A downloadable game

Originally, this short dungeon crawler was meant to be my entry for Dungeon Crawler Jam 2022 (https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2022), however I ran out of time, so I decided to spend an extra week working on it, experiment with some ideas and just share the game anyways.

The game is relatively simple, you wake up in a maze and you need to find your way out. You fight enemies, explore the map, collect items and manage your resources (such as bullets, water, grass, tea).

There's also an "energy" mechanic, you only get 32 steps before running out of energy and getting reset to your starting location - so keep an eye out for shortcuts, loops and secrets. Drinking tea also refills your energy.

There are two endings, depending on your actions.

It's quite short and there's no save feature, so make sure you got about an hour to spend with the game.

The controls:

arrow keys: move around
CTRL: interact with the menus
hold ESC:  exit to main menu
ALT + ENTER: toggle fullscreen

The game was designed with 16:9 1080p screens in mind, but windowed mode should work fine on every monitor.

Made by (c)2022 Bozó Attila Bertold

https://twitter.com/0atis0

Made with GameMaker Studio 2, which belongs to YoYo Games Ltd. (c)2013-2022


StatusReleased
Rating
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
(24 total ratings)
AuthorBozó Attila Bertold
GenreAdventure
TagsDungeon Crawler, First-Person, Pixel Art, Short, Singleplayer
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard

Download

Download
out_of_the_blue.zip 2 MB

Install instructions

Just extract the .zip in a folder and run OUT OF THE BLUE.exe.

Comments

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(+1)

What a wonderful little game, with several very unique mechanics!

That's great to hear, thank you for checking out my game!

(+1)

Really enjoyed this. The blue/orange palette gave the right feel, with excellent sound and quick to learn mechanics. Well done, thank you for a nice evening distraction :-)

(+1)

Hey thanks for playing the game! Glad to hear you had a good time. 

(+1)

This game is so SICK! I absolutely loved it. The art style is so pretty. I felt tense and stressed, but in a really good way. This was so fun!

Wow thank you so much! And thank you for mentioning it on your blog too, I'm flattered

(+1)

Adorei a ambientação e atmosfera do jogo, o labirinto é tão imersivo e divertido se se navegar. Um joguinho tão bom quanto uma xícara de chá. 

Thank you for the nice words, glad you had a good time!

(+1)

Ez csúcsszuper!!!!

köszönöm szépen!

(+1)

For a really short game this was fun. Thank you for making this

Thank you too for playing! 

(+2)

I had a lot of fun! The art and palette is so cool owo

Thanks, glad you liked it!

(+1)

Great job, art looks fantastic.

Thank you!

(+2)

A classic dungeon crawler with sci-fi elements is a great combination. I had so much fun, not to mention the artwork is beautiful. Would definitely recommend it!

(+2)

Hey man, thanks for checking it out and for the nice words too! 

(+1)

Simple, but exciting game! I really liked it! I'm waiting for REPOSE and I'm sure it will be at least as good!

Thank you for playing! I'm pretty sure you're gonna enjoy REPOSE as well whenever I finish it!

(+2)

That was a really fun experience! I loved the concept and I really enjoyed exploring the world despite the short amount of my walks. I'm really interested if you're making any other games and if so where could I find updates on it :)

(+1)

Hey thanks for playing the game, glad to hear you enjoyed your time with it! I'm working on a game called REPOSE, if you're interested you can check out my twitter: https://twitter.com/0atis0/status/1452771428407910403

(+1)

Looks really good! I love the art-style you're going with, really excited!

(+1)

Well, it is your luck that you continue this title! Looks amazing! Dungeon crawlers are nice idea!

Thank you!

(+1)

Great game dude!

Thanks, glad you liked it!

wont let me start the game hovering over start game and clicking/pressing space/enter and nothing

You can interact with the menus with CTRL

(+1)

Nice art!

Maybe because of my poor English, the game system was difficult for me to understand.  (Sorry, I don't know if the word game system makes sense to you).Then I realized that I had entered the game without reading the introduction, which, on the other hand, probably proved that the game was so engaging that I couldn't wait to open it.

It could be more complete. 

BUG?:I can still act it when the Label comes up. When I come out of the fireplace at this time, the enemy will not show.

