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A jam submission

Pharaoh: Two Steps to HeavenView game page

Submitted by Xandruher, sfeldman, WigHz — 9 minutes, 4 seconds before the deadline
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Pharaoh: Two Steps to Heaven's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Graphics#24.7224.722
Audio#43.8893.889
Overall#73.7783.778
Fun#83.6673.667
Controls#93.6113.611
Accessibility#113.2223.222
Theme#163.8893.889
Originality#193.4443.444

Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Godot Version
4.1.beta1

Wildcards Used
Textless, Windy, Mythical Mashup

Game Description
Use the power of the shrines to fulfill your destiny!

How does your game tie into the theme?
Use the power of the shrines to fulfill your destiny!

Source(s)
N/A

Discord Username(s)
Xandruher#5792, WigHz#9838, sfeldman#9786

Participation Level (GWJ Only)
9, 4, 4

My game has an export for Linux, Windows, & Mac and/or is playable through HTML5

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Wow! Neat graphics, good polish and addicting gameplay - good job with this game!

I played it to the end and was quite surprised how long the game is actually. Also the different level themes added a "full game" feeling - well done! :)

Submitted(+1)

Awesome job, this was great! Really good use of the wildcards, and I'm a big fan of how you did the UI. There really is a surprising amount of levels/music/assets (everything really lol), I expected the game to end well before even getting to the lava area.

Small thing, but it was a little difficult on some of the later levels to tell where exactly the updraft winds were (the third power-up, not the jump or dash). I think it might just be due to a lack of contrast with the white wind lines against the third area's background since I only really was having trouble with it in there.

Overall though, great job!

Submitted(+1)

I completed the game! I love the Egyptian style, the audio and ESPECIALLY the graphics, 3D models looks very good. Downside is, my laptop can't run the game properly huhu. I love how I am able to dash, jump and fly through the game. 3D platformer style! Most rounds are easy but some rounds took me a while as I have to be quick. Overall, it is an amazing game!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing our game and your kind words and glad you liked it!

The graphics of this game took some time to make. Glad it turned out well!

On the other hand I guess that is the downside of trying a more detailed 3d game. It takes more performance and would require much more optimization.

Submitted(+1)

Crazy amount of output for a week long jam. The platforming was fun and I liked the timed abilities. Really impressive

Developer

Thanks for playing our game and your kind words and glad you liked it!

To be fair, it is not our first jam together and we already made a few before. Beside that I tend to spend a noticeable amount of time to jams. Texture Painting and Level Design kept the time flying.

Submitted(+1)

Really impressive graphics and it was fun to fly around as a pharaoh! My computer was able to run without lag, but it did take a while to load. The controls felt pretty good, but I would have liked to have more environmental hazards and obstacles. The platforming level design was done well though! Great work!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for playing our game and your kind words and glad you liked it!

Even we tried to optimize the performance, it would take more time to make it better. I guess that is some sort of result you get if you try to make a more detailed 3d game.

The hint with the environment hazards is a good point. We originally wanted to add more obstacles, but we needed to limit the over scope.

Submitted(+1)

The visuals and the music were impressive, I really liked the Egyptian aesthetics you chose. The game was intuitive to understand even without text, including the icons in the options menu. Using hieroglyphs for authors was so fitting for the Egyptian theme.

I liked the level variety, it was nice to look around in all the open areas and at the lighting effects in the closed ones.

The gameplay was simple at first, but started to feel quite challenging very soon. The timings for the shrine powers felt strict to me, there was just enough time to finish a section they were given for without slowing down. There is some flow to it though.

The game was very graphics intensive, unfortunately I’ve experienced game crushing too.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing our game and your kind words and glad you liked it!

I have to say, ancient stuff is also something I personally like and therefore I enjoyed making all the assets pretty much.

Yes, the shrine powers were timed. You have sometimes more options to finish a level but only 4 levels are affected of multiple ways to finish it. I originally wanted to have more paths for all levels, a short one which requires more skill and a long one which is easier but taking longer. But I ran out of time for this.

