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Lost Frames's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #103 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Fun/Gameplay | #136 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Overall | #175 | 3.036 | 3.036 |
| Originality | #187 | 3.136 | 3.136 |
| Audio | #207 | 2.591 | 2.591 |
| Art/Graphics | #224 | 2.773 | 2.773 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did your team create most/all of the graphics yourselves?
Used itch.io assets
Did your team create most of/all the audio yourselves?
Used freesound.org assets
How did you incorporate the theme "UNSTABLE"?
By making a fake unstable glitchy/buggy game (It's playable ! Believe me)
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Comments
This was really fun! It fit well with the theme of instability, with all the glitch effects and randomness of the characters as well. I do agree with some of the comments about the movement, but I think that's mostly just my preference I was really bad at it, but eventually beat the dinosaur. Thanks for making this!
Fun jam entry, fits the theme very well! Loved the intro sequence and how you integrated the explanation of the controls. The choice of upgrades being "in the world" instead of e.g. a pop-up menu is also a nice idea. :)
Nice game! I really love the glitches taking place and I was caught off guard about playing a different character too! Though it felt harder playing the wizard since the enemies are always on you and you have to stop to cast. The boss was cute but felt anti climatic given its simple projectiles. It was a fun experience overall!
Thanks a lot! I'm really glad you enjoyed the glitches and the surprise of switching to a different character! :p
Funny enough, the Wizard is actually the strongest character imo. You can kite the enemies pretty easily, group them together, and then land a big AoE spell on them. But I've played the game hundreds of times while testing it, so maybe I've just gotten really good at playing him hahah. I can definitely understand why it felt harder at first, especially with the stopping mechanic!
And yeah, I totally agree about the boss hahah. I deliberately kept it pretty simple for the jam so that the game could be completed in a single run without making the ending too frustrating. But if I ever pick the project up again, the boss would definitely need to be much more interesting. Let's be honest, right now it's basically just a big HP sponge :p
Thanks again for playing and for the feedback!
Really enjoyed that. Became very challenging quite quickly. Think I only managed to get 4 or 5 levels deep.
Very nice job on the game.
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it! :p
Yeah, it can get pretty challenging quite quickly, especially if you're not used to this kind of gameplay. And If you made it 4 levels deep, you were actually pretty close to the boss which are at the 5th room hahah! Thanks for playing my game and leaving a comment, I really appreciate it!
The intro, the visual/sfx, and how they all worked around the theme was very neat. I do wish I could start out a little faster, but I understand theres upgrades and all. Nice work, definitely impressive to put this together for the jam!
Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked the intro, visuals, SFX, and how they all worked together with the theme!
Yeah, I'm aware that the game is a bit slow to get going, especially at the first Room (Its worst with the Ranger). That's definitely something I'd like to improve if I ever pick the project up again, probably by making the early progression a bit faster and more engaging.
Thanks again for playing and for the feedback, I really appreciate it! :p
I beat the boss on all the Knight, Archer, and Wizard!
You can't go wrong with a top-down bullet dodger. I love maneuvering around enemies and projectiles lol.
I understand that this game was only made in 5 days by one person, but the story of the game was something I want more of, because I like the idea of a glitchy space in a game that you go to when some weird disconnection shenanigans happen.
I really liked how you could tell your progression through the rounds based on the glitches in the floor, where the boss fight is completely covered. Very interesting way to go about it, rather than having a counter in the corner of the UI.
The glitchy effect was really jarring, but not necessarily in a negative way. I get this feeling of dread when I'm playing this game with nice melancholic music, and then the screen just freaks out and the audio gets all warbly.
I like the way the knight controls! It's a nice starting move set, and if you know what you are doing, you can dodge basically all of the enemies. The boss takes some getting used to, though!
The Archer and the Wizard were really difficult for me. The standing still mechanic is something I see working in abstract: You have to choose when to attack, otherwise you may get an enemy dashing into you or a projectile flying at you. To be honest, I think there are better ways to implement this design philosophy rather than stopping the player movement altogether. Like maybe they just slow their speed when charging an attack, so that they can still slightly maneuver around things, but still be prone to damage.
The upgrade system is cool, I found that going for damage was best for melee, and attack speed was best for ranged enemies.
Overall, I enjoyed it! Congrats on submitting this game in such a short period of time :)
You beat the boss with all three characters?! That's some dedication hahah! Since the character you get is random, I imagine you had to reload quite a few times to get the one you were looking for :p
Thanks a lot for such a detailed review! I'm really glad you enjoyed the overall feeling of the game, and especially that you noticed the progression through the glitches on the floor. I really wanted to avoid just putting a round counter on the UI and make the world itself reflect the progression.
