I usually cant do too many jam games since I'm out doordashing a lot, but thanks to this being a mobile game it was quite a blessed exception. It looks polished, its simple and fun, and the collectables add just enough variation to keep it feeling fresh.
Plus, having the game be a mobile game to satisfy the special object being a telephone is cheeky as hell lol.
Will be using this game to waste my wait time while doordashing again. -Thomas
Thank you so much! We all worked super hard to come up with a unique and cohesive idea. We are so proud of the results. Thank you for taking the time to play it! - John
I'll have to look into positional programming for keyboards with gml! I didn't realize that was a thing. Very cool!
CT.js looks really interesting! I'll have to take a look at the other tools you mentioned as well.
Doing 3D is an especially good point for trying something new, but more stuff in general is a good idea for sure. I do feel bad during the brainstorm phase of a jam having to limit some of my teams ideas based on what I already know how to do.
I have wanted to dip my toes in Unity, namely for the 3d, I think you've convinced me to get started on that before next years jam.
Yesss! I also made the reference to evangelion to John (who made the enemies) glad to see I wasn't the only one who got that vibe.
Also, yes, our team has rated your game but I do recommend anyone else seeing this to give Hellfrost a look, the number of ratings it has does not track with the quality.
Very well done! The polish is great, and the puzzles are engaging. My only nitpick is that the randomness of the die roll doesn't add anything to the game that being able to pick your die wouldn't fix. But that's a minor concern since all its doing is taking a bit more time to get the number I want, and the sound of the die roll is satisfying so I'm not too concerned.
If anyone gets the chance, we've been rating lots of games but could use some honest ratings as well (only have 10 ratings right now). But good luck on the rest of the jam! This is definitely one of the top!
I'm a huge sucker for anything where you punch the hell out of everything, and I love the style. So this might not be the most unbiased review but boi howdee did I love it.
I'd enjoy a full game with this style outside of the gamejam that didn't use the dice as the theme, but the powerups were represented by something else.
Really loved the art style in this! It ended up being pretty chaotic, which is not bad, but I found myself wanting things to be slowed down a little bit so I strategize based on my list of dice. But the only reason I wanted that was because I could see the list on the right, so its not really a downside.
Yeah I'm feeling it now that dodging towards the direction of WASD would have been the better call, I think it would have been more intuitive.
I agree on the shield enemies! Among all the dice, each of them are supposed to be best handled by a certain side, but its supposed to be possible to beat them (even if difficult) with a different side. But with shield enemies you have to roll through them and hope, or get really close and sidestep an attack to hit them while they're vulnerable, which is a lot more punishing than the other enemies.
EDIT: Also thought I would jump back in here cuz being the programmer of this game I was pretty happy with the AI thanks to learning about state machines in our main project. Glad to see the techniques are working!
Incredible presentation. I feel for clicker games you either love it or hate it, and that harsh divide is probably gonna cut into the rankings quite a bit, despite it being a valid type of game for many people. And once again, gorgeous presentation.
We could use a few more ratings on ours if you get a chance, but good luck with the rest of the jam!
I feel that! Even with our team of 3 we have issues with scope T-T. if you get a chance, we could use a few more ratings as well. Good luck on the rest of the jam! Looking forward to what you come up with next year!
Like some others have said, incredible polish. All of you have well-deserved praise in that regard. I wish there was more to say about how good the polish is so it doesn't feel like I'm focusing too much on this next bit.
Didn't really feel the theme here, and I didn't feel like I needed to make any decisions to complete the levels. Running around to touch every tile and grabbing the bell seems valid enough without having to switch things up.
Absolutely excellent idea the mechanics are really polished, and the gameplay really took off for me when I realized you can choose the direction you roll the dice. A very very competent take on the theme that I think you should be really proud of.
I'm trying to think of a critique but honestly it works great just as it is.
I also couldn't figure out how to dodge the spikes, but I did enjoy the time i had with the game! I don't know if it was intentional, but when i landed upside down i was dragged backwards, which I actually liked. Since it felt like I had to time my jumps on edges to re-orient myself.
The game-feel is spot on, managing the dice did a good job of giving you that real life good feeling of rolling dice, it was legit fun in a way that's hard to describe just to pick up new dice and roll them.
Plus, remembering to equip the correct die ahead of time before jumping on the platform where the enemy could attack you kept me engaged.
My only nitpicky concern is that if you don't roll high enough to actually beat the enemies on screen, you can't win. So it just feels like its a binary you win or you don't scenario. Maybe if you could still reach the goal but the enemies were much easier to deal with if you can defeat them would help?
But all in all, a very impressive game. Well done!
I've seen a lot of puzzle games using the turning of the faces and landing on the correct side to overcome certain obstacles, but this one is so far my favorite concept.
I like that you pick up sides as you go, and reaching the victory point you still have to be able to roll in a way to get it on the top, which felt very nice.
Like you said, you didn't have time to implement everything you wanted, so my only complaint being that its a little confusing to confirm which side of the die you are on with the visual provided, but I am sure you are aware of that. Very nicely done!
Thanks very much for the detailed feedback! I guess next jam we should try to have options for AZERTY layouts. Rayane Felix is just a credit for art assets that we used, they didn't actively work on the project unfortunately.
I think John would be happy to know those tetrahedron enemies spoke to you lol, he had a great time giving them a big crazy smile like that.
As for number 6, maybe I am misunderstanding you, but the "class" that you get from the dodge roll is randomized (you just cant get the same one twice in a row). Same with enemy health values, and the damage of your attacks are in a randomized range. So I had thought we managed to respect the theme of randomization, but if it didn't click with you than it likely didn't click with others and we should have worked on it more.
For our framework, we used Gamemaker studio 2! I might move to another engine eventually, but I already put so much work into this engine I'm not sure I want to learn a new system T-T
I think its a neat concept! I like that the abilities can also be wild movement abilities as well, though I didn't feel much incentive to swap abilities. But I definitely see the potential here.
Nice to see someone else using gamemaker studio! The gameplay itself is engaging, and functions well.
Maybe I'm being too picky, but I wonder if dice really played a part in the theme here? Maybe it does past the 2nd level but it sort of seems like a dice skin on a game that could have been themed on nearly anything.
I think its a really interesting concept that the dice you apply to your systems are "rolled with advantage", and since the sizes of the dice are different I feel like the strategy involved is there.
Would be neat to see it finished! I see where it is going, a game where you gamble gold for buffs in a battle phase of the game that I am sure is coming is a cool concept.
Liar's dice is a good starting point and the music was great. I did encounter some issues though where some times my dice were just colored cubes (unsure if this was intentional) and a few times the covering for my dice floated below screen for a few turns and then did not cover my dice when it came back.
