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Micro RPG's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #499 | 3.788 | 3.788 |
| Overall | #565 | 3.848 | 3.848 |
| Style | #702 | 4.030 | 4.030 |
| Creativity | #1140 | 3.727 | 3.727 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The game is SMOL (72x56 1-bit pixels) but with a big heart
Development Time
96 hours
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
All Game Assets created by KoWallaBear for use in MicroRPG for the 2024 GMTK Game Jam
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Comments
Wow, really good concept and great execution, I had an amazing time!
The font was hard to read at first but I eventually good used to it.
I really like the dodge mechanic, but for the attack I don't get why I should use the standard attack instead of magic (except with the upgraded sword at the end).
Overall, great take on the theme and really fun game, it's probably one of the highest rating I gave so far, congrats!
Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you were able to get used to the text, haha. With more time I definitely would have balanced magic a bit more, maybe a once per battle type of thing or something. For now it's "balanced" by having to put in all the work to scroll down to it 😅
This is super cute! I love turn-based RPGs. I agree that the font was a big issue though. Trying to read it strained my eyes a little bit, and there was some text in the game I just gave up trying to decipher altogether and hoped wasn't important (including the very first NPC!). I liked the little dodging minigames - I'm always a fan of when RPGs provide some means to dodge attacks. Good work on this overall.
Thank you! I'm glad to have fans of turn-based RPGs play to get specific feedback there too :)
Knowing the text would be a bit hard to read, I opted to make it less important; the main ones that really matter are the second Page which gives you "a new spell" and upgrades your magic power, and the second-last which upgrades your sword attack. Well, that and the final "The Graviturgist Blocks the Exit", but most of the rest are just extra bits of lore. Thanks for playing!
One of the most enjoyable games I've played in this jam. I really like the active parts of the turn based attacks, like jumping to dodge and pressing space to attack multiple times. The style is nice, but the text is very hard to read.
Thank you for your kind words! I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad you liked the mechanics, as they were a big focus of what little time I had to balance the game!
Very fun game! but it was kinda hard to read the text
Thank you for playing! From other recommendations I might add some kind of accessibility setting or toggle to make the text more legible, even if it momentarily breaks immersion
Very neat little game - I especially liked the timed mechanics in a turn-based setting. Cool devlog, too!
Oh hey thanks for reading the devlog! I hope it helps articulate all the nerdy energy I put into this game 🤓
Thanks for the play!!
Wow! This really goes to show how much can be done with so little! And the action twist you introduced to the JRPG formula was simple and fun! It's the kind of game that inspires you to go and make your own take on the genre! The only thing that dampened the experience for me was the legibility of the text, though obviously you were constrained by the use of it for the sprite work as well. Specifically 'A', 'E', 'G', and 'M' gave me trouble, the rest were fine.
Thank you for your kind words, and thanks for the play! Yeah, kind of unfortunate that the worst letters are the ones in GAME but oh well 😅
That didn't even occur to me haha!
Really fun game! The art is surprisingly readable, (though the text not so much). The game feels really well polished, and the dodging mechanic is intense and rewarding. I like seeing my healthbar grow with each enemy I defeat hitless, and man those clones sure are something. I really like the style too, reminds me of PICO-8 games and it feels well balanced too, although maybe magic is too OP? I think that the only thing I would add to this game is maybe some sfx for when you collect the key, I wasn't sure what it was at first.
Ooh, good point on the key sfx. I unfortunately ran out of time for some of the sound design I wanted to add, but that's a good one to improve.
You're right, magic *is* pretty powerful, especially if you can hit the super tight timed hit window to double the hit (see the developer challenges). I decided not to tweak it too much since I wanted to keep the numbers low for simplicity sake.
Love the black-and-white retro style so much.
I'm glad you like it, thanks for playing!
cool game, i like the art style, the clasic black and white
Thank you! And thanks for playing!
I love the artstyle and the gameplay is smooth, The font is cool but very hard to read so maybe just some translate button would be cool cus it does fit the theme of the game
Oh yeah! That's a good idea, especially from an accessibility point of view. Certainly a good idea for a future improvement!
Very impressive, I can't believe my brain translated black and white pixels to letters of the alphabet that easily.
Thanks! Glad you were able to read it, it was a bit of a struggle to make it work with the limitations 😅
It is an interesting RPG-based game. The only problem I had was with the font. Did not complete the whole game but I think there is only one boss that repeats with increased attack? May be in the future you can add different bosses with different attacks and abilities and make this game massive! However, I enjoyed it. Well done!
Yes, the enemies were supposed to have a bit more variety than the speed of their projectiles. The Last boss on Level 1, the Graviturgist, is the only one that's really any different, as you can't see the projectile before he shoots it. With more time though I'd love to add more mechanics! Thanks for the play :D
Incredible job. Full review in dms. Smol comment, for smol gam.
hehe thank!
I like the style and the sfx but I think the monsters are too repetitive, Overall good job!
Thanks! More complex enemies was something unfortunately left on the cutting room floor given the Jam time limit, so I definitely agree.
I'm really impressed with how readable everything was at such a tiny scale! It's a sign that you did a fantastic job in UI and character design. Great job!
Thank you for your kind words! It was definitely a challenge, but creating things with limitations like that is what I find fun! :P
I really like the exectution on this really cool base idea ! Glad to see that other people also used the bicolor style :D Congrats on the game, it's really clean :D
Thanks! I loved your game too :D
Wow! Loving how teeny tiny this is. It's really hard to make sprites at such a low res, but you've nailed it. Great tiny 3x3 font too! Imagining playing this on a really tiny handheld device that would fit on a keychain, hehe!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for playing :)
Maybe I'll try to mock this game up on an arduino or something, and add a teeny display!
cute tiny game! the text was definitely hard to read, but it felt impressive how much you could fit into such tiny sprites!
Thank you for playing! I'm definitely open to suggestions on the text thing :)
Reading the text was quite the challenge, but playing it felt pretty nice, art and music were perfect especially with these constraints.
It was a challenge to make the 3x3 text sprites too! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Nice concept and gameplay was also fun but had a hard time reading those texts. Great job!! As a suggestion it would have been better if i could control the player move around and fight the enemy rather than an static fight.
Suggestion noted! I wanted to evoke classic turn-based combat, with some inspiration from the mario&luigi series (etc) with timed hits and dodges. Glad you enjoyed it!