Punch Bean and the Legend of the Gold Coins by mactinite 2022-04-05T09:31:03Z
Mario who? Punch bean is where it's at! Great job, fun to play/explore and I love the character.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → Dan Allison
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Hu | Mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 55 | Summoning | Gods of the Forest | jam | 754 | 3.42 | 3.26 | 3.12 | 3.30 | 3.37 | 2.66 | 3.53 | ||
| 2023 | 53 | Delivery | Love at First Slice | jam | 274 | 3.86 | 3.63 | 3.09 | 4.11 | 4.00 | 3.59 | 4.10 | ||
| 2022 | 50 | Delay the inevitable | Tominrigg Tactics | jam | 242 | 3.89 | 3.81 | 3.25 | 3.74 | 4.05 | 3.25 | 3.00 | 3.69 |
Mario who? Punch bean is where it's at! Great job, fun to play/explore and I love the character.
Great entry and really impressive that you made it yourself within 48 hours. Love the art style especially, it's really polished. I do agree with what others said about difficulty but not an easy task to balance things properly in such a short amount of time.
Has a really cool style, both visually and in terms of audio it's great. Shooting feels really nice and solid and the explosions were very satisfying. Overall, a bunch of fun!
Echoing what everyone else is saying but this is really an amazing experience. If I didn't go in knowing it was a game jam game I'd have never even known it. Such a great idea that ties everything together so well - the writing, art, sound all come together and really set the tone. You should all be very proud of this!
Very unique take on the theme, and honestly just very funny! Art is great, I especially love the sealife (That jellyfish animation is amazing!). Love the music too, very nice contrast from the boat to the more atmospheric underwater track. Swimming feels good and exploring around the place is a lot of fun. Good job!
Very impressive to get something like this made in such a small amount of time, it all looks great! Fun concept and a nice take on the theme. Best part is the dancing Grandad at the start though, I could watch him for days!
The game does a great job with it's VR/cyber aesthetic - the ships, bullets, UI all look very cohesive and the soundtrack really fits in as well. Feels fun to move and shoot, very satisfying when you manage to narrowly dodge an enemy. Like the upgrades too!
This is really cool! Really like the style and think the audio (spoken and music) do a really good job in setting the tone of the game. Having the four resources to manage is a good amount, it felt balanced in the right way - I tried a few runs where I focused on one specific resource and it always ended badly but did much better when trying to do things more evenly.
Had a lot of fun with this one! Great sense of humour and a really clever idea.
RIP Alfonso, sorry you never made it to your third Schmeckledorf birthday, buddy.
Great game, honestly love everything about it, it's the longest I've spent playing one of the jam games so far!
There's a lot of great stuff here. It looks amazing, really nice sprites, animations and effects but it also plays really well too. The roar is the perfect secondary ability, really coming in handy with how chaotic it can get at times. Think the upgrades are really good too and I appreciate how quickly they come through, means you're constantly being rewarded. Great job with this one!
I played this for way longer than I expected to, had an absolute blast! Shop/upgrade system works really well and I love how much variety there is with the wizards. Really impressive that there's so much here for a game jam game, well done!
This is really cool, very unique art style that I think really captures the dream like concept. Feels good to play, it's satisfying to blow up the demons with the bombs. Maybe I'm just not very good but I did like how quick the rounds were, made it nice and easy to go again and try and beat my previous score. 104 was my record!
Also, the inbox is too real!
Well this is genuinely terrifying! The music was perfect in building up the tension, gets really intense when you know the Sensenmann is right behind you. The look behind feature was really clever too, just another way to make sure I was appropriately scared while running away!
Absolute chaos in the best way. After I got used to the controls (Not that I was actually good with them!) was feeling pretty good until I accidentally swiped a match alight and the amazing base for a fire I'd been working on had to be frantically thrown into the matches instead. Then did pretty well, managed to get most of the sticks aflame and then a few fingers which gave me a good laugh. Had a blast with this, normally I get quite frustrated with games like Qwop/Surgeon Simulator if I'm not playing with friends but I didn't feel that way with this for what it's worth. Great job!
Had a lot of fun with this one! Enjoy a good tower defense game and impressed that this one is so robust and well designed considering the time limit!
This is really great! It looks and sounds amazing, the animations especially are fantastic. It feels good to move and the shooting is nice and satisfying. Everything is stylish and it all really comes together. Excellent job!
First thing that jumps out is how incredible it looks, everything from the title screen to the characters to the environment is honestly amazing. Same with the sound, it's fantastic too and together it really sets the mood. I like the idea of doing something a bit different than the normal turn based game, instead of an RPG you've made a turn based mage racing game which is a really fun idea. A lot of fun to play too, especially after I'd figured out how everything works and was thinking tactically.
Only complaint I have is that the UI is a bit small but not a huge issue and it being small really lets the art shine. Regardless, great job!
This is seriously impressive for a game jam game! Would honestly love a full game like this, just chilling being a cool space janitor fixing loads of stuff, it was all very satisfying to fix. Looks and sounds great and the intro got a huge laugh out of me. Amazing job.
It looks and sounds amazing and I thought it was a really unique take on a stealth game. The difficulty curve was spot on, the first night only having one knight let me search through furniture and figure out the layout of the map so when it got more intense later I knew what I was doing. And it really did get intense towards the end, had a few narrow escapes where knights were chasing me down corridors into other knights but managed to escape and grab the chocolate in the end! Really enjoyed this one, great job!
