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The old hermit's apprentice's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic Style | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Playability | #258 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Cleverness | #282 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
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.
- I'm not sure if simply touching the shadow monsters caused damage was intended or not, but I kept dying when they weren't attacking. Several times I'd hit them with the sword i'd also get hurt. Not entirely sure if that was my issue or not. I really did enjoy the game though, the art and world are fantastic and the use of shadow is incredibly clever. Would love to have seen more alchemy in the game. Definitely would love to see this fleshed out, especially with a respawn mechanic.
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!
You are fighting invisible monsters. You can see where they are by their shadows. This is a side-scrolling game where there are torches in the foreground so the shadows will be projected onto background objects. The story is only teased but there are some secrets.
Extra Notes
I kind of left some things to the last moment and this is the first game I made (apart from the GMTK flappy bird copy) so I didn't manage to implement respawning into the game, but my plans were that it would put you back to the beginning anyway, so reloading the page is almost as good, though not really user-friendly, I admit.
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Comments
This is really cool, I love the parallax effect of the shadow and it's a great concept to fight monsters in the shadows!
I think making the monsters' shadows slightly darker and clearer on the background would make it easier to avoid running into them, but I love the idea! Maybe the player could get a power where they can see outlines of the monsters, a bit further into the game?
I died quite a lot so didn't manage to get very far, but I love the art and design! Feels really fun and impactful to play.
P.S. we're looking for another 2D pixel artist for expanding our game if you're interested in joining, I love your work and I think it'd fit pretty well (though ours is top-down rather than side-scroller) - let me know if you might be interested!
Thank you very much for the feedback. I'm glad you liked my style, but I'm not really a skilled artist. I just managed to do something that works. Would you mind if I took a few days to think about the offer?
Of course! We've got a couple of people already so no pressure :)
Beautifully rendered, solid concept! The game is a bit unforgiving, however, and probably could have used some intangibility frames after taking damage, or alternatively removed contact damage altogether, as it felt unfair when I would slightly run face first into an enemy that I could barely tell was there in the first place. If you remove contact damage, you would then be able to get a bit more creative with the attacks while still allowing the monsters to feel fair. Beyond that, the letters felt on the verge of illegible, especially the wanted posters. I’m not sure if that was intentional…
Besides that, loved the ambience, liked the audio, and dig the vibes. Great job!
Thank you for the feedback. Contact damage was a pretty late addition and I think it's necessary for the player having to be careful. I'm now even thinking about making the default movement walking to signal this intention better. I should have probably also added i-frames, that only occurred to me after the deadline. Nothing is final, I will experiment with different monster behaviors and attacks and see where I land regarding contact damage and i-frames. I have a general feeling in mind that the game is supposed to invoke so that's what I'm aiming for, the specific mechanics to achieve that are up to change.
The wanted posters are not supposed to be legible, although it's real text but I wasn't satisfied with what I have come up for them so I scaled them down and back up to be illegible. I will try to make the text that's supposed to be readable more readable and distort the ones more that aren't to create a more evident distinction.
I just watched your VOD. It was very enlightening. Wow, you actually took the time to read the wanted posters, I'm very sorry about that but hats off to you. You were also very close to finding a secret.
Oh damn! I might have to give it another look, then. Thanks for the heads up!
I absolutely love the pixel art and lighting! The combat felt a bit rough and slow to react but i'm sure you can refine it over time. I love this concept though and I look forward to future developments!
The concept is incredible, such a huge potential it has! These shadows, parallax and sprites is also nice, like the ambient sounds, good job.
But there are some things which should be fixed, like freezes on the start, strange effects after stabbing to the monsters, and their colliders (?). Also this game is hard a little, but because of attack things and parallax shadows personally for me. But still, nice work! :)
Thank you. I don't know why it lags at the start, it wasn't an issue when run in the engine, but it happens to me too in the browser. I will make sure to adjust the hitboxes to be more accurate to the sprites.
Amazing visuals!
The idea of with fighting the shadows rocks! Although at times it was hard to notice the enemy or even while fighting it I was finding myself bumping into the enemy trying to hit it.
The art style on this game is definitely it's strongest point, it's very striking, and a very good novel use of mechanics.
The controls in general feel a bit stiff, which make the game feel a little sluggish to play. Also there's only one real way to deal with enemies, and it feels very clumsy and difficult to dispatch them. Which could work if you perhaps leaned into the horror element you kind of already have.
In any case, you have a beautiful visual style that is highly memorable. There's also some very nice diegetic storytelling which I appreciate a great deal.
Thank you very much for the feedback.
What do you think I can do to make the controls feel better? I agree that the fighting is repetitive. This one kind of enemy and one kind of attack is what I had time for with my current game-making experience, but if I continue this project I will definitely try to add more variety.
My intention was that the player would have to proceed very carefully and leaning more towards a horror theme would definitely help.
I'm glad you liked my approach to storytelling.
The art and visuals are the strongest point of this game for sure! Congrats on that!
We'd love to see a more developed version of this! Our only comment would be that the letter at the start is quite hard to read. Keep it up!
Thank you very much. I have some ideas where to take this game and encouragement helps a lot.
Really cool concept. Love how you used the shadows to telegraph the enemy attacks. I also love this art style! Good Work!
Thank you very much.