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Sacrifice the City's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #28 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
| Audio | #34 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
| Overall | #51 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Originality | #52 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
| Theme | #53 | 3.692 | 3.692 |
| Accessibility | #71 | 2.846 | 2.846 |
| Graphics | #89 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Controls | #109 | 2.692 | 2.692 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.4
Wildcards Used
N/A
How does your game tie into the theme?
You are sacrificing a city to an ever growing ritual circle, while trying to maintain candles at the increasingly distant edges.
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
N/A
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
7
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Comments
For something as big as a core mechanic, I’d say the “dash” deserves spacebar instead of shift.
Also, sticky-keys >.<
It’s weird how many options you guys have, but no web export :S
You know, that's a very good point. I put it on shift because it seemed like a good option for fast movement (often used for sprinting), but it's kind of out of the way, huh? I didn't really notice because I have a split keyboard with shift on the thumb cluster. Oops.
Oh no, I forgot about sticky keys...
Yeah, we're missing a web export just because we made the page and exported very last minute. I just didn't remember how to do a web build for itch off-hand and didn't have time to figure it out.
Thanks for playing!
really funny take on the theme! I had some trouble at first as I didn’t realize the dash length was variable, but when I realized I should hold it down longer it made a lot of sense. the walk speed is a bit slow, but I like how it put more emphasis on the dash. I also liked the sense of progression with more and more things to manage. on my second attempt I died after the 5 candles, and I didn’t feel like starting over at that point. I had a great time though, nice entry!
Happy to hear you had fun and enjoyed our take on the theme! Yeah, holding shift to dash longer is a pretty important part of gameplay that I completely failed to actually mention in-game. I'm glad you figured it out anyway! The walk speed definitely could've been bumped up to not feel so sluggish. I meant to do so, but ran out of time before getting around to it.
Thanks for playing!
Fun game! I love "bullet" hell dodging games like this. I didn't get past the survival phase and I give up trying! I feel like maybe checkpoints between phases would be a good idea? Or maybe make the 5 candle phase before the survival phase a bit shorter as I felt like it was too long especially when I had to go through the whole thing to retry.
I also think this game would work a lot better on controller! As I found it hard to get the exact angle I needed to get through all the circles at once with just 8 degrees of movement, but 360 degrees would probably make it feel a lot better.
Very good entry! I had a lot of fun trying(but failing) to beat it!
Thanks, I'm glad you had fun with it!
Agreed on all points!
Thanks for playing!
Really good concept. i liked the clear audio feedback for when you succesfully dashed a circle. the only problem is the movement feels way too draggy.
Thanks for playing! By "draggy" do you mean the walk speed is too slow, or is it something else?
yes, exactly.
The controls worked well for me, dashing through circles felt pretty fun. I wish there was a better way to manage your health (maybe an indicator for the closest health pickup?). The survival phase is aboslutely ruthless, especially with your entire progress on the line, but I enjoyed it. Good entry!
Thanks for playing!
Adding an indicator for nearby health pickups is a good idea. I've definitely found myself just wandering around trying to find one.
Yeah, the survival phase is brutal. It wasn't even in the plan at first, but then wjbinthemorning dropped that final music track on us and I couldn't resist building a phase to match that intensity! It's the only phase I don't manage to clear every time.
I was not expecting that when I clicked play. What a good game idea. I do feel like the movement could be a little better. I felt like there were a lot of times where I just couldn't dash enough to dodge the wave. Dialogue and art were great.
Thanks for playing, glad you liked the idea!
The dash is very much balanced around a mechanic where dashing over a wave without taking damage instantly refunds that dash charge (and can actually profit dash charges if you dash over multiple waves at once). I tried to explain that via the imp, but it's very possible that, between trying to add humor and not ramble too long, I failed to deliver that information clearly!
I mean, it's probably more just a mechanic I'm not used to.
This was a lot of fun! I like the gameplay of dashing over the circles and I really enjoyed how hectic and difficult it gets. I'm not sure I would've ever figured out you can dash longer if you hold shift down if you hadn't told me in chat so maybe it'd be good to mention that in game somewhere. The hyper dash is really fun once you get it too. I would've really liked to be able to move with arrow keys instead of WASD, idk why I'm not great with using WASD for some reason. Overall had a lot of fun playing this tho, great work!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun watching you play it on stream. There's actually one more phase where it gets even more hectic and difficult!
Agreed on the longer dash. There are a couple controls and mechanics that I realize now are not made obvious in the game itself, unfortunately. I've added them to the game page for now.
I actually wanted to implement rebindable keys, but didn't get around to it. I like ESDF myself.
The cover is amazing, loved the game. I feel like the dash weren't dashing far enough, I found myself dashing through the red wave, but still take damage. At some point, I couldn't figure if I got hit or not, but I still died. Great game !
Loved the humor of the game =)
Thanks! I'm glad the humor landed! I had a lot of fun writing the dialogue. And I agree, wjbinthemorning killed it with the cover!
The dash probably wasn't going far enough. You can hold SHIFT to dash longer or let go of SHIFT to cut it short. Unfortunately, I only realized after submission that this wasn't made obvious in the game itself. It's noted on the game page now, at least.
I came for the amazing cover!
I really like the idea, I enjoyed the dialogues, and the approach to the theme. I found the game quite difficult and maybe a bit too punishing with the number of inputs required from the player. (I would have liked a bit more time to observe the destructions and the city haha) - good job!
Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the dialogue; it was fun to write. And I agree, wjbinthemorning did a great job with the cover.
Yeah, if we'd had some more time, I think it would've been cool to have had the intensity ramp up more slowly and to have made a bigger spectacle of the circle taking out the city.
Interessting idea. Playing was fun but for me personally it felt a bit to punishing. It was fun to balance in between using your dashes for movement and for dodging.
I think if you but in a bit more juice into the destruction the circle causes it could give the game another huge upgrade. Seeing the houses crash down was already fun but i think sfx on that would really have done a lot to sell the immersion.
Another small thing is, that I think it would be smart to either make something like a skip confirmation (like holding down a key for a while)
Or to pick a more unintuitive key that space. I accedently skipped important dialog in my first attemt.
In total I think it was fun to play and a creative interpretation of the theme. The Dialog was also another strengh of the game.
Thanks for playing and for the great feedback! I had fun writing the dialogue.
The game may be more punishing than it's meant to be largely due to me not making obvious some important mechanics (e.g. holding SHIFT lets you dash longer, dashing over multiple waves in one dash is heavily rewarded, touching demonic activities/structures throughout the circle will heal you a pretty large amount, etc.).
There is a sound on collapsing buildings, but it's proximity-based and fairly wimpy. Definitely agree we could've done better there and on the feeling of destruction in general.
Very much agree on the space-to-skip confirmation too. Unfortunately, the skip feature was added very late and I didn't notice how easy to was to miss important instructions until post-release.