RitualCraft by Squid Blink Games

[raw]
made by Squid Blink Games for LD34 (JAM)
Cepha'la'goth, a horror from outside of time and space haunts the world of Komah, and only another Outsider can hope to defeat it. This is where you come in.

Research forbidden knowledge to bind an Outsider to your will, and complete various Rituals to feed it with power, growing to a size that can contest the reign of the Cepha'la'goth.

Inspect crafted artifacts to discover clues about their purpose, and uncover the history of the two Outsiders currently vying for control over Komah.

Seek out new Reagents and Rituals by venturing forth into the world of Komah; but beware, as Cepha'la'goth may trash your place while you're out!

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TL;DR How-to-Play
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- The more Rituals you craft, the bigger your Outsider, Odd, will grow. The bigger Odd grows, the better it's chance of fighting Cepha'la'goth and winning.

- Rituals marked with a "star" icon are harder to craft but also has the most growth power!

- If you're out of Rituals, "Venture Out" to try and find more Regeants and Rituals. Rituals will also appear if you have at least one of each Regeant needed - but not necessarily the right amount. Keep venturing!

- Be careful, sometimes when you're out venturing Cepha'la'goth will just let himself in and destroy your home. It sucks, but this is why you need to beat it.


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Bug Fixes
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12/15:
- Fixed the pop-up bug where it prevented the pop-up from closing and breaking the game.

Ratings

Coolness 73% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.46 377
Fun(Jam) 3.12 547
Graphics(Jam) 4.15 143
Humor(Jam) 2.89 375
Innovation(Jam) 3.49 263
Mood(Jam) 3.45 325
Theme(Jam) 3.37 762

Feedback

MadmenProductions
15. Dec 2015 路 16:38 UTC
I liked the game, but it was lacking in interactivity as well the hunt for specific parts lead me to just spam. It could really be helped by putting a competent mini game when you search for parts. That and theres this bug where you get the report of what you got from searching but it won't go away and the parts just keep accumulating.
ElliotFiske
15. Dec 2015 路 18:10 UTC
Fun concept! The core loop of gathering materials and finding what I could craft was really satisfying.

Unfortunately, it occasionally gets stuck on the "stuff found" modal popup, and makes me unable to continue :(

It seemed to happen when I was getting stuff from the Forest.
馃帳 Squid Blink Games
16. Dec 2015 路 18:40 UTC
We noticed there was that awful bug where you got stuck and couldn't do much else - sometimes it happens on the first pop-up as well. We've fixed it now!
vetch
16. Dec 2015 路 19:12 UTC
Great game, reminds me good old 'little alchemy'. What annoyed me was searching for ingredients, but you could get use to it.
abuzreq
16. Dec 2015 路 19:43 UTC
Good game ,but it really needed some hints for the rituals , the idea that the ingredients are lost is annoying (although might be more realistic :P ,I guess)
I ended up having a lot of useless ingredients that Cepha'la'goth would keep stealing them
fragileannihilator
16. Dec 2015 路 20:54 UTC
Very Lovecraftian, I liked it :)
alpha_rat
16. Dec 2015 路 21:14 UTC
Nice entry! It lacks a bit of atmosphere, maybe because of the lack of sound, but the graphics look good and the idea is fun to play with. However, I found it difficult to get all the needed reagents for rituals, the ones which are the most needed are not necessarily the easiest to find
ninjascript
17. Dec 2015 路 05:11 UTC
Nicely done! I agree with others that the mechanic for finding materials could have been more interactive, but it's a neat little puzzle game and you've got some great artwork in there.
Aerohand
17. Dec 2015 路 07:00 UTC
the info is too overwhelming at the beginning..
i like the concept of crafting pretty much though!
TheMeorch
17. Dec 2015 路 07:12 UTC
I love the interface, and I really enjoyed the ritual gameplay. I think this could be expanded into a really cool larger game.
Weeping Rupee
17. Dec 2015 路 07:21 UTC
I liked this game. Very nice art and feel.

What really would put this over the edge if you decide to develop it further (especially for the web or a cell phone) would be waiting/unfolding mechanics Ala candy box ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptk93AyICH0 )
Weeping Rupee
17. Dec 2015 路 07:23 UTC
I liked this game. Very nice art and feel.

