Fencing in Wonderland by 6DownStudios
Can you best the Queen's champion fencer?
Score by striking your opponent with your weapon's beak!
First to three points wins the Match. Best of three, the Game!
Here's the catch... The Queen has armed her own champion with a flamingo fit for battle. You however, must make do with a most uncooperative bird.
Left : Retreat
Right : Advance
Up : Jump
X : Thrust (holding Down for a low attack)
C : Parry
press "R" to Reset.
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Here's how scoring works:
========================
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a Point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of Points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 Points wins the Match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the Match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 Matches wins the Game.
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Notes on Clumsy Combat:
======================
X and C (thrusting and blocking) will result in different motions based on the location/orientation of your flamingo's head/beak. Experiment to find the best times to attack or defend
Trouble scoring points? Try following up a jump with a low attack, or thrusting after a well timed parry.
If your flamingo gets tangled, mashing buttons may help. If you're really stuck, you can click (and drag) with the mouse. WARNING: this will probably result in some wonky physics!
** Music/SFX were created/added post-jam. **
Thanks for playing!
Score by striking your opponent with your weapon's beak!
First to three points wins the Match. Best of three, the Game!
Here's the catch... The Queen has armed her own champion with a flamingo fit for battle. You however, must make do with a most uncooperative bird.
Left : Retreat
Right : Advance
Up : Jump
X : Thrust (holding Down for a low attack)
C : Parry
press "R" to Reset.
========================
Here's how scoring works:
========================
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a Point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of Points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 Points wins the Match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the Match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 Matches wins the Game.
======================
Notes on Clumsy Combat:
======================
X and C (thrusting and blocking) will result in different motions based on the location/orientation of your flamingo's head/beak. Experiment to find the best times to attack or defend
Trouble scoring points? Try following up a jump with a low attack, or thrusting after a well timed parry.
If your flamingo gets tangled, mashing buttons may help. If you're really stuck, you can click (and drag) with the mouse. WARNING: this will probably result in some wonky physics!
** Music/SFX were created/added post-jam. **
Thanks for playing!
| Web | http://six-down-studios.itch.io/fencing-in-wonderland |
| 2-Player (Post-Jam) | http://six-down-studios.itch.io/fencing-in-wonderland- |
| Video (Playthrough) | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqcrjIGfOQA |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=39552 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 64% | 3 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.22 | 514 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.06 | 514 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.81 | 247 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.77 | 95 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.33 | 356 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.42 | 267 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.86 | 153 |
-Hitting your opponent with your flamingo's beak scores you a point. The page (white rabbit) raises a flag indicating which payer scores first.
-The painter on the left keeps track of points by painting roses (black for you, red for the heart). First to 3 points wins the match.
-The King of Hearts keeps track of the match winner, raising a sign for heart or spade. This triggers the painter on the right. Best of 3 matches wins the game.
-If you beat the Queen's champion, she is angered by his failure and shouts "off with his head!" (She says the same thing when you lose, referring to you instead)
I plan on adding a couple more features in a post-jam, including hedgehogs and a real victory/loss ending.
@Traumendes_Madchen: Thanks!
I thought I hadn't actually completed a match, but I tried playing a couple more times and realized that there just wasn't enough feedback when a match was over. The background stuff would have worked wonderfully to show important mechanics without distracting UI, but only in a game where the core elements are clearer. A nice flash or sound cue when I hit the opponent or the opponent hit me would've been great.
And then the physics were really wonky. The flamingo's heads would pop off, the opponent would get stuck behind the other cards, everything would go flying... the game really would have been a lot better without the spectators, in my opinion.
@drewdonley: Thanks!
@TeslaCoil: Appreciate the detailed criticism, and I agree with most everything you've said, which is I've added sound cues to the post-jam. Still working on debugging the wonky physics, and I think if I can solve the beak-stick bug, the spectators do make the game more interesting, adding a bit of randomness and an accordion-like playing field perimeter.
Cards definitely go flying if you use the mouse, I should've mentioned that this breaks the physics. It was in the game for debug purposes, but I kept it for disentangling purposes. :)
@uvwar: Yeah, I wish I'd had time to put in a victory/defeat cutscene. Half of my wants to fix a few of those flamingo-physics glitches, the other half wants them to stay in. And thanks about the shadowing effect, I quite like how that worked out too.
@Garris: Thanks man!
Not sure what happened here, did I win? https://www.flickr.com/photos/katekligman/17079168398/
I could never really figure out what a thrust and parry looked like, though. The thrust button seemed to make me run forwards, and I couldn't really figure out why all the backup cards were behind the fencers, since it tended to make everything more awkward. Ditching some or most of the physics and using more fighting game animations with parry/thrust/block etc. animations might be one way to go if you continue this. :)
The background seemed to have some sort of scoring, but that was also not super clear.
@Kate: 'Preciate it! Re your screenshot, certainly. In addition to the match win, you've also managed to get your foe in a headlock *and* disarm him! (The former is intentional, the latter a bug) :)
@GAFBlizzard: Thanks a lot for the detailed comment! You're right, the thrust and parry animations are tough to make out, because they look different depending on what position your flamingo is in when you initiate them, and how far it can travel before it hits something. If I wanted to make this into a competitive game, I would certainly take your suggestion on swapping physics for animations, but since the awkwardness of the weapon and inability to control one's flamingo is the main part of the game, I'd have to leave that in. :)
@bakpakin: Thanks and yes definitely@
@efonsecab: 'Preciate it!
@nameoftheuser: I did consider this, perhaps in the post-jam version I'll put in an option for Number of Clubs and Diamonds. Thanks!
@uninthar: Why thanks! I'm glad most people seem to think the humor outweighs the frustration; the latter is a key ingredient in this game, but a pinch would've been better than a dollop. Next LD I might prioritize tweaking the physics over background animations.
I love the graphics (outstanding style) and music, it set a very "weird but pleasant" mood to the game. The gameplay is nice too, I enjoyed jumping around and thrusting my flamingo here and there!
My only complaint would be the lack of a clear "end game" screen state - While it's nice to watch the animations in the background to know who is winning, I think that if the game paused after each round to clearly announce the winner, it would enhance the game greatly IMHO :)