FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD55 → theGRIMOIRE_

theGRIMOIRE_

By 0x0961h

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall484.2475
Fun1124.0374
Innovation344.2475
Theme1614.2174
Mood464.3074

Comments

online-play 2024-04-15 22:52

Honestly, I gave up on the third level. As much as I enjoy puzzle games (The Witness being my favorite), they still pose a challenge for me. I think I spent about 4 hours on Helltaker, so I think the time I would spend on your game could also be measured in hours. Nevertheless, I'm really impressed that you managed to create it in just 3 days! Respect.

0x0961h 2024-04-15 22:57

@online-play Thank you kindly for the feedback! Oh, yeah, I really love the Helltaker. Very addictive puzzle game and honestly such a time sink for me as well. :sweat_smile:

slavturtle 2024-04-15 23:16

Bro went into the hyperbolic time chamber to make this game. Amazing quality, visuals, audio AND gameplay! Bravo!

0x0961h 2024-04-15 23:18

@slavturtle Maybe that's why I'm always making games about time and space manipulations. :laughing: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. :blush:

karln 2024-04-15 23:20

I'm completely stuck at the U-D-R level, I'm afraid. Really cool and atmospheric, though. Just a bit too brain-bending for me :(

0x0961h 2024-04-15 23:32

@karln Thank you very much! If you ever decide to give it another try, you can definitely just skip ahead all the levels you feel discouraged by. In any case, thank you so much for playing. :blush:

drgcandle 2024-04-16 05:40

Your game is fantastic – the difficulty is spot-on and it all comes together so well. Looks like our team has loads to learn from you. Cheers to that, my friend.

chrisbeck 2024-04-16 12:08

Really fun game, the art style is really cool and the CRT effect is great. I enjoyed the puzzles a lot but I think they ramped up in difficulty a bit too quickly, probably just my poor brain though! :joy: Good effort!

vladimperator 2024-04-16 12:53

The game doesn't seem to work for me. Screen flashes black and the game closes, the same happens when I try to launch the game by the jar file. Also I get this error when trying to launch from the command line

aaaa.png

Since it's just me who the shader doesn't compile for, I'd assume it's a problem with my system. Perhaps it's a problem with me having an amd gpu (my game's shaders look different on nvidia and amd cards). My graphics card is rx 6500 xt with adrenalin 23.10.2

0x0961h 2024-04-16 13:18

@vladimperator Oh my god, it's actually an issue with the shader, but I assume nVidia card resolves it on its own so I didn't notice it. I fixed the shader and uploaded 1.0.1 to my itch.io page in case you want to give it another try! Thank you for the log and your comment!

ben-toosey 2024-04-16 14:17

Brilliant game, and I can see how complex level design must be for it, so well done! Seems very polished, and was a good brain-melter!

0x0961h 2024-04-16 14:23

@ben-toosey Thank you kindly! :blush: Yeah, it can be much much more, honestly, but strict time constraints made me cutting a lot of stuff hoping that one day maybe I come back to it extending it to something bigger. :smile:

spudsef 2024-04-16 14:43

Tired brain had difficult time with this one haha. Thank you for such difficult yet fun experience. Great balance between VFX and art, could easily tell what's in front of me.

0x0961h 2024-04-16 14:49

@spudsef Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Even if it was a bit too tiring for a sleepy brain (I can relate! :sweat_smile:)

roman-dubrovin 2024-04-16 15:01

Really good game. It took a lot of brainpower to get through several levels. Really well made game

zekysky 2024-04-16 15:53

Bro, i dn´t know how u have time to do this but is amazing, i really liked the visuals and the well done that is thiss game made

charmedsatyr 2024-04-16 16:10

Some neat puzzles! I like this idea.

digitaliliad 2024-04-16 16:19

I find puzzles... puzzling, but I feel compelled to come back to this. The mechanic is innovative and the level designs are very well thought out. The overall mood, as a combination of all the features, is quite good. Love it

