The Bards Tale by CursedSoldier | LudumData

The Bards Tale by CursedSoldier

made by CursedSoldier for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

Welcome to The Bards Tale, a story of a mighty prince, Matis, seeking to marry a princess and unite two major powers under a commonwealth: The Rudawa and Arcadia Kingdoms! Everything is fine until a sorceress puts him in a time loop the day before his wedding, hoping he will perish, breaking the bond. Can you help Matis escape his fate and restore order to the medieval kingdoms of Rudawa and Arcadia?

In this game you have a time limit to complete the story or the day is reset. You will get reset a couple of times which is absolutely normal as the game relies on you remembering how to perform tasks, in order to complete it faster. That is how I implemented the theme of "stuck in a loop".

Please be sure to rate my game for this compo!

Good luck!

Itch.io link : https://cursedsoldier.itch.io/the-bards-tale

BUG LOG

Please report any bugs you encounter in the comments here or on the itch.io page.

Full bug report will be on itch.io.

VERSIONS

Download available through Itch.io link!

TOOLS USED

Unity
Asprite
Bosca Ceoil

SCREENSHOTS

Screenshot (12).png

Screenshot (13).png

Screenshot (9).png

Youtube	https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kDq9q9Wj99UerpY1iQKxGva4LbGDgwFs/view?usp=sharing
Youtube	https://cursedsoldier.itch.io/the-bards-tale
Original URL	https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/the-bards-tale

Ratings

Overall	472^th	3.103⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Fun	550^th	2.628⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Innovation	536^th	2.705⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Theme	363^th	3.462⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Graphics	349^th	3.295⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Audio	269^th	3.211⭐	40🧑‍⚖️
Humor	210^th	2.885⭐	41🧑‍⚖️
Mood	352^th	3.066⭐	40🧑‍⚖️
Given		25🗳️	52🗨️

Feedback

05. Oct 2020 · 13:38 UTC

so, i like playing as bards in every game i can, and just found this game.

first thing i noticed was the soundtrack was simple but very fitting to the environment, and art-wise, you are onto something.

i explored the "settings" tab and it seems there is an weird empty drop down there?
![2020-10-05_10-29.png](///raw/be9/9/z/36705.png)

also, items laying on the ground seem to respawn once you leave the room.

last thing to mention is that the fading of the dialogue is fancy, but kinda slowish.

anyway good work and keep it up!

🎤 CursedSoldier

05. Oct 2020 · 14:21 UTC

@jegus9 Thanks so much! :smile: I really appreciate that you enjoyed my music and most importantly the art which took a lot of time so I'm glad it paid off!

Now the blank box would usually have resolutions in it but since you played the web build it cannot access monitor resolutions and leaves it blank, not sure how to fix yet. :laughing:

As for the items, I could not replicate them respawning when leaving the room only when the player runs out of time (which I should have stated in the game) and loops back to the start of the day (hence the theme) but I will look into it a bit more to try and come up with a fix but it may just be the buggy web build which I need to take down.

Finally, yes, the dialougue should have come up without typing as it does take a while sometimes. Also the story dialogue takes forever to kick in (like 3 or so seconds) which is also not ideal.

Glad you spent some time checking it out and good luck in the jam! :slight_smile:

05. Oct 2020 · 18:50 UTC

Nice! Would definitely say that if the player is directed to the inn, only having one inn would likely be good as that was confusing. Like the take on the theme, though.

🎤 CursedSoldier

05. Oct 2020 · 21:45 UTC

@colejparker Thanks for giving my game a go! Glad you enjoyed the spin on the theme! :smiley:

I see where you are coming from, I definitely didnt think of this when I made the level. Definitely will update this once the compo voting is done!

06. Oct 2020 · 01:21 UTC

This was a fun little game. The music was pretty good and it was very simple and had a decent story. The artwork was pretty cool too. Theme was well executed too. I'd love to see what this would be like if it was a more fleshed out product. I think you have a great idea here! Keep up the good work!

06. Oct 2020 · 01:43 UTC

Looks great! I think the tiling on some of the background could be toned down a bit as it's a bit high contrast and busy, but I like the color palette and general art direction. Great work!

06. Oct 2020 · 02:41 UTC

Hi @cursedsoldier really good work for 48h :) I agree with @sop-the-turtle, you are in the theme!

06. Oct 2020 · 08:09 UTC

Music is awesome. You are really great composer. Eventhough I am not a big fan rpg games I have spent lots of time playing your game and had fun. Very good entry for a 48h compo game.

🎤 CursedSoldier

06. Oct 2020 · 10:24 UTC

@sop-the-turtle Thank you so much, it means a lot! :smile:

I'm very happy that you enjoyed the game and creative direction I went for. The 48h time limit really was tough as I had to rush the finished product and not expand the quests to be more interesting than just fetching but I definitely want to bring out some updates post jam to fleshen out the game a bit.

