holyblackcat 2018-04-24 15:54
Not a bad game, finished it!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD41 → Magic and Machines
By tigerj
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 375 | 3.63 | 43 | |
| Fun | 294 | 3.62 | 43 | |
| Innovation | 833 | 3.06 | 41 | |
| Theme | 823 | 3.26 | 42 | |
| Graphics | 681 | 3.32 | 43 | |
| Humor | 894 | 2.29 | 34 | |
| Mood | 602 | 3.26 | 41 |
Not a bad game, finished it!
I really liked it, I think the only thing I would change is shooting with the mouse button pressed, or in short bursts maybe? The art is quite nice, the bots are kind of cute but creepy at the same time and the boss really freaked me out when it came at me! The music is nice and fits the atmosphere(good choice!) and the effects are really fitting too. Great job!
Nice game you got there! The art was okay, and the gameplay was fluent and easy to understand!
The only problem I had is with the enemies and player speed: if an enemy enters the screen through the side I'm currently moving towards, it's nearly impossible to avoid a hit and it feels unfair. Besides of that, it's a really enjoyable experience.
Great work, congratulations!
Good, but next time add some kind of auto fire, that spam clicking isn't so enjoyable.
Nice game, just a little short.
Really enjoyed this! Although it gets a bit repetitive, I do like the magic system for its simplicity. The graphics are also quite nice despite being simple. Amazing work!
Thanks for all the feedback! I cut a lot of things out because of time but the support makes me really want to continue post LD41! @danes1111 I am going to add a toggle setting for this after LD41 @elHombreBanana I worked on this as much as I could. the real solution is to rewrite the AI trigger and change it from using Circle2D collider triggers to something more fair for the user's specific resolution. It's on my list! @SamuelDeboni YES too short :( Follow me on itch for some updates after the jam everyone! https://tigerj.itch.io/
Definitely enjoyable. It would be great if there was a more central indicator of what spell you have and what not. I found that lining up the right spell to use next took away all of my attention from the rest of the game. Also maybe visual indicators that you're taking damage would be nice too. Well done!
@Bongard22 Originally I wanted a pop up to appear and pause the game each time you picked up a spell for the first time. Also I intended to have the different spells have different color when they are loot as the spell_id variable is rolled when they are "dropped" I just ran out of time. I will probably update the game post jam based on all the feedback! Thanks!! I also originally planned on the "deck" being separate from your collection of cards with a UI to manage the deck as needed. These were all cut for time.
I really enjoyed the player art and animation, definitely has a sci-fi look. Some more level variety (maybe the farther away the player gets, the color scheme and difficulty changes?) and it would be better than some paid games. One man shows are the best shows. Keep it up!
@PackNSlash speechless! thanks so much!
very good job! i played a lot! In a momment my player moved for left side automaticaly and i died, see if is a bug. Congrats for the job
Troubleshooting this bug right now, my gf just returned from a trip and I saw it happen to her as she played it. @folex70
Extremely hard to play on a laptop. Maybe consider twin-stick controls? (use arrow keys to shoot and wasd to move) Also none of the spells worked for me...
@coda-highland the spells need to be used with right click after collecting them (normal attack is left click) fireball needs to be aimed at an enemy where the mouse is located. I did play it a bit on my macbook without issue, it is intended for a mouse and keyboard only input like classic arpg games (diablo/diablo2)
Thanks a lot for giving it a play! I do appreciate your feedback!
I can see this game being difficult to pick up. The movement speed is high and mobs kill you pretty quickly when they get to you. At least you get a card for every kill, but then the game goes from very hard in the beginning to very easy.
The card drawing system kind of works against the fast WASD gameplay (and I have to take my finger off D to flip a card).
Sometimes my mouse would turn into a cancel icon and my input would become unresponsive? Maybe it's just me.
I like the core concept but I think the gameplay needs to be ironed out.
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Like the premise, character and shooting mechanic. a little confused on how the cards enter the gameplay, didn't make sense to me. nice mysterious music.
@GoodKenneth Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. You are correct, even in design there are less enemies as you get closer to the boss as I wanted to make sure players had inventory to fight it since he can pass through walls. Not sure about your mouse but I am sure there is some junk code :) The card mechanic needs to be thought out a lot more.
Thank you so much for playing!
We talked about it a bit on stream, but I really feel like this game could be so much better if the HUD was easier to read and the information was closer to where I'm looking when I need it. Enemies health bars should be near the enemies, took me ages to spot them up at the top. This is a good game, I just feel like with some UX/quality of life improvements it could be great.
Liked the game, I accidentally click outside of the window and died in the end.
For feedback I would say maybe less loud sound(a bit loud at my end) and bigger HUD or in another location. And Enemy HP on top of them
@aevek Thanks so much for the stream! you are spot on about the UX/UI/HUD! I appreciate your comment! @Zukureneno audio was an after thought and I ran out of time to adjust/test it. Sorry if your ears are bleeding :) I need to see how to use Unity UI / Canvas components on a prefab in order to put the health on the enemy. I want to do this after the JAM but didn't have time to google/implement it. So happy for all these great comments thanks!
@tigerj I recognize that's how it's meant to be played. The twin-stick advice is because Blizzard themselves realized that and made the console version of Diablo 3 handle that way.
Also: I have a health bar class that provides a sprite that auto-generates textures. You make it a child of the prefab and it does the rest of the work on its own. Would you be interested?
@Coda Highland I believe I have an asset that does something similar but I was avoiding using it for the jam. Thanks so much for explaining the D3 console controls, I was actually going to google this later as I have only played the PC version! I think I need to go buy it to really experience it correctly and implement something similar or influenced by it. I've added it to my post jam list of things to look into/improve! thanks so much again for the feedback https://trello.com/b/50HxARaq/magic-and-machines
:thumbsup: Happy to provide some insight. Good luck with future development!
