raineshadow 2023-10-02 17:11
I couldn't figure out how to play the game. I was able to move during the first scene before entering the maze and after that I could only move forward and cast the light ball.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD54 → Karl's Labyrinth
By AluminumFool and xbolinger3
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1090 | 2.75 | 35 | |
| Fun | 1078 | 2.55 | 36 | |
| Innovation | 1031 | 2.62 | 35 | |
| Theme | 987 | 2.94 | 36 | |
| Graphics | 630 | 3.51 | 36 | |
| Humor | 754 | 2.50 | 33 | |
| Mood | 907 | 3.01 | 36 |
I couldn't figure out how to play the game. I was able to move during the first scene before entering the maze and after that I could only move forward and cast the light ball.
It is a bit tedious to walk in the game, as one click = one tile displacement. Maybe add something to trigger multiple tiles displacement ? :)
@raineshadow There is no error there. You need to click on the ground to move one tile in any direction. The problem you are probably running into is our camera control. If you hold down left control and move your mouse. You can set your camera up to see the player and scene. Also for spells try clicking the name. Hope this helps :)
@nepturenus You are completely correct, but as is life of a traditional roughlike. :)
After reading the comments and realizing there is a way to control the camera, I was able to play. It took about 8-10 minutes of walking/backtracking before I encountered my first enemy, then I made my way towards the red light only to be one-shot by the minotaur after failing to parry (?). I tried again, struggling to find any enemies to grind before taking on the boss(?), and then I died to him again. A roguelike with this ruleset and visual style could definitely be fun but it was such a pain to get back to where I was that I didn't get to explore the mechanics properly. Three things that could make the experience of exploring the maze much better: 1. document camera control and allow for higher angle (you're constantly adjusting the camera angle to be able to click the tiles). Alternatively, have clicks register through the walls. 2. Ability to walk in several moves (you can already select target tile) 3. Auto-stop movement on spotting enemy.
All in all it's an impressive and promising entry, just sad that the juicy parts are kept out of reach by the controls/interface.
(@fredspipa) Thank you for your review and insights!
Very good! The graphics are nice, and the fog adds a nice touch to the environment and sets a cool mood for the game. Pretty fun exploring the maze, though I have not yet been able to get past one of the enemies. I like the sort of "bread crumb" mechanic with the light orbs, doubling as a way of seeing the paths as well. It would be nice to be able to get a higher angle with the camera so I can click on the spaces easier, and sometimes for some reason I could not get the projectile magic going, clicking on the enemies doesn't seem to do anything (though then again maybe there's an aspect of the mechanics I'm not noticing). Other than those two things though I thought this was great overall. Well done!
It was a bit tedious to walk tile by tile, and I spent a long time walking before finding an enemy, but I loved the feel and the look of the game! The fog, the visuals etc. Keep up the good work!
The game's theme and art direction are very nice, but a little dungeon music would be perfect. However, we're really slow, my first combat experience came after 5-6 minutes, when I reached I guess the center of the labyrinth against the minotaur (the models are really cool by the way). Camera control isn't super-intuitive; holding down a mouse click for movement could have been more like what's generally done in video games. And the ability to move with Z-Q-S-D / W-A-S-D would be a real plus, so you don't have to turn the camera when you're going through a series of streamers. But otherwise, the concept has great potential, well done!
The game is a little too long, moving tile by tile becomes tedious after moving on hundreds of them. Good game overall.
The game seems ambitious but i really couldn't figure out the combat system, and maybe it would have been better to have fixed top down camera, and a way to make the movements faster. The art style looks great tho!
The mood is good but the controls are really hard to handle, double so with the camera. I love the general idea and the art style. A little more on user interface and I think you have a great start.
Maior inimigo => Câmera
These brainy, deliberately complex, every-part-of-the-body-is-individually-simulated kind of games are really not my thing, but I wanted to give this an honest shot anyway! Unfortunately there are a couple too many things in the game that hinder the experience besides just my personal preference... I'm really sorry if this comes across as too negative but I do just want to help! I'll be very descriptive and specific about what I think could be improved:
- First, if the game is fullscreen only, there should be a quit button without having to alt-tab out of the game. - The initial scene is a bit pointless. Usually, playable main menus in games are used as a safe playground for the player to learn the mechanics of the game. Think like, the Mario 64 hub world, or the Crypt of the Necrodancer stage select. With this game though, the main menu uses a completely different control scheme from the rest of the game, so even though I'd read the instructions I didn't know what to do. I even thought the game had crashed because there was no movement. A normal main menu would have probably been better. - As I played the game, it felt like the kind of game that desperately wanted to be 2D, or at least have a fixed, bird's eye view perspective, instead of the free camera you went with: - The initial camera angle is very confusing. It was jammed into the ground and was impossible to play without moving the camera up. - Vertical rotation of the camera is inverted from what I expected, so rotating the camera was awkward, and having to do it constantly during the game felt tiresome. - Clicking to move would have been a fine idea if the walls didn't always get in the way, and you didn't have to keep clicking to move one square at a time. This is the perfect example of what I mean by this game could have had a top-down view. You could just have had the camera fixed looking down, and arrow keys to move one square, and that's it! Or, if you still wanted the click-to-move mechanic, it would also be better, since the walls wouldn't be getting in the way of your mouse all the time. You could maybe add an auto-move option too, that just stops if an enemy attacks you, but that's just an optional QOL improvement. - The light ball also felt pretty useless since you can't see anything over the walls anyway. If the game was top-down, you could more easily use the balls to locate yourself. With the free-moving camera and identical walls all across the map, it's easy to lose track of the places you've been, even while using the light ball mechanic. - Finally, this one might be personal preference or skill issue, but I have no idea how the combat system works. x) I don't know what a dice pool is, or what difference each kind of attack and each body part makes, how to win or lose. I just kept choosing stuff and ended up dying. On my second and third playthroughs, no enemies appeared, but I couldn't reach the end anyway...
Again I'm really sorry, I always prefer to be positive but I also think it's important to point out actual flaws when one finds them. I hope I didn't come across as a dick because that's not what I'm trying to do! I hope you can get some useful insight out of my comment.
Captura de tela 2023-10-03 170313.png
I love the concept of this game and would love to try it again. Right now it's honestly very hard to play in the current state due to the camera. I'm happy that there are in-game instructions on how to control the camera, but without being able to have some semi-top-down camera, the key actual gameplay is rotating the camera to be able to see an angle where I can tell what tiles I can even click on.
If the camera gets updated, I would love to try again and experience more of what this game is meant to be, but right now the camera is a bit of a showstopper for me personally.
I liked the game and it’s interesting, keep it up