Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Familial Familiar
By ellaris
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 288 | 3.01 | 32 | |
| Fun | 295 | 2.85 | 32 | |
| Innovation | 248 | 3.06 | 32 | |
| Theme | 216 | 3.44 | 31 | |
| Graphics | 279 | 2.87 | 31 | |
| Audio | 212 | 2.94 | 31 | |
| Humor | 166 | 2.93 | 31 | |
| Mood | 248 | 3.01 | 31 |
What a lovely game! I loved the actual summoning ritual with waiting and bonuses, it was so smooth and interesting. I admit I burned everything while waiting, including the prisoner. Just note that the top of the game is cut in LD web embed, so while text is still readable, the second herb is almost not noticeable.
Randalf cleared the hordes and was a good cat. Thank you for the experience and good luck!
what a nice experience. get excited when the fight begins.
Great game, it was quite hard to draw the sigil sometimes but it was quite fun
This game was awesome. like, everything about it was cool. Blue tones, summoning stuff, click click clicky. epic battle at the end. I was sad that I didn't get my cat to summon though as the familiar, i got a worm instead. awwww xD
@commanderstitch Oh, sorry. I was adding the customization at the very end and I think I forgot to make sure the familiar is the one selected instead of the random one like during testing. Also I intended for it to be a snake, but I also forgot later on and kept thinking of it as a worm. Maybe it's a worm telling people it's a snake
Nice! The writing really adds some charm to the game. The sound and visual effects for the summoning were pretty satisfying and I like that there was a second part to the game. On my second playthrough though, I noticed you didn't really need to follow many of the instructions (I threw candles/herbs in the fire, let the criminal go off screen after which he teleported to the cage himself 😅).
Nice work! Im really bad at drawing sigils
Me too, its probably the hardest part of the game, I probably should have changed the shape on fail so you can try a different one (not all shapes were created equal), and maybe increase the error margin each time. Possibly also could have had a sigil drawing difficulty slider, for a more tailored experience.
that was an experience, If i could run the entire game in full screen that would help with mouse cramps though hahah the instructions were clear, nice there was an action after the preamble picking up the 15 coins was terrible but i like to light the candle on fire and i like that you can light a knocked over candle on fire anyway the variety packed into one is intense! I wish you can marquee select at least as a witch
Woah - I thought the game was going to be a simple game about tracing, then I got an unexpectedly fun surprise of summoning objects around with a story and then a very surprising ending, which I don't want to spoil, but it was almost like you made 2 different games in a single 48 hour jam!
@silkworm-sweatshop I wanted to follow a simple concept of everyone is a winner (for once), and having it tested by friends their immediate reaction was to softlock themselves by teleporting candles into the fireplace, some people just want to see the world burn, and I complied.
@liole Ye figuring out the resolution and scaling and fullscreen is a hassle, especially for mobile. I'm sorry about the coins, maybe it wasn't clear enough, you could just spam summon them out of the bag and had to move only the ones outside of the carpet (rectangle) not the actual drawn sigil,it could have really benefited form a coins inside counter, also summoning them in the middle helps. I don't understand what you meant by "I wish you can marquee select at least as a witch"
@candlesan The optional ending mini game wasn't as polished and entertaining to be called a game itself, but I think it could be fun for the 1 minute it lasted, although the optimal strategy would be to have as little fun as possible :wink:. Just wanted to add some more action packed and exciting element.
What a fun little experience! Lots of different mechanics to follow.
The ending was a surprise!
Game is interesting. My main problem is that the game was broken both on ld site and on itch: on ld I couldn't see my accuracy or fill percentage, while on itch I couldn't see the template to draw from. Maybe I missed something. Anyway, don't get stopped by bugs, your game concept still sounded interesting!
@thomas-bringer I'm sorry about that, there is some resolution problem on LD. What browser and device are you using, It wouldn't display on mobile and lag so I made it skip the drawing. Were you able to continue on itch despite not being able to see the completion?
@ellaris Okat, I gave the project another go and it worked. Sorry, probably an issue on my end then, I should have tried reloading my browser. I was able to appreciate the nice summoning mechanic. Thank you for making this game!
@thomas-bringer Thank you for giving it another go :smiley:
I thought this game was about drawing summoning but it started to expand. Nicely done in game jam. I started the game in web window but some texts were cut out. Fullscreen fixed these issues and allowed to see some of the items.
Fun story. The endgame needs a little more exitment but the rest is there at some level. Execellent compo game!
That's the bluest game I have ever played. And that's my favorite color. I never expected to see character customization in a LD game. Anyway, good job.
Nice game. Has a good variety of stuff to do. The summoning animation is great. And you can customise your witch.
Having a character customizer in a LD compo game is kinda nutty and was pretty cool to see.
A couple nit-picky UX stuff:
Using a text timer for tutorial/instruction text was a bit of an odd choice to me. Text timers can work, but typically only for text limited to 1-2 short sentences, otherwise it can make the user feel rushed (even with the wait/reset option). Since the in-game text was more paragraph-length and instructional in nature, would have preferred to see something more akin to a standard 'Continue' button/on mouse click here.
Had a bit of a hang up with the fullness percentage text. For me it turned green at 89%, and because green = success and the low color contrast made the text difficult to see/read, it took me a sec to figure out I wasn't actually done drawing yet. To help pick text and background colors I would recommend googling Color Contrast Calculator.
Overall, I enjoyed the game. Having to draw the sigil and teleport the material components was pretty cool, and there was some good quippy dialog during the tutorial process that I quite enjoyed.
@asieke I agree I should've just used a continue button. I guess I was a bit lazy and I for testing I implemented the inactivity advancement before checking for conditions and in my tired head it seemed like a good idea to reuse it at the time.
Yeah, I'm not the best with colors, I haven't considered it could be confusing, maybe I could have left it out. My intention was to allow the player to focus on the drawing and signal in the corner of their eye when they are getting close with the color change so you wouldn't have to look at the numbers.
Thanks for the feedback
Wow such a funny game! Laughed a couple times while playing it. Great job.
Sound track is really solid. Humor and mood were on point. Surprised the final battle didn't totally lock up the browser, had some slowdown, but it kept chugging along.
I loved making my witch and choosing a familiar. This was a weird entry in a really great way. Summoning my credit card back to my pocket. 🖤
My crow familiar absolutely bodied that finale.
Weird and fun little experience :D
This is a great idea and it contains a surprising amount of different content and gameplay. I thought it would be just summoning game at that's it. I liked the last part a lot. And it even a customisation customisation of the character, that's nothing I have ever seen in a jam, I think! Well done!
I almost cried when my familiar died :') My poor spidey. What a satisfying little game. Would I almost call it point-and-click systemic or something like that? Real fun and keep designing weird things like this thanks.