FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → Myrrh

Myrrh

By bwalter

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall753.7760
Fun2533.1959
Innovation2073.2160
Theme903.7357
Graphics194.3461
Audio2862.8158
Mood523.7760

Comments

chuckeles 2019-04-29 10:07

Graphics

The graphics look very impressive. I love the occasional cutscenes/images that appear in important moments. You could make the grass and tries slightly less saturated to make it easier to distinguish enemies and walls in the level.

Sound

Very minimalistic, but when it's used, it fits the situation very well.

Difficulty

I could not even get past the first forest. The second blue guy just always kills me!

Overall

Great game! I like the story and the gameplay. I just didn't see much of the game because of hard enemies.

ditto 2019-04-29 10:37

oufff this game is too hard for me. looks great tho, and i really dig the story telling through images like that. i dig how helpless you feel when down on 1 health, since you can't save, so it feels like you're just desperately scouting what's to come, hoping to do better on your next try. a bit frustrating at times tho, the floating enemies that shoot bullets all around them very early on took me a good handful of tries to get past haha.

martynas 2019-04-29 11:28

As others said the game is a bit too hard. The cutscene art is beautiful but it should be skippable because of the amount of times you respawn. Also I think the game needs a more intuitive way to explain the mechanics. Really loved the art and feel of the world, good job!

pvp 2019-04-29 14:26

Look very good, very difficult: the second mage in the forest feel impossible to pass.

nnnikki 2019-04-29 15:27

Yeah the second mage is hell. I would find it perhaps more enticing if the cutscene didn't happen every dang time I went to the enemies, but only once.

baraa-marwan 2019-04-29 16:16

Nice game,but very hard.I barely managed getting out of the forest.But the art is nice,would be better if more sound and music were added.

patetfisk 2019-04-29 16:19

This is probably my favorite game of the jam. Super difficult but simple. Great job!

p0nce 2019-04-29 16:29

Wow, best story-telling I've seen until now in LD44! Hard but the cutscene make this really rewarding.

andidebob 2019-04-29 16:45

Well if that wasn't the hardest game of the Jam so far. But it was a good one! I got angry while playing this game, and thought that the game is unfair, but in the end i think that that's a good thing. It took me the advertised 20 minutes to get through it. But in the end I had a good time and that's what counts.

If I had one wish I would with for music, something to round off the general feeling you are setting.

Great Job!

deathbysnail 2019-04-29 18:20

Love the pixelated storyboards, really heightens the game. Neato.

bwalter 2019-04-29 20:14

@pvp i added some hints to the itchio page. the seccond mage is easier to pass if you bait him, running back to safety so that he follows, and then run past.

pierre-cilluffo 2019-04-29 21:33

It is very beautiful and i like this game but it is difficult.

syrapt0r 2019-04-29 23:18

Hi! I played this game during my livestream today. You can find the video here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/418104572?t=00h58m17s

REALLY impressive artwork and when you said this was hard, you weren't lying :smile:

bwalter 2019-04-30 00:48

@syrapt0r why thank you! i'll have a look see :D

edit: i watched the clip. thanks again! it was very enjoyable. you almost made it to the end too! :D hope you enjoyed it as well.

psychobagger 2019-04-30 01:42

absolutely my favorite. good game. fun and difficult.

trifectuh 2019-04-30 04:05

Great game, love the challenge. The cutscene art is fantastic as well!

drauthius 2019-04-30 08:21

Nice entry. Quite challenging

wojciech 2019-04-30 08:45

This is a great game! Looks amazing, especially the cutscenes. The story is simple but uncommon and intriguing. Gameplay is challenging but fun. The only problem is that the character sometimes can't fit into a narrow hallway and you get stuck, which is really frustrating. Other than that I loved playing it. Sound is sparse, but the effects fit. Only thing I'd add is some ambient or soundtrack for the mood. This is the best game I've ever seen on a jam.

yngvarr 2019-04-30 11:57

Darn, these bushes are hypnotic. X_X

As it was mentioned, narrow halways and cutscenes make a gameplay slightly annoying. Also, I found it tricky to trace enemies' walk patterns, are they just wondering around in random directions?

Esthetic-wise the game is beautiful. Nice pixel art skill you've got! =)

fazz 2019-04-30 13:26

As you've noted, this game is HARD! I couldn't get passed the second forest. It is super pretty though, the cutscenes and animations, it's all so coherent, really impressive.

From a usability stand point it would be nice if you could skip / shorten the cutscenes once you've seen them. I died a lot, and waited at each cutscene a lot. I also couldn't work out how to quit the game. Had to force quit.

What did the rock before the water that shows a heart do? It didn't give me any more health, and it didn't act as a save point, which would've been helpful. I don't think save points would make the game less difficult, just less punishing.

