Crows of Wraeth by Roikku
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)

| Youtube | https://lakedead.itch.io/ld47crows |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/crows-of-wraeth |
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🗨️ |
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!)
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)
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.
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.
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!
Maybe add the possibility to change element with the scroll wheel.
Keep jaming!
On another note, is it actually possible to kill the big guys?