itch.io

The update is out!

Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it. VVVVVV is definitely the biggest inspiration.

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Is there a particular reason why swinging the sword from below to up feels strange? It's an important game mechanic used in the progression. Each weapon has a unique reach, so some enemies that can be hit with the katana may not be reachable with other weapons, and vice versa. For instance, the katana can't hit enemies from above,  this is also valid for breakable walls.

I've been thinking for a while about making the world dungeon-based, it would be a great nod to the game's main inspirations and also give more room for visual and music variety, but the problem is the lack of connection between dungeons, it would certainly limit the level design. 

Currently, the idea is that every area is a mini world, with different "biomes" and thematic. The Cursed World is the first area of the game, it is supposed to be a "twisted forest" with labyrinthic design, nonsense geometry and risky room layouts, it's a very weird design choice, but it was meant to be a place to be explored later in the game, having at least one easy path that would lead to the second area, the Grasslands,  which will be far more welcoming than the first.

This is already present in the game, the problem is that almost nobody managed to do that, the Cursed World is difficult but not in a fun way, it's not as labyrinthic as I wanted it to be and the excess of platforming challenges makes it tedious to explore. I wanted to know how the player experience would be, I understood that these weird choices would hinder most people from making progress, but the game also failed to hold their interest and they soon gave up.  I don't intend to change what I wanted for the first area, but to work on it in a way that isn't as frustrating as it is now, and balance it so that at least the easiest path is achievable and the rest will intrigue people to return later or to keep trying if they have more patience/skill.

Thanks for playing! 

Currently, the game is a bit broken because it was rushed for a gamejam, so I'm working on a new version that will fix the level design and bugs. The update should be ready in a few weeks

Obrigado por jogar. A conexão com o tema é que o jogo seria um puzzle não linear, logo teria varias formas de fazer progresso, não é tão obvio mas descoberta é implicita na gameplay

Thank you for playing and for the detailed comment.

I agree with your criticism.  The level design really needs more work. Most rooms have horizontal layouts where the only thing to do is go from one point to another, and summed up with the platforming challenges, the exploration ends up being exhaustive and bland. It's something that I've been concerned about for a while, trying to find ways of fixing it without remaking everything, but you've got a very objective view of the problems and it makes clear that patching up the map would not be enough. I'm not afraid of taking changes to make the game better, but it will surely drag down the development, staying longer in the first area. 

I understand that the art style may not be appealing to everyone, but the game itself is meant to be niche. It's going to be a difficult game (not the same way it is now) with weird design choices and humor.  The game is going to be commercial, but I don't like viewing it solely as a product. Certainly it will not sell well, but that doesn't discourage me from doing something that I have fun making and would have fun playing. It being commercial gives me a background to take the development more seriously and actually improve the game. Of course I can't be way too perfectionist, otherwise the game would never be finished, but while the development still is in the early stages, it's the best time to make changes.

Working with graphical limitations is challenging, the sprites are small so is the color palette, thus lot ends up being put to the player's interpretation, the backgrounds are the biggest example of this, and I think it is part of the fun. This particular sprite you mentioned is the one I've noticed that people were having trouble understanding, so I already planned to change it, but I can't tell what is wrong, maybe it's the color choice or the shape of the entrance, I don't have much idea.

Thanks for playing! Glad to see that someone was able to make good progress.

Not having indicators for interactive objects was a design choice. There’s a lot in the game to learn through experimentation, and showing everything that’s interactable might make players more narrow-minded and make secrets too obvious. (That’s why the elder gives the katana, you can’t progress without first learning the basics.)

The XP bar is very basic, all it does is heal the player completely when it's full, there will be no leveling up system in the game. La-Mulana (and its predecessors, like Maze of Galious) were big inspirations, from visuals to gameplay, so some mechanics, such as the XP system and jump, were borrowed from them. The game also tries to follow the MSX-1 graphical limitations, just like the original version of La-Mulana. The idea is to create a similar game but more focused on non-linear exploration and replayability.

You can't survive the acid pit in this demo, the map is still very WIP so there are a lot of missing parts. But you were almost finished with the content of this demo, there is another boss to kill and a small snippet of the grasslands area. Did you manage to find the secret health upgrade at the beginning?

You can save the game by interacting with the gravestone, it starts flashing after you get the katana. Muscle Ninja's dialogue has some innuendo as a joke, but it could mean anything

Fun game. The presentation is rather basic but I really enjoyed it. Wish it had more levels like the sewer one. I managed to complete all the challenges, the difficulty seems to be on point

Thanks for playing!

