Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD47 → The Magician's Maze
By midorimelody
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1648 | 2.36 | 55 | |
| Fun | 1642 | 2.09 | 55 | |
| Innovation | 1604 | 2.31 | 55 | |
| Theme | 1437 | 2.84 | 55 | |
| Graphics | 1445 | 2.48 | 56 | |
| Audio | 1025 | 2.56 | 56 | |
| Humor | 1206 | 1.92 | 52 | |
| Mood | 1407 | 2.66 | 54 |
The game felt really slow. I would suggest increasing the player move speed. It took me a while to get to the first door to only be teleported back to the start because I picked the wrong one. Instructions would be handy as well, but I think I the premise is to just open the correct sequence of doors or try again.
The player is speed is definitely a thing. Unfortunately I anytime I increased the speed the player flew through the walls. Thank you so much for trying my game out! @dwayne
Movement speed is a thing I guess! But the concept is good! Nice Job!
Thank you so much for trying out my game! @sieghart
The visuals were really nice, which is why I gravitated to this game from the list. Yea movement speed is a con, but music, maze concept, and giant chess piece guard thing are pretty cool.
@rainyday2800 Thank you so much!!! I really appreciate that! Thanks for playing my game!
Good concept but as others have already mentioned，player speed seems to be an issue. Hopefully it can be fixed so as to make the game more enjoyable
Thank you so much @melvinng for trying out my game!
Thank you so much @dwayne @sieghart @melvinng @rainyday2800 I was able to fix the speed for my game and it flows a lot better now. Thank you all so much.
Nice concept but I suggest improving the camera system and movement a bit faster You can also add a how to play button so that players can be specific I loved the game concept and yeah nice effort <3
Thanks so much for playing my game @prerak !!
An interesting idea that is obviously a little rough around the edges. The graphics are nice though and I like that the handles of the doors change, so you don't have to remember everything. Well done!
@midorimelody good to hear that you solved the movement issue! I gave it another shot and it's a lot better now! I would suggest looking at the rotation as well, as the character rotates and moves the same time which can be a bit disorientating.
@andidebob Thank you so much for testing out my game!!!
@dwayne I really appreciate you trying it again! Thank you so much for your advice I need to work on the movement some more! I also added a web build tp make it easier to try!
Interesting game. The player controls felt a bit odd. And you can giver the player a bit more feedback on what to do expecially the intro. But great job.
I won and all the magic in the universe is mine!!!! Speed was just fine now. The only real issue I had is that I wished there was a way to look/turn around. Now you can only turn right/left on a sort of a half circle path, which makes for some awkward walking at times :wink:
@givit-game-studios Thanks so much for testing out my game. The controls are a work in progress. I had trouble getting the right speed and not having my player fly through walls. Then I fixed that issue but ran out of time to get the controls just right. Thanks again for your comments!
@fabula-rasa What will you do now that you have all the magic of the universe? Thanks so much for playing my game!!!! It really means a lot that you were able to stick it out and get to the end. Thanks again!
Feels rough but it's nice. Making the player only rotate on left and right movement and not move forward would make the movement feel way better I think.
@lamonfly Thank you so much for testing out my game. I'm currently trying to work on the controls for moving to make it smoother.
The controls are a bit hard to get a hang of and I wish I could rotate independently easier. It was a little frustrating getting sent back to the start of the game any time I brushed past the wrong door. The idea of a maze is solid and it fits the theme well. Once I got a hang of the controls I enjoyed playing it. Good Job!
Great game!
@ruddgasm Thank you so much for testing out my game! It really means a lot.
@eugenik Thanks so much for testing out my game!
Beautiful graphics and a super suitable spooky soundtrack!
I liked your game my congratulations, I also did one if you want to know, and give me your feedback I am very grateful, this is the link https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/resurrection
@riroriro Thank you so much for testing out my game!!! Dev secrets: That sound track was made in like an hour right before submission because I almost forgot to add sound.
Controlling the camera feels really hard IMO. I'm also quite slow, which is annoying as the game is about trial and error.
@galse87 Thanks so much for testing out my game.
The game has a nice soundtrack and art style. But can agree with the comments above that the player speed is to slow.
The game idea is good stuff and definitely fits the theme very well. But the movement felt off somehow. Especially turning. Instructios would be helpfull as well. At the beginning i just waited for a menu to show up. XD Took me a while to realize the game had already started. Overall good entry. Keep it up.
