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I Swear I'm A Pacifist's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #876 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Theme | #935 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Playability | #943 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Artistic Style | #1189 | 1.000 | 1.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- Interesting game concept, am looking forward to what you'll make of it! The audio needs balancing and maybe a tutorial would help new players. Thanks for making it and keep at it!
Did you include your Game Design Document in your downloadable files?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
You are the Survival Instinct of a mage who has inadvertently killed a colleague. They are going insane, being drowned in an insanity that will lead to their death. Unfortunately, there is no pardoning for the crime of murder in the society of mages. Endless waves of mages will come to kill you, stopping at nothing, even collateral murders. Spread your sins from one kill to hundreds as you steal the health and spells of your pursuers through their deaths. Relieve yourself from the weight of these sins by focussing on your reasons to live or the crushing mental burden will kill you. Mess around with unfamiliar spells to figure out what they do and if they are useful or not. And no matter what it means you must do, SURVIVE.
Spells are randomly generated, so is the battlefield as it spreads over time.
WASD camera, Mouse for tile hovering and selection, Left Shift to pause spell spinning animation.
Did you remember to include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Extra Notes
The first spell given is the same every time, it may seem powerful, but it is a spell that will drive you insane very quickly. Sort through the new spells as you get them to hopefully find a set of useful spells.
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Comments
I really enjoyed watching this game come together during the development process. The hexagonal towers and inventive mechanics seem really compelling. While I get that you're aiming for a high skill ceiling, I wonder if perhaps you haven't also ended up with a rather intimidating skill floor as well? I'm not sure what to suggest, but it is quite difficult to do anything other than randomly stab at spells hoping that one of them won't drive you mad! Which is a mood in itself, of course :D
I'm not sure what to suggest. I think for me the most frustrating part was not being able to clearly see which spell I was selecting. If, for example, you could definitively scroll to and pick one, i.e. control the spin animation to some extent, that would help. So would a little bit of indication as to what was going on, that these spells were being procedurally generated or that they would be new each time. I really wanted to progress and see the impressive terrain you've been working on, but I couldn't get far enough through the game. Then again, I kind of suck at games so it could just be me!
I think there are some great concepts here, just need a tiny nod to playability to come alive. Technically impressive and I can't wait to see what you turn it into.
Thanks for the Review! I agree that I have made a game with a bit too high of a skill floor, I have tried to make the game generate more complex spells with tougher enemies as it progresses, however the starting point is definitely already too complex. This is mitigated to some extent from the games being short and each run a new experience, but there isn’t really much reason to stick around and start learning the spells, maybe some sort of unlock system where you unlock more complex spell tiles/components would have worked, but that is beyond scope for the jam. Spells are procedurally generated, and so is the terrain haha. Spell selection is meant to be made more challenging as you go insane and the camera zooms in, and while I dont think my current solution for it is great, I think having some sort of scrollable list would remove this effect, so I’m not really sure about how to change this. I also agree that playability is what my game mostly lacks. I think had I cut off mechanics half way through the jam and then worked on visual and gameplay polish I could really have smoothed out the experience.
You and me both! I hope you aren't discouraged, there's still a lot to like here. I forgot to say I think the insanity effect is particularly good, although it comes on so fast there's not much time to enjoy it! :D
Your audio is a bit loud and tends to run onto itself. I'm confused most of the time at which spell the player is using and what it does. Maybe it's the build but the spell hexes are jumbled together.
Thanks for the review! Yeah the audio I didn’t have the time to balance or mess with the concurrency settings, it is meant to be a bit ‘multiple voices echoing around your head’ but I definitely haven’t achieved that here. I think I could have definitely put more visualization to the spells effects to make them more distinct, but a part of the game is meant to be messing around with different spells, picking apart patterns in their design, and filtering out the useless/harmful ones to try to find a handful of useful spells. And what do you mean by the spell hexes being jumbled together? do you happen to have a screenshot or can describe what was happening? I never ran into that issue in my playtesting.
Hey man! I just wasn't understanding while they were spinning. I see now I can stop them from spinning and everything becomes clearer. Really interesting concept. Had some broken runs where I just got to chill and blow people away, as long as I could just focus for a couple of turns.
Glad you were able to figure that out! I find the broken runs can be pretty fun as a break from the harder runs so it’s good you were able to get a few.