nathmate 2024-04-15 02:55
Itch link is giving 404.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Zoomancy
By ugly-robot
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 51 | 3.93 | 39 | |
| Fun | 75 | 3.77 | 39 | |
| Innovation | 65 | 3.85 | 39 | |
| Theme | 8 | 4.52 | 39 | |
| Graphics | 52 | 4.13 | 39 | |
| Audio | 73 | 3.69 | 38 | |
| Humor | 66 | 3.62 | 37 | |
| Mood | 67 | 3.81 | 38 |
Itch link is giving 404.
@nathmate Argg! Thanks - forgot to hit the 'public' button - should be all set, lmk if anyone else experiences any issues!
That's pretty fun! Graphics and audio are nice, the core idea is interesting. Getting sigils right seems to be pretty hard, and I don't know whether it's my inability to read the cheat-sheet, or inability to draw them correctly. Maybe a preview of what's going to be summoned before you blow on the candles would help with that, so you don't have to retry too much. Especially if it's something you've summoned before. Maybe not though. Anyways, great entry, pretty polished, especially for a compo game!
Better hints on how to draw things would be helpful. I never found the right way to get the patterns. Graphically and sonically good. Good entry.
That's impressive! The fact that you can erase/redo your sigil as many times as you want gives it a nice "exploratory" feeling, which fits the overall mood set by the art and music.
I kinda love it. It's fun to explore the shapes and figure out the summons. However I would choose only on - either exploring (which is more fun I think) or precision drawing. I would love to know who else I can summon but my hand hurts from drawing, maybe highlighting the parts of the pattern is an alternative. Anyway great submission and good luck!
@quadape and @paroxysmal Thanks and good feedback! Yeah, I was hoping to maybe add an 'overlay' where, once unlocked, you could click to see a desired pattern right on the altar, to make sizing easier. But alas, time constraints and technical roadblocks due to multithreading.
Wanted to have a vibe similar to those flash games where you combine elements. Some flailing around randomly in the beginning, but then slowly the player pieces together the 'rules of the world'. Hard to strike the right difficulty balance though.
@ghettobastler thank you! Yeah, definitely what I was hoping for
Very nice game, some of the animals are really difficult to summon, also the mouse was acting up until I turned full screen on wich threw me off for the first few minutes.
Awesome game!
Drawing the sigils is laborious in a good way, it's a fun mechanic. It's hard to get things just right with a mouse, which makes for a challenge.
Some resource mechanics - like limited time to answer the customer or limited blood to draw sigils - could fit nicely too. But the game works great as is.
Aesthetically the game is great too! Amazing job!
@freamdev thanks! Sorry to hear about the mouse issue - what browser were you using, so I can test?
@jsmcag thank you! Yeah, I definitely considered a timer, but in the end I think I preferred to give the player time to explore and mess up. In a previous game, I had customers coming in with a timer, and the difficulty can be hard to balance. But I agree, would be nice to see a game like this with additional challenge. Thanks for playing!
@ugly-robot Was a plain chrome, should be updated to the latest version as well.
... you messed up... thats not ugly ;) Great job.
@freamdev really? Huh, that's what I'm using, strange - I'll keep an eye on it, thanks for the report
@locksmitharmy :D Thanks! Yeah, I'm certainly no artist, but I do feel like I am coalescing on a 'style' that is do-able for me, produces okay results, and allows me to make assets in a fast enough time. Late on Sat, when I was too tired to write usable code, I could sit and make little critters, which was nice. All the art is made with google docs, believe it or not. Don't know if that disproves or proves my point, haha.
Great game! This one nails the theme, that's for sure. I loved how the knife would interact with Flayed as you moved it around. It was pretty intuitive.
Visuals and audio are great and it's a very fun take on the theme. I found it a bit tedious after a while, but the core gameplay is very well polished and it's a fun idea!
Excellent use of the theme! The art is great, and there is quite a bit of juice with all the particles and stuff that makes the mechanics fun to interact with.
I was a little confused about the patterns as sometimes what I drew didn't seem to match with the patterns on the side and what was being summoned. I think maybe I'm just really bad at drawing straight lines XD
Nice work!
I had lotsa fun trying different shapes (my favorite being the frog in the hat).
