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The Summoners
The Summoners
By digital-bacon
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 944 | 3.24 | 52 | |
| Fun | 796 | 3.23 | 52 | |
| Innovation | 1127 | 2.62 | 52 | |
| Theme | 676 | 3.56 | 52 | |
| Graphics | 881 | 3.20 | 52 | |
| Humor | 962 | 2.33 | 48 | |
| Mood | 1106 | 2.79 | 50 | |
Comments
Making a deck building rogue-lite in a game jam is an ambitious undertaking, but I am impressed with what you managed to achieve. I played through and managed to defeat the boss (the convert gold to damage card is very overpowered :smiley: ). The game logic for room progression and battles works well. I also really like the art style and design.
The only issue I had was that it was hard to keep track of what was happening because of the lack of animations for visual feedback. Given the scale and complexity of this kind of game, though, I can understand why it wasn't there. Music and sound would also have been nice.
Overall, good job!
Thanks for the feedback @human-writes-code!
I realised how ambitious the scope was about 48 hours in. Right about the time the panic set in :rofl:
The *Sellsword* card is OP due to a bug. I'd been using a Godot resource to keep track of the player's data (health, gold, cards, etc), so didn't think about doing the same for the enemies. Unfortunately, I forgot that resources are effectively singletons (analogous to Unity's scriptable objects), so every time damage was done to one goblin, it was done to all goblins. With the *Sellsword* card, it would take 10% of your current gold, divide it by the number of enemies on screen and apply the portion to each enemy. But since they're all use the same health pool, each enemy effectively got the full damage amount. Basically turning it into a nuke by the time you get to the Boss. I should probably also put a cap on the amount of gold it converts.
Yes, I wanted animations, but I'm no artist and the thought of trying to do animation scares me :laughing: Ditto for music and sound effects.
Thanks for playing!
I love Slay the Spire and Black Book, so I played through the game and defeated the Big Bad Boss. Not bad art, considering you made the game solo and you're a programmer, as I understand. Good job! It seems like the +5 health card is a bit overpowered; the difficulty is already quite low. I hope you won't abandon it. Good luck!
Hi @konstantinreed, thanks for the comments. There is still a bit of balancing to do, so the health potion is a bit OP. Currently working on a post-jam version.
jkyd
2024-04-18 04:30
This is really impressive for a solo jam! I actually really love the style. I think the art really works, it's got almost pico-8 vibes, and it's super consistent which can be an endeavor. Having any indicator for when you're taking damage/attacking/who's attacking (like even a sprite nudge, tween or a colour flash) would go a long way, combined with maybe stretching the individual attacks of the auto-battling portion out a bit longer to increase the suspense? I'd love to see more opportunities to deck-build (shops/card synergies) and more choices with going left/right on the map, but that's definitely outside of a jam-scope :joy: The final boss I think was the only combat that lasted more than a round for me, so I'd definitely up the difficulty scaling, but overall, this was pretty fun :) Too many hours in Slay the Spire, I'm a sucker for these types of games -- Great job!
I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I beat the boss. I think the game shined on the low enemy-count scenarios due to the bug, but it was pretty cool there!
Thanks for the feedback, @jkyd. I was tempted to re-use an asset pack of Vimlark's that I tried a few jams ago, but decided that I needed to practice my pixel art (I'm still not very good).
Working on a post-jam version, I've spent a lot of today implementing bloodsplats that appear on something whenever it takes damage, which goes a way to providing visual feedback. I'd also like to use tweens to have melee combatants dash forward and hit something, while ranged combatants launch missiles.
I've also tweaked the difficulty, so the boss starts with more hitpoints, and can heal himself once during a battle.
Hello @nardandas, thanks for the comments. Unfortunately, I've fixed that bug :rofl: so the encounters at higher levels are a bit harder now (in the current build).
mitur
2024-04-18 08:26
I failed horribly, but had my fun, thank you :smile: chrome_bEQ2ndreXq.png
zablas
2024-04-18 08:35
I think there were a couple of glitches where the minion/enemy health showed 0 for some reason from the start of the match but other than that I had a fun experience. Add more levels in the future! Will play for sure if you do ;)
Hey, well done, especially for a solo! Very ambitious stuff setting out to make something this mechanically complex, and it seems you've executed it really well. Fights felt pretty balanced and challenging, progression was solid, and I had to make genuine strategic decisions - more than could be said for most jam games, where balance is a nightmare. Hope to see you make more stuff like this in the future.
