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The Struggles Within's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #34 | 3.961 | 3.961 |
| Music | #83 | 3.705 | 3.705 |
| Fun | #93 | 3.775 | 3.775 |
| Mechanics | #118 | 3.636 | 3.636 |
| Theme | #203 | 3.713 | 3.713 |
| Aesthetics | #262 | 3.496 | 3.496 |
| Sound | #428 | 2.473 | 2.473 |
Ranked from 129 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?
2
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Audio: Main Menu: Visions of Innocence. Credit me as "Tungerman". https://tungerman.itch.io/tearjerker-music-pack Cutscene 1: Heart Initial - https://sonatina.itch.io/infinity-crystal Cutscene 2: Trust Initial - https://sonatina.itch.io/infinity-crystal Custcene 3: Airship Initial - https://sonatina.itch.io/infinity-crystal Level 1: The Horde - https://ivanduch.itch.io/dragon-tales-1 Level 2: The Last Stand - https://ivanduch.itch.io/dragon-tales-1 Menu Select - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/fantasy-sfx-32833 Scroll Opening: https://freesound.org/people/ukjoncollins/sounds/441549/ Characters & Animations: Emoji Icons: https://sysl.itch.io/mit-licensed-icons Character (cutscenes): https://cypor.itch.io/12x12-rpg-tileset Character & enemies (gameplay): https://rgsdev.itch.io/free-cc0-modular-animated-vector-characters-2d UI: Buttons: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/fantasy-wooden-gui-free-103811 PowerUp Images: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/icons/free-rpg-fantasy-spell-icons-200511 VFX: Particle Effects: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/spells/48-particle-effect-pack-13998 Environment: Gameplay scene: https://rgsdev.itch.io/free-cc0-modular-animated-vector-characters-2d Cutscene: https://cypor.itch.io/12x12-rpg-tileset
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Comments
Vampire Survivors: Mental Health Awareness edition. I love it! Excellent storywriting, and excellent music too.
Tricky at first, but a great portrayal of the feeling of mental overwhelm. Once I got a few level-ups, it was satisfying to finally be able to fight back!
I was happy that power-ups continued after the level ended, but I see what you mean about power-up choices affecting boss battles! Great boss battle, by the way.
I've been wanting to make a Vampire Survivors-like too... thanks for the inspiration! :) Incredible entry!
Thank you so much for incredibly kind words and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah we wanted to make it difficult but still doable if you have a bit of skills.
Thanks, I'm/we're very proud of the idea for boss to be affected by the powerUps you choose. Choices matter but also gameplay varies and gives different styles of play a somewhat fair playthrough.
I've got something cooking along the lines of VS/BoO with some twists and my own feeling to it for a "real" project. But more on that later.
Really enjoyed it! Well done!
Thanks mate!
The gameplay was frustrating at the start, but after getting some powerups, it became fun. I think narrowing the field of view with taking damage is a step too far in punishing the plyer; it made the final boss especially difficult. Eventually, I had to cheese it by fighting him around a rock. I enjoyed my time with the game though. Great work!
Thank you for the comment and I'm glad you partly enjoyed it at least. I do get that it's a punishing feature, but we felt it was suitable for the topic and we wanted the game to be difficult, and you made it to the boss WELL DONE! Yeah the rock "feature" we knew about, but depending on your powerups it could be a hard fight still even staying behind the rock.
This game was amazing, such a nice story, such nice gameplay,... I couldn't stop playing. Really well done and thank you for uploading this!
Happy you enjoyed it! Haha, that's good to hear, we did something right if you couldn't stop playing 😅
That is a really good way to handle a heavy topic and message without making it too dark or disturbing. I really very much enjoyed the way the control felt, and pulled off some maneuvers that I didn't expect to succeed. The final battle - if I'm not mistaken that boss has the same upgrades, which is a great touch! Excellent work!
Thank you, we wanted to have the moral of the story tied to the gameplay itself, so glad to hear that you found it suitable.
Yeah boss is changing depending on your powerups, some more stat wise and some more visible.
Glad you enjoyed and thanks again for your kind words!
Very fun gameplay! The perks made me want to try again when I failed rather than give up. The boss fight was intense, I beat him with only a sliver of health left. I also like the moral of the story.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it and thank you for the comment! That's good to hear, and well done on making it to the boss and beating him. He ain't from the easiest side + depending on your powerups it could be even more difficult 😅
Does he change based on the powerups you chose? That's a really cool mechanic!
Yeah, basically it affects the stats of the boss, but also one powerUp has a visible modification (+ pretty much HARD mode it :D) I loved the mechanic when we came up with it, and something I will defiinitely have in my future bigger project.
Great narrative and very smooth buttery gameplay! I only wish there were more xD! Loved the boss fight against myself, extremely creative!
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it and thanks again the boss fight we're extremely proud of.
I might be planning on something relatively similar to this, more gameplay less story wise for a proper bigger project.
