Tale of Nowheria by XCVZXC
Overview:
The land of Nowheria got filled with fear because of the dangerous deity's angery. You have to make a sacrifice of its favourite type of food - sweets. Explore the world, collect sweets, find secrets, avoid obstacles and save Nowheria!
This game was created entirely from scratch and only by me (it was meant to be compo entry, but it got more ambitious than i thought). I hope you will like the music , because i always put weight on this aspect of my games :)
Tips:
- There is deity's angery meter on the right. When it is filled, things go dangerous
- With special items, you are able to access new places
- Sometimes walls hide secret rooms. Look for strange walls and check them.
- If you collect not enough sweets, the deity will kill you (collect at least 50% (out of 500-600 or sth like that) )
- Dont get frustrated, I guarantee you, that you will be better with every attempt, and finally you will manage to find all the sweets
Controls:
Arrows - move
Z - interact
Made using:
GMS FLS Aseprite
Good luck, and have fun!



| Windows | https://gamejolt.com/games/tale-of-nowheria/383071 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/tale-of-nowheria |
Ratings
| Overall | 216th | 3.782⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 177th | 3.718⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 840th | 2.744⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 644th | 3.269⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 203th | 4.09⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 132th | 3.803⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 574th | 2.73⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 488th | 3.342⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 27🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
Oh, and one more thing. I liked the way you introduced the player to hidden walls by having candys lead up to some trees in the beginning. Nicely done.
The theme implementation was very weak imo.. But it didn't stop you from submitting a good game! Well done! :thumbsup:
But after all a great entry given the fact the game was created within 72 hours.
The theme of the jam wasn't present as strongly as other games I've seen, but given how amazing the execution is, I'd say this one's a super solid entry. well done.
Cheers!
Compo ended becoming a Jam entry? No surprise! You said it your self barely had any time to add help options :laughing:
The plot was probably thin as paper, but that probably was never a focus. The issue I had though was that the stakes didn't feel too high as the bolts were dogdeable till the end of the game where the attacks become so frequent that I died while smitten between two spike traps. (OUCH) I also started thinking I'd have to make frequent visits to the altar or get a game over but nope :shrug: instead that's the worst thing to do. (You did add this to the description as a tip so it's on my part for not reading that).
Many have praised the graphics and sound already, the secrets etc. I really liked the magnet pull the player has because incoming candy ends up functioning like an arrow showing you where you *can* go next, not where you have to. But it's a shame that if you stop following a trail it's rather hard to locate it again until you memorize the layout.
The concept might not be original and although I didn't like it's execution the omnipresent danger was a funny idea for an exploration game. There was literally no refuge! You could even get hit in dungeons. I guess the best idea would be to speed through the dungeons and *then* return to the overworld to collect all the remaining sweets so that when the attacks go into "rapid-fire" you'll have some decent room to dodge. Which seemed pretty counter intuitive to me but whatever floats your boat man.
I just noticed one of your screenshots shows three heart containers? Were those hard to reach hearts meant to increase max HP? or did you plan on adding a difficulty setting? Either way as expected as it is, it's sad to see ideas that couldn't come to fruition.
Nice job! (Write a nice response to this lest a smite you next :3 )
I felt that the connection to the theme was a bit weak, but it was a good attempt to look at sacrifice in a different way.
Overall, a well done entry.
If I had one decent criticism, it's the audio balance seemed a little wonky. In particular, when opening the large chests filled with candy and retrieving them all at once, the audio became a sharp spike as each of them played their audio clip.
It did take a bit to understand what I was supposed to do. I thought I'd just collect some candy and sacrifice it but that killed me so I figured I had to get all the pieces but still wasn't sure.
Also, in the dungeons I kept getting hit by traps but it really looked like I wasn't in the way so maybe the hitboxes need tweaked a bit?
Anyway, overall this is a great entry!
@blacklambert actually just before deadline I cut from game time limit because I didnt have time to check what amount of time is needed to complete it
@icegold actually I discovered one bug, but it appears only when completed in 100% so nobody will encounter it I guess :p (the music is not playing then and after a while the game gets frozen)
@themadprogramer about heart containers : original amount of health was 3 but rhe game was quite difdicult so I increased this. Actually it is a screenshot made after doing that, but I forgot to add also empty heart graphics for these additional two. I fixed that later.
@aetylus about candies playing their sound effect all at once: yeah I know it , but I didnt actually know how to fix it easy way :/
@hexbit-jack i forgot to fix this moving bug , it is very common for games like this (vertical speed is being added to horizontal zpeed, apart from being equal to them or sth like this)
Thanks for feedback everyone, and thanks for playing!
Keep up the good work!