Very fun to play. I love the real time rpg combat and the clock mechanic really makes it shine! Visuals are really beautiful too. Only (tiny) problem I found, the music wouldn't loop. As for the rest, very cool game!
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The SwordMaster who controlled its own CoolDown's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Narrative | #2650 | 2.867 | 2.867 |
| Creativity | #2765 | 3.633 | 3.633 |
| Artwork | #2839 | 3.467 | 3.467 |
| Enjoyment | #2869 | 3.300 | 3.300 |
| Audio | #5389 | 2.600 | 2.600 |
Ranked from 30 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?
The player control a countdown to its action. It's the central mechanic of the game
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
All assets uses are free and licensed for such uses.
Music :
Atlas Audio - Adventure
Jonas Blake Wood - Adventure
Font :
Cloister Black - Linotype
Kingthings Spikeless - kingthingsfonts.co.uk
LABRIT - www.fugit-tempus.de
All other assets where made by me or by my teammate : @dacoad on instagram
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Starck & Dacoad
Comments
Really enjoyed this one ! The concept is simple but works really well, and the final boss was awesome. I would like to see a more complete version of this game. Great job !
Interesting idea. I'm honest because I see potential here and I want to help you guys with my feedback.
Art style was a very good choice! Music was an awful choice for this game however, it didn't suit the vibe at all and was too intense.
I'm not sure why my "clock" broke and I couldn't do any actions at the end. I was stuck and waiting for my death. Did I miss some information? I didn't understand the green triangular indicator on the clock. I thought that clicking on it would make the time speed up or my skill to deal more dmg, but I just started spamming spacebar and it worked better.
I love this kind of games, it reminded me of FFVII with the turn based combat and spamming the skills fast before the enemy does. I liked that you made a little story. I wished this was longer actually :D I got invested a bit
Thanks for making it and I wish you good luck!
Thank you for your feedback, it's very valuable.
Like you've guessed, this isn't how the game is supposed to be play, basically, the longer you wait before pressing space, the more powerful your action is, and if you press space while the clock is on the green, you get a bonus to your damage or heal. The clock is just a tool to help the player find a rhythm, so the boss breaks it because he's evil!
Your comment really highlight that we need to make it more obvious how the game is intended be played, but we didn't have time to make a tutorial level despite wanting to; that's why the "how to play" section is so long and not great.
Thank you for your kind word, we're working on upgrading the game, for example, clicking now also make the countdown work.
I really liked how you used the game jam’s theme in this game, especially when the timer breaks. That’s when I realized you can intentionally take advantage of it by acting faster at the cost of dealing less damage or healing less. It means you’ll have to repeat those actions more often, but in some situations that’s all you need.
I think breaking the timer was a great way to naturally introduce this mechanic and make the player discover it on their own. It’s a clever idea, and it was executed really well.
Well done!
Pretty short and cool, I like it, it needs a little bit of balancing tho as it was pretty easy but i'm not one to talk of balancing lol, anyway good job !
Good take on the theme. I would like to see somewhere how much does my timing affect the attacks and heals Iam doing. Maybe there could be some kind of combo multiplier above the player? Overall I like the game. Good job. :)
I really liked that. The mechanics feel solid, and the music at the beginning is beautiful.
Apparently I had to get gud. So I tried again and did not click on the dialog option until I got him.
Unfortunately he had a second HP bar. I still took him down but got killed during the victory pop-up message. Good job both of you.
(I found out there is a heal button after my playthrough ahahah...)
haha thanks, without a heal, that you managed to kill the boss is very impressive ! was the button hidden on your screen ? I can probably address this to make sure it doesn't happen again :)
I'll make sure the player can't be killed after the boss is defeated. currently it stop every gameObject's process but there's room for improvement :)
The main mechanic is a great design concept! The tradeoff of speed vs strength lends itself to some complex strategies. The visuals were solid, especially the cover art and the attack effects. It does seem that right now, just waiting a while to charge up seems to be the best solution to oneshot the enemy. Perhaps there could be some kind of overheat mechanic to discourage that (or just balancing hp/dmg values). I also think the game would massively benefit from sound effects. A countdown based rpg combat relies on noticable triggers more than most, though I understand the time constraint doesn't really lend itself towards perfect sfx design. I would say this is a great job for a jam game.
The game was good . I would have liked for it to have been a bit harder maybe , the heal was busted and the charged attack was superior in every aspect to the basic attack but overall pretty nice
Oooh, that's a clever concept. Loved how the risk/reward mechanic work, you really get to manage your time properly, it's not too easy nor too hard. I really enjoyed it, good job!
All my years of rhythm games have been preparing me for this moment... Now no fiend can stop me and my PERFECTLY TIMED CHARGED ATTACKS!
In all seriousness, this game is a lot of fun! The art is charming, and the final boss had me LOCKED IN. My only major criticism is that, with how strong the healing is, you CAN brute-force your way through the game without caring much about the timing, as long as you click reeeeeeally fast.
I also noticed that afterplaying once, the music doesn't loop, so I'm left alone with my thoughts (and clicking noises). I'm pretty sure that's a bug and not intentional, though. Either way, great work! If you ever expand on this idea, I'd love to check it out.
CHARGED ATTACKS FOR THE WIN!!!
Rythm Heaven sisters and brothers of the world, UNIT !
I'm very happy you liked our game, thank you for your kind word ! Yeah I f-edup with the balancing.
yes, as it turns out, it's a Godot bug for web build, the parameter of the imported music override the parameter I set up in the engine. It looped fine when I tested it in Godot and I didn't though about testing if the music looped correctly in browser. Ah well, live and learn, I've fixed it but I can't upload it !
I think we will, there are a lot of avenue for upgrade but it has the potential to be a fun little game :)
was MUCH more fun that I anticipated and I REAALLY wish there was more gameplay, bosses, and enemies that could revolve around this mechanic. I usually hate turn based games due to how slow they are but this one works in real time pressuring you to make quick decisions and constantly do skill checks which had me super engaged. THE FINAL BOSS LOWK GOT BE STRESSING WHEN HE BROKE MY TIMING INDICATOR. I really this game and I hope you can expand on this project in the future (no bugs too good job)
oh also itch won't link my submission so here it is /jam/gmtk-jam-2026/rate/4829252
Cool game! It was pretty fun and I like how rather than there be one health bar for the final boss there are 2 and how it uses a countdown for attacks which was also cool. I liked the music too would of been better if you could hear it through out the game rather than once (unless it was an issue on my end) but great game!
Cool game! I like the two phases of the boss at the end. One small improvement would be to allow using mouse click as an alternative to spacebar, since the rest of the game uses the mouse (when I first played it, I hadn't read the instructions so I was confused at why clicking didn't work!)
The game froze after I defeat 2 knights, can't finish the last one, but love your concept haha, nice game!
The concept is incredible i just feel like the attack balancing is a bit off. Its very unlikey you will die with such a strong heal and also in man situations it is better to spam and completely ignore the actual core mechanic of the game. Overall great submission. I really like the art
Thank you very much ! Yes, I agree with you, but I didn't wanted the game to be difficult to approach, plus I though the final boss gimick would be enough to throw people off ! I buffed the heal after having two friend playtest it, but Maybe I buffed it a little too much. But yeah, I wish I had more time to balance it better :) The artist that teamed-up with me did a fantastic job, please go give him a follow on IG if you liked its art =)




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