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A jam submission

Monolith: TiermesView game page

Dungeon Crawler
Submitted by MetzgerMade — 10 minutes, 16 seconds before the deadline
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Monolith: Tiermes's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall fun and playability#902.7583.154

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme incorporation
Cosmic horror in its horror aspect, ruins as in the explorable environment, isolation as in being isolated and alone.

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Comments

Submitted

Lots of stuff going on here!  I like the aesthetic and the somber mood of it.  I enjoyed reading the intro, and felt that the game is much more complex than I would have expected, which is nice!  It has some UI issues/bugs that I'm sure could easily be resolved after the Jam, the only thing I took issue with was now low the field of view was, it was hard to navigate doe to this.  Otherwise very well made so far.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback.

Already increased the field of view and im planning to add option to increase it to players liking. Also increased how far the player can see.

UI improvements are still under works but already I have done equiping items unequips items instead of message that warns you cannot. Added more sorting gategories. You can now view equipped items.  Also improved readability of item text colors.

Combat UI improvements are up next.


Update incoming as soon as I can.

Submitted(+1)

I got a really nice sense of depth from the UI.  Even with it's current limits, it is feeling like a complete game, so that was really nice to see.

Submitted

Before rating or commenting on the game, I think using a simple zip file is a better approach than having an installer...

Developer(+1)

Yeah sorry. I know I usually add zip or both. Problem was 6 minutes of time remaining when I submitted, and I Compiled installer version. If I compiled a zip version I would have nothing to submit as time would be over. The last 30 minutes was a hasle and panic. But once I can update I will add zip file aswell. Also a lot of improvements.

Submitted

Good atmosphere, lots of working systems, oppressive surroundings. Combat was a bit slow for my liking, but objectively, it worked well. Good thing I read some comments here and found out there's a minimap, otherwise I would've been helplessly lost, haha. Once I put that up, everything became 100x better and I could work my way to the end. But I have to admit that I fled from most combats, only choosing to engage groups of 1-2 enemies, for brevity sake.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback.

I can try to make the combat, it already has instant actions and repeat turn commands and overal combat usually takes arround 30 seconds or less.  But I can try to think of something to make it even faster. Wont be easy thou, its the fastest combat I have seen in dungeon crawlers. If I want to fight I usully just choose actions one time then press reapeat and ready often ending the combat in 15 seconds or less. Sometimes stress fight can get a bit nasty and I need to use items and rethink whom to attack first or next and use items. then the combat can take more than 30 seconds but rarely longer than a minute. But true when you are playing it first time it might take a bit getting used to. Im currently trying to improve the UI on that.

Yeah the combat was made for the player having to flee, so it would get more hopeless feeling that you cant handle the fights.

Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback.

Submitted

I AM GREAT

The awful field of view gives a wrong first impression of a game which is actually quite cool. I also got one case of crash in the beginning, but then it did not happen anymore and I managed to complete the game although I had to flee from 3 encounters at the very end, not sure if it's a 100% chance flee or if I just got lucky. Inventory UI is not perfect (I think it's the inability to directly equip a piece of equipment and it would automatically replace the previous one which feels a bit weird) but it's fine in the context.

I wonder if you can use the Cure skill outside combat.

The choices between different levels is interesting although in practice I did not check if it makes any difference. Either way the dungeons are fun to explore, with different layouts, chests and looking for the way to activate the next lift.

The gameplay aspects of the game are pretty good. FOV aside movement is instant and then good. The character system is cool and I greatly enjoyed the fights in this one, it controls pretty well and as fast as you click, it's well balanced and finding better equipment and some rare healing consumables was satisfying, you're constantly near the edge of death, the game is very tense and all the more fun for that.

Overall this was a cool entry, thanks for sharing.

Developer

Thanks for the great feedback.

I will try to increase the fow and see how it feels with the game.

I have adressed crash issues I found already and waiting to upload a new version once I can.

