Play game
I was teleported from the Shadow Realm to an ancient jungle and I became an alchemist's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic Style | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Cleverness | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Theme | #600 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Playability | #719 | 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 game suffered from the mouse not being able to be captured. So, I was only able to interact with objects that were right in front of me in a 180 view. I think the idea is really awesome, but the alchemy piece of it really didn't play out as much as the shadow mechanic did. Really an awesome game though. Can't wait to see what you've got next!
- That acronym for the game title in your GDD's "Game Summary Pitch" (IWTFTSRTAWANIARAAA) is insane! :D It's a very interesting concept. Maybe I just need to "get good" but I couldn't get past the 3rd jump in the first tutorial, or past the 1st jump in the second tutorial. I understood the concept, but wasn't sure where I was supposed to land. The first step of the level (and first tutorial) was difficult as well initially, because when I clicked the shadow it felt like nothing much was happening. The reaction of the platform that you can jump on to move to the new spot seemed very unresponsive so it wasn't clear until after several attempts that it was moving to the exact spot I shot at. Since we've established that I suck at this, I also kept dying :) So it would've been more rewarding if there were checkpoints after each jump so I could keep trying the one I was failing at, rather than having to repeat the first few jumps over and over again just to reach it. You've definitely met the 'shadows' portion of the theme, and your GDD mentions that you plan to implement the 'alchemy' part into some of the storyline? But it felt like the alchemy portion was lacking a little here since we don't have any story yet. Overall a good game. Well done!
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!
It's a fast-paced platformer with built-in speedrunning incentives - there are leaderboards that can be used to track best scores (though with scuffed UI at the moment). Each level has two leaderboards - Any% runs (completed level) and 100% runs (completed level, found all collectibles and killed all enemies). Each level is designed to be hard to master and short - It's very important to utilize `R` key to restart level if you're trying to get a decent score.
It's a competitive game and doesn't hold your hand very well, which is something we'll need to work on in the first/introductory levels.
Story:
While we had little to no time to actually do story, the whole theme is based on Isekai genre; the protagonist is summoned to another world where philosopher's stone serves as both a character and a tool to introduce player to the mechanics. We'd see the story similarly to how Serious Sam took its' plot; it'd be somewhere there as a theme, but we're here mostly for the gameplay. We wanted to incorporate more alchemy-related motives (enemies, areas) but unfortunately we ran out of time.
Mechanics:
It's all about shadows that you create. Objects that can be used stand out specifically so that it's easy to spot where you can take an action. Some of the key mechanics we implemented (not all of them are used in the demo levels unfortunately):
- Killing enemies' shadows
- Moving objects through their shadows
- Freezing objects through their shadows
- Grappling/pulling to an object's shadow
- Moving platforms
- Interacting with objects, such as levers or buttons for some classic platformer experience (of course, through their shadows)
You can probably see the pattern here. The type of interaction depends on the object.
Controls:
WSAD - Walking
Shift - Sprint
LMB - Shadow control, can be used on some objects' shadows (you can easily spot those objects as they stand out with different materials)
RMB - Shoots a Light Source, close-range bullet that lightens the nearby area
Space - Jump / Double-jump
R - Restart Level
Tab - In-game settings
Extra Notes
Overall we are happy with how the game turned out, though at some point near the end we realized that the difficulty/learning curve is too steep and we rely too much on our internal knowledge of mechanics when designing levels. Something to improve on the next time.
It was a fun project that we'll want to expand on after a short break ;)
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2214886026
I did a blind playthrough of this game with commentary!
Thank you for this succinct feedback!
We realize that the bug with the double jump can be very annoying, sadly we didn’t have enough time to fix it. The 15 second time is due to our knowledge of the game and its mechanics (we also played it for two weeks haha).
Glad to hear you enjoyed the speedrunning part and getting higher on the leaderboard. Also thanks for your ideas, some will 100% appear in the game!
Cheers!
I had the same problem with my game -- I played it for two weeks and a lot of it seemed 'obvious' to me and there wasn't really time to playtest and tweak! :)
very fun! was a little confused with how the mechanics worked but i got it :) i didn't realize you could jump and shoot the light at the same time. music was great xD also had a laugh at the long title!
I’m such a sucker for FPS, and you nailed the rush we were trying to achieve in our game. Congratulations! Verry interesting interaction indeed!
Thanks, it means a lot! We're not quite satisfied with how it turned out because we had to cut some corners, but I find it addictive when actually trying to beat the high score, so overall I'm happy with it. Glad you enjoyed it, cheers.