Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Caz Creates Games
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | Summoner Showdown | compo | 186 | 3.44 | 3.42 | 2.82 | 4.03 | 3.19 | 2.71 | 3.26 |
This game was easy to pickup and play 👍. I like the pixel art graphics, especially the style of the skeletons.
I did feel like my summons didn't make much of a dent in the skeleton hoard, so it would be nice if they were made to feel more impactful somehow. Perhaps with different types of minions with different effects and abilities.
Suggestions: - The most fun part of this game, in my opinion, was becoming invulnerable and then running through the skeleton hoard, killing a lot of them. I think you should lean in to this idea, giving the player a method to fight back against the massive hoard that builds up, in a satisfying way. The gameplay would then alternate between being defensive (running away) and offensive (on the attack)
Overall: - Good job for implementing a good few game mechanics into this game - Simplicity of controls were good
Really cute and fun game. It took me a good few attempts before I learned that you can summon multiple monsters at the same time for each recipe. Love the art and feel of the game :D
I like the idea of this game, however the gameplay was not very engaging to be honest. Even with the timer set to max speed, it was taking too long for time to pass. I made it to day 2 (time 1700) before I quit, so I didn't even reach the client/summoning stage of the game, which was a shame.
Suggestions: - make the summoning events more frequent - let the player know from the start which 'summoning skills' they should be levelling up - perhaps add minigames for each of the stat-recharging tasks. For example, when you eat, you have to put together ingredients and cook for the correct time. For video-games, they could play pac-man on a mini-screen. I feel like this would massively increase the 'fun'-factor of this game
Overall: - I really like the different drawings of the demon-pet - The game concept is interesting
Great art 👍 Really interesting game mechanic of building up different golems with different effects 👍 Easy and fun to play 👍
Suggestions: - it would be nice to see the different elemental body parts have a significantly unique effect - having the 'element cooldown' dependant on the number of current golems wasn't very intuitive, in my opinion. I think this part of the game could be changed somehow. Maybe, you collect the body parts of golems that you destroy, for example. Otherwise, I found success by simply spawning 4 golems at once, each with 3 different elements.
Overall: - Really great game - Fun to play - Cute character design - Unique game mechanics
Nice game! It took me a little while to realise that I should start mixing ingredients in the cauldron to create new items, but after that it was quite fun trying to guess which ingredients might make the new item.
I would say, however, there were too many steps required before you could summon your first monster, and the missing ingredients for a monster are much more difficult to guess.
Still, I think this game works well and looks good!
Really lovely graphics and the music was nice and jolly! The game feels well-built with a strong vision that makes it stand out from the crowd. I could absolutely see myself playing a future version of this game for a long while! All it needs is a stronger sense of progression and perhaps challenge <3 Really top-tier game though!
I love the art style for this game. And the mechanics of putting the ingredients together was very satisfying with the visual and audio feedback!
For me, although I understand that the 'summoning to teach maths' is intended to be distracting and frustrating, I found it quickly reduced the amount of fun I was having. I would suggest that these interruptions are much less frequent.
If this entire game was just to build a cake out of random ingredients in the kitchen, I would have honestly rated it higher haha that part of the game is really fun and well-made!
Overall: This is a great game with a fun concept and has great game-feel (when in the kitchen)!
Unfortunately the game doesnt load for me either. Here's an error log from the console:
``` [libil2cpp] ERROR: Could not open Il2CppData/Metadata/global-metadata.dat Builds.framework.js.br:10 RuntimeInitializeOnLoadManagerInitializer: Failed reading 'RuntimeInitializeOnLoads.json' Builds.framework.js.br:10 RuntimeInitializeOnLoadManagerInitializer: Failed reading 'ScriptingAssemblies.json' Builds.framework.js.br:10 No GlobalGameManagers file was found at , quitting player!
Builds.framework.js.br:10 Failed to initialize player ```
Agree with a lot of the other comments! Super fun little game with catchy music. I really like the different animations of the wizard!
Very cute game! I'll never forget when I lost my first sheet 😭 Love the art style and simple controls. Well done!
Nice game! I think there's a really good idea here! I wish I was rewarded somehow for all the clicking, instead of just buying more things to click on. It just needs that hook to keep the playing engaged. But still, you've built a very cool game here!
Cute game, cute art, and really nice music!
The gameplay worked well, and the I enjoyed the retro style.
