Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → HELL TOOLKIT
By jefvel
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 15 | |||||
| Fun | 14 | |||||
| Innovation | 15 | |||||
| Theme | 15 | |||||
| Graphics | 15 | |||||
| Audio | 14 | |||||
| Humor | 14 | |||||
| Mood | 15 | |||||
that single lamp over a circuit board in the dark, with HELL TOOLKIT hanging above it, is a great opening. it took a while to load for me and then i couldnt find my way around the dark room, so a bit more light or one highlighted thing to click first would help a lot
Lags on web build and the load time is pretty long.
Its pretty frustrating to reload for long time as i try to understand wtf is happening in the game. And i had to give up of after some tries since i got getting killed. The idea seems to be intruging even though i do not understand wtf is going on.
The mood and audio are super nice!
I had a blast figuring this one out! Took a bit longer for me because I didn't recognize the gun icon until a good number of attempts - everything else went super smoothly ;) Played for around 40 minutes - it's possible to lag the game to a halt because the machine can create feedback loops of increasing size. I got as far as "transforming" two pentagrams in my better runs. Great idea and execution!
lags
Enjoyed the opening
Really interesting little game! The web version could definitely use some optimization, it was almost unplayable for longer than 5 minutes for me, but it was interesting enough to get me to download the windows version, which I thought was definitely worth it! You do a great job of creating an interesting atmosphere. I really enjoy the game loop of optimizing the machine, but I was a little bit confused on how the pentagrams actually worked at first, and and at some point I was able to create an infinite loop that made the rest of the game feel way too easy. Overall, great job, I'd love to see more! If you were to continue this project, I'd be very interested in seeing something like a run modifier or relic system that could change how a player approached the optimization challenge.
Indeed, it does lag heavily on the web build, so I played mostly on the Windows build. It took me quite a number of tries to mostly(?) figure out how the graph propagation works. What helped me to understand was that I purposefully didn't connect things together, started connecting them one at a time to see what will happen. And with lots of nodes the game throws at you all at once in the beginning, it's a bit overwhelming. I really liked this mechanic of building up your own imp killing node machine, but so far I couldn't get past acquiring 6 pentagrams. Every time after some wave there is a single imp left, and I'm frantically rebuilding the machine and toggling the next wave without getting the rewards to delay the inevitable. Hopefully I'll manage to get the last two pentagrams later ;) P.s. this is quite a departure from your usual silly 2d games, but still it's great to see your take on something completely different :)
Not gonna lie, it took me quite some time to figure out how to even start the machine π At first, I assumed the switch on the screen was the power button, so I completely overlooked the lever in front of the screen. And the whole time I was trying to work out how to turn the device on, I was terrifiedβI kept feeling like something was about to jump out at me π
Managed to figure out how the things work in the end and setup a pretty neat demon killing machine π Here is my best attempt: https://youtu.be/LM68eBDriPI
Haven't yet figured out what to do with all the pentagrams though π
Glad to see you've managed to attend this time, Iβve missed your games! You never cease to amaze me with your innovative game ideas and how fun they turn out to be!
Also, small bug report - sometimes my setups were freezing the game with an infinite animation loop, so I had to close it down: https://youtu.be/cLxy-x--Mto
@detectivelosos Yeah, not entirely sure what causes the slow startup on web, didn't test web export until the last few hours and had no time to fix it. But desktop works at least luckily
It's quite unclear how the energy propagates and what it does, but might make it better in a post jam version! Transferring energy into a imp node cools it down, causing it to spawn less frequently. (and pentagrams get charged by placing them next to an imp and letting it spawn, very not obvious haha). I wanted to have a manual way of defeating imps, (and dying not so abrupt, pretty much just suddenly shows a red screen without warning). Was my first time trying to make something in 3D, so a lot of time went into figuring things out this jam, but it was a lot of fun!
@annie-owl aah I forgot to remove that switch, it does nothing except click! And yeah, the lever should be accessible from the machine view. Lots of things to improve everywhere :) Wow, that's a lot of imps hah, never got that many during testing I think! That infinite loop is crazy too, demon core overflowed. The secret to the pentagrams is to place them next to an imp, and letting them spawn :)
Very happy to be back, gotta keep this tradition going! Spent a lot of time this jam just trying to figure out 3d stuff, but it was fun!
@fwaeh yeah, didn't have time to fix that for the compo sadly. The windows version runs a lot better though
Interesting game. I never really got the hang of it. Like others, I assumed the switch on the monitor was the on/off switch and completely missed the switch to turn on the machine at first. Even after that, I never figured out how to set the thing up. I would just spawn in a bunch of monsters until they broke down the door and killed me. It was only by reading other people's comments and then watching @annie-owl's play-through that I started to understand how the game actually worked. The audio and atmosphere is really good though. Even though I had not clue what I was doing, I was spooked.
I couldn't figure out how to end up without demons after turning the machine on for the first time. I even watched the video above and still couldn't do it as they starts with different pieces than I do. It's an interesting concept but I'm not sure I can give it a rating this without being able to get past the start. π±
@oddballdave yeah understandable! Really didn't have time to make it clear sadly. the blue blocks transfer energy in different directions, and green blocks emit energy when placed on a green grate. guns get charged up by energy, and demons get cooled down (delay spawning). Pentagrams get charged up by placing them next to a demon block
Sorry, I didn't understand what to do. That's too bad because I think the game is worth it. Maybe you could provide some information on how to play? π
@fifut ah true, it's very unclear. Basically nodes emit energy to adjacent cells. blue cells forward it in different directions. green node is a energy source which can be placed in energy source cells. If energy gets into the weapon node, it gets charged up. demon nodes get cooled down, causing them to spawn slower. pentagram nodes get charged by demon nodes spawning
The startup worked fine for me on web so that's the version I played. I really liked the mood, especially with the single desk lamp and the audio went well with it. It was kind of hard to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing but in the end I did get the "good ending". Maybe some more directed animations on the tiles would help the player to understand what the tiles were doing. The door opening automatically after a round was kind of weird. Overall I quite liked the game and it was fun to figure out what the tiles did. Thanks for sharing.
This has got to be one of my favorites so far. Good puzzle, good atmosphere, good ending. These kinds of "figure out the mechanics" games are always going to be a bit risky in a jam. Some notes:
- The audio struggled a fair bit, but it could just be firefox + my old laptop that's the problem - I think it should probably trigger a loss instantly if there are any demons left in the room after the cycle ends. Every time I failed I had to sit there and wait for them to bash down the door, which made the game a bit less fun (although I just now realized I could have probably opened the door myself to speed it along). I think the door should just open automatically when the cycle ends no matter what.
Unfortunately, the web version takes a really long time to load.
Managed to get through it in the end, and the whole "figure me out" mechanics made it all feel very immersive.
As for @henk's comment: > I think it should probably trigger a loss instantly if there are any demons left in the room after the cycle ends
I've actually had a couple attempts where one or two imps would remain after one round, but then be gone in the next due to different timing. I think this can stay as it is, as you can indeed just open the door to reset.
I've also had my fun trying to dodge those little bastards when I failed, but I never lasted more than a of seconds lol π π₯ π
