You are Effroi, a creature that is both an angel and a demon. As such, you have formidable powers, as you are the only being capable to instantly go to the Nether and back to Earth just as easily. That means you can can kill demons who pretend to be human. Can you spot the demons before going to the Nether to spare the humans? Or will you let your demon half take over and follow your twisted instincts?

CONTROLS

wasd - movement

K - hold it to get stronger

E - idk, you figure this one out

That's about it, yeah.

NOTE ABOUT THE MUSIC

I'm sad the game doesn't encourage holding the K button, as I really worked hard on them. Both songs (the good side and bad side) are 3 minutes long. I recommend trying to hear them for longer, they are progressive (so don't repeat much until they loop) even if they don't seem to at first! The metal track even has a (bad) solo.

A FEW WORDS

Damn it, I wasn't able to finish. The game can play and all but the level is not finished and you can't win. I wouldn't say I overscoped because I would have been able to do it if I didn't have so many issues. I guess I didn't code on my own for too long...

It has been a while since I worked alone (so please don't put the bar too high from what you're used to see from me), I forgot how stressful the jam could be and how deceiving the time can be. I have a sour aftertaste because it was the perfect theme and I screwed it... the base is there but I wasn't done with the things I really wanted to put forward, which would have made the game so much more interesting. It has some of that stuff (being able to try to guess who's a demon and who isn't before killing them) but sadly it's not enough for the vision I had and it also doesn't give justice to the concept who could be way more interesting.

At least some of it is there I guess! But damn do I feel bad. I could have made something way, way better if I was better with managing my time.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed it! It's more of a prototype than a game I guess...

SCREENSHOTS
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  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    I played your game yesterday, here is video: https://youtu.be/fD5nZ1gACGY?t=1590

    Yeah you can forget how hard it is to do alone, when you have worked in teams for a while ^^ It's easy to overscope.

    GAME.
    Submitted

    GAME.

  • Pixel Pincher
    Lv. 4

    I've read your "a few words" before playing and I have to say, don't be too harsh with yourself! I understand that it can be very frustrating to not finish the vision one has, but at the end the purpose of a game jam (at least for me) is to try something out, be it a concept, a new engine (this is OBVIOUSLY not the case for you ^^), a new skill, or simply an idea that was in your head for a long time. When I started the game it was very obvious from the very beginning (the title screen, the player animation) that you know your tools very well!

    Dino Dash
    Submitted

    Dino Dash

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Actually not being able to use my tools well (I'm referring to the blur effect) is one of the reason I lost time :P

      I can't remove that frustration I feel, although I gotta say I felt a lot more sour when I wrote the description.

      This is an usual process for me:

      1. game progresses well, I get too confident
      2. I get distracted by cool features to add in detriment of MVP
      3. Submission time... got nothing actually meaningless in aside cool effects cause it's cool
      4. I get super frustrated as the game is published. As usual it's 2am, I work on the description and a quick image for the icon until 4am. I go to sleep feeling sad. I usually tell it's my last gm48
      5. The rest of the 2 rating weeks, I keep regretting my choices and promise to control myself better instead of just doing things for fun

      Repeat this every gm48

      Anyway, thanks a lot for these words! ♥

      • Pixel Pincher
        Lv. 4

        I usually use a trello board in game jams as soon as I know what I want to do. I put everything on as soon as it comes to my mind, but no long description, just a simple "sfx for jump", "idle animation", "submission text". Then, I use exactly two labels: "more important", "less important". And I tag everything I have with one of the two, but: exactly half of the todos got the more important, the other half the less important. That way there are always cool picks in the high prio section. After I've done some todos, I reassign the labels so it's again split even. I find it much easier to understand if I sure do task a now or later when I can visually consider it agains the other things.

        Of course this is just my workflow and everyone has other preferred methods, but it helped at least me to get the most important things done. Though the list has never been empty at the end of a jam... ;-)

  • WinuX
    Lv. 15

    The Art is gorgeous, as usual :D
    The music is great aswell!
    The Dialogue was also quite funny.

    It's really a shame that it's unfinished, a finished post jam version would be cool!

    But don't be discouraged, we all make mistakes, hell the last time I participated I screwed up and some items were inside the wall and you couldn't get them.