Wow, that hit me hard. Think I might need to play with my puppy for the rest of the day now.
But great job, really. You did a lot with very little time, the writing was great, so were the graphics/audio. Everything was very polished too. One of the best I've played as part of the jam.
Holy shit, what did I just play? That hit hard. Really good getting that kind of emotion in such a short space of time. Game was excellent though, looked and sounded great, writing was on point, great job all in!
I'm sad now.
Amazing! Has to be best use of theme I've came across so far and can't see it being topped! Gave me a good laugh so thanks for that.
This is such a great concept. The card game part especially is a lot of fun and even just with a few runs I got to see some clever combinations. It looks great as well, really nice spritework here. Would be very interested in playing something like this if it made it to a full release!
Thanks to everyone for all their kind words, your feedback really does mean a lot.
@haastregt @kr0s Absolutely agree. It's something I thought of towards the end of development but didn't have the time to get anything decent in so had to leave it. As for the healing statues, I have logic in place to destroy them after a few uses but decided just to leave them as is but I do agree that that situation is a bit broken!
@deylinia Agreed on both points. I added in the logic for showing all of the turns when there was a lot less enemies in the game and it wasn't until testing towards the end that I realised how long it can get as more spawn in so think being able to skip past them is a really good idea. Glad you enjoyed it though!
@mrpouletbzh Thanks a lot for you feedback! You're definitely right about the balancing and something I've learned while doing the jam but I focused too heavily on the systems at first so by the time everything was coded and good to go there wasn't much time for me to balance after the fact. That's something I'd definitely aim to improve on in any other jams I do. And thanks for pointing out the bug too, I will hopefully have some time to polish and tidy up at some point so I'll have a look into it.
Just wanted to thank everyone again for all the feedback, it's really nice to hear all the positive things people have to say and I really appreciate people letting me know about problems/bugs and offering suggestions. If I have time (probably post jam) I'll try and put together and updated version with some better balancing and some speed changes.
@pixelydian Very honoured to be part of that list! Hope your husband enjoys the game (And all the others) as well!
@vidim888 There's a tutorial in game but it's not very in depth and it can only be accessed in the menu which isn't great. So think you're right and I'll get something added the game page to give some more information.
@stefan-funke I maybe shouldn't have made it so hard to stop the first house getting taken but my logic with that was that to fit the "delay the inevitable" theme I wanted the town to eventually get overrun. But if they only had one house it would be possible to fight them back. I didn't start the skeletons with two houses so the player would see what the necromancers were trying to do as an almost mini tutorial. But I like your approach in trying to stop it anyway and I think I should have adjusted it slightly so if you know what you're doing and you go straight for the necromancer you can stop it. Almost like a bonus for replaying it with more knowledge!
@christian-zommerfelds I agree about the ordering I think. I liked the idea of still getting attacked while trying to escape but after playing more I think leaving straight away just makes more sense. And you're definitely right about the timing issues too.
@conradoclark You're definitely right about the enemy blocking, it makes much more sense to do it that way. I had planned on this but because of the way I wrote the pathfinding code it made it harder to implement than I wanted to. Realised my mistake too late and just had to leave it as is but it's definitely something I'd change with an updated version.
Just wanted to post one more comment to thank every single person that played this game. All the feedback, praise, criticism and comments are so appreciated and I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you one more time. And even if you didn't leave a comment and just played the game then thanks for checking it out.
See you all at LD51!
I really liked this game and think the lock picking mechanic was really interesting, especially for something done as part of a game jam. I could see it being a good starting pointing for some more complex puzzles with some extra mechanics. I did actually find the last one quite tough! Overall a nice, fun, chill game with a really cool mechanic. Nice job.
Really impressed by this, it's a lot of work to get in for a jam game. Loved exploring the world and thought new mechanics were introduced at a nice page (enemies, falling platforms, energy pickups and the best one - bouncy pads). Really like the art, especially the characters and the buildings and I really enjoyed the story too, was looking forward to seeing if anything would happen with the mysteriously heavy package. Really good job here!
I really like this. Looks and sounds great and it's tough, it's really tough. But I enjoyed getting to grips with it and pulling off those first few jumps flawlessly without even having to think about after a couple of attempts. I think I agree with others that making the obstacles stand out more would be good but it'd also be a shame to lose the style as it is now because it really does look great.
I love this! Had to play again to try and get all of the messages right (Couldn't find the one on a smoking break). Very satisfying to play, lots of small details hidden around that gave me that great sense of discovery -spotting the street signs, noticing that windows can open and then doors too. All felt very natural but also suddenly felt like I had so many more places to look. Thought it looked great too, sprites especially are awesome, sounded good, writing was fun. Would genuinely love to see a full release of something like this! Amazing job!
This was really great and it feels like a huge effort for a jam game so great job with that! The amount of art on its own feels like a big undertaking and it looked great too. I had a lot of fun figuring out what each item did (Though I couldn't find a use for the apple or the flower) and just really enjoyed. I'd echo what other people are saying about the collisions and the abrupt ending but considering how big the game was already and that it's a jam I think it's pretty understandable. One of my favourites of the jam!
