Demon's Hymn
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
Demon's Hymn 2 has been released!
The devilishly hard sequel to Demon's Hymn, including 3 levels, 3 bosses, and 3 unlockable abilities. Check it out!
Made for #LOWREZJAM 2017!
Deep in the church basement, demons lurk... Can you exterminate them all? Or will the demon's hymn of darkness sing across the land?
Tips:
- Dash attack for a double-damage strike!
- Time your attacks to do a 3-hit combo!
- Keyboard, Xbox 360 controller, and PS4 controller supported!
- Find a bug? Let me know about it in the comments.
- If you like the game and the pixel art, and you want to support me or learn more about what I do, check out my Patreon! I make a lot of pixel art, pixel art videos, and devlogs. Join up!
Download the OST by Charlie McCarron >>
Join up on Patreon and get pixel art!
ABOUT THE GAME
Now that Low Rez Jam is over and critical bugs are patched, I can finally write a little about the game! Last year for Low Rez Jam, I made Mr. Knucklehead. That was a great experience, but this year I wanted to do something a little darker. I wanted a game with blood, demons, magic, and all the good stuff. I also wanted really tight controls, with fast-paced wall jumping and dashing. In that regard, I think Demon's Hymn is a success! Special thanks to Charlie McCarron for his fantastic work on the music.
My initial plans for the game were a lot bigger. Bet you haven't heard that before! I wanted the player to go through the church basement and fight a priest at the end. The priest would then call upon his dark god and become a demon, and cast you far out of the church, across the land. The game would be a Castlevania-esque adventure as you trek back to the church, slaying newly-awoken demons along the way.
As ambitious as that scope is for a game jam, I think I could have done it if I didn't have 2D Con right smack dab in the middle of the jam! Since that took a lot of time, I ended up working right down to the last minute trying to cram as much content as I could into Demon's Hymn. It ended up with a "second quest" sort of thing- after you beat the boss, you find yourself going through the same level, with some different graphics and more challenging enemy placement. Then it's topped off with a harder iteration of the priest boss.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is... I'm not sure if I'm done with this game! I'm currently working on Atmocopter, my main project. But I'm gonna need something to work on next. So if you like the Demon's Hymn prototype, and if you're lovin' how I described the rest of the game above, let me know in the comments! I might consider this concept for a full game.
Thanks for reading, and happy demon-slaying!
- Will (Demon's Hymn programmer and artist)
CHANGELOG
--Version 1.01--
- Critical bug fix for final boss.
- Made final boss slightly harder.
- Smoother transition after you beat the first boss.
- Fixed drawing issue with wizard and boss fireballs.
- Enabled automatic update support.
- Added credits.
- Increased window size from 512x512 to 768x768. (The base resolution is still 64x64, as per the jam rules.)
--Version 1.0--
- Initial release.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Designing Demon's HymnSep 21, 2017
Comments
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would you mind sharing some details how you did the blood effects? they aren't pre-rendered pixel right but are generated on the fly? How did you simulate the blood pixels?
Sure! You are correct, they are not pre-rendered. Someone also asked this question over in the comments on the jam entry, so I'll link you to my explanation there.
If you'd like any more details, let me know. Thanks for enjoying the game!
This is a great explanation! Thank you.
Hey Guys,
Well, this certainly has gained some momentum. Now upt to 1,524 views
Well done
Awesome indie game! Can I recommend a distance counter and a display of longest distance traveled?
I did another video for you guys today and I think this one is much better.
Enjoy
This game is coool
Hey Guys,
I've just seen your tweet about the game and I've done a 10 minute gameplay video and I have to say, it's a cracking little number. Watch the video and let me know what your thoughts are.
If you would like me to redo the video then just message me back but I have to admit, it's a late Saturday night and the wine is flowing a little but that didn't stop me from enjoying the game. I wish you all the best.
Regards
Craig aka wobblyfootgamer
Hey, thank you for playing! I could tell you were a little drunk during the playthrough, haha. I think it adds character to the video, and I love seeing people play my game! As far as the video itself, I don't think you have to re-edit it, but I think you should feel free to reduce the game volume in your future videos, regardless of the game you're playing. The game's music was kind of overpowering your voice. (Demon's Hymn doesn't have any sound/volume options, but you can reduce the volume using the Windows volume mixer.)
I noticed you had trouble with the wall jumping sections, and I want to let you know it's definitely not just you. I'm going to be making wall jumping a little easier in a future patch. I also noticed you were having some trouble with the wolves (although they do kinda look like cats). The best way to take them out is to run right up to them and attack them before they jump at you. However, there might be some tricky spots where you're better off waiting for them to jump! If you're also curious about the heart drop rate, no hearts will drop when you're at full health. If you have less than full health, enemies have a 75% chance to drop a heart.
