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Metroidvania Month 18

Hosted by Falcon Nova · #MetroidvaniaMonthJam

627

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A jam submission

Aiko and YoMiNoKuNi - Land of the DeadView game page

Submitted by DeeRaghooGames — 20 minutes before the deadline

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Aiko and YoMiNoKuNi - Land of the Dead's itch.io page

Results

Criteria	Rank	Score*	Raw Score
Metroidvania	#27	2.545	2.545
Overall	#32	2.455	2.455
Presentation	#32	2.727	2.727
Design	#34	2.455	2.455
Enjoyment	#39	2.091	2.091

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

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
Deeraghoo solo developer

External assets
Art Assets GameArt2D.com details on game page

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Comments

ZephyrSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Good effort here! I agree with most of what has been said, but I want to comment on a couple other elements that I think will help improve the game:

1. The moving platform physics felt a little strange to me, like it feels like a conveyor belt if you run against the direction they're moving. This resistance doesn't make sense.

2. Some of the level design was unclear. For example, In one of the early boards there's a platform in the underground section and it looks like you can jump from the platform to the room above but there's something invisible out of sight that blocks your head if you try to jump.

But yeah I think the biggest thing for me was I think you can come up with a more interesting way to start the game than a series of gem collection tasks.

Submitted

Missing Cats: Please Help!

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

thanks for playing and your comments, you made some valuable points that I would definitely take into consideration, I was having a lot of difficulty finding a hook for the game, and I do agree that the start is a bit dull with the gem collection, and my player controller needs a lot more work I agree.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can make the start of the game more interesting?

ZephyrSubmitted1 year ago (1 edit)

Good question! I'm a fan of starting with constrained exploration--letting the player explore a simple, relatively safe space that introduces movement mechanics and leads to the rest of the game. Often in metroidvanias there's a simple platforming section that leads to the first powerup, for example.

Jatin RathorSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

It is a good entry, but dodging bats is quite hard. and the movement felt slow as compared to the other element of game like those moving platforms and bats. Gems Idea was good, but it doesn't make it in the Metroidvania style. it feels odd to stopped because you don't have enough Gems in this type of games

Submitted

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

thanks for playing and your feedback . I was watching a play trough of castle Vania 3 and say the implementation for hearts as a means to have ammo for a special weapon, and implemented the gems ad the kunai was supposed to be a sub weapon, but I could not get my melee attack to work, so i left it at that, I do agree that loosing gems and not being able to shoot slowed the game so I decided to have the green bats drop 3 gems if they hit the player or if the player shoots them. there is still so much that I have to learn thanks for your feedback .

Team Y2KSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Cute game. I thought some of the gem collecting was frustrating. I got 6 gems in the first section, but I'm not sure how. I was jumping randomly and it just happened.

It looks like there is a lot of cool stuff in this game that is locked behind collecting gems. Gem collecting gets tiresome fast. It would be better to lead with something more interesting to hook the player.

Submitted

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

thanks for playing and your comments I agree ,and that was what I was struggling with , and in the end i just sold out and used gems also the jump pad was a bit finicky , I did try to add some depth to it by adding a store to upgrade your player stats. Did you manage to get to the end ? Do you have any Suggestions on what a good hook for this game could be ?

if you have some time you could checkout the play through vid I made of the first section.

Team Y2KSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Hi, gave it another shot and got a lot further. I found that 6th gem I was confused about in the first area - it was behind a bush. I'd move it out from there, it's tough to find. I got to the area where you have to go down and backtracked like the game said, but I accidentally used up all my kunai and couldn't remove the box to get the big gold gem. I really liked the store though! Getting upgrades like that was fun.

As for a hook, honestly I'd just remove the gem requirement. I think collecting currency is something players will want to do naturally and that having to get a certain number makes it less fun and more like a chore. I think the platforming is enough to drive the player through that section until they get the kunai and unlock the shop. Natural curiosity and being told to follow youkai will hopefully be enough to drive the player.

A few UI recommendations: the Restart and Continue buttons look almost identical right now. I would make the restart button red and add a big X or some other icon that indicates that it's not the option players should pick normally. Or maybe stack them vertically and put continue on top. For the shop: I'd limit the number of fonts and colors going on. I'd say for a project of this length 2 fonts, maybe 3 different styles using those fonts. That way you can have headings, subheadings, and paragraph text.