Submitted(+1)

I only managed to play the first couple of levels before I couldn’t stand the lag anymore, but it was very fun!

It has beautiful graphics, and I really enjoyed the platforming.

I think giving the option the lower the viewport resolution so that it’s easier to render would have made this much more playable on my laptop.

When I have the chance, I’ll boot up my main PC and play it properly!

Well done!

Developer

Thanks for playing our game and glad you liked it!

That is a good hint with the viewport, I wonder how something like this is made. We need to check that out!

Submitted(+1)

I have been thinking about what to say about this game the entire time I was playing but ultimately could not beat it because of the before mention crash and the fact that there were no config saved check points.... PLEASE PLEASE take the time to do this next time it is very easy and prevent crashes from ruining the enjoyment of the game players. I did watch the play through and maybe and would love to complete it myself if you guys have add that feature post jam.

Second and last complaint: Difficulty setting would be very nice and I would have suffered through the crashes if I could have toned it down, really easy to implement here to, just give more time on the power ups on easy difficulty.

Not a complaint, but my computer probably did not help with the gameplay, but found turning the mouse sensitively down made it a much more enjoyable playing experience so thank you for putting that in.

Now the good stuff:

Amazing artwork and sound truly mind-blowing for game jam, makes me question my abilities even when I am grabbing free assets to cope with my limits as an artist. The special effects, models, details on the pillars and background... I could just going on - oh the dark area was hard to see and glad it was short.

The controls (when the computer didn't limit me) were top notch. Moving the mouse overhead when needed for jumping down made the easy jumps - well easy and not frustrating, so again great job there. And this just show the capability of Godot for 3D platformers (others who dare attempt take note - this can be done [I am going to leave 3D to you guys for now].

One other note: Not a complaint more me being completely silly, I thought the shift was the up arrow and was trying to figure out why the hell you would use WASD, mouse, and arrow keys - then realizing my mistake cursed myself,

Oh if you wouldn't mind taking the next couple of game jams off to give the rest of us a chance that would be nice too... JK - really looking forward to your next games.

I will end with my just note: Please put check config saves, I really want to beat this game.

Thanks for submitting this game really inspires me to improve my games

Developer

a very valuable comment. Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to write it!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing our game and your kind words and glad you liked it!

Also thanks for this extensive feedback, helps us to improve for future!

I thought I made the game friendly enough that everyone has little challenge, but still can beat it. My plan was not to make it frustrating. But the hint of extending the shrine power times sounds like a good idea for the difficulty setting!

For handling difficulty, I originally wanted to have more paths for all levels, a short one which requires more skill and a long one which is easier but taking longer. But I ran out of time for this.

Developer

Your post made me grab myself by the collar and spin up this godot template project: https://github.com/Wiggan/GodotTemplate

So for future jams, config etc will be saved to disk. I also added the viewport scaling option which should drastically improve performance when set low.
Thank you again for your comment!

Developer (1 edit)

I made a game play video from start to end for those who have issues with the game or getting too frustrated or don’t have the time.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Finally, I managed to try this game. It was one of the first that caught my attention when I first looked at the submissions, but I couldn't find time before. :c

I loved the art—models, effects and textures. However, it was a bit frustrating that I had to jump to go up the stone stairs (are they considered stairs?). 
Sound was nice too. 
Overall, I had fun. :) Thanks for sharing c:

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing and thank you very much for the kind words. Happy you liked it!

Yes, it was planned as stairs, but making slopes is always annoying and we had no time for it, so I took the “cheap” way. Thanks for pointing that out!

Submitted(+1)

the polish on the texturing and lighting in this is crazy! unfortunately the platforming wasn’t the most fun, a lot of the same jumps and very slow movement. still amazing for a game jam game

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing our game and glad you liked the polishing. I tried to make the game as interesting as possible, e.g. putting in a world story which got represented visually. But thanks for pointing that out, would need to work on that if I do another 3d platformer!

