LudumData

Tower of Mana by Pedro Henrique Cesar

[raw]
made by Pedro Henrique Cesar for LD 40 (JAM)

Hello guys! This is our second entry on Ludum Dare, we are glad to be part of this event and really proud of what we accomplished in so little time!

Come play Tower of Mana! capa ld40.png - The basics to play Tower of Mana you must understand that your character gains mana constantly and unfortunately, if your mana fills completely, you DIE. Enemies are pure mana in the form of your greatest fears, if they hit you, they will give you mana! Beat all the 5 levels to win! Good luck.

  • You can play both on your keyboard or XBox Controller.

  • Space or A (xbox) - Jump

  • Enter/Return or X (xbox) - Attack
  • Left Shift or B (xbox) - Dash
  • WASD or DPad (xbox) - To move and Aim

All of your actions consumes ALL of your mana, the greatest the mana spent the stronger is the action, you will jump higher, dash longer and shoot bigger projectiles. BEWARE: Do not let your mana fill completly!

Good luck and have Fun!

Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/azvxTc5z6pA

Breezeblocks Game Studio

CREDITS

  • Pedro Henrique Cesar Godoi: Coder, Level Design.

  • Matheus Campos: Illustrator, Level Design, SFX and Music Compositor.

  • Gustavo Cesar: Illustrator, Animator. idle-gif.gif

Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZDxMdnOgKYsJNR5-Y2hJoIWp8_rh9A33
HTML5 (web) https://breezeblocks.itch.io/tower-of-mana-ludum-dare-40
Windows https://drive.google.com/open?id=1995KVqMvFdQYhw7rSz2F1IzcTN4Kdiw8
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/tower-of-mana

Ratings

Overall 273th 3.741⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Fun 385th 3.5⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 32th 4.091⭐ 57🧑‍⚖️
Theme 30th 4.295⭐ 58🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 447th 3.698⭐ 60🧑‍⚖️
Audio 211th 3.632⭐ 55🧑‍⚖️
Humor 522th 3.032⭐ 49🧑‍⚖️
Mood 550th 3.306⭐ 56🧑‍⚖️
Given 106🗳️ 35🗨️

Feedback

stencilchris
05. Dec 2017 · 03:57 UTC
I like this premise, turning something normally good in traditional games (full mana) into something that can kill you if you don't use it up! I enjoyed playing!
fufi
05. Dec 2017 · 12:20 UTC
I tried for a good 20 minutes but gave up on level 3. Addicting die-and-retry game, loved it. (And here I thought our game was somewhat hard !)
VikTris
05. Dec 2017 · 12:38 UTC
easy to learn but hard to master for sure!
Murilo
05. Dec 2017 · 13:19 UTC
It's freaking hard!! Not being able to remap the controls made it even harder for me. Great game though overall with a nice concept. I liked it and will try to beat it later. Great job guys!
meles
05. Dec 2017 · 13:48 UTC
I enjoyed the premise here, I found I had to wait around a few times for the mana to recharge enough to make certain jumps, which broke the flow of the game for me, but other then that a fun skill based platformer.
BumiBomber
05. Dec 2017 · 16:07 UTC
hardcore platformer, admittedly too floaty for my tastes. But with a gimmick like this I'm willing to forgive it. It's very enjoyable though I personally disliked the art.
Josef21296
05. Dec 2017 · 16:24 UTC
Really cool!! Its pretty hard, is this the 2D dark souls?? xD
Victor Sette
05. Dec 2017 · 21:54 UTC
I love the concept, it's very creative and innovative. The art is amazing and the game overall is very addicting by the "just one more try" nature. But besides the fun I had (after I got the hang of it), I think the bar fills up too fast. I didn't have time to practice or get used to it before my brain goes crazy without time to react. And after I got the hang of it, I would just look exclusively at the bar while playing with quick glimpses of the next challenge to time my moves right. And doing so, I didn't have time to look at the gorgeous artwork.
I think maybe a sound cue to the filling like a "wwwwooooOOOOP" or anything to help.
Anyway, the game was great and beautiful, awesome job!
James Dunlap
06. Dec 2017 · 01:28 UTC
It's a very interesting concept, but a very difficult game. I had quite a challenge using the control scheme, though as the action buttons seemed to be all over the keyboard. Maybe three buttons that are together for the three different actions would have been better. I enjoyed the soundtrack as well. :thumbsup: for including a web build. I have seen many Unity built games this time that did not. I am currently away and want to be able to test games on the web instead of downloading them to my MacBook.
SavePoint
06. Dec 2017 · 06:53 UTC
There must be a glitch, playing on macbook, the in-browser version of the game. my character turns to magic stone or wtvr lol in the first 5 seconds. Impossible to avoid this. I could also just suck. but... it seems odd for the very opening scene. Great art and music tho! And congrats on knocking it out in such short amount of time!
sadsmile
06. Dec 2017 · 10:34 UTC
I'm loving the concept of this!
xoidberg
06. Dec 2017 · 13:28 UTC
Ok this is very difficult! I couldn't even beat the second floor :D Definitely like the concept of it.
🎤 Pedro Henrique Cesar
06. Dec 2017 · 14:30 UTC
Hello everyone, thanks so much for the feedback!