Nice game idea. Had fun playing it. But in my opinion the movement is a litte bit difficult.
Why do I get resetet all the time? I don't get it =( The mood and sound is cool but the character controller feels like you are manuvering a tank. Still am interested in what I have to do!
@sefan Thanks for testing out my game. I'm still working on the player controls.
@cedric86 Thanks for testing out my game. I'm still working on the controls but I think I will add a button prompt at the beginning. Thanks for your suggestion.
@milmalissa Thanks for testing out my game.
@kirroyal Thanks for testing out my game. There were supposed to be a message that popped up saying what happened when you rest, I'll see if I can fix that and I'm also working on the movement.
weird game, It was annoying to teleport back to the starting place over and over. but hey, it's a loop, right? I didn't get to the center
Nice game! The graphics are right up my alley and the controls are a pleasure to use, could you check out my game when you can? :D
Heyo, movement speed is a nice speed now though is seems to move me forward when I turn left and right, I'd much rather have "tank controls" where I stick in place when I turn. I was thinking that the your problem with flying through the walls was moving the Player in the Update() loop rather than the FixedUpdate() loop (Physics should all happen in that loop) so perhaps give that a solve. In general it's a fun, strange concept for a game, and while I imagine there are some features that I haven't experience yet (I'm not getting any messages when I pop back to the beginning) in general even making a 3D game with music and lighting for a Game Jam is rather impressive. I'll happily give this another go whenever some it's features are fixed and will refrain from rating for now! :smile:
Yay, I got to the center. Mouse movement didn't work on my computer though, but then my computer has issues. I liked the feeling of the game. It would be nice to see some additional puzzle mechanics that you need to solve to get to the center instead of just finding the correct door. It was fun, good job.
Nice game and graphics!
@arad-hamidsamiee Thanks for testing my game
@samdemaine Thank you so much for testing out my game. I tried your game and left a review. It was really cool.
@madalaski Thank you so much for playing my game and your advice. You really motivated me to improve my game. I had some issues because I switched from using a rigidbody to a character controller and then the player still wasn't moving right. I still was having issues but I found a work around. I think the game plays a lot better now and I hope you have a chance to play it again. Thank you again for testing it out!!!!
@midorimelody Heyo, me again. Played through the game fully now and still really impressed with what you achieved! The tank controls feel much better now and it's still a neat concept and great that you're still working to improve it!
My last piece of advice is that on my less powerful machine, the game tends to lag, which is to be expected. However, the rate at which I turn seems to slow down as my framerate lowers. This is almost definitely due the turning of the character being some consistent number every frame (when Update() is called). While this would seem like it would give you a consistent turning rate, the fact that frames can be different times apart, especially at lower frame-rates, gives you this effect of "slowing down" and makes the game considerably harder to play. I would recommend multiplying whatever number you are turning the Player with by "Time.deltaTime" which is Unity's internal engine value for the time since the last frame. That way the Player will turn more per frame at lower-frame rates, which give a more consistent turning rate.
So essentially you'd change:
characterController.Rotate(0f, turnSpeed, 0f);
into...
characterController.Roate(0f, turnSpeed*Time.deltaTime, 0f);
Tho that's a bit of a guess as to how you're actually rotating the character. Time.deltaTime can be quite small at higher framerates though so it's worth making "turnSpeed" much bigger.
Sorry if that's something of an info-dump, I make tutorials in my spare time and have run into this problem myself a bunch in my early games. Have a nice day, and thanks for making the game I tested!
@madalaski Thank you soooo sooo much for all your advice. I used this for my rotation: transform.Rotate(0,Input.GetAxis("Horizontal")'*'rotationSpeed'*'Time.deltaTime,0);
So I just moved my movement code from update to fixed update so you can let me know if that helps if you're not busy. I also increased the speed and rotation speed.
Do you have a link to your tutorials? I think that game looks great now but I had a big problem with restarting the character position because my character kept sliding (I think because of the character controller because it didn't do this before I started using it). I ended up hiding this with a solid canvas instead of leaving it transparent. Thank you so much for investing so much time in my game and commenting.
