FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD42 → MASTER OF POWER (vs jealous villagers)

MASTER OF POWER (vs jealous villagers)

By randdir

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall5673.0160
Fun4952.9760
Innovation6532.4559
Theme7022.3159
Graphics4483.0259
Audio2303.2358
Humor2962.5452
Mood3852.8856

Comments

eric-kulbiej 2018-08-13 00:30

Good enough for a first timer! For the challenge you took it is just fine! Keep it up!

stillnotsure 2018-08-13 11:23

The mood and music are great. Gameplay's simple but charging up your ball is a nice additional consideration

grsni 2018-08-13 11:28

It's a great proof of concept. The controls can be a bit clunky, and sometimes when you click you don't shoot anything, but overall is fine. The sfx can get a bit harsh after a while, but I really liked the character sprites. I feel like there is a lot of room to expand on, but nonetheless, it's fun to play. Keep it up!

talios 2018-08-13 11:57

Pretty neat, my issue though is that it's really hard to control because the mouse isn't locked to the window. So when you have a doubl screen, you keep quitting the window and it gets frustrating real fast. It's a good game though, I just wished it was more optimized for dual screen. Other users should not have this problem so that's okay.

neu-eric 2018-08-13 12:00

The game could be really nice If there would been an really challenge. Because you can just shoot around as often as you want and keep the score higher. The strength is an nice idea but the ball must be much faster smaller. Right now, even an baby wouldn´t loose the game. Another thing ist that the game get´s pretty monotonous after a short time, but thats ok for an LD Game. I stopped playing after I got an score of 2000 souls because i got bored and it didn´t seem like I would ever loose the game. So I think you should had use your time more for gametesting and balancing instead of graphics or music. Because you can play an game with really bad graphics or no music and it can still be fun but if there is no challenge the game can´t be fun

randdir 2018-08-13 12:16

Thanks all for your feedback really apreciate that !

@talios : got the same problem as you while dev it (dual screen) that let me think i may have also to change control for keyboard only.

@neu-eric : Yes the "demo" (more than a game) is not really ballanced enought for a long play. Should may add stage and also more challenge to get it more interessting. Don't have enought time while dev it to test it for long period. But if you got 2000 souls, i may have to challenge you with more stuff. It make me some goals to reach thanks !

dunin 2018-08-13 12:22

There is a problem with the strength, in my opinion: once you launch a big ball, the strength should decrease significantly. Here, we just have to wait first and then we can launch as many big ball as we want...

fryderider 2018-08-13 12:31

Nice mood and music, I like it! :)

teo-miklethun 2018-08-13 13:02

Nice job! I really like the music especially!

agecaf 2018-08-13 13:23

It's pretty good for a first time in the LD!

As others mentioned, the biggest area of improvement is in the difficulty curve; as it is it is harder in the beginning (you don't know what to do, small projectiles) and easier in the later parts (as your projectiles grow in size).

There's many ways design-wise to address this, for example; - You could turn the concept of strength upside-down; you start with full strength and as time passes either your strength decreases (launching balls no longer decreases STR) or your maximum strength decreases (launching balls still decreases STR) - You could keep the STR system as it is, but increase the speed of villagers as time passes, or as you get more souls.

However, even if it gets boring in the later parts, I quite enjoyed playing it through the early and mid ones; You've got a simple and solid game loop.

I also liked quite a lot the villager's sprites! You chose a pretty good music (from SketchyLogic in opengame art, according to the credits?), and the SFX you made fit well with it.

As a last minor note... I couldn't see my mouse while playing (which would've been nicer); I'm not sure if that was intended or a problem on my end though. If it was, I'd recommend adding an in-game cursor; the red arrows are great, but a cursor would allow the player faster aim. (You still have to lead [aim towards where they're moving] your shots, so it shouldn't make the game too easy?)

Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a lot; it's a great entry for a first time in the Ludum Dare!

randdir 2018-08-13 14:24

Thanks all again for feedback ! really like them.

@dunin yes that was originaly something wanted but miss time at first.

