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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
I like this style of game and you nailed the basic mechanics. I enjoyed the bullet hell feeling of the boss fight as well, and your art/animations were well done. Good job!
Thanks, glad to hear you liked it!
Art/animations were for the assets, so credit where credit is due!
I really dig the idea of melding this subject matter with this style of game; it allows for a nice combination of engaging story and engaging gameplay, and it seems that you had a lot of fun finding ways to represent how the physical journey the player plays through is the character's emotional journey. For instance, I really like how taking damage makes the world become dim and lowers how far you can see; I think things like that make it more clear that the demons are not just literal demons.
Game was quite hard for me personally. I found that it was best to just lead a massive bunch of enemies around in a circle, always shooting behind me, and collecting the XP drop thingies as I made my way back around. To be honest, this wasn't a particularly engaging way to play after a while, and I never ended up getting to see the boss. That said, it's also very possible (and in fact, likely) I am just terrible at this game.
Overall, super interesting conceptually. I like how you tried to differentiate the two "dimensions," although if you were to expand on this, at least slightly more cohesive art styles would be a must in my opinion. And I just generally like the interplay of the story and gameplay. Nice work!
Thank you for the very in-depth review and kind words 💪🏼😊
You got lot of our points we were trying to make with the game, so lovely to hear that we didn't "hide" them too deep 😅
Hahah, don't beat yourself up mate, it's a learning curve for sure, sometimes running works and sometimes few risky dodges might reward you to get the xp. Also once you get few powerups it gets easier. Was hard to find a perfect balance between difficult but doable and so that it would work for everyone. That's for sure something even more in-depth game testing would have helped with.
Thanks, that's exactly what we wanted to portray with the "dimensions", and I do completely agree that art work synergy ain't the greatest. Neither one of us are artists, but we knew we didn't want the levels and cutscenes to be too similar since they're two different dimensions, so couldn't use the same art assets and couldn't find two different ones that would fit out idea. Definitely need to find an artist for the next one 😅😅
Gotta love a good little Survivors-like. That boss battle was epic. Good stuff. If I were to sneak into your design team without you noticing via a cardboard box and then patch in one change, I would add a little "Tak!" sound effect when a bullet hits an enemy. I think that would make your game very taktile and enjoyable. Thanks for the game :)
Thank you 😊
Hahah please do, we tried some SFX on the shooting and on enemy hit, tried volume, fading, etc but they just overwhelming since there was so many hits happening at some point. But yeah I do agree that SFX is needed, just didn't have time to find and fine-tune perfect ones
Nice job really enjoyed
Thanks! :)
The gameplay is awesome. Very fun to play. You did a great job!
Thanks mate! Glad to hear you enjoyed it :)
The game is really addictive and fun, good work guys I really enjoyed your game.
Thank you so much! I know it can be a bit tough to start with but once you get it rolling the boss fight will be fun with the powerUp choices making a difference in the end fight ;)
absolutely, I really like the vibe of the game and great level design D.
I do have to ask what is your contribution to this game? According to the asset list, there is very little work - done by yourself. Or at least that i can notice.
I understand that this is a narrative based game, but even then, how does it fit with the theme of the jam?
On to an actual game feedback:
The game seems to be well put together, the ride along gameplay combined with actual gameplay is an interesting take that is not that common. Some may say that there's too many cutscenes and too little actual play.
The aesthetic between the walkalong section and the gameplay section is too much in contrast, the art styles do not fit. I'm sure you could've used one set of assets for both the environments.
gameplay - if you're not lucky to get the movement speed buff in time, you will die. You should probably change the spawn rate or make the monster abilities more scalable by level or stage :D.
Overall, i think this narrative style game has a lot of potential, we shouldn't have too high expectations for game jam games, most of these are masterpieces, including this one.
Well we're not artists nor musicians, so those we obviously have to get them somewhere to start with. It's not everyones cup of tea and we didn't have someone who could do those in our team unfortunately. But I do understand your point, but still I would argue that most of the game was made by us :D From creating the story, to the coding, to the gameplay, to making cutscenes and building everything together and things like boss having same powerUps as your choices/etc, so even with us not making the art ourselves I wouldn't say that we didn't contribute.
Dimension wise I would say that mental health is a dimension of yourself and fighting your inner demons takes you into your own head and facing yourself as the main boss is part of it and that's in a different "dimension". That's how we liked to think the theme. We didn't want to just go with the dimension changing, we wanted to think other aspects of the word dimension as in having two worlds (the real one where the cutscenes take place and the gameplay where you face your inner demons and fights inside your head). Mental dimensions and a lot that revolves around that.
Yeah I completely agree on the contrast of these two art styles, as mentioned before unfortunately we had to go with what we had and we didn't want the art to be the same, since we wanted to show the dimensions of those two separate worlds and how the person sees himself in his head is different.
