Library of Madness by ectucker1
The tomes in this library may prove of use for escaping it, but the cost of your sanity may be too great...


Library of Madness is a cinematic platformer where you can find tomes that will help you in your journey out. But reading these comes with a cost: madness. Escape while minimizing the sanity you spend.
Controls: - Left and Right Arrows - Movement - Up Arrow - Climb/Jump - Down Arrow - Drop Down - Q, W, and E - Pickup/use tome - R - Restart level
Tomes: - Slash - Slash forward at an enemy - Force - Hit an enemy with arcane might - High Reach - Climb to a higher point - Leaping - Jump horizontally a longer distance - Featherfall - Drop down any distance - Dark Healing - Restore all health - Vanishing - Temporarily turn invisible
| Source Code | https://gitlab.com/ectucker/ld44 |
| HTML5 (web) | https://ectucker.gitlab.io/ld44/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/library-of-madness |
Ratings
| Given | 43🗳️ | 19🗨️ |
Besides this unusual mechanics, the game is great!
A lot of thinkgs to experiment with.
As other said, the controls were a little bit clunky but overall i enjoyed it. (didn't finished tho).
Another problem that I have with this game is that although it does explain the controls in a nice tutorial, good job on that, it does not explain what the powers are that you get from the books. It took me some time to realize where you were going with it and that QWE are the three spots for powers that I am supposed to be careful about as what to override next. Nice idea but the implementation is not that great. First it is not really explained which is OK since you figure it out pretty quickly, but then I had some books where there was an enemy near by so I just ran there, took the book and ran back, leaving me no time to read the book's title and make a good decision.
This probably stems from my next issue with the game - the combat. Is it even possible to kill anything in this game. I hit something five times and it did not die so I assumed these things never die. If I cannot kill something in level one, I assumed that they were invincible. Then I wondered what the sword was for and figured, enemies are probably just too strong.
I think your game has a lot of potential but that you made some poor implementation choices leaving me with the feeling that there is some much better game here, waiting to be freed. This is not supposed to sound as negative as it does, I know how little time we all have in Ludum Dare so this is all fine. I am just giving you my honest opinion and try to point you to some issues that I think would make the game better. Sorry for giving a review that is more on the negative side :-)
The graphics are really well done. Especially the background and the monsters, they all fit together nicely. The icons at the bottom seem a little out of place, they are not casle-y enough I think.
The music is OK but feels very generic and is not the best fit for the graphics. Though it conveys kind of a dark atmosphere, it is not quite there I feel. I find it still a bit too light for the game, especially when the world gets darker over time.
Overall a solid entry with a couple of small things to improve here and there. Keep up the good work, I am excited to see what you have for future LDs!

Really enjoyed the music + the feel of the game. The learning process of the tomes was really enjoyable too
Well done