• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

A Puzzle Game With Poor Controls

My playtime: 47m (it could be way faster, since most of the time i'm just trying to figure out how to pass lv 6 and trying to collect all orbs)

Intro
Temple Eclipse is a puzzle game about collecting orbs and leaving the temple before your time is running out.

Graphics
This game is made with 3D. Although i can't really say that the models are good, at least it resemble a mayan temple and brings up the theme. The UI seems to be messed up as well.


I bet you forgot to delete that "button" text. Or maybe you really meant "play button".


If you didn't understand, that's the tutorial page, and clicking that play button won't bring you to the "play screen". Instead, it will bring you to the main menu.

The main menu is messed up as well. The button style for the "Play" and "Tutorial" are completely different.

In the game, there won't be a pause or retry button. All you can do if you want to get out from the game (except by pressing Alt+F4), is by using escape, which will return you to the main menu and reset your progress.

Music
There hardly any music except the sfx. The sfx which is used to notify you about the time is very loud, which won't make you forget that the time has changed.

The game
You will be tasked to escape the temple you are in. However, the door is locked and the only way for you to get out is by collecting orbs to open the door. Sadly, the orbs can only be collected based on the active time. Green orbs can only be obtainable when the time is in the green meter, and so on.

However, although you want to move fast in order to get them all, you will find a hard time to do that. Most of the times, the controls won't register (especially if you hit two buttons at the same time), which make me mostly spamming my keys just to get it moving.

You can only control your character by using wasd and there is no other way to change it.

There is a stage where you can't took all diamonds because of the pillars.


But... i want to catch 'em all...


There should be 8 levels in total, however, the level 6 and onwards seem to be impossible to finish at this time.


Tell me, where is the exit.


Well, maybe you are wondering why i said it seems to be impossible to finish.
First, there is no exit. Second, the door opening sfx is triggered once enough orbs are collected, but still, no exit shows up. Third, i checked the xml files, and there is really no exit in the map. There is a <type>13</type> in level 1-5 which is marked as a door, but there is none in level 6-8.

You'll mostly wait a bit before the other lamp is lighted. However, it can be taking longer than you thought, especially in level 6, where you can only move until the last phase (red clock). A speed up button would be nice.

Pros:
- 6 levels

Cons:
- Buggy stages
- Poor control
- No speed up button

Conclusion
This is an unfinished puzzle game with poor control. You'll spent most of your time spamming that wasd button just to make your character move and/or waiting for the timer to run out.


Posts

Pages: 1
Trihan
"It's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff."
3359
Thanks for the review! I'd actually forgotten this was even a thing to be honest. XD

Yeah, as it was made for a game jam it wasn't exactly perfect. The control code wasn't great, and the level editor I made for it had an annoying habit of occasionally replacing tiles at random (which is why that level had no exit). We also didn't really get the chance to properly design levels, so it was mostly a haphazard jumble of PoC pieces to show the range of stuff that could happen.

If and when we work on this again, I'll be sure to pass your feedback on to the rest of the team.
No problem! Well, it could be a great thing if you can polish it more (especially the controls) if you ever decide to work on it again but since it's a game jam project and all, maybe it's better to wait for your next project. I hope that the next one (if there will be any) will be better!
Pages: 1