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Thank you for giving it a try and your honest feedback!

You’re absolutely right about the grid-movement being barely there. I’m not sure if I should keep it and extend it like for moving around on the ship and small Islands I was planning to add or just to get rid of the grid-movement entirely..

And yes, it seems like the general opinion is like you said, to unify the movement and the usage of the guns. I was thinking of extending the already planed navigation board computer - which shows your current location and also nearby enemies (like the Aliens radar thingy) - and also add a Remote Control mode for the guns so that you could use them while standing at the Helm of the Ship but seeing through the remote gun camera as I wanted to keep the First-Person view.

What you think about that idea?

Thank you again and also encouraging my to keep working on it. Much appreciated!

Ahh okay I understand, that could be fixed easily with increasing the bounding boxes. Thank you for clearing it up!

Thank you CryptRat for giving it a try and your feedback. Very much appreciated!

So the Eternal Jailer got you… let’s hope another Stranger will free your Soul then! ;)

Nice to hear that you liked the the atmospheric and the overall control schema. As others wrote in the comments that the switching between the Helm and the Guns could be improved on. I’m debating of removing the grid-movement entirely and also remove the necessity to move to the guns entirely and introduce a more action based approach where you steer the ship freely and shoot the guns while doing so or at least shoot them while you’re standing in the Helm. But then again I’m not sure if it would ruin the hasty feeling that you have to move to the guns to fight of enemies.. I’m note sure yet where to go with that idea…

Thank you so much giving it a try and some valuable feedback. Much appreciated!

Funny that you mentioned to skip the grid-movement completely. I was think the same the other day as CryptRat mentioned that the guns could / should be used while moving. I think that could bring more action / flow to the game. The grid based movement was primarily introduced for this Jam as I wanted to explore gird movement in combination with free movement. I think it can work but needs tweaking or the complete removal of the grid movement. I have to think about it, better just try it out and see how it feels.

And you’re right, the chain colliders are way to small and hard to hit, so yeah they have to get bigger. Also I agree that the spawning of the Lost Souls should be somehow different or maybe you could just ram them with your Boat so you not always have to stop and free them if you actually wanted just to drive a nice round through the eerie Ocean and explore it. I think I have to refine my design so it has more flow to it and promotes more exploration with the occasional fight in between.

What you think?

Hehe, yes the music could stuck in your head very fast, so congrats on that ;)

So I understand why the strafing wasn’t there in the first place, but as you said if the phonetic keys are only available within the battle now, that make it easy to add, I think it would be nice to have it.

I like the idea of Spellington shouting random words you have to counter. Is it like, he is shouting something like “Blizzard” and you then have a list of counter-words you could possible spell (but have to learn them while playing)? I think that could be nice having like a “Spellbook” you filling up with words you encounter or tried using. Maybe something of a hidden list you have to figure out yourself.. like some logic behind it based on elements that counter each other? I see alot of potential here! This could even be expanded to a PvP mode where you “battle” other player / friend maybe just locally but could be a fun addition!

Looking forward to what you making out of it!

Thank you for giving it a try and your feedback. Very much appreciated!

So the running to the guns part was introduced to divide the exploration and combat part into two completely different game parts. As I wanted to explore DC mechanics with the combination of free-movement combat :) - But I understand why you suggest to be able to fire also while moving. It wouldn’t interrupt the gameplay that much as it does right now. I’ve to think about how to integrate it as to how one is able to shoot the guns while standing in the helm of the ship.. mayme some kind of remote control with a virtual camera combine with the already placed monitors on the ships bridge.. hmm

Well the movement was tuned down on purpose to simulate the slow movement of a ship and give you the feeling you’re moving in water. I think it all comes down how much it should feel like Dungeon Crawler or a more action based game..

First of it has a nice simple but clean menu and very nice background music.

The small intro is a nice touch and gives the game a great starting atmosphere!

As I first heard the combat music I wanted to stand up and dance to it! It has a very nice rythm and feel to it - very engaging indeed! Best music so far!

That you matched most of the keys to a sound is awesome - even with variations! I tried to make some swearwords and tried some raps with it! Hilarious!