Thank you for playing!
My goal was to make the player figure out how the game works, like if you try making tea without the ingredients, it tells you what you need still. There is a more elaborate description, I just put it in the readme file, I thought it's more comfortable to read than the game's chunky pixel text.
About the pop-up notifications, I didn't want them to pause the game because nothing "real-time" happens really, you can still keep doing the busy work (like picking grass) without the notifications interrupting you. I know there are more elegant ways to do this, but this is what I ended up doing in the game's kinda short dev time.
About the enemy not showing up, do you mean they won't even respawn after leaving the fireplace? I tried recreating this issue, but it always seems to work.

(+1)

Oh, that's not a bug, the enemy east of the fireplace (An enemy like a savage)will be blocked 。Because notifications display a larger range than enemy。

Oh okay, that's a relief that at least mechanically it works.

Black screen of death for me a few seconds after I started the game and pressed alt+enter. I had to restart my computer the harsh way.

(1 edit)

That's weird, the game never did that during testing. Can you send me the specs of your system? 

(+1)

A very beautiful visual experience, would like to see more of this game as it has a very interesting pace, and style that makes it unique.

Thank you! I'm actually working on a much bigger, but similar game in the meantime.

(1 edit) (+1)

Cool game!  I managed to get both endings, after a lot of work =).  I don't think I ever would have got the second ending if I didn't notice the map was showing secret passage ways, that was very helpful.  I would have _really_ liked it if the energy number in the lower right would turn orange when down to 1-2, I died quite a few times, sometimes repeatedly on the exact same tile, just because I wasn't watching the number ^_^.

- Jimbly

Thank you Jimbly, glad you enjoyed it! And what you're saying about the energy counter isn't a bad idea at all, it can be a bit out of view when you're focused on exploring the corridors.

(2 edits) (+2)

A super cool experience!

I already liked your art style when i saw it on Discord and I enjoyed ever minute of my 30 minutes to get to both endings. 

What did I love:

  • A second ending and the secrets one needs to discover therefore! A game with secrets is always better ;)
  • A home base where I can craft, restock and wow: where I will awake after "reviving"! That immediately builds an emotional connection to the place. It is home, it is the save room in resident evil etc. I can explore this small world. I can even die! But I do not need to fear it. The goal to escape is permanent, death is not. Also: One of the few colored pieces to make it stand out even more. Well done!
  • Having sort of an "end boss" with a dialogue ;) that could not even be killed like the other enemies was very satisfying.
  • Collectable items that give me new "abilities". That is so much more than expected, and feels very rewarding too.
  • Keeping all my stuff including "secrets" when being revived.
  • The 10 Bullets 2 HP vs. Enemies strategy puzzle part of the game. It fits so good together with the reviving. 
  • Crafting team from water and gras and both resource have multiple places to be found. That may sound silly but the fact that there was a second patch of gras and a second water pipe and then a third and more, lifted the game to a higher level than it would have been with just one source for those resources. And the more so, since you can only craft at the fire, so placing the other gras and water resources is just for the player to have those resources once he will be back. That feels super rewarding. Like the game dev smiling at you and saying: Here! So you don't have to go all around and catch that stuff from the other place again and waste your precious time! Thanks for that!
  • The graphics of course! Super moody and well drawn. I admired them in Discord before and seeing them in action is great.
  • The few sounds and the music also fit quite well and underline the "I am lost and lonely here" theme.

What did I (not) notice:

  • I missed the energy counter at the bottom completely because I'm stupid ^^. I searched for it in the menu next to health and ammo and then started to count on my own. And since i was counting up and not down I did not notice the number printed in the lower left corner ^^. 

What can be improved:

  • The images for the collectables and the bullets in the base keep staying on top even if I start moving away. Thus I might walk up to 5 fields without seeing where I go. It would feel a bit better for me to have them disappear when I move to the next field or hit ctrl.
  • Other than that, nothing more to wish for here!


I'm really sorry that this hasn't made it in time. I'm pretty sure it would have been very high ranked in the jam! However as a standalone piece it is still compelling and does so many things just right.

My compliments!

(+1)

Thank you for this amazing review, it's actually touching to read that you had exactly the kind of experience I was hoping to create. This is the stuff that motivates me. You're also right about the item pickup notifications, the UI in general could be improved a lot, I will definitely keep it in mind going forward!

(+1)

This was cool, pretty atmospheric with satisfying exploration mostly due to the second ending, I got the true ending after restarting (I had killed the gatekeeper before finding the girl the first time), I'm glad you kept motivation to finish it despite exceeding the submission date.

Thank you, very happy to hear you enjoyed the game and that you went for both endings!