The Earl's Owl by Yazara

[raw]
made by Yazara for LD32 (COMPO)
In my second Ludum Dare Game, you play as a mighty knight with his trusty companion.
Actually it has proven as so useful, that the knight decided to stop bearing arms and just let his Psy-Owl do all the dirty work.

Guide the knight through the tower and try to collect all seven blue lights!
(I didn't get to make a score counter, but will probably add it post-mortem)
Have fun!

Controls:
Left Joystick or A/D: move the knight
Owl Controls:
A-Button or right: attack enemy in range
B-Button or left: destroy psi-block in range
X-Button or down: return to the knight / collect blue bonus
Y-Button or up: lift the knight up

Programs: Unity 5, Photoshop, Spriter

The epic artwork on the 4th screenshot is made by my friend Fabi, check out his project here:
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=52774

Ratings

Coolness 51% 3
Overall 3.37 368
Fun 2.96 621
Graphics 4.15 67
Humor 2.95 426
Innovation 3.96 72
Mood 3.29 267
Theme 3.81 193

Feedback

Tijn
20. Apr 2015 · 17:20 UTC
Oooooo this is beautiful! 5/5 for graphics!
ianburnette
20. Apr 2015 · 17:23 UTC
I love the way the owl looks! Those eyes! Very clever concept. Haven't really seen anything like this before.
alpha_rat
21. Apr 2015 · 13:50 UTC
Very nice idea, the controls just don't feel dynamic/responsive enough, and moving the skeleton by repeatedly lifting/dropping it takes a bit too long

The gameplay is very original and the graphics are nice though
terpin
21. Apr 2015 · 20:17 UTC
Your graphics are positively adorable! I am having a bit of an issue with the controls though. You should definitely keep working on this though, it has potential to be an awesome little game!
gillyadrien
21. Apr 2015 · 20:32 UTC
Very nice entry, even though I got lost a few times. The graphics are really engaging.

Great work!
Shimmergloom
22. Apr 2015 · 09:55 UTC
Really nice artstyle. The flag command concept is cool, but it felt too clunky to be very useful though. :(
CarlsonAndPeeters
23. Apr 2015 · 04:22 UTC
Controls are a bit too sluggish, but the concept is great! I could see this being a larger game with different unlockable abilities. Great stuff!
BIZM
23. Apr 2015 · 19:38 UTC
Very cool concept and interesting art style! The bat is really cute :)
tughan
23. Apr 2015 · 20:15 UTC
I agree with the comments on controls. Good concept, nice idea.
🎤 Yazara
26. Apr 2015 · 22:13 UTC
Thank you for the feedback, I have some ideas on how to improve the controls, when I have time I will fix them :)
bossmojoman
26. Apr 2015 · 22:18 UTC
Nice job, the controls are my only complaint, it was a little hard to figure out what to do at first
GAFBlizzard
28. Apr 2015 · 05:24 UTC
Nice graphics and neat idea. I had a companion weapon idea too, but with an overhead view instead of a side view.

Having a control reference on the Ludum Dare entry page might be useful since I promptly forgot the controls once I started playing and had to figure them out by experimentation.

Unfortunately especially without checkpoints, the game was hard for me since the owl powers seem very slow to trigger, and movement is also slow.

If this is a compo entry, shouldn't there be a source link? (perhaps a dropbox zip)
GAFBlizzard
28. Apr 2015 · 05:25 UTC
Also I agree with the other comment(s) that if you tighten up the controls and polish this, it could be a neat full game! Maybe start with only one or two powers, and get more as the game goes on.
🎤 Yazara
28. Apr 2015 · 14:05 UTC
Thank you for the constructive feedback, I added the source and the controls in the description.
SeriouslyCrunchy
29. Apr 2015 · 12:55 UTC
Wow this definitely fits the theme perfectly. The controls take a bit of getting used to and seem quite slow and clunky but what a great idea.
peterfsat
29. Apr 2015 · 13:10 UTC
I liked the concept for the mechanics... It was just a little difficult to play with the owl though :p
Xanjos
29. Apr 2015 · 13:34 UTC
I like the idea a lot but the controls are far too sluggish to use.
Javabot
29. Apr 2015 · 14:48 UTC
SO DIFFUCULT! Would love with different controls, as you have been told countless times.
alyphen
02. May 2015 · 16:29 UTC
The controls seem a little counter intuitive, but it's very pretty to look at. The mechanics seems smart, but I couldn't really get my head around it.
Larzan
10. May 2015 · 16:55 UTC
This is a great concept, i love the idea of the remote controled robot thingy that makes the player do things, very good job on the theme!