    ASYNC
    Submitted

    ASYNC

  • Naxos
    Lv. 7

    Not finishing never feels good, but what you managed to complete is pretty impressive for a single person. 2 metal tracks, really nice art, and the gameplay coding. It's not really any wonder that there wasn't time to finish the level!

    I took some time to just listen to the 'firing' track. During the middle I realized it would be pretty fun if pressing a button (maybe down arrow?) made your Effroi do a single head bang. And maybe if you do a bunch of headbangs with the beat, it would super charge your bullets? I dunno, just a fun thought if you work on it after the jam.

    Was the game supposed to end when you die?

    The other thing I would hope for, is the pink enemy orbs to do some kind of 'sheen' or some other indication that they were about to zoom toward you.

    There's a lot to be proud of here.

    PS. I uploaded a video of my playthrough

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Thanks a lot for the video!

      Also about the headbanging uhhhh I guess it would be a cool useless feature to add xD As for doing things with the beat, it seems like a hard thing to code but still, it's not planned for that game. I do however want to emphasize the player's rise in power as the music progress

      Yes, made the game end when you die as a last minute way to make your health relevant

      Also yes i wanted to add sounds and more visual feedback but obviously ran out of time :P

      (also there is only 1 metal track what did you mean 2?)

      Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback! :)

  • baku
    Patron

    Sad that you had so many issues with coding and time management and what not, but that happens from time to time (see my game from last jam...) I can easily imagine the kind of game you were aiming for would've been quite cool though!

    At least what you did manage to release is very pretty and sounds nice!! :D

    Hybreeds
    Submitted

    Hybreeds

  • havik
    Patron

    Shame you didn't manage to finish this! I played around a bit - love the art, love the music! The game seems to automatically close if I stay in the dark world for long enough? I don't know if that is intentional or a bug? But I was trying to listen to the song and it closed both times! (Unless it closes at the end of the song maybe?).

    Still - for a first try solo in a long time, not bad! Just got caught by the classic over scope!

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Demons shoot pellets that eventually drain your health down! That's the only thing that closes the game, you dying

      The dumb thing is, your health IS displayed, but I had lots of issues with the GUI layer because of surfaces and stuff, so I found no way to display it on the actual visible screen space before the 48 hours ended :(

      Also because there is no knockback and that shooting shakes the screen, it's harder to notice when you get hit!

      Also thanks for your feedback havik ♥

  • Zen00
    Lv. 15

    Fun music :)

    Slime Well
    Submitted

    Slime Well

  • Allison James
    Patron

    It's a shame you didn't finish, and I'd love to see a finished version of this. As expected from you, fantastic visuals. Didn't know you did music too - that was also fantastic.

    My complaints are basically things you've already established as issues, plus I found it hard to listen to the whole songs while also playing the game - so much collateral damage and shots taken 😅

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      I've been making music for years, but it never was very interesting cause I sucked at it. It's been 8 months I started playing the guitar and learning it with music theory helped a lot!

      I really should have made K a toggle :c and I guess make the game a bit easier ( i didn't test it lol)

      Thank you ♥

  • Chris
    Patron

    Graphics were awesome as always, sound was great especially since you created the music from scratch. Bummer that it's not your full vision, I'm definitely in touch with that feeling. I always play your submissions and I'm looking forward to the next one.

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    I tried to listen through the entire nether song, but it never looped. That must have been longer than a regular pop-song. It's a bit sad that most people only will hear the first seconds of it.

    I love how this character feels to control. The goofy way they swings their head backwards when you run and and all the juice when you shoot. It feels good. Though the game feels a little bit pointless since I know that there isn't any ending or objective.

    I don't know your scope, but I'm sure it would be an interesting game if you finished it. Maybe a part of the problem was that you didn't prioritize the things that matter most. Well, I don't know, of course, but it happened to me last week in the GMTK, when I didn't submit my game because I spent too much time making art instead of game.

    I hope to see a post-jam version of this soon.

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      "That must have been longer than a regular pop-song. It's a bit sad that most people only will hear the first seconds of it." Yes T_T i could have made a simple thing to get player to hear more of it: making the shooting a toggpe instead of a hold. My old shooting habits blinded me there I only realized people wouldn't be holding the button when I saw someone play. I anticipated it, hence why the intros of both songs aren't too "in your nose", but I thiught it wouldn't be a common occurrence and that people would want to see more of the sprite changing and the music.

