GJL Game Parade Summer 2021

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A jam submission

BreakingSwordsView game page

Submitted by FallNight64 — 45 minutes, 23 seconds before the deadline

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BreakingSwords's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Fun	#8	3.769	3.769
Gameplay	#14	3.538	3.538
Overall	#21	3.462	3.462
Audio	#23	3.154	3.154
Visuals	#48	2.923	2.923

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

Number in team
1

Does your game include art/sound packs or pre-prepared code?

Yes

If yes, please provide the source of the packs used
Sound Effects from RPG MZ + ZapSplat website
Music from Baldr Sky (Giga, 2009 (JP) / 2019 (WW))
Special Effects from Infinity Blade: Effects
Character Model by Reineru-kun on Deviant Art
First Person Model by UE4 Default
(All Animations were done by me though)

Please provide a link to the project source code.
http://Used UE4

Please provide a link to a 30 seconds gameplay video of your game
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EJhIwHiooRp9MegBfqjzad2lZ2d--X7W/view?usp=sharing

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Comments

TalluffSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

Wow this game is slick!! Honestly just the movement and platforming I was already loving it, unfortunately I'm not familiar with unreal engine so I don't properly understand what you had to do to make it happen but seems impressive. Also the tutorials are great and led me to understand clearly how to control my character. This might just be me but with how cool the platforming was I wish it ended up being a bit more core and allowed the combat to support it rather than the other way around, less flat battles and more jumping but appreciate time restraints and maybe that comes after level 2. Also I'm not sure about this but with the way the swords work it ended up feeling a bit like 2 time use instead. The individual attacks are one time use though so still on theme for sure but could maybe be stronger.

Any nitpicks are minor and that smooth parkour was brilliant. If you end up releasing more I'd definitely be up to play cause that was a really fun time thanks!

Submitted

FallNight64Developer3 years ago (5 edits)

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm glad the tutorial was able to explain and teach well, I think it's always nice to have a gradual, practical example that's easy to follow and quick to breeze through. And you're not wrong, definitely, with the movement it should have been more important but the combat mechanics with a single use only sword clashed with it a little. Maybe more open enviroments and static enemies like ghost runner might have been good, I ended up wanting to emphasise combat mechanics when the other would have better fluidity, momentum and satisfaction.

WIth only 2 enemy types (at the time) and a sword that only works once or twice, I was having a bit of a hard time trying to make interesting combat scenarios, I ended up creating a Boss type just to be able to have a final obstacle to round it off. Probably could've gone the path of parkour instead. That's fair about the Theme, didn't think about that, I guess it DOES seem like a two use instead.

I was hoping to have melee combat AND magic spells / abilities that enemies drop that are one time use and enemy attacks would force parkour and using spells would require a bit of parkour positioning too, but alas, overscoping and my first 1st person melee focus game (Though I've done 3rd person combat and 1st person shooters with slight melee before), I wanted to swordfight too badly like Chivalry or Mount and Blade, haha.

Lost_Carc0saSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

I really had a ton of fun with this one. It's actually not often I come across combat mechanics that I genuinely have a blast with, especially in first person, but this felt really satisfying, especially managing to hit with a broken sword.

Like a lot of people have said I also really had a hard time with the wall run. From my perspective it felt difficult to hit the wall right to 'stick' and more often than not I just seemed to brush against the wall and fall again.

I didn't really impact my overall experience though, and I did find it a joy to play.

Submitted

FallNight64Developer3 years ago

Thanks for the feedback!

Glad you enjoyed the combat mechanics, I seem to focus on that alot in projects. Thank you for your feedback on the wallrun, that's interesting, I didn't really imagine the wallrun would be hard to get used to, but it's true that it's trace is a 45 degree angle backwards, allowing the player more leeway to look to their side when wallrunning, not that needed here and many people tend to face the wall they're running on. So for the polish I'll adjust the trace forward a bit more.

Mumbles2513Submitted3 years ago(+1)

My anxiety level went from 1 to 100 in a second when I first saw all those girls come to life and rushed toward me lool.

it took me a while to get used to the wall jump and stuff but when I got the hang of it, was very fun and satisfying. the snipers reminded me of the snipers in overwatch co op missions and this whole thing for me was like skyrim + mirrors edge + overwatch = breaking swords ( lol does that even make sense?)

Thanks for sharing, very fun game.

well done

Submitted

Beneath The Neon City

FallNight64Developer3 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for playing! Those enemies in my mind were like robots with a boot up sequence, haha, using their bodies to decorate the scene to inform the player of the amount and position before they wake up. A small thing is that the ones that will come awake still have red eyes and the dead ones will not. It was a death animation reversed so it had the uncanny rising back up feel, I'm glad it was subtly creepy and caught you the first time!

EricbombSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

Oh man this movement is smooth. I love it!

Only wish is I was better at the game, I struggled at every wall jump XD

Submitted

Lightless Labyrinth

FallNight64Developer3 years ago (3 edits)

Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for playing! I understand that the wall jump takes some getting used to even if the whole movement system is smooth, what do you think was the problem? Did you find yourself looking at the wall you were trying to wallrun on? Or did you truly mean the jumping off part of it and thus struggled on the last room of Level 1?

I did have a bit of a feeling about Level 1's last room, so I'll try and polish that up next time. Understandably a fast game that can have a fair bit going on at once isn't to everyone's taste as well, but it's true that the wallrunning has some problems that I'm not too sure about that can invisibly make it harder for people.

chagnarfaugnSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

I really enjoyed it! The game turned out to be very fun and dynamic. Good music and sound effects. Movement and combat are implemented perfectly except for the running on the walls, either I'm very bad at it or it sometimes did not work as I would like it to, that's why I never got to pass the first level to the end.

