FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD30 → Arcaena

Arcaena

By kunonooni

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness356
Audio6812.47
Humor7762.00
Mood8492.65
Theme8532.77
Graphics10522.26
Fun11462.07
Innovation11711.90
Overall11922.22

Comments

fanttum 2014-08-26 01:01

I feel like this was made for an old computer, and maybe you were going for that but it just feels clunky

flashrocks 2014-08-26 01:25

It was interesting, but I lost interest rather fast (and the repetitive arrow clicking was annoying)

flashrocks 2014-08-26 01:26

*neat. That is, it was a neat concept but should have been more enemies along the way of something.

mramaizng 2014-08-26 01:34

It does indeed feel clunky. perhaps some smooth tweening while moving would make it feel a little better. Though It seems you are consistent with style. Well done!

jannesn 2014-08-26 01:48

I like the consequent simplicity/retro style and the maze search for the boss, though the button smashing is kind of tiring.
The bosses are no real challenge, maybe a button for evading would have made it more interesting?

nylonica 2014-08-26 02:31

I lost interest but is a good idea.

seantheartist 2014-08-26 02:38

The maze layouts seemed kinda random, I wish there was more meaning to the mazes because it could be really interesting with your theme. I also felt like each weapon could've had more use. In later worlds it was always better to use the newest more powerful weapon, no incentives to try out different combos. Cool start!

h1s2 2014-08-26 02:40

I liked these oldschool graphics. The old attacks become pretty useless in the new levels and after lossing in a battle I came to an dead end (no new portal)
But overall it is a nice game. Keep the goo work.

hundredhundred 2014-08-26 03:30

The gameplay is too simplistic and doesn't seem to require any skill (except for the last boss, I think). The maze also seem too luck and trial an error based, so it's not rewarded when you find your way and it's frustrating when you get lost. Having to tap the arrow keys to move 1 space got tedious quickly.

hundredhundred 2014-08-26 03:33

The fighting felt like it doesn't involve much skill (just using your latest move) except perhaps for the boss fight; but even then I'm not sure how I won I just used moves which I felt countered what the boss used. The maze feel too luck/trial an error based, it's not rewarding to complete and frustrating most of the time. Also the tapping of arrow keys to move get's tedious very quickly. Holding down to move would be much better.

hundredhundred 2014-08-26 03:35

The fighting felt like it doesn't involve much skill except perhaps for the boss fight; but even then I'm not sure how I won I just used moves which I felt countered what the boss used. The maze feel too luck/trial an error based, it's not rewarding to complete and frustrating most of the time. Also the tapping of arrow keys to move get's tedious very quickly. Holding down to move would be much better.

hundredhundred 2014-08-26 03:37

I am so sorry. I did not mean to spam you, I thought the website wasn't saving my rating comments, I did not realise they were down here. My apologies!

andrewkennedy 2014-08-26 04:21

I wanted to see where this was going with the different skills, but I poofed out of the second level (along the right wall) and then couldn't get back in. I kinda feel like I was playing a game on my old win 3.1 machine back in the day, very nostalgic sounds and environments!

awesomeusername 2014-08-26 04:23

I liked the opening and ending sequences.

deathray 2014-08-26 05:06

It's mostly just mazes, but I dig the retro style and music.
There's a bug though: I died on the earth-world boss, was sent back to the portal room, but there were no more portals. :(

adventureislands 2014-08-26 09:16

I think you should let the player move around by just holding the control keys, constantly tapping movement gets very tiring fast. Also there could have been more battles in the dungeons and more rpg elements to keep things interesting, just running blindly in mazes isn't very fun for long.

psychomonster 2014-08-26 10:19

nice intro sequence. are the mazes random generated? If yes, then the mazes should be the main feature cause its better for playing the more often :) Good job

kunonooni 2014-08-26 12:04

@deathray when you die and are brought back to the portal room you need to speak with the guy again and he will open the portal for you.

@psychomonster nope the mazes are not randomly generated.

@andrewkennedy You poofed out of the second level? I will have to check on this. might be a possible bug.

Thank you all for your feedback.

p4nurge 2014-08-27 07:15

I agree with some of the other comments saying it could do with a little more variety and skill in the actual fights, and I also would have liked to be able to hold down a key to move rather than tapping, but otherwise I really enjoyed this. The retro feel is nice and the premise is interesting and fun.

mlinus 2014-08-28 06:37

The basic idea was good but as others have already said, it would be nice if you could hold down the keys to walk instead of tapping and tapping and tapping. :)

georgebroussard 2014-08-29 05:28

Solid entry, and you asked for feedback on Twitter, so hope this helps. First, it's great that you made it feel complete. Has a beginning, middle and end. That's hard to do in 48hrs regardless. Critique: 1) mazes aren't really fun, ever. Especially without an auto-map. So I perhaps would have made smaller mazes to begin with. You also could have opened them up, vs having them be 1 block wide. Open the areas, let ppl have room to breath. 2) the boss combat wasn't really much gameplay. There was never a reason to use anything other than the top spell. You may could have had stun spells, healing spells andpower spells, or something along those lines, and let the player choose based on the situation. 3) having some pickups in the maze (health, gold) and things to fight (they take your health and gold) would go a long way to making it more interesting. I'd spend a couple weeks polishing this and adding some of the above concepts, and your own and see if you can make a more compelling experience. You will learn a lot from that. Everyone above has great feedback. Learn from it and keep going.

georgebroussard 2014-08-29 05:29

And yes...the ability to hold a key to walk is mandatory here :) Good luck!

shivur 2014-09-02 03:59

The mazes are a good challenge, but the bosses are too easy.

rhy3756547 2014-09-05 16:12

Nice work! The battle system could have used a little more strategy; I just spammed the last move I learned and won every fight. The mazes were also pretty uninteresting, but the game felt complete and had a good amount of content.

jaj 2014-09-15 09:19

Good to see you try something new! The biggest thing this was missing for me is a strategic element in the battles, as you could just win any battle by using the newest weapon over and over.

It doesn't have to be a complex addition. Just think of a simple way to give the player more choices that matter. (Give the lightning a 25% chance of having the opponent being unable to move for example, or having an attack that also heals a bit of HP)