badpinkchicken 2025-04-07 10:48
Got two out of 4! Quite fun and love the ambiance! Nice job !
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD57 → The Amberstone
By chuckiee
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 168 | 3.39 | 34 | |
| Fun | 196 | 3.09 | 34 | |
| Innovation | 127 | 3.42 | 34 | |
| Theme | 111 | 3.73 | 34 | |
| Graphics | 156 | 3.37 | 34 | |
| Audio | 222 | 2.58 | 32 | |
| Humor | 137 | 2.80 | 30 | |
| Mood | 91 | 3.70 | 34 |
Got two out of 4! Quite fun and love the ambiance! Nice job !
Neat concept, captured a Blight Town vibe, if given more time I could see a bit-crunchy retro vibe carrying a deep mysterious delve, really good work!
The mood is really great. I wish there was a way to more quickly restart instead of having to go through all the introductory dialogue upon every death.
Nice game, interesting stuff! My overall feel is the platforming is already a bit frustrating, but adding the dark environment + timer with the torch made it a bit tedious for me. Also, that dialog box would not go away (or maybe i couldn't find a way to make it go away). Overall a nice entry with potential!
Nice atmosphere, and kinda amusing to see that you used this tutorial for inspiration, because I am sure I used it in the past as well; great minds think alike! I also wonder whose face is on the totem. I found the platforming quite challenging and frustrating, some checkpoints would be cool. It would be also super useful to skip the dialog after restarting. I unfortunately also encountered a bug that when I restarted, I couldn't pick objects anymore, so, I had to quit the game and start over. But otherwise, visuals are quite interesting and feel properly oldschool, and the main character reminded me of bowling balls from those old creepy bowling ball animations, could be an interesting idea to integrate. :slight_smile:
The atmosphere in this one is great, and the graphics are really nice. Also the dialog system worked great, and dual wielding is cool
I think the game is not for me, as it give me dark souls vibe, which I guess can be a compliment. I think the black textures that can't be lit, the short life of the torch, and the unforgiving platforming really prevented me to proceed as much as I would like
But again, it might be the intended experience - just wish it was a little more forgiving because it looks really interesting
Interesting idea with the totem thing: You can carry it with you when you're confident enough, at risk of a game over if you fail. I got to a part where there was a crystal, some totem spots, and a strange creature. I grabbed the crystal but I couldn't see where to go next. I accidentally fell and died haha - Then I realized the crystal was still with me, but I couldn't dual wield torches anymore.
IMO the concept is sound but it would be greatly improved if it was more forgiving at the beginning, and had less "troll" deaths, if you know what I mean. Just until the player gets used to the controls/environment. The first platforms were already pretty tough, and the visibility increased this difficulty even more. I like the fact that duel wielding torches gave me more visibility, but some platforms were pretty hard to see even then.
But difficulty/visibility issues aside, this is a very creative game, with unique visuals. And I had fun, getting the totem to the next checkpoints was a thrill. Good job!
@badpinkchicken Thanks a lot for playing enough to get two endings :heart:
@scott-r-howell Thank you very much! I haven't played the first Dark Souls yet, but encouraging to hear it has FromSoft related vibe :bow:
@kukatoo Thanks a lot for playing. I didn't have time at the end to make it a better experience, sorry for that :bow:
@thomas-bringer Dialog not going away must be a bug :slight_frown: I balanced it by how I played, that's probably the problem. I should've tested some more with my friends to balance better.
Thank youuuu :heart: @dzejpi Nice! I wonder what you did with the tutorial now :) There are check points, but maybe a little too far apart, also you need to carry the totem to the next checkpoint to be able to continue from there. Didn't have time to implement skip story unfortunately. I also thought I fixed that bug :slight_frown: Thanks for the kind words :bow: I think it'd be a good horror game in a bowl alley maybe? :thinking:
@atsh Thank you very much for trying. I was going for kind of dark souls vibe, so I'm glad to hear it had the same vibe. Sorry to hear that the game is hard. I was planning to have it gradually get harder, due to time limitations I couldn't balance the level much. Thanks again for playing :bow:
@conradoclark I hope it's good kind of interesting. If you have the crystal and you can go up and out you get an ending. I probably didn't cover all the possible states, so you got no ending, sorry for that.
Thank you very much for comments and feedback. I liked the idea a lot, so I'll implement your feedback on the difficulty on the next version.
Glad you liked it and thanks again for playing :bow:
Hey, played your game I loved ideas and how much you were able to perform i such small amount of time Monosnap Sk8terBoiiii 2025-04-11 15.02.28.png I got the stone and is it is undroppable in current version I was respawned on the second respawn point with it in hands - but was unable to jump back to the top.
When I played I originally planed to say that those unpredictable spikes are not a good idea, but than I noticed a button on the floor and understood that originally you planned to make it noticeable just was not able to polish enough.
I would also mention that if you make anything like safe spot (for example where you can put the crest) make a bigger platform around. It will just prevent your players from unpredictable behaviour. For example I had dying screen 3 times in a row always, and it is not a big deal, until you are on a very small platform. Give player some time to get back used to surroundings after respawn. After respawn there is always at least a few seconds of confusion. Even if you targeting hardcore this would never hurt.
Anyway, you did great! Nice job
@mikeliosus Thanks a lot for playing and the detailed feedback. I think where you got stuck is one of the unhandled cases, my intention was either you can go out after getting the stone, or be stuck in dungeon forever. I should've added some text to say that when you use the stone.
Yes, I didn't have time to texture the platforms and triggers for traps, so they now blend into each other a bit too much. Very good feedbacks, I'll try to improve in later iteration. Thanks a lot :bow:
Interesting game, I like the aspect of moving the resurrect when you master the level. However, I don't know if this was supposed to be a rage game but it certainly felt like that. The torches despawning and the random trap out of nowhere made me not finish the game. As if all the deaths weren't enough, the text with '...' would stay and each death animation would trigger trice.
@urosh Thanks for playing and feedback. I didn't have time to texture the platforms, so the buttons that trigger the traps are super hard to see in current version :bow: Death animation spawning 3 times is just a bug, I didn't encounter. Thanks again for playing :heart:
Cool game, though it was difficult to see the platforms and often got confused where I should go or what went wrong.
@ellaris Thanks for playing :heart: The game is harder than I intended. Also playing in a dark room helps a little.
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Fun entry. Game was a bit dark on my monitor. I liked the idea of moving resurrection totem with me as risk reward mechanics
The atmosphere was cool and I liked the idea with the totem. The platforming felt a bit rough at times, especially with the lighting, but overall pretty fun! Great entry :)!!
The game is pretty good, a good start for something bigger.
About fifty percent of the time when hitting 'Restart' I couldn't pick up the totem or the torch.
Thanks for the paly
@3deimos Thanks for playing. It might be worth playing in a darker room or picking up torches with both hands :smile: Thank you very much :bow:
@muriel Thanks a lot :heart: Glad you liked it :slight_smile:
@beebster-games That's very encouraging to hear! Thanks a lot :heart: I've heard from a couple of people too, item pickup system is not stable unfortunately. Will fix when I return to the idea :100:
Great idea! It's like "Only Up," but in reverse, right? In my opinion, one of the best theme interpretations in this LD.
@torte478 Thank you very much! Yes, exactly like that! Thank you for the kind words :bow: :bow:
Had issue with grabbig torches and a totem, trigger don't work accurately.
@oeuegha Thanks for trying out! If you played web version it might be related to the lag, I suggest trying windows build if you can :pray:
@chuckiee it issue was exactly in win version, (unfortunately for you)))).
@oeuegha Thanks for the information :bow: I should rewrite the pick up system next time I visit the game :o:
I really like the idea of having to carry the totem to the next checkpoint, and having to choose what to carry was neat. I also encountered the dialogue panel stuck on issue - it happens if you roll over the book a second time. The torch duration seems way too short, and the other torches on the way down don't respawn when you do so I was kinda stuck until I tried jumping off the cliff with the totem and discovering R restarts the game. There should be some light at the checkpoint. I accidentally clicked and picked up the totem at the first checkpoint but couldn't see the altar to see where put it down again. Finally managed to get to the ground level, but can't see anything at all and can't jump off anything to die. Its a cool game, but being too dark makes it hard to enjoy.
Neat game! I think this is what comment above me refers to about panel being stuck. Screenshot_9.png
@someone Thank you very much for playing! I think I broke the book at some point tweaking the dialog box animation :slight_frown: First iteration had non-renewable torches, then I play tested and it was a disaster. I must have forgot to make that one renewable! At ground level, there is a hole that leads to the vault where you can find the Amberstone. And depending on what you did you can get 1 out of 4 endings! Thanks for such detailed comment :bow:
@whateverdat Thanks for playing! Yes, sorry for that. I introduced a bug while polishing the dialog-box I think :slight_frown:
muah hahaha i'm a ball descending to the depths. it's dark. creepy. and all i have is a cross and a torch. What could go wrong? Everything apparently. xD
Nice atmosphere, but the torches are running out too fast. It is impossible to go anywhere if the torch run out. I found several shortcuts where you can drop down easily too. If a few bugs are fixed this is a great concept for the jam! Screenshot 2025-04-23 135100.png
Oh spikes ok ... nice game
@commanderstitch Thanks for trying the game out! It's pretty punishing if you don't know the layout :smile:
@vangrail Yeah, sorry for that. I should've tested with more people and balance the times a lil more :o: Thank you very much for playing :bow:
@koalabear Thanks for playing :bow:
It's always fun to see a 3D platformer in a game jam, and I liked that you really experimented with the format! It took me a minute to fully understand the gameplay loop, but once I got it, I found it really neat. You scout ahead to find the platforms and traps first, then when you're confident, you can take your totem to the next altar. I liked the ambience a lot too, and the exploration/multiple endings aspect was interesting.
I found the platforming itself a little frustrating. Even with a torch, you can barely see the next platform, let alone traps. Sometimes when there's a bigger drop, you can't see where you're going at all. The game is also pretty unforgiving - one single fall or trap kills you instantly, and it can feel cheap when you couldn't even see it coming. In general I felt like I was dying a lot not because of tricky level design, but because the game was working against me.
There are also a few technical things you might want to iron out. Picking up and throwing objects is in general a little janky - the game is third person, so it's not clear where you have to click to pick things up, and the physics of throwing and holding things seem a little temperamental. Respawning also seems to be glitched - sometimes it will kill me several times in quick succession when I respawn, or do some weird stuff with held items. Also, when you die for real and restart the game, you seem to no longer be able to pick up items? I had to reopen the game every time which was kind of annoying.
Overall, really unique take on this genre!