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UNDERLIER: UNDERSLUNG [SCREAM JAM 2023, HORRORJAM 2023]'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Aesthetics | #15 | 4.429 | 4.429 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #34 | 3.714 | 3.714 |
| Story | #92 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
| Sound Design | #155 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Horror | #183 | 2.714 | 2.714 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- This is a convincing and fun top-down shooter that leverages GBStudio very well. I love the attention to detail in the design of the enemies and the broad variety of powerups – I preferred the constant fire one personally. One idea for improvement is re-evaluating the checkpoint system – it’s very easy to get softlocked on limited health when you’re surrounded by enemies!
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Comments
hell yeah this one speaks to me alot. I love the aesthetic. Eventually it did crash on me(I was playing in browser on firefox) the use of colour was really nice too :)
Very cool visuals, one of the bests here. Some music would be nice. Story is cool as well. Somehow I had to watch the intro twice and the Start button didn't responded everytime - so the controlling was a bit hard, fireing was hard and undeterministic as well. But overall really nice entry! GGs.
Playing in my web browser, it felt laggy when there were several ennemies. And because I couldn’t find how to shoot (despite reading the title screen, and not having caps lock on), I went for a (short-lived) pacific run :)
That's two reports of not being able to shoot - that's strange 🤔
Were you using arrow keys or WASD to move? If you were using WASD then we at least know letter keys do work, so the issue won't be related to case sensitivity 🤔🤔
The aiming was a little too hard for me but the visuals were amazing, Had a fun time playing it, good job!
Not sure if the controls are mapped according to the onscreen instructions, and I wasn't able to shoot. I dig the music though!
Could you have had Caps Lock on by any chance? 🤔 GB Studio's web builds can only read letter keys if they're lower case - it's a little odd like that 😌 (similarly, it can get confused if the Shift key is held down).
Glad you like the music 😊
It could be! Might just be something funky about my setup. I'll give it another try. I like the art style too!
This was pretty fun but I didn't get very far. I do have a few suggestions though
The strafing is pretty difficult since you need to walk towards where you want to shoot for a bit, start shooting and then start strafing. I wonder if there's a way to separate where you're shooting from where you're walking
Also the level restarts kind of quickly when you die and I always take damage immediately upon respawning. Would be nice if there was a second or two where we get to prepare
I'm still figuring out the best course of action for top-down shooters on the Game Boy 🤔. One idea I've had but not tested yet would be where one fire button enables strafing while shooting in the direction the character is facing (as it is here), while the other button strafes in the opposite direction, letting the player retreat while firing at the thing they're retreating from.
The two reasons that hasn't been implemented here are:
(Although in practice, I wonder if anybody still uses the primary fire after picking up any of the special weapons, because I know I certainly don't... 🤔😌)
I'm thinking if the enemies weren't quite as relentless as they turned out in this build, that would also mitigate some of the clunkiness to how the strafing handles, and would in turn help with what you're saying about respawning right in the thick of it.
Thanks for the feedback! 👍
There was this one gameboy game I played a long time ago so I don't remember the name. But I do remember it was a shooter and the way they made strafing work was if you only pressed the directions, you would turn like in this game. When you held down R, it would freeze the direction you're facing and you'd go into strafing mode essentially.
I don't know whether that's the best idea or if it would work for this game, but it's just an idea to think about right
A standalone strafe button. I've thought of that, too - the Game Boy port of Contra 3 has B to shoot and holding A to strafe on the top-down levels - but I haven't tested that yet either 🤔 Plus even in that setup, the player would still be required to face the direction they want to shoot before holding the fire button.
It's certainly a control setup I'll want to try to recreate at some point though; I've got plans for many demakes, and that control scheme is bound to be an ideal fit for something.
This game was fun!!! I love the art and animation for it. My only critique would be to make the player stand out more because I would occasionally mix it up with the enemies