FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD55 → Winds Whisperer

Winds Whisperer

By stellarnightmare

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall10223.1528
Fun10912.8427
Innovation8773.0426
Theme3114.0028
Graphics7253.5226
Audio5303.2926
Humor9342.4024
Mood8553.2828

Comments

locksmitharmy 2024-04-15 19:39

Is that a short green... rooster...

nickelfoolish 2024-04-15 19:55

Love the little blue guy, they carry me all along the journey. Also why did the final boss jumpscare me ???

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 19:57

@locksmitharmy Rooster? What Rooster?

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 19:58

@nickelfoolish And yeah the boss was a bit ummmm, Rough as I was running low on time and just kinda gave up on the audio.

wildcodeplay 2024-04-15 20:04

Nice little game, I was missing some guidance about why I need two flutes at all :). Because I could use Q + E right away.

sargonius 2024-04-15 20:15

It's very nice! I got these Sacrifice vibes! Controls are a bit tricky, but I managed to beat the final guy.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 20:16

@wildcodeplay Yeah I didn't have to time to actually explain the things properly in game. The flutes are needed for unlocking the different summons. But the game was so short it barely mattered.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 20:17

@sargonius Thanks the controls were a bit strange unfortunately.

chusmimax 2024-04-15 21:05

After you get the big summons, mana regen feels too slow (or at least I feel it that way). I feel like some kind of tutorial and more effort in UI/UX would do wonders for this game.

Some of the concepts were really cool, and I really liked the enemy models and shader effects. Keep it up.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 21:32

@chusmimax Thank you, I do think I probably should have not made the big summons cost that much, the mana regen rate stays the same but it's just to expensive feeling that it's not really worth it compared to the other summons.

And I did intend on doing more UI like decorating that mana bar. But the time I lack caught up to me.

dogshroom 2024-04-15 23:46

Vibes!

stellarnightmare 2024-04-15 23:55

@dogshroom Vibes!

2024-04-16 00:39

Awesome little game, quite enjoyable.

2024-04-16 00:39

Awesome little game, quite enjoyable.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-16 00:39

@cat100 Thank You Sir Whom I Don't Know.

woona 2024-04-16 06:49

Great job with animations and shaders! I appreciate the variety of summons, enemies and structures, too. The game looks amazing! And it runs well, I didn't have any performance issues.

As for the gameplay, I didn't really feel like I'm in control, my dudes managed to get things done by themselves. So I explored the world while they were fighting.

Great job!

stellarnightmare 2024-04-16 08:57

@woona Thank you, unfortunately I don't think there was all that much to explore. And although I originally intended to have more for the player to do, I never really got around to it making everything else.

melissa-stodolnik 2024-04-17 11:38

it was weird.... but for some reason it felt really good...

fenix131113 2024-04-17 11:38

Super fun game. I LIKE IT. Good job!😎

stellarnightmare 2024-04-17 12:15

@fenix131113 Thanks

stellarnightmare 2024-04-17 12:16

@melissa-stodolnik Thank you, I kinda felt like it was just to incomplete but I'm glad you liked it.

kseniya 2024-04-18 16:50

funny game!!

stellarnightmare 2024-04-18 17:28

@kseniya Thank you XD

thobi 2024-04-18 18:56

Could totally imagine a high budget game with that kind of mechanic Btw the boss music scared the shit out of me xD

stellarnightmare 2024-04-18 19:28

@thobi Thank you, I certainly think theres more potential for this kind of game than what I pulled off. And yeah that was the idea of the boss music XD

20akshay00 2024-04-18 20:02

The game is certainly a bit incomplete/rough around the edges in terms of player experience and controls (for e.g. the mouse sensitivity was a bit much, and I think it'd have been neat to use mouse-click + scroll-wheels to call the summons instead of key-presses). Like someone else said, the mana system is also missing something; perhaps a boost in regeneration rate when an enemy is defeated would be nice, just some mechanic that incentivizes using the more beefy summons. Also, I don't think there is an actual lose state (my player never seemed to get hurt, just the summons)? I won't be more nit-picky because I'm sure you simply ran out of time, and for what its worth the world does look nice and fits the vibe of a summoner roaming mystical lands, and the summons/enemy elementals themselves are nicely designed too. Overall, I'd say good attempt because its certainly an achievement to have gotten a playable demo out on time!

stellarnightmare 2024-04-18 21:38

@20akshay00 Thank you for the feedback. I do agree with you on pretty much everything you said. I just found that most of the time I was trying to get everything done, working alone especially when not using premade assets, really took its toll on me. The only time I wasn't working on the game was when I was sleeping. "Gotta get that crunch in XD"

The issue of sensitivity is actually something I was aware of the entire time. The problem is that it's affected by frame rate, so people with higher frame rate will have their frame rate through the roof.

And I did think I wanted a different more polished way of commanding the spirits, but in the end I was just running low on time while spending all my time on that one feature, "I'm not a coding type by any means"

For Mana I did actually make that the spirits drop the blue balls on death, you can collect it to regen your bar. "it's not as refined a system as it should be"

I did also initially intend on having a death, but I figured with the time I had it would just be better to leave it that you yourself cannot die, but rather just work towards the goal of defeating the evil spirits.

Thank you again, hope you have a nice day :v:

mephistase 2024-04-18 21:46

In my opinion, despite the immersing 3D graphics, the game lacks to many thinks. It lacks guidance, a goal of sort, challenge, and clarity in general. A special point on how you handled invocations navigation: why have you made something so convoluted? The need to manage three points for different types of invocations while they sort of attack ennemies by themselves feels really cumbersome and strange. A least you tried to make the player discover each units one by one and I appreciate that. Nevertheless, congratulation on your work.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-19 10:50

@mephistase Thank you for the feedback. I was aware that it just wasn't feeling all that good. But I was just trying to make a game out of the idea either way.

rabator 2024-04-19 22:39

I really liked the mood, it felt somewhat nostalgic to me, but the world seemed unnecessarily large compared to the gameplay, so I had to walk a lot while trying to figure out some stuff. Also, the sprite-based grass looked cool!

adam-gallina 2024-04-24 19:25

Some guidance in game would have been nice, I had to look at the comments to understand the significance of the flutes. I really liked the models though, and especially the boss animations were really well done for a jam game

stellarnightmare 2024-04-24 20:28

@adam-gallina Thank you, I tried my best with what little time I had.

stellarnightmare 2024-04-24 20:33

@rabator Thank you, I'm glad it felt nostalgic, not sure what it would really be similar to but I'm glad it was enjoyable.

pattedecanaard 2024-05-01 15:49

Congratulations on creating all the assets during the jam. I like the fact that we can control where the different units go. However, even though I could read the controls on the presentation page, it took me some time to adapt to them. Maybe adding some in-game information would be helpful. I managed to beat the end boss by moving away a bit and creating my little army. It was fun, well done!

spilth 2024-05-01 15:57

I liked the look of the enemies and the creatures I summoned. It was hard to tell when I could and couldn't summon the different types. I also wasn't sure when they were taking or dealing damage. I think either some health bars or audio feedback would help me understand that.

I did manage to defeat the boss, though!

stellarnightmare 2024-05-01 16:54

@pattedecanaard Thank you. I did originally intend on having a tutorial but I just ran out of time.

stellarnightmare 2024-05-01 16:56

@spilth Thanks for playing, I did realize that there was lack of impact, but it was rather low on my priority list when I was just trying to make everything work.