0x0961h 2024-04-16 16:26

@roman-dubrovin Learning curve is non-existent sadly, but I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed the game! :smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 16:27

@zekysky Thank you kindly! I just borrowed some time from the quantum demons from my previous jam entries. :laughing:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 16:27

@charmedsatyr Thank you very much! Glad you liked it! :smiley:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 16:28

@digitaliliad Thank you so much for playing it! And I really enjoyed developing it, it was quite a fun experience. :slight_smile:

vladimperator 2024-04-16 16:55

The fix actually fixed the game and I could finally enjoy it. The level design is really good, levels are challenging but fun. It took me 30 mintues to finish the game and it was time well spent. Level 1-1 is the one I spent the most time on, I was overthinking it a lot when the solution was hidden in plain sight. Overall the game is one of the top entries for me.

0x0961h 2024-04-16 17:01

@vladimperator Phew! Glad to hear that it fixed the game for you and glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Thank you for giving it another try, I really appreciate it. :blush:

atomicptr 2024-04-16 17:09

Man I LOVE that CRT effect, remind me to use that too for something at some point lol

Great game!

willianfhs 2024-04-16 17:15

Amazing game! Loved the art style, SFX and soundtrack are on point as well. We had a similar idea when brainstorming about the theme but we ended up pursuing another one, very nice to see that someone made it! The menus are incredible considering this is an entry for a Jam. Would be good if I could click on the buttons, but definitely not a problem.

speedphoenix 2024-04-16 17:30

Really loved this.

The puzzles were hard, and the atmosphere really immersive

0x0961h 2024-04-16 17:31

@atomicptr It's my fave effect these days, I literally slap it into every project I have (send help, I might be addicted :joy:)! Thank you kindly! :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 17:35

@willianfhs Nice! Well, it's a pretty obvious idea, I would say, I actually expected to see more game like this, but so far all I've seen that comes close are still very unique takes on the core mechanic, which is actually great. :smile:

Mouse and gamepad support would be great to have, indeed, but just like more types of familiars and more level this feature was cut to make it to the final version. Brutal laws of game jams. :sob:

Thank you for your comment and your feedback! :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 17:35

@speedphoenix Thank you very much! Now imagine how much harder they could be if only I would have more time! :laughing:

flying-butter-studio 2024-04-16 18:27

Fantastic game with innovative gameplay and great design ! Very nice Jam entry !

pelmanable 2024-04-16 18:35

Great concept of the movement-based puzzle with summoning certain mechanics by move-combos. I found puzzles here really hard, couldn't beat 3rd, 4th and last levels. But I had a good time in this game. Awesome entry.

sodoj 2024-04-16 18:49

Dude, this game kicks ass. I have nothing constructive to say, I just want to sing you praises! The fact that this was made in under three days is astounding to me. Definitely the best game in this jam I've played so far!

vkonstantin 2024-04-16 19:08

Very solid carefully built puzzle game. Moderately hard and pretty original. Definitely one of my most enjoyable experiences on this Jam. Good Job!

0x0961h 2024-04-16 19:12

@flying-butter-studio Thank you kindly! :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 19:14

@pelmanable Yeeeah, I would really love to scale the difficulty slower, but the hectic jam nature forced me to abandon soft learning curve and just go with whatever. :sweat_smile: Thanks for your feedback!

0x0961h 2024-04-16 19:15

@sodoj Thank you so much for your words! Glad you liked it! :smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-16 19:16

@vkonstantin Thank you very much! I'm glad that you enjoyed it. 🥳

courtneylapin 2024-04-16 20:24

Great game! Loved the mood and chill music. The summoning mechanic was really interesting too. The third level is where i realized this game was gonna be harder than I anticipated lol, but 1-2 and 2-3 definitely took the longest for me. I did find it pretty difficult to think through puzzles since I would have to think about parts moving in opposite directions... sometimes i just had to try random things to come up with solutions. I had fun with it tho, good job!

