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A jam submission

ApostasyView game page

An RPG where as you go further you lose your faith in your order and thus level down losing your abilities.
Submitted by DragonHeart000 (@rileyshumway) — 22 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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Apostasy's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Design#2633.4553.455

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

A decent idea, just wish there was a bit more too it.  I wish there were more content here.

Developer(+1)

Thanks. I added as much as I was able to with the time provided but I agree it would have been better had I been able to add more abilities and make the game longer.

If I do end up continuing with the game (which I might not because whilst making this I had a bug that inspired me to make a whole different game which I think would be more fun) I will likely be remaking it from scratch and just using the concept. I had a lot of limitations from how I implemented the level creation from the start so if I restart I can fix that and then design better levels and add more abilities.

Submitted(+1)

It wasn't much but the use of theme was interesting. 

Well done on using Java, most wouldn't be able to or even think about making a jam game from scratch.

There was a way to wall jump. I'm not sure if that's a bug or not but I used it because it seemed like the only way to progress sometimes.

I think if this idea is explored further it would be cool if the level was completable with any combination of lost power-ups. It might be a headache design wise but I think it would be a cool kind of "create-your-own-puzzle" sort of thing. It could be easier or harder depending on what you picked.

Developer

Yeah that last part of what you said was really the feel and idea I was going for so I am glad that people could understand the idea even though it may not have had a perfect level design for it. Design the levels was already a huge headache even with how few abilities there are and how short it is.

As for the wall jumping it was originally a bug but seeing that I kind of liked the idea of allowing wall jumping I built the levels with it in mind. That is why you have to go through a very curvy maze like part right before you have to actually use it. The intent was to make the player hit a wall so they would see it's kind of sticky and then when they see the next obstacle they would hopefully have figured it out from that that they could wall jump.

As for the Java thing I normally make software and am very used to JavaFX and have made very few things in game engines so I felt more comfortable in it. I likely will not be doing it that way again in the future though. I spent too much time just getting the normal basics of a game working that in a game engine would be working from the start. This was my first game jam and my first "real" solo game. I have made games before but nothing like this.

Submitted

A little clunky and buggy, but it fits the theme well and shows interesting implications.

Developer

Thanks!

Yeah, the clunkyness came from me choosing to do it with just java and not using a game engine. I certainly will not be doing that next time.  Glad you liked the concept though! :)

Submitted

You've done yourself a disservice by using barebones Java :D
The game is wonky, but the concept is strong. Yet, there's one very bad design decission - you choose your power down before knowing what's ahead, that's what made me stuck after the first (i picked collision).

Developer(+2)

Yeah, I found that out shortly after starting that using bare bones java was gonna be tough. Typically I just do software so I am very used to using JavaFX. I was hopping that my knowledge of that would be enough. This is my first game jam and I didn't know what to expect and to some extent it was my first game I did by myself. If I do end up going further with this idea I will likely remake it entirely using a real game engine.

As for the second part of your comment, it is actually possible to not have collisions on from the first level (and from my testing it is the optimal pick). The only ones that will make it impossible for you not to finish is if you pick to remove left on the first one or jump on any but the last two. I may patch it so it will always be possible. Here is how you do the second level without collisions: https://i.gyazo.com/e1eadd5223cba0104bcb80f7229367c1.mp4 (The recording cut off but I was about to jump to the double jump pickup at the end there)

Submitted(+1)

Then you're good for a first jam experience :)

Oh, there's walljumping, I didn't know :D

Developer

Thanks. Also, I tried to teach wall jumping through the level design. That's was half of the intention of the maze like part right before you hit section 2.  (The other half being to teach players that removing some abilities will result in better rewards since it's possible to remove collisions and just go past it faster) Apparently I did not do that right though. I tried very hard to teach the player everything they would need to know from the first section, I am a huge fan of teaching the tutorial via level design. Every single block in the first section was VERY specifically placed to try to teach the games rules and mechanics.

Submitted

Interesting concept. Would love to see this explored. Would have preferred if there was always a way to clear the level, even if it wasn't immediately obvious. I would have also liked if you didn't go back to the beginning of the stage every time you died.

Developer(+2)

Thanks! Maybe it would have been better if I only let you lose abilities that would still allow you to finish if lost. There is certainly multiple ways of finishing it but getting rid of jump before the last two results in a failure and getting rid of left on the first one does too. If I had more than the 48 hours I really could have done a lot more with adding more abilities and really perfecting the level design. As for going back to the start I felt it was better to do so for a few reasons, most prevalent being that it's far too easy if you do have check points but also it takes away from the learning curve since you get to see what was there and decide on that what you may not wanna lose next run. Also it would take away from the story that I incorporated in the dialogs.

Submitted(+1)

Don't take this the wrong way! I had fun exploring the different possibilities of the game :). It is a concept I'd like to see expanded for sure! I am really interested on how a larger version of this would be :) 

Submitted

Cool concept that led to some interesting decisions. The game itself wasn't too interesting, however. Something a bit longer could have really shown off the gimmick.

Developer

Thanks, originally I planned on having a ton of abilities and enemies and all sorts of things. But as it got closer to the end of the jam I had to cut some ideas. This was my first jam so I didn't do well with having an idea that would be done in time and I also didn't use a game engine so a lot of my time was wasted getting basic things to work. Also, the way I made the map took a really long time. I was using a hash map so it was just a string that was read with a for loop then drawing nodes at the spots it would represent. Because of this it made visualizing the map much harder and I would have to edit it in text, try it, then go back and adjust. It just made making the map take a long time. If I continue with the game in the future that time won't be an issue so the map would certainly be longer and there would defiantly be more abilities.

Submitted

Ok game. Did have some collision issues.

Developer(+1)

Kinda, the game is just checking to see if the character is going to collide with another node and then prevented it. This resulted in that sticky wall jumping so what I did was just design the level around that. There was one part where you had to wall jump. I tried to make sure it would never get in the way. Other than that wall jump part the collisions went pretty smoothly.