I like the pixel art and stuff. The cutscene in the beginning is great. Only fault I found was that the attacks from the boss came out of nowhere, like there was no indicator of an attack. Also I felt that the blue spear attacks were overwhelming at times. Overall, great game!
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Desert Phantom's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #160 | 3.842 | 3.842 |
| Overall | #307 | 3.491 | 3.491 |
| Fun | #355 | 3.263 | 3.263 |
| Presentation | #428 | 3.368 | 3.368 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Preferred Name
Rieux
Newbie?
Experienced
Nope - I've completed at least one game jam before.
How does your game fit the theme?
In this game, you need to help a young person to get started in save the world from its destruction!
Comments
Thanks for playing :)
Yeah, the boss attack misses some feedback to know he is going to attack haha, I'll have it in mind if I keep this little project or for next ones
And about the blue spears are made like that, more at the end, just to show the bad guy is powerful, it could have some more polish to make it more fair and less overwhelming but this time I wanted to show it like this to prove his powers a little bit :)
Before reviewing this: do not feel compelled to review back. I don't care much of it. I'm here to give you an honest summary of my thoughts.
Let me preface this by saying I have never played a skill based action platformer, and thus I am incredibly bad at games like this. I tried about twice to beat the boss in the first go, but could not, and was forced to incur only one ending. It was too hard for me :( I think there were some close range scythe attacks that did not have a proper tell and ended up in me losing a good chunk of my health being hit by those.
The writing could use some proofreading. It is perfectly understandable and clear, but some sentences are not "usual", but this is only a very tiny nitpick.
I like the idea of a godlike narrator playing through loops over and over again as a form of sadistic experimentation. I also like that he deadass interrupts the plot of his own accord (and the villain notices him and verbalises disdain too!) to make sure things are going your, the player's, way. This is a very cool concept that I'm a big fan of :D
The narrative is promising, you clearly can draw well, and are good enough at Godot to be able to make your own combat system. This is the hallmark of great potential imo. I would love to see this narrative be expanded upon, and with a bit of polish, I think this concept can do very well!^^
Submitted
MORNING STARTERThanks for your deep feedback!
About the fight, yeah, I missed to do some sfx and after reading people pointing the fight, I started to think a little more about the design of the battle. At least I understand the point of view of the players better after some thought haha, the point of the battle to beat it without dying is taking it as a RPG, let the boss attack, then you attack and repeat until it’s done. Beating it without dying doesn't lead to another ending. There will be series of attacks in the last phase that will make this difficult but in some way that should be the way of the fight, so I need to study and think in a way to make that clear in this case if I want to keep the battle as it is now
And well, the fight was made in less than a day because I was running out of time so I couldn’t balance it or make it as I wanted hahaha
About the wording looking not usual, maybe that’s because I use a google doc when I want to write english “properly” and let the document point the errors I have, since it’s not my 1st language, I make basic errors, like using “is” with “you” and eating plurals and stuff like that lol. I agree with you and it’s a valid point I haven’t thought for this jam, I will ensure to do that for my personal project because I think details like this can matter at times and more when you want the game be really polished!
And I’m very happy you liked the idea of the narrator :)
I can’t say much about it right now but yeah, it will do this kind of stuff, just interrupting stuff and making cruel actions to make it as it wants hahaha, one day in the future, if the personal projects go well, you will be able to fight it, but that isn’t near
Thanks for saying that this looks promising, it gives motivation for my personal project
And thanks for playing! ^_^
I really enjoyed the story and how the narrator helps you out if you pick the right option. One feedback is that during the fight, it was a bit difficult in knowing when the boss was going to do a melee attack making it hard to dodge. Fun game!
Submitted
Wake Up Nyow!Really loved the story and dialogue i loved how the text shakes when the characters is angry it gives so much feedback for the player also loved the boss fight it looks so inspired from hollow knight it was a great yet simple game loved it, if you dont mind you can try my game out too.
Submitted
Everything starts smallThanks for playing :D
I’m glad to see it remind you about Hollow Knight, in some way I wanted to give a little bit that feeling or like Megaman boss fights or games that are similar haha
And I’m happy you liked the feedback in the text, I agree, it helps to display the story better!