0x0961h 2024-04-16 20:34

@courtneylapin Thank you very much! Yeah, learning curve is almost non-existent in it, sadly. :sweat_smile: But I'm glad to hear that you had fun anyway!

parkuhrmd 2024-04-16 21:25

Just played this on stream, definitely my favorite puzzler here! Excellent puzzle design on so many levels :)

0x0961h 2024-04-16 21:28

@parkuhrmd Thank you very much for playing it! It was really fun from a gamedesigner pov to see the "ah-ha!" moment when someone just cracked their puzzle. :smile:

comigor 2024-04-16 23:01

Awesome game! Incredibly polished and extremely challenging!

maxlin 2024-04-17 06:41

I like the art, music and the atmosphere. Summoning something by player move inputs is really creative, especially in very limit space.

bowen 2024-04-17 07:01

screenshot-20240417-145939.pngCrazy game!!! Can you make more level! I hope I can play it in steam some day!

saryah 2024-04-17 12:36

Excellent awesome polish fun, yet challenging puzzles. Great graphics.

0x0961h 2024-04-17 12:44

@comigor Thank you very much! Glad you liked it! :smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-17 13:39

@bowen I had a lot of fun making levels, so I just might add some more later. :smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-17 13:39

@maxlin Thank you kindly! I really enjoyed working on it. :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-17 13:40

@saryah Thank you very much and thank you for the feedback on stream! :blush:

mathieuspooky 2024-04-17 14:15

very nice and polish game ! well done guys !

schwede 2024-04-17 15:05

Thank you for bringing your game to the stream; it was a pleasure to feature it!

0x0961h 2024-04-17 15:55

@mathieuspooky Thank you very much! :v:

0x0961h 2024-04-17 15:55

@schwede Thank you kindly for playing it! :smile:

bastillas 2024-04-18 02:49

Pretty difficult puzzle game, really polished, the levels are well thought, hard to believe it was done in such short time, incredible work!

0x0961h 2024-04-18 07:28

@bastillas Thank you kindly! :blush:

nsadie 2024-04-18 20:10

Wow, really well put together game! The visuals and mood is excellent and the puzzles difficult and satisfying!

0x0961h 2024-04-18 20:19

@nsadie Thank you so much! Glad you liked it! :blush:

andreadbx 2024-04-18 22:25

as i said on stream, the polish on this game is INSANE, really, kudos! a bit too difficult for me, but i'm notoriously bad at those kind of games LUL

ausstein 2024-04-18 22:33

Thanks for dropping by my stream! <3

here is the vod if you want to rewatch

maybe I'll find some time to complete the final levels!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2123241621?t=0h41m36s

sheepolution 2024-04-19 01:40

I tried really hard but I have not been able to beat those last two puzzles. This game is tough! Really interesting mechanic with the `mirror and the spectre. I wonder what other type of mechanics you could have to make it even more complicated. Even if you did not make the art and music yourself, you were able to put together a cool vibe, and I like how the arrows appear on the left. Welcome back to game jamming :)

romulo-developer 2024-04-19 05:02

This was made in 3 days? God this is beautiful. I'm dumb so I don't have the brain power to go far, but damn from what I could play this was amazing!

patrick-pang 2024-04-19 09:53

I really like the background music, it helps me immerse myself in the game even more.

0x0961h 2024-04-19 09:55

@andreadbx You did very well nevertheless! :smile: Thank you so much for playing!

0x0961h 2024-04-19 09:57

@ausstein It was a pleasure! Thank you very much for playing it and glad you found it at least somewhat fun (even if it's a masochistic kind of fun :smile:)

0x0961h 2024-04-19 09:59

@sheepolution Thank you very much! Hopefully with better tutorial and slower emerging into gameplay mechanics, it would be much easier to see solutions and understand what toolkit player works with. Maybe in the full game (if I'll end up making it) this one be properly fixed. :sweat_smile: Thank you for playing it!

