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A jam submission

Vector HollowView game page

A Short Wizardry-inspired dungeon crawler RPG
Submitted by WanderingTheDepths — 7 hours, 59 minutes before the deadline
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Vector Hollow's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall (Fun and Playability)#332.9283.062
Audio#372.7492.875
Visuals#542.5702.688
Creativity / Innovation#622.2112.312

Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How was the theme(s) implemented?
Elemental RPS is prominent in the combat system...and you will encounter certain dragons.

Where did the assets come from?

External audio

Some audio assets were downloaded or made prior to the jam

AI graphics

Generative AI was used to create graphics

AI audio

Generative AI was used to create audio

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Comments

HostSubmitted(+1)

Nice entry!  The Library for reading in-world explanations of things was nice, I thought.  Early on I wished if there were fewer than 8 enemies it just showed them flat for easier attacking (if not using an AoE), but later the difficulty quickly fell behind my power so I just held SPACE constantly so it didn't matter as much, but that's it's own problem =).  I love the Dregg.  The little (I presume) class-specific challenges were a fun bit of variety in the dungeon.  Thank you for the reminder to save!  I agreed to the dragon's request, but, of course, had to reload and try the other way (made it to depth 3, character level 10 so far... but it's exactly as monotonous as the dragon described :).  Audio and visuals were very nice, consistent and pulled together nicely.

Developer

Thanks for your kind comments! I'm glad that you tried things both ways, my effort at extending things a bit didn't go to waste. :) New enemies for floor 2, recolors of old enemies with new abilities for floor 3, the other half of recolors for floor 4...and then just various combinations of those first four floors after that. :P But things keep scaling in difficulty and there's new equipment to buy for quite a few floors. And it is indeed pointless and monotonous. :)

I was really happy with the little dungeon events, they're not all class-specific. For example there's one with ice-cold water to brave in order to get loot, which can be resisted by someone wearing ice element armor. I just enjoy events like that to break things up in a dungeon crawler, a little choose-your-own adventure section.

Submitted (4 edits) (+1)

Yay another Wizardry-like game in the jam! I was mainly inspired by Wizardry on my game too. Ok where to start, this game has everything a classic Wizardry game has. The town screen, inn, trader all that stuff. All systems are there. I like the character creation screen it looks really cool. You don't visually see your characters like that in Wizardry games. There are tons of Races, classes and stuff. It's very clear that you put a lot of effort to this.

The graphics don't look bad in general but camera perspective felt strange to me a little. Enemies look so-so to me and dungeon looks a little bland but there's a certain consistency in style. Battle music is a little too loud maybe it can be bothersome after a while since we get to combat A LOT in this game which brings me to the next issue.

I think enemy encounter rate is a little too high. I don't know what  value you set it to but i think %1 is good for the early game in Wizardry style games. The other thing is that too many enemies can spawn and combat is a little slow which forces player to spend a lot of time on repetitive combat sequences. There are some things i noticed about combat; There is a formation system like in Wizardry games, but enemies could easily hit my mage which was on the back row. Also for some reason %90 of the time my mage was hit with status ailments ,especially poison i mean only my mage, others were rarely inflicted. Enemies sprites are too small for me enemy groups are represented with a single enemy sprite. I know it's faithful to Wiz 1-5 but i like Wiz 6-7 system more. Other than that it looks good with the combat log and all. There are a lot of spells and abilities, that's content. The elemental RPS theme is incorporated very nicely.

The dungeon layout feels random a little bit, not sure if it's proc-gen or not but there are too many dead ends and almost no rooms. Minimap looks and works very good. The tiles you step are revealed, the tiles you had a visual on is shown in grey. That's nice detail. Game screen is too small and no fullscreen option. I don't know why that is. Game has low native res and you didn't want to strecth it? It was a little hard to play in  window 1/10 of the size of a 1440p monitor, everything looks tiny :)


I wanted to beat the game but i didn't have the patience TBH, encounters were too much for me. I played quite a while though and i really appreciate what you achieved. It's a pretty solid entry but may not  appeal to everyone maybe. Thanks a bunch for sharing, nice job! Always great to see another Wizardry fan in the jam !

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for your comments! On encounter rate...heh, I lowered it twice before submitting. Hard to balance between having enough enemies to be able to gain a few levels, versus having few enough that you don't feel constantly pestered. Sorry about that. I didn't borrow all systems exactly from Wizardry games, rather than something like a "1%" encounter rate I think it was something like roll 3d20 (or 3d16, I forget) and that's the number of steps you get to take before the next encounter, which would average about 24-30 steps. I also suppose I betrayed expected mechanics with the formation system, enemies could indeed hit anyone, but characters in front are attacked 1.5x as much as in back, and characters in back took 40% less physical damage (but not magical). Kind of a hybrid between western games' "back row is almost completely safe" and Final Fantasy's "back row has some defense buffs."

Sorry for your screen size issues! Must've played in browser? You might've been able to zoom the browser to zoom the game size too? The downloadable version is resizable at least by grabbing the edges of the widow and dragging, I think it has a maximize button too.