About your game, I have it in my list, only that today has been a slow day, if I don’t play today, tomorrow for sure I’ll leave you my comment :)
While I'd make some changes to the combat (some enemy attacks can be tough if not impossible to dodge) but the narrative is very interesting and it drew me in! Really liked this game :D
Submitted
After the EndThanks for playing :)
About the combat, I agree, honestly I rushed it because I didn’t only give a visual novel xD
I only learned to fight the boss for how much I played it
And a fight against the bad guy is 1 point of the story, sadly I didn’t get time to do it as I want, if I keep working on this, the battle and combat will change.
About attacks being tough, I understand that, the 1st time can be really hard to avoid but even if I want to change the combat part, I’ll try to make attacks or an enemy combo that it’s very likely to hit you hahaha. It would be unfair to the enemy don’t hit you. (Obviously trying to do it fair to avoid lol)
Also happy that the story drew you in, it give me hope about doing the game about the narrator or in general this kind of mood/narrative :)
The story and narrative are really intriguing! I think the guided, yet sort of open-ended narrative helps sell the point of the story a lot. That fight was tough, lol. As someone who is a chronic move spammer I definitely got wrecked. But I really like the <SPOILERS> fact that losing the fight at first gets the narrator on your side because of funsies lol. The character art is really cool and the narrator interests me a lot in their side of the story! Would love to see the other ending/path, if you do choose to expand on it!
Submitted
DuckboundThanks for playing :)
Yeah, the fight can be tough so I made sure that after you get helped, you can’t die by always restoring your HP if it falls under the half of it
Very happy that you are interested in the narrator and seeing the other path of the game! I’ll let you know if I release it, if I make it, it will slow to ensure it is as I originally wanted haha
And thanks for your comment on the art and your feedback ^_^
I really love everything about this! Just ignoring the technical stuff, I love the setting and the characters, I loved how the hero was right out of some ancient fantasy story, but the villain was just a dude in a suit from modern day. It hints to so much cool lore. And speaking of villains, the twist that the narrator was playing both sides was perfect, it fit his character and gave him an actual role in the story while keeping him mysterious and frustrating. I don't know if the plot path changes if I pick the "mean" dialogue options because I can't bring myself to be mean, especially after seeing the poor hero cry, that was so sad, lol. When I tell you this story could be made into a full game, I really mean it, you gotta do it.
For the non-plot stuff: I loved the art, it had such a great mood to it. I love the late title screen with the gorgeous desert scenery and the buildings behind the sword, the whole build up and execution of that was so cinematic! It was also pretty cool when the narrator's eye gleamed, that was a nice touch. The animations of the sprites during the fight was pretty smooth too. It was very generous of you to let me continue the fight even though I died the first time, btw! I saw in the credits you made the music yourself which blows me away, I thought you used free assets for that. You're so talented.
I did notice one little glitch (super minor), where I can type my own text into the tutorial boxes right before the fight.
Anyway, I'm lucky you played my game, otherwise I wouldn't have found your game and I'm really glad I got to play it <333
Submitted
Cloud CollectorFirst of all, thanks for playing my game and leaving this amazing feedback!
About the dialogues, in this version, everything leads to the good ending even if you pick the “mean” options, it changes some dialogues but always ends with him trusting you. I removed the whole part of breaking him, more mean answers and the bad route dialogues because I didn’t have enough time to develop that entire route in the gameplay aspect haha
For it to happen I should do more attacks and in general a new playable “hero”...
I’m really happy you loved the characters and the setting, I decided to put the Narrator into the game because I wanted to test how people react to it in some way or to the way this little window of story was told, since the Narrator is a character I’ll use in my project I want to do, I’m happy to see your review and in general people saying the story was nice/good! It will always be like that, doing stuff to stop being bored haha.
About doing this specific story in a game, 1st I want to make a game where I properly introduce the Narrator so people can know what it is capable of doing… Maybe what I actually do with this game is, try to polish it more and more so I can keep learning about making fights and bosses, maybe a bit of platforming while doing the visuals for it!
And thanks for the comments on the visuals, I also liked how it ended and feel good about it, in the jam I woke up and before to sleep I draw what I could, I saw quicks tutorials on how to do attacks and in some way I did some lol, just the walk animation is rough to do… And about the fight, since I couldn’t balance it properly, I put that scene which I like because you discover the true intentions of the Narrator haha and gives weight to what the hero said about being drained.
