badosz 2017-08-01 09:18
LOVE IDEA AND MOOD! GOOD JOB!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD39 → Elemental Conflict
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 650 | 3.00 | 42 | |
| Fun | 709 | 2.67 | 42 | |
| Innovation | 391 | 3.10 | 42 | |
| Theme | 607 | 3.20 | 42 | |
| Graphics | 658 | 2.85 | 42 | |
| Humor | 563 | 1.97 | 37 | |
| Mood | 652 | 2.73 | 40 |
LOVE IDEA AND MOOD! GOOD JOB!
The overall idea was cool, and the graphics were also good. The game could have a bit of work done, but overall it was really fun and i will play again. Good Job
Could really use some sound and a bit of visual feedback for each attack. I like the concept, nice presentation and good art.
Very nice game! Kinda confusing, but the core gameplay was fun, so good job!
The interface was a bit confusing at first. I lost a couple times because I thought my action would trigger before the enemy's turn. Some visual feedback to show what happens and when would be helpful.
But the idea and gameplay were cool, and it was pretty fun to play once I understood how to read the screen.
Thank you very much! The abilities are a bit too simple right now and some might even have some incorrect text in their descriptions. We ran out of time before ironing them out.
Definitely, conveying what's going on to the player is something that could use some improvement.
Thank you very much for the encouraging feedback!
For me - it`s difficlt)) Watch my game about Space and Planet: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/scale-of-life
Turn-based games can be tough to get right in such a short time, especially if you want to include a number of different abilities. I think you've done a great job with this entry! My only gripes were with the length of each battle (too long), and some confusing feedback -- it wasn't clear how damage against me was tallied, and I never seemed near death.
I spent a bit of time looking for my hp, I only realized when I died :) I also get confused when actions happens, maybe because it is placed on the same location and with the same font/color than other text.
@ninjascribble: Thank you very much! The state machine of the enemy can vary quite a bit, if it goes in its defensive mode it might stay there for a while and the battle can become a bit protracted. That should be easy to adjust.
Yes, the way abilities actually resolve could be a bit more verbose, but we were limited both by time and resolution. That is definitely something worth improving though.
Just as an extra clarification, in case people are interested. If you are attacked and defend you either nullify the damage completely, if you defended using the opposing element of the attack, or you just half it, if you defended with an element which isn't the opposing element. Values are rounded up. Therefore, a 0.5 damage would become a 1. With so many 1 damage abilities it gets a bit silly, that's something that would have gotten fixed if we had half a day more.
When you take damage you lose one energy from a pool at random for each point of damage. This choice and the random rewards after defeating an enemy are meant to add some variety to the powers you use.
@pnkthrepwood: Yes, you are very correct regarding the text, it seems that it is confusing for a lot of people and we weren't 100% satisfied with it either. Something worth paying more attention to in the future! Thank you!
Nice job! Favorite part of the game is choosing what new ability you want. Mostly played it as a game of Rock Paper Scissors and spammed a stronger attack until it ran out. Could use some UI/audio feedback more than anything, but its def a solid game. :)
Turn based games always have a special place in my heart, and this is no exception!
Like the concept! Little bit unobvious whether it's my resources or not on the top.
Really cool concept. I liked the reward system after defeating the enemy the most, but my first reward was skipped because I couldn't figure out that you need to choose a spell slot for it :D
Anyway, good job!
Really liking the idea and art, but some audiovisual feedback would've vastly improved it. Plus, an interactive tutorial would be great, as the game is somewhat complex and reading the wall of text isn't fun.
As some people mentioned before UI could be a little bit improved, but overall it was a fun experience.
Cool game! It was enjoyable once passed a first phase of confusion. I liked the art and the simplicity of the concept.
Maybe you could add a diagram in game at any time that shows you element counters and resistances? Would be more useful than a tutorial in my opinion. It was hard to remember it all after reading the instructions.
Another thing that would help a lot and would be easy to implement is to gray out the buttons when you can't use them. So you know where you're at and you wouldn't try to click them during the "click to continue" phase. It's also a nice general rule to keep in mind: the appearance of a control should always reflect whether or not it's possible to use it.
Cool game! It was enjoyable once passed a first phase of confusion. I liked the art and the simplicity of the concept.
Maybe you could add a diagram in game at any time that shows you element counters and resistances? Would be more useful than a tutorial in my opinion. It was hard to remember it all after reading the instructions.
Another thing that would help a lot and would be easy to implement is to gray out the buttons when you can't use them. So you know where you're at and you wouldn't try to click them during the "click to continue" phase. It's also a nice general rule to keep in mind: the appearance of a control should always reflect whether or not it's possible to use it.
Really good concept! The rules are a bit hard to grasp but I figured them out halfway through my first game. Great work on the visuals as well! It lacks a bit of visualization for how energy is lost but it still works fine! I feel the ability mechanic is really good as well, though some spells could last many turns or have some more refined abilities? I'd love to see a post-jam version though! Rock-solid entry! I recorded some gameplay, would you mind if I uploaded it? Edit: Yup, will share a link ;)
@flyingmeta: Thank you! Spamming your strongest ability is currently the best strategy unless it belongs to the resistant or opposing element and the enemy defends against it. More abilities would shake that up. Gaining and losing energy pseudo-randomly is meant to force using different abilities too.
