Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD49 → Corvin and The Cauldron of Who-Knows-What
By celtican, Gardenovena and Marshmallow
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 740 | 3.52 | 20 | |
| Fun | 937 | 3.25 | 20 | |
| Innovation | 872 | 3.19 | 20 | |
| Theme | 1161 | 3.05 | 20 | |
| Graphics | 408 | 3.97 | 20 | |
| Audio | 486 | 3.50 | 20 | |
| Humor | 145 | 3.94 | 20 | |
| Mood | 374 | 3.75 | 20 |
I liked the humor! It was fun to see all the different things that could happen with different combinations. I couldn't figure out the combination for the chicken though! Maybe more hints would've been helpful, since there's so many possible combinations.
@garett yes! The chicken is definitely the hardest part, mostly because it's the one that has the least spell variety (hey, we had to cut something to fit the time :shrug:). Also, I'm pretty sure the tip system I wrote in ten minutes was bugged, oops.
The next stage is the last and most fun in my opinion, you even potentially go to space! I added the combinations in the description in case anyone needs it
Cool game
I really liked the graphics and the execution itself. I got a lot of pleasant emotions)
I really loved the art and the sound effects, really well done and brought back nostalgia. The music was a bit grating especially when stuck on a puzzle for a while. I wish the loop was longer or maybe there could be different songs for each task. I loved the easter eggs when doing an incorrect combination, I felt like it gave the game a lot of charm. Overall, I thought the execution of the concept was well done.
SPOILER ALERT: I got b_______ in my first playthrough, I thought because of my negative score. I beat the game again with no mistakes hoping for a different ending, but still got b_______ :/.
Poor corvin... I got stuck at the chicken and ended up using the cheatsheet to finish. It's too bad he doesn't get the job :joy: Good entry and keep making games!
@jesusonwheels I'm glad you enjoyed it! The audio for our last game was A++, but we did miss the mark this time around. Our dedicated musician was busy the whole weekend, and I only had the time to make the sound effects in twenty minutes. Alas!
Regarding the ending, I did accidently make this game "Corvin and The Cauldron of Dark Souls." To get the good ending, your score has to be at least 1,000.
For those curious: you earn 100 points when you cast a spell for the first time, you lose 10 points when you cast a spell you've already cast, and you lose 25 points when you cast the "dud" spell (the one with all the purple fog). I believe there are 17 possible spells in the game (12 are tied to an ingredient, 5 are the goal spells), so it turns out you *really* have to know the game to get the good ending.
The idea of this game is not bad. From my point of view did not lacked the properties of ingredients for potions. It`is not understandable enough how to make the right potion.
Very good game ! Awesome for a gamejam, I loved all the different possibilities. Although the good is really difficult to reach. Typically the style of game that I love ! Some ingredients are logical but others make less sense and was more challenging to get. Well done
interesting game. The audio is greensleeves?
@bbqyqyqy 'Tis! Originally, we had Garvenovena (our artist) spend around two hours recording it on an authentic harp, with the aim of handing it to the musician for them to mix at their pleasure. Alas, after the recording, she was much too shy about her work to release it into the world. So, Marshmallow (our musician) recreated it with a synthetic harp
I couldn't figure out the exact ingredients and had to quit the game. I would take more care of the "LevelDesign"
This is great! I love the art, sounds and humor! It feels like there's a little too much guess work to do, I often resorted to trying out all combinations because those that seemed logical to me didn't work. Maybe Corvin should say something about each item after you used it twice or three times that make you understand if you should keep it or not? Anyway this is really good, great job!
Not much to say, throw random stuffs and things happen. One minor improvement would be the other 6 people react too when Corvin successfully cast a spell, not just the king and the queen. Aside from that, good game overall!
I got the first two or three spells, but regrettably my alchemy was not up to snuff and I had to use the cheat sheet for the rest. Great fun! I was particularly impressed when many of the incorrect spells had well-fleshed-out background effects.
@avareii Gosh, those well-fleshed-out background effects were the death of us. Most of them look pretty, but they took way too long to implement.
Tip for future Ludum Darers: Don't make content-based games for jams. Content-based games are games where the experience relies on a continuous stream of new ideas/visuals to make the game interesting. Corvin and The Cauldron of Who-Knows-What, along with our previous jam game—Palette's Bottomless Backpack—are both content-based games. You'll want to avoid these simply because content takes both time to create and implement. In both Corvin and Pallete, the artist created more artwork than I, the programmer, could put in the game (i.e. there was a planned event in Corvin where the guests would turn into chickens if you used the chicken feather).
If you *do* decide for some unholy reason that you want to make a content-based game, like we did, then you must ensure that the time it takes to create more content is put to a minimum. In Palette's game, items on a dinner table were content. It took us relatively little time (but still more than I'd like) to make the asset, import it into Unity, give it a hitbox, put it in the bag somewhere, and optionally give it dialogue. But in Corvin's game, every spell was *huge*! Each spell required multiple items, firstly an ingredient sprite (with a hitbox/assigned color/multiple assigned types), secondly either a second sprite (for transmutation effects), or particles (for spectacle effects), or code (for particularly custom effects, such as going to space). Because it took so long to put in the effects, we were only able to put in 17 spells of the 31 planned.
Thus, while Palette's Bottomless Backpack was *mostly* complete, Corvin and The Cauldron of Who-Knows-What was only half finished! Even though we made twice as much code and art! We lacked the time to put in other areas of the game, such as physics polish, sound design, animation, etc.
TL;DR: Make games with good mechanics instead of games with good content :slight_smile: