more prominent notification of new items being collected would be great.

Overall a solid entry, I just don't think it's MY type of dungeon crawler so I wasn't prepared to play it the proper way I think. Or I could just be dumb, that is a viable option.

Good work!

I enjoyed this submission. It felt unique almost similar to a game called World of Horror with the black and white color scheme.  I would only suggest using cross-hatching to differentiate some of the background as it sometimes becomes disorienting while traversing the map. I liked the areas where the end of the hallway looks pitch-black. There were some white spots that at first I thought were eyes so I was excited to go fight something but turned out just to be part of the environment. It would be cool to have eyes blinking out at you from the darkness.  All in all very enjoyable. :D

I think this is a very good game and I'm glad that it exists.

That said. I cannot stand to continue to play it because of the wobble.

There's a lot here.

Its very artistic. Very creative.

I am blinded by its awesomeness.

Seriously.

All the stars.

But no roap.

Oh yeah I forgot a thing. On your itch-page it says “ASDQZE to move and turn around” and I’m guessing it is S rather than Z you wanted to have there and perhaps write as “WASD to move and QE to turn” because when I read that instruction I was like what is this how am I going to be able to navigate and what button does what.

Really cool art style and interesting game mechanics. Great entry!

I got quite far I think, based on the number of characters left in my party before I was killed.

I opted to keep the mapping the longest because the instant movement with the effects and the grid cells being so identical it was hard to even see that you were moving when walking in corridors and such. If that had been a bit easier I would probably let that one go before some of the others.

It took me a little while to realize I could swap weapons. I kind of expected I needed to get them first, that might have helped me survive longer since I did have quite a few bullets left when I died.

I very much liked loosing party members, well no, it was a horrible choice each time. But great mechanic. A natural way of making the game harder and harder. And I love giving awkward choices to the player. (Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to implement the “best” idea in my game)

I didn’t dare step into any traps as it felt health was my major challenge so I’m not sure how they worked but the level design was great in allowing me different ways to progress depending on the skills left to the player.

The final level that I got to felt a bit bugged. There were several prompts for going up a level where it seemed to be just a hallway and there was one invisible wall too. I also wasn’t sure what killed me in the end. I’m guessing some enemy I hadn’t noticed. Which is a bit of a pity. Both that it was so abrupt and that I didn’t notice what it was. Felt a bit unfair.

Speaking of stairs. They really need to be visible or if there was some indication, they need to be much clearer. I got lost on one level backtracking and wandering about because the stairs were invisible.

The battle mechanics was nice. But since it took a while to discover weapon changes (perhaps they should start with a variation of weapons equipped) I mainly opted for attack first enemy until it died. It would have been neat if there was a bit more info on them (similar to on the attacks) so I could be a bit more strategic about it all. When I discovered guns, I went for spray when multiple and one of the two single target attacks otherwise.

I really enjoyed the game. Very good and interesting!

Playthrough: https://youtu.be/qOCqDuZSZj4

Such an impressive party system, both in the various interactions within the system itself as well as then losing those interactions through a run.

The art is great, shaky for sure, but it works really well and is consistent throughout. The sound is really well chosen and I would say that this is just a really cohesive experience. 

I think the challenge of losing party members makes for really interesting choices to be made as one becomes more experienced. Losing automapping in the first run is extremely punishing, but becomes less so with familiarity.

I don't know what you're intentions are going forward; but I would be interested perhaps in a kiss / curse system alongside this mechanic. Something where it doesn't feel like you're always only losing power, and might gain an alternative power or system to combine with other party members, and end up with interesting run diversity. 

This is a really great submission, tough for sure, but very well made and was really enjoyable. Thank you.

This had a really fun art style and the music rocked!

Sacrificing party members was not what I expected, and making those decisions several times during the run was really interesting. It was like looking at a machine slowly breaking down over time with nothing you could do about it.

I had a bit of trouble with the combat since my keyboard doesn’t have function keys (I have to press another button to enable them), so I found myself spamming ‘1’ a lot, and seemed to work pretty well ;)

Good job!

This is a very art-first game, I think. The art style, the lose-features-with-characters mechanic, the guaranteed character losses, etc. I have to commend you on that. The music is also pretty good.

On the other hand, though, a game that becomes actively worse to play over time is, uhh...not super fun over time? It's not just challenging, but promises only a worse experience for pushing through the challenge. Just really not my cup of tea.

Nonetheless, here is my gameplay video: