The Last Wisp

thygrrr 2017-08-02 14:23

Whoaaa, pretty game! And hard game!

Likes: - beautiful music & okay sound fx (what did you use to make them, just audacity? any plugins?) - effective lighting - clean low poly art style - "seed your own adventure" generated levels. - pretty swirly particles, oh my! - supports glorious 3440x1440 @ 100Hz with "Fantastic" quality, even though it suggested minimum details on first launch. :)

Try differently: - have you considered some hit feedback and general "juice" (see video below)? - brutally hard, I never survived over a minute. Took me a while that maybe Seed 122 was a bit hard. :) - the sticky item controls really threw me into a loop a few times. many other games just have tap-key-then-place before resuming normal operation

Overall: - very nice entry - the seed mechanic actually adds replay value! I'm going in one more time... damn, it's hard.

The talk about game feel:+ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

matkubik 2017-08-02 14:23

I really like the mood of your game ! The graphics and audio are pretty great too. Good job !

madalaski 2017-08-02 14:24

Not sure why you're required to enter an integer seed. There are ways of generating it randomly, plus you can convert any string into an integer using hashcodes. Still a fun and very good looking game with some neat music and controls!

taras 2017-08-02 14:38

For the first run it spawned me trapped inside rock) wisp.png

That aside, graphics look nice - low poly rocks and particles, enemies could be less sphere-like.

You should generate seed randomly, asking that from player every time is a bad idea, keep this as option.

Fog of war looks really creepy when you've run out of light, but yeah, i don't see a straightforward solution for this.

alex-tantum 2017-08-02 17:29

Yes, this is a cool game. Graphics and audio are amazing, the gameplay is interesting, random production is very cool, but it would be better if it was automatic, excellent work

garazbolg2 2017-08-02 17:37

I think the shrinking of the fog adds tension, you're like "Where were those damn rock I swear they were closer". Really cool game, the items were took too long to use for their benefits and I was too concentrated on my own moves to learn how to use them. Something you could do for that is not have them both at the starts which forces you fight without them at first to learn the basics, then you xp allows you to play with one then the other, instead of having to learn everything at ones. I really felt the theme here, great job !

chaotikza 2017-08-02 19:08

Wow - really nice entry!! Reminded me an awful lot of http://store.steampowered.com/app/349100/Notrium/...

I was very flustered the first time it started to turn dark and then about the 2nd try started realising that the light level is tied to my health / power - having just the one resource was quite an interesting choice.

I found it quite easy to survive for 3 minutes or more - mostly by running away - didn't use the items much, they were a bit too clunky to activate while running away and the short durations made them not feel worth the effort... Likewise with the light particles from killed enemies - it wasn't worth running into the mobs of ranged enemies to fetch the particles, nor was it clear if killing and harvesting was a net gain of energy.

The biggest issue I have is that the game is all tension all the time... some form of pacing would've been nice, like escalating waves with breaks in between or perhaps some higher level objectives like kill all the monsters; kill all the monster generators; or have a certain amount of rocks turn glowy.

Really promising entry though - lots more you could do with this one...

nikrt 2017-08-02 19:13

Game looks and feels amazing with all the lights and audio visual going on. Both the components have been nicely fitted together. Good game

pixel-game-wizard 2017-08-02 20:41

Your game, artistically and technically, is quite nice. The visuals are generally beautiful (the enemies . The audio is beautiful and fitting. I really like the option to input a seed. :-D

The gameplay does feel a bit strange to me. I start out and wander for a few seconds to get my bearings. Then before I know it I find myself getting swarmed. I did manage to survive about 90 seconds once.

I found item usage a bit awkward... it seemed fairly complex to use them (first press the key, then find a good spot, and click again, then press the key again to disable placement mode). I'd think in a fast-paced game like this, item use should be a bit simpler. Maybe you press the key, and it places a single item at your position?

I find myself agreeing with @thygrrr who made an excellent post above.

Thank you for sharing this. I would be interested to see how it is developed further, if that is your intention. Good luck! :-)

narudgi 2017-08-02 22:43

ooooh, this is quite interesting ! I don't really have to say more than the other ; expect nice art and tech, gameplay feeling strange ; overall good O:

I look forward if there is a development after jam ! o/

(for my game just in case : "BEST VERSION" is crappy one made at start of the jam)

gengi 2017-08-03 00:46

Let myself lose at around 460 seconds strictly using the right click. Didn't find items to be very useful because of the energy cost and low duration. It's not a bad game. You've got a solid mechanic that works and presents the player with a bit of challenge. But it's a single state of difficulty regardless of how long you play. The game didn't present me with any obstacles that would require me to use left click or items. In other words, they didn't add anything to my overall experience.

So there are some game aspects that could be further developed. The particle system was great, you fit the theme, music and sounds were fitting. And I didn't find any game breaking bugs other then being able to right click enemies on the other side of rocks. In the end, a solid effort for a 2man team.

paulo-brunassi 2017-08-03 16:11

Good entry man, I liked the graphics and the sounds for your game.

davideperozzi 2017-08-04 16:50

Well done! Like the sound and graphic combination. Fits perfectly! It's a litte bit hard but overall a very solid game! :)

irishbruse 2017-08-05 18:41

Nice game you have there difficult but i think that helps the game. cool game nice job.

meta-link 2017-08-06 10:49

Nice game !

The feeling is really good and it fit very well the theme. Goob job :)

elizabeth-thomas 2017-08-06 15:52

The graphics and sound are incredible, the game is tough but enjoyable. I liked the asking the player for the seed, it gave a sense of control, that the play quickly lost when when the game started and quickly became difficult.

fwazle 2017-08-08 21:10

Very beautiful game! The sound effects is a little laud compared to the music. Sometimes I can't hear the music at all because I'm being swarmed with enemy projectiles. Overall the game is really fun! Well done! :3

rialgar 2017-08-08 22:06

I love the concept and the moody atmosphere. However, for me at least, it was too hard. I got quickly surrounded by enemies, but trying to kill them would only reduce my light, even if they never hit me. So I ran away and from one glow rock to another, which also was only of limited success.

evanmhm 2017-08-08 23:31

There were some balancing issues for difficulty, but the overall game was pretty good :) I was impressed by the generated levels and the particle effects. I was also impressed by the fairly in depth mechanics for a LD submission.

rikoclon 2017-08-10 05:30

A few things kinda killed the mood for me, one was that the character seemed really fast at first and then was slow until it happened again then next time I played, and this was confusing. the rocks at first I thought were bad, but I read the instructions and realized its the spheres that are bad. I Couldn't get very far because too many bad guys came on too quick. I, at one point, got enough xp to build but then I died. I couldn't get that far again. Its a cool Idea for a game but it wasn't executed very well. I would have liked to see more feeling in the attacks and hits. I did like the generated level design.

icxon 2017-08-13 18:57

Got a good seed and was able to play without buildings. Sometimes building icons are green but pressing 1 or 2 results nothing. Couple of times I built Beacon and Barrier -- but they got destroyed very quickly. And beacon is way too large (but maybe it's on purpose). I think I need to play more to get the flow of a gameplay.

Here is my playtest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKVaJYezGyg

*1234 seed is the best!*

dino-jr 2017-08-14 18:31

the game is beautiful, I really like the effects and the sounds, even it's to hard, is funny and I liked, pretty good work, congratulations.