Considering everything this is quite excellent. The best I've played!

bwalter 2019-04-30 13:40

@fazz that was a save point, but you need to spend a heart to save. if you only have one heart, the game doesnt letyou kill yourself to save :)

fazz 2019-04-30 13:46

@bwalter - oh right! That makes perfect sense. I got a little confused at the start as the stone there does cost you a heart but when you respawn you can pick up the red circle again and get back to 4 lives.

Great game!

khaoz-fang 2019-04-30 15:23

The idea is nice. The terrain need refinement though. Sometime opening ground would block me.

waldinx 2019-04-30 19:01

I enjoyed the graphics and the general feel of the game. Very impressive for a Compo game.

jvolonte 2019-04-30 19:41

Captivating story and great visuals! Narrow paths where a pain (horizontal paths on the dock area when getting the skull) Apart from that, solid entry!

fanmanpro 2019-04-30 20:45

Cool game, liked the art style. It was really difficult though and I feel like stuff should've been explained in the beginning. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

whycardboard 2019-05-01 00:18

i thought the implementation of the theme was really smart, and how you put that into a game was really well done! great work!

lord9000 2019-05-02 10:01

A really visually stunning game! The execution of the topic and storytelling were superb. The lack of any tutorial /dialogue for me wasn't an issue - because the core was simple enough to figure out myself. However I have some remarks about what should be changed. Firstly and most importantly - fix the collision detection. Either snap the player to the absolute grid values (as your whole game is based around the grid) or make more space to move in. Trying to fit in the pixel-perfect spaces made this game not hard, but frustrating. And that's never a good thing - especially if you're throwing around dozens of enemies. Also - the full randomness of the standard roaming enemy was the second source of frustration. I think you should either decrease their number or make them more predictable by level design - as I found myself waiting for them to line up just perfectly before I could progress. Lastly - I'm not a big fan of ultra-low-pixel art but your graphics (especially these story screens) made me appreciate this form of art a little bit more. However, the idea to make the grass and trees wave a little bit just made my eyes hurt, because it caused these nasty pixel seams on the sprites. I think you should either try to apply some filtering to this waving effect or get rid of it completely. Okay, that's enough, I really like this game and if it wasn't as frustrating as it is now, it would easily fit in my top 3 jam games so far. Anyways, keep up the great work!

pixel-boy 2019-05-02 14:02

Really like the depth add by cutscenes, I would have liked to finish it but the game is too hard for me !

mika-la-grand 2019-05-02 15:37

Beautiful art, but how do I get past this enemy. It was also not clear to me that the stone with the x is a checkpoint and that you can choose to sacrifice a heart in order to use it. I also think that you show the screensize art for too long, disrupting the flow of the game.

Schermopname (281).png

bwalter 2019-05-02 19:55

@mika-la-grand that enemy needs to be baited away from his post. he will follow you if you run away.

reality-blind 2019-05-04 16:39

Your art is really incredible, and with some tuning on the difficulty you could have an awesome game! I have one question: what's the use of the skull we can find on the docks? I wasn't able to go really farther than that zone, so maybe it's useful later and I haven't seen it ^^

bwalter 2019-05-04 22:14

@reality-blind there are two skulls needed to unlock a door in that section of the forest :)

sylvie 2019-05-05 01:22

Nice art (especially the "cutscenes") and a pretty fun challenge. I got a bit frustrated occasionally but I managed to win.

jin9310 2019-05-05 18:25

Love the art and it is really amazing how you were able to display so much things. The atmosphere really got me and truth is that it can be hard, however it serves it's purpose well and in my opinion everything works really well! Great Job!

ddrkirbyisq 2019-05-12 23:15

I got to the first skull!

bwalter 2019-05-13 01:11

@ddrkirbyisq good job! that's so close to the end! i hope you liked it and can beat it someday :)

pl4typus 2019-05-15 09:39

The save idea is great however the difficulty curve is just way too high too soon.

On note especially: + For a game where you need to avoid things, some collision might be more fluid (I'm thinking the paths over the water where sometime you can be stuck because of a too tight path and you're not going the right direction that is one or two pixels above).

Loved the art tho. Great idea overall and **we feel that there is a lot of love and involvment in this project**, which is super nice to feel.

If you plan to make this something bigger or even reuse some ideas of this, please **try to work on the difficulty curve as it is this that brings the "flow" feeling** that enhances the storytelling and everything ... But for a jam game, very well done neverless :)

ploy 2019-05-15 17:02

Awesome art. Difficulty is so frustrated :(

ploy 2019-05-15 17:58

WOW, game speed is normal on my old Core2Duo, but INSANELY FAST on Core i5

bwalter 2019-05-16 02:27

@ploy thats strange... i'll look into it! thanks!

cyrolis 2019-05-17 19:10

Really hard, but greaat!