      But i also made the intro in one note; so if a player hears like 4 seconds of it they would just figure it repeats itself... i don't regret that choice but it didn't help lol

      I wish i just was more clever cause i am really proud of these songs (they are 3 minutes each)

      Also yes i kept polishing the game instead of adding content. I also didn't use an autotile because i figured i'd just stop losing time by always planning ahead (most games i made have base stuff ready to add content, but no content, so i figured i'd get more monsters done by stopping to make them flexible and in that way it worked) but the time it took me to make the room was the time i could have used to make that autotile.

      Also i had unexpected issues with several visual things, a lot of messy stuff. I mean i am not surprised, haven't done anything solo for like a year

      Thanks for the goof comment that's exactly why i made that head thing(idea i took from my main project)

      Thank you for your feedback

  • Bokonon
    Lv. 5

    I love the art and music. The switching mechanic, sound, and visuals are awesome! Would have really loved to see your completed vision for this because it was a fun world to be in.

    Flotsam
    Submitted

    Flotsam

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Thanks a lot! It always warms my heart when people reference the music!

      To be fair, the more i think about it the more i'm not sure how to make my vision adequate in relation of what I want for the player; if i am making a post-jam version it's gonna be effortful lol

  • Luke No Further
    Lv. 14

    There's a lot I don't understand about this game - But I think that's down to it being unfinished. What is the game looks and feels great - the characters are cool and I love the nether's music and your character's transition to becoming and evil wraith thing. Really love the blurry dimension swap effect, is that a shader? My mind is always totally blown by Game Maker shaders because they seem like a arcane art that I will never understand. This one works really well and feels super slick.

    I always look forward to your submissions, you have a really unique voice as a creator and I'm always delighted and intrigued by your games. It's unfortunate you had trouble finishing it, but don't stress! I think it's good to stretch for something ambitious - the experience is always beneficial regardless of the state of the finished product.

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Yes, it's a shader! Although I did not make it myself (it's a free asset from the marketplace, you could have used it too) but that said shaders aren't as obscure as they seem. I recommend checking on them, there are tutorials for simple stuff out there!

      That said, at what cost? Trying to make it work with the way I handle things caused a lot of graphic issues (stuff i would draw wouldn't draw as intended) that i had to adapt to and it cost me a lot of precious time for an effect that is good, but not worth the lack of content. :(

      So now I need to really get a better understanding of all these viewing/drawing/surfaces options to avoid the same issue

      Also yeah i guess i made something that was technically good but since the ascension, i never finished a game alone and the scope for this one was doable... i just had a lot more issues than anticipated and onve again focuses kn the wrong stuff. I was doing well at the beginning and got too confident :<

      Also thank you for the love for the nether music. It took quite some time to make (being still under 1 year of playing the guitar) and I was really proud of it, but realized afterward most people won't get to hear the more complex parts as they wouldn't hold K for long enough... no one's gonna hear my solo aha

      Either way I'm touched that you look forward to my submissions! Aldo thank you for playing :)

  • SpritePainter
    Lv. 21

    There is so much going on here that is really great. The art, music, characters, and interactivity with npcs are all really well done. The only problem is that there's so much that just isn't finished yet. The transitions between dimensions is particularly good, but then the character controls are a bit clunky, when they are very smooth and responsive in the regular world.

    I would love to see this fleshed out a bit more.

    • Kwis
      Lv. 67
      Kwis Developer of Half

      3yrs ago

      Controls should be the exact same from a world to the other, could you tell me what made you feel wrong about the controls/what I could improve?

      In any case, thank you for playing!

      • SpritePainter
        Lv. 21

        Oh, not that the controls changed, but the character seemed to move differently. I'm guessing that there's a degree of recoil being applied from shooting? I noticed it most when trying to jump up onto tiles. My character would not move as far horizontally in the hell world as they did in the real world, which felt kinda clunky to me.

        • Kwis
          Lv. 67
          Kwis Developer of Half

          3yrs ago

          That's strange, it shouldn't. I gave it no recoil considering you constantly shoot; Could be an illusion given by the fact that the screen keeps shaking?

  • WULF BLO0D
    Lv. 1

    didn't understand it at all but i liked the style of the game