The difficulty has been an issue for almost everyone, i'm going to improve the map's navigability before making more balance changes, adding more shortcuts and less annoying rooms.

I'm reluctant to change the jump, it's a core part of the game, everything is designed around it. The white block puzzle is supposed to be a place to learn how to control the jump better, the npc gives hints about this. But I understand that the text may not be entirely clear.

Played the demo on steam, it's very nice. The sword crafting system is a creative addition to the zelda 1 styled gameplay, it works well with the sense of exploration and discovery, allowing you to explore the game's mechanics alongside its world.

The only criticism I have is that touching checkpoints (even if they are already activated) should refill the potion and hp. I had to kill myself on purpose sometimes.

Consegui chegar até o final focando em item de defesa e damage up. Ta bem divertido o jogo e os itens são criativos, unica critica que tenho é que o molotov não deveria dar dano no jogador porque vira algo a mais para desviar e atrapalha.

Não sei se bugou mesmo, mas teve uma vez que eu morri e voltei a jogar, a musica demorou até a wave 6 para tocar de novo.

It's not a concept that can stand on its own, it needs to have more gameplay mechanics to be interesting. For now, the game is rather basic, the bombs are pretty easy to dodge, there is no enemy variety and all the player can do is walk and shoot. There is no real challenge, so it gets repetitive easily.

Well, you are right. I forgot

I like shmups but i'm not very good at them. I enjoyed this game, at some points it felt unfair, but overall, it's already decent. More sfx would be nice, and the second boss needs to be easier to telegraph. The biggest problem I had was that enemies are difficult to see, they don't have enough color contrast with the background, so sometimes bullets felt like they were coming from nowhere.

Unfortunately, I didn't make as much progress as I wanted. The map still basically the same, but there are several small changes regarding balance and quality of life. Maybe the game is more understandable now.

Thanks for playing! I think I'll have to tone down the difficulty a bit, people are having a lot of trouble making progress

Small update for the demo

-Improved jump physics a little bit

-Increased the katana range slightly

-Reduced prices for subweapons

-The ufo miniboss should be easier

I like the idea of a 3d Jump King, it's something that for sure has potential, but the third dimension ramps up the difficulty even more, it's hard to land jumps precisely and avoid hitting walls. Several times I had to reallocate my position with short jumps and this was not very fun. In Jump King, bouncing off walls works more as a movement gimmick than a punishment.

Also a minor bug: after falling and sliding from a platform, the character started floating

Thank you very much for playing and for this comment, I'm glad someone understood what this project is aiming for. The soundtrack still has a lot of placeholders, we had some trouble trying to work with original MSX audio, so currently we are experimenting with different soundchips, to see which one fits better and which we can also work well with.

Every screen being unique was something we put a lot of work into, we wanted to make sure the game world felt compact, without meaningless rooms and too much walking. The game has a grid map system, it's not working yet, but you can even find a hidden map on this demo. It shouldn't be too revealing, but it should also give players some coordination as there will be more areas to explore.

The blue wall is because some rooms are not finished yet, we couldn't finish the first area in time for this demo day, so some rooms are locked by these walls. For the next demo day the first area should be done, with another miniboss to kill and more items to find

Cute graphics and sound effects. The gameplay works well, it's nice to get a long balloon combo. I don't think it can have more depth but works well for a possible mobile app. Personally I think that the NASA audio doesn't really fit in with the aesthetic you went for, but they are also kinda funny, don't know if this was your intention. 

Simple game with very polished mechanics and presentation, really enjoyed it
Level design is great, but I think the second level is a bit confusing, I feel like I skipped some parts of it

Thanks for playing!
Yeah like PoblamkBr said there is a quit button in the options menu of the title screen (in-game you would have to go back to the title screen and then quit), but I understand this is difficult to find and non-intuitive, going to change that

Ficou meio dificil de entender de onde leva hit e o jogo realmente fica repetitivo depois de um tempo (os upgrades demoram para aparecer e não stackam) mas a apresentação está otima

Algum dia

Se encontrar algum bug, reporte aqui.

Gostei dos graficos e da trilha sonora, o jogo tem charme. A gameplay é um pouco lenta mas facil de entender.

Tentei jogar mas não entendi o que tem que fazer, eu interagi com um objeto e o jogo fechou.

Obrigado por jogar, o controle do clima aparece logo após o chefe

Jogo lançado!

mitologico

Found, thanks!

Sorry, but I received the $5 on clickstore but i won't get any clickteam fusion key.
(I already searched in my email)
and if possible, i want a steam key.

Very weird game!  I love the style.

Ty bro :)