Wow. Downloading.

It looks awesome btw. Though rushed story bit sounds a bit scary...

EDIT: OK, played it..

- Need a bigger resolution. The pixel shader looks cool and all but personally, I would have enjoyed cleaner graphics here (cause I wouldn't buy a game which came with such shader). I guess it's fine if you are being stylish for a freeware game and all (though I don't see why good graphics should be butchered like this).

Anyways, bigger resolution because fullscreen makes it look even more ugly. Need a bit of sharpness because the woman (?) selling clothes at first looked like a cactus to me.. still I talked to her. Yes, I talked to a cactus..


- You need to show controls in popup when player start. I figured them out right there but before using Arrow keys (which should be WASD) I moved my mouse, clicked everywhere.. tried WASD and then went to the arrow keys. Annoying.

Oh and there is a chest in opening area but you give a tip about opening/interacting in next area. I instinctively pressed space near chest when I started but most people will never come back to the first area and look for that chest mostly cause of pixel graphics you end up missing such details.

I thought it was hilarious how a chest gave you only one gold coin.


- Need some transparency in object covering the hero (though I have seen even commercial games without that feature..).


- Most of the dialogue didn't make any sense but then again, you DID say you rushed that part.


- REALLY need an option to turn off the shader and increase resolution. Lowering the music volume will help (and throwing in some ambiance sounds, or even just footsteps sound). Marketplace should have a lot of noise.

But again, you said it was the deadline so I hope you keep refining it after competition. This looks fun (personally I think it can easily be turned into a commercial game).


EDIT 2: Haha, missed the "retro competition" part. I guess, pixel look is fine then.

Love the style, but there's a few things bugging me: I was able to walk through too many things, starting with the door to the right, just after coming of the airship. I got stuck in a few sacks, and when entering the wizard's school instead of changing levels I fell off the map when walking along a coridor.
All such things wouldn't be so bad if there was a save/load button.

But I really do like the style and idea, it looks real nice and the controls play well.

Great little game.
I like the treasure chest Good to see it has its use in a game.

When you continue with the development, think about
adding mousecontrol/click movement, wich makes it
more convinient.
Apart from that, really nice overall style.

This game is together with ManiacMansion my favorite in the
competition.

The pixelshader style also helps in (Indy) development,
as you dont need to look for high detailed models,
and can thus create more complex games in a quicker time.
More developers should try to target a more stylistic low
resolution or abstract style. Its the best choice for Indy
developers.


PS: there is a bug in the Library, where the player
can fall off on the top gallery into the outer level,
so noone should walk over this boundary...

You will win.

It is a really good entry, I must say!
The graphics are really good.
I love the pixel style, and the way you did the transitions.
the music is also well done.
everything I wanted to say is already said.
I think that if you plan to finish this game, you can sell it
as an indie game on the web. there is enough quality in it.
some things just need to be polished.

Oh dear I stacked all sorts of collision blocks on places where the player falls off. I noticed all those places too, but it worked for me. Checked and doublechecked. Aparantly that fluctuates per pc . Collision detection in 3dgs has never been splendid.

Thanks for the compliments!

awesome
For me arrow controls were a bit hard to get used to, though. Good luck in the contest!

Oh I forgot to reply to the first reply!


Well actually my time was running out and that was just my wizard model but painted green, really quickly and bad .


That's why you have the tutorial. It should not be wasd because you use space and arrow keys, nothing more. It's a retro game, and I know plenty games who don't use a mouse, ever. I think mouses are overrated .


No, they have to get back or else they don't have enough coins. I made sure of that.


Yeah, It's supposed to make little sense. I was in a fun mood most of the time I wrote that.

I absolutely love it!

Very nice atmosphere and well fitting music. Did I already mention that I LOVE isometric games?

There are a few bugs (for me suddenly two players appeared after switching level and then it crashed) but I guess for a contest version this is ok.