Skip to main content

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

Static BladeView game page

Isometric metroidvania with melee combat.
Submitted by abhimonk (@abhisundu) — 1 day, 3 hours before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Static Blade's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Execution#24.2114.211
Enjoyment#34.1584.158
Overall#34.1054.105
Sensory#54.1584.158
Relevance to the theme#54.0534.053
Metroidvania#63.9473.947

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme interpretation and application
I chose "Controlled Generation": Generate static by slashing, discharge it by sprinting. If you gain too much static, you overload! Control your static generation!

Team/Developer
abhimonk

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted(+1)

Wow, the game is smooth, it’s fun, the combat is engaging without being frustrating. It’s beautifull.

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Dang, this is a game I wish I would have made. The abilities are great, combat is fluid. There were a few minor bugs, the teleport would sometimes land in a gap area (end boss) so I’d have to teleport there then toss it back onto the map to move but it’s wasn’t a big deal. The vfx were rad, as was, well, everything else. 10/10 more please. I’m confident for the next week, at least, whenever something confusing happens I’m going to imagine the dash-hit-edge spinning animation.

Developer

(the spin stun animation is motion-captured from me bashing my head against the wall trying to figure out 3D animation lmao)

Thank you for playing and for all the kind words! I’m hoping to fix those bugs in the post-jam update, but I’m they didn’t cause too many problems!

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic game! The feel of the gameplay was very satisfying, and the strategy to defeat each enemy as they increased in complexity was very well done! This game feels like a complete experience, I especially loved the subtle world building and the quirky characters, I think I'll play this one again!

Developer (2 edits)

Thanks for playing! I appreciate the kind words, glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

I really loved playing your game! Controls feel very smooth and the mechanics/abilities you implemented are fun to use! :) The music is very calming too and I love the little dialogues

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Great job! Combat felt really satisfying, and the bosses and enemies were very fun to fight. 

Developer

Thanks for playing, glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+1)

A great short Metroidvania and great action RPG - definitely a strong contender for the top spot for me!

The weight and feeling of combat were top notch, owing in no small part to excellent sound design and animation. All the characters and enemies looked great, and the minimal art style of the level actually contributed to the atmosphere of the game, rather than taking away from it. Even the story and music were outstanding! The final boss had great leadup throughout the game, and made for a nice difficulty spike and satisfying conclusion.

It was often challenging to remember when to use each ability in the heat of battle, especially after getting the teleport ability. However, after getting used to it, they all weaved into the flow of combat pretty nicely. The only thing I didn't really enjoy that much was the overload mechanic, since oftentimes there wasn't really a good reason to be using that much static, and I feel like it harmed the overall pacing of combat a bit.

Overall, very impressive job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the kind words, glad you liked it!

Loved every mechanic, they are easy to learn and satisfing to use. It gave me a bit of the undertale combat vibes but 100 times better thanks to the electricity bar.

Only thing is the lore is a bit absent but a lil game like this isn't really about the lore anyway.

Also...what is hornet doing there??!

Submitted(+1)

Man U cooked i loved this so much Also finally someone made a fast paced game all i had been playing in this jam were slower games this is perfect i have saved this in my library also love the wrap and dash dude u cooked fr i have no complains this was one of my favorite games and i am gonna give my first 5 to it . U DESEVERE IT SO PEAK loved fr i cant say why or how just make more pls i want to play more :(((( 

Developer

Thanks! I love making fast-paced combat, glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted

twin u made something i like thx

Submitted(+1)

I always thought that "Metroidvania" implies a 2d side scroller-ish perspective. But reading up on the term now I can see that the definition has loosened over time. Which is geat, because this game is freakin awesome! I can tell a lot went into the story and the characters. I had a lot of fun playing. Thanks for making it!

Developer

Thank you for playing! For sure, metroidvania used to be more closely associated with sidescrollers, but nowadays I think it’s more about the ability gating and interconnected-ness of the map. Glad you liked it!

Submitted(+1)

Combat felt really good and all of the VFX + SFX are great. Took me a bit to understand the discharge mechanic but it was cool once I got the hang of it.

Developer

Thank you! I had a lot of fun learning how to do 3D VFX for this game.

Submitted

I like the movement ability of this game.  Zipping and rushing down enemy feel really good.

Submitted(+1)

I like the movement ability of this game.  Zipping and rushing down enemy feel really good.

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

WOW this is top tier. Beautiful mechanics, music and visuals. The only thing I think you could have done better is having different 'regions' with different vegetation (different colors of grass maybe?) and unique music. Oh and enemies look like they die but actually don't (teleporting?). Besides that everything else is damn near perfect (:

Developer

Thanks for playing! Having different tilesets is a cool idea. I think one of the most common issues with my game is that people get lost, so having different colored regions would have helped a lot. Thanks for the suggestion, glad you liked the game!

