Crows of Wraeth by Roikku

[raw]
made by Roikku for Ludum Dare 47 (JAM)

Crows of Wraeth (Ludum Dare 47) by Eero Höök ( Roikku / Lake Dead)

I worked alone and made everything myself during the jam for this submission: - Design, Code, Sound FX, Music, Art.

Nothing premade was used. I see this as a personal win. The "stuck in a loop" theme in this game is: - When you die, you start over, but any paths you've unlocked stay open.

Keyboard:

  • WASD / arrowkeys - Move
  • F/SPACE - Fire
  • 1/2 or Q/E - Change spell element

Gamepad:

  • d-pad - Move
  • R2/A - Fire
  • L1/L2 - Change spell element

-- Made in Game Maker 2.3

You are a Bird-like creature with elemental magic imbued to your staff. - Use different elements to fight monsters. - Collect all purple spheres to open final area. (red doors) - Step on pressureplates to open other doors.

Elements:

  • Earth (Brown) wins Water (Blue)

  • Water (Blue) wins Fire (Orange)

  • Fire (Orange) wins Metal (Silver)

  • Metal (Silver) wins Nature (Green)

  • Nature (Green) wins Earth (Brown)screens_1x4.png

Ratings

Overall 659th 3.598⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Fun 778th 3.365⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 673th 3.451⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1336th 2.99⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 417th 3.971⭐ 54🧑‍⚖️
Audio 785th 3.153⭐ 51🧑‍⚖️
Humor 988th 2.421⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 290th 3.882⭐ 53🧑‍⚖️
Given 49🗳️ 76🗨️

Feedback

Warrrkus
05. Oct 2020 · 21:21 UTC
Awesome game! I really like the dark art style and the overall retro looks of it. Somehow this also gives me some Diablo 1 vibes. One thing that could be improved is that it would be easier to control if you could should in the direction your mouse cursor is pointing at. Other than that good job!
MatchaMaze
05. Oct 2020 · 23:27 UTC
The visauls are great and in overall brings back an old-era rpg feel.
A bit of transparency/dithering would make it easyer to navigate when being behind objects!
I feel that the 5 magic in the current version is a bit overshoot.
Makes it a bit hard to switch and doesn't serve any purpose to have this much. (We need a full version of this game!)
SpawnCampGames
07. Oct 2020 · 10:49 UTC
Very Fun. I love the Grid based movement! And the simple sound fx.. Well done. Oh, and I almost forgot.. The elementals are fun to play.
Dakke
07. Oct 2020 · 11:13 UTC
Nice look and feel in the game. I understand why you have snappy movements like this but I would prefer some kind of transition other than "teleport" :)
josephdevelops
07. Oct 2020 · 11:14 UTC
I love it. I would like to see more story elements. I want inside into the crows and their culture.
Kaganobik
07. Oct 2020 · 15:37 UTC
Moving the map instead of the character mechanic was nice. That was clever and fun! Good work!
Gonzalol
07. Oct 2020 · 15:42 UTC
I love the concept art and how it reminds me to the all classic games. I feel like a 8 years old boy playing on my 486 computer with disk games.
Jetyh
07. Oct 2020 · 15:50 UTC
Really good use of the art style and of the atmosphere. The implementation of the element system is bit complex for my liking and makes it hard to react to enemies that pop up. Apart from, that it was an enjoyable experience.
Darkmax14
07. Oct 2020 · 19:04 UTC
I adore your art style. Plays really well too :D
Vivien Fargette
07. Oct 2020 · 19:26 UTC
Really great concept and I love the art style.

In my opinion, the game could use a smoother transition when moving (the teleporting can be painful, especially when moving fast on a straight line) and a bit more indication about the balls and more enemies. A way to change the direction you are shooting (maybe with Q and E and map the next/previous element to 1 and 2 or Z and C) could help the fights to be more fluid because it is quite frustrating having the enemy in sight but not being able to shoot them because you didn't come from in front of them.

I really enjoyed the art and depth of gameplay with the elements and congrats on doing everything yourself (next step compo? :p)
Thiago Nascimento
07. Oct 2020 · 21:03 UTC
It looks beautiful
pandepic
07. Oct 2020 · 22:13 UTC
I like the art a lot but the gameplay feels a bit clunky, I think being able to turn without moving would make that easier, also the keyboard controls for movement feel unnatural so I ended up clicking the arrows with the mouse instead. Still a very good entry though.
Linetaru
07. Oct 2020 · 22:52 UTC
An interesting game, moving square by square with a cutaway terrain is not bad earlier, but moving through a maze quickly becomes hard on the eyes.

I like the graphics of the scenery especially the forest biome, on the other hand the player and the enemies lack of details compared to the scenery.

The element system is okay maybe improve some icons could be okay some are not very clear. The fact that one cannot turn on oneself is very disturbing to attack enemies.
Aless
08. Oct 2020 · 00:06 UTC
Great retro game, although im not very satisfied with the element system. But overall I liked it, a game with depth is always good!
Empty Set
08. Oct 2020 · 00:08 UTC
I dig the graphical style and especially the abstract monster designs. Especially impressive since you did the programming too. Really nice atmosphere in general.

