Echo: The Oracle's Scroll
A downloadable game
Echo: The Oracle's Scroll is a non-violent metroidvania, focused on jumping puzzles and exploration for the Playdate.
Explore a fading world and best its many challenges. As an adventurous child, you'll embark on a quest to deliver a scroll from Bottomrock up to The Archives. Journey through magma lakes and overgrown caverns as you venture through The Kingdoms Three!
(also available on Catalog)
Features
- Explore a vast, interconnected world with 250+ levels
- Grow by finding new items and abilities
- Overcome quests to gain favour with each Kingdom
- Uncover a map with tons of collectibles & secrets
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $7.04 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Playdate Advent Calendar Sale2 days ago
- V1.01d changelog22 days ago
- V1.01c changelog47 days ago
- v1.01b changelog62 days ago
Comments
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Seems very interesting game. Any chance of a pc release in the future?
I appreciate the interest! Yeah defo, I don’t know when cause work is busy for next month or 2, but it’ll likely launch on pc at some point next year, could be earlier but the latest would likely be mid summer.
Great game! I really enjoyed the exploration and the good platforming challenges. I'm trying to get the 100% (around 5 hours of gameplay). The only (small) downside is that the ending was interrupted by a bug (I wanted to screeshot the epilog and the Playdate crashed when I did it... When I restarted, the character was gone forever).
Sorry about that, I’m gonna try and put out a fix for people that have had this soon, just had a lot on at work.
I’m gonna add an interactable that will re trigger the final cutscene, and try to fix future crashes, I’m pretty sure they’re “out of memory” errors, so I’ll need to garbage collect manually or something.
No rush ;) The amount of work you put into the game is tremendous.
the game is great, but it has 4 levels not 250. I think you must mean 250+ screens.
Anyhow, i absolutely loved it.
Thanks!! That’s fair, I tend to think of the screens as levels and the 4 groups of levels as areas, but you’re right that it’s probably not how players see them, I’ll think about changing it soon :)
I would say “4 adventure areas, over 250 screens”
What a great game! Sooooo happy to see such an amazing adventure game for Play date <3 hats down for the developer! But I am stuck at Lava Lake start :/ I am walking in circles and there’s no way for me to continue:)) pleaseeee give us a little tip
Thank you!! I’m guessing the guard won’t let you through? If it is at that point, the crumbling ground might reveal a path down!
If it’s not at that point then lemme know I’ll try to help in more detail in a dm or something
There’s a thread in the games channel of the playdate squad discord as well, where players share hints and tips for the game :D
Just wanted to express my support for such a great game! Only at Lava Lake, but enjoying it so much!
Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it :D
amazing game! Just helped the blacksmith clean his chimney - he said I can now smash through boulders or something? How do I do that, did I run into a bug?
Ahh thank you, it’s a little convoluted so I can understand the confusion, basically you just double jump near any breakable rock, the boom from your boots will smash the rock! :D
It was an attempt at a new kind of metroidvania ability, I’m unsure of it’s success design wise but it does feel a little cool
Ah! perfect! - as a mechanic its great, mabye the animation could emanate shock waves out a bit more or the rocks break upon landing
Ooo that’s a good bit of polish to add at some point! Yee, a small extra bit of vfx could work
Been in my wishlist for a while now, really happy it was included in the recent catalogue sale. However, any chance of a demo (just 1-2 rooms), in order to get a feel for the controls and atmosphere? I love me some demos.
I’d love to make a little demo for it, but I don’t think I’ll be able to anytime soon, I’m back at work and mostly focusing my spare time on bug fixes / extra content for a later update at some point.
I also love demos and knowing me I’ll at least want to make it a fun little thing with an objective to complete :D
A proper, multi-hour metroidvania, one of the best games on the Playdate!
Thanks Orkn!! That means a lot coming from you, still lots to optimise but I wouldn’t have gotten a bunch of the bugs fixed as fast without your help, I appreciate it a lot!
Just excellent! In my top 3 Playdate games for sure! Atmosphere is amazing, the controls and gameplay are spot on and satisfying. This is a metroidvania I WANTED to explore every bit of.
Very minor nit picks:
I only took the time to type out this feedback because of how really impressed I am with Echo: The Oracle's Scroll. If you own a Playdate this is a must play if you even kinda like platformers and metroidvanias.
Ahh wow, thank you so much!! This is such a nice thing to read, I will absolutely try to address a few of these issues in updates!
Performance of the game, especially in the second trial, along with how hard it is to find the last heart piece should hopefully be taken care of in the next update and that should be up this weekend!
For the riddle, Apathy is supposed to relate to it causing no concern but overall, riddle design is somewhat new to me, I might take another stab at rewording it.
Completely agree on the ending, I would like to add a very tiny cutscene to at least give it a bit of a climax. It was a victim of having to wrap up the game for release. Defo something I’d like to rework if I can justify a big update.
The player character being so understated is something I can understand not liking, it’s a design choice that has pros and cons, they’re kind of a proto-link (zelda) and as silent a protagonist as possible.
This is my first game in this series and I imagine that I’ll follow a similar trajectory, developing flourishes on the design with each new story.
I appreciate all this feedback so so much, I’m still stunned people are finishing the game, let alone caring enough to tell what they would want to like it more! Thank you!!
amazing! Hopefully when you update the ending you make it possible for folks who have already completed the last quest to talk again to the final quest turn-in character so we can see the new ending :)
This is the only thing I need left. Please help me I can't figure this out and it's driving me crazy.
(Apathy puzzle)
The hint that someone put in the playdate squad discord was this “The line that got it for me was the middle one. Clue: What are books made from?”
I don’t wanna spoil too much on a public message board but if you dm on twitter, bsky or discord I’ll happily give a bigger hint :D
That's the part I am gravitating to but after reading the comments. I feel like I won't get it. I'll be sure to message in a few days on twitter if I can't figure it out, thanks man.
No longer on catalog?
It released on both Catalog and Itch at the same time! :D
Oh, the Catalog link seems to be broken?
Oh wow, I’m so dumb! I linked to the dev page instead of the game page, can you tell this is my first time releasing a game…
Thank you, I’ve fixed it now :D
Thank YOU for developing such a great game :)
It is very great. But the riddles are too hard.
Thank you!! I defo understand that and I appreciate the feedback, I playtested them on a few people and tried to refine them as best as possible, there is one I might update to be a little clearer but I was aiming for them to be side objectives so none are needed to complete the game.
Thanks for updating your game. Great!