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for giving it another try , now that the jam is over and so too the holidays I can get back to working on finishing this project, thanks for the valuable feedback I started implementing changes today, and i must say that I am really pleased with all the feed back I got and ways to improve, I have already removed the need to collect gems as the main focus, I gave the player a shuriken that does 1 damage and is unlimited and the kunai that uses the gems and does 4 damage and also increased the health on the enemies I have also added random drops to the enemies as the currency to buy power ups , to give players a reason to kill enemies. thanks for your suggestions, I have not updated the game on the game page yet but I will at the end of January, when I update the UI , menu ,boss battles and make a trailer, Hope you give it another go when I am finished !

CubelliaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

This is a cute looking game! I also can't figure out how to get the 6th ruby at the beginning to proceed, though.
Trying to collect the one on the left is especially frustrating because every time I try to jump to get it, I retrigger the sign dialogue; I'd suggest making reading signs a button press rather than an automatic thing, or just disabling them after the first time you read them
Really curious as to how Nick below managed to get past the intro room, because it seems like there's some real cool stuff I can't get to :(

Submitted

Drasilia : ad nihilum

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

posted a reply but I am not sure if it went trough but here goes again thanks for playing and your remarks , there is a gem behind the foreground bushes, i put a hit if you talk to Youkai and you do not have enough gems, I agree the signs are are annoying, thankfully there are not many past the first area , here is the thing i was watching my son play ASTRONITE and he kept trying to avoid the signs , that was very annoying to me so made it so that he could not pass mine then I forgot to change it for the final build

you could check out my play trough of the first area if you get stuck again

kuzmakaSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Appealing graphics and sound! I'd be glad to play further from the start area but was unable to collect gems in the first area, is it possible? I see the same complaint in the comment below.

Submitted

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

thanks for playing and your reply, yes it is set up so that you get just 25 gems to fight Youkai ,just collect all the gems that you can and ignore the ones that you can not reach

you can check out my play through video of the first area of my game if you get stuck

kuzmakaSubmitted1 year ago

Managed to overcome the first location, I think the secret jem is very restrictive for the introductory location, I didn't notice any hint of it hidding behind the bush, and on the left there was obvious unreachable gem keeping me retrying to get it.

Very soon after the first location I encountered bat battle where bats just kill me constantly and I just can't do anything against them, and I even don't understand what to do next - should I continue to collect jems, or find another path, or kill bats with help of other hero - it's totally unclear. I've retried until game allowed me to press "Continue" but after some number of retrial this option disappeared and only "Restart" was available, and I gave up.

Nice graphics and music, btw! Maybe it's just me not getting the gameplay right.

NickMckinnisSubmitted1 year ago

I couldn't figure out how to get 2 of the gems in the beginning (the one behind the the crate and the one too high to reach from you starting position) The game has a cool look to it and it seems to have an actual story but I couldn't get far enough to really enjoy it. What is the solution to getting those 2 gems?

Submitted

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago(+1)

Thanks so much for playing ! I put so much effort into making this game feel right but with only a month it is difficult,

I tried to make the first level passable enough to get to the second level but was struggling with the controls feeling right. so you need to go all the way to the right where you will find master Youkai that will tell you you need 25 gems, you just play trough the game collecting ad many gems as you can ignoring the ones you cannot reach ( you can only get 25 )then you, go to master youkai , do the boos battle ()you will die a lot) after the boss battle you get the trowing knife that destroy the boxes use this to get the area on the bottom right there you will get the wall run ability you use this to wall run and you get to Tenku's shop where you can trade your death points for health potions and you go back to the beginning of the stage were you can destroy the box collect the yellow gem and wall run into the second level, the game really picks up from there.

NickMckinnisSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

I totally understand what you mean. Although I am proud of what my team mate and I built in a month, it's easy to see only what you didn't have time to finish. I will give your game another try, and hopefully I can figure out how to get enough gems haha. Great job!

NickMckinnisSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Whaaaaaaat?!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this gem has a full stat upgrade system. Getting the kunai and finally fighting back after being helpless felt good too. Nice work! As others have said, all of the dialogue happening each time you pass the signs is a bit frustrating, especially with the amount of backtracking in this genre.

I'm glad I played it again!

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

thanks for trying again , and I do agree I have fixed the dialogue issue and working on other bugs let me know if you get to the end ! but I will update it at the end of the rating because I am not sure if i can update during. I really Appreciate your feed back!

geomagasSubmitted1 year ago(+1)

Very nice graphics and effects, but the character often doesn't line up with the platforms (seems like hovering over them).

Also, having to go through each dialog every time you are near a sign (even if you jump over it!) and having to click "next" all the time feels awkward...

Submitted

DeeRaghooGamesDeveloper1 year ago

Thanks for playing and your feedback,

I was experimenting with making a movement system that does not use unity physics system, but I think that Unity tile maps system is not playing nicely with my colliders