Me is bad but game is good yes
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Join a courageous knight as he ventures into the icy depths of a prison labyrinth. Can he conquer its guardians, reach the heart of the maze, and ultimately rescue his beloved?
Controls
(Alternative mapping to X/Z is C/V)
Description
Knight and Prison of Ice is a roguelite action-adventure game where you play as a knight bound to his quest through a frozen expanse. Navigate the perils of the labyrinth, vanquish the three guardians, and rescue your beloved from this icy prison.
Acknowledgment
This game was made in Pico-8. Special thanks to all the playtesters; without you, this game wouldn't exist.
Me is bad but game is good yes
Such a great retro-game, i love it
This is a really fun concept. I really enjoyed manipulating the sword and setting up attacks, and getting a good combo on a series of enemies in a line was also really satisfying. The hitboxes took some getting used to; I kept expecting the game to have some kind of perspective with hitboxes being around where the sword's shadow was, but realizing any part of the sword could collide made a huge difference since I didn't have to be as careful about aiming. Similarly the lack of explanation in the game in general was a bit of a hindrance; the in-game tutorial says to use O to use powerups, whereas on a keyboard it's Z. In addition, it's not explained what a "blessing" is until you buy one, and I noticed some powerups advertised as permanent (like the movement buff) went away after dying. An actual tutorial level would work wonders here.
Sadly, this game suffers from major lack of features. There are really only two enemy types (the towers and bubbles) and while each has their own variants (aimed shots, 4-directional shots, difference in health) they play largely the same to each other. The fact that the levels just rehash the same enemy types (and upgrades) repeatedly makes seriously discourages the player from getting deeper into the game.
I would like to see this concept expanded on, and I think some more enemy types (as well as more complex behavior) is the way to go here, as well as allowing the player to fight multiple types in the same room, and bigger rooms so the player has enough space to maneuver. Some ideas off the top of my head:
- Enemies that strafe perpendicular to the player so you have to time your attack.
- Enemies that deliberately try to get out from between the player and sword, perhaps you have to find some way to trap or block them to line up your shot, or you have to chase after them.
- More area denial, such as enemies that leave traps on the ground.
- Enemies that have shields or specific weak points that force you to attack from a specific angle instead of just calling the sword to you from any direction.
- A "twin" enemy that has two independent parts but can only be damaged if you hit them both at the same time.
- Some kind of bonus for hitting multiple enemies with a single sword swipe. Gold as a reward feels like really delayed gratification, what if you could charge up your special abilities through combos?
- I notice the sword has a hitbox that the player can't run through. I think using the sword as a shield to hide behind could make for some interesting gameplay and I'd like harder enemies designed around this idea.
Thank you for detailed and valuable feedback. I really appreciate it!
really fun, i'm just not good enough
Hmm, there's a lot I do like about the game in theory, but something about the execution left me a bit cold, if you pardon the pun.
I do find the whole combat aspect of summoning your sword to make it hit everything during transit to be rather creative and fun, and the additional powerups you can acquire add a bit of variety. The subtle way that the turrets have symbols above them to let you know their shot pattern is also very nice and makes things feel fair. I also found the world, while simple, to have a certain amount of cool flair, like the way you reset by stabbing yourself with the sword. Certainly has a lot of potential!
As said though, I don't know exactly what it is, but the game lost me rather quickly and I just didn't find myself that compelled to go back and replay much. Maybe it's just a bit too dull or not juicy enough: the constant turret enemies can be a bit boring, and the dungeon rather repetitive and plain, and the combat doesn't have enough depth. There was also some annoyance where I would get hit by things I felt shouldn't have hit me, such as the tiny lingering darkness particles from the wrath of the dungeon: feels like those things should be superfluous and I should only have to dodge the main body or a significant mass of the darkness. It was also awkward how you could get hit by the wrath of the dungeon when you're standing above it: it's like yes, in a 2D sense I'm technically overlapping with it, but in a 3D sense I shouldn't be getting hurt because I'm not making contact with it, I'm only 'behind' it, if that makes sense.
I truly appreciate your feedback. It's very helpful! Thanks a lot.