Biscuits and Brimstone is a Hades/TBoI inspired roguelike where you collect food in order to fatten up your goddesses and grow stronger! Between the time you spend in your bakery leveling up your stats, you delve deep into the dungeons of Hell to scavenge for food, gold and souls to upgrade your shop and satiate your goddesses!
An incredible thanks goes to @BigChonkyFrog (on Twitter) for most of the goddess sprites (e.g above), and @Nacatcrazy for the player sprites.
Current Dev Build: v0.99 NOTE: Due to game jam rules, the one on Google Drive is an older version. Please download the version from Itch for bugfixes! Drive link:biscuits_and_brimstone_semifin.zip - Google Drive Itch link:Biscuits and Brimstone by Hotwoodcoldwood Notes: āFinishedā version. Still very rough around the edges, but should(?) work. May/may not come back to this, the project is a mess overall
Controls:
Tap or hold left click to swing/autoswing
Use WASD or arrows to move
Press right-click or space to dash. You have 3 dashes that recharge. While dashing you can move over pits and are invincible to enemy attacks.
TO PROPERLY LAUNCH THE GAME INSTEAD OF REDOWNLOADING IT:
From @.Charem:
Gdevelop automatically installs/put games at āAppData\Local\Programsā. You can go find the actual folder for Biscuits and Brimstone there and move the folder to a more reasonable location as you wish. (The game will work just fine, and the .exe in that folder doesnāt have to āinstallā each time, hooray!)
======== Personal notes if youāre into that
Iām so glad to finally be done with this. I only spent maybe 7 or 8 days on it, but this is the hardest Iāve worked on a project so far. Gdevelop is clunky and enigmatic at times, so I can only hope that Iāve done a good job working with its quirks (and, of course, I hope that I did a good job in general).
Please let me know what you think! Within moderation, of course. UI is bound to be rough, features are bound to be a little scarce, bugs are bound to happen. This is a game jam game. Otherwise, please enjoy!
There honestly isnāt a ton to comment on in itās current state. Giving feedback on it at this state could be a lot of stating the obvious, like how enemies seemingly stop shy of the player and only do damage if you basically walk into them. Itās just hard to know what youāre aware of and working on in an early state like this.
That being said, I really dig the overall concept of this. The spritework in it currently is pretty cute, not sure if any of it is final or not. The feel of hitting enemies is solid, I like the particle spray on kill. Hitting enemies into pits is a cute feature, although more often than not they seem to teleport back out of the pit having not entered it enough to fall.
The game feel stuff is solid so far, would definitely add some way of knowing your dash cooldown, such as a UI element. (EDIT: Originally I mentioned sound as an option as well, I am only now realizing there already is sound for dash recharges. I just missed it, since I didnāt dash a ton.)
Looking forward to seeing more from this one, Gdevelop is a fun engine to mess around in.
Yeah! I know there isnāt much right now, I just wanted to get a page up and running so I could start getting any and all feedback
I really appreciate the comment on the AI! I added special behaviour that requires them to charge an attack before they actually spawn it, which is why they stop moving for a moment, but then keep moving when you move away. If thereās any way you think I could improve that behaviour, or if you think I should remove it entirely, please let me know! Perhaps I should make the charge period shorter?
Iām glad you like the concept! Iām having a lot of fun with it unfortunately most of the spritework isnāt mine, itās a CC0 content pack. If I had to make all the sprites myself then Iād never finish this
Iām glad the combat feels responsive! That was my main goal Iām trying to get a good foundation, because once I start adding more enemies the gameplay is only going to get better! The particle spray was a big part of that, I want enemy kills to be fun in their own right!
Unfortunately the āteleporting out of the pitā behaviour (or teleporting in general) is a bug that Iām still trying to analyze. It seems to be an issue with having so many instances of the same enemy in the sceneāGdevelop has difficulty knowing which is which and starts confusing varuables or something along those lines. I hope I can fix it soon!
I had intended to add a dash bar below the character, but managed to do it in under 10 minutes lol, I didnāt think itād be that easy! Itāll be in tomorrowās release :3
interesting concept. the rooms i would say need more iterations or more variety because I got the same room over and over again. I would suggest that for coins that you talked about maybe you can get that if enemies fall into the pit or some enemies drop coins or drop food. You always get souls from kills would be a nice touch. I got one room where it seemed their would be a secret room in it or a secret chest and it would be cool to see stuff like that. I like seeing games get developed and get feedback from a community. Cant wait to see where this goes. Also I had a funny idea sense the enemies reminded me of like muffins maybe you can eat the enemies. just a though.
Currently there are only 2 rooms ingame and theyāre pretty bare bones, because I wouldnāt even consider what I have posted an āalpha testā lol.
As for coins, food and souls, what you described is actually what I already had planned! Thatās why theyāre named souls/coins/etc you get souls guaranteed on kill, and coins as a potential bonus. Thereās also a chance for bonus coins upon knocking enemies into the put, but I worry that might incentivize a āsit still and do nothing, only knock enemies into pits, min-maxingā playstyle, so I might now.
Secret rooms sounds interesting, itās something Iāll consider if I have extra time!
Originally the game was going to have vore mechanics, but I decided to go with a more conventional combat style instead
It could be super interesting to see what the vore mechanics would have looked like, though Iām guessing thatās outside the scope of this project now
Super cool start you have, canāt wait to see how the coins and souls affect gameplay and the likes! And I definitely canāt wait to see the goddesses too
As far as feedback and ideas go, the gameplay feels quite smooth, and the controls do feel quite good to utilize. Many have mentioned a lot of the rooms feel incredibly similar, and while I do think making more that are visually different can help, I do think adding small mechanics to some of them could also increase the feeling of uniqueness. For example, some rooms could require you to snag a key from one part of it to unlock an area full of baddies to kill, or maybe thereās a switch puzzle that optional in some areas, but that could lead to extra coins and bonuses
Overall, you have a fantastic start, and Iām excited to see where you take this game
Good start! I love roguelike games and this one seems promising.
