itch.io

Hey, I wanted to share a screen grab of the new approach.  I think it is much better, especially once you find better tools to explore more. It makes the story less linear, but I think that can be ok. Thanks again for prompting this!

Oh, also it was nice to see another top down metroidvania.  Interesting how the perspective changes the mechanics in some creative ways (like no obligatory double jump)

This is fun, I like the story you weave through it.

Cool game, I like how the light and shadow areas work and the camera zooming. Jumping feels great. I got to a place to the right and down where I found a light thing on the ground that I could push and I pushed it off the screen or something and then I was stuck in that area and didn't know what to do.

I'm really impressed.  There's so much in this game.  I like the map and the aesthetic and the pacing.  I like the fun little quips the characters make.  At first I was frustrated when I died and had to start over, but then I realized it saves progress and you can unlock shortcuts which was great. I think it would play better with a controller, I used a keyboard.  I tried to switch my options to the other keyset, but didn't see that option, just the remap option.  Then I clicked on "title" without realizing that would blow away my progress which bummed me out! Great job, I say keep going. 

I also had the issue of passing through the walls in unexpected places which sometime locked me out and sometimes dropped me to lower levels.

I played the html version of this and has some issues, like the character sprites turning into black squares at certain times. But I liked the style and the voice dialog.  I wasn't very good so I didn't get very far, but I would have liked to play more.

Nice job, especially with the visuals and the sound.  The map seemed quite extensive and was nice.  The world was engrossing and the writing was good, though I would suggest trimming it down if you can to make it more potent.  I wasn't very good at it and didn't make it to a power up (or maybe I did but didn't understand how to use it before I died again). 

Wow, thank you <3.  I'm definitely continuing to work on it.  I'm going to enter it into the Super Metroidvania Month that goes until Feb and plan/hope to have it completed for that. Please follow so you can get updates and play it in full.  (also, if you'd like to do an early play test that would be great!).

In terms of the gating issue, another player said something similar and I do agree.  I've already made some (unpublished) changes to how that works and I think it is much better and leans into the "exploring the unknown" theme better.

Yes, it ends there for now, but more is coming soon.  Check back or follow for updates on the full release.  Thanks for playing!

Thanks for the feedback!  For now you found everything, but I'll continue working on it, eventually the whole screen will be filled.

Thanks for playing and for leaving feedback!  I had to think for a while about your comments before I was able to express the design concept I was going for: The unknown remains unknown until it becomes known, either through direct exploration, secondhand information, or leveraging a tool.  Future planned terrain types double down on this concept.  However, you gave me an idea to try -- instead of making unknown areas impassable, let the player trace paths through them, but it will be slow and disorienting.  That will contrast better against the more leveraged means of discovering unknown parts of the map.  Thanks again for sharing.

Nice work.  I'm impressed with the high production value.  I really enjoyed the parallax visual to accompany the text, and the little touches like the reflections in the monitor edges.  The colorization works really well.  Seems like a lot of work, keep it up!

I loved this game, great job.  Perfect mechanics for the theme, and fun play against expectations.  The torch cross over was a nice touch too.

Nice job!  Fun Papers Please vibes.  I particularly liked the interface and use of 4 colors. Music was good too.

2 UI suggestions: It took me a bit to notice the new/approved/rejected ship color indicator, and also to parse what the unlabeled categories were (allegiance, ship class, weapons, etc).  

Hi, thanks for the feedback!  I went back and forth on whether to make that default or a power up.  In the end I decided that I wanted the memory aspect to make it more challenging.  There are different approaches you can take to help gain info while relying on memory, but I realize some players don't like memory aspects as much.  I'll consider it, thanks again!

Sorry for the late response, but I'm glad you are enjoying the game!

Unfortunately I don't have plans to make an android release.  I do have a 2-player card version of this game which is similar but also a little different.  If you'd like to check that out there is a digital prototype at https://screentop.gg/@jschomay/deductiondungeon.

https://itch.io/embed/983267?bg_color=92734b&fg_color=feffff&link_color=dbbc53&border_color=c07e28

https://itch.io/embed/980955?bg_color=1b3025&fg_color=dfdfc8&link_color=a6d59a&border_color=4da154

https://itch.io/embed/886560?bg_color=000000&fg_color=ffffff&link_color=FFA500&border_color=333333

If you have made a game with this tool, please share!  Feel free to copy the "embed" code from itch.io into your post and/or include a screenshot and short description.

Glad you enjoyed it!  Thanks for posting the video :)

Hi Clouddie!

Happy to hear you are enjoying the engine :)

This is a great question, and it sounds like you came up with a good solution too.  If you have any other questions, feel free to post them on https://enegames.itch.io/elm-narrative-engine/community so others can learn from too.  Also, I'd love to see what you make if you end up with something you'd like to share, and don't hesitate to reach out with more questions.

Here are a few more thoughts related to your question which may or may not be useful:

• In my own games I ultimately would use a query very much like what you wrote in part of the view logic.  I'd like to add a setting where you can supply a header and query to show up in the view, instead of the limited defaults of the current theme.
• The .hidden tag is a great way to toggle what should show up, but the default theme doesn't currently support that.  I think I should add it.  For now you could toggle the .location tag on and off to make locations appear or disappear.
• In a custom game, the engine supports adding other component data to your entities, and I have used this before to model how locations fit together.
• If you have a location that is linked to more than one other location, you'll get stuck, because links are only one-to-one.  You could use something like .north, .south, .east, .west to get around this.  I'm considering making a new time of link that is one-to-many, but it adds a fair amount of complications and I've gotten along without it in my games so far.
• If you are toggling views on and off in your rules, just take care to remember to do the same if you have a specific rule that would override your generic "moving around" rule.  This is the primary reason I use a custom view query or separate component data in my own custom games.  I have plans soon to make it easier to create your own custom game shell.

Awesome, let me know how it goes for you.

I'll kickstart the forums with a spot to ask any questions you might have.  I am happy to answer them.

Announcing the debut of the visual editor for the Elm Narrative Engine, a tool for making non-linear interactive stories, right in the browser.  With the visual editor you don't need to write any code, and you can collaborate in real time with others and test your game as you write it.  If you have used Twine or ChoiceScript or Ink or Inform 7 or similar tools before, give this tool a shot!

https://enegames.itch.io/elm-narrative-engine

Hey, I think I fixed the bug you ran into, so hopefully it won't happen again!  Thanks again for reporting it :)

Oh no! I haven't seen that in my play testing, do you know what you did to cause it?  Hopefully if you restart it will work.  Sorry about that :(