Had a lot of fun with this one, loved how chaotic it got towards the end and I can always emphasise with any character who just wants more beer. Big fan of the art style and really liked the character animations especially. Liked the music a lot too. Great job!
This looks beautiful! And it's so brutal, wasn't quite expecting that! Good fun though, music was quality too and think it was a really interesting take on the theme.
This is really, really great, you've absolutely nailed this. Aesthetically, it's awesome. The colour are great, I love the messy (as in not straight) linework on all of the art and even the font! The characters themselves have a lot of charm and the lever pulling animation is great too. Music is just as good and the visuals/audio combines with the fast pace of the game really meshes together, everything is super consistent. Honestly, this is really impressive for a solo game, you've done a great job here!
Got a web error (Forgot to copy it sorry) when I placed my first plate down on the cell. Not sure what happened. Seemed cool up until then though, building up the orders was fun and would have been quite relaxing if it wasn't for the tone making it a bit more sinister. Liked the visuals a lot, thought the food models were especially good. Would definitely eat one of those drumsticks.
Might be worth adding a full screen option though, I couldn't get the entire game in my browser, had to have part of it cut off.
This was really satisfying to play. The slo-mo through jump felt great and not failing when the mailman died led to some very cool moments where I'd throw the package before falling to my doom and the package still making it the end. Bite sized levels with quick restart was great too, nice job!
Game crashed on the first dog level when I failed and tried to restart (on HTML) but reloading the page and playing through again seemed to sort the issue.
I think it's a really unique take on ship controls, normally I feel like most games just make it work like any other vehicle so this a really cool way to approach it. Felt quite nice when I'd got the hang of it!
This is such a clever way to tell a story and to come up with such a great idea during a jam and then develop the whole thing with such a lovely presentation and soundtrack is an incredible effort. I've said this on a few games this year I really wish we had a narrative category to really let games like this shine, though the other elements are absolutely strong enough to shine here as well.
The story itself was lovely, and I want to stress that I'm not just saying this for the sake of giving out good feedback but I really was invested. I went through the emotions of wondering what was going on and then being surprised by how clever the mechanic was. And then I just got sucked in. The longer delay with the letter at the end, the change in envelope colour when the first reply came in, the background changing were all fantastic little touches. The ending was tragic but really well done and I'm not ashamed to say that I shed a tear or two reading (or typing?) it.
The rating's not over but with only a day or so left I think I can safely say that this is my favourite game I played this year. Amazing job!
This looks great and I loved the music. The idea behind it is really cool too, though I did struggle to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do. I do love how interactive the potion brewing is, most games it's just select ingredients, press a button and you've got a potion so this being more involved feels like there's a lot of potential for some really cool ideas. Enjoyed the writing too, and fit very well with the aesthetics. Also, cats so it's an instant winner!
Man this game is hard! Was very satisfying when I was able to grab the hammer after it flew across the screen then used it to get the box back too though. Loved the text at the end, had a few good laughs at some of it. Was very impressed that it acknowledged I had the anvil, but not the hammer. Also a fan of the music/art too. I'd maybe suggest reducing the length of it. I would have replayed to see all the comments but with how hard it is, I think it's a bit too long to see all the comments (e.g. one time I got really close to the end with the orb but then the potion destroyed it so I didn't see any new comments that time)
@zimny11 That's my bad then, guess it just feels longer when dealing with the stress of keeping the last item in and watching the distance tick down haha. Will no doubt get a few more sessions in over the course of the ratings to see more of it anyway.
The combat system is really interesting to me. I like the balance of deciding to move/gain health versus getting a hit in. Maybe think the player should have had a bit more health but I think this is the start of a really cool battle system. Loved the art too, big fan of the wolf sprite and animation especially.
This is really cool. The mechanic of switching from the inside of the van to driving it is really clever and I bet a lot could be built on top on what you have already. Enjoyed the cooking system too, quite deep for a jam game. Enjoyed this a lot and would be really interested to see it as a full game too with even more ideas.
Nice entry, love the idea. My favourite thing was definitely the sonic style hit system, loved the sprite of the bone after taking a hit. Movement and shooting felt nice and satisfying. Feels like a great jam game really, lot of stuff going on, cool concept with solid execution.
Within seconds I managed to get the dog hit by a car :( But other than that, it was fun. I know you opted out of graphics but I thought the town was put together quite nicely, felt intuitive to explore and try and find the collectables. Some more feedback about score, where to go would have been nice but I get that you never have time for everything. Definitely impressive to put this together solo so well done!
This was good fun, felt really good to drop off on order, swing back up and fly straight into the next one (Or maybe a pedestrian instead...). Love the art and the the music was catchy too. Shop fronts was a nice detail but I don't remember Kiki's Delivery Service having this many strip clubs and gun shops...
One thing I would change is to make the delivery/pick up spots stand out a little, was hard to see sometimes when you're moving full speed but that's a very minor thing for a jam. Good job!
Really great aesthetics here, very atmospheric too which I think was down to such a strong art style and music. Game was fun, liked the conversations between the rat doc and the other characters and finding the best way around the rats was cool. I eventually died when I decided to try and sneak past one rat only to be chased directly into another!
Love how this games look, character sprites and the city itself look great, definitely the kind of place you want to explore. The game is hard though, even after I managed to get a grasp of the controls I still kept spinning out and getting hit with a car (Which was pretty funny at least). Seems like there's a lot going on here though so it's definitely impressive project with just two people working on it.
