The Legend of the Empty One

sarah 2019-10-11 20:24

So there's a lot going on here, but it's a bit confusing at first. The scene changes/music is a bit abrupt, but thats not really a big deal.

Its a very interesting idea, having different abilities? and then picking which to have in your inventory. I also reallly really liked the scroll thing that chose something new. That looked really cool (:

Overall I really like where it was going, but it needs some polish and explanations. But the combat works nicely, even though its really hard (but Im bad at games like this, so its probably on me haha)

The only other thing that messed me up was the screen size, I could only see everything when it full full screen. And when I left full screen, the UI in the inventory was off.

But overall, well done!

spicypaper 2019-10-12 20:48

@sarah Thank you for your constructive feedback.

I'm glad that you appriciate our work on the inventory and all the other things that we did.

I agree with you for all the bugs you talked about. We are aware of those issues.

Thank you again for your comment.

bramreth 2019-10-13 14:15

the mechanics and progression are really well thought out and the sound is stellar. I really like the animation for unlocking new abilities was really slick too. I personally feel the movement could use some acceleration and momentum though. Stellar job overall

paulsams 2019-10-13 14:15

Cool idea and idea. I advise you to develop)! But as for me, music does not fit at all. And the enemies are too randomly and abruptly spawned. And also those who beat AoE can suddenly fly right at you, so it’s unrealistic for a player to react to dodge.

goupixm 2019-10-13 14:18

it is a little bit weird at the beginning. The sound is may be to high but it is not a real problem. I didn't understand the 4 squares, is it abilities ?

But, the game is cool, controls are easy and the art is very attractive ! Good job !

simanis 2019-10-13 15:02

The idea of equipping your powers is really cool and the choice of music was good. Losing all your progress upon death seems a bit too unforgiving

sciman101 2019-10-13 15:21

I really like the concept you have here, and maybe it's just me but I'm always a sucker for inventories where objects take up different amounts of physical space. The UI on that note is really polished, though some more instruction on what to do would be appreciated.

I'd say my biggest complaint is that the actual 'bullet hell' section doesn't feel great. The characters are too big and the bullets too small, and there's not a lot of feedback for hitting an enemy besides just seeing their health bar go down. If you ever return to this idea, Vlambeer gave a great talk called 'Art of the Screenshake' that might be able to help with some of those problems.

That said, this is a jam, so in the time frame you were given, this is pretty great! Nice work

gnappuraz 2019-10-13 15:37

Wow, really nice idea for the inventory system, probably is the most compelling thing, along with the random power animation that is so nice and polished, super well done. The game resetting is a bit unforgiving for a bullet hell but hey, who am I to judge. Great job!

tort60091 2019-10-13 15:38

Awesome work, a lot of cool features! I really like the game but please save the unlocked parts of upgrades after death. I tried 10 times, opened 3 new parts and after death I gave up cause discarded progress is very frustrating you can't enjoy combinatorics I understand that maybe it's part of the jam theme, but it's too hard, anyway Great Work!

You can do this even now and make update cause it's part of the jam rules! I said this because I really want to enjoy this game but I can see only 20-30% of your work after a lot of tries

mharring 2019-10-13 15:39

I really like the idea behind the inventory system. Placing abilities in different shaped blocks makes it a small puzzle within the game. I found it very challenging though - died multiple times on the second level, and each time I had to start all over. Perhaps when you die you should restart on the current level? Lots of great ideas here that you could expand upon!

mikeliosus 2019-10-13 22:06

Hey, guys!

I passed your game.

The_Legend_of_the_Empty_One_by_Spicy_paper2.png

General idea is great, and it looks like a really tons of work that you did making such a lot of enemies with different behaviors.

And this inventory system is really great!

But to be honest I was frustrated during the gameplay because of the not very polished core. Feeling of big clunky character, and those units rushing from spawn points or sometimes spawning right on the character's spot.

Level design and position of invisible spawn points feeling uncomfortable.

Because of this little things game sometimes just forces you to lose.

But, it is my opinion and even with such moments, I think you did a lot of great work. I think if you polish the core more, it would be absolutely awesome. And I believe if you would like to do it, it will be an easy task for you.