I loved this game. Top Down shooters are one of my favorite genres and I really enjoyed this one. The spell mechanics are cool and Its great when final boss breaks into parts when you shoot him! :)
Fun little game man! I feel like the game could be a little more polished. Enemies were a bit to fast and I'd like to just hold my mouse button down to shoot. I had 2 lagspikes early but it was ok afterwards (probably my laptop :smile: ) I came here because I'd been watching your stream. The card & top down shooting worked really well and the whole vibe was on point with matching artwork and sfx!
I’d love for you to review my submission as well as I did something with the top down shooter as well! Enjoy.
@croewens I will check out your game after work today or tomorrow (I have an office dungeons and dragons monthly game tonight). You can submit your game to be on the stream, the next LD stream I have is Saturday morning at 7am eastern North America https://goo.gl/forms/LEUph71qcnhTS8SF3
Very fun game. would love to play longer and might do so when I'm off work and can download the windows version. the Web player one does not work very well due to it sometimes not registering click and subsequently blocking the movement keys. If the Windows version is better I would heavily recommend others giving this a go!
@ThatSommeS absolutely check out the windows version all the OS versions operate better than the web player for my entry. If you like it follow my itch account for updates. I’m going to build it into a full game.
Pretty fun. There seems to be an issue when I hold 3 buttons at once I think (right, up, shoot). Sometimes I would get stuck moving up, for example, until I pressed and released the up button again. Enjoyed it overall though!
@BitJester Media what version of the game were you running if you have a moment. thanks!
Really enjoyable game, great one-man work. I really like top down shooters and fast paced gameplay like that.
Finished the game! I tried the web version and sometimes the player would get stuck, so I couldn't move to some directions. A neat, playable game, which is great for such a short time!
@Rock-Night thanks! for anyone reading this check out @Rock-Night 's twitch stream sometime! https://www.twitch.tv/rocknightstudios They are making a pretty awesome looking game and stream development
Hey bud! really enjoyed the majority of that! The card mechanic was refreshing, loads of card games this LD - but this was nice in the way that it just added the card to your deck, and you had to cycle through your deck to find the card you want without really knowing what would come next. Multitasking this in high pressure situations (like fighting an enemy while looking for a health card draw) was good. The level became a bit tedious to navigate once you started running low on enemies. Maybe HP bar on your character instead of bottom right would have been a nice addition. The camera movement was just that little bit too quick when you changed direction also. Nice entry mate :)
thanks @Honest-Dan I appreciate the feedback! I'm working on a lot of changes to release after LD41, adding your camera comment to the list! If you are scrolling through comments and are not @Honest-Dan you should go follow him and check out his twitch channel! https://www.twitch.tv/honestdangames
What's up Tiger. I made a video with your game in it. Wanna check it out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbsX4yIevU4
Like the card arpg genre combo! Movement was nice and fast - first I just tried to grasp the combat + card mechanic. Would have love a bit more punch to the weapons, effects wise (bit o screenshake, explosion here or there). I stocked up on spells, and was lost for a bit looking for the boss. Perhaps an environment hint (power lines running in one direction) can help here? Luckily when I found the boss I was well-equipped, even tho he was EMP resistant, I fireballed em to scrap.
Other stuff: - More enemy types! A turrent/stationary for some bullet dodging, a slow turtle to ignore, and some one-hit critters for satisfying quick kills? - A bit of lighting might help in setting the mood
Very nice starting menu, it explains a lot of stuff very fast.
Controls are good but for me there is problem with the camera's vertical movement. I'll try to explain. When you go in a direction, the camera offsets in that direction so you can see in front of you. But when you get chased by an enemy, and you try to flee, the camera goes up and down way too much. It will get me nauseous for sure if I play too much.
The EMP effect is really nice, I love it. Maybe just give it a smoother transition when it disappears at the end, like a fade out. It's implemented in Unity's particle system, with a nice curve.
I expected to display the ingame menu when I pressed the escape key, not leave the game without a prompt. I really like the art style, and the little shadows add a lot to the immersion. The music complements it very well. And even though you didn't produce it, it's still a good choice. You might want to try Bosca Ceoil for your next entry ? I know you know about it, I just don't know why you didn't use it. Seriously making simple game music is easier then it seems.
Anyway VERY nice entry overall. You say you are making game since you're very young, well it shows ! I'll follow your work on itch, twitch and youtube.
This is really good! I enjoyed this game! My main criticism is that it's rather simple - the ennemies traval in a straight line, you got plenty of time to shoot them down, and they all behave in the same way - not very challenging. there's one little suggestion I wanted to make: I really like the UI U made at the bottom right of the screen with the card and that, I thought the face-down card at the very bottom right was actually a map of the game to let you know where you... couldn't it be both? That would be complicated to dev, I understand that - but if that face-down card could also be used as a map I believe it would be a nice addition! Finally, the idea to use Trello post-Jam to get players to vode for additional content is genius... well done mate :-D
@Joror more stuff is on the way. This level and boss are being scrapped for more developed content. Stay tuned on itch post LD for updates! most of the ideas were prototypes to try out, it's the first top down game I have made so I had a lot of learning to do in limited time. @SpaceMonkey yes the camera does need work! Thanks for the tip on EMP I've never messed with Unity particles before this entry. no menu and no self made music do to time issues that is changing post LD. thanks for the follows! @StrangerYann the UI is actually being totally redone as we speak. I am waiting until after LD to update the game though. I have local build with much better layout and art. Thanks for playing!
@StrangerYann you can see a gif I just made of the update coming soon with this tweet. The UI is now centered and the enemy health is over their heads. https://twitter.com/stalkjimmy/status/995841159023951872