I'm an absolute sucker for isometric pixel art and this game is damn beautiful! It's such an amazing art style, I love it so much. Was fun exploring and having a look around to map while delivering (Music really helped here) despite quite an intense story going on in the background. Was a big fan of the writing as well, wish we had a narative category to vote on as well. Played it through a few times to see the different branches, really impressive how you had a few different branches in place. Great game, very much my kind of game but still great, my favourite of the jam so far!
This was a lot of fun. Things got chaotic for me a lot quicker than I'd like to admit but that only made things more interesting. I liked giving the player a few different options in how to organise stuff. Loved the art style, the character sprites gave me a good laugh when they first entered the building. Feels like there's a lot going on here so great job for a jam game!
Just wanted to thank everyone for their feedback, it's all really appreciated and I'm glad you took the time to play the game and comment.
I like that people found it relaxing! As the jam went on and I needed to cut things out, I scrapped the timers and just let the player play at their own pace which I think works better anyway. I'm happy to hear so many positive comments about the story too, I've never done anything like this before so it's amazing to see that people are enjoying it.
@obittner . I wanted to have some other mechanics involving spells to mix things up a bit (Speed up, fireball to get through fences/bushes) but I didn't have time. I also wanted to add some dialogue when you delivered pizzas to give a bit of a reward in and I'm really sad I didn't have time for that.
@mateu No friendzoning here! Though I'm happy for you to interpret it however you like. I debated the last line, "I would have settled for pizza pals", for a while but I wanted to come across as "Of course I'll adventure with you, but I would have been happy even if we're just making pizzas, as long as we're together". Sounds like it didn't quite get there which is a shame but that's game jams for you!
@archaeognathus Wow this is incredible feedback, it really, really means a lot, thank so much and I'm so happy you liked it as much. I'm actually the same in regards to romantic stories but this just kinda unfolded naturally as I made progress and I'm glad it worked out how it did.
Just wanted to reply to everyone again to say thank you all for playing, rating, leaving feedback, even just looking at the page. I know it's only a jam game but it really means a lot to me to have other people playing something I made so I can't thank you all enough.
@tddawson @arktas Yeah I agree about the hitboxes, I had issues with the sprite sorting and had to decide whether to have weird looking sprites or oddly behaving hitboxes at the last minute. Decided to get the sprites working and hoping nobody would notice the hitboxes but obviously wasn't going to happen!
@mrs-wheelsx Thank you so much for such lovely feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! The last time I did Ludum Dare, I made a turn base tactics game and I'm kicking myself for not linking the two games together now. Could have had my own Ludum Dare universe!
@yumykon That's incredibly nice of you to say, really. One of the optional challenges I gave myself was to make portraits because I wanted to get some kind of emotion off and I don't have a lot of experience making those kind of sprites so I was sad to not find the time for it but I'm really glad to hear it didn't stop you enjoying the game.
Had a lot of fun with this, always appreciate something nice and chill, would have definitely played for longer too. Thought it looked great, thought the sprites in the 3D world worked really well and was just a big fan of the colours/style in general. I need to know though - where can I buy the Mayors hat?
The monkey is really cute! I like that it tracked your knowledge rather than point you exactly where to go by telling you the address and leaving it at that. Really liked the art, overall a fun game.
I always loved the DK barrel sections and it works really well as its own thing, would have played more levels just of that! Third one was actually great, took me a few times but feels really good to throw the package in the air, sweep down and take out the birds then grab it just before it goes off screen. Second one was fun too but the others were my favourites. Like the art style too!
Like others have pointed the collisons have a few issues but overall I think it's a solid platformer. It feels like a good movement, the jump is nice and it's fun just throwing the toad around and I bet there's a cool mechanics that could be added based around throwing the toad. I really liked the music and the art was nice as well. One thing that would have been nice is a way to teleport the toad back to you without having to start the game over if it gets stuck.
I can tell that a lot of work went into this, it's really great. Looks fantastic, especially the cutscenes, really nice music, genuinely funny too (Though a lot of that was due to me putting "girthy" in different places) and a fun take on sending a letter. Building it up yourself is really clever and definitely have me some interesting combinations!
This is absolutely chaos in the best way - a driverless vespa delivering pizzas by jumping over fences while causing multiple traffic jams in the process. This got a good laugh out of me. Seems like there's a lot going on here as well (traffic, orders, map - which was great btw, loved the farm, driving etc) so really good effort for a jam!
This is awesome, love the overall atmosphere, art style and music are both great and a give off a fun, spooky vibe. I really enjoyed playing it and think there's a lot of potential here! Using the big box at the end to make a path was a really clever touch and just the weight based jumping itself was really well designed too. Amazing job, one of my favourites so far!
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Not just game of the jam, but game of the year. Look at this good boy peeing on the fire hydrant. This got a lot of laughs out for me, I peed on the fire hydrant WAY too many times and I really love dog sprite too. Was a really fun way to interpret the theme.
What a great twist on Tetris! Was quite tough but that just made it more satisfying when I did connect pieces. I would really love to see an endless mode, or a longer mode, think it would be be quite chill getting into the zone and playing longer sessions.
It's a really cool mechanic and I would love to see it used in a driving game or something as a way to randomly generate tracks.