* I agree with the keyboard controls, they are pretty bad, but we didn't had time to test any combinations or add a remap mechanic in the game, so we are sorry for that.
* We tested a lot of mana refill time, below the current one the games felt too slow and above it, the game became impossible, so we choose the current one. The game was hard but not impossible, so we had much fun playing it as it is.
* Only after the jam release(unfortunately) we did realize that the entire gameplay consisted on paying attention to the mana bar and that we had to add some kind of sound feedback, or anyother kind of feedback :(
* @savepoint it is not a glitch! The game is based on the mana refill time, it refills very fast and you have to do any action to spend it, because if it recharges completly, you die! Sorry if that was not explicit, we hope you had fun playing it!

Thanks everyone who played it, rate it and took a time to comment! <3
Daniel Jackson
06. Dec 2017 · 14:59 UTC
Interesting concept, not a fan of this sort of difficulty level. But I can see why people like it. Good job.
ZeAntwan
06. Dec 2017 · 15:48 UTC
The theme is completely here ! But the difficulty is very high directly at the beginning... It's like a die and retry merged with a bit of press your luck games.

The help screen was a bit overwhelming, where it could be just "Mana refills overtime. If your mana bar is filled, you die. Jump or dash to use your mana" (or something better).

But overall, the concept is great ! Well done !
Reality Blind
06. Dec 2017 · 15:54 UTC
As said before, the concept is really cool but the mana fills really fast, I never read the descriptions to see if the game is intuitive and had a small time before understanding what caused me to die. The soundtrack is pretty good tho, as the graphics are too, that's still a good game, good job guys !
Marcos Tulio Cavalcante
06. Dec 2017 · 15:56 UTC
Acho que se vocês mudarem os botões de Dash, Ataque e pulo ficaria melhor, por exemplo nas letras J K e L. Ficaria bem melhor para jogar.
Josh Ayres
06. Dec 2017 · 16:12 UTC
I couldn't get past the first level, but it was great fun.
I think the mana fills up to fast.
Oniwaka
06. Dec 2017 · 16:15 UTC
groovy music. fun and challenging
Rixium
06. Dec 2017 · 16:16 UTC
It's well made, and the art work is great. I find the music a little repetitive though, but as it's a jam and time is limited, it's good enough. I didn't feel like there was much feedback given when I did something in terms of sound, so maybe you were short on time, but in future changes it'd be nice to have more sounds.
I found the game very difficult too, and it didn't really ease you in to the mechanics which is the biggest problem.

Overall, I think it's a pretty good game, and think as a endless runner mobile game it would be quite successful.
VictorSimoes
06. Dec 2017 · 16:23 UTC
Opa mais brs se juntando a ld, bom ver isso! então meu feedback - cara o game ta solido e ele é o que é. não tenho nada a dizer que vocês poderiam mudar alem de usar os sticks do controle ao invez do D-pad pra controlar o personagem (estou usando controle de xbox 360)! mas é isso ai, muito divertido e stressfull fiquei puto depois de morrer 10x no lvl 1 até pegar o jeito do game haha!
Rankaquion
06. Dec 2017 · 16:54 UTC
cara ficou excelente mas eu acho que a mana devia carregar mais devagar
Trasheur
06. Dec 2017 · 16:54 UTC
Very hard game, he reminds me Volgars the Viking by the exigence of level design. <3
matheuscampos2910
06. Dec 2017 · 17:06 UTC
Thank you guys, I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did. It was the first time trying a pixel art game. We tried to do our best like everyone else in the jam. @rixium, you are right, the music is kinda repetitive, with more time and more dedication I would improve this. We have to try more play tests and see the exactly time for your mana fills up. Maybe some kind of calibration with the level that you are in. Sorry for the bad english, that's not my mother tongue. So, any doubts, feel free to talk to us.
elemel
06. Dec 2017 · 22:30 UTC
Not sure how long I've played this game now, but wasn't able to make it past level 3. Incredibly frustrating and difficult to get better at. Once you time the mana "rhythm", you get thrown off by the spell timeout or the movement of monsters and traps. Best game I've tried so far -- to me this is an instant classic.
makiyoshi
06. Dec 2017 · 23:09 UTC
Hey, I really liked the idea, but it was too hard for me, lol. It's an original and nice concept, I liked the graphics and sound too. I'm too n00bish to play it, though. XD
matheuscampos2910
07. Dec 2017 · 00:21 UTC
@makiyoshi you are not alone. I have problems to beat this game either.
Casper
07. Dec 2017 · 01:04 UTC
Wow! Easy to learn, hard to master.
dakikad
07. Dec 2017 · 02:00 UTC
COMO PASSA OS ESPINHOS SENHOR DA GLORIA@
matheuscampos2910
07. Dec 2017 · 14:01 UTC
@dakikad, qual parte dos espinhos e qual level?
donvermo
08. Dec 2017 · 17:51 UTC
Nice game with an ok challenge, the learning curve is slightly steep though but the mix of gameplay, music and art make it worth the while.
lautregars
09. Dec 2017 · 00:55 UTC
Very nice concept, nice art, nice music loop, lotta good things, but boy, it's really hard ! And the afct that I do not own a WZASD keyboard didn't helped for sure, I tryharded but kept getting stuck at phase 2.