The element-switching is a cool concept, but it felt a little undercooked here since the only thing you use the elements for is killing monsters. 5 elements also felt a little overwhelming to have right from the start, and not all the icons were clear, so it was difficult to get used to.

The movement was a little jarring at first - I think it seemed weird because stuff is drawn based on where the base of the object is, so tall object like the tallest pillars kinda seem like they're poofing out of existence. There was some flickering, too.

Fighting the enemies was difficult because you can't change directions without moving. I died to them a few times by accidentally charging straight into them.

I think the grid-based movement hurts more than it helps, to be honest.

Overall nice work, especially for a solo dev on your first Ludum Dare.
StellarBearGames
08. Oct 2020 · 00:11 UTC
Bird mages in dark forests is really really cool.

Some feedback: Moving around kind of made my eyes hurt. I think this could be mitigated by having more tiles on the screen. IMO 5 elements is overly complicated when fire-water-earth would work just as well. The tree monster changed colors too fast and I feel like turning on the spot is a must.

The visuals overall set a great mood for exploring. Congrats!
Nimerya
08. Oct 2020 · 00:12 UTC
Nice work, liked the oldschool art, the global atmosphere of the game is really well made. I didn't really understood what i got to dot but liked walking on this grid based system with multiple element ^^
Maybe add the possibility to change element with the scroll wheel.

Keep jaming!
CiaranW
08. Oct 2020 · 00:24 UTC
I like the art style, and liked the element system too! It added a bit of panic to the combat :P. I do think having an extra row (at least) of surrounding tiles would be useful to help the player keep their bearings, and also sometimes enemies got hidden a bit behind the scenery and I echo the aiming and control concerns of other comments - not being able to move without turning made it a little tricky to maneuver, especially with the dimetric map making arrows not align with the screen. I liked the obvious sounds of enemies approaching - it gave a good atmosphere and tension, even though they were simple (Also good use of pitch variation, simple trick to add variety but it works!)

On another note, is it actually possible to kill the big guys?
tomhunt
08. Oct 2020 · 02:53 UTC
Pretty cool concept and a fun little game. The sound was a bit rough, and fighting the larger elemental things could be a little frustrating with the limited view area. I liked the graphics and the overall mood created by the game.
lectvs
08. Oct 2020 · 06:06 UTC
Really like the art on this one, and it was pretty fun throughout. My main criticisms are that the mini-bosses and bosses should have patterns to what elements they select, and there's also a bit of a long trek from spawn to the final boss. A great entry nonetheless!
Bredera
08. Oct 2020 · 15:16 UTC
I really like the art in this game, the game itself is pretty fun, though sometimes difficult to follow what is happening. It also took me a long time to notice I could change spells making the game quite difficult. All in all a good entry!
heyycap
09. Oct 2020 · 22:58 UTC
Nice work, I got pretty far and got the hang of how to handle each color enemy. The most distracting parts for me were that the screen basically reloaded at every step, and that I could only see a few steps in front of me, making it easy to accidentally run into an enemy.
Kamuniaft
10. Oct 2020 · 06:12 UTC
I felt so nostalgic playing this game, like it touches some subconsciousness stuff near "old-school dungeon-crawlers" zone %) Awesome work! Would be cool to have some indication if an enemy been damaged by attack or resisted it.
DracoSense
10. Oct 2020 · 09:22 UTC
Nice art! But I have some problems with player rotation
Fonics
10. Oct 2020 · 20:52 UTC
Great visuals, the controls are a bit difficult to get used to but not bad once you get the hang of it. Very well polished for a jam game and well thought out. Great entry!
Artyom Volkov
11. Oct 2020 · 18:52 UTC
A pretty interesting game with strong vibes of classic games. It looks cohesive and fun to play, sounds are decent and make a good feel of good old times.
bassguitarbill
11. Oct 2020 · 19:00 UTC
Art-wise, the game has very nice graphics, but the flicker when you move is pretty intense. Really cool combat system, though.
SamurGuy
11. Oct 2020 · 19:30 UTC
Its pretty cool although moving from block to block is kind of nauseating.
dans17
12. Oct 2020 · 05:13 UTC
I really liked the art and the gameplay, particularly the boss monsters that change elements. One small suggestion I have is to make the enemies face in the direction they are about to move instead of the direction they have just moved, as the game's movement style makes it hard to predict where the enemies will go next.
Vesk
13. Oct 2020 · 19:10 UTC
Quite a unique game. The graphics were cool, but the movement and combat felt quite clunky and they way that only a very limited amount of tiles are shown at once (they don't even cover the whole screen) was very confusing at the beginning, although when I played a little bit I got used to it.
Honest Dan
15. Oct 2020 · 19:03 UTC
Had a very good mood, really had the feel of the classic older generation of games. As mentioned to you on stream, I would have enjoyed if the movement didn't move the entire screen - it made it harder for me to know which direction I moved. This was exaggerated by the isometric camera. but with that aside, the mechanics were interesting and I really enjoyed the feel and atmosphere of the game. Good job!
Cherry_princess
22. Oct 2020 · 17:52 UTC
The art style is pretty and the mood is nice too :)