You given something for me to think about and the gameplay was fun , very good
Thank you so much for the comment 😊 Ps. Didn't delete your comment, it was duplicated so just got rid of the other one
Love the use of emoji, and the battle mechanics were way deeper than it first looked like. Good job 👏
Thanks and glad you liked it!
I really loved the mechanics and story! The game looks very polished and interesting, and I loved how you tried to include the theme in different ways :D
Thank you so much! We gave it our best shot 💪🏼
Nice game. I like that you tried to bring the story to life with animation/emoji etc rather than just text. Got as far as the boss and almost won. Thanks for playing our game too
Thank you and glad you liked it. Getting to the boss is already quite well done and depending on your powerup choices the boss is different each time (some more visible, some less visible and more about the stats).
A great game tackling a difficult subject. I like how the field of view is reduced as you get more down, making the game more difficult.
Thank you so much for your comment! Glad that you liked it! :) Yeah that effect was something I really liked as well :)
Ps. Didn't delete your comment it was duplicated so got rid of the other one.
This is a very cool game, and looks very polished!
The story is very well told at the beginning. The music (which is very good...), animations and other elements are very well orchestrated to create the right atmosphere.
PS: If you want some feedback... I would think about adding a Multiplayer feature (maybe, Netcode in Unity...) so another friend can play with you against the Bosses, especially (because they tend to be difficult to beat... but with a friend or two it would become something even more interesting, due to the 'Networking' factor).
Congratulations.
Thank you so much for the kind words and great suggestion! I actually have something along those lines in my head as an idea that I might start developing for a proper project, and might have to start like a gameDev log for it on youtube or something to get people noticing it!
Glad you liked it! :)
Great game! I like music and gameplay the most.
I think you need to make more levels and boosts for player.
Thanks for such a cool game! :)
Thank you so much for the compliment and the review! :)
Yeah I got something cooking from the basis of this game, and I do agree more levels, powerUps just make the game always more fun!
Glad you liked it! Hope you made it to the boss level, since that's where the powerUps especially start to affect the game (one thing especially makes the boss level HARD mode) :D
I love this game, very nice, very wholesome, I loved the powerups and those decisions affected the final boss, however I did want to say that the final boss felt to hard, it might be bc i am not good at Bullet Hell games so maybe tone down the difficulty to make your buff abilities feel a bit stronger and less of a downgrade. Also maybe have an endless mode with the first leading to the 2nd levels, so you can go longer to build stronger and then fight your inner demons as they are also stronger bc people love that increase in power! GG
Thank you so much for your amazing words! :)
Haha yeah, we're especially proud of the boss fight and how it is different based on your powerUps, but yeah I get that it is difficult for sure, and needs even more playtesting to perfect the balancing. Also some powerUps (one especially), might make the boss fight HARD mode :D
Yeah that would be really fun, I'm planning on starting a proper VS style game with a bit of a twist and in that it would for sure have some kind of endless mode where there would be LOADS more of powerUps, since I LOVE the increase in power myself as well :p
This was good fun. Managed to create a good balance of difficulty there and the poweups came out at a nice pace.
Thanks and glad to hear you liked it and felt like the difficulty was just about right for you! :) Hope you made it to the boss battle, since that's where your powerUp choices can come back and kick your ass ;)
Balancing is definitely a hard talent to master, some people have said that it's an alright difficulty, some have massive issues, which I completely understand that it ain't from the easiest side of VS games :D
Really liked it. Only thing i missed it is a score at the end.
I want to note that changing the visual type is always a nice way to emphasize 2 dimensions theme.
Glad you liked it and thanks for the comment! Oh yeah, we focused more on ending the story, but you are correct a "longer" version of this game would definitely need a score, or maybe a timer how quickly you beat the boss or something. Obviously boss will change based on your powerUp choices.
Thank you so much, that's what we were going after. We have got a lot of criticism off the artwork and to be honest I do agree with most of them, since neither one of us are artists, but we knew we didn't want the same art asset, since we wanted to portrait the 2 dimensions, but yeah maybe with some time and work it could have been more linked but different at the same time.
The MC's issues may have touched a little closely to home. I really dug your twist on the Vampire Survivors clone. A lot of people do a straight copy of it and this felt unique because of the twists you added on it. One thing I was confused on was the increased speed, there was 2 of them. I'm guessing one was character speed and the other was bullet speed, but I wasn't sure. I really liked the boss fight, I thought I might lose and came pretty close, but I won in the end. Very fun :)
You and me both mate <3 :)
Glad you liked it, we wanted it to have a story and the boss might to be affected by your powerUp choices so it would be our own creation! :)
Oh yeah, no they do the same thing, there is multiple increase speed powerUps (I just didn't have time to code the powerUp randoms to be set so that the same wouldn't come up), so both are player speed.
Nice job on making it to the boss and beating it, it wasn't too easy for sure :D