Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

AcrolyteView game page

Azure Valley Demo
Submitted by mccad — 2 days, 23 hours before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Acrolyte's itch.io page

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

(+1)

Great visuals, top master class in pixel art, moving around is a breeze, cool weapons, love me some grenades. UI elements, slick main menu and what not are very tasteful, top grade. Strong inspiration from Metroid and it can be good or bad, for me the map is already pretty big but levels and fights with enemies feel uninspired, it all blends together after a while. I guess it can be the default complaint for most metroidvanias, but most try to mix it up a little - random drops, leveling up, card system with magic, familiars, unique sets of armor - these are just elements taken from couple of Castlevanias I've played and default Super Metroid looks kinda bland, especially when your enemies are mostly different kinds of spiked bugs. 

I've beaten the whole game, didn't die once, found all but one upgrade. For me - more secrets, decrease health upgrades and make more of them, create meaningful secrets with unique armor sets that add extra powers (maybe something like BoI), more threatening enemies that utilize how level is built (I hope it's not a problem with game's lore as I feel first biome is mainly insect related). 

It's already a winner on visuals alone, but action should be cranked up to make it truly special.

Submitted

My shit laptop can hardly run this---the menus are ok, but the game itself is super slow and is covered with bright, rapidly flashing rainbow lights. A real bummer since I wanted to play this based on the atmosphere alone. The visuals throughout the game and menus are phenomenal. Definitely wishlisting this one.

Developer

can you provide some hardware specs and a screenshot of the issue? Sounds super bizarre

Submitted

Sure thing. It seems unaffected by vsync and my screen refresh rate. I gave myself a headache testing it, lol. I'm on a Lenovo Thinkpad T460s, 20GB RAM, i7-6600Ux4, Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2), Bluefin linux 41.20250504.2 (from Fedora Silverblue 41), Wayland, GNOME 47, Linux 6.13.8-200.fc41.x86_64.

And a video:

Developer

thanks, we will investigate. I know what the source of the buggy visuals is but I’m not 100% certain what’s actually causing it yet

The only problem I found is sometimes jump not executing at all which screwed me over in some bossfights. Turns out if you stop running and jump at a precise moment it will do nothing.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Note: When I say fullscreen, I mean borderless fullscreen.

-For some reason this happened to the master audio slider? I was in windowed mode([later] also in fullscreen) when it happened, I was using mouse. It also seems to be clickable from the other menus, like Graphics, which shoot it up to 100% or whatever.


-Logbook text(the 'I's) seems to break for no reason when scrolling through???


-Backing out of the subsections of the Logbook, it doesn't remember my place, and instead puts me at the top of the log book. I assume this is a bug, since the Status menu remembers where you were last when exiting Logbook, Weapons, etc. And maybe it's just due to my color blindness, but the selection color difference here doesn't stand out at all. I kind of have to squint to make sure my selection is right. The Status screen is fine since it has a bar on the right that acts as a cursor.

-Actually getting to the gameplay, it looks fantastic. Just like last time, but I recently got a high hz monitor, so it looks even better all smooth like.

-If you move the mouse then go back to controller, it will make the crosshair visible while not aiming, causing it to flick across the screen until you use the right stick. This is minor, but it's more annoying here since I'm alt tabbing to write as I go.

-Realized I can't use DPAD if I wanted to, for player movement. Just a bit odd, a lot of modern Metroidvainias allow that by default. My brother for instance prefers DPAD movement in these games.

-Got Dash Thruster. It seems like the text is broken for it. And since I have all these problems let me say what I have: 1080p, win10.


-And while I'm at it, this is the text under the Map Screen. I honestly can't tell if it's broken up on purpose or another visual bug.


-Directly after opening the map screen, the room name and coordinates will usually overlap. Once you move the cursor though, it's fine.


-I decide to restart the game, despite that annoying long intro. But all the text bugs I posted are still there. I go to the menu to try out the audio slider, and I realize that the directions for the sliders are backwards!!! On controller that is, holding the button then tilting right will move it left, and vice versa. Also the audio slider bug mentioned near the beginning doesn't happen with controller, but it does once I try to use the mouse. It also broke the Menu Volume slider, and it's just like the first visual I showed you, but now it's below the also broken master slider by the height between them initially.

-Gameplay is good so far, I quite like the ability to shoot while grabbing a ledge.

-After you release aiming with LTrigger, it will show the mouse without decorations.

-I got the kickslide bracers. It seems like when the menu is opened after getting these equipment items, it will default to Keyboard prompts in the description. It also happened when I got the dash upgrade, but I thought that perhaps I used my mouse and didn't notice. Also, the lettering, just like Dash Thruster, is all messed up. Lastly, its box was rainbow for first time seeing it. Which is neat, but it didn't seem to have a change in outline when focused, which made me think it was borked somehow.

-In this room at least, if I stand around here, I can 'throw' the weapon but instead it gets stuck in the wall.


-Also, the UI of this weapon(ammo and box outline ) will show up on top of the pause menus, ie Map, Status, etc.

-Lack of contact damage sfx is annoying when fighting the flying grapes swarm enemy thing. Keep losing HP because I don't notice one swarmling next to me. Though seeing the entry for the Bloat Fly, I only now realize that I can just walk past them.

