Mage Duel by Kitch

[raw]
made by Kitch for LD23 (COMPO)
For centuries when mages would disagree, they would spend hours in boring and pointless debates that would last for sometimes years. To counteract this, they developed the "Trial Plane", a tiny world existing solely for the resolution of these conflicts.

The game is basically an artillery game. (You know, like Scorched Earth, or the game with the gorillas and bananas.) Two twists, its in real time and it uses your previous play throughs as opponents.

IMPORTANT NOTE #1 - The game uses your previous play throughs as your opponents. Therefore, you must play the game at least 2 times (The first time is against a dummy) to get the other mage firing back.

IMPORTANT NOTE #2 - The game is in XNA 4.0. If YOU DO NOT have XNA, you will need to use the install package or download XNA from the links below. If you ALREADY HAVE Xna installed on your machine, you can download the "RAW" link.

Up Arrow, Down Arrow, W, S - Change Power
Left Arrow, Right Arrow, D, A - Change Angle
1-7 - Cast Spells

.NET 4.0 DOWNLOAD
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24872
XNA 4.0 Redistrutable DOWNLOAD
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20914

Thanks for your time!

Ratings

Coolness 71% 3
Overall 3.42 175
Audio 3.06 197
Fun 3.44 117
Graphics 3.38 215
Humor 3.31 76
Innovation 3.12 346
Mood 3.03 248
Theme 2.58 646

Feedback

vigrid
24. Apr 2012 · 14:20 UTC
Great stuff! Really enjoyable, and nice take on the game mechanics - playing against yourself. Fun way to avoid AI coding :) Make it a phone / tablet game!
edg3
24. Apr 2012 · 18:07 UTC
Was really cool, for some reason it seemed to only ever use my first (practice) round play as an enemy, even though for several rounds I milked the self-AI really quickly.

It is a really cool concept.
Raptor85
24. Apr 2012 · 18:07 UTC
looks cool, and the mountains in the pictures REALLY remind me of scorched earth (just how jagged and vertical they are). I'd love to play and rate but XNA4 won't run under WINE
Ace
24. Apr 2012 · 18:28 UTC
I loved the reason for the fights, "Mages should wear armor" vs "Clothes ftw".
The aiming mechanic was a bit clunky, especially the limited spell power. Hitting the enemy when you're dug into a hole turned pretty much impossible, the background music was nice though.
Danvil
24. Apr 2012 · 18:59 UTC
I can not play properly. The direction marker ist not shown and all spells are cast at my position with no initial velocity. Looks funny though.
barigorokarl
24. Apr 2012 · 19:06 UTC
Cool idea, sadly my third incarnation killed me quite fast and the fireball isn't very practical, because you have to clear the way for it.
I laughted quite hard at the qoutes you gave my mages :-)
🎤 Kitch
24. Apr 2012 · 19:35 UTC
Thanks everyone!

@Danvil - Sounds like you need to increase your Power (Up arrow or W)

@edg3 - It takes a random play from the list of already played games. So, if you get bad rolls on your random gen, you can play the same one over and over.

@barigorokarl - Or is it practical because it clears the way? ; )
devwil
24. Apr 2012 · 20:56 UTC
***I'm posting this on all non-browser games I bring up in an attempt to encourage folks to make browser games next time around. Do not take it personally.***

When hundreds of people make non-browser games, that means that, to play all of the entries, I would need to download hundreds of games to my computer. I typically use OS X, so Windows-only entries are particularly inconvenient.

