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Shadows Rise Once More's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #233 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Playability | #258 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Artistic Style | #328 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Cleverness | #678 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- The sounds and design are very good. The motions and controls feel nice too. Would like to see more themes elements put in, which will probably get added as you go! Still very nice game, and the GDD is well organized and easy to follow. Don't be afraid to show your progress in there with dates and such so we can get an idea of how the work went too.
- Gameplay is challenging and engaging, the music is pleasant and it changing after each puzzle is a lovely touch! I did run into some bugs, like bubbles appearing but not being able to picked up and one that completely stopped me from progressing, mainly, in the area with the spike platforms, floating eyeballs and the solution page for the Lightning puzzle, heading more towards the left completely removed my character and I was stuck on that screen. I can see clear inspiration from Castlevania and the alchemical interaction between elements and the world is very clever. It would be a good idea to add some more UI elements for little details or a map for those that get lost easily (For example, a pointer towards off-screen enemies, as they have a tendency to sneak up on you from nowhere.). Not needing to complete every puzzle fully also allows for a more fluid experience, good idea on that! I did see that a waypoint system was added, however it was never really anything that was obvious, might be a good idea to add a little tutorial for how to use it. So far, the prototype was fun, I enjoyed the experience, thank you for your hard work!
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
yes
Tell us about your game!
Shadows Rise Once More is an action-adventure/puzzle game about changing the abandoned city you live in into a vivid paradise by performing alchemy powers to bring elemental shapes to life. Solve every device to help the protagonist restore what used to be the city before everything.
Use WAD and Arrow keys to move and jump
Spacebar to trigger actions
Mouse for aim and shoot
Extra Notes
This is a rough prototype of an entry, we manage to put it together with the little time we had. Enjoy!
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Comments
Finally completed the game. This is so good! Love the idea and the puzzles, didn't think they could complement each other this well but here we are. The puzzle are also nice in the fact that you don't need that "exact" solution to solve, such that you are not that punished if you missed a piece in the level. Loved the fact that the puzzles are in fact upgrades, and you really need to go back to earlier maps just to collect missing pieces. Brilliant!
So here comes the nitpicks. Besides the obvious softlocks that I am not going to talk about, there are a few things that drag down the experience a little bit. Although explained through text, it would be really helpful to explain to the player that you don't need to fill the whole thing in order to solve the puzzle. This is me trying over and over again to fit all pieces to the frame, only to find out later that it is not recommended. I am guessing that it is likely possible, but just that I felt like emotionally robbed the second I found that out. (Or it's just me being stupid). The second it that the enemy feels like a bit too fast given the limited combat the game has. Feels like it's sometimes down to luck if I am going to hit one of the bats using the projectile.
But in general, I love this game so much. Can't wait to see the game being completed. Good job!!
Ok, wow, just wow, this one left me speechless.
The puzzle aspect may not be for everyone, and I almost gave up on solving the first one, but I powered through and after that, this ended up to be the best TWO WHOLE HOURS (gamejam game!) of my week.
This is an experience you should have for yourself, so it's a little hard to write a review. I will be trying to keep things spoiler-free.
What I will say though, the way everything blends together is gorgeous. You always get a double reward for solving a puzzle, both the gratification from solving the puzzle itself, as well as the newly acquired ability/change in the environment that completely changes either the way you play or the world around you. The only exception to this is the last puzzle, since you can't play the game any more after solving the last puzzle. :(
While the graphics may be a little lacking, they are not the main focus and even so, the world feels varied, has sub-areas and succeeds to be pleasing to the eye towards the end. And every other aspect of the game is nearly perfected, especially the level design and the puzzle design.
The sound design is very pretty as well. Background music and the SFX fits the game perfectly..
Now, to the downsides (and some minor spoilers):
There is a spot in the game where you can softlock and have to use console commands to escape, as well as a certain moment which can cause your save file to corrupt. (This is related to the gamejam version of the game specifically and has already been fixed locally according to the developer)
While things like that can happen during short development phases, this breaks immersion quite a bit, and if unaware of the issue, you can just randomly lose all your progress and be forced to either rage quit or replay everything again.
The way you can fall into water from a height and hit the floor spikes, while realistic, doesn't feel very game-like. Usually, in games with water, all vertical momentum gets cancelled when you drop into water to prevent such cases and I died at least a few times because of that assumption. The upside of that is that you don't feel all that floaty while underwater, which actually makes the water section a lot more bearable and pretty fast to navigate.
The graphics. If the game was a tad prettier it would easily be breaking top 10, but people tend to click on pretty thumbnails and see pretty graphics and go "waoh", while hidden gems like these end up being a lot less popular than they deserve. Since it is a development build, it is easy to forgive, but to me, this felt like a completed game, so for the final release, if the graphics get an overhaul the game WILL get big, mark my word.
The only sound effect that was throwing me off is that of a projectile hitting a wall, sounds a bit like a wooden drum, doesn't feel like it fits.
If you're still reading and aren't the developer, GO PLAY THE GAME! And if you are the developer, thank you so much for making this!
Thanks a lot for the review, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!
Just so you know, you should be able to open the save after completing the last level. If you avoid the crash (don't leave the last puzzle room, goto towerentrance instead!), you may even see the sky change to the nightly-purplish in relevant areas. ^^
I don't think I'll change graphics much for the immediate post-jam version - maybe some tweaks here and there or additional elements. I'd focus on deploying the softlock/crash fix, including some quality of life changes, making a few new levels, adding the missing sound effects and hopefully include the tracks for other levels of progression. I might make some kind of remastered version later on, with somewhat larger scope and hopefully refreshed graphics. We'll see...
Puzzle game about puzzle pieces, is really fun, the sense of accomplishment you receive once you figure out how to put together the pieces is insane ! Music rocks, and sfx are really good, I like the style in general and the dungeon design is pretty ingenious. I fell in the soft lock but thanks to the magical code goto I got unstuck so no problem !
BUT I hereby declare illegal jumping with W and interacting with SPACE. Got my brain confused for the first 10 minutes (yes it took me very long). I don't see any other issue. (this is my personal thought so don't worry, the game is totally playable and really fun !)
Metroidvanias are some of my favorite games, so this is right up my alley. The puzzle piece mechanic is a great idea. Love the music as well!
What a fantastically wonderful game. Don't let the visuals fool you, this is a full blown metroidvania style game with a huge variety of content that I genuinely did not expect to find in a gamejam game.
There are some issues as noted in the game description so make sure you read that properly if you want to experience the game during it's current jam form. But wow what a well designed and challenging experience.
The puzzle system works really well and having to find the blocks to complete the puzzles is really cool. I have to admit my dumb*** probably took longer than it should have to complete some of the puzzles but it was worth it in the end.
I really hope this continues to develop because it has an amazing foundation of design and style that I want to see flourish.
I love the idea, and the art is good! Only nitpick is that it feels weird to not being able to jump by pressing space bar for a platformer :)