It's right on point for the theme!!
Amazing game. Getting great shop owner sim vibes from this. With some sort of progression and more mechanics, this could be super addicting. Reminds me a lot of potioncraft. A lot of potential here, great job
This game was awesome! Super impressive how many small polish effects you were able to add (sounds, animations, particle effects, etc). My favourite was the squish when you moved the knife in the brain.
There were a few times where I got confused/surprised by the creature turning out differently from what I intended to draw but I think that might just be because the lines I made were too wiggly. I tried to reproduce to get a screenshot of what I drew vs. what it summoned but those ones all turned out as expected...maybe because I was being more careful :shrug_tone2:
Anyways, really well done game, I had a lot of fun playing it and am super impressed with how you were able to make something so polished.
the idea is good and the execution is neat but I need to be more hands-on to enjoy the game.
You are really great! The game turned out great!
I think the art style compliments the silly vibes - sponge and roach jar are a fun touch, so well worth the polish put in :) I totally didn't realise until halfway through exactly where each "ring" zone was, so a lot of the early successes were pure accident/bad drawing, as I wasn't not really sure how big to draw circles etc... But I sailed through once I worked it out. Good job!
It's a funny game! I don't know if I played wrong, but some drawing instructions I didn't achieve well. Don't know how to do it, maybe if the game has some hints to spend for some cost, it could improve the experience and the strategy.
@pres2300 Thank you! yes, I spent quite a bit of time trying to make the knife moving juicy and not too taxing on the player (perhaps too much time wasted there, haha). Thank you for playing!
@owtuvammo yes, with more time, I think there are things a designer could do to make the game less tedious, but I definitely agree. Glad you had some fun, and thank you for the feedback!
@magnusfurcifer Thanks! yeah, I wish I had time to make it clearer, what 'zone' the shapes have to be in, and how the image recognition is working. Sometimes, the algorithm would give too much 'leeway' on one shape, causing it to interfere with recognition of a different shape. Perhaps it was silly to try to make a shape recognition algorithm for a jam game, but I'm never good at turning down an unnecessary challenge, haha. Thanks for the kind words!
@gwethelynn frog-in-hat is an excellent choice, apprentice (Also, I think I just played your and @maxgun 's game - you are a very talented artist!)
@vortexb thank you very much for the kind words! I thought of the idea instantly after the theme was announced, and the second thought was "I'm not going to have enough time to give this idea all the progression mechanics it deserves" lol. Glad you enjoyed it, even in its current muted form
@perfectsquare Thanks! I was surprised how many sounds a sponge, a wet plate, and a water bottle can make, haha. I think this is the first time I've done recorded effects - fiddly, but fun. Yeah - your experience is definitely legit, the system definitely gets it wrong often enough - but it least it gets it right sometimes too! Haha
@piero-pbes-studio ah, just so I understand - you mean 'hands-on', as in having more information about the symbols it needs from you? Or do you mean more challenge, like from a timer or score system? Or do you mean more feedback about how your symbol drawing is going? Or something else?
@kirass I'm flattered 😳 thanks!
@1y1e yes, I'm so glad you were able to figure it out! Yes, it is not at all obvious, and I wish I had more time to explain things better - but at least you were able to get the full experience on your own! Thank you for playing!
@tata Yes, I would've loved to have added a hint system, that is a great idea. If only I had more time! But thank you for the feedback!
@ghettobastler (Sorry, originally typed this out on your game - but didn't want to clog up your comments with tech details about my unrelated game)
Your answers totally makes sense! And I do really love the timer and resultant feel of your game, I played it much more than I 'played' my own. ;3
And for the image recognition in mine, there are 3 separate multithreaded 'proctors' that run in the background, each responsible for a different ring of the altar table. They each just 'brute force' checking their ring's possibilities, comparing the users drawn pixels, and normalizing with the # of pixels that the candidate symbol has. It works often enough (but not always), and is definitely not fast - which is why I had to go through the pain of threading it. The proctors are constantly updating their 'current best guess' and then provide it to the 'headmaster' when summoning happens, who combines them to a single creature. In fact, the 'lighting the 3 candles' helps slow the player down for a second, so the proctors can 'catch up'. (I wanted to do something diegetic either way, but it is also useful for the proctor system)
So yeah, going with the vector system was probs a smarter use of your time XD
I'm another one of those people that can't get consistent results and had to give up :D
Love the concept though! The core gameplay loop is solid, and the visuals are excellent for the mood. Nicely done!
