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Sanctums and Slimes's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation - how game looks and sounds like | #6 | 3.966 | 3.966 |
| Game Design - how good idea and mechanics design is | #25 | 3.241 | 3.241 |
| Overall - main category | #28 | 3.103 | 3.103 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Heroic Labs Challenge
No
Photon Challenge
No
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Comments
Very impressive game for the time given! The idea is original, the gameplay is enjoyable, and the art direction is really well handled (a bit hard but that's fine) 10/10
Thank you for playing and for the compliments! In regards to the difficulty, there is a bit of a random factor there, as it's (for now) largely influenced by what loot is dropped. When you get a hand axe or mace, it does get easier to quickly kill the mobs. There are red chests hidden in secrets (hint: look for suspicous walls) that contain the best loot, if you're up for another try :)
I really liked the game! It felt very fluid and the mechanics were perfectly clear. Some of the sound effects were a bit loud. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but some items ended up overlapping the slime slots. Maybe getting some sort of map would be cool so you don't have to backtrack to the same places. :D Though, considering the game's dynamic, I understand that might take away some of its charm. Really interesting to keep playing!
Thank you for the compliments!
The overlapping of tokens with slime tiles was intentional, because fighting a huge blob of acidic goo should be a dangerous undertaking ;) The idea was that all sorts of enemies each have their own "hazard" tiles, such as the phalanx also having a shield tile that you have to bash through. It gives the combat system a bit more extra depth. Instead of just rushing across the grid to get the most tokens, you also have to consider sacrificing health to do extra damage or get more defense, or to carefully plan your path around the slime.
Adjustable loudness of sounds and a mini-map were less intentionally ommited, but the result of limited time. But glad you're able to see the charm of "ye olden" dungeon crawlers where mapping was done by physically drawing the map on gridpaper ;)
You're totally right, slimes eat things and keep them inside! haha I played it again and it makes perfect sense. I really like how fluid and fast-paced it is. Yeah, the classic Game Jam effect: too many ideas and too little time XD
This is normaly not the kind of game i play. it took me a moment to understand but i really like the fibe and artstyle.
well done :D
Thank you fellow countryman! :) Was there perhaps something in the tutorial or explanation we could do better?
Looks great! It would be awesome to explore the dungeons with a mini-map and atmospheric music in the background 😉
Thank you for the compliment! And ouch, you've pin-pointed two of the things that were on our "nice to have"-list that we weren't able to implement in time. I suppose it wouldn't help to suggest you map out the dungeon yourself with gridpaper and a pencil like in the olden days? ;)
Wolfenstein 3D live again :-)
Good idea, nice battle implementation!
Glad you like the Wolfenstein 3D aesthetics :) But the graphics are actually a bit more retro even than Wolf3d. We used a 16-color CGA palette (with some additional translucent noise patterns for textures), which is more in line with Wolf3d’s predecessors. We did use some Wolf3d sprites as references for scaling the Slime Phalanx. Thanks for the compliments! :)
Nice non-AI graphics and animations. I died a few times and then I got to the door rolling upwards and then I died by some 3x slime nasties crew ;) . Maybe I will try tomorrow once more to get further. Is there any ending one can reach or just procedural and gets progressively harder?
There is an ending! Just lots of slimes in between, take a good look at the items that are being dropped and explore for secrets / chests which mostly contain nice upgrades. Especially one weapon is overpowered and makes the dungeon a bit too easy 🫣😅
I tried it again and I think the issue is that the text when fighting on the left is too small and it's hard too read. So most of the time I go randomly and don't know what am I doing. So, I would make the font size a bit bigger perhaps 2x or something.
We have plans for a better combat log. But basically it’s best to chain the same tokens (so go for attacks or shields first). The more you stack before switching to another token, the more damage or block you will do before your streak/multiplier resets.
My personal strategy that works for me is to focus on getting all attack tokens first, and only then switch to defense tokens (if necessary). If that means to go through a slime tile, so be it. Once you get better weapons, there is a big chance you’ll kill the mobs before they’ll have a chance to strike back. Good luck if you’re going back in!
great retro style game with unique game play
Thank you for playing and the compliment!
A really nice retro-style 3D dungeon crawler. The combat system is quite unique, and once you get used to it, it becomes very engaging.
Thank you! Good to hear you enjoyed our combat system, we were inspired by Pragmata’s combat mechanics, but in the end it also became a bit like Snake.
I absolute love dungeon crawler games! And this one surprisingly blew me away with its combat mechanics. I have never seen anything like it, even though I have played a dozen games from the Dungeon Crawler Jam every year since 2021.
Please do not take this as criticism, just a few ideas on what could be improved:
1. At first I could not get used to camera rotation being on A/D while strafing is on Q/E. Usually people do the opposite, keeping movement on WASD. Which is actually how your combat mechanic works, making the confusion feel even more.
2. The slimes spawning on tiles I already visited got a bit repetitive. Maybe if there were more enemy types it would feel different, but after 10 minutes I was just like "aaah, here they go again". 😂
But overall, the game is absolutely excellent! Especially liked the door maze location. Well done! ❤️
Thanks for the compliments and suggestions!
We modeled the controls after the classic FPS style, but now that you mention it, that may not be how the crawlers of old (and new) play on PC. The last crawlers we played ourselves were on console with controllers, so that might be a bias and an oversight on our part! But, fixable with a control-style toggle in a future options screen.
Regarding your second suggestion, I am just happy we were able to keep your attention for 10 minutes ;) But something like a -50% modifier on the spawn rate of explored tiles should make backtracking less tedious.
And Piromaan did the level design, so he’ll be happy to hear you liked his classic Wizardry-tribute door maze.
Great job on this one! The pixel dungeon look and the 6x6 token board make a really unique combination, and the "break the chain, lose your gain" risk fits the jam theme nicely. The short encounter tutorial made the rules easy to pick up. One suggestion: the combat log and HUD text are quite small, and an early clash with a tiny chain does 0 damage with little feedback, so a bit more visual feedback there would help new players. Nice work!
Thank you for the feedback and constructive suggestions! We were thinking of implementing a visual combat log beneath the timer instead of a written log. All sorts of information in the periphery of the screen does tend to get lost.
I’m personally interested in this kind of game, and I think you’ve taken a really good approach! It’s well-balanced, has nice colors and a great art style, and the rules are clear.
I’d suggest adding a sound slider, or at least some background music. Right now, after a period of silence, the sound effects can feel a bit too loud.
And again, I want to say something about the colors and style – I’m not usually a big fan of pixel fonts because they can be hard to read on larger screens, but you did it really well here!
Thank you for the kind words! And we’re going to keep working on the game, with a proper options screen with sound and such as a high priority. And glad you thought the font was readable. We made our own with Fontstruct, so that we could insert icons representing the game mechanics in it. Really handy (and free) tool, I can recommend it.
Oh wow! Making your own font is such an awesome achievement! Super excited to hear about the game updates! 🤩
I like the art style. I wish this game has a mini-map.
Thank you for the compliment! And you and me both on the mini-map-issue! It’s one of the things that didn’t make it due to time constraints, we’ll get on it after the jam.
I'll admit I had some preconceptions about first-person 3D dungeon crawlers, but this one won me over. Movement is quick, there's no motion sickness, and while getting a little lost is kind of part of the genre, whenever I was about to go down, a conveniently placed healing item always seemed to show up, so I never felt like I was being overwhelmed. A manual save option would be a nice addition, though.
Glad to hear we were able to change your mind on first person dungeon crawlers, thank you for the compliments! And we’re planning to expand on the game after the jam, so expect QoL-features such as saving and maps then!