SquiggleMancer

breadstick 2024-04-16 02:44

Awesome and polished looking game! I enjoyed the magicka-esque spellcasting... there's something really fun about just mashing elements together and seeing what happens. I would've liked if the different elements were named so that their effects were easier to predict--but then again, the uncertainty and experimentation was half the fun!

Minor bug, but it looks like movement horizontally and movement vertically were handled independently of each other, which means that you can hold both up and right to move diagonally--but since your vertical and horizontal movements are combined, your overall speed is now faster! It was easy to outrun just about every enemy by walking diagonally!

Overall, great art, fun mechanics--nicely done!

captainspacecat 2024-04-16 03:10

That was a bit confusing to figure out but super cool mechanic. The game says tab opens the spell wheel, but for me it was spacebar. I enjoyed the combat! It's pretty difficult to juggle spell selection and worrying about the enemies, not to mention the time you're losing that you could've been blasting away! Overall, very fun game, solid style throughout, I'm impressed!

adam-gallina 2024-04-16 03:12

Nice concept! The art and animations were really nice, especially the blue slime boss, and I liked the music. On the main menu, it says tab to open spell wheel, but in game it didn't seem to do anything?

spudsef 2024-04-16 03:23

@adam-gallina Hey! Yes it's a bit out of date. 'Space' is the right button for the spell wheel as it's easier to use.

adam-gallina 2024-04-16 03:35

@spudsef WOW that's a lot more exciting with a full spell wheel - pretty fun to figure out what each component does!

ninotrix 2024-04-16 16:30

Good game !!

jhax 2024-04-16 17:27

Cool game, uses the sort of spell combination stuff well. I feel like the spell wheel's sort of convenient enough to not be cumbersome to use, but there's also enough friction in there to create a real sense of urgency when changing between spells which adds something I think.

Enjoying trying to figure out what the different symbols meant as well, makes sense once you start figuring it out and not being 100% sure what it all means is a nice incentive to try different things out.

onqdll 2024-04-16 19:45

It was very enjoyable! Love the enemy death animations! You sure put great effort into it.

blackcat508 2024-04-17 02:28

great art and interesting concept! It was fun trying out different combinations.

vantalogic 2024-04-17 02:31

really fun played through a few times and was having fun the whole time great job

inidal-dev 2024-04-18 02:48

Really fun game liked how you could change your attack/summons. I noticed a bug that if you turned down the volume and then went back to the menu it resets the volume to normal. Otherwise, the game was really cool, nice job!

pigeonescu 2024-04-18 18:46

Loved the idea of combining spells, reminded me of Magicka and loved the fact that by making your own spells you can play the game in a manner suited to your liking.

I would've preferred to have some sort of guide to know what the components do before playing the game but I guess there is also the aspect of discovering and figuring stuff out as you play the game. Still at least an in game tooltip or some vague hint on each components effects might've been a cool addition.

Overall, It was a fun experience to find out what the components did.

ski11az 2024-04-18 19:02

@breadstick, @pigeonescu Thanks for playing and providing feedback!

Magicka was definitely part of the inspiration for the design of the spell casting system so you hit the nail on the head there. In line with that the lack of explanation of what each component does was an intentional choice to make you have to experiment. So while wanting to keep that aspect of the game, it could definitely be worth communicating a little better what the different results are so it's easier to tell what changed.

Glad you liked it!

ski11az 2024-04-18 19:12

@captainspacecat Hey! Thanks for playing!

The spell crafting was made intentionally unclear with a lack of information in order to emphasize experimentation to find out what everything does. I do however think that the spell menu itself could have been made a lot more intuitive without taking away from that experimentation so that is something I would like to improve.

I also agree that trying to switch spells while in combat is unnecessarily cumbersome so will probably make the game slow down at least a little bit to lessen the stress.

Thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed the game!

ski11az 2024-04-18 19:19

@jhax Thanks for the generous feedback!

Glad you liked the unconventional spell crafting! What you talked about was absolutely the intention, to create some friction in something that is normally very convenient and to reward mastery of the systems. Of course, with the small scale of a jam game there isn't a whole lot to master but figuring out what effect each component has at least takes a little experimentation. Would love to add more unique components to enable and even wider variety in the possible spells but that is for the future.

unchain 2024-04-19 20:29

Nice little game! I like the art, but I have to say that the default spell looks to much like a bullet🤣.

pakoo 2024-04-20 06:30

I loved this! It was very addicting, and I ended up playing it way longer than I thought I would.

epb9000 2024-04-21 17:38

I really enjoyed the spell mixing, especially after I found I could set everyone on fire. Because then everyone was on fire.

simun182 2024-04-26 14:43

Really unique and nice game design, love the graphics.

labcatgames 2024-04-29 20:11

Nicely executed! I enjoyed discovering new spells and all the different enemies. Lovely environment and clean graphics other than some extremely up-scaled sprites. Would have liked to have the attacks be a little more satisfying to use, possibly doing more damage or firing quicker or being larger. A dodge roll would also add a lot to the movement. All around solid prototype that you should be proud of!