The glitch effects were also a huge part of what I wanted to achieve. I had a lot more ideas for the story and the whole "glitchy space you end up in because of some weird disconnection" concept, I had to cut a LOT of things and I'm probably the first disappointing about it hahah.
About the standing-still mechanic, I actually think your idea of slowing the player down while charging could make the combat feel more engaging and fluid. I don't think the stop mechanic itself is necessarily bad, though. The idea was to create a commitment when attacking: the Knight can freely move while attacking because he's melee, while Mage needs time to incant a powerful spell, and an Archer needs to stay focused to aim properly. So I actually like the idea of having to choose when to attack and putting yourself at risk while doing it.
Your idea could definitely achieve the same philosophy while giving the player a little more control, though, and it's something I'd be willing to explore if I ever pick the project up again!
As for the upgrades, you actually figured out pretty much exactly how I play the game too hahah. Damage is my favorite for the Knight, while Attack Speed is really strong on the ranged characters, especially because it also reduces the downtime between attacks.
The funny thing is that I originally designed the whole game around the Knight. The Archer and Wizard were added later during development, so I didn't have time to properly build separate systems and stats for each character. They still share a lot of the same underlying logic, which definitely limits how different their gameplay can be.
Anyway, thanks again for actually playing all three characters and for taking the time to write such a detailed review! It really means a lot to me, I really appreciate your opinion about the game and I'm glad you enjoyed it despite all the compromises I had to make! (I'll play your game later in the day!)
Quite good! I like the glitching effects (teach me your ways I also tried doing glitchy effects but they were quite more generic) I like the music and the vibe generally. the boss fight was cool. just a very good entry.
and as much as good things can be said about it there is quite some feedback: 1- I hated how the player has to stop moving to play, yes it makes it harder and more balanced probably but it makes it frustrating in the bad way IMO. could have just increased number of enemies 2- the attack speed increases didn’t feel worth it compared to dmg increases at all, even though they would have solved partially the problem in point 1. so this makes it both frustrating and actively trying to make it less frustrating is not the optimal way to play 3- it’s advertised as what a roguelike would be. every run is different yadayada. but you have 1 attack type, and the enemy types gradually come in the same manner no matter the run. so what’s random besides the upgrades exactly? 4- would have done well with some more high pitched sfxs like for when collecting upgrades of killing an enemy
OVERALL very enjoyable entry and I think it’s pretty expandable. goodjob!!
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! I appreciate it! Your comment made my brain glitch a bit tho hahah :p
I made the game in just 5 days, completely solo, so you understand I had to make quite a few compromises and didn't even manage to implement 15% of what I imagined the game could eventually become :c (It's not an excuse tho ! :p)
The roguelike aspect is definitely one of those things. I had a lot more ideas for different attacks, enemy variations and more randomness between runs, but I simply didn't have enough time to implement them. As for the random elements currently in the game, only the characters and upgrades are randomized.
For the movement, though, I actually disagree a bit! Having to stop to attack was intentional. I wanted to prevent kiting and make positioning more important. Adding more enemies wouldn't necessarily make the game harder in the same way, since you could still just run around while attacking. It was meant to create a different kind of difficulty. Making the Knight unable to kite but simply making him tankier wouldn't be particularly interesting either.
And like you mentioned in point 2, Attack Speed also reduces the downtime between attacks, making the stop-to-attack mechanic less punishing. It's actually a pretty strong upgrade overall, although I think going full Damage is better for the Knight.
I'm honestly a bit disappointed with the balance and the coherence of the game world myself, but well... It's still just a prototype :p
And thanks for the kind words about the glitch effects! That was probably the part I had the most fun working on, even though shaders are a pain in the ass hahah. I also tried to add some glitch effects to the monsters, but it wasn't really worth the time I had left :c
yeah it’s okay! I loved the game overall and I understand the vision behind the movement stopping stuff. I’m sure with scale the game will balance itself out (:
Hope so! Maybe not, though, and if that happens, I'll count on you to remind me hahah :p
This reminds me of games I used to play on miniclip back in the day. I had a lot of fun playing! Nice job!
I actually never really played Miniclip back then But I'm glad my game gave you that kind of nostalgic feeling!Thanks for taking the time to play and give a review to my game, I appreciate it ! I'm glad you enjoyed it
I enjoyed this a lot! unfortunately I was very bad at it! thanks for making this :D
Thanks a lot! You're not bad, I just need to improve my game to make you feel more powerful hahah.
