Var'alith by Akuirako

[raw]
made by Akuirako for LD 43 (JAM)

Var'Ilith<em>2018-12-03</em>21-08-49.png

Var'Ilith<em>2018-12-03</em>21-09-09.png

Var’alith

You tried to fool a demon, you lost. They want five living human as a sacrifice, without that, your soul alone will be enough. You will have to manipulate the people that you meet, give them what they want without making any mistake, otherwise you will not be able to offer them as sacrifices.

Will you make the right choices to win the game ?

Ratings

Overall 179th 3.833⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 409th 3.389⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 229th 3.569⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 226th 3.903⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 91th 4.347⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Audio 279th 3.485⭐ 36🧑‍⚖️
Mood 101th 3.972⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 38🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

AmethystProductions
04. Dec 2018 · 05:03 UTC
The game looks great and it seems very promising (looks like it's heavily inspired by cultist simulator).

Unfortunately it seems to be quite buggy. At certain points (different each time I restart) the game would stuck when I put the card down and no longer progress. One of the times I got infinite gold, but also can't progress.
static ddq
04. Dec 2018 · 11:09 UTC
Hmm there was a bit of a bug where I got the hope card from one of the event and the game doesn't progress anywhere from there. If I click start it will keep giving my the hope card infinitely. Other than that the game looks amazing!
MercilessCult
04. Dec 2018 · 12:10 UTC
@static-ddq @amethystproductions Hello and thank you for your nice comments ! Unfortunately, your bugs come from the same problem, when you don't take the first card of the stack, the game just go crazy. You have to grab the card by the first 2/3 pixels from the top, otherwise it will take the card under the first. :/ We tried to fix the problem but we really don't know how. But we're still very happy that you enjoyed it, thank you !
CaptainCorgistan
04. Dec 2018 · 14:33 UTC
Reminds Rusty lake as for me, and that's cool, cause it's much more higher than Jam level. Great art and game mood!
ynneblack
04. Dec 2018 · 14:40 UTC
I ran into that problem (mentioned above) several times, but then I actually managed to get to one ending (arrest)!
Is it possible to go around the bug by enlarging the area that's just the first card by a few more pixels (by moving the other one lower down?) so that it would be easier to not miss? If there's no way to move the first card to the top layer...