I selected the slowest combat mode at first but had to change it to a faster one as the battles would play out quite slowly - but somehow the battles didnt get any faster (maybe because I’m running it within a Virtualbox?). But nevertheless the combat (typing) is quite enjoyable and has a very cool asthetic to it. Great job on that.

The visuals are quite appealing and very fitting. I really like the Monster designs like the “dancing” Spellington - very hilarious name btw.

The movement and turning was a little slow I would say, like the last part of the lerping animation could have been a little faster. Is there a strafe mode? If not I think it could benefit from it. Oh and the first time I played it was not immediately clear to me, that you have to use the Arrow keys to move. I pressed WASD and got a nice rap out of it which was hilarious but also a little confusing at first ;)

I didn’t get to the end of it because the combat was somehow quite slow but I think it has something to do with me playing it on a Virtualbox as I only have Linux available to me - so sorry about not getting to the end :(

Overall a very enjoyable game with great atmosphere, even better music and hilarious (maybe not intended, but nevertheless fun) keyboard rapping ;) - Awesome job. You should think of building a full game out of it. Maybe even with couch-based coop play where you could party up with a good friend and have the occasional battle rap against Spellington and his other friends ;)

Hey, thank you for giving it a try! Also for bringing up those cool ideas and having the patience to read through my very long description text. Very much appreciated!

It’s really funny that you wrote that! I pretty much imagined it the way you described it! So that everyone who has ever played the game (and got caught) is the one who has been put in eternal chains by the Eternal Jailer and will be visible to new Players. I really like your idea with the asynchronous multiplayer (Ghost mode) - I’ve to think about it how that could be made possible! I think it could make for an interesting game mechanic! Maybe the Lost Souls will have the names of the players they were played by before and reveal them when they are freed or something like that :)

Oh well, the 50cal guns… I had something special in mind for those bad boys. Do you remember The Battle of Zion? - I wanted to have something exactly that part of the linked Scene as an ingame event, where you get attacked by a swarm of Soul Eaters and have to use the 50cal guns to defend your Boat!

But there are still some open questions regarding the Eternal Jailer as in if there will be a Boss Battle with him, but how will that fit the Grid-Movement mechanic.. that I’m not quite sure about it..

Hehe, so I’m not the only one liking the colors schema, that’s nice to hear! You’re absolutely right, it’s far from being able to be called a “game”.

I like your Idea of iterating on it, to make it a fully grid based DC, like also on the Boat itself, that could be something worth iterating on - even tho I liked the DC part combined with free-movement but I see it also as a fully grid based one. Also as you mentioned it, the things one could be doing on the boat could also be expanded very much on.

I also was thinking on having small Islands where you can leave the boat to gather resourced and also have the occasionally combat :)

Thank you for giving it a try and your feedback! You’re absolutely right about not enough “game” being there. That’s the “why” part I wrote in a couple comments before, that is still missing, but almost fully played out in my head and also in my design document. So I’m playing on continue working on it and hopefully get it there where I imagine it :)

About the “rules” part you mention:

I was debating before hand about the “rules” with a good friend of mine and also asked within the Discord chat about how one could interpret the “rules” and as I gathered from it, it was quite specific about the exploration part, which had to be grid-movement based with a 90 degree turn mechanic but wasn’t clear at all about how the combat and it’s movement should play out so I guess I bent the “rules” here quite a bit. So hopefully the DCJam gods accept it because I thing the rules allow for it! ;)

Wow a gameplay video of a “game” I did, that’s a first for me, thank you so much for that and your kind words!

Ya, I’ve to heavily work on the “why”, but got a rather detailed Idea about it, so I “just” have to get working on it again. I stopped after a heavy crunch week, like most of us I guess ;)

Thanks for trying it and give me some feedback. Much appreciated!

