Once again, another beautifully crafted entry! I love the addition of spellcasting and mana collecting, that really boosts the magical mood. I'm glad to see that it's not one of those games where there's one overused power and a bunch of useless powers that do basically nothing, you really struck the perfect balance between all of the powers. It just wouldn't be Ludum Dare without getting to play one of these games, it's always a highlight of the Play + Rate for me!

@peace-of-cake-games thanks! I told @genie about your comment; it's always good to see encouraging words like these.

a beautiful try!

Pretty rough around the edges but I enjoyed the idea, and some of the puzzles. I was also oddly comforted by the abundance of stars, never worrying that I'd run out of mana. And funnily enough the evil witch did let me keep my bro when she caught me after I picked him up :)

Congratulations on completion! Nice try!

But I feel that this game still has a lot to improve. I often feel that I don't know what to do. Things like stars that can be picked up are hard to be noticed, so I almost quit the game even before I got the first spell. After unlocking the spell, I don't know where it can be used. Maybe you should add some special markers for interactable objects (such as arrows, FX, or UI prompts, etc.)
Interactions also need to be improve. Many technical issues need to be resolved, animations are strange when moving, and conversations can easily be accidentally clicked. I don’t know if it’s the engine problem or something else
In addition, there is a large amount of text in the game. For many players, having them read large sections of text at once is actually not a good experience. You should try to break up the narrative information and present it to the player slowly during play.

Hey, nice entry! I liked the narrative of the game, but I think the exposition at the start could be cut down or paced throughout the game like how CloudLunar said. The hand-drawn graphics were very nice and there was a nice mood to the game. I really wish the game was a bit more technically smooth though, where walking felt a bit more natural rather than it feeling like a slideshow. Other than that, I did enjoy the experience. Good job! :smile:

Out of all the games I've played I've never seen one quite like this, nice job with the HTML/Javascript!

The story was nice, would have probably complemented the game if you spread it out but I didn't mind reading it all at once, I like reading though so maybe that doesn't mean much :P

I couldn't figure out how to progress after learning the 4 spells, so I took a quick break, got back and solved it first try. (For those stumped: Pay attention to the 'special' spells)

This was a nice little game. It feels like a simpler version of an adventure game. Really well done. The story even is pretty well presented for a jam game. Some parts of the game almost feel like I'm reading through a children's story-book, which I think was intended.

The graphics in this game are so nice :D great job

This game looks very atmospheric even despite it's simplicity in looks. I liked the music piece right after you find yourself a companion. Also, it continues the story and setting of the previous game. As far as I can say, even the technical realization uses the same principles. But now everything is on much, much bigger scale. And, as was mentioned above, the story is really nice and helps you to dive deep into the overall atmosphere.

My main issue with it is that I can't progress much, it feels stupid, but the only thing I can handle is to get to the part where you learn the spells, and then get stuck in the cave (when I thought that I need either to Levitate or Teleport). Also, it makes me wonder why do we have Inventory at this point, because I can't catch this DAMN ANT that runs away anytime.

Nice work.

@lesinvisible the ants and random critters and various objects that can be found are there to discourage players from pressing the space bar at every location. With my previous games it was easy to win this way. My wife who is not very good at puzzle games would do this every time. Plus, the random critters and objects add a bit of spice to the game.

The inventory system is a vestige of the framework I made; it’s not needed in this game, but I didn’t have time to remove it.

As for the spells, two of them require special locations — Lua's dream message is indispensable if you want to know how to use them.

@queenofsquiggles that’s exactly right, I was aiming to reproduce the feel of a children’s story book. In that respect Lua’s dream-story is an integral part of the game. Thanks for playing.

Pretty detailed game you've got. However, Lua's dream story is a bit too long. Movement looks kinda goofy, as if you're typing the characters' path through the area; animation also doesn't seem to take into account *which* key is being pressed, though that's just nitpicking on my part. Also, music seems rather scarce; and when there IS music, it doesn't last very long.

It's satisfying to cast the right spell in the right location. Collecting stars and acquiring more mana than I'll EVER need is also very intoxicating. Though the spell input is a little strange; I'd rather have Q or E to open the spell menu, rather than S.

Also I can't get over how the main character looks like the Wendy's mascot.

So yeah, great job on this game!

@ronanrory @cloudlunar it's an unstated rule that a game shouldn't have too many words — but this is a rule that I like to break. If I had the time, I would have made the story longer. @queenofsquiggles explains it well enough.

There are some troubles with animation of characters. The movements of the characters are sharp. The second character (girl with blonde hair) goes right through the house if both girls pass by. It is strange. There is not enough tutorial in the game. Not understanble where player should go and what to do.

@violetta, strange is what I aim for.

@gamebuilder, Wow, I really didn't understand that the ANTS thing was just to punish me for spamming "Space" everywhere. I was tought this by your previous game... Anyway, I was really stupid not to notice the hint about casting "Teleport" in front of the mirror. After that it was a smooth sailing, even too smooth. As I said I really liked the overall feel and atmosphere, it's a shame the the game is so short. I would really like to see it in the format of the full feature.

Cool adventure game! I liked the applications of each spell. The hand-drawn artwork was charming as well. I liked when it 'clicked' for me to use invisibility. Thanks for making it!

Pretty awesome artwork! I dig the writing too! I didn't run into any ants in my playthrough, but maybe that's because I wasn't spamming space everywhere. Good work!

@lesinvisible yes, Lua provides the key. Always pay attention to a beautiful woman who appears in a dream — something I've learned over the years.

Congratz! I saw your efforts!

This is a really nice little adventure game. All the puzzle elements fit together pretty well--after getting the spell, I naturally looked around for stars, then tried casting a few spells before I remembered where I needed to go to teleport. Then the rest followed pretty obviously. Lots of little puzzles with pretty obvious solutions--to me, it basically just felt like a series of "aha!" moments.

One detail I think is rather interesting is the way the player moves. It seems to be essentially based on the operating system's built-in automatic key repeating feature, which is interesting because the only other broad category of games with the same kind of input, that I know of, is games made in the Scratch programming language by people new to programming. It's a very unique tic to those kinds of games, and seeing it here I can't help but be reminded of it. I'm not sure if that's what you were going for, but it's definitely the vibe I get, and I imagine anybody else who used Scratch will get a similar vibe.

@honey-pony I can always count on you for insightful feedback, thank you. And I’m always pleased to hear that people have found “aha” moments in my games. I tried to make things fit together in this game, and I’m happy to see it worked.

As for the step-wise movement it is all because of JavaScript’s 'onkeydown' function:

```
document.onkeydown = function(e)
next(e);
```

With this function a continuous key press automatically translates into repeated presses — it’s built into JS, apparently (though the OS may also have something to do with it, as you suggested). In general I’ve always been intrigued by stop-motion as seen for example near the end of *Mulholland Drive*, and in the earliest films from days of yore. The roots go way back to Parmenides’ poem.

A short and poetic adventure game, wich match your previous entries mood an shape. I liked playing it until the end, as always. Good job!

The game look interesting. Like art, like also intro and the story. But there are no enough hints for me (I stuck at the first place in a cave) with spells, which I can't use in this place. Maybe it will be good to add some hints to casual users like me :)

@zeilanda thank you for the feedback. There are two hints (or more like answers) in Lua's dream message. Lua is a beautiful, pale-skinned woman who will appear in your dream once you go to bed in the house in the cave. Toward the end she'll tell you how to use the spells.