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Infernal Ascension
Infernal Ascension
By cosmo8
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 16 | 4.26 | 40 | |
| Fun | 12 | 4.27 | 40 | |
| Innovation | 22 | 4.17 | 40 | |
| Theme | 15 | 4.38 | 40 | |
| Graphics | 35 | 4.21 | 40 | |
| Audio | 49 | 3.82 | 40 | |
| Humor | 153 | 3.00 | 33 | |
| Mood | 37 | 4.00 | 40 | |
Comments
kepsert
2024-04-15 03:34
What a lovely entry!
+ The controls were responsive +++ AMAZING visuals, the art style, the effects, everything + Interesting gameplay + A cool variety of mechanics
I would've loved to see some additional platforming, and perhaps some changes to the numbers here and there(?), jump felt a bit too floaty for my liking and I believe there was no coyote time? :( Not a big issue though as I don't think the game's meant to be a straight up platformer.
Did take me a while to realise the little demon followed my mouse, that's my own stupidity though :D
Great entry!
crocidb
2024-04-15 13:52
Wow! This is a fantastic entry. I love how you mixed the mechanics together and introduced them one by one. It's a sweet mix of platformer, puzzle, action game, etc. Really well thought. The levels are absolutely incredible and the music and sound effects go so well together with the game.
It took me a while to figure out that the demon was following my mouse, even had to restart the game just in case it was a bug. Also I thought that Enter to close the checkpoint windows were a bit awkward because my hands were off that region of the keyboard all the time. Also some screenshots/gifs/video of the game and some devlog would be really appreciated.
Nonetheless, good job for the amazing game!
I concur with CrociDB. I nearly gave up until I saw their comment about mouse controlling the demon, but boy am I glad I saw it because this was so much fun after I learned that!
I will say that I found the old abilities were almost entirely replaced with the new ones when I got them, which is a little bit of a shame, but overall a fantastic entry! :smiling_imp:
Great art, great level design, great movement and combat mechanics. I couldn't beat the boss but the game even has saves so I can try again later :) The only criticism I can think of is that I couldn't really get used to controlling both characters at once and dodging attacks. I felt like I kept getting confused and it took a lot of coordination just to keep track of which character was where. Maybe it would help to make them different colors and visually easier to distinguish at a glance.
Overall this is a really good entry. Great job!
rakowu
2024-04-15 21:39
Really good entry. At the beginning I thought it was just going to be a normal jump n' run game. But I was really taught better. The final boss really had it all :D
pres2300
2024-04-16 03:06
Wow, great job! The music, sound effects, art, and gameplay were all really well done. It even fit the theme really well! It didn't make sense to me for a bit that my cursor had to be on the screen for the summoning to make sense at first, but that's really my only critique. Great work!
WOW. THAT WAS REALLY hard to beat that last guy. i just couldn't watch the guy flying around AND my own dude at the bottom of the screen. Took me many many many attempts. but i eventually got it.winIT.png
Wow, just wow! Very impressive compo entry!
Wow, amazing entry - i'm not much of a platformer fan, but this game simply hooked me - i love all the little upgrades one finds on the way, especially love the little "infocard" that pops up, just great! Well done Ludum Dare entry!
I'm pumped up in the boss battle, and the mechanics are greatly integrated with it. Nice entry!
Cool game, I like it! Very nice visuals, interesting mechanics. Sometimes it's hard to control the demon especially when I'm against the creatures. Anyway, I enjoyed the game, thank you!
neowhoru
2024-04-17 09:09
Very great game. i would suggest to add a small hint to know that your mouse is important to show where to summon :D But for a compo game this amazing!
cosmo8
2024-04-17 15:17
@kepsert Really glad you liked it! Definitely wish I spent a little more time with the platformer controls; The character is definitely floatier than I'd like, and no coyote time or input buffering. Definitely something I'd do different if I could do it again.