Great game here, it got quite intense at some point. I died when I stupidly tried to take all packages at once haha. Feels really polished for a jam and it looks wonderful, I love the 2D/3D combo and the character are really charming. Really good job here.
Managed to get three of the four endings but couldn't find the last. Had a lot of fun with this, it's nice to play something a bit different from what we normally see. Was properly absorbed for a good 15 minutes or so!
(Also, please tell me what to do with the uniform/shoes!)
@patrick-abernathy Ah of course they were, I forgot I used them haha. I think I just wanted to wear them along with the uniform. Will need to try and get that last ending!
Nice and chill, lovely art style and music really help cement that feeling. Loved the witch and the background art especially. Could see this being a great starting point to expand out with more content at some point too, great job!
I had a good fun 10 minutes with this. Thought the physics around the slingshot were good and I liked you moved your character to aim rather than just using an aiming meter or something similar. Enjoyed the visuals/sounds and like it felt like an old arcade game. Could definitely see this being the base for something more complicated too!
Very, very cool game that actually had me sitting here with a pencil and paper figuring out the symbols. It took me a while to figure out the clues were on the cards and not hidden in the environment which threw me off a bit. But once I realised what I was supposed to do I had a blast. Big fan of the music/art and general vibes too. One of my favourites of the jam, well done!
I like the core of this a lot, I think summoning new ways to move around the world is a really cool twist on a platformer and when it works well here it works really well. The main issue for me is the cooldowns/mana system. Right now with one mistake, which I think is quite easy to make since since the summons don't stay around for very long means you're then out of mana. So there's a lot of going back and forth to the last bush to try again. I think tweaking this system or even having a quick reset to last mana bush button could change things for the better. I still think it's a solid idea and the core is executed well. There's a lot going on here as well so to get this much in and working in a game jam is really impressive so well done.
I really like this one, could see myself sinking a lot of time into it if you eve decided to make a more expanded version! Was just quite satisfying seeing all the numbers going up haha. Really like the art, the knight is especially good but it's all really cohesive. Feels well balanced too, movement speed feels good and the capture time is long enough to worry about enemies but not too long where you get bored. Well done!
I don't have a VR setup to try this on but needed to comment to say that I love how you made a VR game for a jam. That's some serious skill right there. It's a shame I can't play it because the screenshots love great!
Ah I love this! Just an incredibly well polished jam game that's full of charm. Very clever to combine two different styles of summoning together into one theme. Love the art, love the sound, love the general vibe, expecting to see this game get very high up the rankings.
One of my favourites of the jam so far! I'm kind of glad it only took me 10 minutes because I could have lost hours to this haha. Really like the whole thing - art, creature design, game balance, UI is all awesome. And the extra layer of polish really elevates it. Great job!
Yeah this is awesome. From level 5 onwards I was making a mental note to mention that level in the comments because of how much I enjoyed it but then every level just kept on getting better. Really creative game with an equally creative art style too, one of my favourites of the jam so far!
When submitting my game I laughed at the console dropdown list you could choose from having so many options and it honestly make so happy seeing somebody actually using it! And it's GBA no less (one of my favourite handhelds for sure).
Game itself is really cool. The monsters that I saw all look great (Though I was expecting my cat hybrids to be a lot cuter haha) and I love the background art/UI as well. Only bit of feedback for me really would be to have some kind of indicator as to how close the monster is to evolving. But that's not even a huge deal really, I was fine just letting it run in the background for a bit.
I need to specifically call out the 3rd level of the cat/skull (Won't post a picture cos spoilers) as being incredibly cool, it came a long way from the goofy wee dude at the start. Loved the ending scene as well.
I love this, I think it's super impressive and a great achievement for a jam, huge well done.
Can't believe this is a game jam game, it's more polished than fully released games I've played! The art is beautiful, the music is super catchy, the animations are so full of charm, it feels great to run about, the creatures and enemies have such creative designs and the voice acting is wonderful (I'm going to be shouting "Gachapon" all day now). What an incredible effort here, huge well done to all of you.
I'm a simple man - I see a chicken with a sword and I'll play your game. I had great fun with this overall, always like seeing turn based games showing up in jams and this was a good implementation of that. My highlight was definitely the writing though. I definitely didn't expect the game with the talking rabbit to have such good dialogue and world building but here we are.
Balancing is always hard in jams and for the most part it was fine but I think the snake fight was a bit too tough. I tried it 3 times before having to give up because I couldn't stay alive long enough. Still a really great submission and one I enjoyed a lot so great job to everyone who worked on it.
P.S. Vni is my new hero.
There's a lot to like here - the art is especially great, makes it hard to not love your wee demon pal. I agree with what others are saying about the speed but balancing stuff in jams is such a hard job that it's completely understandable. And honestly I could see the game working at the same speed (or even slower) but as a background app you just check into every so often while going around your day, could be a fun way to take it. Good job here, would love to see more it in the future,
I really liked this. Simple enough to understand but complex enough to keep getting more interesting. I felt very clever when I thought to send warriors from the centre to get to fight faster while letting my other units move in a bit slower from the further away portals. Feels like a well balanced game which is hard thing to get done in a jam so well done.
