Magic Rocks by Avon

[raw]
made by Avon for LD 41 (JAM)

comp_Screen.jpg

A mad wizard is summoning evil rock elementals, you're the only wizard that can stop him! Pick up magic cards dropped by the earth elementals to help defeat him. There are a total of 8 different cards, but you can only hold 5 at a time.

Controls: Move with WASD, aim with the mouse. Left click to cast spells. Use the 1-5 number keys(above QWERTY, not the numpad) on the keyboard to use the cards you've picked up. Hold down Left Alt and use mouse wheel and move the mouse to change the camera zoom and angle.

There are 3 difficulty settings to choose from.

Recommended to play at "beautiful" or "fantastic" quality setting.

Postjam update: I've added a postjam version which is identical to the original except for allowing the player to choose between relative or non-relative movement. Relative means pressing "W" will make the character move forward relative to his own direction, by disabling it he will instead move relative to the cameras orientation.

Ratings

Overall 520th 3.5⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 301th 3.611⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 696th 3.222⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 606th 3.583⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 561th 3.5⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 266th 3.667⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

rodancheg
24. Apr 2018 · 17:19 UTC
Interesting game, thank you. I got some troubles with control, but it's ok, you can check out my opinon here:https://www.twitch.tv/videos/254011194
zaguer
24. Apr 2018 · 17:25 UTC
Pretty cool game, nice effects and textures. The only weird thing I found was the movement that changed according to the aiming, making it a little bit confusing, besides that everything was very polished.
theamazingb
24. Apr 2018 · 17:45 UTC
This is an awesome game and has a lot of potential. I would try making the movement a little wore relative to the world rather than the direction he was facing. I would definitely expand on this game. Maybe add effects to the character so you can tell which buff is which. Green glow for speed, red for faster shooting, a shield around you for armor etc etc
🎤 Avon
24. Apr 2018 · 17:55 UTC
@rodancheg Thanks for the ratings and the video, was very cool to see someone play my game!

@zaguer @theamazingb Thanks for playing!

I did originally use movement that was relative to world instead of the character, I'm still unsure which I prefer, they both have advantages and drawbacks. If I'd had a bit more time I'd give the player the option to choose. Visual effects for the buffs is a good idea.
Squid
25. Apr 2018 · 23:02 UTC
I enjoyed this game. I think holding W should go forward to the camera not the player but that is a small issues. Good job!
🎤 Avon
25. Apr 2018 · 23:26 UTC
@Squid Thanks for playing! I tested both options and found them fairly equal, but it probably takes more time to get used to relative movement while your suggestion is likely more intuitive.
ALKubo
26. Apr 2018 · 01:35 UTC
wow, this is my best rating so far !! I really like this, but i think some improvements could be made:

1 - the pillars interrupt the vision sometimes, so they could become transparent when they are between the camera and the wizard.

2 - The aim seems to be "unbalanced", or I did not understand the mechanics to shoot with more precision, because even by clicking on the enemy the shot passes away.

3 - When the card slots are full and more cards are found, I think it would de better if i had the option to discard or swap them for the ones i already have.

I think that's it, congratulations. Great game!!!
🎤 Avon
26. Apr 2018 · 13:46 UTC
@ALKubo Thanks for playing! I agree with the points you made, 1 and 3 I thought about but didn't have time to prioritize. The aiming I did suspect was a bit off, I grabbed some code from a previous game for the character controls assuming it was good, but I never tested it properly. After more thorough testing its more off than I thought, I should definitely rework that code for the next time.
Travis Spuller
26. Apr 2018 · 17:06 UTC
These are my thoughts:

**Good**

The update for the controls was much appreciated

First game I found sound settings, me gusta :)

The difficulties matched what they said they were. Easy was in fact easy, and hard was .. you guess it .. hard

The images in the cards were nice, I think they were too nice that they contrasted with the game too much.

**Improvements**

The particles were a good baseline, but instead of have a big bright ball when impact, have like stone particles come off would be nice

The health would be at zero when I play again after death. Just a bug. Easy fix.

I wish there was more of a reason why upgrades were given after defeating the enemies. It would be nice if the enemy had that trait, and after you defeat them, you get their armor or ability.. just a thought

Shooting and the collisions isn't bad, but it isn't amazing. I'd prefer the collisions to be bigger. I think you have mesh colliders, but this would be better if it was the width of their hands, so bullets don't go under their arms.

All around, nice submission. I hope to run in your next game in future!
TheMonsterFromTheDeep
26. Apr 2018 · 17:11 UTC
This is pretty good! Although the graphics could use a little detail (and maybe material tweaks?), they are there and look good, and the music, although not made for this game, was chosen well.

One possible improvement: it would be nice to be able to cancel invisibility, given that is prevents you from attacking.
Goat Toaster Games
27. Apr 2018 · 01:48 UTC
Overall this was a great take on the theme! I really liked the implementation of the cards and had fun choosing which ones I should use. Fantastic idea.

The graphics were nice and I agree with TheMonsterFromTheDeep about the music choice being very fitting! I also agree with ALKubos second point as I also had some trouble with aiming precision on the enemies.

Great submission! :grin:
jk5000
29. Apr 2018 · 07:41 UTC
A fun idea and very well made game. The music and graphics together makes a really interesting atmosphere. Overall a good LD game. Well done.
Shivur
29. Apr 2018 · 08:15 UTC
Very good mood.
AfroAnt
30. Apr 2018 · 04:29 UTC
I really want to play a full version of this! Great job on making the game feel fun. I wanted all the cards all the time to do cool things. Great job on the magic graphics. A quick improvement would be to self-cancel invisibility if you attack something. Then add some destructible environments, and baby, you got a game going!
Paula
30. Apr 2018 · 18:51 UTC
Great job! I really like the combination of generes and the overall feeling of the game. It's fun and interesting. I hope you expand more the dungeon. At the beginning I was thinking that maybe it would be better if i know which cards are the dropped ones, but know I'm not sure since this way is more challeging and you adapt your strategy to what you have instead of planning something before. Anyway, I want more levels to keep playing :)!!!
Almax
01. May 2018 · 21:28 UTC
Quite enjoyed this, shooting fireballs was satisfying and there was a good variation in cards/abilities. I found the character movement a bit awkward and floaty and would have loved to see card combos. Otherwise good choice of music and nice graphics, awesome work!
minibobbo
03. May 2018 · 02:41 UTC
This was satisfying to walk down the corridor and shoot the fireballs at the stone guys. I liked getting the extra upgrades and using the cards, although I didn't see much point in the invisibility. Maybe I just could ahve skipped some of the enemies, but it never seemed worth it.

I liked the boss fight at the end. Was that a mirror? So I was fighting a clone of myself or something? I think I missed the symbolism...

FYI, the boss doesn't die when he hits 0 HP. You have to knock him into negatives before he actually is defeated. Seems like you need to turn a if(hp < 0) dead; to if (hp <= 0) dead; :smile:
🎤 Avon
03. May 2018 · 11:36 UTC
@minibobbo Thanks for playing! Invisibility isn't terribly useful, it's meant to be used in an emergency when you get overwhelmed, that'll probably only happen in the boss fight at the hardest difficulty.

I put a collider, meant to be interpreted as a force field or something, in front of the boss to prevent players from being able to shoot him while outside the boss' range, as he won't aggro until you get within a certain range. There's no symbolism there, I was just reusing the player model to save time.

You were right about the boss HP, I had a memory of fixing that issue, but turns out I only fixed it for the player class, not the enemies.