DEMON LOOP by dinosire

[raw]
made by dinosire for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)

Thumbnail.png Demons are running amok! Create magical barriers with your wands to send them away! Make sure you take out the summoning marks on the ground too or the demons will keep coming!

Tutorial2.png

Collect power ups to increase your wand range and the number of wands you can place. Tutorial4.png

Controls
Left Click -> Place Wand
Right Click -> Remove All Wands (Destroys Demons Caught In Field)
Space -> Dash & Invulnerable
Escape -> Pause

Ratings

Overall 257th 3.5⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 254th 3.396⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 87th 3.854⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 200th 3.833⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 221th 2.854⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 26🗳️ 25🗨️

Feedback

Yeomsley
04. Oct 2020 · 23:58 UTC
The wizard model was very cute. Well done on the graphics, and the gameplay was fun too! I enjoyed making a mega loop at the end with all the power ups to catch the last stray demon :)
jessifin
05. Oct 2020 · 00:54 UTC
Creative use of the theme. Thumbs up!
Engired
05. Oct 2020 · 01:03 UTC
This was very fun to play! Great job, I think this is probably the best I've played so far.
Ale
05. Oct 2020 · 01:43 UTC
Lol I think the powerups may be a bit too overpowered. After picking up a few, I had enough range and wands to encase the entire map in a loop and win instantly. It was really fun though, and a nice concept. Good job!
🎤 dinosire
05. Oct 2020 · 01:49 UTC
Thanks @yeomsley @jessifin @engired @ale for the nice comments! I agree @ale, if I had more time I would have reduced the drop rate of pickups, thanks for the feedback!
nethead
05. Oct 2020 · 01:50 UTC
I really like this mechanic! I think most of us immediately jumped to putting the player in a loop, so it's cool that you went the opposite direction and made us stick the enemies in a loop. great work :D
🎤 dinosire
05. Oct 2020 · 01:59 UTC
Thanks @nethead I really appreciate that!
TheLonewolf
05. Oct 2020 · 02:46 UTC
Really cool game! I liked making all those loops...
TheLonewolf
05. Oct 2020 · 02:46 UTC
Really cool game! I liked making all those loops...
magnusfurcifer
05. Oct 2020 · 02:51 UTC
I like this mechanic, I ended up making a pretty massive loop after getting a few pickups haha
danman9914
05. Oct 2020 · 03:15 UTC
Nice! Getting enough wands to do the mega-loop around the map was fun.
rhoff95
05. Oct 2020 · 05:14 UTC
Really cool game! 10/10 beard category. It was a little unintuitive to use the mouse to place wands, but have them show up at the wizards feet. I would prefer mouse and range of placement near wizard, or just use keyboard for everything.
🎤 dinosire
05. Oct 2020 · 05:38 UTC
That's super fair criticism @rhoff95, the controls changed a lot during development and I guess I got used to the somewhat weird controls. I think you can use left CTRL/ALT to simulate the clicks as well, but that's not super comfortable. I like the idea of placing the wands near the wizard, I'll keep that in mind if I expand on this in the future.

Thanks @thelonewolf @magnusfurcifer @danman9914 I'm glad you had fun with it!
NamidaSai
05. Oct 2020 · 12:02 UTC
I really loved the art style on this one! Nice spin on the theme and good job on the gameplay. Power ups were bit too OP and I found the dash a bit fiddly, but overall good job for a comp entry, particularly as the game loop is complete and satisfying!
Frogman
05. Oct 2020 · 12:30 UTC
Good game! It was fun trapping the demons & spawn points inside the loops, and the graphics were rather nice too. The dash invulnerability was a bit weird - I thought I'd move through the enemies, but pushed them instead - but other than that, it was very nice!
dracominer
05. Oct 2020 · 13:05 UTC
I really liked this game. It was a really neat take on the theme and was pretty fun too. I'm very bad at it so I have yet to actually "win". Hoping I'm not missing much. The wand loop mechanic seems pretty solid, but I had difficulty avoiding the demons. They moved so erratically and there were so many of them that it was hard to tell which was going where. If you wanted to make it easier for the players, I would try making the demons move in straight lines, and ricochet off walls with regular angles. At least, that's what I would do I I were making this type of game. Best of luck in the COMPO :smile:
Omar 14
05. Oct 2020 · 17:08 UTC
I found it really satisfying to watch myself killing all these monsters at once
🎤 dinosire
05. Oct 2020 · 21:55 UTC
Thanks for the great feedback @namidasai @frogman @dracominer @omar-14!
@frogman the dash definitely doesn't work like other games, so I can see that being surprising. If I had more time, the goal was to make interesting tradeoffs where you could accidentally push the demons out of the loop if you just spam it all the time, so I would have liked to expand on that a bit more.
@dracominer I agree the demon movements are way too erratic, I wanted to add in patrols for some, and have some of the demons try to attack your wands but I ran out of time before getting that in a usable state. Great feedback nonetheless!
nerdytopic
06. Oct 2020 · 02:28 UTC
Nice job with this! I wish there had been a bit more variety in the floor / wall tiles so it isn't overwhelming. Also, potentially using a color ramp for your color palette can help keep things more uniform. That being said, I found it an innovative use of the "loop" theme- it's rather fun running around trying to "lasso" the demons! I also liked how as you destroy more demons you get more wands to utilize. Good stuff!
🎤 dinosire
06. Oct 2020 · 05:35 UTC
Thanks @nerdytopic for your feedback! I agree, the floor is quite busy and uniform, I'll keep that in mind for next time. I've never really thought of using proper colour theory for jams, I just kind of go by gut feeling, so that's something I'll definitely look into for the next project. I'm glad you liked the idea and had fun playing!
HumphreysMedia
06. Oct 2020 · 17:40 UTC
Awesome take on the them, the art was cute and consistent throughout! The only critique I'd say is that I was there were more levels. Could definitely see this on something like Miniclip!