I really like this. I played with water/ice a bit in my entry but yours is a lot smarter than mine, being able to move the water around before freezing is really interesting. All the different interactions the spells have feels like a good backbone to something bigger really, would be cool to see where you could take it. I like the art style as well, everything is really cohesive and I'm a fan of the colours as well. Would have liked to play more it but short and well executed is a great way to make a jam game so good job!
This was a vibe, I think you really nailed the colourful kids toy aesthetic. I could 100% see the (much) younger me having a great time playing with that looked like this. I think the other comments talking about the camera are right, it could be better but this is a jam, everything could be better and I think it's perfectly serviceable once you get used to it. Shooting is fun, enemy designs are really good and it's a nice way to include the theme as well. Very solid entry, great job.
Had a blast playing this, especially since I could play in a team. Movement feels really good and the world is just fun to be in and see. Love the vibe, the sound, the looks, basically everything here is just great. And then it's even more impressive when you consider it's for a game jam too.
I think is my favourite music from any game of the jam so far. The juxtaposition between the pre and post devil audio is so good and both tracks are awesome. I really just enjoyed the chaos of the gameplay, there's something about the aesthetic and the music and just the unrelating nature of the devils coming that just made feel like I was unstoppable and it was good fun. Great job with this.
Normally I'll play a jam game once and then move on so I was surprised to go through 2 more times after the first run! I love it. Progression system is great and everything feels well balanced, it looks amazing but some really lovely sprites, the actual summoning mechanic is really clever too. Just a really polished, well executed game that I had a huge amount of fun with. One of the best I've played so far!
If you ever turn this into a full game I need you to promise me you'll let me know
Also, I'll set the bar for the high scores with this. Capture.PNG
I know it's a jam game and I can't expect hours of content but I'm genuinely bummed out that it was over so quickly. I thought the summon mechanic was incredibly clever and only having one of each demon at a time made for some fun moments (Mostly me falling down because I resummoned what I was standing on haha). I love the art - both the cutscene and platformer art is great. Music was awesome as well, platforming felt really tight too. Overall, this is just a really, really solid entry in every way so huge well done.
For somebody who wasn't inspired by the theme I thought this was an amazing way to interpret the theme. A fun input system, some interesting spells and some clever level design make this a really solid entry so well done. There's a lot going on here and getting it done within a jam is super impressive.
This is a really impressive entry, great job. Had plenty of moments where I felt clever for solving puzzles once I'd figured out exactly how to setup things. It is a bit unclear how to set things up but it's a jam game, can hardly expect a perfectly crafted tutorial so I don't think it's a problem here. One thing I'd add is that I think it would be better to be able to have an input for spins and splits rather than them happening automatically, feel like it might make it a bit clearer. But overall good job!
@dan-allison I actually wanted to mention the grid in my first comment but forgot. I liked how unusual it was, felt like it really reinforced a kind of mysterious, arcane theme that ties in with the theme as a whole.
Liked how chill this game is, was fun exploring and seeing what was next. Quite satisfying to chip away at completing the map too. Could see this idea having a lot of room for expanding too, with a bit variety and some fun secrets to find. Main bit of feedback is that I would have loved something to tell me if I was correct or not with my map stuff after a certain amount of time. Good job overall though (And I also voted for the cartography theme haha)
I really enjoyed this. Wasn't sure I was going to be able to win at first but managed to pull it round which was very satisfying. Like how it's kind of a reverse city builder too, where I'm here to ruin things instead haha. Game feels nicely balanced and polished, one of my favourites so far - great job.
This is first game I'm getting to play this jam and yeah, what a good way to start it. Game looks and sounds amazing, really nails the whole satanic vibe and does a lot to set the mood. I always thought I was a decently skilled typist but playing a few rounds of this is making me realise that maybe I'm not haha. Great job!
I can't believe you made his haha, it got a good laugh from me. Game is fun too, couldn't finish it - got the end (I think) a few times but couldn't past the final set of spikes without clearing them and then the last set of enemies got me. But thanks for the fun game and the laugh.
I'm also expecting a sequel with Gymkhana Girl next Jam now.
Had a really good time playing this. Platforming is tight and snappy and feels good, so does flying the broom. And it's short enough that it was fun to go through a few times as well. There's some really solid spritework here as well, big fan of how the cutscenes and the platforming looks. Music is a good as well, found myself bobbing my head along haha. Great job with this!
I really liked this - the art and music are especially great. I really liked the spellcasting with the house, was really satisfying when I got quite quick at sending fireballs all over the place. The only thing I felt like the shape detection maybe could been a bit less strict. If I drew one side too long for the fireball for example it didn't seem to register but that's the kind of thing that's hard to detect in a jam so it's not a big deal really. The rest felt quite well balanced, combat was tough but not too tough. Well done to the whole team!
This is a fun game, and a pretty interesting proof of concept. I think a bigger game with more scenarios to use specific types of wizards could a really cool way to expand on the idea. I like the pixel art a lot as well, the player's beard is appropriately majestic.
Super impressive to get an online game working in a game jam, feels like magic (Which is very on brand for the jam)! Very fun idea too, I enjoyed amassing an army of cute slime helpers to get me mana. Could this see being a lot of fun with other players too. Good job!
One thing I'll add is that the game only worked for me when I clicked on the host game button before clicking on play. If I clicked on play first it would get stuck so that might be why @prepe has issues.