@crocidb Thanks so much! Yeah, it was definitely a mistake on my part to never explain the connection between the demon and the mouse cursor; I assumed players would understand, which was a silly assumption to make, considering it was never explained once xD And while it is a little awkward to have enter be the key to close the tutorial card, that was sort of the point, to a degree. I'm incredibly used to players skipping tutorials before they've actually internalized or read the information needed, and I didn't really want to commit to making a more proper, robust tutorial system, since there's only so much time, so making it an inconvenient button was just my band-aid fix.
@owtuvammo Like I said before, definitely a screw-up to never mention the mouse control, might be a liittle important to explain xD While I can see how the old abilities could feel obsoleted in terms of mobility, I feel like their use in combat (Hellblast as a quick way to do damage to all enemies in an area, Sling as a way to quickly launch around and do damage to enemies, and Blink as a getaway tool) feels pretty varied, not to mention their cooldowns meaning you don't always have one up. That's just the design I tried to go for though, in practice, I can totally see why you'd feel that way, and the feedback's really appreciated! ^^
@tomi-vahamaki Keeping track of where your player/demon are is definitely the biggest skill involved, it could definitely make sense to try to make them stand out from the background and eachother more, just to make it quicker to tell where they're at. And, uhh.. Apologies about the boss xD I only made the final bossfight in the last 2-3 hours of the jam, so I didn't really have time for all that much playtesting, I just tuned it to a level that felt generally tough enough, and shipped it. If I'd had time to have a couple people play it, I definitely would have made it a lot easier. But eh, 48 hours, am i right? xD
@rakowu Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for playing! ^^
@pres2300 Happy you liked it! The whole mouse thing is definitely one of my biggest blunders of the jam, if I'd just added a little part of the first tutorial that explains it follows your mouse, everything would probably be a lot more intuitive; But ah well, we all screw up sometimes, right? xD
@commanderstitch Nice job beating it! The final boss was definitely way overtuned, didn't start on it until the last 2-3 hours of the jam, so didn't do all that much playtesting xD Glad you enjoyed it! ^^
@fusionnist Really glad you liked it! ^^
@thoastbot Glad you enjoyed it! Worked hard on the silly little book graphics that pop up when you get a new spell xD
@look-for-happiness Thanks for the feedback! Happy you enjoyed it ^^
@sayurinyooko Glad you liked it! ^^
@neowhoru Yeah, some info about using the mouse was definitely needed xD Glad you liked it though! ^^
zubspace
2024-04-17 20:12
This is a truly unique game and I'm impressed with what you were able to accomplish in such a short time! First, I simply stared at the main menu for a few minutes because it looks so awesome. The psychedelic background and the particle effects are simply eye candy to me. Wonderful!
Every action feels juicy. You made a nice in game intro and added new mechanics one after the other. Feels good. Others already told you, that some mechanics are hard to grasp and that's true. But because of that, it feels so much better when you finally figure it out.
You really put a lot of thought into those abilities, and they all work great. The problem is that it's hard to get used to them all together in such a short time frame in addition to handling the daemon and your character at the same time.
The build-up to the last boss is awesome. Some Super-Mario vibes there, but I like it! Unfortunately, the boss was just unbeatable for me.
Overall, a great and unique experience. Good job!
The game has volume sliders! yes! This game is very fun and unique. I really like the concept controlling two parties and getting them to work together.
Some minror gripes I have with the game are that the platforming isn't very snappy and the summoning is too hard during combat. If the character fell faster than he rose, then I think platforming would feel better. As for summoning during combat, maybe you could store summoning meter? That way, you can focus on surviving and using moments of safety to charge the summon meter.
cosmo8
2024-04-18 04:41
@zubspace Glad you had fun! Really just threw the main menu together from a bunch of random assets from the project, so I'm glad you liked it xD And yeah, the abilities are all pretty squished together time-wise, since the whole game is pretty short. If I had a bit more time, I'd definitely like to give them all a little more exploration, give them all at least a handful of checkpoints exploring different ways of using them, but.. Eh, jam, what are ya gonna do? Glad you liked the boss intro, spent a good bit of time working on it! xD Sorry you couldn't beat it, I know it ended up being a bit too hard; Lack of playtesting will do that I suppose xD
@rumiaobsessed Platforming was definitely pretty floaty, and didn't have any coyote time or input buffering. I definitely could have spent a bit more time making the character feel nice to control. Also, the idea of letting the player store their summon meter is actually a pretty neat idea I didn't consider that'd totally make it a lot more interesting to summon during combat, instead of just being practically forced to eat a hit. Thanks for the feedback! ^^
The amount of polish and content is amazing! The graphics look great and you really got to show off the mechanics.
