FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD34 → Shaman Flower

Shaman Flower

By saintheiser

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness1100
Overall284.10
Fun383.96
Mood413.96
Graphics524.25
Audio633.83
Innovation1313.76
Theme1734.08
Humor2692.84

Comments

ranmaru90 2015-12-14 05:11

Wow! Awesome!

2015-12-15 02:32

O_O

nuprahtor 2015-12-15 12:47

The game became pretty hectic sometimes, but overall it plays really good, though I wish a way to speed up the flower, it's really tedious to wait till flower reaches your level so you can jump farther

gwakamolestudio 2015-12-16 02:16

Cool features, your game is really original even if a little bit hard (when I see the poor percent I achieved x)) good ideas !

lavwa 2015-12-16 02:29

Nice gameplay, the graphics are good, the audio kinda stressful, interesting use of the theme :)

dakkon69 2015-12-16 02:43

Super fun game, very well done!

ybalrid 2015-12-16 18:11

I LOVE it! I really do!

dinnerinthedark 2015-12-16 18:12

Nice and polished!

chaoscult 2015-12-16 18:30

So addictive gameplay. Really cool. 5 star fun.

bubuiic 2015-12-16 18:59

The game look very cool. Sadly no linux version :-(.

travisroot1 2015-12-17 06:16

Agh wish I could play it, it looks so cool and sounds so deep. Web or OS X version soon??

yakka 2015-12-17 12:55

Really polished game, good job!

bubuiic 2015-12-17 13:14

Wow! Definitely the best game I played so far. :-)
Very good job! Quite subtle use of the themes also :-).
Also it's quite a complex game for a compo entry. Takes a few plays to actually understand everything that's going on.
And thanks for the linux version! :-)

oddly-shaped-pixels 2015-12-17 16:06

Really interesting game mechanics and nice use of the theme, very appealing also, a really good job done here, congrats.

stelots 2015-12-18 20:33

im amazed.

srakowski 2015-12-18 20:56

Really great game. Graphics and audio rock, style is awesome. Well done!

adamgryu 2015-12-18 21:33

Very nice entry! I would have liked it if it got harder more quickly, but the game is simple and very nice feeling.

vdz 2015-12-19 14:27

It's a great game, however it's a bit too hectic and there seem to be some weird balance issues. (Don't worry, the rating is high, these details are just nitpicking and explaining why I'm unlikely to replay the game much.)

There is too much going on at the same time. You are trying not to get crushed, avoiding spikes, dodging enemies and killing enemies. At the same time, you are collecting clouds and torches, picking up healing items, touching weapon upgrade things and grabbing score pickups. This all is done while repeatedly switching between two characters with significantly different gameplay, which can both independently switch between weapons. Interface-wise, you have to keep track of the sun gauge and the rain gauge and your health while you're doing all this. It's just way too much to handle in a fast-paced game like this with no breaks between the action sequences.

Feedback also seems slightly lacking; though I generally grasped what was going on, it wasn't entirely clear to me when I was hit (there are too many things going on at the same time - was that the enemy being crushed just now or did I get hit by the enemy?), and I could never get a grasp on how much health I had left (it's only subtly visible all the way at the top of the screen; I am not reminded of it when I am hit and there are no audio cues telling me I'm about to die). Similarly, I never really knew where the sun/rain gauges were at unless the platform was stopped and I had both the time (not much going on) and incentive (something's wrong, must be the gauges) to check it out. Audio cues might have helped here.

The weapons seem extremely inconsistent. Some weapons completely obliterate everything, while others seem to hardly do anything even if you spam them in the enemy's face. Combined with the 'one weapon at a time' replacement mechanic, this leads to situations where one moment you're destroying everything and the next moment you're suddenly utterly helpless. You're screwed in particular when both of your characters have a weak weapon.

Although for the most part the level generation was great, never feeling dull, there were some weird designs, notably parts where you apparently can't grab a weapon without being crushed? There was also this weird inconsistency where on some designs you could move up by jumping, while in other designs your high jump just wouldn't reach. It also seemed a bit strange how much superior the Rain Shaman's jump was to the Sun Shaman's; even a perfectly executed Sun Shaman jump doesn't reach as high or far as a Rain Shaman jump. Jumping as the Rain Shaman always seems preferable.

The distance goal seems ridiculous. Rather than not being able to survive to that point, I don't think I can play for that long in a single session without getting bored; it seems like it would take way too long to get there. Particularly with the non-stop action without any breaks, I don't think I would want to play for that long in a single session. The difficulty also seems too unforgiving in an inconsistent way; I can get hit by enemies many times, but a single positioning mistake getting me crushed ends the game immediately. If the game is intended to be that long, that's just way too harsh. Instant death becomes exponentially harsher as more progress is lost by it.

Still, all of this is just nitpicking, issues that keep this from becoming an 'amazing game' rather than just a 'great game'. The graphics and audio were great as always, and it was fun to play.

holyblackcat 2015-12-19 14:58

Really awesome game!

nsadie 2015-12-19 15:28

Really fun too play and well rounded game although the flower moves a little too slow for the amount of variation. Loved the weapons.

necromac 2015-12-19 19:45

Great game with fun mechanics!

ottersden 2015-12-22 02:54

This game is awesome in every way. The theme was really good, but mostly it's just a really fun game! The graphics are really cool too, how they mix the old retro style of bit games with new features such as lighting and particle effects. The artwork and idea behind it is clever and beautifully executed.

It's very challenging, too, which is great! I will be keeping this one on my computer to play for a long time, trying to beat it!

dcrfj15 2015-12-22 03:09

Awesome! I was only able to get to ~15% in the time I played, but it was fun. I liked that there were upgrades for the weapons as well as two abilities for the player to switch between (rain / sun). All of the small features for the game such as the lanterns which the sun form could turn on for light were great!
It did seem like the level was very long though. That would be my only criticism. Overall great work!

budi 2015-12-22 14:24

Awesome, like it!

mr-madcat-2 2015-12-22 15:05

Great game.
Very fitting artstyle and music.
Not much more to say. ;)

tantumgames 2015-12-22 15:28

Cool casual game, nice graphics and sound, good job. It would be cool to play a game to mobile.

cheesyramen 2015-12-22 16:48

Great job! Reminds me of playing Downwell, but up.... Upwell? :D

freaknarf 2015-12-22 20:43

Excellent game. Probably the best of this LD i've played so far. SGreat pixel art, smooth animations, good and gamefeel, great innovative gameplay, nice amount of different bonuses and weapons,cool audio,cute characters...I could go on.
Really super nice work.
I feel a bit bad because i've only reached 15% so far but i'll play again later for sure.
Congrats.

bloodjohn 2015-12-26 17:12

it is unclear, but it is fun. I see that done a lot of work

sinclairstrange 2016-01-04 18:44

This is amazing! I really love the graphics and the mood this gives off! The gameplay is hectic and brilliant as well. Fantastic job here, one of my favourites!