Appreciate the kind feedback! :slight_smile:

🎤 CursedSoldier

06. Oct 2020 · 10:26 UTC

@dharby Thank you very much! I spent a good while on the art so I am extremely happy you like it! :smile: I agree some tiles are very high contrast like the bricks for example but I'm hopefully improving over time haha.

🎤 CursedSoldier

06. Oct 2020 · 10:32 UTC

@rgilpt Thank you! :smile: I really appreciate you like my work, I am so happy those 2 very long days were spent well! Honestly, the theme idea came to me randomly and I though it was alright but nothing special so I am over the moon that so many of you like it!

🎤 CursedSoldier

06. Oct 2020 · 10:35 UTC

@tayfun Thank you, you are too kind! :smile: I really appreciate you spent some time on my little project, I never knew others would enjoy it as much as I do so thanks for being part of it! I really cannot express how much this means to me! Enjoy the rest of the jam! :joystick:

06. Oct 2020 · 17:16 UTC

In the story of the game, when explaining the dude's curse, it says "He must **relieve** the past day" Just a heads up, you might want to spellcheck stuff in the future, I know I've made my fair share of typos in LD games in the past. Neat game! I wish there was a timer somewhere to let the player know when the day was going to loop. Great work!

🎤 CursedSoldier

06. Oct 2020 · 17:31 UTC

@blobo :smile: 8h sleep for 2 days had its toll on me, I'm surprised that was the only one. Oh and I just ran out of time to add a timer, everything is set up for it too! I am very happy you liked the game though and thanks for the feedback! :smiley:

07. Oct 2020 · 00:04 UTC

Not a bad game! I was able to beat it with only resetting once, which was good, because I really didn't want to have to do the first set of things a third time ^_^. The inconsistent use of keyboard/mouse bothered me - I pressed E to start talking to someone, and then pressed E again thinking it would advance the dialog, but I guess it started a new dialog and/or reset the current one to the beginning, too me a while to realize I had to use the mouse to advance! A timer would have been nice. I liked the style of the art and the music fit very nicely.

🎤 CursedSoldier

07. Oct 2020 · 00:32 UTC

@Jimbly Thanks, glad you enjoyed! The repetition is intentional as part of the theme but I do see why it would get a bit irritating. :smile: As for the mouse controls, I definitely agree with more keyboard control over the mouse, I will work on that post jam for sure, thanks! The timer idea was in the mix but I just ran out of time to implement it! :sweat_smile: I'm very happy you liked the art and music too, it was something I worked a while on.

07. Oct 2020 · 07:16 UTC

Hi. Great job on the story !
When i reset the day, controls are broken :(. I try to return to menu and launch the game again, but i've got the sound in twice.
Anyway, concept is clear, music fit nice and story is cool. Good job.

🎤 CursedSoldier

07. Oct 2020 · 10:21 UTC

@fax Glady you like it! I am very sorry that the controls broke and the music duplicated. I will definitely look into it as I have not ran into these problems yet so thank you for letting me know! :smiley: I hope the experience was not all buggy. :sweat_smile:

07. Oct 2020 · 14:43 UTC

There's a fair bit of polish in this game given it's made over a weekend, and I really got into the story, so I think you've accomplished something pretty great with this. Solid entry, good time had.

07. Oct 2020 · 16:10 UTC

Good entry. I like the art style a lot, maybe you could work out input detection as it didn't work properly at some interactions

🎤 CursedSoldier

07. Oct 2020 · 16:26 UTC

@judgezedd Thank you so much, I am so happy the story was enticing and you enjoyed the experience! :smiley: A lot of work went into this so I am over the moon that you liked what I made. The polish still needs polishing though, especially UI! :smile:

🎤 CursedSoldier

07. Oct 2020 · 16:28 UTC

@leora Thank you! Glad you like the art, it took a long time! :sweat_smile: I am sorry the inputs bugged out, I will definitely fix that post jam so thanks for pointing it out. :slight_smile:

07. Oct 2020 · 18:24 UTC

This is an ambitious scope for a weekend jam, and I think that's the game's biggest weakness. For all of the time that must have gone into making the art and setting up the story, the gameplay isn't much more than a series of fetch quests.

🎤 CursedSoldier

07. Oct 2020 · 19:29 UTC

@john-gabriel yeah the art and story took a while though for the 2 days I didn't really know what else to implement apart from some fetch quests. :sweat_smile: Definitely would be better to to have other quests though I agree, maybe some puzzles?

07. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC

I loved the art and music. I didn't love the way the dialog text scrolled out of the center of the box, though. That caused the letters to slide around as they filled in, making it very hard to read until it finished. For animated dialog fill, it's better to use left-aligned text so that the letters stay in place as they're added.

08. Oct 2020 · 08:41 UTC

I really liked the art style and the music fits the game nicely. Sometimes I had to press the E button multiple times before the dialogue popped up which was a bit weird but overall a really solid entry! great job

08. Oct 2020 · 08:41 UTC

Really fun game! The artstyle and the music are both cute and well-suited for it and the concept is great, even if a bit frustrating at times. As others have said I didn't love the text, I think a classic rpg style would have suited it a little better. Overall great job!