First of all the character (arrow) movement feels smooth, if I dash throught the pits I donāt feel the arrow gets stuck. For me games like this movement sensation itās the most important, in this is very well done!
Also If I stand still in the first room when I enter the game the enemies do the claw atack, but if I do the same in the folowing rooms they just stay around me whitout attacking.
With all said, Iām looking forward for this, good luck ^^.
Movement is definitely one of the main things I was focusing on, so Iām glad to hear that I did a good job!
I am aware of the enemy AI bug, Iām currently trying to figure out a fix. It seems that having multiple instances of the same enemy causes errors with some of their internal timers, so Iām going to try to get that ironed out later tonight
When I was first drafting the game, my first idea was to have the player vore enemies, but I couldnāt figure out how to make it an interesting mechanic. Now that Iām thinking about it, perhaps you wouldāve had a āstomachā on your UI, and every time you ate an enemy they would appear as a physics object in your stomach? If an enemy couldnāt fit then youād spit them back out, etc etc. Idk, Iāll have to experiment with it some other time!
Iām glad to hear you like it! Iām definitely excited to start expanding the game now that I have the foundation down
As for rooms, again this is the very first dev build I basically did as a proof of concept for any sprite artists who might be interested lol, just so theyād know they werenāt signing onto vaporware. I intend to start adding more rooms soon!
As has been said, thereās bugger all to say because this isnāt at a stage where thereās a lot thatās useful to criticize. Nonetheless, Iām delighted to see a rogue here. I do have a couple small things:
You can attack faster by spamming LMB than by holding it, which is a bad system because it encourages us to pursue carpal tunnel for optimal dps. This doesnāt matter right now because of enemy knockback, but I expect it to be relevant in boss fights.
On the subject of knockback, while I do like the strategy of knocking things into the holes, itās a bit of a pain to have to catch up to enemies after knocking them back when there ARENāT holes. To strike a balance, you could give the player an ability they can use on a cooldown, or even just a heavy attack, that knocks enemies away from you. That way, you can have an attack that you can rely on for just killing things and an option for knockback when you see an opportunity to use it. Or you can tie it to optional upgrades, like Poseidonās boons, so you can use it as part of your playstyle if you want.
I donāt think thereās a UI indicator for our dashes? And we get 3 ones with a separate CD from what I understand, so I think itād be useful to show how they work in detail. (Unless you have to use all your dashes in one go, a la Hades/Skul?)
Beyond this, I donāt think I can provide anything of substance. I do look forward to seeing what comes of this, though.
I intend to release an update either later tonight or tomorrow with some more content, I mainly just posted this here because Iām looking for sprite artists and needed an example to give them.
Iām aware that manual clicking is faster than autoswing, autoswing was mainly added as an accessibility/convenience feature. Iāll consider adding a limiter to manual clicking
Knockback is still something Iām working on, as yes, knockback in a melee-centric game is a little backwards. Iāll see what I can do! Iāll probably tie it in with the upgrades system, so you can reduce your knockback amount as you progress.
As a side note, considering those last two points I might see if I can program a system where knockback and damage amount are tied to swing speed. Spam clicking will have less damage and more knockback, autoswing will have full damage and knockback.
UI is nonexistent as this is basically a snapshot/dev build rather than a release candidate, but Iāve already got some in the editor and itāll be present in the next release
I ran into a bug where if I ran into the enemies trying to get myself killed and they just stopped running around. I can still run over them and make a beeping sound. Hitting them seems to wake them back up.
Yup, thatās a bug Iām very well aware of! I left it in when I exported it because I knew it was going to be a bit before I could make a fix. It should be patched in the next update
Yup! Mainly posted this just so I could have something to show to potential sprite artists, so that they knew I had something
Next update (hopefully later today) will be a lot more game-like!
v0.5 has been released! Among other things that Iām probably forgetting, this version boasts:
Dynamic lighting (Iām aware rooms are a bit dark currently)
Dynamically-generated room variants
Increasing difficulty
Basic points system
Wisps mechanic
Improved Z-ordering
Improved pit mechanics
UI for HP, currency and dash charges
I am aware of the following bugs:
Enemies still occasionally teleport
Sometimes enemies donāt get caught in pits
Enemies sometimes stop tracking you if you stand in the bottom of the room
The first room has a hole in it
Thereās only one room currently (this limitation is purposeful and will be removed upon next release)
If you find any others, please let me know!
Iām also looking for feedback on the following:
Imp AI is currently programmed to āwarm upā their attack when they reach you. If you leave their radius during this warm up, they will stop warming up and move towards you again, rather than locking themselves into an attack. Should I keep it this way, or should imps immediately lock themselves into an attack when they reach the player?
Are darts from dart traps too hard to see?
Are any of the SFX or particles overwhelming?
The player can autoswing every 0.25 seconds, or you can manually swing as fast as you want. Should I add a limiter to manual swinging?
With how easily the player can cleave through enemies maybe try looking at ARPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile. The player could unlock abilities depending on the goddess pledged to and new weapons from defeated enemies. The maps could be larger too.
unfortunately most of the spritework isnāt mine, itās a CC0 content pack. If I had to make all the sprites myself then Iād never finish this 