Once again thank you for your deep feedback and impression, that’s what I want from this jam and I really appreciate it! ^_^
Great story above all. Id like to see more about the hero and his friends. Hoping there will be a game two where I can defeat the narrator XD! Overall nive boss mechanics, although I had a bit of a hard time seing some attacks. Maybe add some sound clue?
Submitted
Just Click StartGlad you liked the story!
About the boss attacks, I ran out of time to do sfx to the attacks haha, it only has a few because I put the voice I already did for the character, so I’ll have it in mind next time, it can be hard to read good the 1st time you do the boss
About making a second game, it would be nice, the narrator is a character I wanted to introduce this game jam because it’s planned to be in all the “main” games I'm going to do, but in this case, the hero is too weak to even face that enemy! But happy to see you want to fight it, maybe in a distant future with another hero hahaha
But I was thinking about maybe doing a game of this story or if I just polish this segment, show more of the story of the main character
Thanks for playing and the feedback, tomorrow I’ll play your game, today I ran out of time to rate games so I couldn’t do it today, but tomorrow I’ll leave you feedback :)
Thanks for playing and the feedback!
About the combo, I rushed the “tutorial” before the boss, which is only text, so thanks for letting me know that it isn't clear how to make a combo.
And about the jumping animation, yeah, it can be rough at first, I thought about changing it but the time was running out so I left it as that, probably if I do an update I will change the whole jump.
Happy to know you liked the story and the art :)
Especially like the art and story about the game, the effort you put into it is really visible and I was glad to read at the end that you had a lot of fun making the game! Regardless of if you are going to add another ending eventually, very well done on the boss battle! :)
Submitted
SnailQuest (Shovel Jam)Thanks for the comment and playing my game :D
Yeah, I put more effort than usual to the visuals, drawing isn’t my strongest skill so I wanted to practice it with this game, it’s the 1st time I do animations for a game and pixel art in general haha, so I’m happy that you see the visuals like that! :)
(I actually woke up to draw, then code or do other stuff for the game and the draw again hahaha)
And about the story I was doubtful but seeing people liking it, I feel more relaxed about it haha, maybe because I remove the bad route it feels better. Or this time, all the dialogues lead to the good route.
Also tomorrow I'll play your game and let you know my feedback :)
Nice narrative, and the music and sfx were cool. The game is a bit short, but I liked the boss's second phase with so many more attacks. I think you could mess with the variables for how fast the combo works, movement speed and jump to make it way more snappy. I like the double jump being linked to the combo as well.
Submitted
Stuart & EdThanks for playing and the feedback!
About the length of the game, originally was planned to be played twice but I didn’t manage to do the second part :(
About the variables, you are right, in fact I was tweaking that stuff but due the lack of time, I decided to just go with the current state of the game, I think testing those little changes was the most fun of doing the game, I could spend a lot of time trying more but if I would do that, I wouldn’t finish the game hahaha :)
(Also because I did the error of doing 1st the animations instead of the physics, I was kind of limited, otherwise the animation would look more weird than right now xD )
And happy that you liked the narrative and the sfx!
The double jump wasn’t planned to be like that, I found it could be done by accident by testing lol, but I liked how it ended up :)
Edit: I forgot to say, tomorrow I'll play your game and I'll leave a feedback :)
great game!! i loved post end-game dialogues! i enjoyed the gameplay and the fact i was given another try in the boss fight thanks to the narrator only because he wants entertainment is neat! i love the concept of it! good graphics also.
Submitted
START: It’s All You HaveHappy to see you liked those 2 details about the story! I was doubtful about the whole story since it’s the 1st time I showed a story.
(Even I felt a bit cringe when I was typing it the first day of the jam lol)
I had planned a bad route where you break the mind of the hero, but I didn’t have enough time to do it since there would be more mechanics and dialogues/sprites, also maybe it would be a bit dark for a game jam hahaha
So I just did the good route, so no matter what you pick, you help him and lead to the same ending in the dialogue part
Happy to see you liked the gameplay and the graphics, the boss fight was made in a way you can't fail after you die the 1st time, if your hp gets under the half, you get healed again haha
Thanks for playing and the review!
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