Ordinary Wizards Doing Ordinary Things

0x-void-x0 2024-04-15 18:15

Eyyy what's up fupi? I really like how your games are having this big drawn environment as the background instead of tiles or solid colors, really adds to the world! the game is really chaotic and things go out of hand really quickly, I like the idea behind it but man did it make my brain fry lol. I was trying to balance my work when I didn't have enough mages by doing half the job in one place before moving to another to not lose a star, I don't know if that's a thing or if leaving a half finished job resets it but that's basically what I did until I got all mages killed :laughing:

the music is really fitting too, I was waiting to hear that bass I hear every jam from your games lol but the music here is also pretty cool! nice to see your art style improving, it's beautiful to look back at your old game and observe a noticeable improvement. great work, both of you!

fupi 2024-04-15 18:23

@0x-void-x0 Heyyy mate!! Thanks for playing! I like the drawn environments too, mostly bc I just don't like working with pixel art x) dealing with the entire game as a big canvas makes it easier for me.

Part of the challenge of the game is figuring out a strategy to win! Moving the wizards from job to job is indeed a thing, and you do need to do that sometimes to survive! You can leave the jobs and come back to them later and they won't reset, the warning sign will start pulsating when you start to *really* run out of time. Remember to buy wizards often and send them all to the tower when the demons come!

Since I got a team mate to make music this time, I couldn't include my signature bass lol, though I think this teeny high-pitched sound fits the little wizard guys really well ^^

Your game is already on my queue, congrats on finishing dude!!

magui 2024-04-15 19:31

What a great game! I had a lot of fun playing it! I loved the main idea and the art! And the sound design made it even better! I would love to see more updates on the game. Congratulations, great job!

fupi 2024-04-15 20:20

@magui Thank you!! Updates are definitely not coming, but thanks for playing ^^

aweskybear 2024-04-16 04:28

@Fupi, hello there! I will start with *your* game after I recover xD Looks very fun and funny! : )))) Cheers and enjoy the rest of Ludum Dare!! :bow: , ma friend!

6knowledge 2024-04-16 11:33

Squish and stretch, the best invention since sliced bread. The graphics and music were absolutely brimming with old internet, points for that.

aweskybear 2024-04-16 17:13

Oooohh this is fun! Just played 5 minutes and am hooked :D The toilet often gets clogged I see...

Died a few times until I realized I ... May need to use the buttons on the left xD Will write more! Good job as a first impression : ))) Very cute.

fupi 2024-04-16 17:15

@aweskybear Yes you do! You need to buy more wizards to survive the later gigs

kanity 2024-04-16 23:38

The animations are so cute! That's the first thing I noticed. When that person sat happily on his unclogged toilet, I thought it was adorable.

Overall the game feels nice to play - responsive, fast, smooth. I was a bit confused at the very start because I am bad at reading instructions before playing. But I liked the format in which introduction/tutorial was made, fitting the visual atmosphere of the game.

Visually, I like how everything is cute and cartoonish, that's really one of my favourite drawing styles ^^' And how the models are tiny, too. It looks good and fun and cozy.

Music and sounds are good as well, very energetic!

In terms of difficulty, as I remember you made it too difficult at first - I found it pretty easy as of now (I don't mind it tho, it's still dynamic and fun). On my third try (first I died because was still figuring it out and couldn't send my wizards anywhere and second I didn't realize what do demons do xD), when I finally caught up with the rules (scrolling down sometimes to read a snippet from description) I was victorious.

They summoned me to claim the trophy, I sent lots of guys there and then got told I am amazing <3 fupi2.jpg

I think it's a fun idea and fits the theme really well, too. Definitely high in humour for me! I love attention to detail with tiny items, animations of different jobs ^^

*Also this are the stats I won with: fupi.jpg

fupi 2024-04-17 02:13

@kanity oh yeah, the game is right you ARE amazing!!! wow!!!

