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neural-operator2 years ago(+1)

A great entry, my favorite here.


Still, there were some issues with it. The game is hard to play, and not in a good way. 

  • the jumping/scaling mechanic seems very odd, it was quite difficult for me to realize it's the way the game is supposed to be played (or did I miss something and it's not xd?). Especially seems strange with the absence of fall damage
  • uncomfortable interaction with all these items, had to spend some time getting used to it. The inventory gets boggled up very quickly, I had to throw away the keys right after using them
  • and regarding keys, if you have a lot of them in the inventory, it's really hard to tell apart their color

But the atmosphere is superb. Limitations skillfully used to your advantage, every single thing drips with style. I also liked the dialogue, very extensive for a gamejam. Each elder speaks with his own, slightly different pitch, great detail! And circle composition, super cool!

Thanks for making it. Looking forward to your new projects.

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Shrine Dynamics2 years ago

Thank you for a very fair review.
I wanted to mention that the ability to scale walls is unfortunately a bug in this version. I only caught it last night with the help of a friend and haven't been able to release a hotfix - but it should be up soon.

I agree with the other issues you mentioned. Unfortunately, I neglected to get enough proper feedback during development and rushed near the end, resulting in something quite messy that was burdened by only being able to see the game through a single lens, my own. As always, it's a learning process, and I know what to improve on for next time. 

I'm glad you enjoyed.

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neural-operator2 years ago(+1)

Huh, so it's a bug after all. Then how are you supposed to get inside the library and onto its second floor? 

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Shrine Dynamics2 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

SPOILERS BELOW For anyone who is interested in figuring it out for themselves:

To get inside the library, you can either:

  • Throw a rock at the key sitting on the protruding plank on the roof to the right of the library's front door, hopefully causing it to drop, then using said key on the front door itself

Or...

  • Climb up the scaffolding to the left of the library's front door (which requires you to push some boxes around to jump on, and then break a plank half way up the scaffolding by throwing an object or using a dagger, causing a piece of the scaffolding to fall and form a ramp),
  • Enter the library either through falling down a level to the front balcony (taking some fall damage) and entering through the broken window, or landing on the 'side roof' on the right side of the library
  • If you land on the side roof, you can either break the boards covering the hole with a crate sitting on it (by throwing an object or using the dagger) to enter the green key room, or, alternatively...

To get on the second floor:

  • When entering the library from the front door, if you go left up the broken stairs and look straight ahead, you may notice a pile of books on the second floor landing. That pile of books holds the white key - either make a few jumps and try to grab it, or throw something at it until it falls.
  • Now that you have the white key, you can go up to the side roof and unlock the door to the library's second floor.

Hope that explains it well enough. If anyone is interested, now that the jam is essentially over, I could post a video walkthrough of all possible solutions in the current build.

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neural-operator2 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

Thank you for the explanation. Turns out, I did it with the library in reverse order, scaling the wall after climbing the scaffolding. That's why I couldn't understand why the key on top is located on a protruding ramp.

It's really cool there is more than one way to enter the library. Especially impressive for a gamejam project.


UPD: in latest build (1.0.4) jumping is indeed much more pleasant, and fall damage feels consistent now. However, it's really hard to hit anything by throwing, so much, that I still resorted to abuse to get the white key. I jumped on a shelf near it, and just picked up the books from below the key one by one, until it fell to the floor. And if I didn't know where keys are, it would by nigh impossible to notice them with these graphics.

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