Thanks for playing, and thanks for making the video!
Good Morning and Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it.
I believe in a video being a video with no editing whatsoever because I don't think that it give's a real representation of the game, So I like to keep the video's as they are but
Yeah, Windows 10 really sucks with the audio when recording. I'm having to use "Ear Trumpet" from the windows store which is a really great little tool for controlling audio levels and allows you to control audio levels on a per app basis which is cool but thinking back to the video the wine forced me to forget about ear trumpet so I will be doing another video today. I also have 2 more youtube channels so if it's ok with you guys I'd like to upload a video to my two other channels and once your happy then I will share on the social media sites which includes facebook, twitter, google , tumblr, linkedin etc, in fact i'm registered with most of them so i'd like to give the game a big push for you.
I was also chatting with the misses last night and I had a great idea. Any earnings from the video will come back to you as well. The reason I do gaming videos is because it's a hobby and I love gaming so I only think it's fair that the money from the video is given back to you guys. If I can make a little money that would also be cool and if you want to see the video stats any any time then let me know. I will grab them from the channel reports and send them over to you so you can see the earnings and have the funds transfered.
What about donations as well (I'm being lazy by asking lol) have you got a donations link?
Anyway, I need a coffee then I will make a start on some videos.
Regards
Craig
http://www.youtube.com/c/wobblyfootgamer
http://www.youtube.com/c/weathergamer
http://www.youtube.com/c/ls16geek
and also known as 6wayadapter
and you can also find me on twitchtv, dailymotion, metacafe, veho, linkedin etc :)
hard work but I absolutely love it.
Sure, I don't mind at all if you post videos of the game on other sites. I think it's a great idea!
You don't need to revenue-share with me. "Let's play" videos are derivative content in my opinion and you own the rights to those videos entirely. I appreciate the thought, though! If you still feel like donating, I do have a Patreon: http://patreon.com/untiedgames
I love the game, and would love to see some more content. and the game described sounds like a great concept.
Thank you for playing! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. :)
Hi, i can't run the game, here's the debug log:
vanacksabbadium@Cyclops:~/Desktop$ java -jar Demon\'s\ Hymn.jar
com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: Error reading file: /home/vanacksabbadium/Desktop/settings.dat (Absolute)
at com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle.read(FileHandle.java:144)
at com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle.readString(FileHandle.java:202)
at com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle.readString(FileHandle.java:191)
at com.untied.a.a.a(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.a.a.b(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.a.ao.a(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.demonshymn.l.create(Unknown Source)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:149)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:126)
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /home/vanacksabbadium/Desktop/settings.dat (No such file or directory)
at java.base/java.io.FileInputStream.open0(Native Method)
at java.base/java.io.FileInputStream.open(FileInputStream.java:196)
at java.base/java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:139)
at com.badlogic.gdx.files.FileHandle.read(FileHandle.java:140)
... 8 more
///////////////////
//WARNING LOGGED!//
///////////////////
Critical error while initializing Core:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at java.base/javax.crypto.Cipher.getInstance(Cipher.java:526)
at com.untied.a.do.b(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.a.a.b(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.demonshymn.k.d(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.a.ao.a(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.demonshymn.l.create(Unknown Source)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:149)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:126)
Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException: Can not initialize cryptographic mechanism
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity.<clinit>(JceSecurity.java:118)
... 8 more
Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException: Can't read cryptographic policy directory: unlimited
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity.setupJurisdictionPolicies(JceSecurity.java:324)
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity.access$000(JceSecurity.java:73)
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity$1.run(JceSecurity.java:109)
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity$1.run(JceSecurity.java:106)
at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.base/javax.crypto.JceSecurity.<clinit>(JceSecurity.java:105)
... 8 more
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.untied.a.ao.a(Unknown Source)
at com.untied.demonshymn.l.create(Unknown Source)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplication.java:149)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplication.java:126)
Could you help me? Thanks in advance!
Hi Vanack, thank you for the error report! I gotta admit I've never seen anything like this before.
After a little research I'm under the impression that this is a Java bug rather than a bug in my code. Can you tell me a little more about your system, and what OS and version of Java you're using? Currently my only suggestion is to update Java to the latest version. Let me know if that's able to solve the problem.
Yeah, that is a java error. Try and remove and then re-install Java if you can and run the game again. What OS are you using?
Vanack, try deleting the "settings.dat" file, or move the game ("Demon's Hymn.jar") to another directory without a "settings.dat" file. The game tries to parse the file, unsuccessfully, and crashes.
wait... your the atmocopter guy? you are awesome!!!!!
Yup, I'm the Atmocopter guy! And thank you! :)