Thank you for playing!! One of the things I regret from this game is just how much explaining I had to do in the beginning. Four pages of instructions is *ridiculous* for a game of mine. There's a lot of mechanics, but I'm sure it all could have been done in a more intuitive way. ^^'

Also I'm glad you liked the animations!! Had a lot of fun making those lol

fupi 2024-04-17 02:16

@0x-void-x0 @magui @aweskybear @6knowledge @kanity Friends I'm so so sorry to leave you all hanging, work has just been hell lately. I'll play your games as soon as I can, and I'll throw a little something extra for you too!

kanity 2024-04-17 03:44

@fupi don't even worry about it, we all understand there are a lot of real-life things, I am struggling with work deadlines myself. there is still plenty of time left to play and rate games <3

And yeah on the topic of your game: I think maybe tips popping up during gameplay could be a good solution? Tbh everyone's brain works differently, for me personally it's easier to figure stuff out when I am already doing it, but some people might appreciate longer instructions upfront.

diego-teran 2024-04-17 05:46

As always, really cool game! It felt polished and even have a tutorial! The visuals and the sound effects go well together.

The only gameplay comment is that it felt that the strategy was just to divide the wizards between all the places and keep them there. For the demons attacking, I just used my saved money to buy more wizards.

aweskybear 2024-04-17 06:42

@Fupi, all good, fella! I am yet to still play yours longer, not even started how I wanted. You can also delay on playing mine.. it seems I got a few more bugs than expected :DDDD (will try to fix some..)

Edit: I was so ashamed of these bugs that I took 30 minutes and fixed them xD (you could play now).

jezzamon 2024-04-18 02:24

Nice!!! Very well polished. Love the user interface animations when you click on buttons and such, and the sounds were great.

aweskybear 2024-04-18 22:04

Finally got down to playing a bit more. ^^

My friend, this is a very polished game! : ))) The graphics and sounds are fitting like bread and butter. Very cute cartoonish style. Great job!

Now... I did beat it on the 4th or 5th time. Then I did beat it again, just to be sure (I don't know xD). Except for the somewhat varied controls I have no other feedback.

Screenshot 2024-04-19 003140-won.png

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Here is why it took me... a bit longer / and it made me feel like an imbecile not getting something simple :D ;())) - **the mouse clicking** (initially) can be a bit overwhelming / at least it did confuse the hell out of my brain! I lost several times, almost not understanding what happened, because my brain wasn't getting used to switching between left and right clicks constantly (I tend to get used to stuff quickly). I also couldn't easily click on the job targets speedily enough, for some reason (then later I got used to).

The mouse clicking - that in my opinion is the only potential place for improvement of the game itself, because combined with the jobs requiring attention rapidly, you can lose very.. rapidly :D An idea -> left (or whatever) click to select target... double-click of *same* button to move guys to target from the selected one! OR (even better)... the same single click to move guys - but a click onto a special icon somewhere on the job target, not it itself.

The camera pan with spacebar is very good! The zoom, I didn't use. The middle mouse btn for panning, I didn't use (for some reason using more than 1 btn confused me - initially - maybe the pace?). But that could be just.. me? FYI: I had similar decisions to make for my own game / it has similarities!! xD I added quite a few controls, so they are far from the best :D

One final piece of thought: if a game is too fast in the beginning, it could be off putting, if the player doesn't immediately get it - it's a hunch (again - not valid for everyone, I am just a slower person xD)

Overall, amazing, very cute, warm game with a speck of modern working-life humor.. we all probably know the pain of :D Thank you and keep up the great work!

fupi 2024-04-18 22:53

@aweskybear Thank you for playing, and for the detailed feedback!

The controls are definitely the most complicated aspect of this game. I struggled a lot to come up with something that felt good to use but was also intuitive (and from all the reactions, obviously I failed xD). People told me that real RTS games usually have left click as select and right click as move, which is easier to explain, I just thought it didn't feel right on my hand, which is why I went with this weird compromise. x')

The pace is also a big problem. Without realizing, I made it almost impossible to survive the first few rounds if you don't already know exactly what you're doing. If I had more time, I probably would have made a playable tutorial to get you acustommed to the controls first, and *then* thrown you into action. But alas, I didn't.

I'm glad you liked the graphics and humor though! Definitely the part of the game I had the most fun with. ^^

aweskybear 2024-04-18 23:00

@fupi You did more well for these 3 days! : )) Cheers and have fun with the rest!

mar-zockmeister 2024-04-19 23:33

I like the art style, it really works well with the game and it is also big plus that it works in such a small screen area. But the game is really tough although you can learn with every round since the jobs are always the same. Having a few levels with increasing difficulty would be cool. Also, more things to buy from the money (upgrades etc.) would increase long-term motivation. But I know, this is difficult to do in the short time span - we had the same problem. But overall, nice little game, kept me playing for a few rounds. :)

fupi 2024-04-19 23:38

@mar-zockmeister Well, the levels were supposed to be the jobs themselves, but I unknowingly made the first jobs a lot harder than the last ones, since you have so few wizards :sweat_smile: Thanks for playing!

wouter52 2024-04-20 15:07

A real fupi-classic if you ask me! The art style is fun and consistent, and the music is very fitting. I do no envy those poor wizards, now needing to do dull tasks to survive :laughing: Panning around was a bit difficult with the middle mouse button, but you added the option to use spacebar too and that worked flawlessly. The one point I have is that it is not clear when stars are lost. The first few rounds I got game-over without even realizing I ran out of stars

I had lots of fun playing yours, thanks!

