Spirits of the Forest by Divitos
Spirits of the Forest is about an animal messenger who helps the forest spirits look after their world. The animal messenger is a being who exists in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. He is the chosen one, and he helps the spirits communicate with each other by delivering messages. In return, the spirits grant him shape-shifting abilities that aid him in his journey. The “chosen one” begins the story as a panther, but learns to transform into a kangaroo and a flying squirrel. Each animal has unique abilities that need to be used to overcome challenges and obstacles.
The wolf-spirit Zanakalth has severed his ties with the forest-keeping spirits, and is on a self-serving quest to gain power. It is up to the chosen one and the other forest spirits to protect their world against Zanakalth’s dire plans.
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WASD or Arrow Keys for Movement
Space to Interact and Change Forms
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Programming and Design by @DivitosGD
Music and Sound Design by Wesley Devore www.wesdevore.com
Art by Hisan Iwo
The wolf-spirit Zanakalth has severed his ties with the forest-keeping spirits, and is on a self-serving quest to gain power. It is up to the chosen one and the other forest spirits to protect their world against Zanakalth’s dire plans.
----------
WASD or Arrow Keys for Movement
Space to Interact and Change Forms
---------
Programming and Design by @DivitosGD
Music and Sound Design by Wesley Devore www.wesdevore.com
Art by Hisan Iwo
| Windows | https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/134125652/Spirits%20of%20the%20Forest.exe |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=9732 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 45% | 1350 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.23 | 560 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.54 | 199 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.00 | 629 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.81 | 275 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.50 | 509 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 2.44 | 972 |
| Mood(Jam) | 3.52 | 243 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.36 | 540 |
The pixel art and the mood put thanks to the music are excellent
However, i found a bug : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12976475/SpiritForest.png
It happened right after respawning for the long fall
A health bar would be VERY appreciated. It would give players a reason to avoid damage without having to be so pointlessly unforgiving. The instant death here causes the game to appeal only to the most sadistic of players, and will really turn off a lot of people from what could otherwise by a very fun game.
I really wanted to keep playing the game and see the other animals. The art style is great and the music is soothing, but don't try to hide behind the "It's supposed to be hard!" mantra. It just the game.
Anyway, great job overall!
The art was mostly good, with background having better quality than some sprites (e.g. a hedgehog), but overall it serves its purpose well. I liked the soundtrack, too (some sound effects were a bit annoying, though, like kangaroo's dying... screech?). The story isn't particularly creative, but it works well enough.
The collisions and maybe level design require some serious work, though; it's fine when a game is difficult (unless it's platformer, because I played way more difficult platformers than necessary to prove my platforming skills), but I've found some segments annoying, and not rarely because I died seemingly without any contact with spikes whatsoever. This led me to using R button so often that sometimes I was mistaking it with Space (including the one time when I reached the owl spirit and restarted mid-dialogue after a really, really painful segment). >.<
Also, you need to get a better grasp of designing multiple-window maps. Sometimes when I jumped the view was moving up and down to catch up with main character, other times I tried walking left/right not seeing there's a ledge just around the window border, the ledge I need to jump on. Also, the flying squirrel fall segment (the one where you avoid bees nests) felt a bit luck-based due to little time for reaction to the next-screen obstacles.
I like the game's mood, but mechanics and challenges require some serious reworking.