@agecaf thanks for your reply. Lots of what you said is interesting but could change some wanted gameplay (especialy with mouse "kind of bug" as answered in previous post to @talios). What you noticed could also be in an updated version (with more polish graphics) of it so stay tuned :)

sewerbird 2018-08-13 14:45

I'll echo the issue about the controls being clunky on dual-monitor: window-locking would've been real nice. I also got stymied at the menu until I realized I had to click and hooold the menu buttons to make them work. I loved the music you composed, it had a good theme, and the graphics seemed right out of Final Fantasy for the folks. I was expecting some more interesting mobs to show up, or for the level to end at some point, but was a nice 5 minute romp: I got to 700!

addvector 2018-08-13 19:12

As others have said I kept clicking outside the window. Charging the power ball is a fun feature and adds a nice strategic element. Well Done!

quicklyer 2018-08-13 19:29

Pretty addictive once you get the hang of it. I really like the title screen art and how the villagers look (they also kind of look like they are dancing along with the music which is great).

william-corrin 2018-08-14 01:02

Really cool concept! I think like others have said the difficulty curve needs to get straightened out, because it gets easier instead of harder. I like it though great job!

manbeardgames 2018-08-14 03:03

Neat concept. I could see this more as a small part or scene in a larger game rather than a stand alone game itself. Others have already mentioned the mouse going out of the window on dual monitor setups, so I'll throw mine in as well that it happened for me. An easy way to take care of that if you didn't want to lock the mouse to the window boundry is to allow the mouse pointer on the screen to be visible. You have the tracking at the bottom of the screen, so instead of just rotating it around the player there, just have it float around with the mouse pointer.

zicboy 2018-08-14 06:06

really liked the mood of this game!:D well done!

thijs-tak 2018-08-14 10:52

I like the concept. A few things though, the game is harder in the beginning when your energy is not fully charged and villagers start comming in. Also, I would suggets just aining at the mouse pointer instead of moving the throw direction with a marker near your character. This keeps the player from needed to look back at the main character to see if the throw alligns.

Good game and very good first attempt. Keep it up.

bungalow 2018-08-14 11:48

Awesome fun little game! I could see myself playing this for a while! Have a great day, fellow first-timer!

bichodust 2018-08-14 13:48

That was difficult haha. But I love the idea of the projectile being bigger and bigger because of the collected souls. Great game!

dray 2018-08-14 14:09

Nice game. I like the idea but as other mentionned the game is too easy. increasing the number of people don't count as they don't block the ball and not spamming the ball make it always huge and very effective. ennemy from various speed or able to make your ball bounce back could had a bit of spice. And you can be one it to death to make the game a bit more challenging too.

randdir 2018-08-14 14:13

@eric-kulbiej @stillnotsure @grsni @talios @neu-eric @dunin @fryderider @teo-miklethun @agecaf @sewerbird @addvector @quicklyer @william-corrin @manbeardgames @zicboy @thijs-tak @bungalow @bichodust

Thanks all for your support and your comment. I just made a updated version that handle few change that you thought could be fix for a better UX. So hope you'll enjoy thoses change. Enjoy and have fun !

@dray sorry just post this but handle different speed for villagers could be the next step.

truc-e 2018-08-14 16:15

Nice, something is just extremely satisfying about destroying a bunch of villagers. Music and sound design was pretty good for a LD game. The only major complaint I have is the controls didn't feel that intuitive to me often it was pointing to somewhere I didn't want it too.

indiemaniac 2018-08-14 16:24

Since its a simple game i feel like it should have a way of making you feel satisfied, like better effects when you hit the enemies, a dead animation or just push them around with the ball. Art is average, music is good. Mouse isnt captured so if it leaves the screen the game minimizes.

thebmxeur 2018-08-14 16:52

The music was nice. Didn't really enjoy the game though. For the fixed version, google asks me to login, so you should probably fix that.

nyunesu 2018-08-14 17:31

Hey there, please fix the access to your updated game version (:

rokkos 2018-08-14 17:49

I like the game it's simple and intuitive. It's also challenging and I love the tower defense games. The walking animations of villagers are so cute. I had only one negative thing that I didn't saw the theme in the game.

randdir 2018-08-14 19:18

First thanks tou all again for your comment i'll handle it for the next step.