@mitur: if you had fun, did you really fail? :grin: Glad you enjoyed it!
@zablas: there's definitely some glitches *in the jam version* around the minions' and enemies' health. It was one of those I-know-how-to-fix-it-but-I-also-know-there's-not-enough-time-left moments, in the last 20 minutes before the jam ended :confounded: I've fixed it in the post-jam version I'm currently working on.
@lachlan-james: Thanks! There's a few things I wanted to add in (artefacts, which would provide the player with bonuses like extra mana; more variety in the enemies and minions; etc.). There's still plenty of balancing to do, but as you say, that's usually not easy to do in a jam for a solo dev. Definitely had fun making this, so hopefully you'll see more!
wheelsx
2024-04-18 13:35
Ambitious for the time limit, a good start though. You missed the opportunity to make it mouse only, it was a little weird to hit the Esc key after every battle.
Well, I might be biased, by I love the concept :grin: It's super impressive how much you managed to implement in such a short time on your own! The game is quite fun to play, but there are definitely rough edges to sand: - Because of that damage bug when the attack applies to the whole class o enemies, the game is very easy. Every unit you have is almost a Fireball :wink: - Lack of animation feedback makes it harder for the player to know what is actually happening. I know lack of time is a culprit here, and you can still play just fine. - Many enemies display their attack strength as 0 for some reason. Don't really get why. So, I only knew how much damage they deal when they attacked. - In my playthrough, one of the rest spots didn't seem to trigger properly and I didn't heal. The second rest stop triggered just fine.
Still, a really nice jam job :grin: I enjoyed my time with the game and I kicked the Big Bad Bosses ass.
Screenshot_5.png
Thanks for the comments!
@wheelsx: you say "weird", I say "very annoying". I'm trying to decide between a simple mouse-click closing the dialog, or a proper "close" button.
@fabula-rasa: The damage bug was quite stupid, although I'm blaming lack of sleep :dizzy_face: I had set up a resource to hold details about each enemy and minion type -- their maximum health, their attacks, etc. -- and for some reason I decided to store their *current* health in there too. But since resources can be thought of as singletons, that current health was for *all* minions or enemies of the same type. So if an attack injured one goblin, it would injure all of the goblins. Also, because the current health never got reset back to the max health, all new instances of minions and enemies would appear with zero health. I've fixed that in the current version I'm working on, but I didn't have time to do it before the jam ended. Also working on animations, and I'll have a look at the rest areas too.
@digital-bacon Cool! @ me when you release an updated version. I will gladly give it a try!
wolfier
2024-04-20 02:49
Well I encountered a bug where the Eagle spawned as / with no sprite. This created an auto win for me for that fight.
When you make an updated version i'd like to play that, if you do get around that. Do me a favor and find some free tracks you can just plop into the game.
Thanks @wolfier, yes the Great Eagle is in the game as a card, but I never managed to implement the actual minion. Same with the Armour buff.
zomk
2024-04-20 08:41
Very nice game. Of course some things are missing or unbalanced but I had fun even in this version. Would be interested in a further polished version, if you decide to continue working on this project after the jam ^^
Thanks @zomk! And yes, working on a post-jam version :grinning:
lenne
2024-04-20 10:54
Nice entry. I'm a fan of Slay the Spire and am impressed with what you've made within the timeframe. It seems most of my critiques are things you're already aware of and are working on (health bug, balance). I also noticed the new game button doesn't work after beating the final boss (on the web version at least). Overall a really solid entry and I would definitely play a post-jam version. Great job!
Thanks @lenne, yes I'd noticed after the jam that the new game button only works the first time (it also doesn't work in the Windows version). It's to do with how the two scenes (menu and map screens) switch to each other: Godot doesn't like it when two scenes try to pre-load each other, it ends up in a recursive mess of error messages. Easily fixed by telling one to load the other from file, and everything works correctly in the post-jam version I'm working on.
cool game, sure it's gonna be so much better if there were more time
Thanks, @creeper-nade!
yxure
2024-04-20 12:39
I think the game would benefit from having animations that indicate who is attacking whom. There were times when it wasn't clear to me what was going on. But the concept of summoning units in a card game is really cool. I think if you polish it up well it could be a really good game. Good job!
