I really like this game!

Not bad

I like the idea of the story, but there are some problems with the platforming.

The window to climb a tree limb is very small so you basically have to mash the jump button and hope it catches. The tree to get on top of the first hill (before the witche's house) was frustrating because the first time I tried to land on the hill, I fell through, so I thought the whole thing wasn't solid. Turns out it was, but the visual hill is a lot bigger than the collision box or something.

It's also frustrating that you can't get out of the king's room even if you haven't talked to anyone, knowing you will have to do the platforming again.

There's a door that doesn't open in the battle field. Am I supposed to talk to someone? Is it bugged?

I eventually ran out of places I could go besides climbing up the big trees more, and I have no idea if anything is up there and my hand was starting to hurt, so I gave up. Do you have a walkthrough, or a video of you completing the game?

Thanks!

@monika That's some good feedback, thank you!

You're right about the climbing window. As I seriously rework the game right now, I have improvement in mind which will make it easier.

Platforming feels indeed off at some places as I assembled most level design in the last hours having working for 2 days in a row without sleep. That's actually one of the main focuses of the current update including adding some SFX & VO.

Inability to get out of the King's Room is intentional though and will not be fixed. By reaching the King's Room you pretty much complete the game, just with the default boring ending :) I'll make it a more clear point of no return though, because right now without having completed the game once you'd have no idea what you're getting into.

Door in the battlefield does open, but I will not tell more as that could be spoilers for other players. It is however very unclear in the current version and looks out of place too.

This game is all about exploring and finding those new decisions that you can make, I will alter a few lines in dialogue to make it a tad bit more clear, but not much as there still has to be an element of mystery.

Thank you very much for playing! I hope that you'll give the game another go when I update it, because this basic version is not at all what I intended. I'll be sure to tag you when it's out, I would really like to know what you think about it.

Apologies to everyone! I will start playing your games now, before I wouldn't be able to give it the required time and attention.

@monika With a great delay due to work and ever-stretching scope, but it has been released now :)

**Download from Itch.io https://empyreans.itch.io/death-beckons **

You saw me playing it live :)

The graphics were cute, kinda Cyanide & Happiness :)

There was a lot of text which I am not very much of a reading person.

You could take an experience from planning the work - the main mechanics should be the most polished pieces of the game.

Also I would recommend making it shorter so it would be more appealing in the 5min window of playing during the rating period.

Thank you for stopping by!

Looks quite cool, unfortunately I couldn't open it, mac build might not be working?

@just-a-cat It might not. I have no way of testing mac builds unfortunately.
I only know that you must 100% unzip it first. Could be also that you need Intel version?
I just assumed ARM would do for everyone, but maybe not.

@empyreans I have unzipped it, whenever I try to open it it just says "The application “DeathBeckons” can’t be opened."
I think ARM should work the same as intel for my computer, but I could be wrong-

@just-a-cat I've uploaded Mac Webview version instead. Let me know if it works!
Otherwise I might have to do a Browser version.

Got it working! I had to go into GetInfo and tick an option, it wasn't there on the old version so whatever you did fixed it!

Had a lot of fun playing! It took me a bit to figure out where to go at first but I managed to get all(?) 4 endings. Really loved the atmosphere and all the details in the background!

@just-a-cat Thanks a lot for playing! I'm very happy it worked :)

You found them all :) Though there's sort of a rare 5th ending that requires you to Die along with the Boss. It has the same funeral picture, but you restore honor and avenge your father. It was added just in case that ever happens, chances are extremely small, but nevertheless it's there :)

I enjoyed the game a lot! I find the simplistic art style very charming and the story genuinely had me pretty invested, though the "summoning" part of it felt a little iffy, I understand the king "summons" you but it didn't seem to impact anything besides the story and the destination. I enjoyed it :smile:

The characters and animations were great!

Insane that you've got an entire story going on here!
Great work on the project, especially as a solo-dev!
Hope you're able to reach 20 reviews before the deadline!