I enjoyed this game a lot. This is a straightforward, but clever, game with a bunch of polish and some really nice visuals and audio which is amazing for a game jam. I had that nice "aha" moment when the mechanics clicked for me and I realised exactly what to do which was really satisfying. Great job!
Agree with others are suggesting as improvements but it's a jam at the end of the day and there's only so much you add so well done on what's here. It's a fun little game, big fan of the art especially - that's really solid sprite and animation work. And honestly, just playing as a wizard chicken is enough for me to come away from this happy.
@bittripbrit Thanks for playing the game and the kind words. I was 100% shamelessly inspired by Helldivers for this haha, but it seemed like a good fit for the theme.
@anvilesque Thank you so much for such great feedback, it really means a lot. Happy you called out the trees specifically, I spent quite a bit of time making that and thought they turned out good so glad you liked them!
Agree about the ice, wasn't sure that players would figure it out when playing. Originally you were supposed to start with a different spell and get the ice just before the water which would have made it clearer but I didn't have time for that. Though I'm happy you found a fun workaround to get over the water, I never even thought to try that haha.
That's a great tip, thank you! That was something that I noticed early on and kept telling myself I'd get round to fixing it but over time I got used to it and forgot. Such a simple fix as well. And great point on not overworking, something I'm normally good at but definitely did a bit much this jam. It finishing 2am my time didn't help things either! But definitely good advice that I'll be sure to follow next time. Again, thank you for such detailed feedback, it really helps and means a lot to me.
Thanks to everyone who has played the game so far and left a comment. Really appreciate all the feedback and I'm glad to hear people are enjoying it!
@xeph-nebula I can definitely understand that. I wanted some kind of story in but I think it could have been edited/better paced.
@telkan I know what you mean about it being unwieldy, I wanted it to feel a bit chaotic and juggling your hand to cast felt like a good way to that. Thinking about it now I probably could have tried to use the mouse for all of the spellcasting and made the enemies a bit more chaotic to achieve something similar.
@lushboy-studios It's one of those things I always notice when it's not there so I try and add it in when I can.
@erik-tate I always struggle with balancing things in a jam and I find that because I've practiced loads while testing it I maybe made some of the fights a bit harder because I had gotten good at the game haha. But I'm glad you liked the tree ice part, I was pretty chuffed when I thought of adding that in.
@vphyre Yeah I definitely agree. Balancing, tweaking and polishing is always the thing I neglect in game jams haha. One day I'll learn my lesson and make something smaller that I can take my time with a bit more.
@moebiusmeow I'm really happy you picked up on that! I added that line in specifically to try and hint at the freezing to try and make it a bit more obvious haha. It's funny that I never thought to test stacking the wind once when I was making it. I guess I'd probably be allowed to fix it but at this point I think it's just a fun bug to keep in haha.
@cat-lab I said earlier in my comment but I think you're right about the casting. I wanted it to be tough but think I could have definitely done a better job with it.
I just want to take some time again to thank everyone who's played the game, and left feedback and nice words. I didn't have plans to take it any further than this but the amount of people here who have shared suggestions and ideas has really got me considering trying to do something with it so thanks very much everyone.
@thesmellofoxygen It definitely wasn't intended aha, I think you can basically stack them infinitely. But it's been a fun loophole to see people finding.
@labcatgames I really wanted to get controller support in, the main issue with it was the spell aiming. I think it would have actually worked better using the right analogue stick to aim but just came down to time in the end. I think both those ideas are really good for the spellcasting, it's definitely the part of the game I think needed to improved on the most.
@kanity W isn't used for anything else and I think that could have made dodging while casting a bit easier so that's a great idea (One I should have thought of myself haha). The wait time is a good point as well, originally I wanted to have cooldowns on them and they'd appear a lot faster but ended up cutting that and just making them fall a bit slower instead which I don't think achieved the same result. Like you said, especially out of combat it does slow things down. It was actually a dog, not a cat (The same dog in my profile photo - Aloy) and it's just a kind of easter eggy joke I was able to sneak in.
I really wanted to get a more visual intro and outro in but I'm definitely a bit slower at art than I am at code so never managed to find the time. I knew exactly how I wanted the sister to look and I had a whole plan for an interior of the house I could have used so it was a shame to not get to it. I really enjoyed the cutscene stuff in Evocation and if I could have made anything I fraction as good as that I would be really happy. Something to try for in the next jam hopefully.
@dasilvacontin This is all really great feedback, thanks, I think a lot of this would make a big difference. The memorising the spells is a really good point, that feels like it would be a great natural reward to players who could get good at the game. Haha that's another great point about the spear too. The lore and the gameplay aren't quite as well meshed as I would have liked and that's a great example of it. And yeah combining the spells together would have really taken things up a level - making an ice storm by combining ice and wind for example would have been cool. Puzzles would have been great as well, it's something I've tried before it takes me a while to make them decent so I avoided it with the limited time of the jam but I think it would have really helped.
@saffwong I'm really happy that you liked you the writing. In the final hours of the jam I had to make the call between polishing up some gameplay stuff or getting more story stuff in and I went with the story, maybe the detriment of the game to some but I'm glad that some people don't mind.
@st00nsa Ah I actually thought you could get through it without killing. That would have a been a fun way to tackle the game. And you're definitely right about the visual impact, it could have just done with a bit more juice and polish. Some cool ice particles shattering when the spear hit the ground, or the grass getting singed when the fireball comes down.