Please consider making a browser game next time.
jeroenimooo
24. Apr 2012 · 21:03 UTC
I had so much luck i sucked at the first game start. or else i would have never beaten myself ;p The level generation is awesome.It would only be nice if i could move just a little.
Sup Dood
24. Apr 2012 · 21:04 UTC
Good Job! The graphics are charming and so are the sound effects. I really like the concept of playing against yourself as well.
Sestren
24. Apr 2012 · 23:18 UTC
Very nicely done. The graphic effects and sound are very pleasing, and the gameplay is fun. I was a big fan of Scorched Earth back in the day, and although playing against your previous run isn't always the most fun, it works quite well overall.
Zillix
25. Apr 2012 · 04:17 UTC
Past me is so much better than present me! Neat game!
R3ason
25. Apr 2012 · 04:18 UTC
That was pretty cool! Really enjoyed the fact that you were actually fighting against yourself, which added a bit of frantic spellcasting, as you knew how the enemy was going to play. Thanks for sharing!
robcozzens
25. Apr 2012 · 04:23 UTC
I would have played it if there was a Web or OSX version.
argo15
25. Apr 2012 · 09:10 UTC
Pretty cool. The first level where you play a dead AI was kind of weird. then I looked at the how to play page and it said that you have to play against yourself, so to play it at least once. I thought that this was a pretty cool concept! You could have made the first play through have a tutorial so that it didn't seem like you were playing against a braindead ai, but just doing a tutorial but I understand the time constraints. Very good game.
schattenkind.net
25. Apr 2012 · 09:34 UTC
Nice polished game. You can try porting it to Linux and MacOSX using Monogame. I wrote a short how-to, maybe it's usefull :-)

http://crankgaming.blogspot.de/2012/02/xna-to-monogame.html
10WonXero10
25. Apr 2012 · 10:25 UTC
Cool game, I liked it.
rfgpfeiffer
25. Apr 2012 · 15:44 UTC
Hello, fellow artillery game coder! I like your trick for making an AI opponent. I might steal it for my own game.
chambers
26. Apr 2012 · 03:25 UTC
Really nice concept, very original, and very funny. I think you should keep on working on this project, because the current game still lacks a little bit of balance (also, my randomly generated terrain was terrible D=) I'd love to play a full game based out of this someday.

Also, too bad the "how to play" page spoiled what was going to happen! It would have been much better if you encouraged the player to play more than one match in some other way =/

Anyway, I liked it a lot!
ratboy2713
26. Apr 2012 · 21:32 UTC
Very funny, and I like anything where mages are being powerful and wasteful. The problem is the AI tends to bury itself in the ground, making it very hard to hit, dragging matches on much longer than they should be. Perhaps a layer of lava halfway down so they just drop off and you don't have to be so finicky with controls?
LukeRissacher
26. Apr 2012 · 23:12 UTC
Nice one - had fun playing. An AI opponent would have been added a bit more challenge and replay value I think. Gonna check out the source code when I get time, been wanting to play around with 2D XNA programming for a change (most of what I've done is 3D). I like the Terraria-esque small destructible tile approach.
🎤 Kitch
27. Apr 2012 · 00:54 UTC
@ratboy2713 and @LukeRissacher - I think you both may have missed the details of "important note #1" above, on the off chance you come back and read this.

On a side note, given the nature of the game mechanics, I find the "AI tends to bury itself" comment rather amusing.

Thank you all for the comments... and schattenkind.net, thanks for the link. I will try and port it over.
LukeRissacher
27. Apr 2012 · 03:58 UTC
@Kitch: thanks - yeah, I got that part - I played through probably 4 sessions - but with different terrain my previous session's moves weren't too effective against me :).
🎤 Kitch
27. Apr 2012 · 05:07 UTC
@LukeRissacher - ma'bad. I was picturing you playing the first round against the dummy and thinking, "An AI opponent would have been nice". :)

Side note, the terrain seed should save with the play through, only mirrored. Didn't get a chance to test that as much as I'd like though.
Miltage
28. Apr 2012 · 21:52 UTC
Really cool game. You managed to get a surprisingly well-polished game done, I was quite impressed. Graphics are nice and the terrain destruction works nicely. Good job!
Beerman
10. May 2012 · 15:17 UTC
Looks great, lots of fun. Love the sneaky way you got out of coding any AI ;)
maxman43
13. May 2012 · 05:15 UTC
I would play this if there were a web version. You should consider doing a web version for future games.