Submitted(+1)

What an amazing game! Combat and movement were very fun. I loved the world design and the quirky personalities I met along the way. 

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the kind words!

Submitted(+1)

I liked this game,
Sometimes the enemies felt a bit spongy but that could just be not knowing if they're dead

The enemies were fun to fight!!

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for playing! I agree, I think adding enemy death animations or something would have been nice. I appreciate the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

really awesome game, love how crunchy all the sound effects are and the humor is really great too

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Peak game. I may have some issues here and there but otherwise, peak game.

Loved the presentation overall, let it be the random character interactions to the friendly robots. It was nice to finally meet my dad. The game looked great as well when it came to the robots and the other character models and effects. The isometric camera was also pretty solid. Frankly, a lot of what makes this game's visuals work reminds me of death's door. The only thing about the visuals that I wasn't entirely a fan of was that since pretty much the entire map looked and felt the same, it made it kinda hard to tell where I was sometimes. I think this could've been alleviated somewhat by just having a few landmarks dotted around here and there. The minimap being as detailed as it was did help though.

As for the combat, I honestly think the setup that you went with here is hella interesting and is a cool twist on a traditional stamina system. Needing to dash to discharge yourself is really cool and helps keep things fast paced by ensuring that you're effectively either constantly on the move, or engaging in combat. It also helps that the dash animation looks great and the slide at the end of a dash feels stylish AF.  Made chaining dashes feel really good. That said, I'm not sure how I feel about being able to dash through the yellow projectiles though. I realise that it's the way it is to block off some paths in the world, but it also means that if you have enough static energy, then you can basically just dash through every projectile making them all feel pretty similar to each other. Whereas I had to respect enemies, their position and the type of projectiles that they shot if I was out of static. The variety in the type of projectiles and enemies was pretty good though. I do like how the sword enemies force you to manage your static meter more since you're pretty much always in close proximity to their swords.

On another note, as much as I like the dynamic of needing to dash around to discharge static, I think the game also could've used another type of attack maybe to discharge static. Maybe an AOE attack that just knocks enemies back and doesn't do damage. Maybe you can only do this attack when your static meter is near 80% full or something along those lines. This was because I felt that needing to dodge away when an enemy could still be hit felt like a pacebreaker to combat at times. I also felt that the dash that happens when you're at max static charge also could've result in some sort of attack maybe. That way there could've been a little more strategy when it came to actually aiming the dash. This way you'd maybe also have another option which is already balanced by the fact that it takes health away. Of course all this also needs to be balanced by the fact that you wouldn't be able to have those static and health capsules around to hit as much.( Pardon the dev fan-fiction, but I think the truth is that I really like the setup you have here and want to try something similar to it lol ).  All that said, I do like having the health and static capsules around since they forced me to move around more during combat or otherwise.

I think my biggest issue with combat is that the enemies really needed better indicators for when they died though. Their death animations and effects felt a little too similar to their teleport one's. Along with that it also felt like there needed to be a sound effect or something to better sell it. Also I felt some of the arenas towards the end of the game were maybe a little too cramped for the number of enemies that get spawned, but they were still intense and fun.

When combined with the teleport disc and the orange projectiles, and that enemies start mixing up their projectile types, the game's combat definitely still has a very engaging and interesting dynamic till the end. Especially with the final boss with the master. Definitely the best fight in the game with how both the yellow and red projectiles and swords are mixed. You also still need to be mindful of your position in the arena since he sticks to you. Pretty intense and climactic fight all things considered. The first boss was also pretty fun.

I think I've mentioned a lot of critiques here, but they don't change the fact that you still made a damn good game in the end ( Heck, even my game is guilty of some of the faults that I pointed out here lol ). Your music is still as good as ever and so is your writing. All in all, great stuff.

Developer(+2)

Thank you!

I took a lot of inspiration from Death’s Door. There’s a great video by the Death’s Door devs on how they made their visual style. That plus similar video by the Tunic dev gave me most of my inspiration for the visual style. And of course, Hyper Light Drifter is always in my brain when it comes to combat.

I definitely wish I had added landmarks and even alternate tilesets to better-differentiate the areas. My friends got lost a bit while playtesting due to everything looking the same.

Glad you liked the static mechanic! Haha I actually had a similar idea for an AOE to discharge static, but it didn’t make it into the final game. Perhaps I’ll add that back in during the post-jam. A max-static attack is a really cool idea, I hadn’t thought about that, thanks for the suggestion! lol i don’t mind the dev “fanfic” at all, love hearing your ideas haha

On enemy death animations: I agree, this is one of the things I really want to add post-jam. It’s one of those things that was on the list but didn’t make it due to a lack of time. I think it’s among the most ‘jank’ parts of the game right now, the way they just puff out of existence.

Glad you liked the final boss! I’m really proud of that one.

Thank you for playing and for the kind words and ideas. I always enjoy reading your comments!