Combat ended up being a lot of fun too.
I love a good ol' platformer! The controls did feel a little floaty and could have done with being a bit "snappier", but all in all a very well thought out, well executed game.
rakowu
2024-04-18 10:18
Why the "hell" is your game in danger? In my opinion it's one of the best in the jame currently.
pandalk
2024-04-18 10:59
The amount of polish in that game is very impressive I particularly enjoyed the blue spell throwing my guy at people was fun
shanzhai
2024-04-18 11:07
Very nice entry. If you're looking for constructive criticism, here's my two cents:
- Give the mouse cursor a nonstandard design to have people instantly know it's part of the game. I actually put it offscreen to not be bothered by it, thinking you forgot to take it away. When it came to summoning it took me like five minutes to realize my familiar spawned at the mousecursor position (offscreen). Alternatively, you could have it spawn at player position and then fly towards the cursor do tell the player this is what is going on here. - You have a nice pixelart aesthetic, but antialiased text; i'd suggest to go with crisp and pixelated instead, it'll make the game look way more coherent. - Highly subjective take: I personally wasn't too much of a fan of the soundtrack; it was cool when there were enemies on screen which is a nice touch, but usually you go for a song that works on its own and add to it in certain situations while to me it felt like you had a complete track and took away from it when there were no enemies. - The movement-audio felt a little off for the movement-speed as well imho. It's cool that its actually the speed of the feet moving, but tweaking both just a bit could make it feel nicer. That it keeps playing (and the feet moving) after not pressing the button anymore makes the whole controls feel a little floaty as well; stopping immediately would make it feel a lot more responsive.
Last but not least: It's Unity, you should provide a web build - way more people will play your game that way.
But all of those things aside, I really dig the concept. Very nice contribution to the jam, congrats!
At first I thought that the jumping was too low and floaty but after discovering the long jump and fastfall mechanics I think that its a neat detail, and makes for a more interesting movement. What definitely felt floaty is how Ralph follows the cursor, I think that it would be better if he moved faster and bounced harder off of enemies. It would help in attacking enemies faster, thus making the game a little bit easier. I didn't manage to come even close to defeating the boss after six attempts, especially when it goes into its second phase with the wings. It's hard to keep track of attacking the boss with Ralph and controlling the player character to avoid the angels' attacks at the same time. Maybe by simply removing the angel spawns it would be more doable.
Overall it's a nice simple platformer with physics-based movement. The way you can accelerate with the RMB spell to quickly traverse the corridor to the boss was a lot of fun. Wheeeeee!
What the game does definitely lack is fitting music. The one that starts playing in the beggining of the game and the rest of the dungeon is too lighthearted. The one playing during the final boss fight is okay I think.
Good game and congratulations!