I love how you have a 'what I have learned' section to this LD entry

fupi 2024-04-20 19:18

@wouter52 Thank you for playing!! You lose stars when a job runs out of time. Each job has a hidden timer of about a minute that, if it runs out, the job "expires" and blows up. It was indeed pretty difficult to sign to the player that they had lost a life and which job caused it because of how much was going on :sweat_smile: I also didn't want explicit timers on screen since I couldn't find a way for that to look good.

Since this project ended up ballooning into such a big mess, I definitely had a lot to learn from! ;w;

jerrre 2024-04-21 15:01

I won (2nd try)! Very well polished game! Art and humor is great! Creative concept as well! Really one of the best/complete entries I've played so far

fupi 2024-04-21 15:09

@jerrre Oh wow! Thanks a lot!!

aune 2024-04-21 15:28

Hey! What a strong jam game. I won on my second try (lost the first due to the right-click/left-click confusion, Age of Empires player here). You should be proud of how well the music and graphics fit. Best mood so far! Super idea to have an end to the game, endless games are a bit frustrating. And handscribed tutorial is not long and very clear.

Having made a somewhat similar game two jam ago, I must say I'm a bit jealous of how polished your game is :blush:

fupi 2024-04-21 15:35

@aune Thank you very much!! The graphics were definitely very fun to make. I have never touched an RTS game in my life, I should probably have researched a little before deciding to make up my own weird control scheme :sweat_smile:

orbitaldot 2024-04-21 19:24

WOW, the art & sound design are super polished, I especially loved the dynamic music change whenever the central tower was under demonic siege. Nicely done!!! I feel like the gameplay could've had some foil to it, because towards the end I was more interested in how many more wizards I could summon to sustain myself infinitely, rather than actually beating the game ;D solid entry though!!!

fupi 2024-04-21 19:29

@orbitaldot Thanks for playing!! I prefer games that have an end to them, though I did make the ending optional if people wanted to try racking up as many wizards as possible lol. I concur that the difficulty curve getting easier the longer you survive is definitely weird though.

peachtreemcgee 2024-04-21 19:33

Incredibly enjoyable experience, great job! Love the artstyle and sound design!

notnasiul 2024-04-21 19:35

So fun and original! :D Once I got the idea I managed to organice my wizards so there were at least three at each spot, and summoned them back to the center when the demon appeared. Nice work!

ogma-badparenting101 2024-04-21 20:38

How is this game in danger? So fun and cute! It's challenging, but just enough to keep it interesting!

fupi 2024-04-21 21:34

@ogma-badparenting101 It's in danger cus I have almost no time to play other people's games to bump up my smart balance lol ;w; Thank you for playing!

tetracold 2024-04-22 02:05

This game was fun! simple but solid!

I like the artstyle it's simple but charming! the music is also pretty good!

I think it's a funny idea that this is a world where powerful wizards have to do mundane tasks for the people lol

At first I found it a little difficult to handle the wizards as I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do, but I eventually got the hang of it. it was never too overwhelming, it only took a bit more focus on my part.

The only thing I could say is that I wish it were a bit more obvious how many wizards are required and time what the time to finish each task is, because sometimes I'd fail even if I had a wizard or 2 already working. Good entry!

fupi 2024-04-22 02:28

@tetracold Thanks for playing!! The jobs get progressively "tougher" as they are unlocked, so you need more wizards to do them in time. I didn't show any of this information because I couldn't find a way to put it on screen without cluttering it all up. I banked on the idea that people were gonna put as many wizards as possible on each job anyway so it didn't matter xD Though of course it's not the best approach. Thanks for the feedback!

shoppncart 2024-04-22 16:41

I enjoyed this game a lot! The visual style was very charming, and the concept as a whole was an amusing spin on the main theme. The variety of different jobs unlocking was a neat way to make it feel like progression was being made, and each having an associated sound effect made for a good way to tell them apart at a sort of glance. One suggestion is that buying a wizard should also be attached to a button input, just so they could be bought while doing other tasks and streamline the process a bit. Some other visual notification of when or how much money was received from a job would also be nice. Still, a very charming game that I enjoyed!