What really would put this over the edge if you decide to develop it further (especially for the web or a cell phone) would be waiting/unfolding mechanics Ala candy box ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptk93AyICH0 )


Like, if I could only hunt in so many spots (lets say 3) within the time frame of a half hour then finding unique crafting components would feel so much better.

Still nice job!
Solifuge
17. Dec 2015 路 15:27 UTC
Nice art, and fun item-combination puzzles. The Wrecking Ball reference made me grin. The items and rituals really set the tone, and some of the descriptions were pretty entertaining. Odd's "Eyeballs In Hands" design and color scheme gave me some nostalgia for "Ahh! Real Monsters."

This gets me thinking... this kind of Gather Resources Then Craft Items formula could make a pretty cool Idle Game ala Cookie Clicker etc. A string of Eldtritch dudes to defeat could act as a gating mechanism that open up new mechanics or areas, resources could be generated by selecting a place to explore, and you could come back and make them into things to strengthen your Monster when actively playing?

Anyway, thanks for putting this together!
馃帳 Squid Blink Games
17. Dec 2015 路 16:50 UTC
@Solifuge, we're happy that people are picking up on our twists on these rituals :)

I (the artist speaking) was trying to channel Krumm, the Pale Man, and Y'Golonac and mash them together without trying to be too ... creepy, haha.

We do wish we had more time to make gathering regeants/ingredients more exciting but all the comments are giving us some great ideas (in addition to the ones we were already throwing around) for an expanded game!
bradur
17. Dec 2015 路 18:26 UTC
Terrific game with awesome graphics :). Could have used some music and sounds! I loved the descriptions on the items.
psychomonster
17. Dec 2015 路 19:24 UTC
Very nice idea. Love the style of the game... feels like the LoveCraft-Storries... but you need some ambient soundor music to improve the mood of the game :D
Stephen Patrick
18. Dec 2015 路 04:56 UTC
I sort of wish I could look at my list of recipes and make something new without having to hit venture out five times in hope of finding the right materials.
JLET
18. Dec 2015 路 17:06 UTC
Didn't work on my firefox "An error occured running the Unity content on this page. See your browser's JavaScript console for more info. The error was:
SyntaxError: illegal character" :(.
loxo
18. Dec 2015 路 19:48 UTC
Nice start! I like the concept and the graphics very much, but I missed the audio.
Tuism
18. Dec 2015 路 20:55 UTC
Okay, the game isn't really my cup of tea, reminds me of those Facebook wait-for-energy-to-progress games, but of course without the energy thing. Working out cryptic clues against ingredients didn't seem interesting to me...

Though the presentation and graphics are really awesome. Lots of details for a jam game. Well done.
Wevel
19. Dec 2015 路 20:13 UTC
Interesting idea, seems quite complicated and repetitive
Zaeche
19. Dec 2015 路 22:43 UTC
I thought the presentation was spot on (really liked the UI). Sound would've been nice though (detracts from the mood somewhat). Very nice overall!
sP0CkEr2
21. Dec 2015 路 03:39 UTC
interesting idea but it just did not hold me - i have added to my play again list because i think it has more potential - nice job
marveus
21. Dec 2015 路 04:17 UTC
I really liked the idea and the visuals, but found the game play quite frustrating. I was constantly one or two ingredients short and then I would venture out and either not get what I needed or Cepha'la'goth would take one of the other ingredients for that ritual. So I just found myself venturing out repeatedly and not getting to do much else.

I think it might help to have a smoother on-boarding process where you slowly add new rituals and have a smaller number to focus on and then you can get the specific ingredients you need for those rituals. Maybe a series of different levels that scale in difficulty and complexity over time.
andrewkennedy
21. Dec 2015 路 21:12 UTC
Sweet game! Felt like an Alchemy clone, but with a goal and needing to find each ingredient to craft. The ONLY thing I really wanted while playing was an auto-complete feature for known recipes.
LeReveur
22. Dec 2015 路 01:25 UTC
Some hint are a little cryptic for non-english players, but even if I didn't manage (yet) to finish, it's a fun alchemy game, and I really like the Lovecraftian atmosphere. Good job !