@midorimelody No worries! My tutorials aren't many and a little advanced but you can find them [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLitFhjnHTdCaP4I3yJfJ_HWDCHRVva7yW). If you're moving the movement code to the FixedUpdate() method then you should use Time.fixedDeltaTime as that will be the time in between the FixedUpdate loops (which is a fixed simulated time for Physics, usually something like 0.02 seconds). However I played the game again and it is silky smooth this time around. The solid canvas hides this sliding well but as long as you're using a simple piece of code like:
transform.position = StartPosition;
where StartPosition is a Vector3 of the starting position, there should be no sliding it should be instantaneous. Regardless, I'm glad I've helped you out with your game but the rest you're going to have to learn by yourself, making other games. For me, this one is now fine the way it is and you should move onto new and exciting projects! You can come back to this one once the judging period is over =P.
@madalaski I subscribed so now you're one step closer to having a TicToc account lol. Also advanced is good, I got my BS in game development and programming so I might as well put it to use and learn all I can about making games.
Also I didn't have the sliding issue when resetting the player's position when I wasn't using the character controller. But apparently to character controller is very picky about how it is used and I have to disable it to change the position in code, and then re-enable it after. I assumed that the player still moves in the direction it was moving in before the position reset and this causes it to slide. (Which is apparently a common issue that I couldn't find a fix to)
Fun game! The player controls were just fine to me. I like the stealth element of avoiding the guards and the way the doorknobs change color once you've found the right one. After getting to the inner rings of the maze it did get a bit cumbersome to have to restart the maze each time, but overall I like the vibes of this game.
@ruthiepee Thank you so much for testing out my game. I really appreciate it. I'm so glad you liked the game!
Great job. I got stuck in a loop :P It was little bit annoying to start the maze from beginning every time, but overall I love the artwork, awesome game!
@amusingfrog Thank you so much for testing out my game!!!
I don't know if it was a good think or a bad that you rotated with the movement keys. I tried to peak around corners to watch for guards, but couldn't really with these controls haha. One of the scary things about the old resident evil games was that you couldn't control the camera, so it's not necessarily a bad thing
@tannimun I do think that it makes it a bit creepier and unexpected when something pops up in your view. Thank you so much for playing my game!!!
Nice concept with a great mood created here as well! I would agree with previous comments with maybe making it wasd to move and mouse to move camera as it felt a little awkward with not being able to walk sideways etc but really solid entry! Well done!
@teto Thanks so much for trying out my game!!!! I really appreciate it! The movement is something I'm definitely going to look into tweaking in the future.
I really liked the concept, I felt myself playing genius trying to memorize the way so as not to make a mistake next time. One thing I was not able to understand was the pattern of the guards, I did not find an indication (other than the lights) to know where they are, so I did not know how to avoid them when entering a door. Congratulations for the game!
@ulisses Thank you so much for trying out my game!!!! I really appreciate it! Memory is the key to the game and there's no way to avoid the guards if you get in their light. There are 3 guards and they all move in the same direction. So if you see a guard coming you have 2 choices: try to out run the guard and get to the next door or wait until the guard passes.
I manage to beat it. All the magic is mine now :smile: Here is some constructive feedback: -as it stands now it is only trail and error. This takes away from the player feeling smart in anyway. I liked how you change the door knob color. -The guards were a nice add for complexity. But sometimes there is a bug that there is no guard around you and you still get hit. Maybe you have some collider issues, I don't know. -The controls feel a little bit clunky at first, but then you get used to it. Maybe you should try turning with the mouse instead of A/D
Overall I liked the idea very much. It just needs more polish and more player control. Good Job!
@sli Thank you so much for testing out my game!!!! I really appreciate it!!! First I would like to say Congratulations on getting all the magic of the universe. Seeing how you are such a powerful mage I really appreciate your criticism. I'm definitely going to do more work on the movement controls. The guards are something I do need to work on too. Sometimes their collider goes through walls as they are turning. I had initially planned to turn off their colliders as they turned corners but that's one of the things that didn't make the deadline. Thank you again for trying out my game!!!
Yay, that magic of the universe is mine! :D
It was a simple game, but it was put together well and decently challenging. Not being able to tell if there was a guard around the corner made it kind of scary, until I learned that they always move in one direction so going right was always a safe bet.
Overall, nice entry!
@ale Awesome job!!! Now that all the power of the universe is yours what will you do with it? I really appreciate you playing my game!!! Thank you so much!!!
