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A jam submission

AshBoundView game page

A Game for Open Game Arts Summer Game Jam 2023
Submitted by thebirderer — 1 day, 3 hours before the deadline
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AshBound's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Visuals#14.7144.714
Audio#34.0714.071
Overall#33.9573.957
Overall#53.8573.857
Story/Narrative#63.6433.643
Gameplay#93.5003.500

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

Very epic looks & atmosphere. Controls are not very intuitive, and it took me a while to figure out what "time jump with fireball" means. After some point the enemies stopped doing damage, probably for the best as then I could just enjoy exploring the scenery.

Submitted(+1)

A really cool game that I'm very impressed by! I think there should have been a sound effect for jumping and also the fireball recharge time should have been faster. The mechanics are also rough around the edges, but a project of this scale in such a small time frame is impressive!

I encountered a glitch where on the third screen, the player went invisible for some reason?

Developer

Thanks for playing! I will investigate and hopefully find a way to fix it

Submitted(+1)

I have re-downloaded the game and that has fixed the issue. This is probably one of if not the best game I've found in this jam! 

At least for me, I am used to using WASD to move and since those keys are closer on the keyboard to the slash, spell and jump keys it might be easier for players to move with them. That's probably just a me thing though. 

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic Castlevania like . Great use of 2D assets from OGA site. There are some bugs i spotted. One of them is that the game froze once when i tried to climb the wall right after the fire ball jump hint at the beginningI think the bug was triggered when i tried to hit w and jump at the same time. The 2nd one is that the last boss couldn't deal any damage on me. Once again a great game, but i couldn't see much relevance to the theme, not a big deal. I'm also curious about what game engine you used.
Nice job!

Developer(+1)

I made the game in Game Maker Studio 2, though most of my bugs for collision originate from me trying to use the new move and collide function that they recently introduced and still using my own coded collision. The bugs usually appear when the drop down platforms meet the sloped collision and  I probably should have done it all as one or the other but hindsight is 20/20.  Originally, the player's mana bar would kill them when it fully fills up and can be only decreased by hitting enemies with spells but I cut it for time as I got distracted like a golden retriever who just spotted a tennis ball. Thank You for playing :)

Submitted(+1)

I loved the art and music. The combat felt pretty good. Unfortunately, I had a really hard time with the platforming. It took me a ton of tries to bounce on the fire. Overall, pretty good job.

Developer

Thanks for playing my game! I had doubts about the recharge rate for abilities as I had little to no play test time.

(+1)

Things I liked:

Artstyle:

Always glad to see Ansimuz's stuff get some love.

Controls:

Bouncing was fun, and I found the fire boost mechanic interesting but a little clunky.

Music:

The music worked very well, although I'd suggest a more creepy theme for the boss battle.

Things I disliked:

Combat:

Combat did not seem to have much impact for me, and the single melee attack made it pretty difficult.

Jumping:

Jumping seemed pretty floaty to me.

Blind Jumps:

There are a couple places in the game where blind jumps are required.

Bugs:

I encountered several bugs in the game, including at one point where I could fall off the edge of the map and get softlocked, and an invincibility glitch.

Synopsis:

A little rough around the edges, but the core game itself has really good potential, with a little work you could have a really fun game.

Thanks for your entry. :)

Developer(+1)

Unfortunately, I had committed the major sin of not play testing enough. I did have a combat system designed for multiple spells and certain attacks would stun normal enemies if they where weak to them. I didn't plan out my time, just like my last jam so I spent way to much of it time rolling around my work like a rotund penguin who was punted off a cliff. You have listed all valid and helpful points that I agree with and I do plan on doing a post jam update that will hopefully address all the bugs. If anyone has a good system with helping you manage and plan your time that would be super helpful. Thank you for the Feedback and playing my game!

Submitted(+1)

This could be a pretty decent (S)NES style metroidvania! The audio and visuals were nice and worked quite well with each other, in my opinion. I liked the idea of having a melee and spell attack. The inclusion of some dialog added that little extra to the game. I appreciated there were multiple locations across the various maps!

I really enjoyed bouncing while crouching while jumping! I wish there was more of an in-game reason for it, but just having it made me smile!

The combat felt a little weak. Hitting an enemy (especially with the sword) didn’t give much of an impact when it landed. More over, though, the attack area for the sword, coupled with the speed of the attack, meant there was a lot of distancing myself from the enemies and timing when I pressed the attack button so that the attack would land without taking any damage. The spell attack was even worse. The cast time was quite long and easily interrupted, making the spell attack near impossible to cast. These issues could easily be adjusted, of course, but, for me, as they currently are, the attacks were way too difficult to use effectively.

I also encountered a bug… I was killed by an enemy at one point and, upon respawning in the level, I was immune to taking any damage. I could attack and move like normal, but none of the enemies could hurt me at all! On the bright side, it meant I was able to travel through and see the final boss :)

Over all, I thought this was a really good entry, and could be a wonderful little throw-back metroidvania!

If you are interested in seeing my time with the game, I played your entry during a recent live stream.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Loving the Castlevania vibes! If you were to keep working on this game I'd think about making it full metroidvania with ability gates etc.. Just a thought. :) I thought the look and atmosphere of the game were fantastic. Enemy variety is really cool. Only constructive criticism I can give on that (and could be a matter of opinion): 

-Maybe gameplay generally (player movement essentially) could be slightly faster? Felt slightly sluggish to me. 

-The jump mechanic I'd have preferred to be more responsive (instead of just triggering a jump, maybe only jumping while holding down  jump to be able to have more control over the jump).

-The fireball mechanic could be explained more clearly, you can use a lot of maga trying to work it out.

-Maga should recharge faster, with more ways of recharging it, as now there's a lot of waiting.

Like I say, just my opinion, someone else may disagree with me! 

There were a couple of bugs, to be expected in a game jam, but the notable ones for me were 1) I became invincible after the 2nd restart. 2) On about level 5 or 6, I tried the wall jump to clamp to the wall, and the game bugged out and had to force close it. Like I say, to be expected for a game jam, certainly with such a large game made in just a month.

Generally a really impressive entry, good job! :) 

Developer

The deadline kind of snuck up on me but I agree with all of your feedback. I wish I had more time to play test but that is the nature of game jams. I appreciate the invaluable feedback and Thanks for playing :)

Submitted(+1)

A good game the fireball jump mechanic is a bit hard but its pretty good overall

(+2)

Great game!

The art looks amazing, and the music fit the mood well! It took me a while to figure out how to use the fire bolt jump boost, but it was still playable without it. I don't think Orcus dealt any damage. I liked the large variety of different enemy behaviors.

The village was a nice way to make the story feel like it's part of the game rather than an independent chunk of text in the game description. A finishing touch could be to have a cutscene or something at the end of the hero saving the town.

Thanks for creating the game!

Submitted(+1)

Nice work there. I really appreciate the mechanic where you can give yourself a jump boost by casting that blast. It's truly impressive that you were able to create so many level designs in just a month! 

It would enhance the experience if you can add some visual feebacks when you hit an enemy like particles or even screen shake.

Also, could you take a look at my submit. It would be nice if you can offer some feedback.

Developer(+2)

Thank you for playing! Great feedback and I'll give your game a play when I get off from work :)

Submitted(+2)

I had a fun romp around Ashbound. At some point it glitched out a bit and I stopped taking damage... but I'm not ashamed to admit that helped me out a bunch. The crouching wall jumps felt a bit awkward, but the art was sublime and I enjoyed the level design. Thanks for sharing :D

Developer(+1)

Thank you for giving it a go. I was rushing a bit towards the end, so like a sharp moldy tree branch it had some bugs  I  need to squash and some rough parts to sand off.