Submitted(+1)

Game unfortunately crashed on me after failing some jumps on the third level (not ever time, just often enough I eventually gave up). My computer just might not be good enough, but a checkpoint would be nice, rather than starting over from the first level. But beautiful graphics (crazy you could do that in the timeframe), and other than the crashing,  fun!

Developer

Thanks for playing our game! Sad to hear that you got crashes. That is annoying. Yeah it is always a risk to take on 3d and such Textures, Lightning and all the stuff. Normally it would require much more testing to get the corner cases. Also one guy had extreme brightness for what ever reason.

The time pressure of jams helps to get stuff done I guess.

The hint with a progress save is very good. We prob. will keep that in mind for future.

Submitted(+1)

For me, Windows recognized the file as a virus, this seems to be an unfortunate bug :/

The game itself is visually stunning, it feels pretty polished, and the use of glyphs instead of text works well.
The pace of the game is good, since you can always stop at a platform with power-ups and look around. Sometimes it felt a bit annoying to redo the whole level after you missed a jump, but the level sizes were small enough so it was not a big issue. Finally, I also really liked the music here :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing our game and thanks for the kind words. Glad you liked it and the game turned out good.

The Windows Virus/Trojan Message also received another person. I really would like to know what happened here. Maybe it was because of Godot 4.1.beta1 and the build/export is not stable or the embed PCK or what ever. Sometimes it is pretty weird. Thanks for still playing our game beside this inconveniences.

Submitted(+1)

Could it be the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen feature? I stumbled upon it too... It happens because an app is not code-signed and/or it doesn't have enough reputation for SmartScreen. 

Downloading and playing it through the itch app effectively bypasses the warning and should protect you more—provided you have the sandbox feature enabled.

Submitted(+1)

Yes, in my case it was a defender issue. Similar to this one. Although this also already seems to happen when trying to download the game in the first place (I had to switch browsers to download it). I usually don't have this issue with godot games, only noticed it with one other game this jam.

Submitted(+1)

Yea sadly I couldn't get this game to run well on my PC - all the lighting effects just smudged and I couldn't see anything. The bits I saw looked and sounded excellent, and I'm very sad I wasn't able to play more

Developer

So sad to hear. Also thanks for providing me screenshots. Your game definitely looks much much unplayable brighter at all. We will try to find out what is the reason for that. Some Brightness Settings could have been good maybe? Thank you very much for the hint!

Submitted(+1)

The heaven level was frustrating haha. Amazing graphics and audio, this is super good. I can’t get over how good the game looks!

Developer

Haha actually the heaven was not supposed to be the hardest part of the game :D Thanks for playing our game and glad you liked the graphics and audio!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This game goes so freakin' hard. It's just unabashed, unashamed fun. I had a grin on my face the whole time I was playing.

Also, that subtitle. I see what you did there.

Developer

I hope I get the irony right here (I always struggle with jokes in English) and glad that you liked our game!

Regarding the subtitle we will never know the origin… :D

Submitted(+1)

Impressive graphics for the time. Was pretty straight forward nice platforming, the player character felt a bit slow for moving but overall the rest felt pretty good

Developer

Thanks for playing our game and glad you liked our game and the graphics!

Submitted(+1)

Really cool game! I especially liked the graphics. Sadly, the framerate suffered a bit for me but maybe that's just my PC. The level variety was great! I honestly did not expect that many visual types of levels! Audio was pretty good (I loved the music). The character movement could be improved (felt a bit stiff etc.) and I would have liked to have a bit more clarity where the "wind zones" are.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing our game and glad you liked it! Sad to hear you had some framerate problems, we tried to optimize but that is as always not an easy task.

Glad the level variety gets noticed and appreciated!

The two hints with the character controller and the wind zones are valid. Thanks for the feedback!