Thanks for your comments @yxure. I did want to have animations, but (a) ran out of time and (b) the thought of trying to animate scares me :rofl:
pacelin
2024-04-20 15:44
Good entry! I like your game! Our team look at your balance, it's very good, but when I reach boss fight, he kill me by one fingertouch, next time I am playing more careful :) I will wait a release this roguelite! I really like this genre!
uniowl
2024-04-20 15:46
Woah! That's an incredible work for just one person! I very appreciate your programmer art, I am myself can't draw very well xD The game reminded me of Slay the Spire, which I didn't played, but saw one time on my friend's computer, so I'm glad that I met deckbuilder roguelike genre in this entry!
Sadly, there's no sound, but it's may be too much for just one person. Also, enemies before boss were kinda easy for me, but the boss insta-killed me which was a total surprise!
Thank you for your game, you did a very great job!
tryam
2024-04-20 15:47
Cool! Very good game, I am delighted with your skills) Good graphics and idea. Thanks for the good impressions!
bulba
2024-04-20 15:51
Pretty good game. Keep it up!
It's a cute and pretty game. Cool result for a solo developer, keep it going! It would be interesting to see further development of the game
Thanks for all your comments!
@pacelin: yes, I didn't really do much balancing during the jam. I've tweaked it a little in the post-jam version I'm working on, and the fights are a bit more fair while still being challenging.
@uniowl: Thanks! I've never played *Slay the Spire* either, but I have seen some gameplay on YouTube (I'm not sure if *StS* has summoning), which was where most of the inspiration came from.
@tryam: Thank you!
@bulba: Thanks, I will!
@kaesterin: Thanks! I'm working on a post-jam version, which I'll probably publish after the jam has finished.
Nice card based summoning. It's either too easy or I'm too good with this game.
Thanks @bloodbane! I obviously need to tweak the balance, make it harder for you!
lancejz
2024-04-22 18:59
A great fun time, love the 8 bit looking graphics!
Thanks @lancejz, I'm a bit partial to the 8-bit look myself!
I sell-sworded the final boss, fun. The game loop was great, I think it's a really interesting mechanic to have a slay the spire type game but with summoning things which stay and fight, I can even imagine them staying through encounters and you could heal and upgrade them. Nice!
Hey! That's interesting to play your game! I complete it and would like to give you honest feedback, hoping it will help you!
- You have a lot of great ideas how to make the game interesting and fun - You made interesting choice with cards, although there were just 5-6 of them - There are mechanics that seems you had no time to finish them, like show attacking, balancing, UI of health. So, maybe you would better abandon them, beacuse 3 day is too small for such big tactics game. - That was fun the boss reward is the smallest reward of all levels!
So, thank you a lot for your game!
There's really a lot of work behind this game and it's exactly the type of game I love. I really like the idea of summoning creatures mixed with the card game. Obviously, there's probably some balancing to do and content to add, but it's very impressive for a game jam, and I'm sure you already have plenty of ideas for content to add. A big congratulations on your work!
Thanks for all your comments!
@zirconcode: I never thought of having persistent minions. Guess I know what's being added to the future features list :grin: thanks!
@meranolean: yes, the rewards for each level are calculated based on how many enemies were on the level, and since the big boss is the only enemy on his level.... :shrug:
@pattedecanaard: plenty of things to add, including some from suggestions on this page :grin:
Great game! I have a feeling that Peglin was one of the inspirations, wasn't it? Really liked the deckbuilding aspect of this game btw!
Thanks @deltamain. Actually, I don't think I've ever heard of *Peglin* before. Yup, have never seen that before, though I see why you think it was an inspiration.
It's really very daring to do this kind of game during a jam just for that, well done. I admit that I didn't really understand what was happening on the screen; the fact that there was no feedback on what we were doing made the whole thing a little obscure. The pixel art is charming and we want to discover the different monsters and the cards. Great work.
Very nice deckbuilder! Some very interesting mechanics (like the one using a percentage of your gold as damage). Nice visuals! Though a few some simple animations would have been welcome. Nothing fancy just a few "programmer" animations of units attacking. Great work!
Thanks for your comments, @piero-pbes-studio and @negator2vc! Yes, visual feedback on what's happening is definitely lacking. There are text prompts at the bottom of the screen, but they're not particularly obvious. Definitely working on that for the post-jam version.
