Wandstep by celeron55

[raw]
made by celeron55 for LD31 (COMPO)
--- In short ---

Wandstep is a puzzle-ish game where you charge your weapon (a magic wand) by stepping back, left or right, in relation to where you stepped from into your current position.

Go play it and see if you can figure out the mechanics! Or maybe you should read first. It's not very intuitive, to be entirely honest with you. 8)

--- Exact game mechanics ---

* There are three attacks, each of which charge up individually based on the character's movement. The attack occurs from the player's previous position.

* The wand will blast fire instantly when it is charged up. The trigger charge depends on how many mushrooms there are on the level. You probably should first clear them out as quickly as possible.

* Stone is destroyed only by the attack that is charged by turning back, but this attack does not have a large area of effect like the others.

* The attacks charged by turning left or right are as wide as how much there is empty space next to the player.

* The goal is to remove all the fungus from the level with a minimal number of steps.

--- Implementation ---

This is a HTML5 game and was tested in Firefox and Chrome.

The online version stores anonymous high scores on the server so that you can try to beat levels scored by others.

Ratings

Coolness 33% 1896
Overall 3.09 673
Audio 2.55 649
Fun 2.59 958
Graphics 3.36 386
Innovation 3.91 111
Mood 3.06 438
Theme 3.36 851

Feedback

dekart
08. Dec 2014 · 10:44 UTC
Probably I didn't get into the game mechanics because I didn't understand how to perform an action. But I love the art.
Absor
08. Dec 2014 · 15:47 UTC
Shat my pants with the first spell effect. Nice graphics and mechanic. Needs polishing. Good job!
elliottd
08. Dec 2014 · 15:53 UTC
Really nice mood. Strange puzzle control system. I like it but I didn't play long enough to understand how to fire with intention. Also not sure what was populating the trigger equation (oh it was the mushrooms). nice degree of completion
Tuism
08. Dec 2014 · 16:07 UTC
I literally have no idea how it works, even after reading it. Maybe it's something that can be solved with more player feedback, or maybe not, I'm not sure. But I think some people would love this kind of puzzle games. I just don't get it, though.
vicious_br
08. Dec 2014 · 16:11 UTC
I did not understand the game play, but its visually and sound fx spectacular.
Blockers
08. Dec 2014 · 22:06 UTC
simple, but kind of complex. it took me a while to actually get the hang of properly executing my steps, but i have to admit once i DID get it down, this was extremely satisfying and made me feel like a wizard :P
arzi
08. Dec 2014 · 22:08 UTC
The pixel are is good, and I like that the idea is original, but it was a bit too much for me to wrap my head around.
tinykidtoo
08. Dec 2014 · 22:09 UTC
The art was nice but I didn't quite understand the mechanic. It needs to be explained to me. I understand that you move to get closer to the trigger but I don't know what quite counts or how to aim it.
skeeto
08. Dec 2014 · 22:15 UTC
Cool puzzle game. I didn't fully understand the rules, but I had enough of an idea to complete a few levels with a poor "score." I'm going to come back to try this again later after I've had some time to think about it.

This could make for a good mobile game.
mrexcessive
09. Dec 2014 · 10:22 UTC
Hi there. Interesting idea to move to build up next attack pattern. Found it distracting to be looking at left, back, right numbers all the time - maybe float them near player ? Like that you took time to make level select screen.
pancakecity
11. Dec 2014 · 00:28 UTC
I liked the presentation a lot, very well done! The wand attacks were also impressive. I'll admit that I button-mashed; the explanations of the game mechanic make sense when read individually, but they're not really telling me how I can predict when or where the wand fires.
Lynx
17. Dec 2014 · 03:18 UTC
Very odd game mechanics, but it was kinda fun to try and figure them out
Cosmologicon
21. Dec 2014 · 00:44 UTC
I got the hang of it after reading your description. I would say having "2 +" is a bit confusing when the only numebr that matters is the sum. Pretty creative idea, but a bit complicated to really pull off. Not abd.
Kaijuu
25. Dec 2014 · 05:03 UTC
That's a really cool concept!
foolmoron
25. Dec 2014 · 06:31 UTC
Definitely wins the award for most convoluted mechanics. Great sound and graphics and such though.