@yanato Ah, thanks for letting me know! I thought I had something in place to stop it from happening but obviously not.
@kanity That's a good idea, I'll need to try something like that soon. Would go a long way to adding life into the game. There shouldn't have been any changes, maybe the just bugged out one of the times you played haha. I appreciate you going back through to find the secret, I enjoyed making that part so nice that you enjoyed finding it too.
@krummsakura Definitely agree that there's a lack of juice. I think the new jam I take part in I might go with a much smaller idea so I can just polish and add juice on top with the time. Good to get practice with that sort of thing.
@deadjolly That's some really good feedback. The standing on enemy thing was just one of those things that I knew was problem but I just never got round to fixing - even though it probably wouldn't have been too hard to get something in to stop it.
Agree about the audio too. I have a bit of experience in editing audio but basically none in creating it so it's always something I neglect in jams sadly. I did look up some SFX assets but with so little time left I just put in a soundtrack and footsteps and left it at that. Glad you finished the game, all good that you skipped through the dialogue. I like writing and use jams to try and practice but if somebody isn't interested in that part then it's fine.
Good idea around the input as well, it's been the biggest gripe from most people that have played it really. Think if I took it further that would be the first thing I'd have to address.
I love this! The art style is maybe my favourite of jam so far, just incredibly well done pixel art. But what really elevates things further is just how great the summon designs are, there was no combination I was disappointed with and I was very surprised that every combo was unique! Really impressive amount of content for a game jam,
Also, if you could please let me know how I might go about summoning my own mud cat in real life I would very much appreciate it.
This is a really fun way to interpret the theme, haha. I have very little musical ability so all I could really do was hit keys and watch notes fly up but I imagine more musically talented people could do some cool stuff with this. Like others say it seems like it could be expanded on too. Well done!
This was really fun and the different cats were designed in clever enough ways to all feel useful in their own way. The is really cute and the animations are great - the poofy cat and the cat burglar animations were favourites of mine. Really solid game and a fun way to interpret the theme, well done.
I always love coming across text adventures/visual novels when playing the jam games because I don't play them enough and it's a nice reminder how good they can be. I had a really good time with this - the writing was good, it has this really great, spooky vibe (Some of the SFX gave me a good fright - that growl in the south room) and it looks great too. Enjoyed going back through for different as well. Really impressive, especially for a solo dev!
The carrots had it coming if you ask me...
Liked this game a lot. Like others said this was incredibly well polished, looks and feels great and is just a really well executed game. Great effort, especially for a solo entry.
Very chill, relaxing vibes which I like a lot. Great audio and art really reinforces that. I had fun solving the puzzles, had some great "aha!" moments too. Wanted to especially call out the first few puzzles which did a really good job of teaching how the mechanics work in a very intuitive way.
Only real criticism is to make it a bit clearer when you need to go over one of the flowers more than once, that threw me off a bit but otherwise a very good entry.
@kawa-yoiko Just loaded the game up again to find the exact point I thought this at, and it was just me not understanding things. I didn't realise that you had to get the same colours together. So in the first puzzle on the second vase you need to get the two pinks and then go back to the two yellows. But I was confused when I went over the first yellow to get the last pink but didn't collect the yellow in the process. Makes sense now so sorry for the confusion!
This is really great. I actually did something similar with using arrows to summon for my entry but I think I prefer the way you've implemented it, mine was a bit clunky. The art is really cute - the cat and the summons especially. I think there's a nice variety of different summon types here which is great, it really helps you play in a few different ways. Well done!
Very impressive for a solo project, there's a lot going on here. The amount of enemies that spawn is chaotic but in a fun way, and I really liked how you could destroy parts of the environment too. Killing enemies to regain magic is a fun mechanic too, meant I could stay in the air for quite a while when I was playing well. Like the art a lot too, thought the mouse cursor was a very nice touch. Great job!
Music is great, so are the visuals - the animations are especially juicy which I liked. The actually movement I thought was really clever, having your jump change based on if you're holding an item led to some clever mechanics. The only issue I had really was the tiles that only had spikes when you went near them, it led some trial and error to figure out some parts which might have been better if the spike were always going up and down. But considering time limits it's not a huge problem, especially when you consider how much is here and how polished it is, this is a really good entry. Well done.
Fun game, with a surprising amount of complexity when it comes to chaining combos together. Really nicely polished too, looks great and feels great to play.
Had fun with this, solid platforming and some great art. Only downside for me really is that I struggled to see some of the spikes.
I thought this was really well put together actually. I know the art is unfinished (but it actually gives out a pretty cool vibe the way it is) but the different environments and characters and how the small things like music changes and animations in cutscenes really made it feel like a complete experience. I liked the combat system once I realised why my own summons were killing (Which is a very cool mechanic), my favourite combo was using the fire summon to boost attack, that was good fun. I enjoyed the writing as well, could see something cool come from expanding on it. Well done, great entry.
Big fan of the guard design, there's a lot of character there. Had fun with this overall, could see it being a good foundation to add more to as well. Well done!
Really enjoyed this, good job! Really loved the art style and the animations - mushroom is a personal highlight but it all looks great. Think the gameplay is really solid, there's something very satisfying about summoning a huge army! Could see this working as a fun level based game where you fight different enemies with different approaches to summoning minions.