Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → Mana4Life
By Enrique, dawik9000, daveayuso and DarkAnHell
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 676 | 3.35 | 52 | |
| Fun | 681 | 3.19 | 52 | |
| Innovation | 437 | 3.32 | 52 | |
| Theme | 614 | 3.40 | 52 | |
| Humor | 444 | 3.18 | 50 | |
| Mood | 522 | 3.34 | 50 |
The use of the theme was quite unique, and the atmosphere is great, you should try expanding it to a full game, maybe adding more characters, enemies and powers. I had quite a lot of fun, even though I have a kind of wooden pc and was struggling to hold the performance, but it wasn't a game problem, it's just my pc (throws it in the trash), so yeah, good job! /Claps/
Awesome game! I think toggling abilities would have made it a little nicer, as well as adding a reticule to aim with but overall interesting concept and super fun to play.
@strelly thanks for the feedback, if we do end uo continuing this game we will surelly add more character and abilities :D
@flanksteak yupp, we thought about the reticule but we ended up forgetting about it xD. Thats what happens when you play your game up to the point where you dont need one hahah
I like this game but i thought that contraints on mouvements while casting were frustrated
The art is really well done and consistent and creates a nice atmosphere. The gameplay is interesting but doesn't do a great job at communicating exactly what is happening. It took me about four rounds to figure out that you need to balance out mana by being hit because there was no feedback for when I was actually hit by enemies, so it just looked like I was randomly getting health back.
The song spell is the best one, haha! Loved your idea, so innovating! Congratulations!
@thouyez we felt like the fireball was the only spell weak enough to allow you to move freely while casting, but thanks for your feedback!
@stom yeah, sound cues and some effects are missing, we will make sure to fix that if we continue developing this game!
Quick edit: Also, the art/music isn't ours - as we stated in the description - since all our team's artists were busy during the jam, but we tried to make the most out of what we could find!
@feedlipe thank you! The dance was the kind of idea that you jokingly implement but end up liking so much you just make it a feature :P
Oh, the chicken dance. Interesting concept, but it doesn't work for me that much, since a don't like to get hit in a hack/slash games. Still it was fun playing through this since I LOVE to cast spells **UNLIMITED POWER**. Cool game nonetheless, good job!
Seems like your audio levels are not corrected, menus is really loud compared to the game, thats just minor stuff though.
@prostone thanks for your thoughts. The audio is not bugged, the music gets louder each round- up to maximum to not hurt our players. So if you survive long enough, almost all you hear is metal while more waves come at you (they get faster and stronger each wave as well)
@darkanhell Oh I see! Thats pretty cool.
The balance of HP and Man was really interesting, and the game looked great! So many skeletons! :D Great job!
I didn't really get a good sense of when I was being hit and overall the game just kinda felt clunky.
@ilseroth hmm thats weird, it shouldnt feel cluncky at all, but about the feedback on getting hit thank you for it, we will take into account
POLYGON - Dungeons Pack by Synty Studios?
I've brought a pirates pack from asset store too, but donnot have time to make them a polished game.
It seems you got the points of how to set lightings. Good job~
@fangzhangmnm Yup, that's where our art came from :)
Thanks for your thoughts!
That title screen music is awesome!!! :)
@rahmkota3 Thanks! Title screen song is Hey Sailor:[Hey Sailor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZBVwUBciiU) :) I'll update the main post with the songs
Good game. Interesting arena with unexpected concept. I like music, but don't like that the music is very lower than effect I think, but I already read in comments and this is not bug. But in my opinion, that not so good idea, because the game must attract with this music from start of the game. Maybe you could add just one bit or something like that and add new one sound (track or bit) with level up? The person in middle of camera a bit prevent for me.
Overall, this is cool arena with perfect graphic (sad that is not yours) and brutal music :)
Also, I have some bug, when you cast the skill and die: 2017-12-05_19-54-08.png
Very nice models.
@nikchernyakov thanks for your feedback!
The music is louder every wave, and there are two tracks that alternate, but you are completely right that the music should be louder since the beggining.
We are aware of that bug, but we dont have time to fix anything for the moment, as are working on another project, but thank you for telling us :D
@vlandemart thank you but as stated in the description, the art isnt ours. If you like it, check out synti studios in the unity ou unreal asset store :)
Wow great Game Congrats! I love the atmosphere you created with the art and effects. The concept is very unique and made for great gameplay. As the previous comment said, there is a bug when you die while casting. Other than that great game and Good Luck!
Check Out My Game If You Like. All Feedback is encouraged! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
@illabom glad you liked it! will check your game out right now :)
Huh. Interesting concept. Would have liked a bit of an indication that either resource was about to reach 0, since I found the mechanic to be quite hard for me.
@drauthius there is feedback that you are about to die. When your health or mana ar close to reaching 0, you have an electric aura around the Character. Its green when you are low on health and blue when its maná
I feel like enemies should have attacked with Blue or Green attacks so that way they would damage different ways. I had a bit of trouble kmnowing when I could or couldn't attack/take damage since the damage was done in chunks, but if you had more time and could Lerp the values it'd probably add a lot to the player "sense" of their standing.
@evandowning thank for the feedback!
We surely have to look in to giving the player some extra feedback as to when he is getting hurt, will do so when we have some spare time.
This looks great, will download next.
great theme interpretation, very funny abilities as well.
