Stormlight Manor by RogueBrain

* *EVERY 10 SECONDS: Lightning Strikes **
Weave your way through the decrepit halls of Stormlight Manor. A labyrinth awaits you, riddled with ghosts and ghouls. Shamble through darkness with only a dim lantern and the flickering light from the storm overhead. One false step is all it takes to join its eternal residents.
* *- 5 Scary Floors Totaling 15 Levels **
* *- 8 Creepy Enemy Types **
* *- 7 Spooky Songs **
* *- 4 Playable Character Skins **

Team
- Jason Reff: Programmer, Team Lead
- Yoon Joon So: Programmer
- Andrew Calvarese: Programmer, Level Designer
- Paul Avallone: Lead Level Designer, Artist
- Sam Finston: Artist, UI
- Val Yost: Artist, Animator
- Max Reff: Music Composer
| Itch.io | https://roguebrain.itch.io/stormlight-manor |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/stormlight-manor |
Ratings
| Overall | 659th | 3.451⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 704th | 3.25⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 552th | 3.35⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 328th | 3.92⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 696th | 3.458⭐ | 73🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 268th | 3.674⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 755th | 2.5⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 355th | 3.693⭐ | 72🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 107🗳️ | 188🗨️ |
Here's an exceptionally long video of my experience with your game if you want some more feedback:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqacUZLNEk
Edit: I see now that I accidentally recorded the screen a bit too low, so the top of the maze is cut off in the video. my bad!
Fun: Great idea and execution. Level 3 I started to get a little burnt out and frustrated though. Not being able to see put me an unwinnable spot a few times. Since all we as player can see is the enemies it would have been nice to have different enemy sprites that moved n very specific way so we knew by their visual what they would do. This would let me get a feel for what the level might be even when I can't see it and get a visual confirmation of those assumptions on the lightening flash.
Innovation: Again super creative idea that was well executed! I think with some balancing tweaks and maybe a little story this could make an excellent horror game.
Theme: I think a lightening flash every ten seconds? It wasn't immediately clear until few flashes in.
Graphics: Thank you for making the post processing optional!!! Cute little sprites and a very cool light(ening) system!
Audio: Loved the SFX and music!
Humor: Not super funny but very atmospheric!
Mood: very atmospheric
I like the continuation of the musical motif between stages and in the pause screen too. I did feel as though difficulty suddenly spikes in the levels with the purple aggressive ghosts, and with the rather slow movement speed if you die close to the end of a level it can take up to a minute just to get back to where you were, as some paths are reliant on waiting for the ghost pathing to open up. The crackle mechanic where lightning is used for vision is honestly one of the most creative takes I've seen on the theme so far, props! This goes for the AI too, pathing was quite smooth.
Overall, very fun, well-polished and with a really creative take on the theme! :)
And of course, the music, art style and effects come together really well to create an immersive mood!
Also, I feel like the doors are a bit too small. The goal should be more obvious, and I missed it during my first playthrough.
Nice job overall.
Levels feel bit samey. I started to think these are procedurally generated forever. Great little game! Good job!
The difficulty curve might use some adjustments, though - feels like the first levels are too long for what they are intended to teach the player while the last ones leave very little space for errors (ghost thingies are super dangerous and almost impossible to escape as they go through wall and at about the same speed as player).
Nevertheless, good job :thumbsup:
Music is great - really fitting and moody. I didn't like the post-processing effect (I think it gets really hard on the eyes after a while - and this is a game you play for quite a while), so thank you for making it optional.
The thing that could be improved is the wait times on some later levels - some enemies have quite long routes, and you do a lot of waiting if you miss your opportunity to proceed. Add to that the waiting for the flash, and you get quite a bit of just sitting around.
I will admit to cheating in some of the late levels (in which I kept dying) and making a screenshot to figure out my route :grin: But most I finished legitimately. A really nice jam job!
I also appreciated the level select feature as this let me see everything the game had to offer
It's a cool maze solver with a twist, although the mazes are not very complex. The timer on the sudden death boss may be a bit too long because it spawned when I was in front of the exit to the final level, and I had enough time to wait out most of my problems. I dig the mood; when you get cornered you can feel it. Who was in charge of SFX? They deserve extra credit for the thunder sounds.
The game glitched out after a death, but it wasn't a big deal thanks to the level selection menu. My game used to have a similar problem during development. Guess manors have a natural tendency to softlock on death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shFLfewjsso
Liked it a lot, great work!!
great game!I almost made it through!(rate back?)
Incredibly well done!
The levels were really fun to play. I loved the take on the theme. The way that certain nooks became your friend instead of enemy was also REALLY cool!
I do feel like the lighting could have have a bit of a pulse to it in order to help during fast run times - where it gets an additional cells distance away but fades in and out. There were just too many times where I was panic running and got caught in a corner for my liking.
But this is a game jam, and finetuning user experiences is HARD.
This is extremely well done and I could see the concept being fleshed out more into a wonderful "full" game. :D
