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Grave Robber (Game Jam version)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #10 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Visuals | #18 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Overall | #34 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Audio | #48 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Notes from gameplay:
- Main menu page looks great! I love the torch animation. Background music is minimal but creepy
- Title font is nice. The other options are a bit too "clean" in comparison to the weathered look of the title, maybe they could have some weathering as well.
- Mouseover color isn't quite the same shade of yellow/orange. I like how the choices indent when you hover.
- Scrolling credits look nice! Great job with such detailed attritbutions!
- I like the use of a lantern instead of a flashlight - immediately sets the scene of an old-timey setting
- Lantern is kinda big and takes up a lot of screen real estate
- Tutorial tips cycle without player input, maybe wait for button presses before moving to next one
- Tab menu is great, looks like there's a lot to this game!
- Well-written text in the note. I love how you can toggle between font choices
- Zombie/fire demon thing started attacking me while I was reading the letters. Maybe pause game during menu interfaces. I didn't even walk a single step and I died.
- Shovel/left click doesn't seem to do anything
- Would be nice if the map showed an icon for where the player currently is
- Nice job with invisible wall bounding player in so they can't go across the bridge. Good flavor text about why we have to stay (debt payment)
- Found a blue ghost. Walked up and my lantern went out and s/he teleported away. Can't turn lantern back on. Looks like a fire demon is now circling that ghost - is it after me?
- Yep, it was. Game over man, game over. Can't seem to fight back.
- Round 3. My lantern seems to recover a bit after interacting with the blue ghost.
- Ambient sounds like the howling are spooky. A bit more variety would be nice (hearing lots of wolf howls)
- Man these fire demons are after me. I think my lantern flickers when he's near. Going to try no lantern this time. The note DID hint that the lantern would be both good and bad
- Quite hard to find things. An icon of where I am on the map or a minimap would help a lot. Map is quite dark without the lantern so it's tricky to see where things are.
- Ok, looks like keeping the lantern off helps me avoid firedude.
- Found a flashing note on a tree but can't figure out how to read it. Left click doesn't seem to be doing anything. Edit: just had to get the angle right to trigger interaction with left click
- Found the well, now I can orient myself better on the map
- Digging (hehe, pun) these letters, they add great flavor and lore to this game world
- Man, firedemon keeps getting me. I even tried using a blue ghost to fully extinguish my lantern :( I like how you can see his red glow to show you how close he is as you run away
- Huh, letter isn't on the tree by the well anymore. Is it random where they appear?
- Mausoleum appears to be locked
- I found a grave and dug up the coffin, opened it, but can't seem to get any loot from it
- Ugh and fire guy killed me again while I was trying to figure that out
- I like how the messages on the trees glow, makes them easier to see
- Killed AGAIN while reading a note. I'm even pausing during reading but due to the overlay text on the pause menu I have to unpause...
- I like how letters I've found go into the tab menu
- I found another grave but still can't figure out how to get anything from the open coffin. Do some graves have nothing inside?
- Found another grave - and got some coins!
- None of the graves I'm finding match the letters I've found, so I can't really do any puzzle solving here as the map's too big to return and easily find the grave again.
- Randomizing the letters (and maybe grave locations?) feels really frustrating when there's an instant death mechanic, as I can't even rerun the content I've already figured out.
- Fire demon runs faster than me, so it feels like I can't do anything once he's spotted me and starts chasing
- How do I get emblems?
- Killed yet again while in the middle of digging up a grave
Overall, I really liked the concept of this game - you created a great setting with the letters in the tab menu and the scenery assets you chose and had awesome flavor text enhancing this world through the additional letters I discovered. I played through about 10 times, but I don't think I can really make any more progress due to the instakill mechanic. It felt very frustrating, especially when the things to discover also seemed to be randomized - I didn't feel like I learned anything or improved after my deaths, which would make them less frustrating.
I think if you're going to keep the fire demon you need to either tone him down or introduce some easy/fun mechanics for dodging him or chasing him off. As-is, it felt like a constant litany of game over, which hindered me from fully playing the rest of this game. Again, I really liked the concept and wanted to find all the graves and the stories, but I could never last longer than 8 minutes, with most rounds lasting around 3-5 minutes.
I think this definitely has potential for refinement as well as expansion into more content and mechanics, it just needs some balancing.
I really like how you explain your gameplay. It is such a great feedback! We are happy to see you like the game idea, but we would have to change things for sure. We have to balance enemies and improve the learning process during gameplay to make easier to understand how to play (and probably some more things).
Just wanted to clear up "the fire demon" isssue a bit. It hates light, so bright light will protect you from it.
Thanks for the feedback! : )
Oh, heh, then I was doing the exact opposite thing I should have for the fire demon. It may be slightly buggy, however, as he attacked me right at the start when I had the lantern turned on and was reading letter.
Again just want to reiterate that I loved the narrative and setting you created! The letters were great.
Idk what to do next, I arrived at a temple but can't enter it, aside from the temple is a well that only has a note on a tree near it.
Maybe we did not make it clear, but the goal is to dig graves to get money and get out of the forest. They are scattered over the map and have to be found. Notes say if graves have something worth inside or if they are "cursed", but you have to interpet their messages.
I gave it a shot, but haven't rated yet, because I feel like I'm missing something obvious here. Am I supposed to be able to get into the mausoleums?
Yes, you can get into the mausoleums if you find the required emblems to open the doors. They can be found digging graves. It is difficult to enter, but there is a lot of money inside.
Ah. In my first attempt, I must have wandered around for half an hour without finding any graves at all. This time, I managed to find 850 gold - though every grave I found was purely by chance. Not sure how I was supposed to be finding them, but I was quite glad that the sky went red a bit later on because it made finding the graves actually possible.
I think the main problem is that you can either have a big level, or a dark level. Having both just doesn't really work. You did have a map, and added some distinct locations to help orientate, but all of the graves I found with anything worth inside them were nowhere near these locations so it was not of any real use. The player doesn't really have many issues finding the mausoleums, since they are big and bright. What they need are guidance to the graves.
I think the best idea would have been to concentrate the map down. Perhaps a quarter to an eighth of its current size. Have a few hidden graves, sure. But stick most of them in groups in graveyards - and instead make the punishment for digging up the "wrong" graves a lot higher. As it currently is, the graves are so hard to find and the punishment so slim (a single ghost spawned, maybe) that I dug up every single grave I came across, without ever really reading the notes. After all, if I walked away from a grave there was a very low chance of ever finding it again.
I would also recommend fading out the ghosts at long range, they were totally harmless as they were extremely easy to avoid. At least this way you might stumble into one, or it might sneak up on you. The red guy, not sure what his deal was. Seemed to be attracted to my location occasionally, but I just avoided him until he gave up. Until I screwed up and he instakilled me that is. Not sure what his deal was.
Thank you for your feedback, we really appreciate it : ). Actually, we agree with many of your points, specially the difficulty of finding graves. We did not intended to make it that difficult but some problems appeared during development and we run out of time to make changes. In the future, we might update the game and fix some of those problems.