Darkholm awaits.

Published September 28, 2014
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And at last, it's done! It lacks both elements of polish and features that I'd hoped to include, and a few bugs and issues remain yet (the options menu is a bit of a mess, for one, and I left the frame-rate meter in) but it seems to work, and even has a (hacky) means to set resolution and toggle fullscreen.


Competition entry

The download link.
(Windows installer.)

Competition entry


There are three levels, and three enemy types to be encountered. There are five items to be discovered (a hint: aside from the easiest to gain, all are found in a particular room that is somewhat different to the others). There are also three endings to be seen, and four in-game deaths to be heard.

Screenshots:
Screenshot from 2014-09-28 10:07:36.png
Screenshot from 2014-09-28 10:08:01.png
Screenshot from 2014-09-28 10:13:59.png

(I'm aware that the deadline is Sunday night, not Saturday (I'd be past the deadline if it were Saturday, I believe), but I don't intend to work on Sunday, and so for me the deadline is (somewhat flexibly--it's morning here) on Saturday.)

When building this version I kept running into small issues that I'd missed--having forgotten to reinstate levels removed for testing purposes, or an issue created by the renaming of control-names, for two examples; I sincerely hope that I haven't missed any others! ^^;

And now, to convalesce after the stresses of the past six days!
6 likes 3 comments

Comments

Stormynature

Well done - downloading now will give some immediate feedback once played.

Have played multiple times - I must admit my ability to navigate through the numerous obstacles whilst avoiding the pingponging adds is not my skill set so I am still stuck on level 1 for the most part - got to see the crocs once...they zombie horded me :(.

some quick notes:

Item slot 3 and 4 - no idea as yet, how to utilise them effectively

Only real sticking point for me was twofold -- entering a new room for the first time could mean literally walking straight onto enemy troops and dying very fast. Leaving a room froze the enemies in place so when I re-entered they picked up from same position which made things difficult if they were next to the door when I exited.

September 28, 2014 08:47 AM
0sok

I have very similar feedback to stormy. Sometimes entering a room I was encountered immediately by enemies. and all progress lost. Not that I was able to get very far, I saw the crocs twice. First time I ran away scared and the second they horded me quickly.

Maybe I am just not very good because I couldn't get past them .I was also having some visual glitches that made the black holes you fall through appear as the wooden desks? Also the item slot wouldn't show me which one I had selected.

It seems the irony continues with you and I. I will admit, the mood was set early and definitively and I did worry every time I went to a new door because I didn't know what would be on the other side. I did enjoy that. I made a fair attempt for a little over ten minutes, but I just suck at games I think haha

October 03, 2014 06:30 AM
Thaumaturge

Thank you both for your comments! (And my apologies for taking so long to respond to you, Stormy--I somehow missed your comment! ^^; )

Heh, I had been wondering how high the difficulty was--but I had been worrying that it was too low! XD;

Well, it is a rogue-lite: merciless difficulty can be claimed to be a feature, not a bug. :P

Hmm... Perhaps the crocs should be saved for the third level if they're that difficult to deal with...

The issues of enemy placement and enemies remaining near doors after one leaves are very much problems, I do believe. The enemy placement algorithms call for revision. As for enemies left near doors, perhaps on leaving a room I should either move enemies that are too close to doors, and/or set them to pause briefly on the player's re-entry. (I don't intend to reset the rooms entirely--I like that they're persistent.)

Item slot 3 and 4 - no idea as yet, how to utilise them effectively

Yeah, the item slots were rushed in near the last minute, I'm afraid; in short, each of the five items is associated with a specific slot (with two items sharing a slot--one replaces the other). You've presumably encountered the item associated with slot two, but haven't yet encountered the items for slots three and four.

If I do make a "version two" of this game, the item system will likely be redone.

I was also having some visual glitches that made the black holes you fall through appear as the wooden desks?

That's... very weird. o_0

Are there any accompanying glitches--flickering, jittering, etc.?

I don't think that I've ever seen that issue...

Also the item slot wouldn't show me which one I had selected.

Hmm... Also odd. Would you please send me a screenshot of this? Collect the wooden plank in the very first room of the game (the "outdoors" area), then select it (by pressing "1", or whatever you might have rebound that action to).

Additionally, what to what resolution have you set the game? Resolution switching was a late addition, and the UI didn't always handle it well, as I recall--perhaps there's an especially large effect at whatever resolution you use...

I will admit, the mood was set early and definitively and I did worry every time I went to a new door because I didn't know what would be on the other side. I did enjoy that.

I'm very glad of that! ^_^

October 03, 2014 02:26 PM
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