The pawscape
Important notice:
One critical bug went unnoticed. If you are playing in 60 FPS it's barely possiblly to get through second level (jump stage) :'( Deeply sorry for that.
Overview
The protagonist is a Ferret named Zero, who got into depths of Goblin cult hideout and obtained forbidden spells and their more powerful mixes. Now his goal is to escape from the cult and get back to the Ferret clan with this knowledge.
About the game
Game was developed as part of Pirate Software Game Jam 15 by 6matko, Boiiterra, AnonObserver, BumbleDee, Kriisi. All coding was done from scratch with sticks and stones with help of guides and this was our first game & game jam.
The shadows theme in the game is corporated in the story as the cult of Goblins with hidden knowledge about spell mixing. They try to stop the player from escaping their dungeon.
Alchemy is about combining spells to overcome level obstacles and advance to the next level and eventually escape.
Controls:
- Jump - W / Up / Space
- Move Left - A / Left
- Move Right - D / Right
- Use First scroll - Q
- Use Second scroll - E
- Use Both scrolls - R
- Change First scroll - 1
- Change Second Scroll - 2
Material used (Thanks to the authors):
https://godotshaders.com/shader/2d-pixel-shadow-outline/
https://www.fontspace.com/madou-futo-maru-gothic-font-f76590
https://www.fontspace.com/public-pixel-font-f72305
https://mounirtohami.itch.io/pixel-art-gui-elements
https://incolgames.itch.io/dungeon-platformer-tile-set-pixel-art
Known issues:
- In some cases on level 3 player can get thrown out of the map when dies (Inconsistent, not sure how to reproduce)
- In some cases player can get stuck in props (Inconsistent, not sure how to reproduce)
- Sometimes you are able to select same skill/scroll in two slots (Each hand should hold 1 unique scroll). Trying to switch 1st scroll might crash the game
- Sometimes on level 4 after death 3rd slot is missing icon
Download
Comments
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Good job with your submission! The intro is too wordy, I'm interested in the story but the faster you get to the game the better, maybe explain the main character's backstory as you go along, maybe start in the tunnels and the player finds out why over time. The fog effect is great. The controls could be better, for example, if you just have power A and power B and be allowed to press both together, you can get rid of the third option, and no matter what powers A and B are, you can combine them for interesting emergent gameplay. The game is too hard. The difficulty needs to ramp up way slower, for example, introduce one thing at a time, and make it easy to get through at first, then make harder over time. Room three is extremely brutal. Either put in checkpoints, or save collectibles when you die. Having to start all over AND get the double jump scroll every time was very tedious, and I never got past the double jump room. With some tweaking you could have a really excellent game here. Great work!
Thanks for playing and for your detailed comments. Will keep that in mind :)
Good atmosphere and art, and the lighting and fog effects are great. I like the idea of the scrolls and being able to trigger both, and the level design leads you naturally to how to use the controls and abilities. Level 3 with the double jump was a bit unforgiving (and not being able to reset in the room above the jump), but once you got a hold of it, it was just fine! Good work!
Thank you very much for playing and leaving this feedback. Really happy you liked the idea. Yes, unfortunately we made a game less forgiving than it supposed to be and we will take it as a learning experience :)
Love the intro! The little ferret guy is very cute, and I said "aww, just a little guy" aloud alone in my office when I saw him. I'm guessing the writing style of the prologue was how the ferret would speak which added to the cuteness. But of course the overall tone of the actual game was very on-theme and not cutesy. Very shadowy, very alchemy haha
I did find it a little frustrating how dark and shadowing some parts were, but I also didn't play long enough to find out if I would find a scroll to help bring some light when needed.
Thanks for playing. Initially we planned to do whole story with less text as possible and with similar art (Like in Max Payne 1, comics style). The game atmosphere intended to be dark since there is no fun in goblin dungeon and the challenge should add to it. Its not so easy to escape (Although I admit that we made it more challenging than it should be 😅). Light source as scroll was also intended as one part of the game play mechanic but due time constraints it was left out.
Appreciate your feedback!
Great atmosphere! Loved the fog and lighting. Got stuck in the room above the double jump scroll. Should I have first collected that scroll before reaching that, or maybe I am just slow? :)
Thanks for playing and your feedback. Yes, that is our mistake of overlooking that scenario. It was intended that you pick up the scroll first 😅
Game looks great, I love the lighting!
Being able to combine any two scrolls is cool, could lead to some great combos with more scrolls.
Overall would like to play more if there's a future longer version :)
If I had to pick a negative I'd say death was a bit too punishing, would like some checkpoints rather than restarting the whole level.
(PS. I did get the bug where I got thrown out of the map on level 3)
The game is really cool! Love the ambience and design
Thanks for the feedback and playing our game <3
This game oozes vibes and the music reminds me of Zelda Link to the Past. Running around as a little spell/scroll wielding ferret is awesome.
Unfortunately I ran into an issue where the first jump after getting the high-jump scroll is impossible due to the game being at 60fps. @6matko is aware and hopefully there's a fix that can be done without messing with the jam submission files.
Would love to revisit and see more of the game.
Hello. Thanks for the feedback. We tried to recreate your scenario (using settings: FPS 60 with VSync enabled). And it turned out that it is super hard to make this jump but possible. The timing on the jump is tighter that intended.