Suggestions: - I would have liked a bit more space to run around and fight the summoned monsters - There's currently an unusual interaction whereby if you shoot a bullet while there is already a bullet in the air, the first bullet gets destroyed mid-flight. I think it would be better for the player if that didn't happen
Overall: - Nice, short and fun game with a cute aesthetic!
Audio and visuals are fantastic! Gameplay is challenging enough to be fun and keep you wanting to push through each hurdle. Great stuff
The art and feel of this game is fantastic! The way the player moves 👍 The intro to each level 👍 Building up the boss with body parts 👍 Each different boss having new attack moves/patterns 👍
Like some others, after a couple of minutes I couldn't get past level 3. After reading the 'hints' notes, I would say that the strategy to complete some of the levels is not very intuitive.
Also, it wasn't always obvious if my attack was going to hit (and damage) the boss. Visually, it sometimes looked like you're directly in-front of the boss, when there's actually one more space between you. Other times, it looked like there's enough space to move passed the boss, but instead you run into the boss and take damage.
Still, this is a very high quality submission, I'm really impressed. I wish I could have seen some of the later levels haha
Really good quality gameplay here! It's fun to play, satisfying to shotgun a bunch of zombies and golems. Music is pretty epic, and the general sounds are good.
Suggestions: - It was quite hard to keep track of your current health, perhaps adding some additional visual feedback for when you take damage would help - I couldn't really tell if the monsters that I summoned were actually that helpful - I noticed that I was able to damage and kill my own summoned zombies, which didn't feel very good. Also, when my shotgun shots DID hit my own zombies, they would then start to attack me! I would personally have appreciated friendly-fire to be disabled for my own summons ^_^
Overall: - really slick game here - fun to run around and blast some monsters with a shottie - great sounds and visuals
Really cool idea here! And it's been pretty well executed!
I wasn't 100% sure what the connections were between each item, but it WAS quite fun seeing them combine into a new character or item.
Interesting idea here! I really like the concept of an apprentice magician trying to summon random entities by adding any old items to a ritual.
My initial expectation was that I would get to see visually what I had managed to summon after adding the correct 'ingredient', so I was a little bit let down without that visual feedback.
I like the 'figure it out for yourself' mentality because it gives the player an opportunity to explore the game system.
Suggestions: - allow the player to summon any entity in any order (perhaps giving an option for a cryptic clue when they are stuck) - perhaps reduce the initial number of different ingredients available to choose from (otherwise the gameplay pretty much consisted of clicking one item on a dropdown menu and being told 'wrong answer').
Bug: - when dismissing the 'wrong answer - you have been killed' screen, the hitbox for summoning passes through the text. Therefore, if you click in the middle of the screen to dismiss then you will immediately fail again and 'lose' screen stays up.
Overall: - The music is nice and atmospheric 👍 - The game concept is cool and interesting - Well done ❤️
Cool game, I like the pixel art ghost animations, and the screen shake when you jump on the summoning circle feels good.
However, there was no obvious win or lose condition so after a short while I found that I didn't have much of a reason to continue playing.
Suggestion: - I think it would be interesting if this was a 'simon says' type game where you have to remember the summoning order initially and then perform the summoning ritual in that order. - If you are successful, the player could be rewarded by progressing to the next level - If you fail the ritual, perhaps some monsters spawn that you have to fight before you can try the summoning ritual again
Overall: - Nice, well-built game with good visual and 'game juice' effects ^-^
Interesting game. I think my favourite part about it is the art assets. It was difficult to manage the priorities of lots of different minions, especially with humans attacking so frequently in large groups. But the underlying idea is strong. Cool game ^-^
@mollusk thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep that in mind for the future!
@anthonny thanks for the feedback! I agree that sounds would improve the experience. I hadn't considered using sounds to signal mana regen, that's a good idea. Unfortunately I ran out of time during this Jam to implement any sounds at all 😅 That's going to be a goal of mine for next time 100%
I agree with another comment that the popping sounds are very satisfying :D
The physics of the squares are also fun to watch.
This game is immediately easy to play, and the timer and increasing difficulty adds pressure on the player, which is quite fun.
I also appreciated the introductory text for giving some context for looking dynamic.
Suggestion: - it requires some imagination to believe that these colourful squares are ingredients for a drink. It might be more believable if the ingredients were different creepy items (and maybe some cute/funny ones) such as a skull, a heart, a crow feather etc. I think that would make the game a bit more immersive, especially with the ambient whispering noises.
Overall: - Nice game, it was fun to play which is the most important factor :D