I ran out of time and couldn't properly balance the three characters and the monsters, but if you enjoyed the game, that's the best reward I could ask for!
Nice concept! The combat feels quite fair.
Thanks for playing my game and leaving a review! I'm surprised you found the combat fair, asthe balance it's a bit off, especially for players who aren't used to this kind of gameplay. I'm glad it felt good to you though! Thanks again!
Wow, it was pretty fun! The only critique I have is the consistency of the game, in the sense that not everything fits together well? And also the gameplay doesn't tie in very well with the unstable theme. But that aside, it was a very enjoyable game!
Do you mean the art/design? Yeah, unfortunately, I’m not very good at art, and I was working solo for this game jam :c
It’s really difficult to find assets that fit your main idea. As for the gameplay, though, I actually think it could tie really well into the unstable theme. I just couldn’t implement all the ideas I had in mind and ended up keeping only the basics. Nine days is pretty short, especially since I couldn’t work on the game every day :c
I’ll do my best to improve on that for the next one. Thanks for playing my game!
don't worry, whats important is that you made an enjoyable game.
I loved the intro! Fun little roguelike game, I feel like this game could be built upon into a cool little game with interesting lore. The glitch effects were a nice touch, great job!
Thanks a lot ! Yeah, I ran out of time, but I really want to flesh out the story and see what I can do with this prototype. People seem to really like the glitch effects, and since shaders are a pain in the ass, I couldn't implement all the ideas I had for them.
I really appreciate you pointing the fact it could be a cool little game. Maybe I'll give it another shot and turn it into a small game. Thanks for playing !
the glitchy screen effects were a nice touch.
I didn't quite understand the how upgrade system worked though.
I'm not sure what you mean exactly by how the upgrade system works, so let me explain it in more detail.
Every time you clear a room, two random upgrades spawn: +Max HP, +HP, +Attack Speed, or +Damage. (That's all the actual upgrades)
Once they appear, you have to walk up to the one you want and press F, as shown below the rewards, to pick it up.
Hope that clears things up! Thanks for giving my game a shot!
Very cool game to play, ! The intro is immersive and reminds me of all the different mangas where you have this one mmo player that gets isekaied in the game he plays 24/7
I think the balancing's a bit off in the early game cause it's quite hard without the first attack upgrades, and then if I roll them it gets to feel "fairer"
I thought the one enemy that dash AND is tanky was quite difficult to beat with the mage but I still got him in the end (felt better to fight with the archer)
Anyways it was great ! Hope you don't minf my nitpicking, congrats
Thanks for playing my game! Yeah, the balance is a bit off, especially with the Ranger. He’s probably the easiest class to beat the boss with, but he requires a bit of patience.
I added a cooldown on the early 9th days to his basic attack because he was way too strong (the Mage too) compared to the Knight. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to properly balance everything.
As for the enemy you mentioned, the Ghost: he has a few frames where he stops moving, so you have to wait for that pause and then go all out while he’s vulnerable. He’s not really a threat otherwise since he just moves around randomly without actually focusing on the player.
And yeah, nitpicking a game made in a 9-day game jam is... fair enough, I’m joking! 😂
I really appreciate the honest feedback. It helps me improve, so thanks!
Fun little game! The distorted intro screen was a great touch, and once I stacked enough attack speed upgrades I absolutely melted the boss. Really solid run‑based feel overall had a good time with it. (pls play my game)
Thanks a lot for playing my game ! Yeah, the attack speed build is really fun to play, so I’m glad you enjoyed it !
I’ll give your game a shot tomorrow. I always make sure to play the games of people who review mine. :p
Fun game! I wish the attack speed wasn't so low, but that is just my build preference when playing these types of games.
Thanks a lot for playing my game ! As for the ATK Spd+, it depends on which character you get, but I agree that I should’ve spent more time balancing the game :p
Loved the corrupted vibe and crisp action! Building your character through different runs is really satisfying. Great job! (Rated)
Thanks a lot for playing my game !
I did my best to give it that corrupted, unstable vibe, so I’m really glad you enjoyed it !
If you get a chance and want to check out my game as well, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Already did :p
I like the distorted login screen intro, went full on attack speed upgrades and shredded the boss. Great game.
Thanks a lot for playing my game ! I personally tend to go for an attack-focused build, but since there are three different characters with different mechanics, it also depends on which one you get