08. Oct 2020 · 08:57 UTC

Ah man I tried to get this one working, but I couldn't get past the story text after going into the building. Just kept freezing on me at that point sorry.

🎤 CursedSoldier

08. Oct 2020 · 10:35 UTC

@pizzasgood Thank you, glad you enjoyed! :smiley: I agree with you about the dialogue its kinda trippy. :smile: I was thinking to even delete the effect because the game is time based. Thanks for checking it out!

🎤 CursedSoldier

08. Oct 2020 · 10:37 UTC

@bredera Thank you very much, I worked hard to make it visually appealing! :smiley: As for the E interactions, they seem to be a bit slow on some runs and I'm not sure why. It was my first time doing dialogue though so I definitely will try and polish my skills. :smile: Happy jamming!

🎤 CursedSoldier

08. Oct 2020 · 11:06 UTC

@lid Thank you very much, it means a lot! :smiley: I really wish I had implemented a day timer to give the player a better experience and some idea of how long they have left. Also, I agree about the dialogue. Will definitely be removing the typing of the letters to give it a better feel.

🎤 CursedSoldier

08. Oct 2020 · 11:11 UTC

@letterafterz I apologise for that. I have not seen that error yet, all I know is that the story text stays around for a short while (10-30s I can't remember) before letting you play the main game. I have just released proper Mac and Linux releases if that would help (I did not realise the others were not suitable). Hope it works if you give it another go! :slight_smile:

09. Oct 2020 · 02:40 UTC

A really cute entry! The sprite work was really fun, as fun as it was to explore around. Great job on the music too, fitting for a bard's tale!

🎤 CursedSoldier

09. Oct 2020 · 10:54 UTC

@kirbloid thank you so much! Glad you liked my entry, definitely worth the grind to get the art and music right. :smile:

Ramble House Games

09. Oct 2020 · 23:03 UTC

Wow that's a lot of pixel art for a Compo game. I like where this game is headed. I enjoyed the interactions.

🎤 CursedSoldier

10. Oct 2020 · 14:37 UTC

@ramble-house-games Thank you so much, I love making pixel art so I kinda went overboard. :smile: Glad you enjoyed though!

11. Oct 2020 · 01:33 UTC

Nice pixelart, nice games please give us rate too thanks for the game ^^

11. Oct 2020 · 01:36 UTC

I liked it! The music was on point, the graphics were perfectly fitting, the theme was there, it was interesting, it was funny...

But it was way too simple, I only had to loop once. By the way, a way to track how far along the loop you are and an animation when looped would have helped a lot. I feel like it was your main mechanic, so it would deserve more polish.

Very reminiscent of [Half-Minute Hero](https://store.steampowered.com/app/214830/Half_Minute_Hero_Super_Mega_Neo_Climax_Ultimate_Boy/), a great game!

11. Oct 2020 · 11:07 UTC

I liked the art and music of the game. As for the story, I think it fits the theme pretty well. For the gameplay, it is pretty basic but I still enjoyed it. Though for certain things like the UI, it was kinda slow, but that you have already mentioned in your game description.

One thing I would like to point out, is that during the end part when we are talking to the sorceress, the game resets again to a earlier stage. But this time the character isn't able to move. So I have to restart the game again. Though on the plus side when restarting the game, it looks like the game data is saved, so I have repeat all tasks only once. Thus, after two restarts, I was finally able to finish the game.

But anyways, I really liked the pixel art, music and story of the game. The gameplay was pretty basic but still I liked the resetting of the days. A chill and relaxing game, I liked it.

A great entry!

🎤 CursedSoldier

11. Oct 2020 · 12:59 UTC

@cargamoni Thank you! Means a lot! I will check out your game too!

🎤 CursedSoldier

11. Oct 2020 · 13:03 UTC

@greytyphoon Thank you very much! :smiley: I am happy it was a good experience. As for polish yep definitely needs a lot more. I was meant to have a timer which tells you how long till a reset but I could not finish implementing it before the deadline. I see what you mean with Half-Minute Hero, I have not heard of it it but looking at the steam page really does bring about similarities. :smile:

🎤 CursedSoldier

11. Oct 2020 · 13:07 UTC

@skyvastern Thanks so much batman! I am so happy you enjoyed it and got to the end! :smiley: I have to thank you for the bug report too as I just realised what it would be. The game resets you but since you were interacting the game has its player controls jammed so you cant walk away from the interaction making it impossible to move. :smile: Gotta fix that after the voting period. Happy jamming!

11. Oct 2020 · 17:30 UTC

The setting and music were really great. I wish there was something else to do, some simple combat or something. The graphics were really charming.

🎤 CursedSoldier

12. Oct 2020 · 09:10 UTC

@sanojian Thank you very much! :smiley: Definitely wanted to add more but it was very tough for the compo but glad you enjoyed the art and music!