Mushroom Conundrum by auxC

[raw]
made by auxC for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

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In Mushroom Conundrum you play as a summoner locked in a cage. You can’t move, but you can summon things that can!

Wrangle your summoned mushrooms around the realm to deal with the vile creatures that locked you up. Your mushrooms have a bit of a mind of their own, so keep track of them!

How to play: 1. Left click mushrooms to select or deselect them. 2. Left click to command selected mushrooms to move or interact with the world. 3. Left click on slots in the summoning circle to command a mushroom to place their item there. 4. Right click and drag to look around. 5. Scroll to zoom.

Tips:

  • If a mushroom is holding something, you need to click the drop button before it can pick up another item.
  • Obelisks around the map show you summoning recipes for what items you should put in the summoning circle.
  • Click on characters to talk to them.

Circle.png

RunAway.png

Ratings

Overall 30th 4.3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 17th 4.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 276th 3.725⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Theme 135th 4.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 138th 4.375⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 152th 3.95⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 55th 4.2⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 68th 4.25⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

Gmiss
16. Apr 2024 · 06:00 UTC
Wow this game feels really complited you can feel the proggression and scale. Also love graphics and music.
LDJam user 382819
16. Apr 2024 · 06:33 UTC
Seriously though, do you have any extra GIFs for chatting? I'd even be willing to shell out a few bucks...
Gulcar
16. Apr 2024 · 06:53 UTC
Great game! Felt like you have done so much in 3 days. Loved how the mushrooms face turned angry when he got the sword. The only anoying thing was that when a mushroom didn't have anything to do it would just put items into the summoning circle and than i would have to remove it first and than place my item.
WestEastStudio
16. Apr 2024 · 06:56 UTC
One of the coolest game I played on this jam! Amazing puzzle with cute graphics and interesting summoning mechanic.
LDJam user 389319
16. Apr 2024 · 07:24 UTC
I really love the artstyle, its absolutely breathtaking!"
zippry
16. Apr 2024 · 22:24 UTC
I love what you did the the theme! Having the summoner trapped it the cage works well. The art and animations are super nice and impressive with the time limit.
Shyoko Ghost
17. Apr 2024 · 01:12 UTC
The mushroom character is very cute and the animation is well made. I like collecting and synthesizing them
Emaigualmc2_art
17. Apr 2024 · 02:22 UTC
Excellent work! The art and characters are great, I really liked that freehand style. It was a little difficult for me to use the mushrooms at the same time, when I left one free the other took up the empty places in the summoning circle jaja!. But in general it seemed like a great job in such a short time, it has implemented a lot of content, the rest is more polished xD
wigglypainter
17. Apr 2024 · 03:16 UTC
Really great game! love the art and game itself also really interesting and complete.
ahistyap
17. Apr 2024 · 05:48 UTC
Adorable short game. I really love the art!
One thing I probably would like to change is the behavior of the shrooms. A little tone down. Had to constantly dropping the items they pick up on their own is kind of tedious

![mushroom conundrum.PNG](///raw/e87/9/z/63fdf.png)
pickens-inc
17. Apr 2024 · 17:45 UTC
As usual, Cameron's games are adorable and excellent! What a hilarious and impressively polished little puzzle! I love the art style, and the little animations are great. It's the sort of game that doesn't even need a tutorial since it's so intuitive. I especially liked the way the music changed when entering the mines.

I loved the stupid little mushrooms wandering around doing their own thing, the only thing I'd have wished is for is that they didn't put things in the summoning circle when I'm trying to make something, I fought with them a fair bit around the halfway point, until I individually moved all the nearby logs away.

Overall though, absolutely lovely, well done guys. And it even had a nice little ending shot too.
🎤 auxC
17. Apr 2024 · 20:35 UTC
@pickens-inc Thank you for the kind words! This time it was a combined effort from Cameron, Greg, Veka, Tommy, Kris and Sarin. :D
M.Kusy
18. Apr 2024 · 10:56 UTC
Absolutely adorable. Just the right ammount of things to do before it could get boring.
I also think that while slightly frustrating, the caft mushmen put random stuff on the circle only adds to their characterization as goofly lil guys.
Hélicule
19. Apr 2024 · 18:00 UTC
I usually don't spend so much time on a jam game, but this one is just SO GREAT
I love the little details like the evil face the mushroom make as soon as it gets the sword, the level of polish is stunning, congrats guys!
YoYoJ
20. Apr 2024 · 09:10 UTC
Loved it !!! Never finished until now a game in the jam ! Really nice, neat and fun !!!
SStyles93
20. Apr 2024 · 09:19 UTC
Really cute, I love those little mushrooms =)
Capreola
20. Apr 2024 · 16:43 UTC
Adorable!! I enjoyed it so much! So many cute details, loved the fact that our silly little mushroom sons were trying to be helpful and do their own thing (even though they were a bit of nuisance). Artstyle, sound and voice acting were superb too. Great entry, well done!
Frango
20. Apr 2024 · 19:13 UTC
I really enjoyed this crafting game, it's very cute and its mechanics are simple and effective.
Adorable artstyle and sounds, loved it.
Unfortunately, I was enjoying the game until the character bugged in a cherry bush and it doesn't permit me to continue and finish the game, I couldn't move or interact with anything :(
Btw well executed and good theme interpretation :D
LDJam user 184264
21. Apr 2024 · 03:52 UTC
I like the game, though it feels more like a crafting system than a summoning system. Controlling the mushrooms felt a little bit jank due to them always picking up stuff when I just need them to wait, but otherwise worked pretty well. The only bugs I encountered were that a mushroom managed to put a piece of wheat in the river making it inaccessible, when it was only supposed to be set down near the river, and there were a couple issues with sprite layering hiding selection arrows be hind a few things, any anything hiding under the dragon. Overall a surprisingly polished game with excellent level design!
Kyrio
22. Apr 2024 · 22:50 UTC
Well this was very nice! Appropriately scoped for a jam. It's a very relaxing game and the lovely music and absence of a timer help a lot with that. You just have to find the solution in your own time, and I think that's nice :laughing:

The art is cute and effective, and while the gameplay loop is nothing new, it works well and there's something rewarding in obtaining the next item. I also liked the wargame-like presentation with a fog of war, it makes a nice contrast with the art style! There's a proper ending, too - although I wasn't sure the sword did anything, I had to click right in the middle of the dragon for things to happen.

My suggestions would be mostly quality-of-life; it would be useful to have buttons to empty all the summoning slots at once rather than have mushrooms pick items up one by one, and I think making the mushrooms replace their current item with the one you click would be more satisfying than having to manually put down an item. Especially since they tend to pick them right back up! I think it's interesting that you added an AI to the mushrooms, I can see how you might have had bigger ambitions - perhaps with the mushrooms doing most tasks on their own with manual input only needed for specific things. The way they forage berries or cut trees on their own is very reminiscent of Age of Empires. But since the game is actually a puzzle game, those automatic behaviors can get in the way.

Congrats on finishing!