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Hermetic's Descent - 2024 PirateSoftware GameJam's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #233 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Playability | #719 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Cleverness | #755 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Artistic Style | #893 | 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.
- I was able to pick up the game, but the arrows suggested that I was able to do something when I was unarmed. In my first playthrough I got trapped against a barrier and a dog. The dog didn't want cuddles apparently. For the game jam, the gameplay loop should be a bit more concise. One other note, the stepping audio cues almost made it sound like the player was skipping, but there was no skipping animation. Keep at the game. Flesh it out. Remove some of the bloat.
- Creative gameplay, a little hard to figure out the weaponry portion, and for some reason I couldn't equip items to different slots. Not sure if it's intended for specific items, but I couldn't equip the rock and the axe at the same time
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!
Hermetic’s Descent is a story-driven dungeon crawler that encourages exploration of the environment in order to progress the narrative. Explore, fight or avoid enemies and delve deeper into the story.
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Comments
This is going to seem really negative at first but please take it with a constructive mindset. I really enjoyed the game and wanted to see more which is why I'm giving so much feedback about issues I had.
Being thrown right into the game I completely missed the tutorials on the gravestones at first and wandered around a bit, finding no ingredients or the chest with the rock in it I wandered into the dungeon and got ate by a wolf.
I had to read the GDD to try and figure out what to do, it would have been nice for it to be easier to find in-game or be on the game-page itself.
I feel like starting with the rock or making it more noticeable / right in the players path would be much better.
I wasn't able to figure out how to craft anything at all, although I did get a bunch of stuff from monsters and some potions from chests.
I was able to snipe every enemy by staying just out of their range and they didn't aggro. With exception to the vampire who was super easy to fight cos he didn't move, even though I just had a rock the entire time.
The lack of music feels eerie in the setting but I would have liked something rather than nothing.
Now like I said at the start I really enjoyed the game so now that all that is outta the way.
The game controls really well and is fun to move around in and fight, I just wish there was more to do or the crafting had a purpose.
There was a funny spelling mistake in the intro that reminded me of the FF7 line "This guy are sick" where it reads "To produce a cure for your daughter which had fallen sick". I thought it was pretty funny, apologies if English isn't your first language it's a very minor mistake.
The interactions and readouts were very descriptive and I thought giving the player a choice to abandon their quest and go spend their remaining time with their family was quite emotional and really hit me.
The game looked pretty cool but I think 99% of the assets and sounds were pre-made and just imported? Still it had some nice vibes and the character looked awesome.
My main criticism is just "I WANT MORE" I really wanted to dive more into the crafting and find the ingredient to save my daughter. I hope you get the chance to work on it more and in the future I'll 100% return to play it again.
Thank you for your feedback!
Indeed our main language is not English however I'm at fault for it since I was the one to write all the lore/story. As for the assets being imported, that goes for 99% of the sounds. All of the art, animation, UI and tiles were made by me, while my friend used some icons I made to create the VFX. However the SFX was indeed imported since neither of us have experience with that. All the imported sounds were credited in the Credits screen.
I'm sorry the game was so short, I had a more developed story in mind but making even more icons for deeper levels would mean more enemies, then making said maps would have been too long a process, I was afraid I wouldn't manage to offer a playable state by the time deadline hit. :P We will however polish more the crafting system since it's not very well developed.
Thanks again for the input and we'll make sure to polish things out once all the voting stops!
PS: I'm sorry that you got mauled by a dog, but seeing as Fear and Hunger was a direct inspiration for the game... well. I'm glad the game gives off that niche/hard vibe.
Having played Fear and Hunger this is a very funny response 😂
Looking forward to playing it again once it's updated. Great job again and just wanna re-double back to congratulating you on the art also since you confirmed you did that yourself. The character art is especially awesome!
Thank you kindly.