SYNTH WIZARD by Votron

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

SYNTH WIZARD was made in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare 47 Jam, October 2-5, 2020.

"Synth Wizard" is a Musical Tower Defense game where the dungeon is stuck in a musical loop. Survive three rounds to win!

How to play.png

STORY:

The SYNTH WIZARD and his faithful companion the METRO-GNOME embark on a DANGEROUS QUEST! They must clear the dungeons to find the fabled ANCIENT SYNTH! By harnessing the POWER of MUSIC they will SET TRAPS and STOP the MONSTERS! Every instrument has a SECRET!

MADE BY:

John-Michael Veach: Concept, Programming, Music and Sound

Dakota Cummins: Concept, Art

Synth Wizard Gameplay.gif

Ratings

Overall 87th 4.152⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 49th 4.174⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 56th 4.196⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 277th 4.065⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 372th 4.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 2th 4.696⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 326th 3.45⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 172th 4.022⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 10🗨️

Feedback

Arscene
05. Oct 2020 · 20:22 UTC
I really enjoyed this game!

It took me a moment to understand, but it feels very polished. Nice entry !
Peche et Tradition 1867
05. Oct 2020 · 20:23 UTC
So coool and the music is really good, as you play you create your own track, 5/5
ramelio
05. Oct 2020 · 20:23 UTC
The graphic style of the game and the work putted on the presentation really stand out ! Good job !
Athryell
05. Oct 2020 · 20:30 UTC
I think this is the game that I've played the longest until now! Really nice how you build the song as the game goes on. When I tought it was fun to play I finished the level and unlocked the chorus, even better! I understood after a while that I could stack up the instruments. :)
Tastyghost
05. Oct 2020 · 23:39 UTC
Very catching, fun and entertaining. Also the theme is visible, bravo! The only issue is that the moves are not telegraphed to player, it seems like they are random. Otherwise it´s fun.
Cookie_CHR
12. Oct 2020 · 21:30 UTC
Really cool game! Maybe a bit easy, but really fun!
🎤 Votron
12. Oct 2020 · 21:46 UTC
@Cookie-CHR Thanks! There is a duplication bug in the HTML version when you stack instruments which makes it way too easy, but also we dialed back all the difficulty at the last second. This is our second Jam and the last one we did everyone said the game was too hard, so we erred on the side of caution. Really glad you enjoyed it!
maliyshock
13. Oct 2020 · 00:02 UTC
Really like it. Fabulous! Sometimes items drops to the wrong cell dunno why.
BlackLambert
13. Oct 2020 · 00:46 UTC
Wow, awesome game! From the concept over the music to the implementation. Nearly perfect. Hopefully you get more ratings and therefore more attention.
Chandler Smith
13. Oct 2020 · 10:54 UTC
I dig the theme so much. Love the track and enjoyed orchestrating the monster defense. Maybe adding some sunglasses would make him a true metro gnome.
Verbante
13. Oct 2020 · 11:07 UTC
I like the lore so much! Metro-gnome? Quest for the legendary synth? I'd go on such quest! Music of the ending and last level was een more briliant then the others. I also liked what happens to the music when a level has ended. My only concern is that the snare sound was delayed a bit so I couldn't reall compose with it. I hoped so much that the synth would make some sounds when I cliked on in, well tough luck. Also I don't know if it would end up being good but it would be nice if vertical positions of instruments would determine their pitch so that there is more composition involved
Rikitaner
13. Oct 2020 · 11:15 UTC
Woah I had a lot of fun here! Absolutely love the concept and the music! I really love how the more you progress in a level the more intense music becomes because you put up more stuff! Great work!
aplite
13. Oct 2020 · 11:28 UTC
This was a great game. One of the most enjoyable I have played this competition. Discovering I could stack items was a major game changer. I will say the last level music was very somber and did not match the mood of the rest of the game. Not sure if that was on purpose or not, but overall this was highly enjoyable.
victorcrafty
13. Oct 2020 · 14:22 UTC
Cool game. I love the sounds. The idea is nice but i didnt realy understand how to play. Anyway the game was amazing. Good job!
Argon
14. Oct 2020 · 08:15 UTC
One of the best games of this jam I played so far, feels realy polish and very original ! Maybe an indication of the effet of an instrument when you over it would have helped because some effects, like the tamborine one, are a bit tricky to discover.
Skyeward
14. Oct 2020 · 08:53 UTC
I love the audio design in this game! So much so, we were more concerned with making great music than beating the enemies. Fortunately for us, our sick beats seemed to double as fairly effective defenses and we made it through the stages.

It's really cool that each instrument has some sort of secret ability to it, we had fun exploring and trying to work out what was going on with each of them, as well as discovering the behaviour of the different kinds of enemies.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/769405219?t=00h08m45s
netmute
14. Oct 2020 · 15:51 UTC
LOVED the music, but had zero idea what I was doing :laughing:
I suck at music games I think :sweat_smile:
🎤 Votron
14. Oct 2020 · 19:47 UTC
@skyeward Thanks for playing and linking the stream! It was really great to see someone play it and the feed back was truly helpful. Thanks so much!
archgame
18. Oct 2020 · 20:22 UTC
The hint to stack the items was super helpful! After that I was able to fly through the levels (once I understood the nuances of each instrument and how to use them). The game itself feels super polished, seems like a cool battle mechanics prototype for a sci-fi/high fantasy rpg <3
beats
28. Oct 2020 · 10:14 UTC
I love the aesthetic and the backing tracks, cool to know that the OP-1 exists in this fantasyland too.