THE GOOD PARTS
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I liked the general idea of this game. It kinda reminded me of the dungeon generator in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which is kinda nice and solving the puzzles in your head before attempting a run felt sufficiently rewarding to keep me going.
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The ambiance is good enough. I felt that the ambiance would have been better with some improvements to the whole “blackness” that generally governs the skies of this dungeon but the setup does the job correctly; I felt immersed and wasn’t really distracted from what the game had to offer.
THE BAD PARTS
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The puzzle generator is not too clear at the beginning. I’m not saying there should have been a tutorial for it but I do think that maybe spending some time in the dungeon generator would have worked wonders regarding what the player can expect when the decide to “delve”. Maybe showing a top-down preview of the generated map would have helped a lot with this, but I understand that it’s a jam game and there’s not too much time to implement everything.
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The pacing feels too slow. I know repeating the newly generated level is part of the LOOP interpretation of this game but sometimes I felt like it was a drag; I can’t really put my finger on to what’s exactly causing this friction but I’d say it’s a mix of “secret” areas not being thoroughly communicated and not being able to preview the level [remember that this is a jam an people will spend 5-30 minutes in your game TOPS, unless they become REALLY engaged] so knowing that I was expected to look for those areas with a lamp that barely lights anything was a huge deterrent for me [I know this is highly subjective but I’m aiming to comment on the game feel].
CONCLUSION
This is a fine jam entry with some room for improvement. I really like the idea of having a “dungeon creator” so to speak and it’s something I’ve always wanted to build on my own. This idea resonated with me and I felt the potential that this game has.
Beware of its caveats, though, play this game with patience and you’ll enjoy a great jam entry!