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Cart #shallowend-5 | 2024-03-21 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
18

Controls

◀ ▲ ▼ ▶: move player/make choices
z/o: interact with world
x/x: show/hide minimap

Story

It has been 3 years since darkness has left the land. Your brother has been missing since the darkness was lifted. Many rumored he defeated the four evils and brought peace back to the land. Now darkness is returning. You have the hero's blood, so you are the next hope.

Explore the 64x64 resolution world with a cozy 63 screens map.

Discover the secrets to your brother's disappearance. Learn more about yourself and gain insights.

Go forth adventurer!

Other Notes and Thanks

As always, everyone in the Pico 8 Community is amazing. I wouldn't be able to put anything together resembling a game if it wasn't for the folks ahead of me sharing their knowledge and expertise. Thanks to my wife for always encouraging me in these goofy projects.

You can read more about the development in my blog post.

Hints

Map

Graveyard


There is a sound effect if you take a wrong turn... keep following the center statue...

Dessert


There is a map hidden in the dessert. Use that to traverse the spikes.

Changes

v1-3:

  • Bug fixes

v4:

  • added a hidden hint for the graveyard
  • added more grass sprites to overworld
P#143823 2024-03-19 17:11 ( Edited 2024-04-16 12:40)

1

Nice, especially liked the gradual tidbits you learn about your brother.
1st play-thru got 3 gems, missed the hint in the graveyard and searched everywhere else. Found that you could jump off the bridge into the water and thought I was on the right track, only to crash the game when getting out of bounds.
2nd play-thru I didn't lose any hearts and saw the graveyard hint.
End was abrupt. Thought I'd get to see the wizard back in town, and that the gems had something to do with the sword pedestal.

A bit of little known pico-8 tech trivia : it is technically possible to use all 32 colors at the same time in 64x64 pixels resolution. This unfortunately doesn't work nicely with spr() or map() so a lot has to be reprogrammed, but I'm working on a library to do just that. Tell me if you're interested.

P#143897 2024-03-19 20:59

Hey RealShadowCaster, Thanks for the feedback and for playing the game!

I updated the cart to fix the water bounds issue. The end is something I'm definitely interested in revisiting.

That's cool about using more colors for 64x64 games. I'll for sure keep that in mind if I ever work on another 64x64 game. I love the greens in the hidden color palette. They super give off Gameboy vibes.

P#143907 2024-03-19 23:01
1

Nice game! Got all 4 gems.

P#143913 2024-03-20 01:09
1

Great job, I loved this game!

It is so polished and charming. I love how much story you were able to convey in a short experience.
Plus the "battle" system was so interesting to me!

The only minor "issue", as mentioned in a previous comment, is the ending feeling a little abrupt.

But overall a great experience that actually left me wanting more!

P#143954 2024-03-20 15:36

@Elfamir, that's great! Glad you enjoyed it :). The end is something I'm for sure thinking about. Thanks for playing!

P#143956 2024-03-20 16:34

Small update added!

v4:

  • added a hidden hint for the graveyard
  • added more grass sprites to overworld
P#144035 2024-03-21 12:40

I added some hints and a picture of the map. That should hopefully help anyone who gets stuck on a certain puzzle :).

P#146750 2024-04-16 12:41

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