Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Welcome to the Summoner's Shop
By citsua
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 73 | 4.16 | 27 | |
| Fun | 169 | 3.94 | 27 | |
| Innovation | 152 | 3.90 | 27 | |
| Theme | 26 | 4.50 | 27 | |
| Graphics | 207 | 4.26 | 27 | |
| Humor | 431 | 3.30 | 25 | |
| Mood | 113 | 4.12 | 26 |
I really like this game. The visuals are minimalistic but very well done and the gameplay just works. Everything seems very polished, good job. Only thing I would change is maybe make the tree leaves not block walking and make the collider only be the tree trunk. Also it is quite hard to find ingredients in the woods
rly interesting and good graphics
Really like the cohesion of the simplistic look and it's impressive how much you accomplished as a solo submitter!
Very cool that you could do this in the amount of time we had. The rituals were quite hard *for me* to complete. I would have preferred UI components on screen reminding you of the ritual steps rather than needing to memorize it from the book.
it's a very very very very very very very cool game!!! I liked it a lot, probably the most of all other games! very cool atmosphere, maybe lacking some music, but without it it's very good. I like the graphics and the idea, I will leave the page open so I can play it again later with pleasure! thanks a lot for the game!<3
Thank you all for your nice comments <3 @istade Thank you for your feedback! Not sure if you noticed, but you can open the book at any moment, even during a ritual. You don't necessarily have to memorize the steps beforehand.
It's impressive that you accomplished this within our time frame. However, I found the rituals challenging to complete. Personally, I would have appreciated having UI components on the screen to remind me of the ritual steps instead of having to memorize them from the book. It's a pity that there is no web version
@tentacledream Thank you for your feedback! The ritual steps being in the book and not on the UI is a design choice, but I understand it cannot please everyone. Bad timing though, I just added a web version lol!
The mixing mechanic was great!
I'm amazed at how well you managed to do so much in such a time, everything feels very nice and in its place. I really liked the idea of rituals as some kind of process and not just arranging objects. You did a very good job!
I really enjoyed the mixing mechanic, it was such a unique way of including the theme. This already feels like a fully fledged out game to be honest. Good job!
Great job! Artistically I love the graphics, designs and selected color palettes. For a Jam game, all the content and mechanics that were implemented are incredible. Well done! xD
Great idea and superb execution. Visuals are very pleasant and so are the sounds. Very nice color work as well, and I adore the mixing animation. Everything seems to work well and is super polished. From a comfort of use perspective, it would be nice if you could click on the "See Page X" reference in the book to go to that page right away.
Because there are no time constraints and no penalties for failure, the whole thing is just a very chill experience.
WOw this is really good visual for three days
The vibes are inspiring, despite the "simple" graphics. I love the fact that you can go out and explore, do what you want. It feels like an "open-world" / sandbox game because of that.
I love the summoning instructions, and how it feels they are going to be UI-less, and just be natural game actions.
The "End the day" action can be triggered tooo far away from the bed. I pressed E wanting to bring up the book, and accidentally ended the day. Maybe you could make it also a button that you have to hold for 2 seconds for it to actually trigger, to avoid accidental triggers.
I also love that there is no time limit, so you can take in the wholesomeness and lore of the game without stress.
I love that the book stays on the page you last used.
Nice touch with the ingredients to pick up in the wild, as a way to add a reason to explore the world every now and then. Nice touch with the door bells that lets you know if anybody came into the shop. It's also an activity to do while the customers arrive, and makes the game feel more alive.
Would be nice if the scroll merchant left your place after you bought everything they had to sell. I guess you lacked time.
I didn't find it super intuitive that you could go to the prev/next page by clicking on the pages, initially. Maybe some sort of cue or affordance would help the player discover that.
Would have also been very cool to see the demon leave the room and leave with the customer. I guess time also played on this.
The UI was very functional and intuitive (except for the page turning thing). I feel having to open the Ingredients drawer is a step that is unnecessary. It could just be open, and when the player starts mixing, it hides away.
Nice humor touches to the dialogue. Dialogues are concise and rewarding enough.
Sometimes I find myself trying to shake the phial... and confused about why I cannot grab it and start shaking it... then I realise that I didn't click the "Start mixing" button first. Seems like there's no reason why I couldn't just grab it and start mixing without having to click the button.
Unfortunately the game runs a bit slow on my browser (wish I could turn shadows off). Making the game slow enough that I don't feel like continuing to play after Day 4. Even if I am curious to know what would happen if I summon Admodeus.
I really like the way we have to summon the demons. I loved having to wait for 15 seconds for Belial, doing nothing.
Standing ovation for Citsua!!! My favorite game this jam. Thank you for sharing 💙
Very cool game. GFX is amazing. Gameplay is very innovative.
Excellent entry! Nailed the theme and the atmosphere. The book felt very polished, but I do think it would have been nice to be able to pin the ingredients / ritual instructions to the UI.
Mixing was a fun mechanic, although I think it would be better to click the ingredient tab to open it, rather than it automatically opening when you hover over it. There were a few times I accidentally clicked the top ingredient because of this.
Having a few more items to pick up would help make exploration feel more worthwhile. Currently it feels like it's only really there to avoid softlock. Otherwise, sleeping and checking the shop the next day always felt like the better option.
The camera felt a bit jittery, although that could just be the web version.
I really liked the characters, all the customers and demons had unique personalities. The character interactions had a lot of charm to them.
I enjoyed the summoning rituals too. Getting feedback for each step helped both the atmosphere of the game and the player quality of life.
Overall I'm very impressed, all my critiques are minor quality of life suggestions. I enjoyed playing it enough to finish the game. I think there's a lot of potential here, great job! :)
> @lenne Mixing was a fun mechanic, although I think it would be better to click the ingredient tab to open it, rather than it automatically opening when you hover over it. There were a few times I accidentally clicked the top ingredient because of this.
That happened to me too
Very well made! I was off to a rough start because I read in the book to just "follow the steps" for a summoning, but I didn't know where to find the steps... I thought the book only had 4 pages cause of the big tabs on the side, I didn't realize I could turn the pages :sob: I even saw the page that just said SUMMONS and thought "oh it's empty, I guess it'll fill out over time?" lmao
But after I figured that out, it was great! Such a chill vibe in the forest, was nice to walk around every day while looking for ingredients. I loved all the little storylines with all the customers and the shopkeeper. Summoning itself was also fun! I really liked that style of "do these normal actions but in a specific way".
I think my only other complaint is that, I sometimes had trouble knowing if I had the correct demon for someone or if I had to wait for a new demon. I mean it's part of the game, but it was also rough making an incorrect guess in the early game when money is low, then losing a lot of it on a failed summon... Thinking about it now, it was mostly the kids 2nd request that tripped me up, the others were pretty clear.
Minor issues aside, this is a great entry and a very fun game. Nice job!
I liked the game and its visuals! The only thing for me is it takes a very long time to get the right ingredients, whether is picking up things in the forest or waiting for the shopkeeper to have it. I like the mixing (with some the ingredients leaking out as you shake), and the different steps for the rituals, though I think on web a second is a bit slower. Nice job!
Great game, love the art style. Summoning felt like a fun and interactive process (mixing the ingredients, doing the correct motions/jumps, lighting the candles, etc.) I've seen other games with just a "summon" button and I'm glad you innovated beyond that. I didn't like the randomness in the shop, having to waste days to get to buy the one item you're looking for. What a twist at the end, I did not see that coming! Overall it felt really polished, congrats!