Total Party Swipe

jukepoks1 2023-10-03 13:14

Nice artstyle! I love that you animated all the characters.

music and sound effects are well implemented. Game feels finished.

Gameplay is somewhat confusing at first, but you get hang of it after a while.

There is no end to monsters, as space comes open it is filled with another monster. I know this is related to the theme, but it also it challenging and there is no rest in between. Of course you can take your time and plan your turns for as long as you want which is good in this case.

one improvement would be to add arrows pointing at which tiles are affect by which skill. I can see the highlighted tiles, but they don't tell me what skills do what when moving tiles. different color arrows or tile highlights could maybe do that.

I always forget wizard does diagonal fireballs and place him in bad place. :smile:

netrunner-nobody 2023-10-03 15:53

This is cute! There's a surprising amount of polish here: characters are animated, each have multiple different abilities, everything feels really smooth. The mechanics are a bit simple as a result of this: the game feels sort of like chess but with health bars. It also feels a lot like Into The Breach in some ways. The mechanic of shuffling everything around felt both original and satisfying. "Press tab to view the help screen" was also surprisingly thoughtful and came in handy later on.

I think probably the game's only real flaw is that even if you're not putting much thought into your strategy, you'll still probably win so long as you're using all of your attacks each turn. Healing is particularly overpowered, healing twenty points of health - far more than even multiple enemies would deal in a single turn. Thus, a player who's overly tactical might feel like their efforts aren't being properly rewarded.

Still, lovely game!

falestress 2023-10-03 17:15

i m very bad for puzzle game but GG for the work ! The game is very cool ! :D Wouaw the polish, all characters are animated :o

I really like the art and the feedback !

zeit 2023-10-03 17:17

This game reminds me of the jigsaw puzzles game I used to play, where there is an empty space and you need to move each piece to assemble the correct puzzle piece. And this game also adds health and enemies, which is really fun. Of course, I like the art style, it's so cute!

2023-10-03 17:18

Art looks amazing and the game is really fun to play. I like that each character has 2 abilities, one for damaging and another for utility. Great job!

jozgames 2023-10-03 17:23

Bonito, com uma parte sonora boa e uma ideia bem criativa, só achei que o ritimo do jogo é meio lento, mas tirando isso ta de parabéns!

fudgegonewild 2023-10-03 17:23

Wow what a nice game! With more character customizations and new levels this would be a banger phone game! Love the art and music. Really well done with how smoothly everything blends together. I enjoyed it a lot. I have no suggestions.

firellon 2023-10-03 17:42

Intriguing idea!

It would be great to have the info about character abilities while shuffling them around. Hover highlights are useful, but are not covering every ability, unfortunately.

Also, while it's technically possible to swap any two pieces between each other, it sometimes take an excessive amount of time... and since you get no fees for shuffling stuff around, it always makes sense to do - even if it's tedious. Perhaps, there should be limitations to how much you could do that or there should be some side effects from doing so excessively? Also, should it be easier to move things around? Like, more empty slots to shift towards, more long-range attacks?

Nevertheless, one of the best games I have seen so far. Good job!

tentacledream 2023-10-03 17:43

As soon as voting time ends, I will return to this game to win. Great gameplay, it's super cool that the abilities work themselves if they only have one target. I'm wildly delighted. I'm waiting for the game on steam, with characters that open like in vampire survival

robbobin 2023-10-03 17:44

Really cool game! My favourite submission so far!

My main suggestion would be to add easier level to start you off, with a smaller grid and fewer units. I found the game clicked a lot faster when one of my guys died as there were fewer things to juggle in my head.

Well done :)

rayriver 2023-10-04 09:01

Cool game!

donitz 2023-10-04 09:12

It's a very cool idea which could work well on touchscreens. I love the shuffling mechanic. One change I believe could work well is that each character only has one attack which is used automatically, as to not slow down the gameplay.

purrseus 2023-10-04 09:19

Took a second to get into the game (having the option to show the helpscreen again really helps), but oh wow was this a surprise! I always hated this type of swiping puzzle in games, yet you somehow managed to turn it into a pretty deep tactical delight! It also looks cute, has great thematic soundtrack and plays butter smooth!

I played till I defeated the Evil Lich Queen, and I loved every second of it!

constance 2023-10-04 09:22

Very nice idea and well-done implementation, the fact that you guys animated all the characters is impressive, and pretty neat sound effect and banger music too.

My suggestion is that when a monster died, the next one doesn't take that tile immediately, but waits for the next turn. That'd give the player a little "break" to retreat their low HP units for example or have a little rest between each turn.

Overall, it's a good game.

saumon 2023-10-04 09:53

Cool idea,cool artstyle! it is a litte bit hard for me though.

waded 2023-10-06 12:37

Very fun game! Took me 2 tries to win it, a great puzzle

alexrose 2023-10-06 15:13

classic ludum dare that there are people calling this game too hard

okay so.. this game is fucking amazing. in terms of the concept. the concept is genius. the execution is fine, but this is one of these games that is actually an incredible idea but will still score low in LD because it's LD and you had a weekend

if this had a final fantasy tactics style thing where you could like.. gain abilities based on roles and give yourselves different jobs and stuff.. this is actually a great solution to how turn based combat is boring in old games. undertale goes "well let's make it into a little bullet hell", the legendary rude bear rpg says let's make it entirely realtime and make you click like a moba, but this game is like.. okay let's slow it down, let's make the combat a puzzle game. it's an rpg after all, it's a game about exploration and stats and thought

and it is just perfect for that. the problem is, you made it in a weekend, it's just a random battle with random characters with no stakes with some abilities that are interesting but just OK, and the limited space while fitting the theme limits what is actually possible. I could imagine a big world where there's fixed features on the map like bodies of water you have to work around, mages who can teleport, AEO attacks like fireballs that might hit a whole section, and potentially exploring the able being able to move some tiles around too. I think what you have here is a completely unique and incredible game that's hampered by the jam time limit

with all that being said, I'm giving you 5s in innovation and fun. is this the most fun game I've ever had playing a jam games? no, but I think it deserves a 5 anyway because the concept is so fun that it's just fun to even think about what would be possible if you had a little more time. the concept itself is worthy of a 5 fun even if it wasn't fully realised. I think your graphic style complements funny games better than serious games and this is not a humour game but your mood is there and the audio is there. the sfx especially are good, the swipe sound especially is a good choice for something you hear that often

I just really wanted to say that I think this game idea is really, really compelling, I'm not sure the votes will reflect that, but I don't think that matters, you made something really unique here

magalix 2023-10-06 17:44

The concept is really good. Simple and efficient

euler-moises 2023-10-07 00:05

I loved it! I simply loved it! Great idea, easy to understand and very intelligent gameplay.

Congratulations for the game!

simon-rahnasto 2023-10-08 09:07

I mean I always expect your games to have that 🐑 magic, but still, I was pleasantly surprised by it! The level of strategy required was very unexpected, I am not usually a fan of turn based combat, but you solved a lot of the problems I have with it here.

Most of the things I want to say were already said (very well) by @alexrose.

The idea of the game was truly unique. I could easily envision this becoming a very fun full game.

bloodbane 2023-10-09 14:31

Great combination of swipe and tactical RPG. I love playing this. Might need to replay this someday.

wendel-scardua 2023-10-18 01:40

I just played it and, as my party died, I just figured out the name of the game (it's a pun with "party wipe", right? like the one I just witnessed? 😅)

I liked the concept, the variety of skills, even the choices of typical RPG monsters like the gelatinous cube :) Only thing I missed was an ending: after my party died the game just kept going on turn after turn...