Great game overall, sadly could'nt see more of it.
sparewizard
09. Dec 2017 · 01:11 UTC
Interesting concept, but I found the window between having enough mana to do a useful jump and dying was too small. Many times I looked at the screen for a second to prepare, then died from too much energy.
SurprisinglyShockedCat
09. Dec 2017 · 01:15 UTC
I loved the music and the art. The mechanics are really cool. I think the game would be better if it was a little bit easier though, or at least started off a bit easier.
Xacur
09. Dec 2017 · 03:09 UTC
Really good and polished game with one of the best mechanics I've seem so far in this LD. Graphics and sound totally awesome. The learning curve is pretty hard, but it's addictive and keeps you retrying. Maybe if the amount of mana wasn't a factor for the jump height, or the height were higher it wasn't so hard. Or maybe the mana gauge should be larger, I'm no sure.
Anyway, you have a great game here that needs some work in balance.
Iferit
09. Dec 2017 · 04:37 UTC
Very nice game, it was a lot of fun. Its got a good amount of content, that's awesome for such a short amount of time. I was fun to play! Thanks!
SerpentWorks Games
09. Dec 2017 · 11:22 UTC
I really like the concept behind this, as well as the art and music, but I agree that the mana bar fills up just way too fast. I ended up spending more time staring at the bar than the environment and didn't really feel like I could stop to assess what was going on. I found it actually sort of frustrating the jump amount changed with how much mana you had, and spent most of my time wondering why I couldn't jump higher.

That said, I really like it for what it is. I just wish I could have seen more of the game before giving it up in frustration.
megabrutal
11. Dec 2017 · 02:15 UTC
Very hard game, probably it could use some more balancing. E.g. a short grace period to do something before I turn to stone would be nice. Perfectly fits the theme, and the graphics and sound effects are magnificent. I'd like to see a more fleshed out version of this game, so I wish it to grow beyond Ludum Dare. :)
matheuscampos2910
11. Dec 2017 · 14:56 UTC
@megabrutal, we are developing a local dualplayer version of this. If one of the players turn into statue, the other player may be able to use a new command to save the statue player and comeback to the game. About the balance, we want to try more playtests before we release a new version of this. Thanks to everyone who is helping us with nice feedbacks. Sorry for my bad english. See you later folks.
Igor KinGamer
17. Dec 2017 · 23:50 UTC
Great idea!

Graphics are complete, no placeholder graphics, everything seems to convey the right meaning. Nevertheless, the different elements doesn't fit together very well.

Anyway, the game is great, I won't say much more because I mostly agree with what has already been said. Nice mechanics, I liked how enemies don't (immediately) kill you. I really would like to have more time to spend trying to beat it.

Cumprimentos do Brasil! :grin: Parabéns!
FelipeDev
19. Dec 2017 · 00:51 UTC
Awesome idea with a very good execution and a nice challenge! Reminds me Necrosphere in “just one more try” nature. Although your game may be unfair, like the flying enemies on level 4 who appears sometimes in unavoidable moments.

The music was very good, except maybe the boss music who is a little repetitive. The art style sometimes doesn't have resolution consistency, like the doors and the HUDs. It's easy to lost track of mana bar, maybe a sound feedback can help this, like the annoying charge sound effect from Megaman.

After almost two hours trying (thanks to fourth floor) I complete the game! The boss was beated without big efforts, just shooting beams and jumping on second platform.
gustavo.christino
23. Dec 2017 · 14:19 UTC
Very good and hard game. Nice music, SFX, graphics and level design (hard one). Congratulations!
Caroline Costa
23. Dec 2017 · 14:20 UTC
Excellent.
Jordgubben
23. Dec 2017 · 17:19 UTC
Keyboard Controls, mildly put, a bit uncomfortable. Dashing with left shift, jumoing with space and shooting with enter means the left hand must move back and forth over the keyboard. I'd prefer it if I could just move with arrows and use ZXC for actions.

Interesting idea though. GG.