Fleeing is not 100%. its -10%  per enemy so very high if only a few. I might adjust it a bit harder like also counting amount of allies as penalty. As you are not going to leave a friend whom cant flee, are you? (joke)=D 

Equipping yes that will be fixed. That was a quick setup due to not having enough time so I dont need to check whats on the other hand as well. 

Skills cannot currently be used while not in combat. Also time issue as it needed its own UI element. I will adress this issue.

There is currently very little impact on level difference. Due to time issues that was left a bit unfinished.

Thanks for the feedback and thanks for playing.

Submitted

You managed to get lots of underlying systems in place here, and they serve the game well. Movement feels good, combat is nice, leveling/equipment adds depth, etc. One note I will add is that healing items and food seem to be either not available as regular loot or very rare, because I was just opening chest after chest of largely useless equipment. The environment textures really just need to be set to not use linear filtering, I think.

The minimap is incredibly helpful - nothing like knowing where you're going! The opening seeds of the story seem interesting as well.

Full playthrough here:

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for your review and feedback.

I will adress all issues you had with the game when I can update. I will adjust chests and other containers and further improve lootin. Maybe add that loot window instead of just take all items.

Already fixed many issues and improved upon others. 

Here is a sneak preview of removed filters and resolution increase. Also the red light on the door indicates its locked, green is unlocked. 

Thank you for playing!

Submitted (1 edit)

Interesting game. Movement is ok, but the short sight makes it a bit hard to navigate. I just run from all combat occasions, cause I could not do any damage. Had an error occur after going to the top level in the elevator which crashed the game.

___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object enemy_formless_obj:
Variable enemy_formless_obj.skills_list(100123, -2147483648) not set before reading it.
at gml_Object_enemy_formless_obj_Create_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_enemy_formless_obj_Create_0 (line -1)
called from - gml_Script_choose_random_enemies_stress_scr (line -1) - <unknown source line>
gml_Object_combat_cont_Create_0
called from - gml_Script_group_cont_create_combat_scr (line -1) - <unknown source line>
gml_Object_group_cont_Step_0
Developer

Thanks for the feedback. 

Once I can update I will increase the viewing distance and fix the bug. Already upscaled all the 32x32 textures and added sounds and more healing items. Sadly cant update yet due to jam evaluation.

Thanks for playing.

Submitted

I see you’ve managed to get a lot of systems working which is impressive, equipment, turn-based combat with skills and many stats, multiple targets, traps/hazards, minimap, etc. Plus some story bits. Certainly more than I did, so well done there.

The difficulty seems plausibly well-tuned. I died early but I can see getting a lot further by running from large groups of enemies and only levelling on smaller ones.

The first impression in play is a low FoV and some muddy upscaled textures directly blocking your whole sight when facing a wall, which is something I would try to address in the future. I noticed can also move two steps at the same time / diagonally by pressing the keys together, not sure if that’s a problem but it feels a bit too floaty for my liking.

The combat button confirmations are a bit unintuitive/tedious to click through.

Developer

Thanks for the great feedback. Yeah I was kinda in a hurry 6 minutes remaining, so polishing was out of the questions. Prolly a lot of bugs and other stuff got left. Had to cut 70% of the content I wanted there. 

Yeah as you said most textures are as low as 32x32 due to time issues. Largest ones scale to 128x128. Aim would be to get them all to 128x128. Also most of the inventory item graphics were made in last 20 minutes. 

For the difficulty running is often the best option but fleeing combat causes stress. Stress can make some nasty things happen. 

For the movement I was going to add instant movement option for the options but sadly no time and forgot. 

For combat its unfinished. I could remove the ready button or make it optional (if that is what you meant) to get the confirmation out but sometimes when playing Wizardry combat like games I make a mistake in one of the commands or in the last command and it instantly goes to turn processing. So I wanted to have a ready check to make sure I have the right commands, that why I also added the commands in text and icons.

Thanks for the great feedback. If I take this game further I will surely taek heed of your advice.