Thank you for the very kind comment on our game as well. Very much appreciated!

fupi 2024-04-22 17:12

@shoppncart Thank you very much!! These are all very good suggestions! And congrats on your game, even though I played a lot more jam games after it, I still stand by that it's the best one xD

monika 2024-04-22 23:20

Very fun! The right click left click thing is a little awkward but the most obvious alternative would be constantly re-clicking on your source, I guess, which would be worse. Maybe hotkeys or a modifier key? I don't know. With more time it might be worth testing a few options, but a game jam is a game jam.

The balance is a little weird because only the early game is hard, and then you quickly can afford to buy enough wizards to keep a bunch in the middle to deal with the tower and still assign a bunch to each task. From the last image in your game listing, I can see you know about this :)

Graphics are great, music and sound is great, and the game is super fun. Good job!

aivaxela 2024-04-22 23:31

One of the very few jam games that I can honestly say I was sad when it was over. This was so much fun! I need an endless mode where I can summon millions of wizards to wipe butts and wipe blood (evidence). >:)

krummsakura 2024-04-22 23:47

Humor is great, gameplay is addicting and programmer art is delightful. Now i go back to play some more. Last but not least, thanks for loving me.

fupi 2024-04-23 00:34

I'll play all your games as soon as I can!!

@monika Other players have pointed out that real RTS games, with a control scheme similar to this, seem to use LMB to select, and RMB to move, which, while I don't like as much ergonomically, makes more sense intuitively and is what people are used to. If I were to change the controls I would probably do it that way, since it's more standard! And yes, the difficulty curve is very weird lol, unfortunately balancing was the last thing I did so I didn't have time to come up with something better. At least buying more and more wizards is pretty satisfying x3 Thanks for playing!!

@aivaxela Thanks for playing!! I can't even imagine an endless mode of this game, like, endless jobs unlocking? :dizzy_face: Might work as an idle game but I'd have to rethink the balance! x)

@krummsakura Thanks for playing and you're welcome!! ;3

ildfuglen 2024-04-28 11:00

Love this!!! The audio and graphics style was great. I lost the first one, but after you figure it out, it's fairly easy. Overall, love this entry. Mood was on point, it's funny, I had fun, thank you.

thyoi 2024-04-28 12:19

wizards.png this game has so much fun! and the art is really cute! (I notice that wizards clean tank for eevee)

thyoi 2024-04-28 12:30

wizards2.png (sorry, noticed that it's an original character. I just kick eevee out of tank)

fupi 2024-04-28 13:53

@thyoi OMGGGGG!! POOR VAPPY! ;W;;; Thank you very much for the adorable drawing! I'm gonna cherish it till the end of time. <3

denilseven 2024-04-28 15:46

This is so chaotic and energetic! I love the vibes + the little effects and details sprinkled everywhere

I didn't do well on my first play through but managed to win on my second. The controls are a bit confusing at first but it works fine when you get used to it. Also, I don't know if that's the intended gameplay, but I felt like I couldn't leave one place without wizards so I just summoned more of them when needed instead of moving the ones that were done with their jobs, but that was fun to play still.

Good job guys!! Oh and I've just noticed that one of the devs is from :flag_br: as well so that's epic :sunglasses:

fupi 2024-04-28 16:01

@denilseven Yeah, that pretty much is the intended gameplay. Switching wizards around gets less important the more wizards you have. x) Also, both of us are actually from Brazil! Obrigado por jogar! ;D

denilseven 2024-04-28 16:30

@fupi Saquei! Man, it's really inspiring to see so many devs from Brazil :D

ajpl 2024-04-29 00:27

That was fun! Gratz on nice entry, loved the humor and art. Really polished jam entry :thumbsup:

thelastslowpoke 2024-04-30 16:06

That was fun! Short polished game. Very funny, simple to pick up and just have fun. I like your "what I've learned" section ^^ And the music was fun, they did a great job!

lize-v 2024-05-03 20:35

Really fun concept and nice visuals! Thanks for making.

amunonra 2024-05-03 20:47

Great game. Really nice artstyle, animations, sound and music. I liked playing it very much