Pretty cool! I like the old raycaster feel =). I didn't managed to escape after a few tries, my health dropped without me noticing getting hit (I guess, shots from above?) and then it was too late. I wasn't able to figure out if there was any indication of which places I could go up and which I could not, so often found myself next to a wall that I couldn't climb and needing to backtrack, which was a bit frustrating. Enemies were really cool looking, and I enjoyed the switching mana color mechanic to keep me on my toes!
Play game
DungeonRuga's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall fun and playability | #146 | 1.880 | 2.071 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
Infinity - You can walk infinitely far in the horizontal direction, the world wraps around. Watch your back when casting spells!
Cosmic Horror: Some beings of unknown power abducted you and placed you in a giant alien farm in space, You can try to escape, but know nothing else.
Comments
I Escaped.
It was actually satisfying to complete this one as first before I actually reached it I was not sure there was a winning state and secondly they were multiple steps : at the beginning I had difficulties getting the hang of it, when I finally got the basic controls and identified when I could go up then I needed to apprehend the combat. Shooting using the opposite colour I immediately did but I forgot to absorb the opposite colour at first, obviously it helped me going further as before that the second or third enemies always killed me. Then I was not even sure when but I still got hit quite a bit judging by my health (I think I got shot vertically sometimes?). Then I reached the first plant thing which was almost cool in itself, wondered if I could interact with it but it seemed I could not, I went on going up, crossing other plants and then I reached the end just at the right moment when I felt I had explored enough of the game and was done with it.
I like the look of the enemies, bullets and plants, they do feel aliens. Also you do feel like you're trying to escape from some huge, oppressive, futuristic structure.
In the end the experience was cool enough, thanks for sharing.
Submitted
To death and beyondThis must be the only Rust game in this jam. Impressive in itself. I did have a hard time playing it but got a bit into the game and could attack some enemies and ascend and descend stairs. You did have instructions on your git page which is great, but I think they should be on the itch page directly to make sure players see them. Its a bit of a hunt to get them now. The looking up and down made me disoriented, as well as the movement. Seems like it is a 2D game in the sense you can only turn around 180°. Would be nice with some sound as well.
Keep at it! Experimental guy ;)
Submitted
Dungeon of DreamsHm, this one is a bit to experimental for me. But you did your thing and I am sure your are proud of it, thats what counts. I did not hear any sound, so I can only judge the graphics and they are quite nice. I just envision more of an action game with those graphics and level design. Something fast moving, zooming through those structures. I though the whole time playing about old DOS games like Radix into the void or something. Well anyways, I could not wrap my head around the controls. I had to read the comments to understand the 180° instant turning. You should at least address this, as it would help with the gameplay.
Submitted
The Nexus GraveHey! Thank you for submitting this game! I had good fun with its unusual controls and style! The fact that you did this with Rust is really cool! Very well done!
Theme
I think it fits the endless theme and the cosmic horror pretty well. Good job there.
What I liked
- The concept of only having 2 directions horizontally was interesting to wrap the head around, but then it was really fun. I imagined being a 2D creature living only in 2D space ^^. It helped to transport the odd place and scenario.
- Climbing and having to watch your back while climbing was a very cool part of the game mechanics. It caused a good tension and also makes the game a bit of a player skill based game. Nicely done!
- The visuals transmit a feeling of being in a very strange place and underline the cosmic horror for me. Same goes for the enemies. You really hit this alien vibe very well.
- The overall challenge rate of this game. It was not super easy to learn and then even harder to master ^^, that puts up a good challenge and this again kept me playing and trying until I got the hang of it.
What I would wish for
- Some nice sound effects and a dangerous or brooding music loop or just some ambiance in the background would help to further transport the overall feeling of the game.
- I would love to have the different mana types on 1 and 2, or configurable, because this was the most challenging part for me. Climbing with Q and E was new for me and then having also to use the arrow keys to change the "ammo" and shoot with space, basically broke my weak mind a few times ^^. So a more intuitive way of shooting, or at least a key closer to WASD for changing the mana, would be nice (TAB for example). Alternatively two keys for firing each type, like H and K as they are close to WASD.
- Actually I can imagine this game to be even more complex, by having to find the different abilities (mana types ...) first, or by having sort of stamina so one can only climb a certain height until one finds more stamina to "level up" :) - I know in the jam time such things are hard to get into the game, but maybe you plan a post jam version? Then I would love to have some more mechanics like this in the game.
- Ah and one more thing. I don't know how hard this would be in rust, but a red flashing and short screen shake or a similar thing to indicate a hit on yourself would be nice. Same for the enemies. Sometimes I did not knew if I had hit the enemy. A bit more hit feedback would be great!
Thanks again for having submitted this game! I'd love to see an updated version.
Keep up the good work!
Submitted
Those Without NamesIt felt that I can move vertically only in some places, but not in others. What is the difference between those places? I would like to understand how game works a bit more, as I tend to just move around and shoot at things shooting at me.
Conceptually it is pretty cool that you have a wrapping world, and you definitely got me when I fell to the bottom of the world :)
Submitted
Tomb of AeonI have a description in the readme I think. The concept is you can "stem" pressed hands and feet between two parallel walls. You can also stand over single room width drops, and climb up single room width tunnels. Also if you fall, only a floor or an enemy will stop you. I was going to implement movement hints, but ran out of energy, I wish I did anyway, because everyone seems confused by the climbing mechanics. Thanks for playing though!
Interesting idea, but the execution leaves much to be desired. It's easy to become disoriented and it's not always obvious if moving up and down is possible.
Submitted
Dragon Ruins [Jam Version]Thanks for the feedback, I have come to similar conclusions after watching someone else play it. I think I can implement animated 180 degree turnings, or maybe even fake 90 degree turns. I wanted the walls to be outer space textures, the walls are supposed to be glass. I could make fake 90 degree turns, where you can look out in space. That should help with the disorientation.
I was going to do text prompts that tell you when you can move up/down, but I ran out of energy and submitted a day early.
Thanks for playing!
This was a unique take on the genre. The Light and Void magic reminded me of Ikaruga, and I thought it was a pretty clever twist on combat as you try to manage offensive and defensive strategies.
I have a soft spot for raycasters, so bonus points from me on that one :)
The controls took some getting used to. I was not expecting to turn 180 degrees, and coupled with instant step movement, it made it difficult to orient myself.
Great job!
Submitted
Void ProtocolFirst off, I love that this was written using rust! I loved that it didn’t need any extra permissions to run on my computer.
The game concept is really interesting. However, I found the controls to be quite awkward. Rotating 180 degrees instantly was very disorienting for me. I love the idea of verticality. I think there is a lot of room to expand on this idea.
Thanks for sharing!
Submitted
Cosmic EncounterThanks for the feedback, it was a fairly experimental idea. I agree, I need some way to give a sense of motion when turning. I may just need to fake it somehow, I want to keep using a raycaster. Without going to full 3D, I'm not coming up with obvious solutions. Maybe I need to render the front view and back view from your camera to a "camera box", and then fake wall rendering to the camera side box. I would then rotate the camera box. I think this would need entirely different raycasting code to animate.
I think one solution that doesn’t require a full 3d rendering would be to change the field of view a bit and allow for 90 degree turns. Then, when you rotate, you can still snap to the direction but it is a little less jarring as you can see a bit of the left / right and it is familiar when you turn.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.