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Growth Circles's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #39 | 4.074 | 4.074 |
| Mechanics | #72 | 3.790 | 3.790 |
| Story | #77 | 3.506 | 3.506 |
| Music | #83 | 3.765 | 3.765 |
| Aesthetics | #136 | 3.926 | 3.926 |
| Theme | #156 | 3.654 | 3.654 |
| Sound | #208 | 3.123 | 3.123 |
Ranked from 81 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Yes! Music: https://opengameart.org/content/long-away-home-8bit https://opengameart.org/content/boss-battle-3-8-bit-re-upload https://opengameart.org/content/8-bit-battle-theme-famitracker https://opengameart.org/content/victory https://opengameart.org/content/game-over-bad-chest-sfx Sounds: https://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/59992/ EnvironmentArt: https://szadiart.itch.io/rogue-fantasy-catacombs
Link to your source?
https://github.com/LammerD/DeathIsOnlyTheBeginning/tree/main
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Comments
This is a GREAT game! Simple, but perfectly done! And there is also a boss battle! And the boss is super well made, with different attacks, attack provisions, etc... Wow, nice job!
I finished at first try, so did not suffer the back-to-start issue other had. However, I agree it can be a problem. Also, I think the turrets should at least move a bit to give more sense to the green circle mechanic, that is super interesting.
Well done!
Frankly... I appreciate it very much that you took the time to try my game! :D Thank you the boss was great fun to create and a pain to balance!
Yeah the stationary turrents are a choice I do not know I would do again. In my mind the idea was that you would have to lure the small ones to the stationary ones if you wanted the best rewards but I think it would have worked best with 3 types of enemies. Small fast, large slow and medium stationary.
Again thank you!
This was super cute! The boss was suitably intimidating, but the fact that he doesn't do damage on contact made it a bit easier than I was expecting. I think the player moved a bit too quickly for me, I was struggling to pick up the hearts. I love a good revenge story, and integrating "Death is only the beginning" as a power up system was super cool!
Thank you for playing! I am glad you enjoyed it! I actually tried giving him contact damage but then he quickly became to challenging for my taste, especially since if I wanted to use the same collider for contact damage and his actual hitbox! Yeah the player speed is something that still needs some fine tuning as I want the player to be able to traverse the dungeon quick enough but still feel in control! Depending on how many speed ups you get that can become quite hard. The hearts also simply need bigger colliders so that they become a little more forgiving. Thanks for the feedback!
That was a great boss fight!
Thank you! I'm super glad you liked it! There is still much I would like to improve about him especially some sfx are desperately needed but designing bosses turns out to be super fun!
Super cool game. I have only two points of criticism. First, I would like to have more levels. Please continue with it:D
I find it a bit strange that the sword does damage without me having to strike. That makes it hard to kill enemies at the exact spot where I would have liked to kill them. I think that works against the great game mechanic.
Thank you very much for giving my game a go! Haha I think I might end up doing one more level with a smaller boss that then leads to the kings level or something along those lines! :D I want to add at least one more slow moving enemy type and also expand on the growth circle mechanic to also interact with the enemies that stand in them to make it more of a trade off where you kill them.
Ehhhm the sword should not be doing damage if you are not striking O.o If you have the time could you try the game again and tell me if you can replicate it that you do not press the mouse button but still deal damage. That would be a bug I would love to squash :D
Somehow I can not reproduce it-.-. But I swear it was like that the last time I tried it.^^
I think it might have been a weird timing bug! When you press the mouse button I set a bool to true and when you release it it sets it to false. For the pause menu I disabled the script that controls the attack so I think if you pressed the mouse button and then paused or entered a "cutscene" the bool would be stuck on true for as long as you do not press the mouse again. Or something along those lines :D Definitely need to make that system a little more robust for sure!
Really fun and addicting gameplay loop. I do find the attack animation has a bit of input lag. Don't know if this is just me
Thanks for giving my game a shot! Interesting... the first I heard of it! It does not have to do with your attack rate right? I will dig into it, thanks for letting me know!
Holy frickin moly, the story just clicked when I finished it, and the boss uses the power ups I collect in the way DAAAAAAAAMN.
This game is amazing, I was wondering why everyone liked it so much, now I understand, and it's 100% true, this game is 10/10 must play.
(one bug I encountered was in my second playthrough, I killed the boss and the boss killed me at the same time, it showed the text of me dying, but then I respawned as the king child, so it's not that bad of a bug)
Hahaha I love that you found the small nods to them being a previous character I was really unsure if it was to subtle overall °^^
Yeah the safety I implemented at when to stop the player being able to be damaged was a little spotty and definitely need to sort through my spaghetti code to prevent that °^^
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
This was a lot of fun! Really impressive set of functionality you got into the game. And the growth circle was a very interesting mechanic. Has anyone beat the boss without the shooty upgrade? :)
Also nice one on the melee - I've a similar melee system that I've added to my 2021 GDTV submission but it's tough to get right (I'm using Unity RigidBodies on it)
Cheers,
Chris
Hey Chris,
Thanks for playing I'm super glad you liked it!
To let you in on a secret the boss is actually a little easier without the shooty upgrade. The boss counts the number of hits he receives and gets faster at 5, 10 and 15 hits. And his health scales with your damage so, if you have 4 damage the boss has 80 health at 2 damage he has 40 so in theory you always need 20 hits to kill him. Now enter the shooting upgrade. That thing always deals 1 damage, becauseee... well I forgot to hook it up with the damage stat dbh :facepalm: Now you hit him 15 times with the projectile he is at max speed but you only took off 15 of the 40 health instead of the 30 I had intended :P
felt so good, i really love it when i kill the boss. the only think i didnt like was the sword sound, a bit anoying for me.