0x0961h 2024-04-19 10:01

@romulo-developer Thank you very much! Yeah, it's a bit on a hardcore side and mostly because I didn't have much time to explain/teach mechanics properly, so don't beat yourself too much, it's partially my fault as level designer, but I blame jam time limits! :sweat_smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-19 10:02

@patrick-pang Thank you! Yeah, that was such a good find, very synth-y, soothing melody that kinda stuck in my head long after the game was closed. I love it.

ausstein 2024-04-19 10:10

@0x0961h no worries :) feel free to drop by the stream anytime. Or latest next LD <3

tpace 2024-04-19 16:16

I really felt like I was summoning something in this game! Interesting how the theme was part of the puzzle itself. I had a hard time with it but overall really good job!

euler-moises 2024-04-19 16:41

Good! I like games like this! There was a game I played on the NES called Binary Land where you control two birds. I used more or less this logic. I missed that time. The puzzles are very interesting. The game is saved here on my computer so I can finish all the challenges. This game deserves it.

Congratulations!

rincs 2024-04-20 13:54

This was soooo good and the summon mechanic was so smart!! It really blew me away!! I wanna play more!!

0x0961h 2024-04-20 14:08

@tpace Thank you! I partially take the blame for the lack of proper difficulty curve and more QoL features, but glad you still enjoyed it! :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-20 14:11

@euler-moises Ooh, now that you've mentioned, Mirror's mechanic work exactly like that! Glad you liked it and thank you very much! :smile:

0x0961h 2024-04-20 14:12

@rincs Thank you kindly! Hopefully I'll be able to make something out of it. :grin:

sariiger 2024-04-20 16:57

The summoning mechanic is very unique and something I don't remember ever seeing anywhere. The polish of this game is also crazy good, including UI, and despite puzzle games being my favorite genre and me playing them a lot, some levels still got me stuck and made me wonder for a while. Very great design and an amazing entry!

sonnybone 2024-04-20 18:16

Fun puzzles! Great cohesion despite admitting to not doing everything yourself from scratch... you STILL made something that looks and sounds like it was pieced together with a singular vision. Everything fits, nothing detracts you from the game in that regard. The puzzles are clever, the connection to theme is rad, you should be proud of this one. Looking forward to what you do next

ategon 2024-04-21 13:40

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/25pr3bVYXnk

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

0x0961h 2024-04-21 13:52

@ategon Thanks so much for playing it! And sure, I'm fine with that, will be an honour in fact! :relieved:

0x0961h 2024-04-21 13:53

@sariiger Thank you very much! Glad you liked it! :blush:

0x0961h 2024-04-21 13:55

@sonnybone Thank you kindly! Yes, after all even when using premade assets it's important to (I hate that I have to use this word, but it's fitting :laughing:) synergize them within the single visual/audio style.

wendel-scardua 2024-04-21 16:42

Finished the 2-x levels, but I'm still stuck on the 1-x ones... I'll check one of the vods to see the solution, but I bet it's something that I just overlooked 😅

But that didn't stop me from enjoying the game; the summoning via moves is a clever mechanic (and it has a very cool UI too).

0x0961h 2024-04-21 16:49

@wendel-scardua Thank you very much for playing! :smile: And thank you for your feedback, I'm actually glad that UI works because it was the last thing I was working at during jam. :sweat_smile:

jvdwijk 2024-04-21 20:25

Interesting, but very difficult puzzle game! I liked the way the summons worked to help you beat the puzzles, some of these had very interesting solutions even though I needed a little bit of help to figure them out ^^

If you want to rewatch me struggle with these, you can do so here: https://youtu.be/VrinXzvnhho

0x0961h 2024-04-21 21:03

@jvdwijk Thank you kindly for playing it! Glad you liked it and thank you for the feedback! :smile: (I posted v1.1 with undos in case you want to crack that last one level :laughing: )

schadocalex 2024-04-21 21:17

Good puzzle mechanic, art is good, music is good, a bit hard but that's a puzzle game so that's fine. Levels 2-x were quite interesting, brute force don't really work there and you have to think in advance to know where you can offset the robots. Really enjoyed it ++!

EDIT: I struggled A LOT at the beginning to understand what to do, it wasn't instinctive for me to understand we had use the 'cheat code' to instantiate the mirror one and then how the mirror robot work. I thought the leftest case was a summoner and not that is was unrelated to the summon gameplay.

0x0961h 2024-04-21 21:23

@schadocalex Thank you! Well, yeah, I admit that because of condensed format of jam I ended up with the entry with almost non-existent difficulty curve. But I'm glad that despite that you enjoyed it! :smile:

colinweiss 2024-04-22 05:29

A great atmosphere and a great need for thinking; Unfortunately, I am working and cannot concentrate on playing more levels; But I am still willing to give it a high score.

coleslaughter 2024-04-22 23:43

[Thanks for submitting your game to stream!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2124979046?t=01h01m20s)

Sorry I was too much of a dumdum and couldn't finish it live. :sweat_smile:

digital-bacon 2024-04-24 13:42

Terrific graphics, moody music, and tricky puzzles. Fantastic work!

gustav-erlangsen 2024-04-24 22:09

Super clean game, really interesting idea. Would love to see a hint system/a bit more teaching to the player throughout! Well done!

hexy 2024-04-24 22:11

I am dumb. Thank you for finally proving it. Great game, would love to see it with a hints mechanic

daivyishere 2024-04-26 11:36

Incredible puzzle design and polish. Amazing entry!

stanov 2024-04-27 20:39

You saw me playing it live :)

The puzzles are clever, the graphics are suiting, the door crushing made me giggle :)

It had a really steep learning curve, but I can see it becoming fully polished game.

Thank you for stopping by!

neontropics 2024-04-29 21:27

Very clever mechanics! And great vibe and atmosphere that meshed well with the gameplay. The filter and the retro style graphics look very good together.

It was very hard and I was too impatient to finish all of it, but that's usually the case with these sorts of games for me and it is a clever and fun puzzler.

mateusboga 2024-05-03 19:46

Great game! Broke my brain a little bit, but in a good way :) Here's the VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2136428347 Thanks for coming to the stream!

0x0961h 2024-05-05 17:59

@online-play @slavturtle @karln @drgcandle @chrisbeck @vladimperator @ben-toosey @spudsef @roman-dubrovin @zekysky @charmedsatyr @digitaliliad @vladimperator @atomicptr @willianfhs @speedphoenix @flying-butter-studio @pelmanable @sodoj @vkonstantin @courtneylapin @parkuhrmd @comigor @maxlin @bowen @saryah @mathieuspooky @schwede @bastillas @nsadie @andreadbx @ausstein @sheepolution @romulo-developer @patrick-pang @ausstein @tpace @euler-moises @rincs @sariiger @sonnybone @ategon @wendel-scardua @jvdwijk @schadocalex @colinweiss @coleslaughter @digital-bacon @gustav-erlangsen @hexy @daivyishere @stanov @neontropics @mateusboga

Mass mention, but I really wanted to say thanks again to everyone who played, commented and rated my game! It meant a lot for me that you took some time to play theGRIMOIRE_ and it was quite a surprise that despite it being a brain-melting experience, it was greeted this positively and even rated this well!

As you might have seen already on the main page, I decided to keep developing the game and make it into a full release, thanks to all your comments and feedback I realised that it might be the game that I can and want to keep expanding.

If you'd like to follow the development progress and join the eventual playtesting or just chit-chat about everything and nothing at all, you can join [Discord](https://discord.gg/DHYB6teejU)!

Thank you for playing and may you have a good day! :relieved: