Artifact is a simple adventure game created for the 2024 Minetest (Luanti) game jam.
The player takes the part of an adventurer named Key, who is on a mission to find and destroy a rumored source of evil at the bottom of a cave. Little does he understand the forces and factors at play.
Because Artifact was made in 3 weeks and I let several days get away from me, puzzles are minimal and the latter cutscenes have very poor quality, for which I apologize in advance.
Great atmosphere and polish
Unfortunately I got softlocked at one point, but other than that, the mechanics of pipes and the general atmosphere was great. The cutscenes are very cool, but a suggestion would be to perhaps use a formspec to lock the player's look direction (I guess there's the downside of showing the cursor...) and speed them up a fair bit, particularly the first one. There's lot of walking, but the atmosphere mostly makes that ok. Probably it would be best however to add either more teleportation or use seamless teleports to give the illusion of a shrunk down space, to reduce walking distance a little and spend more time on puzzles and building the world and sense of wonder.
Role switching is nice
I didn't play very much, no time left. I freed the prisoner and didn't get past the huge room with platforms. Anyway, what I saw I did like. Nice atmosphere, colors, the lighting is well done. Few textures, but e.g. the winding stairs were nice. I also like the slide doors. It's too easy that the missing cable parts are always near the gap in the line. Cutscenes I liked. You don't need to lock the cam, just make it Half-Life style. But the coolest thing I found is the role switching. Great potential.
Dungeon crawler puzzle with dark mood (in a good way)
I liked the dark blue gloomy atmosphere. The game comes with cut scenes which was a neat surprise, but it was somewhat hacky because Luanti doesn't allow you to lock the camera yet.
Basically this is a dungeon explorer/puzzle game. You have to explore the dungeon and solve simple puzzles by moving some kind of electricity (?) with a wand. I like the mix of "ancient mystery dungeon" and "electronics". The story is simple but I kind of wanted to know how it ends. It seems you cannot die, so it's entirely a puzzle game. It's nice to explore dungeons without deadly danger behind every corner. :D
There are not many types of blocks, but the level design I have seen so far is nice. It feels like the dungeon is absolutely HUGE for a game jam game. The sliding doors were a nice touch that sets this dungeon apart. And they work absolutely perfect, with no flickering, seams or other visual oddities.
Overall, I liked the mood of this game, even if there wasn't music.
Unfortunately I was unable to complete the game because I was stuck at the part after you free the prisoner. I was unable to find a way across the abyss. Maybe I will be able to finish it later.
But I think for this simple concept the game was very-well executed. Thumbs up from me.
Strong visual identity
Artifact starts up strong with an unexpected fully animated cinematic, plus dialogue in the form of text boxes. This seems like it's present in other areas of the game as there are some extra key scenes that are also animated.
Objective is not clear straight up, but after a bit of exploring you find out it's a puzzle game with a focus on reconnecting circuits of some sort.
Lighting is way too dark and I had to bump up my monitor's brightness to be able to see certain puzzle elements, and probably missed a lot as well, because of this, at some point I got stuck and quit.
A good start for what could end up being an immersive puzzle game.
Good level design
The map is well made, albiet very dark in some areas. The puzzles are fun, although I did have a few doors that I was completely unable to get open and had to cheat my way through. I think doing that, probably broke some of the endgame elements. Some of the longer text elements cleared from the screen before I was able to read them, although had I not been reading them outloud for the video I was recording that probably wouldn't have been an issue.
Short dungeon-style puzzle with interesting characters -- much more to come?
Enjoyed this, one of the most polished games in the Jam this year! Only took me about an hour to solve overall, and the walking/exploring part was not boring at all for me - the curtains made it exciting and a bit nervewracking. When you boil it down, the plot isn't huge yet, but it's put together in a very strong way, so that you are invested in the characters and obviously want to know what is behind the dungeons. The 'puzzle' part of it isn't very complicated yet, I'd consider it more of a visual novel type game at the moment. It's evident that this game was influenced quite a bit by the short window for the Game Jam so I'm really looking forward to future progress and updates!
The character swapping in the finishing parts of the game was really very interesting and creative, making you the overseer of a collaboration. Ultimately, the ending scene was a bit underwhelming -- not the scene itself, which was extremely dramatic and impressive, but the fact that you are kind of at a loss for what to do next. You're teleported back into a hallway which you can't get out of, and what the boss just said to you looms over your head. You're stuck completely helpless with no way of finishing the story (yet). A better resolution would be great, hopefully defeating the evil and learning more about Vix's history somehow!
I also found it quite funny that the residents of this land are apparently so bored that they go for wild, dangerous adventures whenever rumors pop up on the surface. :)
If you're having trouble playing the game after the first scene (falling in darkness), do
/grantme teleportand/teleport 84 237 136(thank you to the author for giving me that clue). I had problems with that but didn't have any other problems playing the game after that. I'm sure this will be fixed after the game jam's concluding so I will maybe delete this part of my review later. :)It's OK
The initial cutscene was good, and some of the atmosphere I liked, as well as the door animation, but it was unclear what exactly to do other than running around in what looks like identical rooms. Maybe I missed a lever, or softlocked it somehow?
I'm a bit confused. (Don't read if you don't want spoilers)
Don't read if you don't want spoilers!
I got to the boss cutscene, and he sorta died or something like that? anyway, in the cutscene the charactor (you) says something like, let's go back to the surface! I then tried to do go back, but I didn't see any way up or out. So I'm a bit confused, was the the end of the game? Or am I missing something?
Big maze with a refined graphical and sound system
The game started amazingly: a cutscene, in Luanti, with proper animations (!). I was mesmerized. Unfortunately after that I found myself stuck twice in a pitch black area, to only find out (by reading another review here) that it's a bug. Using the solution suggested in the review, I teleported myself in the actual area the player is expected to play in and I decided to give it a chance. And that's where I found back my enthusiasm.
Sounds are well-finished, the animation of doors is great, no useless inventory, custom HUD. However, my enthusiasm kept decreasing as long as I kept playing. The game is basically a big maze, with a refined graphical and sound system. If my first reaction when opening a door was of amazement, after the 40th one in 5 minutes with basically nothing else happening was "oh, ok, door..". I didn't finish it as I found myself stuck in a room where I couldn't see basically anything, but in general the game wasn't entertaining enough after the first minutes and I wasn't really interested in continuing. Running through the maze became a chore, which is a pity, considering the focus that the author has put on the artistic side