@bill-zeng: If turn based games are your thing the two of us are going to become good friends. :)
@coauctor: Some visual feedback when you lose or gain energy, like other people suggested, would most likely alleviate that.
@thirrash: I'll reimburse you the lost power! :) Thank you!
@apple-dash: You are very correct! I wrote the help/description and I knew from start to finish that that's not the way to do it. But this is what happens when you only have two hours left. I fully agree with you that the game is definitely complex enough to warrant an interactive tutorial.
@assoonasimpossible: Definitely true! Also evidently so due to the number of people specifically complaining about it. Thank you!
Just as a side note, if you click the menu in the upper left corner you can see a scrollable log of the game. Going through that can sometimes elucidate what actually happened.
@pouleyketchoupp: Thank you!
Daniel added an elemental affinity screen in the help menu. It's a bit goofy and you have to go through so many menus to see it, but he did this with 30 minutes left on the clock. It should definitely involve more arrows and always be displayed on screen.
We intended to have the buttons grayed out when not usable. Aren't they disabled when "Click to continue" is displayed? If they aren't it's a bug. :)
@fusionnist: Yes, as many people above have mentioned, the visual feedback is lacking in a lot of critical places unfortunately.
I had so many ideas for different powers. Things that would last for multiple turns, some that would boost other abilities or weaken some of the enemy abilities. There is skeleton code for having powers do really funky things, the only thing that uses it at all is the Fire Shield that deals damage if it countered an attack and the Blaze ability. I quickly realized that that was way beyond our alloted time. That's personally my biggest complaint with it right now, the abilities are way too vanilla, but that was the only thing we could offer within the time restrictions.
We already have a rebalanced post-jam version that is only marginally different but a lot more fun.
You asking for a post-jam version is the biggest compliment I could have ever wished for. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll see something major in that direction. However, if this was something that you enjoyed, some of the other games we're working on should definitely scratch the same itch, they follow the same game design philosophy.
You are more than welcome to upload gameplay of it! Please share the link with me, I'd love to see it.
Thank you, all, again! We're truly humbled by the great feedback we've received!
Clever game!
Link shared! https://youtu.be/qRZ67KLvWnE
Cool game. Reminded me of Pokemon. The user interface needs some smoothing as plenty of times you need 2 clicks to do an action. Could have used some sound effect. Overall OK.
@fusionnist: That was a great video. It was really interesting to see how you explored the game. Really outlines the strengths and weakness very well.
@gistnoesis: Some of my friends mentioned the similarities to Pokemon too. I only have a superficial knowledge of Pokemon. So it's purely incidental, but still definitely something people have mentioned before.
I think it usually displays some enemy information when you require that extra click. I don't think any one screen requires two clicks to get through. That being said, you're definitely correct that the UI doesn't flow very well, that's definitely something putting more effort into next time.
Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah! Nice game, I love the way you have to control the elements in a different way!
I remind a little Pokemon with the effect of the attack.
It so bad you have to prevent the ennemy action in reading, it's broke the thing and there is no surprise.
Anyway, really good game! So bad there is no audio
I also say I want a post-jam version in it ;)
Seems simple but actually has some fairly deep mechanics. I did find one odd thing though: After defeating an elemental clicking on the powers to get them didn't seem to work, so I always had to select "skip".
@quadtree: You need to click on one of the six power slots after selecting a power. You can either choose to override an existing power or assign it to a free slot.
It's another counterintuitive choice. Because of the game mechanisms there's a once in a blue moon reason to override a power you have even if you have a free slot available.
Thank you very much, that's exactly the feeling I was going for!
Ok. I got the general idea which is great. But it looked a little messy to me. Why do I have to click again when I already clicked my spell? I was not sure that it did something when I clicked it. Did I missed something? It can be a really fun game with more tuning on feedback of the action :wink:
Wow, a turn-based game! I thought that the graphics were charming. Do moves recharge? I had trouble defeating the water enemy because I had run out of fire moves.
@bombjack: The game is very verbose right now. After you've clicked the power it's going to run you step by step through every bit of information. I don't think it requires two clicks for anything, but it's super easy to miss because it's just some text changing.
Definitely something worth paying more attention to for future projects.
@theaspiringhacker: When you defeat an enemy you get energy based on its type pseudo-randomly. That energy is what you use for your powers. Yes, you'll most likely run out of one type of energy if you keep spamming it. This is on purpose to have you use different powers. You can, and should, use non-fire attacks on the water elemental too. If the water elemental uses its defence, which is obviously water based, it's going to completely nullify a fire attack as it is of the opposing element. Using an earth or air attack is the thing to do there or not attack at all.
it's a elegant et very fun game, thanks you!