A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

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Original demo of Ancient Mind

Mark's Keep was the original Demo for the currently upcoming Ancient Mind:

You can find the new game Here: hexagonnico.itch.io/ancient-mind-demo

Wishlist Ancient Mind on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2376750/Ancient_Mind/

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Mark's Keep

Mark's Keep is a Zelda-inspired top-down action adventure focused on exploring intricate dungeons, fighting your way through the level and solving puzzles to progress.

This first demo features 3 levels of increasing difficulty. If this prototype gets a positive feedback it might be turned into a full game.

Features

Play three different levels and a tutorial level that resemble Zelda-like dungeons.

Explore the levels and try to find all secrets! At the end of the level you will be told how many treasure chests you have opened and how many you missed.

Fight monsters with a fast-paced 2D top-down action combat.

Open doors and reveal secrets by solving puzzles: pull the levers in the right order, find the secret switch, push that crate over that button.

Controls

Controls can be fully remapped in the game's settings. These are the defaults:

  • Move with WASD
  • Attack with left mouse button
  • Hold the right mouse button to make the character face the mouse cursor
  • Press 'E' to interact with objects
  • Open inventory with TAB
  • Pause the game with Escape

Controllers are partially supported

Feedback

Don't forget to give the game a rating on itch.io after you played it. Leave a comment if you have any feedback to give. I will try to improve this prototype according to the feedback received, if the response is positive enough, I will turn Mark's Keep into a full game.

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Release date Jul 25, 2022
Rating
Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars
(3 total ratings)
AuthorHexagonNico
GenreAdventure, Puzzle, Role Playing
Made withGodot
Tags2D, Action-Adventure, Cute, Exploration, Godot, Pixel Art, Top-Down, Top Down Adventure
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesGerman, English, Italian
InputsKeyboard, Mouse
AccessibilityConfigurable controls
LinksSupport the developer!

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Mark's Keep 0.2 - Windows 41 MB
Mark's Keep 0.2 - Linux 42 MB
Mark's Keep 0.2 - Mac 55 MB

Development log

Comments

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I love Zelda games so i can't wait to play this.

Quick disclaimer: some of my points you are probably aware of or already have on your to-do list. I just give feedback based on what I’ve played in its current state

Things that could be improved:

  • Slight pacing issues. I.e. the tutorial with the lever puzzle was way more complex than the following levels.
  • Your rooms could use some form of landmarks or point of interest to make it easier for players to orientate themself and build a mental map of the space.
  • It’s nice that south walls cover the player but I had it a few times that they obstructed my view on enemies.
  • General player feedback could be improved. Things like particles for destroying pots and the like.
  • You can very easily get stuck on an edge. Having a system that nudges the player slightly around the corner of a tile (like the coroner would be rounded)  would help the game feel a lot (pretty sure Zela does something similar).
  • I’m not a fan of invisible switches for secrets. It doesn’t make me feel clever for finding the secret. Instead I suggest you make subtle visual or auditory cues that hint that something is there for players to figure out.
  • Pushing crates feels janky and wobbly. I suggest you snap the player to the crate and switch to a dedicated pushing animation. Of cause despite the snap the player has to be able to immediately do another action. Also I felt the crate pushing speed is way too slow.
  • Some edges with the same visual are inconsistent regarding the ability to jump off.
  • The player character could use an idle animation. In general I would say the player animations feel a bit stiff and could be improved, while the enemies are fine imo..
  • The map isn’t too helpful. I really had to look very close as it doesn’t really show landmarks, a player indicator or points of interest.
  • The red spider and green “spider blob” enemy feel practically identical. The bats and blue slimes are also very similar. As I player I approach all enemies in the game exactly the same.
  • Sound effects sound very harsh. I’m not an audio expert so I can’t really describe it better, but maybe something you want to get additional feedback on. All I can say I found them very unpleasant.
  • Camera sometimes zooms in too early / at inconvenient times. I especially recognized that in Level 3.
  • Level 3 feels rushed or as if you got a bit lazy with the tile-set usage. The ground is uniformly green and none of the walls uses the nice variation with moss.

Positives:

  • Despite the game utilising the mouse buttons I’m glad you use a 4-way attack combat system which feels pleasantly oldschool and is really rare these days.
  • General directions of aesthetics look good.
  • I really dig your room transitions.
  • Having an elevated and a ground floor makes rooms more interesting to traverse and generally visually more appealing.

You have a solid foundation here and I’m looking forward to play a future version!

I hope my feedback helps.

The game is coming along quite well! I'm liking basically everything, and I'm not usually a "PC" player. Even the Zelda style, which I'm not very fond of, is actually VERY enjoyable. 

A "personal" suggestion would be either showing the room you're in on the Map, or showing a little Icon to locate yourself. 

But other than that, the Game's great and I will surely be waiting for more <3

just finished it, so far its rather well put together the switch puzzle was rather nice with its hints. the combat while what you would expect from a level one area functions nicely. tried to see if boxes could be pushed diagnaly nope could not or did not do it right, the artstyle of the are was nice as well. as is the protags design a fox huh... heres hoping they dont land head first in a snow drift eh, the right click to look in a direction makes me wonder if there will be foes that will react diffrently if your look at them or not.

Thanks! I’m glad you liked it!