Spellbowl

indielucky 2018-04-23 06:51

I really enjoy it, it's a combination you wouldn't expect to work, and it turned out interesting!

Some good concepts such a chaining spells with the runes make the gameplay quite varied, with deckbuilding-lite mechanics to feel like you are progressing really worked well.

The blood card seemed to be bugged in my play through, it says it heals for 1 but would heal me to full health. Not that I'm complaining made the game a little easier.

The waves got a little long nearing the end of the game and it started to feel a little sluggish.

Awesome job though, I had fun playing the game!

sophie 2018-04-23 18:40

Um. I was really interested in the look of this game, but when I tried to play it I could not figure out how to *do* anything. I found I was able to drag some fireball cards around, but no matter where I dragged them to or what keys I pushed, they always just went back to the bottom of the screen without anything else happening. Eventually I got a game over, since nothing I did hurt or stopped the enemies.

excy 2018-04-23 18:49

@Sophie + anyone else, you need to drag the cards and throw them (from behind your castle walls). This was probably a readability issue on my end :(

starzzdrak 2018-04-23 18:55

I give all five really good game :) Also it perfectly fits the theme even if you combine those two themes and make a game then they are not anymore incompatible

sophie 2018-04-23 19:02

Oh god, this is really irritating. The amount of vertical space is so small that even understanding now how it's controlled, half the time I try to throw a fireball it just goes back to my hand because I started or stopped dragging in the wrong place. The game seems really neat otherwise, but I would be rating Spellbowl _very_ low in the controls/interface category, if there was one.

matt-christian 2018-04-23 22:16

Cool little mash-up of genres. I agree with some of the other users that even after reading the help, page, and playing a round I couldn't figure out what to do. BUT, when I did and understood the combination of genres I found it to be a unique and smart genre blend. I also liked the art within the game.

Just two little things that might make the game easier to understand. 1) Maybe changing the sprite when the player is holding it outside the castle (if it's a spell) to cross it out or show that is incorrect. 2) It might be easier to bowl if there were a few miliseconds after releasing the button before the spell jumped back into the card slots; quite a few bowling attempts were thwarted by a very short stop I was making due to the play area size.

Nice work on your first LD!

2018-04-23 22:28

Love the combination theme! Easy to play, control and cute pixel art, my only issues were the lack of cards (that you already addressed) and the blood card bug. But I understand it's a game made in a short space of time and you are only human, thumbs up!

excy 2018-04-25 11:45

Thanks @Matt-Christian! Very good points, will take them on board.

Hi @Sophie, hope you could at least try the game now that you know the controls. I would hope that you can appreciate this was made in under 48 hours and that UX wasn't at the top of the priority list.

sophie 2018-04-25 12:51

@excy I did try the game which was what prompted my last comment, but I couldn't get past the second wave of enemies before I was just too frustrated with the interface to continue.

UX should have been higher on your list of priorities!! Most submissions I've played have had an explanation of the controls shown in the game, which is a really good idea. In very few of them was it as frustrating to apply those controls as in Spellbowl. I understand that you put a lot of work into this, and it's obvious that other aspects of the game got a lot of love and care. I think the game could have worked really well if the amount of vertical space you can drag in was greater, and if there was at least some text in the game explaining how to cast spells. (Or, better yet, an animated example.) But it doesn't matter how much content you have or how good good it is if players become so frustrated that they give up on trying to access that content.

I don't want to discourage you - I just hope that next time you participate in LD you give the interface a higher priority!

maduke 2018-04-26 05:40

Neat little game, and it looks pretty polished. Not much content, but would probably work well as a mobile game. Game play doesn't have much depth, but that's to be expected for a compo game. Nice job overall.

themonsterfromthedeep 2018-04-29 19:27

This is one of my favorite concepts this Ludum Dare -- super awesome use of the Theme. However, the controls have some serious problems.

It's so incredibly easy to try using a spell, and fail because the action wasn't performed quite correctly, that I have to actively focus and put time into making sure I'm making the correct mouse gesture. This adds serious frustration to the gameplay, and is also why I can't get past wave four without losing a significant amount of health.

Simply allowing the player the whole screen to aim would be seriously helpful, and I don't see how it would be unfair in any capacity.