Nice game. I'm not sure if the player is supposed to spin uncontrollably to start, but it did in the WebGL version using Firefox, until I hit a guard. I liked the touch of changing the doorknob colors, that was a perfect mechanic for this game. As other said, resetting outside was not fun, maybe resetting to the last opened door, or maybe just to the door on the outside of the castle would be less frustrating. The visuals are decent, and finding the book is rewarding, I think it would be awesome if it gave the player some kind of game breaking power lol like fly and shoot fireballs and blow everything up or something lol Good job, congratz!
@ismael-rodriguez Thanks for testing out my game. They're not supposed to spin uncontrollably. I haven't tested out the web build in firefox but thank you for letting me know that happens. I think an awesome power like flying around after would be really cool. I'm going to look into adding that.
Great job getting this out in time for the jam. I know working alone on a 3d game can be really stressful and hectic with such a tiny development window.
Overall the game was enjoyable but it was really short and didn't offer enough of a challenge I think. Maybe it's just because I got really lucky but I only got a few doors wrong so I beat it pretty quickly
I think for a maze game you need to have some element that guides the player to the right door because without it, you're just guessing. Maybe incorporate some magic for detecting the right door, or add some simple riddles at each level of the maze and hide the answers somewhere with props, or paintings/text on the walls of the maze.
Also, the music had me bobbing my head up and down the whole time.
Good job on this!
@skleembof Thank you so much for testing out my game!!! I really appreciate it. Working on a 3D game really is stressful, especially when you can picture everything you want to add but you don't have time to make and place every asset. I am glad that you enjoyed the game and you must have gotten lucky. The doors are randomly selected each time the game is opened so if you try it again it definitely won't be all the same doors. I really like you ideas for adding features to make the game a bit more challenging. And I'm so glad you liked the music.
Yeah, I just found the magic book! Interesting idea and nice atmosphere! Maybe it will be more fun if can change it to top down third person view? ^_^
Great job on the game, I enjoyed it although it was a bit short but that's pretty understandable for a 3d game in a game jam. I was also really glad door knobs turned green/red according to previous tries cause my memory barely ever helps. Bee guard really caught me off guard so had a little scare as well.
My only comment was that turning the camera around used the same controls so it was kinda confusing.
Other than that, well done
@yword Thank you so much for testing out my game. That is a really good idea, I just might have to try it.
@zoomer Thank you so much for testing out my game. I really appreciate it! There really was so much more that I wanted to add but I'm glad you enjoyed it and was able to get to the end. The door reset each time the game opens so sometimes it end up being easier than others. And the bee guard has definitely caught me off guard before and I put them there. I'm definitely gonna do more work on the controls too. Thanks again for all your comments!
Small but entertaining game ;-)
Some improvement points (in my humble opinion):
1. I didn't get 100% the logic for guessing which door is OK and which is wrong. Initially I thought that as long as the door or the handle were green it was OK but I think I "died" at some of those too. But maybe it was a collision issue (see point 3). 2. I feel weird when in a first person game I can't look around with the mouse ^^U. This shouldn't be an issue, but on this particular game if I want to see if a guard is coming I have to walk forward and the rotate, but as soon as I walk forward I get caught. 3. Sometimes I triggered the guard death being in an empty area, or the "wrong door" death by simply walking backwards into it when I simply wanted to get far of the door in front of me. Maybe the colliders are too big? 4. I slipped and pressed Q causing the game to hang ^^U 5. Guards are too slow. 6. On my first run I started facing the outside of the map and I thought that it was still loading :-P
And I think that's everything. Despite the previous points I enjoyed playing the game until I got to the book ;-) Congratulations!
@island-jam-2-group-3 Thank you so much playing my game!!!! And I really appreciate all of your points! All the door knobs are different colors, there is a green one but if it's not glowing green then it's not necessarily the right door. The first person controllers with the camera is a bit stiff. I wasn't able to get it how I wanted before the deadline but I definitely plan on updating it. The guard trigger is also something I need to do more work on. I didn't get to adjust the code so that when they are turning their collider's are turned off, so if you can see a guards light through a wall (particularly near corners) you can still get caught. 'Q' quits the game in the downloadable build. I forgot to change that for the web build. Also you are the first person to say the guards are too slow, I definitely wanted to add more functionality for them. I could speed them up but I didn't want them to be faster than the player. The game is supposed have a starting screen that tells you the controls. Once you hit on of the buttons the screen is set to go off so that might have been what happened. Thank you, thank you, thank you again for playing me game and for all your points. I really appreciate it.