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Vampiromancy's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #507 | 3.983 | 3.983 |
| Creativity | #1581 | 3.883 | 3.883 |
| Artwork | #1896 | 3.733 | 3.733 |
| Narrative | #1935 | 3.083 | 3.083 |
| Audio | #4598 | 2.767 | 2.767 |
Ranked from 60 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Read as Count - Down, where count dracula has been incapacitated (downed). The player is tasked with reversing this.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Audio - kenny.nl asset packs
Vampire - free-game-assets @ itch.io
Thrall - elesrech @ itch.io
Necromancer - bruno-farias @ itch.io
Dungeon tileset - raou @ itch.io
see description for full credits
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Delta
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Comments
Narrative-driven concept, solid puzzle game with very understandable learn-by-yourself rules/tutorial and smart level design.
- Puzzles are very well paced and brings the player into the game. The game also plays very smoothly, movement feels tight and responsive and controls like a dream.
- As some others have stated out, audio feels really lacking. Just wished that there was even some simple music in the game.
I've never really been a fan of theme as a purely narrative device, so if you allow me to be straight, that deducts some points from me. But moving that aside, the puzzle gameplay is real solid - your biggest standout is how you design the levels so players will experiment and learn on their own (the thrall solidying under light for example, is a great mechanic and taught with no words at all). Absolutely give yourself kudos on your overarching design over multiple levels and pacing.
I appreciate that feedback, and thank you for being frank about the theming. That's pretty fair, and it's a consequence of a major direction change about two days in. (I found the light mechanic good enough to build a game around, rather than use it as a single obstacle.) Audio is the other casualty of that same change, and its going to be on the list of post jam adjustments.
I spent a lot of time getting the early levels to work as a silent tutorial, so I'm glad to hear that stood out.
This was a pretty fun puzzle game, was a little quiet though.
Loved playing this! The level design and the world you created were on point. Using the shadow as a mechanic fit the overall vibe really well and I loved switching between characters. I felt bad when I realized I had to sacrifice my big buddy to progress. :C
I also really liked how polished the game felt (the player controller, restart button, hints, etc.).
The last level was also quite challenging for me. I think I learned earlier that the living thrall couldn’t make this mechanic work, so I didn’t try again when he was stoned. I tried really hard to get him through the right path, but it felt impossible no matter how I pushed him from each side.
Because of the other comments I tried it again and it was actually very doable once I knew how this worked. I really enjoyed all the puzzles. Well done! :)
Thanks for playing and for the thoughtful comment! I love how many people got attached to the thrall, its very cute.
I can't recall if I brought it up on a different thread, but I definitely see how having the doors kill the player/thrall in previous levels would teach the wrong lessons. I ended up putting in that kill mechanics since some of the levels were cheesable, but never got to playtest to see the effects fully. There is a weird glitch with the thrall turning to stone that lets you recover it through the right side passage, but that's definitely unintended and by the looks of it, I don't think anyone found it (yet).
I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzles regardless, hopefully I can get more puzzles put together post jam.
This feels nicely polished. I like how the tutorial is integrated into the first few levels, and then the puzzles slowly increase in complexity using the same set of simple mechanics. Really good job!
Thanks for playing, hope you enjoyed it!
really like the progressive difficulty of the game. congrats!
Cool game, i love that the character casts a shadow. Nicely polished
This is a nice little game.
Good job!
:)
I agree with what others have already said: the game is well polished, the difficulty of the puzzles is very good (maybe just slightly too easy on average?), and some of background track from Pixabay would help.
For my personal progress, I got stuck on this level until my kid woke up, and now I must do parenting stuff. Based on other comments, this sounds like the last level; and I just needed to figure out that doors are blockable? I don't think you did anything wrong with the puzzle design. I just didn't time to figure it out before IRL commitments got in the way.
That is the last level, yes. I was concerned the door blocking would be more of a logical leap than the other levels, and I didn't want people missing out on other levels for it. I am curious if you tried fitting the thrall through the passage in the right side first (or at all), or if you went for the door first. I widened the passage as a distraction and never got to playtest it.
Both ways, it does seem I'm going to have to cook up some harder puzzles, y'all are good at these.
Thanks for playing it!
I did try squeezing the thrall down the right passage, but it turns to stone, needs to be pushed, and always ends up flush with the right wall; thus leaving no space for me to get behind it and push.
Perfect, seems to be working as intended :P
The level design feels really polished, and I love the visuals too. I can’t believe this game was finished in just four days! I think it would be even better with some music.
I really liked the design of the puzzles. They were not too easy but not too difficult. The last puzzle took me a while, mainly because I accidentally got stuck thinking that I needed to block the left door from closing instead of the right. I also liked the design of the the two criss-crossed lights puzzle. Overall, this was a fun game!
I really like the concept of having to protect Thrall from sunlight or using his statue form to solve puzzles! Unfortunately I couldn't solve the last puzzle and the lack of music made things sound a bit empty but still a pretty good game!
Okay, that last puzzle really got me for a while but I managed to solve it! Cool mechanics mixed with good level design, would like to have seen more levels which is always a good sign!
Glad to hear it! I'm definitely going to get cooking on some more puzzles for this.
Fun game, and kinda tricky puzzle games, well done, it’s quite a good experience, especially for a game jam!
Awesome feature with shadows and thrall!
Great game with a nice twist on the theme that manages to squeeze a ton of content form just a few simple mechanics. Good Job!
Really creative puzzles! This game reminds me of old flash games like Fire Boy and Water Girl. My favourite puzzle is the final one where you use the monster to block doors from closing. Also it took a while for me realize that I had to use lights to solve the puzzle too (I thought it was just decorations at first). Overall very fun puzzle game and love how everything in are used both for decoration and function
Fire Boy and Water girl was definitely an inspiration for the final form of this game.
I'm glad the lights were a good moment. I opted to place them on all previous levels to make them feel normal and just part of the scene so it didn't pop out when you need to start using them.
Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
amazing job, i really enjoyed the mechanic and how each puzzle taught you something new and expanded on that mechanic
This is a great puzzle game. Very beginner friendly too as the mechanics were introduced in a fantastic curve. Satisfying game out of 10 - great job!
The puzzle design was very fun. For a beginner with games, I loved the feeling when blocking the light was the lead to the solution. Each level was thought provoking and highly enjoyable.
Thanks for playing! I'm glad the light mechanics had the right effect.
I was asking myself where the count down theme was, but when I read the way you twisted it, taking it by word value, I really liked the creativeness behind it! Also, it was a fun platformer puzzle game to play, and you did an amazing job!!
Thanks for playing! Its good to hear the puzzles were fun.
I'm a big fan of literal reads of the prompt, and I'm glad the jam is open to them, it gives the catalogue a lot more variety.
Pretty fun puzzle platformer, I'm glad to see that someone used the obvious pun, it was really easy apart from the last level, which was kind of frustrating.