Heart Lock: A Free Metroid Inspired Game

CRAFT SPELLS. DIE. REPEAT.

Heart Lock is a concise, standalone Metroid-like game that introduces players to its larger sequel, Mind Lock. While there are over 20,000 unique spells to craft, there is also plenty of loot and secrets to discover in this mazelike world.


Overview

Enter a world inside your own heart. Watch your memories come to life before you, as you come to face life struggles that may seem all too familiar.

Heart Lock is a 2D metroidvania experience that welcomes players to explore strange worlds and craft hundreds of custom spells never seen before. This game wants you to crave exploration, and to craft your way to success.


Features

Core Abilities

From the beginning of the game, players are able to perform a few core abilities: hover, dodge, and shield/deflect. We have created several more core abilities, but these will be unlocked throughout the game.

Spells

Players can craft and cast dozens of unique spells with Gems. Soon we will be adding the "Mod" socket, which allows players to attach special effects to their spells! Over time, we will improve the visuals (such as element color and texture), crafting cost, and power of all spells.

Elemental Barriers

Players will encounter Elemental Barriers that require specific spells to break. In a typical metroidvania, players are required to unlock abilities that enable them to progress. In addition to ability-driven progression, we hope to push that standard by instilling a crafting-driven progression design.

Critters

Little monsters run amuck in this world! You must craft spells powerful enough to defeat them. These critters drop Gems, Dust, and XP. Over time, each critter will be tailored to have their own unique stats, loot drops, and behaviors. Currently their combat stats are slightly imbalanced, and their AI is kinda dumb, but we will be improving this with more player feedback.

Boss

Heart Lock has one unique boss fight. A dark, mysterious manifestation haunts you. Upon defeating this boss, new gameplay modes will be unlocked.

The Pillow Fort

Relaxing as a park bench, and comforting as a campfire. The Pillow Fort gives players the means to become stronger, and customize their stats to be more effective in combat. In addition, the Pillow Fort allows players to listen to music, or even build your own pillow fort!

Loot

All around the world, players will loot various items to help them on their journey. Loot currently includes Gems, Dust, XP, and Charms. Players can equip Charms to increase their stats or movement speed.

World Traversal

As players explore, they will encounter plants that grow beneath their feet. As the game intentionally has no map, Tracking Flora was added to help players keep track of places they've already explored. It's quite pleasing to watch the world come to life around you!



"Before You Buy"
...wait, this game is free! Even so, here are some things to be mindful of.


What this game offers

An experience derived from Dark Souls and Super Metroid
Though Heart Lock draws inspiration from their mechanics, Heart Lock provides a lighthearted & whimsical atmosphere. We hope to offer joy in using Heart Lock's character abilities and tools.

Alternative gameplay intensities
Heart Lock is designed to be a relaxing experience, however players can unlock alternate gameplay modes to face new challenges.

An engaging spell crafting system
This is the core mechanic of Heart Lock that sets it apart from other similar games. This mechanic is so important that we have intentionally left out physical weapons. Your spells are your weapon.


What this game does NOT offer

Polished graphics
The focus of this game is on the mechanics. Even unpolished, the environments communicate the desired emotion and mysticism as the developer intended.

Micro-transactions or ads
Heart Lock is a concise, standalone game. It is nothing beyond that, however the game's reception & reviews will help us consider building a large-scale sequel.

Cutting-edge AI
The enemies seen in the game emulate simple behaviors, this is intentional. The critters are annoying little turds even with their primitive AI scripts.

Crazy platforming sections
Many new Metroid-like games feel obligated to add challenging platforming sections to progress. In Heart Lock, platforms exist to enable exploration, versus hinder it.


What this game could do better

Collision bugs!
Like most physics-driven games, Heart Lock still sees players experience clipping. There is an "enemy floating" bug that has been intentionally left in the code because it's really funny to watch.

More spells!
We look forward to adding more fun, weird, or astonishing spells in the future.

More music!
Nik originally wanted to be a music composer before he became a coder. The music is on the back-burner because, even if you have music, you can't have a video game without the code.

Better menu animations
The current menu system is over a year old, and needs to be re-written. Please bear with the transitions. Please restart the game if you softlock in a menu screen.

Hardware inclusion
Though we have carefully architected the game to optimize the performance, this game has only been tested on a few computers (all of which are mid or high-grade gaming machines). Even if there is demand, we cannot promise any specific features toward performance tweaks.