Thank you for playing! I'm super glad you enjoyed it! I definitely can see that happening! It was a last minute addition °^^
really fun game. I loved the expanding circles to get better loot on the room clear. well done
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Game is really fun to play. Big fun of music and visuals. Wanna check out mine?
Thank you for playing and your kind words! Will do!
The sword felt a bit strange to use. But the circles were a great idea, got a better sword pretty fast and then gained some speed. I would have loved to use some magic here!
The circle has tremendous amount of potential!
I love the top-down view!
Thank you for playing! Yeah the sword controls still need some love °^^ I wanted to ask some abilities and magic to make each run more unique but then the time ran away from me :D
loved the idea and those circles. though attacking was a bit hard I didn't know my attack range
Yeah the attacking is definitely something I still have to work out some kinks on! Thanks for playing!
Really neat game! I got so hyped at the end with the boss, I'm glad that I had an upgraded enough weapon to deal with him. I could tell you worked really hard on making that boss fight action packed and rewarding. Nicely done! Would love to see more encounters like the last one.
Thank you very much! The boss was the first boss I have ever made and I got to say I love it! It is so fun weaving together an interesting encounter! Although balancing can be so so hard °^^
Love the game idea and the mechanics. Sword controls are bit to hard, I wish there was a way to see a damage impact of different weapons since starting sword and last sword that I got felt the same despite dealing different damage. Music and overall sound effects were great, pixel art amazing. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for giving it a shot! The sword controlls did turn out quite wonky I struggled with the implementation a bit °^^ The swords actually don't increase in damage directly they are more of a range upgrade + projectile in the last form °^^ But different sounds for the swords is definitely something I want to add and maybe some form of knockback or so.
Oh, you got a great boss fight. Maybe some minimaps could be better, but nice animations, sounds and map overall.
Thank you! I debated adding a mini map but I wanted to have one like in the binding of isaac so you don't see your real time location but only the room layout of the rooms you have been in. And I definitely did not have time to implement that :D
well done! Creating a fun Jam game, with story and unique game mechanic.
The circles made for a great way to change up your own rewards, and an added layer of complexity.
Personly I struggled with the sword fighting element :), though that may just be me being rubbish :P.
Well done! Great work!
Thank you! I'm glad you had fun! Oh no no that the sword fighting is a little janky is totally fair and was something I struggled with quite a bit °^^
Loved this, finished it twice. And my kids played it too, they also loved it!
Wow that is great to hear! Thank you very much! If I may ask how difficult was it for you and your children? Balancing is a heck of a task °^^
I died one, kids never, we had fun merging those circles to what we think was better loot. I started getting good after the sword that shoots projectiles.
Fun
Very enjoyable. The mechanic felt unique and I didn't have any issues jumping in and playing.
Aesthetics
Great. The pixel art sprites are all very well done. I was impressed there was a working lighting system. I would have liked the growth circles to have sprites as well, and a pixel art font would have been nice, but otherwise it looks great. The boss fight was especially cool.
Music
The music was alright. It could be better. The mood was right, but it felt outdated.
Sound
Great sounds. No complaints. 10/10
Mechanics
The growth circle mechanic is cool, and I like how you can choose between making a bunch of small circles, or a few big ones to change your end room rewards. The rewards didn't really feel impactful though, outside of increased max hp.
Movement felt great. It did feel a little linear though. Maybe some acceleration and deceleration? Or perhaps a dodge roll? Something to break up the movement.
I didn't like the anchored turrets. I wanted the option to kite all enemies into one big circle, and the turrets didn't let me.
Story
I liked the premise. What really did it for me though, was when you bet the game, it lets you become the son of the boss you just beat. That was a stroke of genius. I would love to see an entire game about that mechanic by itself.
Theme
This fit the death is only the beginning in two ways, the first was with growth circles, and the second was with the generational story. Both are unique and have a lot of potential.
The art and sounds also fit very well into the setting.
I do want to mention something else: The boss fight was fantastic. Those take forever to build, so I just wanted to praise you for adding one that felt satisfying.
Wow thank you very much for playing and you thorough feedback! Very much appreciated!
The lighting was a very late addition as I did not even know such a thing was possible with pixel art but it actually works quite easily thanks to unity! Yes the growth circles definitely need some visual work but to be honest I did not find a way to make scaleable pixel art look good... But I will try a few things out and see if anything looks good! Font will also be added I just did not have the time as I had to choose if I wanted to implement the generation mechanic or add more smaller things like more sounds and a font.
The reward tuning also needs some love especially a pickup sound for some more juice!
I also thought about a dodge roll might look into that !
Yeah the anchored turrets are a design choice I don't know if I'm quite happy with in the end. My Idea was that you had to move the small ones to the stationary ones so it becomes a little bit more tactical of when you kill them. I will most likely add a few more enemy types which will be mobile!
I'm so so glad that you got the generational part my fear was that people would beat the boss and be like all right that way nice but not catch on to that they get respawned as a blue player °^^ So thank you very much for noticing!!
Ohhh I'm super glad you enjoyed the boss fight it was really fun to create but super hard to balance! I definitely want to work more on bosses in the future they are just such a cool mechanic!
Again thank you very much for playing my game and taking your time for such extensive feedback!
Nice game. I found the sward controls pretty hard. But with the music, it has a nice retro feel.
Thank you! Yeah those were a pain to implement and they still did not quite turn out like I wanted it too... °^^
Congrats on completing the jam! I really liked your growth mechanic and the upgrades. I thought the boss fight was well done, you did a good job of telegraphing attacks and providing some interesting variety. I'd love to see rooms with more enemies too!
Thank you very much for playing! I am glad you enjoyed it! I will definitely add a few more rooms when I update this game and at least one more enemy type! :D