Sorry it took so long for me to get around to reviewing this.
To put it shortly, I think Rogue Secret Shadows has a good amount of potential, but probably much potential for it to shine with just 7 days of development. I like the way stealth is handled but the interactions between the player and the environment are understandably pretty limited. With just a handful of simple spells and objectives the game runs out of new things to show the player pretty quick. But like I said, with just a week to work on it it's hard to say that as a real criticism. I like the background song and I think the art is nice, except maybe for the very tiny torches. The shader is a bit strong but I saw that that can be turned off so that's good. But concerning the design, objectives seem like a good way to handle not having direct combat in a roguelike. The secret mission is interesting but it doesn't really make sense logically that your character would be given a mission that they don't know about from the start. If you keep working on the game you'll have to write some lore reason to explain that. Also the mission to lock YOURSELF in a room is a bit odd.
So to finish off this review, all I can really say is that I don't think I can really review it any further since like I said, I don't think the game got the chance to show off its whole potential. Like getting annoyed at a sapling for not bearing fruit. So I'll finish this off with a list of things that might be good to have if you decide to keep going with its development.
In no particular order:
-putting out torches
-hiding in darkness
-disguises -as a guard, rat catcher, bard, etc
-caltrops
-slippery oil/slime
-"distraction" magazines
-hiding in an empty suit of display armor
-flash powder
-bribing mice/ants with food to get them to answer questions/help you find something -depends on how fantasy you want to get
-setting a fire as a distraction
-pickpocketing
-pushing furniture in front of doors to block them temporarily
-non-lethal poisons to sneak into npc's food/beer
-splitting detection between sight and sound and maybe even scent for animal guards
-various illusions to trick the player illusory guards/monster to scare the player away from somewhere?
-missions where you swap something with a fake version -painting, document, gem, whatever
-additional z levels for basements/tunnels/rooftops/etc -could be a lot of work to implement though
Those are mostly just off the top of my head. Take em or leave em. Good luck!
I really appreciate this so much. I've read through and I really like these suggestions. I'm saving them and will see what I can implement. I'm waiting on the official ratings before adding more to and fixing up the game.
In retrospect, I think I over did the scope. Time management is a tough skill.
Feedback like this makes game jams so worth it. Just thank you!
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Sorry it took so long for me to get around to reviewing this.
To put it shortly, I think Rogue Secret Shadows has a good amount of potential, but probably much potential for it to shine with just 7 days of development. I like the way stealth is handled but the interactions between the player and the environment are understandably pretty limited. With just a handful of simple spells and objectives the game runs out of new things to show the player pretty quick. But like I said, with just a week to work on it it's hard to say that as a real criticism. I like the background song and I think the art is nice, except maybe for the very tiny torches. The shader is a bit strong but I saw that that can be turned off so that's good. But concerning the design, objectives seem like a good way to handle not having direct combat in a roguelike. The secret mission is interesting but it doesn't really make sense logically that your character would be given a mission that they don't know about from the start. If you keep working on the game you'll have to write some lore reason to explain that. Also the mission to lock YOURSELF in a room is a bit odd.
So to finish off this review, all I can really say is that I don't think I can really review it any further since like I said, I don't think the game got the chance to show off its whole potential. Like getting annoyed at a sapling for not bearing fruit. So I'll finish this off with a list of things that might be good to have if you decide to keep going with its development.
In no particular order:
-putting out torches
-hiding in darkness
-disguises -as a guard, rat catcher, bard, etc
-caltrops
-slippery oil/slime
-"distraction" magazines
-hiding in an empty suit of display armor
-flash powder
-bribing mice/ants with food to get them to answer questions/help you find something -depends on how fantasy you want to get
-setting a fire as a distraction
-pickpocketing
-pushing furniture in front of doors to block them temporarily
-non-lethal poisons to sneak into npc's food/beer
-splitting detection between sight and sound and maybe even scent for animal guards
-various illusions to trick the player illusory guards/monster to scare the player away from somewhere?
-missions where you swap something with a fake version -painting, document, gem, whatever
-additional z levels for basements/tunnels/rooftops/etc -could be a lot of work to implement though
Those are mostly just off the top of my head. Take em or leave em. Good luck!
I really appreciate this so much. I've read through and I really like these suggestions. I'm saving them and will see what I can implement. I'm waiting on the official ratings before adding more to and fixing up the game.
In retrospect, I think I over did the scope. Time management is a tough skill.
Feedback like this makes game jams so worth it. Just thank you!
Beautiful art, music, and design!
The random objectives are a really neat innovation!
Great job!
Interesting concepts