BreakAway by LukeWaffel

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

Welcome to BreakAway!

In BreakAway you'll find yourself (a magical wisp) stuck inside of a giant loop made out of the 4 elements we all know and love. Earth, Water, Wind and Fire. It is your destiny to break the loop and be free.

In order to break sections of the loop you'll have to damage them by repeatedly casting the right elemental spell at it according to the elemental hierarchy found below.

In order to cast spells you'll need essence. You can get essence by killing the guardians of the elements altar. Once you think you have enough essence, simply stand near the altar and press 'E' or 'Right Ctrl' to select the element and start casting it.

Note: You do NOT need to use the 'correct' element to kill other elements, you'll only need the 'correct' element to break the loop.

Elemental Hierarchy

  • Wind beats Earth
  • Earth beats Water
  • Water beats fire
  • Fire beats Air

Controls:

  • Movement - WASD / Arrow keys
  • Aiming - Mouse
  • Interacting with altars - E / Right Ctrl

Changelog:

  • Fixed main menu not showing up
  • Fixed incorrect UI scaling
  • Fixed broken Itch.io / WebGL client

Thanks for playing BreakAway! It'd be amazing if you could leave your brutally honest (and constructive) feedback in the comments. I'd love to know what you think about the game!

Ratings

Given 6🗳️ 7🗨️

Feedback

dusho
05. Oct 2020 · 05:30 UTC
really great and fun game.. only if I knew from start I'm too fat to pass through 1 cell gap :)
javicepa
05. Oct 2020 · 11:18 UTC
Quite fun! The enemies were a little tough and hard to aim to, but it was a nice play :)
🎤 LukeWaffel
06. Oct 2020 · 21:11 UTC
@javicepa Thanks! I wish a had a little bit more time to further balance and polish the game. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!
🎤 LukeWaffel
06. Oct 2020 · 21:12 UTC
@dusho Hahaa yeah, you kind of are a fat wisp :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: . Thanks for playing!
melvinng
06. Oct 2020 · 21:59 UTC
A fun little game! Good work!
FabDynamic
06. Oct 2020 · 22:05 UTC
This is like gauntlet or something (thats a compliment coming from me).
* I love the level goals. I love the clever gameplay mechanic. I love the scale and fighting speed.
* It looks like Safari Mac has no sound which is true for about half of HTML5 games I've been playing.
* Feedback (nothing critical):
1. Recommend show some graphical idnication of damage (like little element particles fly off) when the loop is getting hit by its vulnerable element and show an indication of not being damaged otherwise (like a shiny shine).
2. Recommend show on the HUD what weapon beats what somehow (or at least for the one you have equipped)
3. Recommend show which weapon you have equipped on the hud.
4. Recommend show an indication of when you can switch to that weapon like a little blip with a shaded circle radius around the base.

Wow I couldnt stop playing and I beat it. What a blast. I got through all four layers of the loop that I was stuck in. #underrated.
Kirthos
07. Oct 2020 · 07:35 UTC
It took me a while to understand I was able to destroy the border of the map.
Would be cool to have a feedback when you do what the game expect you to do to.
Like a small animation when you deal damage.
Maybe make the "loot" (life/ammo) move faster to you cause there were disappearing very fast.
It would be cool to show somewhere on the game screen what element beat what and element you have equipped.
🎤 LukeWaffel
08. Oct 2020 · 22:29 UTC
@melvinng Thanks a lot!
🎤 LukeWaffel
08. Oct 2020 · 22:30 UTC
@fabdynamic Great job on beating it! And thanks for the constructive feedback ofcourse!

I wish I had some more time to put some more polish into the game. Sadly I was running out of time and even had to patch my game serveral times because of some annoying UI scaling issues.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed it so much!
🎤 LukeWaffel
08. Oct 2020 · 22:31 UTC
@kirthos The game definitely lacks any type of in-game tutorial other than the 'How to' text on the main menu.

Thanks for playing!
manusaiz
08. Oct 2020 · 23:15 UTC
Made it out of the loop! :v:
Some feedback in case you want it:
· Knowing your exact position felt messy: I'd say diferentiate the cloud from the rest of the body with more different colours/contrast.

· Also enemy projectiles some times felt that I had dodged them but I ate them: maybe adjust your collision box to be smaller, and if you want to keep difficulty as is, which is good tbh, make enemy projectiles bigger.

· Some more visual feedback (like 1 red frame) wouldn't hurt. Same for enemies.

· I would try and substitute the tile with a better looking tilable one, as it is only one tile with tint would make the game look much better with very little effort.

· Also I would place an "E" and or a "Rctrl" button indicator in the altars cause it took me forever to udnerstand that those cubes where the altars (Conversely you can add a pic of the altars in the instructions and that will do too).

· This is me just being me but: I would place another wisp or a wisp maker altar at the outside for a narrative ending :P

Great job!
VeniTheRich
08. Oct 2020 · 23:15 UTC
The Good
----
Wow! That game really feels good. You definitely managed to prioritize the most important parts to achieve the best possible result in the game jam time window. I really don't think I can cover all the things I liked about this game because there are many. First of all, it has a nice and well conveyed concept with clear guidelines as to what to do and how to do it. Easy to pickup. I liked that the enemies have a different attack, it gives them some kind of personality (damn fire nation). The enemy AI also feels good and natural, the kind you would expect from a guardian. The animation on the player is really nice. Sound effects are on point. The colors and textures are also good and the fit the scene and feel of the game. Movement and game speed also feel nice.

The Bad
----
Not much honestly. Even though the pillars have guardians you just have to kill a few then run to the pillar and take the element then break 2 pieces in the wall, and then not bother any more with that element. I would also like to see more interaction with the elements (e.g. in fighting).

Other
----
The vast area between the pillars could be filled with some non-monochromatic texture (like a grass field, pavement bricks or really anything) to give you a sense of movement and not feel static until you encounter and enemy or a wall.

Congrats on the game! It is really good and I would like to see how it could evolve. Keep up the good work!
joonamo
09. Oct 2020 · 18:19 UTC
I really tried, but I couldn't understand how to kill any enemies. My default shot didn't damage anyone, I couldn't find a way to fill my other shots and even lost ability to shoot after pressing E next to an altar... :pensive: