FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD59 → Bloodbane: The Crimson Nocturne

Bloodbane: The Crimson Nocturne

By hdvr02

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1583.9535
Fun1533.8033
Innovation2143.7334
Theme6403.2435
Graphics554.5035
Audio1254.0035
Mood1724.0635

Comments

nikiroz 2026-04-20 21:06

Nice visuals and music—you can tell the game was inspired by Loop Hero.

lan-041 2026-04-21 10:34

Beautiful visual! I especially liked the interface and location previews.

I didn't fully understand how to control the little man, at the end of the game he runs around the map very funny hahaha. But I liked it, thanks for the atmospheric game!

padla 2026-04-21 13:55

nice art mate

echerry 2026-04-21 16:23

the coolest vampire game of this jam :sunglasses:

rinnnzy 2026-04-21 17:11

The cover art is so dynamic and eye-catching!

4farandbeyond 2026-04-21 17:57

I think this is a very cool game! I think id buy this if you kept working on it. Some criticisms though, It really felt like guiding your servant was... random and unsatisfying, and there really wasnt enough feedback on what made them actually do what you wanted vs them disobeying (sometimes they'd act on the first ping, sometimes it took their entire patience bar). Combat never felt threatening (I only fought wolves, a couple mushrooms, and the final boss. I dont think I lost even a third of my HP bar), but the gear was fun to collect. I wish there was a bit more communication on what the tiles effects were, like what it spawns, or what resources you could gather from it (took me most of the game to find a quarry). Very nice game though, I'll play this again in a heartbeat.

n-o-x 2026-04-21 18:09

I love click-based games, so I’m a bit biased, but I really enjoyed the development aspect. The mood is also good. Well done :)

qqruzkin 2026-04-21 18:14

I really loved the dynamic between the protagonist and his temperamental sidekick! A great start to an entire gaming universe "Swagvil Games"! ❤

knightsunder 2026-04-21 19:38

awesome art, the town is so nice looking

hdvr02 2026-04-21 22:44

Guys, if the game feels too difficult (and you’re playing in the browser), try downloading the PC version from the files on itch — it’s much easier, and you should be able to win 100% (unless you literally do nothing in the game). For those who downloaded the game and feel like it’s too easy — try the browser version. The game ended up being fairly large, and in many aspects it’s quite random. It’s hard for me to balance everything on my own, although there are clearly some things that help you win — like placing as many cards as possible each in-game day and trying to kill mobs, since they give experience and items. I’d really appreciate it if you shared your experiences — whether you lost or won, what items or level you had, etc. I’m planning to expand on this idea in the future and will definitely take your feedback into account! By the way, I completely forgot to mention this anywhere in the game: the wheat field card heals you for 25% HP. You can only really notice it if you’re not at full health and see your HP go up. This is my second game jam project, and I didn’t manage to cover all the QoL details to make everything feel as smooth as possible. The fact that the character doesn’t always respond to pings is intentional and mentioned in the description. The core idea was to make it feel like you’re controlling an uncontrollable minion. I got the idea from signal systems in MOBA games like Dota 2 and League of Legends. Thanks for playing my game! Good luck beating it, and feel free to share your screenshots if you manage to defeat the final boss!

2026-04-22 02:13

The interpretation and application of the theme are spot on. The game concept design is great, the art style is unique, and it’s a very innovative game. Five-star praise! We look forward to your coming to play our games, thank you

ursagames 2026-04-22 04:47

Gorgeous pixel art! The combat animations had some nice weight to them! I wish I could preview the building descriptions before I bought them. I noticed I could hover over them once they were in the world, but couldn't figure out how to read what I was choosing beforehand. I definitely didn't feel like my servant was in much danger most of the time I was playing, I think it might have been interesting to make them go feed to replenish health, or maybe my passive regen was too high?

blue-pin-studio 2026-04-22 04:47

Very cool! I love the pixel art but I think the gameplay needs work. I was spamming right click and getting a million resources :P Ultimately all i ever did was create lumbermills and towns. I killed a fox. Not sure if there was more to do, maybe some ultimate goal or something on screen somewhere :(

isaac-hisey 2026-04-22 04:53

I like it, good art, neat idea. I felt like I was doing well and then out of nowhere the wolves started doing like a third of my health per attack whereas it felt the battle just prior they were doing nothing? I died but had been playing for a good bit and don't really want to start over. I had a purple bg sword and armor and a green helmet. I unlocked a good few tiles, the altar, the lighthouse, the mushroom, woodcutter, mine, village, wheat field, empty marsh. I think I was about 75% of the way to the last guy. Oh well. As I said I liked it a lot wish there was some kinda checkpoint though starting over doesn't feel great.

This is definitely one of my higher ratings!

500 2026-04-22 09:40

Great concept setting and excellent art, this is the most interesting pixel style mini game I have ever seen this time

gleb-domakhin 2026-04-22 13:56

Nice graphics and concept!

cupofmilk7 2026-04-22 14:30

beautiful art, gameplay and sound design!!

goodwayman 2026-04-22 15:55

Really cool game! Dead-simple controls. Sometimes the servant was so disobedient that it got me annoyed :D I wonder if there's a mechanic in the game to actually heal the servant, as during the progressions, wolved hit harder and harder. Good job overall!

2026-04-22 18:24

Beautiful pixel art and it reminds me Loop Hero a lot

23edsa 2026-04-22 20:53

Отличная музыка и графика, крутая атмосфера в целом. До босса я не дожил, сложность не кажется излишней, но мне кажется механика потери контроля мешает полностью насладиться игрой. Не уверен если это была механика которая связывает с темой джема. В любом случае - отличная работа, получил удовольствие!

anku 2026-04-23 06:16

Хороший визуал и аудио. Хорошо реализован автобатлер. Прогрессия через постепенное открытие мира тоже хороша. Из недочетов - просевшая динамика, поскольку враги появляются четко по утру, то убив всех противников оставшееся время остается только ждать. Остро не хватает функции перемотки времени до следующего утра или активностей, что бы было чем себя занять между волнами врагов. В любом случае отличный прототип таймкилера, пространство для дальнейшего развития есть.

tanjou 2026-04-23 09:05

Simply impeccable! An incredible sense of mood and art, and the gameplay is pretty fun.

I tried checking your twitter in your profile link but it's not there, do you still have it? Would love to follow your work

laminariy 2026-04-23 18:48

I didn't really understand the game at first, even after reading the description and the in-game tutorial. The servant was just moving around randomly and completely ignored my commands.

Once I figured it out, however, I found the game very nice and addictive! I had some questions and feedback, but I see that other commenters have already mentioned them and you're aware of those points :)

One thing, though: I think you should remove the disobedience mechanic at all or at least reimplement it differently. Currently, it feels a bit odd and pointless.

Otherwise, this is a very solid entry! I really liked the visuals, the audio, and the overall vibe.

batisdark 2026-04-23 23:28

That looks like a game I would like to play a lot for sure. Both in core gameplay and in visual side of things.

I would leave balancing issue out (since its jam and known issue anyway), but things that bugged me more was actually method of control. While spam click to force your unit sound interesting, in reality its quite frustrating. Coupled with his 'snaps' and fact that you are not always sure you collected resource or not - it gets tiresome quite quick.

Things to improve upon could be: - more control over your unit as in better understanding where he goes and where he just ignores. Better feedback for when he obeyed maybe. - less frequent snaps, more understanding how to manage them would help too. Maybe some gameplay change when he snaps, to make them actually interesting and not just frustrating? - visibility when you can collect things from buildings and when you cannot (mushrooms were targetable, but i am not sure it does anything?) - ability to view what tiles you can build actually do before building and what they require to be build (I saw so many tiles that I was not able to place at all and couldn't understand what should I collect for them)

And honestly, that could be something I would waste too much of my time just playing if that would be full game with QOL added :D Thank you for sharing!

kit-gorn 2026-04-24 14:00

Браво, классная игра мне понравилось. Погиб от гриба, не знаю какой у меня уровень был, я как-то не обратил внимания.

​Забавно что когда много раз щелкаешь по одному месту, вампир сразу подрывается и мельтешит полдня в панике, хотя уже все что мог там сделал. Это мельтешение как-то расходится с образом самовольного владыки вампира)

Еще вызвало проблему непонимание, когда деревню можно снова обескравливать. И сколько там крови в общем. Было бы удобно, если были бы для этого дела какие-нибудь маркеты.

Ну и да неочевидно, каким образом восстанавливается здоровье.

И как по мне, не хватает чего-то личностного. Мы просто бегаем по карте сами по себе. Незнаю, может какую-то механику к замку добавить?

А так круто. Обязательно загляну поиграть еще разок когда время будет)

sobigdrasil 2026-04-25 15:00

That's a very sophisticated vampiric game, art is beautiful, I enjoyed the atmosphere very much but I wish I could have more choices in this game and a bit more action. If you are gonna do a post jam version I wish I can play it again :3 Also for a game like that there is a lore that you want to have to captivate the player a bit more.

kremlebot 2026-04-25 19:20

Круто, то референсите loop hero, почему-то очень ее мало использую в качестве референса, хотя игра великая. Мне нравится такой пиксель арт, музыка правда немного подбешивать стала минут через 5. И не хватило геймплея немного, слишком мало импакта от наших действий.

circleoflife 2026-04-26 11:38

Мне понравился визуал, чем-то отдает LoopHero. Еще мне показалось весьма забавным, что если часто кликать на ПКМ, то персонаж как СДВГшник начнет бегать по карте :smile: К сожалению помер почти перед полным заполнением красной полоски, но от второй попытки попробовать отталкивает отсутствие ускорения анимации боя, перед самой смертью я буквально минуту бил злой гриб (к сожалению, гриб оказался сильнее :sob:)

hdvr02 2026-04-28 11:41

@nikiroz @rinnnzy @4farandbeyond @n-o-x @knightsunder @blue-pin-studio @isaac-hisey @500 @gleb-domakhin @cupofmilk7 @goodwayman @d1splaytor @23edsa @anku @tanjou @laminariy @batisdark @kit-gorn @sobigdrasil @kremlebot @circleoflife Thank you all so much for your feedback, both the criticism and the praise! I’m really happy that you enjoyed the game and supported me — it genuinely means a lot.

It was especially great to read that many of you wanted a more polished and expanded version of the game. Over the past few days, I’ve been working on all the things I didn’t have time to properly implement or balance during Ludum Dare, and I’ve refined them in this new version.

You can try it by downloading the post-Ludum build from the game page, or by visiting the new page and playing it directly in your browser: https://hvdr02.itch.io/bloodbane-the-crimson-nocturne-post-ludum-ver

Thank you again for playing my game and leaving your feedback! If you have any thoughts on the gameplay, find any bugs, or just want to suggest something interesting, feel free to share it in the comments under the new version on itch.

Thanks again!