December 16th-19th 2011 :: Theme: Alone
Adventure and explore in the strange land of Arzea.
Arkeus (@arkeus)
http://iarke.us
iarkeus@gmail.com
Downloads and Links
Ratings
![]() | Coolness | 100% |
#5 | Community | 4.16 |
#5 | Fun | 3.85 |
#11 | Overall | 3.89 |
#18 | Graphics | 4.11 |
#26 | Audio | 3.59 |
#282 | Mood | 2.52 |
#299 | Innovation | 2.56 |
#324 | Humor | 1.86 |
#554 | Theme | 2.05 |
Comments
I really spent some time playing this one. The graphics were highly polished. I felt that it didn't really drive the "Alone" point home, but the fun-factor is way up there.
I don't see how the theme really plays in, but it's a really fun game regardless.
Very impressive! This is absolutely great work.
I did find it rather unforgiving at times though. For example, enemies respawning the moment they go off the screen. Or enemy projectiles that pass through obstacles you cannot shoot through, making for the occasional seemingly impossible scene of bullet barrage.
It also wasn't very obvious where to head at times. Personally, I didn't feel like going on after getting the grey key, which opened a pit I couldn't escape from. I went to the menu and continued, went around some more, but couldn't really find any clues what to do next.
Overall I still think this is mighty impressive, though!
If you get to a pit that you can't escape from, that's actually the final boss's room. Unfortunately due to an annoying bug (which would be more than a minor bug fix so I can't do it for the competition entry) sometimes spawning is wonky and the boss doesn't spawn. You can get around it sometimes by hitting escape, clicking continue, and going back to the room.
Sorry for the major inconvenience of that bug, but I thank you guys for trying it out! :)
I plan for the post-competition version to have much better spawning logic (1, so that it actually works correctly, and 2, so that things don't respawn nearly as quickly), along with many other changes. :D
Great technical execution with a buttload of character. Top contender for sure, though not sure how Alone I felt...
Quite a nice little metroidvania, especially considering the time in which it was created. Though it didn't follow the theme very well, I had fun adventuring through the world and obliterating everything in my path (gotta love that Douse spell). The music, though good, did eventually get rather annoying. It would be nice if it changed whenever you entered a new area. The graphics were good- I really liked the tiled style of the landscape.
O. M. G. So awesome. The only gripe I might have is with horribly fast respawning of monsters. Other than that, it's great.
Very great job ! Would have been better without any monster respawning :)
Nice platformer! Love the exploration aspect, where you can only access certain areas after getting a special spell/skill.
HOOOOOOOOGE GAME! I really dig the layering you crafted with the backgrounds. The enemies are all well designed, but I agree with other complaints listed above. The biggest downfall here is that the theme isn't well represented. Everything else is really awesome. I played this for quite a while!
Not much of "alone" I could see with the exception of "alone against monsters", but otherwise very good and polished game... and it's quite fun to play - coming from someone who dislikes platformers that's very good praise :)
Art and audio are too very good. Congratulation, currently probably contender for the best I've played yet.
Hey Arceus, thanks for the game, it was addictive and fun :-) I had to make myself stop so that I would have time to rate the other games of my list, but I'll definitely be returning to this.
Some suggestions that came to my mind while playing:
- When you shoot an immortal enemy, the game should provide some sort of feedback - maybe a metallic sound or something? I know it has been done to death, but it took me more than it should to realize the iron balls were immortal
- Maybe you should tone down a bit on the respawn rate? It seems to me that one could easily grind some levels by going back and forth in some places. Or some times trying to do a trickier jump, having to return, and killing the same enemies again is kinda frustrating - maybe increase the needed distance for enemies to spawn?
Thanks for the game, and cheers!
I love this game. I think that's all that needs to be said, really.
I like :
- the color change that show monster health ( remind me wonderboy in monsterland )
- the invincible enemy block that is a threat even at high level and act as a wall to protect weaker enemies from projectiles
- the good tiling system that helped designing a huge world in 48h with good ambience change by just switching colors
- the respawan outside scroll system that make the game more difficult but in a good way in my opinion. The level are never empty, always filled with life. That's a good point
I dislike :
- The few number of differents enemies. Just one or two more monster would have been enough to make the game less repetitive.
- Usually lack of monster in a zone show the player the already visited area, in an infinite respawn world, a minimap really help to not exploring twice the same area.
- shock behaviour make it a bit unusable vs monsters, at final this spell is just another "key". Same for the water freeze. Monster weaker to that spells would have encourage me to switch spells more ofter. Especially if one of those spell could kill or at least go through invincible blocks ^^
Very cool game !
Wow, this game's world is really huge.
The controls could be just a little more fluid and the shooting sound becomes annoying quite soon.
Impressive amount of content. Could use some difficulty tweaking, especially at the beginning. Sound effects are a bit annoying to. Very solid entry overall.
The game is very polished, fun. Its major pitfall is the theme, that is not very evident, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Great job ^-^! Keep making games like this one!
Wow, amazing job. I'd love to see a more fleshed out version of this game. One of the best LD entries I've played yet.
Your game have really great gameplay. I like the system of spells and leveling system ;)
Great game !
Sir, I'm upset at how epic this game is. There goes my next 24 hours.
WOW!!!
Full game full of content full of graphics!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
Nice and surprisingly complete for 48 hours, well done! I plan to go back and play more after checking out more entries.
I'm not a big fan of anything that requires me to press the mouse button quickly and constantly, so I couldn't get far (a shoot button would be nice). Seems polished and large which is great given the time limit. Congrats!
@Tifu: Yep! There's an optional Gust spell that you can get once you have the Chill spell.
And thanks everyone for the great comments! I've worked a bit on a post-compo version and am incorporating as much of your feedback as possible!
Nice game, however I think it could be more highly related to the theme. I did not get the connection. Technically and fun wise it is really well made.
incredibly well done!
Maximum points for almost everything.
Maybe the theme was not strongly embraced.
And not maximum innovation, but enough innovation to make it interesting.
Overall, very well done. Very complete and it felt polished. The tiling style looked really nice.
In general I'm not a fan of enemies respawning immediately offscreen. Maybe if you want enemies to return, it would be better to have a higher distance required for them to return, or only have them respawn when the player dies or something.
It would also be nice to have a way to heal other than dying. I think having the save points heal the player would work well. That would avoid the situation where the player is at a save point, but almost dead, so they might as well commit suicide before continuing.
Also, it's a bit of a shame to have most of the spells only be used once for a single situation. Though at the same time, having the same obstacles over and over again would get a little repetitive.
Fantastic! Amazing levels, beautiful graphics. Keep up the awesome work.
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Once again, great job Arkeus!