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Hallowed Arrival's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Controls | #27 | 3.694 | 3.694 |
| Accessibility | #30 | 3.278 | 3.278 |
| Fun | #37 | 3.528 | 3.528 |
| Audio | #59 | 3.278 | 3.278 |
| Overall | #59 | 3.278 | 3.278 |
| Originality | #69 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Graphics | #74 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
| Theme | #113 | 2.611 | 2.611 |
Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.7.2.stable
Theme Interpretation
There are "threads" that signal the enemies to spawn and you need to cut them at the right time when still paying attention to the battle and your towers.
Wildcards Used
Middle Wildcard
The second wildcard (description pending)
Right Wildcard
The third wildcard (description pending)
Discord Username(s)
jerichoblack
GWJ Participation Level
This is our first one yet
Team Size
4
Generative AI Disclosure
I confirm that this jam entry does not contain any AI-generated content
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Comments
Nicely balanced TD game. My mistake was in thinking ice towers were suitable defense, they mostly slow the inevitable. I didn’t really master the cutting the threads thing, when I tried, I did worse.
Made it to the final boss.
I liked the graphics, VA, tuning, and genre.
Thanks a lot for the playthrough! It is very busy and the frost tower choice is something I’m sure many have experienced. I grew up playing Warcraft 3 TDs and frosts always slowed and didn’t do a lot of damage so I am always bias to continue on with it haha
I was surprised how many have liked the voices done by me. It was done pretty quickly so it is a nice win. Hope you’re well!
Managed to beat it on the third try. Somehow almost didn't notice any differences when interacting or not interacting with these threads.
You are better than most! I would admit the threads give the appearance of control more than absolute control. But I do think they can impact getting hit or not. Or if a Cultist buffs other units. How you spread the waves out. It is possible that most of the waves might be easier if you just wait like you’re saying because I didn’t have enough time to test it out to be honest haha.
If that is ever the case I would make thread waves even larger so you can’t tank them at the end. Really appreciate your feedback. And it took me more than 3 times to beat it when I showed my son it haha
Hope you enjoyed it as well
very interesting and unique use of the theme! as others said, the difficulty needs to be adjusted, but even with an unbalanced last wave, it's still a solid entry! good work!
Will be updated with a balanced difficulty soon as the voting is over :-)
Thanks a lot for playing, glad you enjoyed.
I liked the uniqueness of the game loop. I don’t play a lot of tower defense games but this one with the threads system is definitely unique (great job nailing the two wildcards too) :)
Some people thought it was weak. I don’t think we were on the nose as some of the other entries but I think we definitely had a cool game built in 9 days and did something maybe never done before. I’ve never made a tower defense, I’ve enjoyed them throughout my life. Definitely isn’t a smart choice for a 9 day jam. I had a lot of time was the only reason we could finish it haha
Thanks so much for plating and your kind words.
Nice game! It's been a while since I last played a tower defense, and I had fun with this one! If this is your first game jam submission, it's a really solid start!
I didn't quite get how the game fits the theme, though. It felt a little forced, but that's okay! I've had games where my interpretation of the theme wasn't that clear either, haha. Just thought I'd mention it as something to keep in mind for future jams.
There's definitely a lot of potential here. Keep it up!
I agree it wasn’t the best at meeting the themes as some. It is my first Jam but I’ve been building prototypes in all of the major game engines for 3+ years so I have experience haha. I’m going to do less next jam. Thanks a lot for the feedback. Hope you’re well!
The game was pretty challenging, and I couldn't beat the final wave, but I had a lot of fun!
I also really liked the voice lines at the start of each wave.
The game is too hard so it isn’t you. A balanced build will be posted after the playtesting is done for the jam.
I’m glad people liked my voice overs more than Kenny’s. Haha
Thanks for playing I appreicate it!
I had a pretty good time with this and ended up playing for around 40 minutes. I like the idea behind the threads. Deciding when and where to release groups so you can distribute pressure around the stronghold gives the usual wave-defense loop a nice twist.
The main issue I ran into was the difficulty curve, especially by Wave 4. I could regularly get through the first three waves without taking any damage, but then the final wave would overwhelm me almost immediately.
Once there are a lot of threads with short timers, it also stops feeling like I’m making meaningful decisions about when to release enemies and starts feeling more like I just need to click every thread as quickly as possible.
I think giving the player a little more time or making the thread choices more deliberate could really strengthen the best part of the game. I’d rather have fewer threads where I’m genuinely deciding which group to release next than a lot of them that all need attention almost simultaneously.
The tower buying/upgrading worked well, the controls felt responsive, and I liked the idea of managing enemy distribution instead of only building defenses.
Solid foundation. I think some balancing and more room for decision-making would go a long way.
It is too hard. Fire tower was debuffed too much. I have changed it and you can win if played well and still lost if you aren’t quick enough. Obviously I cannot add until playtest phase is over but it will be added for anyone who enjoyed it.
Thanks so much for playing for so long. I only played a handful of jams for that amount of time!
Yeah, that makes sense. The fact that I could get through the first three waves cleanly made Wave 4 feel especially brutal, so a balance pass on the fire tower sounds like it’ll help a lot.