Balancing the game for sure is difficult and don't get me wrong we worked HARD on that and in the end we felt like we found somewhat a working solution and the feedback I got it seems people have got to the end. It can be beaten with other PowerUps as well, but obviously speed works for one kind of tactic.
Just tried to bring our ideas/thoughts on your points and I do appreciate the honest and indepth feedback and don't take my answers as attacks on your points, they're good questions and I appreciate them and I hoped that I was able to open our thought process and answer your questions :) !
A sad story but facing the demons was fun!
the graphics were lovely and I liked the use of the emojis to portray the characters feelings.
It's true, it ain't always fun, but by facing your inner demons and seeking help, it can turn to happiness at some point, or at least managable :)
Thank you for your comment and sweet words :)
Nice short game! I liked very much the idea of having your power ups affect the boss as well.
Thanks! That was something I personally really liked and will definitely in the future further develop for some other game perhaps! Choices you make affect your story and especially since your boss fight was yourself, it was obvious that he would have to have same kind of powers.
Great work. It was a fun experience.
Thanks, great to hear you liked it!
Love the Vampire Survivors gameplay. You really can't go wrong with that. I did feel like there was a disconnect between the gameplay and narrative segments stylistically, but maybe that was the point. I had a lot of fun playing this, and completed both levels. Perfectly short and sweet for a game jam. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for the comment! :) Yeah we wanted them to be two different worlds, the other one is in his head fighting the inner demons. Glad you liked it and found it fun!
We wanted to add a lot more powerUps and other stuff, but didn't want to make it too long either + tbh also started running out of time. :D
Great message! I felt the start could have been more interactive, and the first level was reminiscent of 20 Minutes to Dawn. The vision blackening as health went down made it incredibly challenging though.
Also, some of the sprites at the beginning were blurry rather than crisply pixellated.
Thank you so much! :) Haha, yeah the vision blurring was last minute add, but we ended up loving it and how it brought another dimension to it, since inner demons can very easily blacken your whole view of life and all that :D
Aah yeah, the art we used for it wasn't the greatest, not artists ourselves so that was a bit hard. But appreciate the feedback and the review! :)
Yes, the start is very difficult, so the first try was very fast, but after that it's fun to play.
Maybe make things a little easier by firing the bullets at a random nearby enemy.
Thanks for the review. Yeah it might take a few tries , especially if games like this ain't your genre.
But glad to hear you made it further. Didn't want the game to be too easy though, it's a hard balance to find something that works for everyone.
Cool game! Not a fan of this genre, but I still liked the game! For me, there are too many enemies at the beginning, which makes it very difficult to get to the first upgrade, but still, great work, everything is at a high level!
Thank you so much for the comment! Yeah it's a hard start, but once you get a powerUp or two it gets easier and then the boss fight gets interesting since it might have some differences based on your powerUp choices! :D
It's not everyones cup of tea and I completely understand that though! :) Theres always games for everyone and that's what I love about gameJams and game development all together, so many different ideas/genres as there are imaginations thinking them.
over all pretty good game, the art style needs a lot of improvement i suggest you stick to one style and not move to another one but other than that pretty good game
Thank you so much for the comment! I do agree that the styles should intertwine a bit better, but we also wanted it to have different styles, since the other one is happening in his mind, so in there it's his imagination and mental health and has to fight the inner demons to be able to surive. Also art was not our strong suit, we needed to stay with free assets, so hard to find something that are different but still work together well! :)
Very nice take on vampire survivors-style games. The theme is used very well both in the gameplay and story. Well done!
Thank you so much, means a lot! :)
As someone who has spent way too much time on vampire survivors, I loved this.
You and me both mate, you and me both :D Glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Tried to have our own twist, with the story and the boss fights!
Very nice Music 5/5. Nice Story. Good game!
Thank you so much! :) Means a lot
Very serious topics, but still a fun game. Well done, it's not easy to balace the two.
The initial horde was a bit too much, it becomes overwhelming very quickly, and it become hard to collect yellow orbs.
Great job! :)
Glad to hear, yeah we tried to be careful not to take it too far but also give player an actual game to play instead of just the story.
Hahah, yeah we wanted it to be difficult, but still doable. It might take some tries but once you get a level or two (maybe take a further path to the xp), you will start to absolutely destroy the inner demons and then you'll meet the BOSS :D
Thanks for the review and kind words!
I like that kind of game. The upgrade system is similar to ours. Is it possible that some upgrades have different names and images, but the same effect? Maybe you could change that. Otherwise a cool game, good work:)
Yeah we kind of ran out of time to add a lot more powerUps, since most of the powerUps also affect how the boss is going to be after level 1, so it wasn't just adding a simple powerUp, but also hooking it to how it affected the boss. But if there would be further development on this, I would love to add so many more powerUps (I got loads in my head :D )
Thank you for the review and glad to hear that you liked it!