Overall a great job!

Submitted

Knight with Guns

FallNight64Developer3 years ago

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm glad you enjoyed it! The game tends to be dynamic I think because you melee, then have to retreat and throw the sword, and then have to dodge enemies and grab a new one. I'm glad you liked the sound and music, since a good portion of game feel comes from it.

You're not wrong about the wallrun, whilst I do think some skill and adaptation is needed, I imagine you had trouble in the last room of Level 1 with the snipers on the pillars? The wallrun can be finnicky, I think I'll try to nudge the platforms so they line up better and make the pillars larger, maybe lower and easier to get to for the next polish run.

SteeleySubmitted3 years ago(+1)

Very Ghost Runner, I think you shot for the stars with a really great game design, but parkour is really hard, especially for a game jam. I did have a lot of fun slicing up enemies, and throwing the swords at them, I think that could be a really fun gameplay loop, almost alternating between long range and close range weapons, there's a really solid idea in there.

Submitted

One Round, Back Around

FallNight64Developer3 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm primarily a game designer with a love for animation, so that's why these characters and first person have all these attack animations, haha.

I'm glad you had fun with the game's mechanics, the parkour just always seems like a really good way to make movement more fluid and flexible in many action games like this for me, even if it didn't mesh too well with the combat style except in specific situations.

Alternating between close to long range was almost an accidental by-product of the core concept of a one use sword, though staying too rigidly did cause problems for me in that flowing and action packed combat was difficult if the sword always broke after one swing. Which was sort of the reason why I ended up having a boss character at the end, wanted to give the player a chance to get a cooler, stronger sword, fight off against a boss with unique attacks that actually use the parkour mechanics.

SteeleySubmitted3 years ago(+1)

No, its a really good concept, happy biproducts are the best part of a jam. I could definitely see a full release of this, if the "picking up" aspect was streamlined, either the sword regenerated, or you had a pistol you switched to on a kill, something like that.

TheSoulSelectorSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

Really solid entry. I enjoyed it and my only real feedback to add to that below is I was excited my game pad worked, that is until i could not duck, or fight. Gamepad would have made the action more accessible for me for sure. Solid work

Submitted

Six Sided Solids

FallNight64Developer3 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the feedback!

That's fair, I overlooked the gamepad and left default values in there on account of not having one myself and assuming that we'll be using computers anyway. It's a good suggestion and whilst I can't test it, I can try and hook up some gamepad inputs, I do think the fluidity of movement and mouse control with swinging will be lost with a gamepad and I have not used a gamepad in ages, however I'll see what I can do.

Davide PerdonSubmitted3 years ago(+1)

This game has a huge scope and gets really near to achieve it, but in my humble personal opinion, there are some flaws.
Everything is done very well but the levels are not on the spot. The coolest thing is the movement that is fast and has a really great feeling but the levels, on the other hand, focus too much on fighting, which in my opinion is not the strongest feature of the game.
Another thing that slows the pace of the game is the E to pick up swords.
Changing those things would probably result in an amazing game, great work!

Submitted

Wolo - We Only Lived Once

FallNight64Developer3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the feedback!

You're very much right on that, the movement system and the combat mechanics don't fit too well together, requiring staying close, swinging and parrying, it's not really until the boss fights that the Arena lends itself better to using mobility to avoid their area attacks I believe.

I had overscoped for sure, yeah, originally I planned a melee system and a spellcasting system, skills you get from defeating enemies which would then be consumable abilities of one time use, with enemy variety, but I realised that having to make all those spells would be too much and focused on the melee.

Having to press E to pick up swords... it does limit what I can do with the combat, since after one strike it breaks and I have to throw and retreat to pick a new one up, it certainly shows I think that I could have done something different with the sturdier swords at the end level.

redd096Submitted3 years ago(+1)

The player movement and actions are really well done.

I think it would have been better with fewer enemies in the rooms, maybe with more variation of behaviour: bigger with slow movement and attacks but more damage, one who revives after few seconds, and so on.

Submitted

Wolo - We Only Lived Once

FallNight64Developer3 years ago

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm glad you like the movement! You're right about the enemies, I should really put more control into how many of them are active at a time rather than leaving it to a random timer, leaving out the sometimes quiet sections or sometimes overwhelming sections. More enemy variety would have definitely made things more interesting too.

Alot of my time went into experimenting with the animations and creating a character that can swing from most of the angles intuitively, probably should've made the different swings more integral to the gameplay if I was going to put all that effort into it, but no time, haha. It'll probably make a good project to further develop though.

ColesyySubmitted3 years ago(+1)

I really like the wall climbing aspect of this game, it adds a lot to the fluidity of the game. The headshot multiplier is a nice touch and the gore feedback after deflecting a bullet back or throwing your sword at the snipers head is really satisfying.

I think the boss is a bit too punishing as it shouldn't do that much damage for the area of its attack. Perhaps add more healing options in the boss fight. Maybe add a stun effect to the enemies after you parry them, so that they feel more useful. Then add a parryable attack to the boss to balance the difficulty. The sound effects on the sword are very nice also.

Overall, a really good piece of work. Well done!

Submitted

FallNight64Developer3 years ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, the boss is a bit tough, it'll certainly get almost everyone on the first encounter. I think due to it's damage and slightly small arena, I'll lower it for the update for sure. As for the parry, you're right that it might not feel effective, since there's a % chance that they'll be stunned or they'll actually parry your counter attack, I'll need to see about making it less frequent. The boss also preforms normal attacks that are parryable, but it sounds like I'll need to reduce the frequence of their big attacks.

Thanks for playing through it!