That's too bad you couldn't finish, it ends at the end of the first floor. I figured having a minimap of the floor would help drive people to at least complete that one map. But that's fine, it is understandable compounded with the other issues you had. It sounds like you were very unlucky with status effects. I probably had too much enemy variety resulting in a lopsided experience for some. One enemy, the moss sprite, pretty commonly puts characters to sleep, but I've done practice playthroughs where I hardly ever encountered any, and others where they felt too common, so I can understand encountering too many rats who keep doing poison bites.

The map was proc gen but I tried multiple seeds until I found one that I liked for the first floor. I wanted more of a mazelike feel with few rooms, just a personal preference for this one.

Submitted(+1)

I finally made it. Thought I wouldnt be able to complete this because of the slow progression and long combats with lots of waiting, but I figured out I could pregress faster in the combat events with enter. Went back to town so I could change to melee team that let me spam enter for the entire fights.

I think the game loop is solid, but there is to many parts of it that feels like its meant for a larger game and inspired by larger games. To much fiddeling into menus with stuff that kinda doesnt matter or are interesting enough for a short adventure. Quests gold items and most spells could be scrapped for a more concise experience, with some faster combat and snappier movement, well imo. Im usually not that fond of encounter games, unless they are short and got some interesting mechanics besides targeting specific enemies from a menu system.

But Im glad the game ended after the first level/dungeon or I would prob have abandoned it, sry. The dragon was cool though, and that fight was a bit more fun than the other.

Thanks for the game!

Developer

I appreciate your comments, and yeah, ultimately it is sort of a framework for a larger experience, almost like an engine to go back into a build a more bespoke game with. That is a bit much for a jam, I'm sure, but this is my first jam entry ever and I made the kind of game I wanted to play. :) But you're right, it's more substantial than it probably should've been. I'm glad you were able/willing to make it to the end.

Jam HostSubmitted(+1)

A solid and classic Dungeon Crawling Experience! What else could you ask for?

Very enjoyable, not too hard, not too easy! Thanks for sharing this with us!

You can watch my full playthrough here: https://youtu.be/5P8amA40vVQ?si=U1pIG3ll4kI8mmk-&t=633

Developer

Thanks a lot for streaming it, you helped to identify various issues and points of friction that are important for development considerations.

Submitted(+1)

This entry just does everything. A town, a whole party, you can build up yourself. Extensive Dungeon floors, a quest board etc. I just wish it would not adhere to the Wizardry formula that much. Just some little extra touches like torches on the walls of the dungeon would make it even better. I liked the little event texts inside the dungeon. Movement was very smooth, the battle system worked very well and the graphics are nice. I escpecially liked, what you did to “animate” the monsters.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I also wanted to add a little more scenery but unfortunately had to make those tough decisions on what to prioritize, I also wanted the UI to be a little nicer, but oh well. Glad you liked the little monster animations, I was happy with them. 

Submitted(+1)

I enjoyed this game, and I really enjoyed the audio, from navigating the menus, to the music and battle music. well done

Developer

Thanks so much for playing it, glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed playing, thanks for submitting! Very high quality production values, with an intuitive interface that gives control without overloading the player with too much information. Great narrative too! Hard to find any faults, really. Look forward to playing a full game of this when I have the time. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing it, glad you enjoyed it! If you encountered what amounts to a narrative, then I would say you've already played the full game, essentially. :)

Submitted(+1)

Human Warrior, Human Barbarian, Human Monk, Human Bard. The white male party sealed the dungeon.
A solid entry, I enjoyed some old school dungeon crawling!

Developer(+1)

Thanks a lot for playing, glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

That was really well made and functional! Just felt like there was something missing, like something to make it stand out from the pack or a hook. 

Really good work though :) 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for trying it! I understand. I had some of that concern while making it, but it's still ultimately what I wanted it to be, I really enjoy a nice "normal" dungeon crawler of the type I played back in the day. Hard to come up with a good hook sometimes. I do want to play yours due to its hook.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Yeah its not worth doing it unless we make something we are happy with right 😊

My hook is being repulsive as possible 🤣 Probably not the best one to run with haha 

Submitted(+1)

I helped the dragon seal the dungeon.

I like old school crawlers so my party of an half-orc warrior, a lizardskin barbarian, a fairy warlock and a gnome cleric had fun roamming through the dungeon. While granted for such kind of commercial game but not requisitely in one made in a single week I like that on top of making your own party you also have some gold at the beginning (and more later) that you can spend the way you want in a shop.

Except for the last one where I was careful (and since the choice by default here was good and I always got rewards I guessed the default choice was always a fine one) I always ended up pressing the button too fast during events and have no idea what the choices leave alone the one I made were but that's pretty much on me. All these events including the ending are pretty cool and atmospheric by the way.

Thanks for sharing!

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing it! Yeah maybe I should've put in a bit of delay so people wouldn't overrun dialogue choices. :)

Good strong crew you picked. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted

really hard to understand what to do is there a tutorial?

Developer

Oh, sorry about that if things weren't clear enough. The page description gives controls and some info about the systems like how elements are involved. At the start of the game you should go to the tavern and create or choose a party of adventurers, then you can shop for equipment for them like weapons, and enter the dungeon to explore it. The goal is to fight and level up, retreat to town when hurt, and explore the whole place and reach a specific point where things are revealed.

Admittedly it is rooted in a specific old-school experience like Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Might & Magic, so someone not familiar with those games already could have trouble, again I apologize.