@indiemaniac @nyunesu sorry didn't allow the access now you can get the updated version. Enjoy and have fun :)

@rokkos yes when i did this game i feel the same a lil but in fact "running out of space" could look like "running out of villagers". If there's too much villagers you'll fall. It could be more explicit in the new version. Check it out when you have time ;)

amras0000 2018-08-14 22:08

Just a reminder that the COMPO rules ask you to provide source code for your game.

My final score was 1406, and the game did get a bit boring for a while before then, largely because it got easy enough to be a bit repetitive after a while. I should note I played on the LD42 version, not your update. I think the problem was that if I stayed on the high end of the strength meter, I could more or less shoot only the largest possible balls and clear out most of the screen before any of the villagers managed to make it halfway down. Maybe a better mechanic would have been to reset the player's strength after every shot, or at least make the larger balls take off more strength so the player would always end up overrun. Or just make the villagers start taking multiple hits, or move faster.

I did have an issue with the controls; you use the mouse to aim, but receive no crosshair, so you're basically guessing at where your mouse is at any given point, and whether moving it left/right is going to cause a subtle movement or fling the aiming arrow across to the other side of the wizard. Three possible solutions I could see here: 1. add a crosshair 2. make the aiming cursor move based on the mouse's X position, ignoring its Y. (so a motion of 50 pixels right would always correspond to a 15 degree rotation clockwise or whatever) 3. add controller support, so I can use an analog stick to aim and A to fire.

This is a very good entry for your first LD; the design is simple and creative, the music is decent, the general gamefeel is satisfying. It does lack some mechanical polish and the controls need work, but it's a good attempt and I did have fun with the game for a few runs. Nice work.

dark-roast-studios 2018-08-15 07:38

welcome to LD :D solid first time entry, liked the music especially. Game could really do with a crosshair though

andrei9 2018-08-15 07:45

Nice job! :D

randdir 2018-08-15 12:40

First thing first, thanks again everyone for your feedback :)

@amras0000 It's maybe not clear but the source is in the masterofpower.love (like a zip file). Thanks for your feedback on the LD42 version, and i'm also interesting on yours about the updated one. To know if i solved some issues.

necromic 2018-08-15 14:45

Really nice game with cool music. It's an enjoyable experience.

rngsilvercraft 2018-08-15 18:27

Gotta admit , it's pretty satisfying.Also I like the FF art style.The only thing is ,despite the fact that I'm playing the updated version,there's still no ending?Or do I have to wait long enough?

randdir 2018-08-16 09:44

Thanks again for comment and feedback :)

@rngsilvercraft actually if you survive until the end of the villagers wave you'll get an ending screen ;)

ayushman 2018-08-16 17:46

It was a nice game to play!!! A really good concept

designernap 2018-08-16 21:16

This is an excellent first entry. You may not think it but the fact it has an intro screen and an end screen and feels complete is a big achievement in the time you had. Great work. Point of note though, in the download there is an application called Love and LoveC which run different things. Probably best to remove those so users do not get confused :)

annie-owl 2018-08-17 07:34

I would say that this is a solid basis for a future game. Aiming was a little awkward, and it really lucks some sort of upgrade system right now, but if you keep improving it and adding new stuff it can become nice mobile\browser game.

danny-sun 2018-08-18 13:28

Nice little game! Really enjoy the graphics! Overall, congrats!

dimesto52 2018-08-18 14:58

it's not difficult after a while

antonin 2018-08-19 15:51

Nice little game, really loved the game design that makes spaming impossible. Great work.

kirb 2018-08-21 06:10

Great job! Was very fun to just relax and zone out to this game =P. Especially like the incentive to fire less chakra balls, keeps things interesting!

cheesey-bob 2018-08-25 14:46

Very impressive for a first Ludum Dare game! As others have said, increasing the difficulty over time would be a nice addition. I liked the sound effects and music; the concept for the shooting mechanic was cool and worked well; and I thought the pixel art characters were really fantastic!