FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD55 → Summon Elements

Summon Elements

By mdotedot

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2583.1233
Fun2593.0333
Innovation2553.0133
Theme3422.1433
Graphics2712.9133
Audio2023.0033
Humor2981.8225
Mood2652.9331

Comments

mmayans 2024-04-15 05:19

Cool concept! I liked the puzzles, but the bottom of them kept getting cut off by my laptop screen.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 07:18

@mmayans: thank you for playing .. what resolution does your laptop have? I can hopefully fix the issue.

lexgear 2024-04-15 07:58

I wasn't able to get the game working. Multiplayer I just ran around by myself and wasn't able to interact with anything. And solo just kept refreshing the page? Might be a me only problem.

freakyzelga 2024-04-15 08:02

Love the new take on the idea. Some levels were challenging - I would appreciate an undo button so I can move the piece i accidentally stuck in the corner. Good job, good luck!

mdotedot 2024-04-15 08:05

@lexgear : Too bad that the solo didn't work for you. Theere you would have 'learned' that you need to push two of the same elements together to make your path in the multiplayer section.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 08:07

@freakyzelga : yeah I know about the wish for undo .. my girlfriend also wished for it. During solo that would not be so challeging but I started to make the multiplayer game and there an undo is kind of tricky. But I could have made more effort in implementing it. all be it the last available undos that are technically possible without breaking some other players content .. Thank you for commenting and playing the game.

meepster 2024-04-15 10:48

Good submission, also couldn't get single player to work put multiplayer worked fine!

Gameplay was simple to understand. Decent amount of strategy involved making sure that you don't push one element in a way that it blocks off future moves.

Artwork and music was also quite charming. Well done!

mdotedot 2024-04-15 10:54

@meepster thanks for playing and commenting . Hmm I will need to get some laptops out of storage to try to mimic what you guys see on solo .. And the strategy is the main and core mechanic of the game. Glad you liked it! Thanks for the nice feedback. That is so great about this compo.. It really helps to improve my 'engine'.

abrds 2024-04-15 12:36

The game always felt responsive, and appreciate the art style of using clay _(Or what appears like it)_. I agree with an undo or restart button within the game, that would make things a little more forgiving in the later challenges.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 12:46

@abrds thank you for playing and giving the feedback. Yes: it is made with clay. I underestimated the time it took to clean it up .. and almost was faster using aseprite to begin with. But hey LD is about trying things :D . Thanks about the undo .. yeah .. I know. But it took way too much in my brain to implement that at the last moment. But good point!

sirjupitron 2024-04-15 14:05

Hi! loved the art style! Puzzle games make my brain hurt but this one was quite simple and enjoyable.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 14:07

@sirjupitron thank you for playing and commenting.

fullsaphir 2024-04-15 14:52

Cool game! Quit hard to finish a level but it was fun!

evilgeniusdance 2024-04-15 15:30

i like the mechanic and overall calm atmosphere. i think its really cool that you've made two different modes!!

seems like deliberately making no undo button was a mistake... i wish there was a restart button for the level, because now it's a silly little mistake, and i have to start all over again :(

maybe little note on the controls would be great at least at the description: at first i've tried with a mouse, which worked, but was reeally uncomfortable, only when it got too annoying i tried different controls (wasd at first).

i feels like it's a bit off from the theme... what if i have no friends to summon, you know?

weirdo-studios 2024-04-15 15:45

I liked it a lot. Puzzles were fun and difficult, the sfx could definitely use some work tho.

chusmimax 2024-04-15 16:30

Neat idea. In case someone is like me having problems with the game getting the bottom cut off: before hiting the game link, press full screen (f11 in firefox por example), click on the game after it. This will only work if you have a 1080p screen.

Now, 2 thinks that would really improve the game feeling: - An undo button. Some levels are too big, and restarting from the beggining feels tiresome. An alternative would be smaller and compact levels (these doesn't have to be easier). Puzzle games are about deciding how it is solved, not actually solving them, so if after you get the solution it takes minutes to implement it, the pay off slowly evaporates in the proccess. - make game resolution scale with the screen, the game would still be clear in a smaller window, but if you try to do so, it isn't resized to the screen, so it becomes unplayable.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 16:44

thanks for playing and commenting @chusmimax the game feeling points are noted and I have to ponder over them.

mdotedot 2024-04-15 16:45

@weirdo-studios Thanks for playing and commenting. SFX were a last minute thing. The soundtrack took me a while, but indeed the element sounds could use more love!

mdotedot 2024-04-15 16:50

@evilgeniusdance : thanks a lot for commenting and playing. The sumon friends matched my mulitplayer aspect but summoning elements is the title of the game and I've seen it done by others as they tend to think that elements have force you can summon ... But thank you for your words! I've should have made the controls match the device. It works pretty solid on mobile but indeed control introduction was on my todo list .. which had priorities! An undo in multiplayer is really tough, but as I have played the game during a twitch sesion it became very clear that 4 players at the same time need another mechanism. like player range .. so that is on my todo list for next LD .. and in a player range you can definitely use undo ..

mdotedot 2024-04-15 16:50

@fullsaphir : thanks for playing and commenting!

wheffle 2024-04-15 16:59

First lemme just dogpile on the level restart button :laughing:

I'm amazed how much fun I can have with really simple puzzle mechanics. I quickly learned to plan out my moves and it was really satisfying! Good work, especially for a compo!

mdotedot 2024-04-15 17:15

@wheffle : thank you for playing and commenting .. I've done multiplayer implentation first and then you don't want to restart for other players .. But like I said in the main entry : i was suspecting a lot of comments on this ha ha ha .. Thanks for the kind words.

saprina289 2024-04-16 04:29

I think this was a super interesting concept! I didn't try multiplayer but there were some issues with getting the Solo mode to start. It was a couple of loops through selecting "start" then "Solo" then "Solo1". Understandably making an Undo or Restart would be difficult in multiplayer and that's what you started with, but Solo would have been much more user friendly if one or the other were implemented. It feels very discouraging to get through 85% of a level and then having to restart from the complete beginning. I do like this form of puzzle a lot but the difficulty in being able to repeat things made it hard for me to get into. The music was great, however I did need to turn it down after a while. I think this was good for a compo! A little bit of polish will go a long way if you want to keep working on/improving the game.

mdotedot 2024-04-16 06:33

@saprina289 : thank you for playing and commenting .. I am not sure if it is in the spirit of 'bug'fixing to put a n undo button in the game after submitting to the compo?! It is a relative easy fix ..

kirass 2024-04-16 22:55

I like this game! You guys are great!

mdotedot 2024-04-17 03:21

@kirass Thanks for playing and commenting. I appreciate it!

pimeko 2024-04-18 21:51

Nice concept and well executed! The progression goes from "tutorial" to "level: hardcore" super fast haha I would have appreciated if there was a "restart level" button because I went up to the screenshot but I didn't have the energy to restart everything Overall good vibes :) Capture d'écran 2024-04-18 235007.png

mdotedot 2024-04-19 04:42

@pimeko : thank you for playing and commenting. There is an undo button. But yeah restart level is another button I could have added. But I guess the undo was a bit of a stretch to add after compo. Again thank you for your kind words.

magicdweedoo 2024-04-23 10:00

hell yeha brother this game is for true gamers ONLY. it very much reminds me of the world map in Claymates. the lettering of the title too. cool game

mdotedot 2024-04-24 15:16

@magicdweedoo : thank you for playing and commenting. I appreciate it!

tiktak-gacha 2024-04-28 11:33

It's a very good game. Continue

aggrathon 2024-05-01 17:54

Nice puzzle game! The combination of colours and music gave a good ambiance. However, I feel like the levels could have been smaller: more focused on individual puzzles (instead of mixing multiple ones) and more frequent "dopamine hits" from succeeding.

eliaslys 2024-05-03 21:02

It's a very nice puzzle game. Sadly I couldnt finish the first "full" level bc of scaling of the html canvas. Lower parts of the canvas were cropped out of my browser and no amount of resizing and adjusting of the viewport help it show. I like the idea of the children like- playdough graphics, but it needs to be a bit more refined. Overall good impression!