This was pretty fun. The lack of audio or visual cues on mouse-over made it feel very flat, but I got into the deck planning and wanted to continue my run after beating the boss. I would say, without a way to generate mana or reduce card costs, the healer never felt worth it except against the final boss. The "sell sword" card was easily the best card in the game, I realized halfway to the end. It instantly kills every batch of enemies even at relatively low gold amounts. I liked the armor idea and the fact that I could cast it the same turn as a minion.
Thanks @thesmellofoxygen! I do have plans for cards to top up your mana, and artefacts that will give you more mana and health. The sellsword card is definitely OP in the jam version, with a bug in the damage distribution turning it into a nuke. In the post-jam version I'm working on, I've fixed the damage distribution, and made sure that sellsword does a maximum of 5 damage to any one enemy, It's still effective, but a bit less overpowered. Armour is still to be implemented, I put the card in just to flesh out the deck a bit. Glad you enjoyed it!
I was also perplexed by the mechanics. Once I realized the health of enemies was a bug it started making sense. Good job.
dovodx
2024-04-26 01:46
The rules allow you to fix bugs post-launch. It's a bit late at this point, but definitely worth keeping in mind for next time (or even for this jam, if it's not too cumbersome). You just can't add any new features. The concept seems like it can work with more development, like some little animations for the enemy and player summon interactions (not something I probably would've attempted for a solo jam myself, I don't fault you there). Also a small QoL thing: it would've been nice to be able to exit battles with the mouse instead of having to press the escape key.
Thanks for your comments!
@petr-vejchoda: annoyingly, I figured out what the bug was and how to fix it in the closing minutes of the jam, without enough time left to actually fix it.
@dovodx: I had misread the rules and thought only bugs that stop the game from running (or cause it to crash) were the only ones that could be fixed once the jam ended. I'll remember for next time, thanks! I think I can add some more, especially in providing feedback to the player on what's happening. And yes, I've already fixed the need to use the keyboard in the post-jam version.
atan
2024-04-26 18:58
The game have good concept, i think the map cut have more forks, also it will be ver good have at least some hilight of curently atackyng unit.
Thanks @atan. I did intend to have a randomly generated map each run, but -- like so many things -- ran out of time to implement it properly, so there's just a single "test" map each time. And I'm also working on a way to indicate who is attacking what.
I liked the pixel art. The game seems to be too easy. Maybe next time create monsters with more hp. You could also implement a mech to select the enemy you want to attack.
oller125
2024-04-27 20:01
A nice game. Though it's quite easy and you don't get much feedback with regards to what is going on.
Thanks for your comments.
@cosmic-dust: Yes, there's a bug in the jam version where the different types of enemies share a health pool, rather than keep track of their own health. I've fixed it in a post-jam version (there's a Windows version on the itch.io page). I like the idea of the minions doing their own targeting, but I'll have a play around with your idea.
@oller125: Yes, there's a bug with the enemies' health tracking which makes the jam version way too easy; and feedback for the player is definitely high on my priority list.
rhyst
2024-04-28 16:20
Very well fleshed out given the time. The enemies did all say they had 0 health though and multiple enemies seemed to die at once when I didn't expect it. Not sure about balance since I had 230 gold so I one shot the end boss with the gold to damage card.
Thanks @rhyst.
The 0 health bug and all enemies dying in one hit bug are actually the same bug, where I accidentally used a Godot resource (which act like singletons) to store the current health, rather than one each individual enemy.
And there's minimal balancing in the jam version. In a post-jam version, I've rebalanced Sellsword to do a maximum of 5 damage to each enemy.
Really neat idea and nicely presented! Using cards to summon minions is a nice twist on the format. It's a shame about the shared enemy health bug, but it wouldn't be a jam if we didn't have a few bugs. :)
Thanks @matt-ravenhall !
I think it's a cool sketch for a larger game. One thing I would love to see is some mechanic of deciding whether to save mana for later or maybe just a larger mana pool to give more opportunities to strategize. I think the game would also benefit from a greater level of difficulty. I actually did like the art, sure I wouldn't call it polished but it does the job well enough, in particular, I liked the character sprites.
Thanks, @pauldee427 ! I'm certainly interested in seeing where I can go with this, including using it as inspiration to improve my art skills. I've also got ideas for artifacts that will increase your mana pool, but I like the idea of saving mana between turns/battles.