Now as for the game itself, I really like the pixel art and the mood it has, you can just feel the growing tension as you run out of time. :) If you find some solution/workaround to the known bug, I think it will be a really impressive game!
🎤 Akuirako
04. Dec 2018 · 15:13 UTC
@ynneblack dev here. thanks for your suggestion !
that's one of my first games ever on unity (i'm more of a graphist), and i must admit this bug is wht ruins it all for me. i think i'll study what you said and try to improve it !
MercilessCult
04. Dec 2018 · 15:23 UTC
@captaincorgistan As a fan of Rusty Lake, that's a really touching comment, thank you very much.
@ynneblack Thank you very much! It's nice to see that the mood is working. :)
arctic_allosaurus
04. Dec 2018 · 20:03 UTC
I loved this game! Unfortunately a bug stopped me from playing after some point. Great color design, mood and overall interesting game!
🎤 Akuirako
04. Dec 2018 · 20:27 UTC
@arctic-allosaurus thanks a lot for your feedback ! Maybe if you try again, and take care in not grabbing a card that's underneath it should be fine :)
ynneblack
04. Dec 2018 · 21:38 UTC
Ohh, I got to another end (failing, but it was fun!). So I have a question! It's spoiler-y but I would really like to know: is there a right option for the kid? I thought I tried everything by now, but maybe I'm still missing something. Also, I really like how the art of the cards tells more of the story behind each person.
MercilessCult
04. Dec 2018 · 22:20 UTC
@ynneblack Thank you for coming back to our game ! And yes, there is a right option for the kid, it's actually money. We wanted to make some cards a little bit difficult to trick the player, but maybe this one is a little bit too hard or not comprehensible. Do you think the game is too hard ? People usually win in 3/4 games, so it seems pretty balanced, but I would like to get more feedback about this. :)
ynneblack
04. Dec 2018 · 22:30 UTC
@mercilesscult Oh! I would have sworn I tried that, but it works, thanks! And I don't think it's "too" difficult, some of the cards are more obvious, some have several interpretations so it's a trial-and-error, I would say that's what makes it fun and what makes you want to play it again.
MercilessCult
04. Dec 2018 · 22:39 UTC
@ynneblack Thank you for the feedback ! We were a bit scared that people wouldn't want to play more than one game, it's nice to ear you say that. :)
🎤 Akuirako
05. Dec 2018 · 08:05 UTC
@captaincorgistan as a big fan of Rusty lake, THANK YOU!
shubart
05. Dec 2018 · 12:31 UTC
I enjoyed the mood. Nevertheless i encoutered some bugs with selecting the cards
MercilessCult
05. Dec 2018 · 12:40 UTC
@shubart Thank you! And yes, sadly, you have to be very careful when picking a card since we did not find a way to fix that bug.
scottgoldsmith
05. Dec 2018 · 12:45 UTC
Great artwork and interesting gameplay, just a bit too buggy to make it great.
🎤 Akuirako
05. Dec 2018 · 12:48 UTC
@shubart @scottgoldsmith thanks !
juju
05. Dec 2018 · 13:25 UTC
Very cool art style!
Riyroo
05. Dec 2018 · 13:33 UTC
Super cool game, amazing all of that got done in just 72 hours. I had a few bugs, got stuck on a character and couldn't move on to the next. The music was great, but some instruction in the beginning would be nice, or an example of all the cards to begin with. I started uncovering cards and realized there were some rounds that may have been unwinnable without the right cards. Overall though I really liked it
Fluffi
05. Dec 2018 · 13:34 UTC
Nice game, reminds me of underhand. The pixelart was good but I think the buttons dind't fit the artstyle also the "hope" card is very hard to read. I liked the music, it would be nice to also have music on the Titlescreen. The game had many bugs: there where cards displayed that I couldn't use, I could give multiple cards to one person and some cards didn't got removed from the hand. An options menu would be nice too.
MercilessCult
05. Dec 2018 · 13:47 UTC
@riyroo @fluffi Hello and thank you for your comments ! All your bugs come from the same problem; at some point, you accidentally picked a card under the first one. You have to pick the card by the top 2/3 pixels to avoid all the bugs that you had, and then you can have one of the 3 endings.
Riyroo
05. Dec 2018 · 13:49 UTC
Ah thanks! sorry I missed that in your description!
Arvejeitor
05. Dec 2018 · 13:50 UTC
Very nice pixel art!
There are a few bugs but the game is very well done! I liked it.
MercilessCult
05. Dec 2018 · 13:53 UTC
@riyroo It's alright ! We're trying to fix this bug but we really don't know how.
svdvorak
05. Dec 2018 · 13:56 UTC
Absolutely nailed the mood and the graphics & sound complemented greatly. Like others I stumbled upon a few bugs though I was able to complete the game once without enough sacrificises. Great work!