ah yes the game that mocks me for my bad 2D art skills /j
joking aside really fun game until it demands I draw toxic and makes sparkly because my circles are too square-like, but the failures just add to the narrative and gameloop so a really really nice game
That one is a good time! Pretty, cute, smooth... nothing like my drawings which looked like a toddler's :P But the clients seemed happy nonetheless... good work!
@ugly-robot yeah I would need more feedback when I draw the symbol and more information on the symbol itself. But I can also understand that it is a choice on your part to let the player experiment and have fun understanding the symbols to draw.
yo what did I miss? XD catwithhat.png
Well that's cute as heck. It's hard to draw these things well with a mouse! I sorta want to use a touchscreen or stylus or something for this. Also, +1 for a goat asking things of you!
@piero-pbes-studio rodger that! Understood - thanks for the clarification
@p-r lmao! Task failed successfully!
@dissonance-generator thanks! Yeah, I really wish the mouse was a better input for drawing - its funny how experience we all are with using this input tool, and yet it is nearly impossible for most of us to draw with. And yeah, I like to think somewhere out there is a talking goat, and sitting atop it, a winged-sparking-frog or whatever, going on grand adventures together. Thanks for playing!
wow, phenomenal presentation. all the little particles and illustrations are super cute! the sigil drawing is such a nice exploration of the theme mechanic too. i like the little touches like how some of the sigils resemble what object they create.
p.s. what is "elated" vs "happy"? is it just how long you took?
Gorgeous visuals and pleasant sounds. I spent solid half an hour in this game trying to unlock all modules. Capture.PNG
This game doesn't have a win condition, but I got the winning combination, so it's a victory for me.
UPD. My bad, it does have orders from visitor, but I was too invested in experimentation, so I didn't even finish the tutorial. and I enjoyed it a lot
Okay, now I finished the game. It was amazing. The only feedback point that I have is that the registrations are only correct 90% of the time. When I was experimenting for myself it was fine, but when I have to progress through the game, it seems a bit unfair. Although, its a minor thing, and it barely spoils the whole picture.
@dishwand Thank you! The game actually does score how 'well' you drew each symbol component, then averages them to score the summoned creature. You might notice 'Perfect' vs 'Good' vs 'Okay' particle effects when you perform a summon and send it off to the client. I didn't want to punish folks harshly for getting Okay or Great - but for anyone who likes the completionist element, you can try to get more 'Perfect' summons. perfect summon = elated client good summon = happy client okay summon = satisfied client
@mnemosynevl Thanks! I'm so flattered you were able to enjoy it! Yes, the registering algorithm is far from perfect, and there were considerable tradeoffs to keep it fast enough for a web game. In fact - it is even possible that, as you got better, you drew 'too fast' for the algorytm to 'catch up'. You can press '8' on your keyboard to see the 'inner thoughts' of the algorithm, and notice that there is a slight lag between drawing, and the 'proctor' updating what it thinks you are drawing. The lag is less if you are on a faster computer, but can be noticeable on slower machines. But anyways - I am very happy you were able to have some fun with it, and enjoy the art/sounds. I'm certainly no artist/musician, and this was my first real time using godot - so I'm just glad I was able to finish in time! Thank you for your kind words, it means alot!
What a lovely experience! I enjoyed the contrast of gruesome sigil to *magic poof* adorable creature. I finished the game and thought the gridlines provided a good guide as to where and how the sigils should be drawn in contrast to what a lot of the folks on here are saying. Additionally, I like how this game rewards experimentation, kind of reminds me of the Alchemy mobile app game in that way. That first time I nailed a bird in hat felt really really great. Thank you!
@slef <3 thank you!
cool game! interesting mechanics and held my attention till i completed it (with more begrudged customers than satisfied, HEH)
i learned that i cant draw
very simple and effective concept, its not the only game like this this jam, but this had to ve the clearest and most concise version (no exesive reading or even separate menu tabs)