Abyss Ascension
Abyss Ascension
Fight your way out of an ancient dungeon and unlock new upgrades and abilities along the way in this 2D Metroidvania Roguelite!
Abyss Ascension is a student project I worked on my last semester of university on a small team for a class. In its current state it mainly serves as a proof of concept/demo of the game. I may do more work on this in the future to expand it to a more complete form. The estimated/expected time to completion is about 5/15 minutes, so keep your expectations tempered!
Almost all of the art in this project is an aggregate of different free itch.io assets. All of the assets used are listed in the credits of the game. I'm super grateful to all the asset creators whose art I used, the game wouldn't be the same without them!
Currently there isn't a whole lot of progression, and the map is the same between each run. It's definitely more on the Metroidvania end of things currently. Future development would include a more varied, randomized map, more player abilities/upgrades, and more enemy varieties. Any feedback on additions to the game/ways to improve it, as well as any bugs/glitches encountered would be greatly appreciated!
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Development log
- Abyss Ascension Dev Log #1: Thank you!Jun 19, 2023
Comments
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Such a fun game! I'm a bit sad though, because I beat it on my second run! The main thing I would have wanted was a more difficult and unique final boss fight. The infinite jump was also not utilized all that much.
So, firstly, you can just hit the boss, use your infinite jump to go where he can't hit you, and when his invincibility wears off, rinse and repeat. Maybe consider giving him a ranged attack?
Second, the game is very easy. Too easy, in fact. I didn't buy a single thing with the money, granted it only died twice, once with 20 gold, and the second with 30 (I didn't find it worth my time to buy the 30 gold upgrades), so even without any upgrades, the game was still a walk in the park.
Maybe give more of an incentive to use the gold, or make the game harder? Most enemies if I didn't want to fight, I could just jump over and get the powerup, and leave (I did go back for them because I'm a completionist).
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, right now the game is very easy, especially the boss. For the goals of the class, we wanted to tune the balance so anybody of any skill level could reach the end in like, 10 minutes. Now that the class is over, and more skilled players are playing, I think it makes sense to make the game a bit harder.
Later tonight (hopefully) I'm going to write a quick dev log update pretty much going over my plans for the future, but the tldr is I plan on making it a bit harder and more engaging for players (especially adding a bit more difficulty to the boss lol).
Again, I really appreciate the critique, you gave a lot of actionable/insightful feedback on improvements and that's super great to hear!
A+
Let's goooooo - congrats!
that must have been the easiest boss fight ever XD
Yeah lmao - we didn't have enough time to add anything to crazy to it, so it's pretty easy to take out. At one point it didn't even have the invincibility, which made it even easier to spam it into submission. Thanks for playing through all the way!
I just finished the game
Loved it
I would suggest a hard mode with 1 health
Thanks for playing - and truuuue - maybe that could be something I add in the future!
A great game! As you progress through, the level/difficulty ratio is balanced and the feeling of progressing the game builds is totally satisfying, to say at least. The enimies get stronger and all the upgrades are where they're supposed to be. Would like to see more monsters and more variations from those monsters as well, but the project has good potential. I'll definitily play it much more and follow the updates. =)
Thanks, I really appreciate it!
Was a fantastic game! Enjoy a good rpg rogue like game, made me think of rogue legacy and loved the feel. The character actually bouncing around as they move was a nice little touch. Keep up the amazing work and left a follow! Look forward to more!!
Thank you! Yeah, the Rogue Legacy parallels are def there - when I was working on trying to tune the controls I bought Rogue Legacy 2 to compare how their character felt to play/control! I really enjoyed the playthrough, thanks again for the feedback/follow!
Really good game! Nice characters, playing feels good. It's just waaay too short and waay to easy. Also, I finished in one run, so no upgrades in between runs needed. However, if you feel like it, you have a really solid base here to extend upon!
Thank you so much! I def agree - the difficulty def needs more tuning and I'd love to add more content to make it more of a "full game". I'm happy that on a base level it feels good to play for you!
would you say it’s just a Metroidvania and not a rogue lite in its current state? Since the run is the same every time? That honestly makes me more excited haha, definitely gonna play and let you know my thoughts
Yeah, ha ha - map is the same, though the starting weapon differs after your first run. It's intended to be more of a rogue-like/lite in the future, and I guess the persistent upgrades in between runs fills a similar mechanical niche, but right now it's waaay more on the Metroidvania side of things.
I tried it out. The character movement feels really good, pretty dead-cellsy. Personally I would’ve liked more interesting level design and graphics, feels very “generated”. But I know it’s just a proof of concept!
Yeah, I feel, thanks for your understanding! My hands are def tied with some of the art (I'm definitely more of a programmer) but I think now that all the systems are in place, if I do more with it I'll be able to experiment a lot more with larger/more engaging level design.
holy shit i LOVE THIS GAME
hey, i really enjoyed playtesting this at glitch!! glad to see it here!
Thanks! It took me waaaay too long to upload it to itch but it's finally up!
i’m glad you did, i hope to see more in the future!