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The Legend of the Phantom Blade's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound/Audio | #9 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Visuals(Graphics) | #10 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Overall | #12 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #13 | 2.778 | 2.778 |
| Fun | #16 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://itch.io/dashboard/game/2093709/devlog
Developer Feedback Questions
If you take a look at just the 30 first seconds of the youtube video, you will get a pretty good idea of how the first submission was. There are many changes ever since, for the better I hope, and there are more to come...
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Comments
I had fun playing this. I got lost for a little bit, but I did manage to figure it out and get the sword, then get out the exit.
I had a few moments where my guy got stuck in this 'climbing' animation while facing the camera when I was trying to grab on to the wall. I got out of that issue by running into the wall and trying again to jump onto it. Eventually, that worked. I'm not quite sure how it got it stuck like that. I just ran up to the wall to grab it and 99% of the time it was fine, so I'm not sure what I did unfortunately.
It looked and sounded great. The game felt good to play as well. I like how the ability to climb on all the surfaces off-sets the fact that your guy can't jump very well. I only took damage once and that was when I fell from pretty high up, mostly to check if fall damage was a thing. It would be a good idea to add in a bit for variety to the challenge, like enemies or a puzzle or something like that. Doesn't need to be everywhere, just a little bit here and there.
Thank you.
You did nothing wrong; the glitch of the animation it is one last bug remaining to the state machine and colliders. I will address it when I redesign this system.
The falling damage is a thing! At the moment it is a constant number but will turn proportional to the falling height. The ability to climb everywhere and hang and walk while hanging, will be reduced to some parts of the maze and be explained from sprites (ladders, grips). The jump is... yeah, realistic :-) Maybe too realistic, but anyway!
It is a little boring indeed so more content will come later, which will include enemies and traps (no puzzles for this level though; the maze is enough on its own ;-)).
The idea is good at the first place, and spider-knight is very fun, but gradually I felt tired... What is the point of this game? Wandering in that huge maze for so long that it becomes boring, getting a sword in the end, and it still does not let me go away...
Thank you.
Well, it is not yet complete. The sword will give the ability to "see" things in this other dimension and also move defying gravity (prototype mechanism is done, I just need to use it).
And if you imagine that this is a level in-between levels, then it is not so pointless, I believe. You seek a sword; this may not be the first level, and as soon as you get it you may proceed to next levels/goals using your new powers.
If you head back to the entrance you can attack the barrier. There is also a hint saying so. Or gather again all the ioun stones which will also attack and drop the barrier.
This level has three endings. Go out with or without the sword and die (not really an ending, but, whatever, there is a different end story).
Maybe. For some reason I can't attack with a sword (most certainly I have failed to find a corresponsive input mapping).
What do you mean? is either "Ctrl" not working? You can try that with the torch as well.
You can find all controls under the "controls" in the main or pause menu.
Oh, regarding the boring, yes... I know, it is not very fun at the moment. New content will include traps and enemies for constant player engagement :-)
Yeah, a great way to improve the gameplay. Looking forward for it!
I really like the movement in this game, really satisfying to run and jump. I also love your choice of the Lego style! Did you make the models or download them? Gonna check out the description again in case it's there. I also like the game overall but after a while it can seem to be a bit like wandering without a clear goal. I spent some time looking through every tunnel and branch and it quickly became disorientating, which isn't exactly bad for this kind of game. The kind where you have to draw the map on a sheet of paper to keep track of every twist and turn. Very good game!
Thank you. I intend to make the path a little clearer, insert distinct "marks" which will help players not exactly memorize the maze, but not to get lost so easily.
To create the sprites for the knight was a tedious process, one which I must repeat to enrich the animations. I first had the model created in the Bricklink Studio 2, then I rendered it and then I edited the rendering to chop off and adjust the sprites... In the future I will have a 3D model and display it in 2D. That is allowed ;-)
Nice concept, I liked the artstyle and sound. Brings up memories of some old platformer games from childhood :) The lighting system makes the dungeon climatic, you could even consider to make it darker overall.
Wallclimbing is buggy. When you drop from edge without jumping and then come near wall the wallclimb animation does not play and character can't climb upwards. Sometimes I feel like part of game is thinking that player is wallclimbing and part is not. I took fall damage because of that in a situation when I certainly should have not taken it (I dropped from wall just above the floor and still took fall damage). Also for example when climbing down the wall and holding move towards wall player gets stuck on wall corner. Just pointing out things here to help you fix it but I guess you probably are aware of these issues.
The autojump on edge should be disabled by default imo. Knowing when to jump is a huge part of platforming and this is taking it away, and sometimes it even is annoying if you want to drop instead of jumping. But this is just my opinion, you do what you want :)
Thank you. Yes, there are still some collider issues, the thing you mention is happening because the collider is not out of the collision to trigger a new one and therefore change the state. I will work on that at some point, but since it is somewhat working, there are some other issues prioritised at the moment. I will definitely revisit this whole mechanism, it is planned for later.
Yes, the auto jump. That was in without an option to turn it off, after a comment like yours, I introduced it as a game setting. I also think that it should be turned off by default; platformers where good to me. I might as well set it up so. There are some people which found that very cool, platformers where not so good to them, that is why it is still there.
Hi, as I was going over the comments again, I saw I've missed to answer regarding the light. I had it far darker at the beginning, but people complained that it was too dark and then I changed to the D&D rules of lighting. At least this way it is a standard rule :-) Although, these rules only apply to the torch and candles. The overall ambient light might go down a wee bit more. I will see.
I felt that the traversal is very slow, something we have to thing as designers is like, the engagin part of the puzzle, is thinking of how to solve the puzzle, then we have to consider the time the player takes from "ideia" to "input", and a maze is kind of a problem in this sense.
I felt that I had an idea, like "oh, I need to get there, so I just need to follow this walls, and I will probably get to the place I wanna go", but the walk was so slow, it kept me disengaged with the gameplay, if you need to walk this slow, we need to make the traversal more fun in and of itself.
For me the moments I had most fun was when I was falling a pit, and needed to grab the edge of the wall before taking fall damage, but those moments are few and far between.
Also I got kind of discouraged to explore some plcaces due to the sole reason of the effort it would need to come back to where I was.
Those are my impressions, good game tho, I love the way the inteface feels like those old games from master system and the likes, it was a throw back.
Thank you. Yes, it is still somewhat boring and does not engage the player. Content with enemies and traps to spice things up is planned. There is still much to do. Also a mini-map used like a radar to pinpoint the current location and the destination; I had many comments of the maze being too hard. I guess no one ever played Eye Of The Beholder 2? Back in the day, I had to write down in paper all the levels to find my way around. And it was a 3D maze...
personally I really liked the maze, the level of difficult of the maze, and SPECIALLY the "compass" system (the little lights tha keep showing the direction you need to go), this is something that I really miss in so many maze games where you are just lost as to where you should head to. I think no minimaps are needed, but I think you knows best what you wanna include or not in the game :)
Is that so? That is a very nice thing to say! I wanted to improve this mechanism by using paths, but all I can think right now is that I will need to place nodes in every junction. I am not sure how to do it yet.
Neat game and I like your little lego figure character, climbing and jumping controls worked well for the game. Very challenging as well, it took me quite a while just to unlock the sword. Looks like it has come a long way since it's conception as well! Nice job on this one I'll be excited to see future updates.
Thank you. I have seen it being challenging as you say, but I really cannot understand why. The movement seems so smooth to me. If you are referring to the maze, the next version will include a mini map as a hint, like a radar, instead of the "flying pointer".
Anyway, I still have things to improve, the states are still a mess and I need to increase the frames of almost every animation.