By the way, I should agree with Sciman101 - "The art of screenshake" is the ultimate stuff. I love it so much and recommend almost every game designer I know. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

kooshy 2019-10-14 02:40

The inventory of abilities is really cool, and the way they're different shapes makes you really think about what goes where and what you really need. It could use some polish (things just sort of blink in and out of existence, for example) but, yaknow, 72 hours.

odeyalko 2019-10-14 17:28

I liked the game over time. At first I could not go through level 3, then I realized that you can press the spacebar and they give you more modules.

spicypaper 2019-10-14 17:46

@odeyalko Yeah your right...! It's... a... feature ! We did it on purpose :) Hum...hum...

adam-saudagar 2019-10-14 17:55

The inventory system was a great concept, but you do start with something, you should have left the default things out to make it go with the theme... anywho, the diffuculty curve of the game is very high, first level was simple, but from second level it gets extremely though, and tracking both dodging bullets and where u have to shoot is not very fun and sometimes feel unfair. And I'm not sure if this was intended, but alot of the time enemies were spawining on top of me dealing damage.

Good Job! Keep it up!!!

wolf4d 2019-10-14 21:16

Why won't you allow me to restart from level where I died? That's harsh!

kushimoto 2019-10-15 19:36

Fun game level to level, but the overall experience is extremely unbalanced. Random levels are fine, but to spawn enemies based on how far in the game you are, rather than how the level is structured, adds to this skewed balance. Also, skills are very underwhelming. Randomness of spawn points and skill selection is also frustrating. Perhaps a pick one of three skills would have been more fun in order to allow the player to build a certain play style. Beyond those core mechanics, I think the theme was kinda just tossed in as you obtain 4 things at the beginning of the game.

Having said all that, this is a jam game at the end of the day, and I believe the idea is there. Your skill inventory is a great idea, the controls are incredibly smooth, and the game is just plain fun. Given more polishing and play testing I think this would be an absolute home run. Great job.

eduardo-yukio 2019-10-16 02:59

Things I didn't like: * I took a while to understand that I could pick all the powers on the first level, maybe if it had some instructions and explanations that later you would need to manage the powers that you get it would make more sense. * The item selector phase is not clear that it is an item selector phase haha, I only understood when it ended * Most of the time that I took damage were because monsters spawned on top of me, without a warning. It's frustrating because you can't do anything against it * The game ended when I killed the boss while there were still enemies on the board * I didn't know if the enemy that healed other enemies would heal me too. It looks like it's a friendly unit, maybe because it's all green.

Things I liked: * Very fun and challenging gameplay! * Great variety of enemies. * The management of items is an awesome mechanic because it has puzzle elements, in which you have to fit items, and it also let the player decide what strategy fits his style, very nice! * The item selector art is cool.

sorlok 2019-10-27 13:36

Really solid gameplay, and loved the inventory mechanic. The end of level bonus scroll was really satisfying to watch, for some reason. Only 2 minor issues: (1) the first level seemed to just drop you directly into peril (later levels had a ~2 second delay before spawning enemies), and (2) the cyan colored enemies could appear on screen and hurt you faster than you could move out of the way (maybe some telegraphing of where they will spawn)?

sleepystudios 2019-10-27 15:21

Inventory system made a lot of sense and quite a nice mechanic. Could've done with a few more sound effects and other bits of feedback like screenshake.

notgreat 2019-10-27 19:22

I liked the idea a lot, but playing it just felt weird. The complete lack of any momentum in the character's movement and the very slow speed of your bullets likely contributed to this feeling, along with the player being quite large making dodging annoying (though not too hard since the bullets move slow enough)

Also, I couldn't figure out how to deal with the fast moving teal/blue guys who shoot out a shockwave. I can't get away from them fast enough and they damage me before I can kill them. Thus plus the seeming random spawning of enemies sometimes having them spawning right on top of me made me give up after a couple failures since I didn't see how I could improve on those aspects.

markus 2019-10-27 22:41

Nice! I was very impressed by the amount of different items and enemies you were able to put into the game! The inventory system and the reward animation was also very cool Some improvements to the core system, like effects when shooting, hitting an enemy or being hit (screenshake, particles, sound effects) as well as a better movement system and knockback could improve the gameplay a lot and make this a really good game!

projectaroid 2019-10-27 23:19

Cool game. Nice graphics, smooth game play, and good inventory system.