🎤 Akuirako
05. Dec 2018 · 13:58 UTC
@juju thank you !
@riyroo thanks for your feedback ! we'll take it in consideration.
@fluffi thank you ! i think the post-processing was kinda hard on the "hope" card, and it must depend on your computer screen too.
Hakita
05. Dec 2018 · 14:00 UTC
Very good idea, audio and graphics. Unfortunately I wasn't able to beat it since I kept running into bugs and I got too frustrated after the 10th or so time it happened. Outside of the bugs, it's a good puzzle game that got me interested enough to attempt 10 tries.
MercilessCult
05. Dec 2018 · 14:05 UTC
@hakita Thank you very much ! Did you make sure to only grab the FIRST card like said in the description ? If you only pick the first card, the game have no known bugs. We're trying to fix this thing but we just don't know how.
🎤 Akuirako
06. Dec 2018 · 15:20 UTC
hey @amethystproductions @static-ddq @captaincorgistan @ynneblack @shubart @scottgoldsmith @juju @riyroo @arvejeitor @svdvorak @hakita
i've updated the game ! now you should be able to play it without any bug, but please keep me updated if you tried it again ! :)
MaximBegunov
06. Dec 2018 · 15:41 UTC
The graphics, music and the text work too good together for the atmosphere. You've created an awesome experience of seducting poor humans. The cards all look great the Var'alith expecially looks badass.
🎤 Akuirako
06. Dec 2018 · 15:44 UTC
@maximbegunov thanks a lot for your feedback ! i'm happy you liked it.
MercilessCult
06. Dec 2018 · 15:48 UTC
@maximbegunov Thank you very much !
Rebecca Kremer
06. Dec 2018 · 16:06 UTC
When I saw the art of the game I was immediately fascinated! Very interesting because you go from not wanting to sacrifice these people to trying getting them to murder each other in a very short span of time lol. Hey. Gotta win the game! ;P
Very solid game and fun enough to make you keep trying until you figure out all the people.
🎤 Akuirako
06. Dec 2018 · 16:14 UTC
@rebecca-kremer thanks a lot ! happy you liked it :)
Pavocado
06. Dec 2018 · 17:21 UTC
This was absolutely amazing! I really really loved this. I'd love to see a game like this expanded upon with more cards and more results between card combinations, but honestly I couldn't fault this at all. Definitely an awesome interpretation of the theme, and probably my favourite I've played so far :D
🎤 Akuirako
06. Dec 2018 · 17:25 UTC
@pavocado thank you very much for your nice comment, this means so much for us ! <3
MercilessCult
06. Dec 2018 · 17:32 UTC
@pavocado Thank you so much! ♥ We're taking a little break right now but we definitely want to make a full version of this game, with more possibilities and more cards!
RaisetheDead
06. Dec 2018 · 19:49 UTC
Some problem with gold I think ^^![Sans titre.png](///raw/c9c/d/z/1f4bb.png)
MercilessCult
06. Dec 2018 · 22:53 UTC
@raisethedead Hello, when did you download the game ? We updated it today, it's weird that you got this bug.
RaisetheDead
06. Dec 2018 · 23:06 UTC
@mercilesscult hahaha I download it yesterday ! I'm going to take the new one, thanks for the reply ! (I can remove my previous message if needed ^^)
🎤 Akuirako
06. Dec 2018 · 23:36 UTC
@raisethedead i'm relieved ! I thought I hadn't corrected the bug ahaha
MercilessCult
06. Dec 2018 · 23:50 UTC
@raisethedead Alright, I thought the bug was still there! Yes you can remove the previous message if you want, I'm looking forward to have your thoughts on the good version ^^
selavy
10. Dec 2018 · 18:30 UTC
Reminds me a lot of the mobile game Underhand, definitely some good potential here!
Finn Truman
13. Dec 2018 · 21:48 UTC
I wish I got more feedback than a generic "this didn't work message". If I try to murder the pathetic person who has nothing and I get "this isn't what they wanted" I'm left confused. The impression I got was that murder was a "wild card win any encounter". And I swear I tried everything on that couple and didn't get anything.

I feel as though the game could've benefitted from some random generation (if the deck were also larger). I don't think it works when seeded, but if it were to work with randomness you would also need more encounter cards so the same businessman doesn't appear three times in one playthrough.

I do like the idea of the game. Choosing which resource to sacrifice in every encounter certainly has some intrigue to it. But I'm just not a fan with how simple it gets once you've memorised the sequence. Because as it stands, once I die, there's nothing to stop me from getting back to where I died save for a couple of minutes of time and a few clicks because I know what to do already.
🎤 Akuirako
14. Dec 2018 · 13:51 UTC
@finn-truman Thanks for your feedback ! This was my first game jam as a dev on unity so I didn't have the time/experience to expend it much more.