-I got the shockgun. And now I see why you didn't bind the DPAD to movement. Perhaps pop up the weapon switch HUD even with only one weapon, so the player knows it has a purpose sooner?

-Got the wings. Menu text kerning changes now on different button focus I guess? Also, unlike the other equipment, it seems like the wings displayed the controller prompt instead of keyboard on first collection.


-Beat final boss. Got everything, but only 91% equipment. The fight is OK, but after the first death I realized it was that one boss from Super Metroid, so having a free safe spot in the corners made it easier. I also started using my grenades, and that helped in beating it 2nd try.

Overall, game is fairly fun. Enemies are a bit of a pushover, including the mini bosses. But, that's difficult to tune for this sort of game. Hope the UI feedback is helpful and not some weird one off thing for me. Otherwise, I felt like I had very little to comment on. Anyways, game's cool. Looking forward to future versions of it.

Developer(+1)

thanks for the very thorough feedback 🙏

Lots of people have been having issues with the text rendering, it’s an issue related to rounding of pixel coordinates that seems like it’s hardware specific. 

(+1)

Don't know what to say other than this is a very good game with nice art and gameplay.

(Also "barra de espaso" is misspelled as "espaos" in the keybind settings menu).

Developer

that’s really interesting, we didn’t add any localization yet so that might actually be a typo from unity’s input system itself or whatever on your end is generating the names of the input bindings. I’ll investigate 

(+1)

The visuals are extremely well done but the gameplay seems pretty generic for a Metroidvania. I think there a number of missing sound effects and impact needed for a bunch of enemies. I would also look at keeping track on which enemies died on each floor and only respawning them after a number of rooms or if you save. The immediate respawns made killing them even less satisfying to deal with.
 The biggest issue i have is with the camera. It's quite jolty and the tiny micromovements it does gives me motion sickness. I would have played a lot more if it wasn't for that.

Video Feedback: 

Developer

the controller support is still pretty new and experimental, I’ll definitely have to set some time aside to continue adjusting the camera behavior for controller usage. Thanks for playing 🙏

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)


Hey bro,

I don't really have much feedback, since it seems you really know what you are doing. I did find a bug though. That specific area on the map for some reason the camera didn't follow the character (see pics related), I tried going in and out of that room, but at most the camera got stuck in between both areas - that also made it so the map didn't check it as "seen".

Another minor issue I found was that sometimes the Double jump wasn't consistent - it didn't always happen though, but example once I did the jump and touched the ground and jumped again sometimes it didn't activate the double jump even though the icon that showed it was available was "on".  

Other than that, there's nothing I can say the game is looking great. Keep up the good work!

(+1)

Loved it! 
One issue I had was that it's not super obvious when you've taken damage,  but aside from that everything felt enjoyable.

Submitted(+1)

it's peak.
the only nitpick i can think of is that i would want to more quickly close the screen after i get an upgrade
also, the death animation while cool and badass is pretty slow (i suck at the game so i see it often)
i reached the plant bird head undeground and it fucking smoked me
i love that battle music

Submitted(+1)

Nice game.

When you press RMB to throw a grenade it interrupts your main gun's fire, seems unintended.
Sometimes you can't double jump after a wall jump but it's inconsistent.

(1 edit) (+1)

Nice work MCCHUD but I have to knock some points off for the following issues:

-No dynamic resolution(you will get screeched at a lot for this, especially 4k monitor jaks)[edit: it exists but had to be set manually instead of doing it when I fullscreened]

-Lack of juice when shooting enemies, feels a bit out of place compared to everything else, needs blood/plasma/fire sprays and them getting lit up and maybe some hitstop

-Poor feedback when getting hit, one tiny hitflash and no sound doesn't do much good

-Main character appears to be some sort of alien instead of hot anime girl

-Can dash off of ledges with no gravity, and do a frame perfect jump at the end(too cool pls remove)

-Tried to wall jump up that one part for a few minutes and couldn't do it

-Level design too reminiscent of the Metroid series.

Might update feedback later if I'm feeling graceful.

Developer

I'm currently using unity's pixel perfect camera extension which is forcing integer scaling, but honestly its done such a poor job at actually solving the issue's it's supposed to that, provided I can solve some of the pixel perfect stuff myself, I'd like to ditch it entirely. I'll make it a priority to get that done because the integer locked scaling is something i also find pretty annoying

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Looks great, sounds great, big Abuse vibes, plays like a metroidvania. Feels like there will be some sweet movement tech later.

I really wish you could just hold down the fire button on the starting peashooter, but I guess its sort of the point of the starting gun to be shitty.

Feel like there should be a bit more "punch" when enemies get hit, its missing something. Wiggle them around or something dunno.

No sound when hovering over the save files, immersion ruined. 

I killed the rhino boss by crouching infront of it and shooting, dunno if you consider that cheese.

Had a weird bug with this room: https://jumpshare.com/s/bwYnJArlFL8RxWQmv6bd


Submitted(+1)

The opening cutscene is a good addition, could probably add that as one of the Steam screenshots. The first boss was difficult enough to take 4 retries. 
As for technical things, the game says it was 1920p after I paused for the first time even though it started out at windowed 1280p. The Hover Dash description also says Shift whilst I was using a controller.