cosmo8
2024-04-18 13:02
@bo-dangles Glad you enjoyed it! Worked really hard! ^^
@adam-gould Controls were definitely much too floaty, agreed. If I was to do this game over again, I'd definitely fine-tune the character's movement a lot more, but ah well, what are ya gonna do? xD
@rakowu That really makes me happy to hear! Thanks for helping out! ^^
@pandalk Glad you liked it! Definitely thought the blue spell was my favorite too! ^^
@shanzhai Definitely wish I'd made a non-standard cursor design, for polish if nothing else. And explaining the demon's relation to the cursor is definitely something I should have done; Just never occurred to me while I was working on it xD The text is definitely a bit of a mess, but it was my first time working with pixel perfect rendering in unity (which is actually downscaling the entire viewport to the size of the pixel art and re-scaling it back up) and I didn't quite know the "right" way to do text. I'm sure with a little more research, I could have made it pencil, but hey, always something to improve on next time, right? ^^ And I'm also honestly not a massive fan of the music either; I'm not a musician by any means, and I really tend to struggle with making any kind of dark, more intense music. It's definitely something I need to improve at as a swiss-army-knife developer, but I pretty much just had to decide at some point that it was gonna be good enough, since if I was trying to make something I was actually happy with, I probably would have done nothing but make a soundtrack xD Definitely something I need to improve on though! And yep, movement definitely felt floaty in a lot of ways; I do wish I spent more time tuning it. Unity web builds always tend to not work well for me; Not sure if it's a lack of understanding, or poor optimization, but I tend to try, and end up removing the web build because it sacrifices so much of the fun of the game by barely running, barely functioning, clipping audio, all that. It's also something I've gotta get better at, but eh, did my best for the jam! Thanks so much for all the feedback, it's really appreciated! Means a lot to me! ^^
@andriybyelikov Ralph is definitely pretty floaty to control, all the controls in general could have been quite a bit tighter. I think removing i-frames from the enemies would also help for sure; They exist because I copy-pasted the same health management script from the player and ralph for the enemies, so they get half a second or so of invulnerability after you damage them, which in retrospect, really doesn't add anything positive to the game. Definitely wish I'd modified the health management to remove the i-frames there. And yeah, boss is waay overtuned xD Definitely to give myself a lot more time to work on the boss than the last 3 hours of the jam, but hey, learning these things is what jams are all about, right? ^^ I agree about the music though; I'm not a very experienced composer at all to be honest, and I definitely tend to struggle with more moody and dark music. As it stands, that's probably my weakest skill when it comes to game development. Thanks for the feedback, it's really helpful! ^^
@cosmo8 If you're interested in learning about music theory, check out the video descriptions of my latest two pieces for an explanation of the music theory behind each piece and for learning sources. You can find a link to the piece I made for my game on my game's page.
Very good entry! The amount of overall polish behind this is very impressive
ategon
2024-04-20 23:18
Thanks for submitting your game to the stream! If you wanted to watch it again in the future heres the vod of the stream (with a chapter for your game)
https://youtu.be/eQrmE5W6CWU
And I'm the host for the ludum dare score chasers tournament this Ludum Dare. Wanted to ask if youre fine if I put some gameplay of the game in an intermission video. Last year for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_eIvjBmIQ
itsboats
2024-04-22 07:09
took me a bunch of tries for that last boss haha dang that was hard. love the mechanics though that was fun as heck i especially liked the swinging around my dude lmao!
i only found one secret that am pretty sure was a hp upgrade. in my opinion i don't think secrets should make the player stronger because the ones that spend time to find all of them are the ones more willing to learn and complete your game and giving them secret upgrades can take away from the satisfaction of overcoming that final boss or make it too difficult for the people less willing to explore the game. (i only had 1 hp when i beat the boss so I probably would have done another 10 tries without it xD)
InfernalAscension2.png
cosmo8
2024-04-22 13:17
@ategon Thanks for playing it, and thanks for the vod! I'd be totally fine if you used gameplay footage from my game! ^^
@itsboats The secrets don't make you any stronger, you get one more max hp for each checkpoint you get; I figured any players that can actually find the secrets probably don't need any help xD My original plan was to make it so getting all three secrets would trigger a final secret third phase when you kill the boss, doing some kind of cool animation with the three cards, and give you some kind of "true" ending for killing that overcharged version of the boss, since players that find all three secrets would probably find more enjoyment in a higher challenge than making the game easier; But, obviously, 48 hours is not a lot of time, so that didn't end up happening xD Glad you liked it though! ^^
conduit
2024-04-26 02:59
Wonderful compo entry, mechanics and gameplay were top notch. I like how it challenged my way of thinking with the different abilities. The bossfight, while difficult, could've been much more manageable with a custom cursor or contrasting background. Also loved the particle effects of the exploding angels and fire! 10/10 entry
I've got a fever, And the only thing that can cure this fever is MORE PARTICLES! OMG this entry was AMAZING! I'm completely floored that you did this in only TWO days! Very well done. This game had particles. SEVERAL volume sliders. Particles. Very satisfying screen shaking and block destorying. Oh and did I mention the particles!? I'm worried about competing against you in the future! But I look forward to see what you come up with next time! Very inspiring!