And honestly, I kept playing because the thread mechanic was interesting enough that I wanted to figure out the best way to manage it. Glad the feedback was useful!
Definitely always look forward to your feedback.
pretty hard, but a really interesting and fun tower defense sim! also really liked the accessibility options!
Way too hard, going to drop a balanced version when the jam playtesting ends. Thanks for the playthrough and feedback, I appreciate it!
Got to the (first?) final wave but got overwhelmed. I think it's a bit hard, but it was well implemented and played smoothly.
Thanks! It is very hard. You did well to get to the final wave the first time. Glad you enjoyed.
Nice game! I really like the silly audio and I feel like it is really polished but I think that the theme wasn't really there that much... I mean it was but you know what I mean..
You wanted another frog or morse code game? lol Thanks for the play, I wouldn’t give myself the best score for the theme. More met it and had 2/3 wildcards. Hope you’re well.
The wildcards were there and signal too but I mean that it wasn't the main thing! I really liked the game anyway and I think that it was a great entery
Just messing with. But I agree. I appreciate the play and wish you well my friend :-)
Thanks! You too!
Fun game, really hard tho :)
Thanks! Maybe a tad too hard but better than boring I suppose? haha Glad you enjoyed.
This was a fun and challenging little game. The thematic was super cool (and definitely ominous), and this was a unique and refreshing take on the jam's theme. You don't see tower defense games very much in jams.
Good job to everyone involved!
It was hard to complete in 9 days. I don’t think tower defense games are wise unless the team has a lot of time to spend on it haha.
Thanks for your kind words, glad you enjoyed!
Nice job with this one! In retrospect, tower defense seems like a really obvious choice for a signal themed game and I'm surprised this is the first I've seen so far! I guess I didn't think of it either hahhaa.
A game jam entry length is hard to create a tower defense game which runs around 5 mins or so. But one of the devs on my team choose it and I’ve always wanted to make a tower defense, so it seems like it worked. But it definitely isn’t an easy 9 day project I had to work a lot of hours on it haha
Thanks for the playthrough and the kind words!
Yeah I feel that! I was really surprised to see more than one upgrade on the turrets tbh, doing half the progression your group had still would have been a ton of work. Great job!
Thanks so much. We only had (2) level for fire and ice but then there was quite a but of coins left over at the end and there was a clear middle tower for both so we added it. Would have been way more balanced if we had even one more day haha
Cool idea! That was a tough one to beat.
Yes, I would have made it at least 10 - 20% easier but I guess too easy is boring haha. Thanks for playing.
Wow, so fun! It's a pretty hard game, but I definitely enjoyed myself. Great UI, and great job overall. Good work!
I’m really glad people like the UI because when I started game dev I had no concept of it and have worked on being better the past couple years. Glad you had fun. Even I lose more than win and I made it haha
Got my behind kicked a few times, but very well done! loved the models, and the sound effects. This reminds me of a newgrounds flash game in the best way possible! it's fun.
I was a Flash MD user so it makes perfect sense! I am glad I gave you a good experience with just a game jam. My largest goal is to give players experiences like that. So I am glad.
Really fun. I played this way more than a lot of others in the jam. Theme is a bit weak but the idea is solid.
Hey we had a frog boss! lol Thanks for playing and enjoying. Hope you have a good Halloween :-)
Fun! I died on that last wave but enjoyed myself until then. There were a couple of glitches the first time that certain effects happened, but second play through it was super smooth. Great job overall! Did you voice the wave announcements yourself?
What you experienced was most likely the shaders having to download the first time. I tried my best to mitigate the issue. But this is my first real web build so probably wasn’t as good as it could have been. Probably should have had a short load in the boot to help.
I voiced the enemy deaths, and the wave announcements. The rest of the voices were from Kenny’s Sound pack. Which I believe was the “You Win’, and “Game Over”.
Thanks so much for playing and enjoying it!
Fun game! Well polished for a game jam, really cool sounds and effects.
Unique take on the theme, which I always like to see. Very neat concept of timing the tower defense waves.
I'm sure it was just due to jam time considerations, but would have loved for more enemy and tower types so I would really have to be careful with which waves came at the tower at which time/direction to make sure I had the right towers in the right spots, which felt like the goal.
Super fun and impressive for 9 days, great job!
Yes you hit it on the head! Thunder had 6 towers planned and we had more enemy variations planned but even just the testing alone makes it tough. And from my research most players only play Jam games for 3 - 5 mins at most. So I wanted to best 3 -5 mins I could make in 9 days. Thanks for playing!
That last round is very hard, I think there are very few options to be able to beat it, but I beated it. It's a very cool idea, but I wish the upgrading cycle were between waves, upgrading towers in the middle of the battle also when you don't know what's comming next wave is a bit overwhelming, in my opinion the threads should appear before the wave begins and in the "upgrade" phase so you would know were to upgrade first for a better strategy.
Overall very good game and very addicctive, even losing like 10x I kept playing until I could win it!
Yes it is too hard. And I think it would be easier or maybe even a better design to separate the building time and threads but I consider the spinning threads and having to build and control the waves at the same time the double duty. I also didn’t want to bore people either. Glad you kept playing until you claimed victory!