Well, the current state of the “game” is quite limited to what what you said “shooting the chains” to free the Lost Souls. Unfortunately the whole “why” you would do that and the other parts of the game are still missing due to the time restriction of the Jam :/

I’m planing on continue developing it as I still think I could make something worth playing out of it. So thanks for encouraging me :)

It was my first GameDev Jam ever and it was a blast although my “game” does not fulfill all the necessary requirements of the jam I still wanted to submit it. So yay, job done ;)

Ah that’s good to know, thanks! Unfortunately the web build didn’t work very well with standard fog (I don’t know why) and mouse capture did’t work either, so those two things hindered my using the web build anyways :/

Thank you for trying it! :)

Ya I was trying to bring something new to the DC genre. Not sure if it works very well tho. But I liked the Idea of haven grid movement in combination with free-roaming (As I wanted to make a DC but with free-moving First-Person Shooting combat). Maybe I expand on it even further.

Yes no Objectives so far, as I underestemated how much work it takes to get interesting / meaningful gameplay. But I will continue working on it to get it where I had imagined it!

I really dig the clean graphics and atmosphere, they read very well. It somehow remembered me of Ultima Underworld.

The controls and grid movement felt very tight and had a nice feedback to it if you hit something you cannot go further. I love the possibility that you can drop down a hole or climb it up again, that’s really cool.

The Xp mechanics are interesting. So you get rewarded by moving around. Why not :) I really would like to get Xp, while forced to listen to the Sisters banter tho ;)

The UI and quick controls looked and felt very nice. It had a nice touch to that you can move it!

I had really trouble to open the Dungeon Door by the chain. Somehow the bounding box did not respond very well to hover. It somehow works in the very upper part of the chain. Also the crystal within the dungeon that is suppose to open a door does not work either. :(

The fake wall looks really nice! That’s a cool mechanic. I think it could be used a lot but the party member should just hint it once so the next time you encounter one, you have to find it yourself!

The dungeon music was quite fitting the dark atmosphere. Nice and eerie!

I would say the combat was okay. It was missing some sound feedback and I did not really know what skills to use when. I liked the first monster and the boss looked really nice, but I could fight him, as I wanted to move before him, I was ported someplace else :(

The constant banter of the girl is an interesting Idea but it gets really annoying fast. She even talk over the dialogs of the NPCs or even if you’re in combat, which is very rude of her and in case of the combat not very fitting! I think it could work if her banter is more context dependent. Like if you standing for a looked door or chest and fail to open it, then she could mock her brother for not be able to do something ;) - As I proposed you before, I would like to have a special skill to shut her up temporarily :P

But despite my previous criticism, it was a successful and fun realization of the theme. Job well done!

As a context:

I played the Web version and it seems like the graphics where hindered by that. Did you also use Godot? I had the same problem regarding fog. Godot somehow fe*** up the fog while running as a Web version :(

I really dig the atmosphere and black & white astetics.

I really liked the tight movement and control scheme. Felt really nice!

The battle was okay I would say. Sometimes the enemy would disapear in thin air or were not moving at all and got stuck it seems. But their attack was clear to read and one could evade if there was enough space, so that was nice! It would have benefited from some nice combat and hurt noises tho ;)

The enemy design was really nice. I love Lovecraftian lore and his monsters. Great job on that!

The floor desolving was quite interesting touch even though it was not fully clear why it hat happend but it gave a nice feel of Oh shit, I've to move moment.

The music is very nice by itself. It remembered me a little of Lord of the Rings. But I think the game could have benefited from a more eerie / sinister music considering the very dark scenario the game takes place.

I played a couple times but was not able to find the end. Is there one?

But regardless of my previous criticism, it was a very nice experience. Good work!

Thank you Lutz! Appreciate that you tried it out, even before the jam and giving me some early feedback :)

Yes I actually did and yes it helped, but refactoring over Script borders did not work very well for me and IntelliSense wasn’t helping 50% of the time, unfortunately. So ya, Ill try c# next time, maybe the experience is a better one :)

I was using Godot with GDScript and it bit me a couple times in the a** while trying to refactor something, so that was no fun. And not having a fully typed Language made it also more error prone to use. So next time I will trying ont Godot’s c# support and hope for the best. ;)

I also lost focus of what is important and whats not gameplay wise, thus I often found myself focused on tasks like generating assets but not having actual gameplay. So next time I’m focusing on getting gameplay done first and assets / polish last!

That’s very kind. Thank you for trying it out! :)