Very cool mood!

Really cool animations. I kept punching the air. :D The NPCs made the world a little bit more lively.

Great entry! Has quite a bit of polish! Interactions worked well once I figured out what I was doing.

I enjoyed the game, but I was unable to complete it. After getting the evidence/testimony and winning the fight I just die a couple seconds later. I think maybe I'm getting hit at the same time I kill him, and for some reason it doesn't register until later? IDK it's kind of unclear.

I enjoy exploring the story. Great atmosphere!

I enjoyed it a lot, and I REALLY like the art style. It did feel a little slow, from time to time, just travelling everywhere.

@arman If you mean "Death Beckons" screen, game is kinda built in an endless loop of reliving the past. You still see the ending picture, right? Otherwise it could be a bug.

Simple but engaging, I enjoyed the narrative you presented here, it's an interesting take on the theme!

also the environments actually look really neat I like them a lot! the presentation in general is pretty strong!

Honestly, coming up with the whole story in such a short amount of time is impressive, but not only that you actually made a very enjoyable game! Since I'm a sucker for visuals I'd love to see them a bit more polished if you develope further on it :) The Environment was lit though and also the atmosphere. Sick entry! <3

@dekisenpaitm Thank you!

I agree that visuals could be improved, updated version was mostly Level Design / Polish focused, then I did all VO & SFX in the last 2 days. I probably won't go much further with the improvements here, can only think of a few things that I want to do.

But I'm working on a commercial TBA game with similar vibes, focus on non-linear choices and pretty cool combat system. Art will be much better there as I'm hiring artists for this one :)

Such an *epic* game. I've played the Itch version for nearly 2 hours!
At first I felt like I was exploring a fresh new metroidvania, and when I got the good ending on my second run I just ran around testing some things out and finding the other endings.

My only criticize is that the movement and combat aren't that polished, but it looks like these weren't the focus of this game for the jam, and I got used to it quickly anyways so there's no problem at all.

I don't even know what to say other than that you did a great job with this entry :100:
It's honorable that you managed to pull this out with so little time, but I hope you got some proper sleep after the jam ended!

@denilseven Thank you so much for your kind words :)

Movement and combat have indeed fell out of focus. I have an urge to do something about it, but we'll see.
Some improvements for definitive v1.1 release. Also to feature a brand new "grey" ending there and who knows what else xD

I kinda feel like post-updating this forever though hahah

After the jam I was a total cabbage, but all good now :sweat_smile:

Thanks for playing! It makes my day to know that you enjoyed it so much! :heart:

@empyreans It's good to know you recovered well!

Oh and by the way, I just noticed that there are different climbing animations for when the guy is climbing something on the background vs foreground! That's a nice touch :thumbsup:
Suggestion: In a future update it'd be neat if you added an inventory screen just to show which items you're carrying. It doesn't need to be complicated, maybe just a grid with images and names, and you get the item description by clicking or hovering with a tooltip.

Just remember to don't overscope and to keep development a healthy activity for you!

Cheers :smile_cat:

@denilseven Inventory is a very good suggestion. There is a problem with the code though.

Because I was on a time rush the code naturally turned into a mess, I didn't even bothered to reuse anything from my previous projects which would probably not only boost speed of development, but significantly improve quality and make it friendly for post-launch updates. I was kinda surprised I managed to pull it off in 2 days tbh.

As a result every new feature now comes at a price of making this mess even bigger. I will try to do inventory, but will probably keep it very simple, not even a grid, but more like similar pop-up as to when you get the item. It will show how many items you have and allow you to switch between them. Not perfect, but will have to do for such a short game.

Thank you as always :smile:

Hope you're doing great!

Consistently engaging! Loved the witch~♥ But... I need MOOOOOORE

https://youtu.be/RNznZ_RDBdk

Very nice game ! Don't have the time to play it completely but I love the rogue-like idea, wasn't very easy to understand at first !

Cool game though