Really liked the tug-of-war thing for your health and mana. Had to figure out the best time to stop attacking and take some damage. A reticule would be really helpful for aiming. I also wish there was a little more feedback for hitting an enemy. I didn't know if I was hitting them or not unless I was looking at their health bar. Overall I really enjoyed it. Nice work!
@rubixalchemist thanks for the feedback and im glad you liked it! Will take it into account if we continue developing :D
the concept is interesting i saw it on twitch i will try to finish it ! GG
Yes I just saw this on twitch too
The graphics and music are AAA rankly fits the mood.
However, I got confused what to do as the game starts. Either didn't I know what attacks do I have.
And There should be a crosshair for aiming.
When I was attacked by enemies of I hit a enemy, there is no feedback (such as screenshock?) to notice me that.
Should be a great and addictive game if without those atrifacts.
forgot to say, the fps is too low on my surface pro. such lowpolygon game should not be so slow. needs optimization
@fangzhangmnm thanks for your feedback!
The optimization issue... What can I say, its a Jam. If we continue developing we'll look into it.
them grafix
Clever use of theme. Enjoyable game and dance was really cool!
This is such a bad ass game! My high score was 715. The graphics are amazing, and I like that you are showing a diversity in engines. I support Epic since they are a local company and I have friends that use to work there. So I'm always happy to see people using this most great engine.
I really liked the balance you had to create between Health and Mana, however, when i needed mana, i just had to sit there and wait for the AI to smack me. It kinds of stops the momentum of the game.
The Q is totally OP and super fun to use, died after like 2 rounds each time. Can't wait to see the improvements on ths game!
Thanks for letting me play this on stream yesterday! Took some time to get used to, but the mechanics were interesting as it is not intuitive to let enemies hit you in an attempt to balance your mana / health. The downside to this however, is how fun it is to not be able to attack and instead let yourself get hit. It was a fun mechanic though :)
@krassenstein saw the vod, thank you for the feedback :D By the way, the post jam version had the audiio levels corrected, saw your reaction at the beggining haha.
The q does seem quite broken in the beggining, but it roots you on the ground so you eventually balances itself.
The theme interpretation we had was, the more mana/life you have, the worse chances of surviving, so you had to keep balancing it out no to have too much of anything, but then again, that was our interpretation.
Thank you very much for trying out!
@honest-dan thank for playing and for your feedback!
We thought about meking the enemies drop mana/health orbs so you could get more mana actively without having to get hit, but we kinda forgot about it (gamejams makes our brains work in weird ways xD). We will surely implement an active way to gain mana when we have time, maybe around holidays.
Have a good one dan :D
I really can't believe you made something this complete in such a short time. How long have you been using Unreal?
That chicken dance spell is by far the best thing I've seen the entire jame.
Good job.
@twotwentyfour thanks! We've been using it for about a year know.
I liked the balancing act and the effects that happen when you go too low/high in a resource. The graphics were great, sound was good but I think there could be more sfx for the enemies and when you hit something. Loved the dance and UNLIMITED POWER! Very fun ideas! Here are some suggestions I think might improve the game:
The balancing mechanic seemed to reward me for standing still in a small crowd and spamming fire. Since there is no noticeable cooldown on your fire spell and since you're rewarded for getting hit, you're also rewarded for playing in a somewhat boring style. I'd suggest having a way to widen and narrow that bar so that players don't get directly rewarded for getting hit/making mistakes. Have a max resource amount for the bar and every time the player gets hit, shrink that max amount. To recover that resource pool you could use drops potions/glowy things that spawn around the level that give it back. This way when I get hit I can only attack 4 times instead of 8, but my health is still low so I need to be careful.
Then I think you should have two basic skills instead of one for the balancing act, and since this involves a lot of health/mana sacrifice I think a necromancer/dark magic type character fits really well too. The first spell might be a life drain beam that siphons health and drains mana. Then the other could sacrifice health, restore mana, and shoot your blood at the enemy that creates an aoe. I think this keeps the spirit of the mechanic in place but also allows for deeper gameplay. Also you could make each resource give a buff, maybe speed for health and attack for mana. That way the player can choose the one that they want at the time. Then they'll need to balance their resources even more accurately!
Mostly spitballing, but hopefully you get some nice ideas from it :)
@theloneplant thank so much for the feedback! you have some really interesting ideas there :D Right now we are busy with other projects but will definetely take them into account if/when we decide to continue.
Have a great one!
Nice entry i really like it!
Congratulations and good luck!
I think the graphics are beautiful and well-composed. Even if it's using pre-made assets, the space coordination is easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The special effects works well, with different-colored sparks giving a nice sense of danger.
I applaud the re-examination of what it means to have a health bar, and even celebrate the experiment you've created here. But I confess that, while I found the central mechanic to be interesting in theory, in practice, I found it a complete disaster. There isn't much fun to be had where a core part of the game is to stand around and taking hits on purpose just to keep oneself alive. My natural inclination, after realizing I could die from attacking too much, was to simply draw a crowd in, take a bunch of hits, then play the dance button, then repeat the cycle. The experience was, naturally, repetitive and uninteresting. I did also find it difficult to tell who and how enemies were attacking me, so I eventually ended up not bothering to look up at the screen, instead focusing on the bar at the bottom. With all the beautiful artworks, that seems like an unintentional experience.
Still, don't stop innovating!