justcamh
2024-04-27 13:52
Damn that boss is tricky! But I love all the different movement options in this, you did a great job combining movement and combat in a really fluid way, where every ability offered both mobility and damage output. And secrets, yay! :heart:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2130698362
stanov
2024-04-27 19:21
Hello there! You saw me playing the game live :)
Great atmosphere, cool pixel-art graphics.
A lot of content for 48 hours!
I would prefer to have less mechanics with some more practice, because I wasn't ready for the boss because I only used the basics :)
Thank you for stopping by!
The art is really good, and everything is so polished and cohesive. You nailed the atmosphere as well! It's so epic :100: As for the gameplay, the mechanics are really fresh and creative.
It's so inspiring to think that you managed to deliver such a cool game - and even a soundtrack - with only 2 days of development!
cosmo8
2024-04-29 15:19
@conduit Glad you liked it! Definitely didn't think about the cursor blending into the background; I play a lot of tower defense games, so I've gotten good at knowing where my cursor is despite not being able to see it, hence why I didn't catch that it was an issue xD Definitely wish I'd made some kind of little red cursor, maybe with the ability cooldowns actually incorporated into it in some way; That'd also fix the issue of people not assuming the cursor is important. But, ah well, lessons learned for next time ^^
@flyingkaida So happy you loved it so much! ^^ Particles are one of my favorite things to add to bring life to games, and working with the pixel perfect rendering, I was just obsessed with how they looked, so I used them a lot.. Maybe a little too much xD And I'm glad you appreciated the volume sliders; I feel like not enough people realize how much of a pain they actually are xD Thanks for all the nice words, it means a lot ^^
@justcamh Sorry about the boss, haha. Like I said while you were streaming it, I only made it in the last few hours of the jam, and didn't have any time at all to playtest it; When you've been building a game for the last 45 hours straight, you kind of entirely lose track of an intuitive grasp of difficulty xD And I'm really glad you enjoyed the secrets! Most people didn't end up finding them at all (maybe it was silly to spend time implementing something that most people won't ever interact with xD) but I'm glad you appreciated them! ^^ I wish I'd had the time to make them do more than make a funny noise, but 48 hours, whatcha gonna do? xD
@stanov I definitely wish the mechanics were a bit more spread out, so the player wouldn't get overwhelmed, and I could do more playing with the mechanics and exploring them in different ways. A slower buildup of complexity would definitely help, I think. And the boss was definitely a blunder on my part xD I tried to make everything a fairly easy difficulty, but when you've been awake and working on a game for 45 hours straight, and you're feeling the time crunch, it's pretty tough to get difficulty right; Hopefully a mistake I'll learn from for next time ^^
@denilseven Really happy you liked it! Thanks for the kind words ^^
I liked the game.
I still can't tell you whether or not I like the time to summon the little devil. I just know it caught my attention.
Congratulations!
The physics in this one felt spot-on. Music was seriously solid stuff for a compo entry.
Loved how simple shapes were used to build such an immersive atmosphere. You did a lot with a relatively small asset list, great work for compo. Plus, the animations and art? Top-notch, especially how they interacted with the physics.
Dual control scheme was really well implemented. Everything felt really juicy and tight all round.
Overall, a real standout! Really, really good entry.
verti
2024-05-03 03:27
This game is awesome! I couldn't beat the boss at the end but I'm definitely going to come back and try it again. The variety and quality of ways you can use your demon summon makes this game an easy 5 star