Precarious Powers by DrSnowDude

Join the Persevering Purple Protector in their journey to stop the tyrannical Sorcerer of Slime. Along the way be sure to destroy the dark crystals the sorcerer has summoned. They boost the ambient magic in their area and your magic abilities become unstable then explode if your mana orbs reach their capacity! Search the enchanted woods for the 3 legendary spell scrolls while fighting hordes of the sorcerer's minions to finally put a stop to the dark wizard once and for all!
Controls
|Action|Keyboard Mouse|GamePad| |---|---|---| |*Move|W A S D|Left Stick| |Aim|Mouse|Right Stick| |Void Dash|Left Shift|A| |Fireball|Left Click|Right Trigger| |Ice Field|Right Click|Left Trigger| |Pause*|Esc|Start|
Credits
Jake McLeman - Design, Programming
Hayden Yeagley - 3D Art
Matthew Rom - 3D Art
Shane Finnegan - 2D Art
Eli Wulff - Programming
Keenan Wulff - Programming
Chris Meese - SFX, Music
Erick Holloway - Programming!
Katrina Kimzey - Programming, Design
Ratings
| Overall | 767th | 3.512⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 816th | 3.369⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 890th | 3.179⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1025th | 3.232⭐ | 43🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 582th | 3.786⭐ | 44🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 616th | 3.338⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 947th | 2.618⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1035th | 3.145⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 53🗳️ | 63🗨️ |
The level design was nice. Fairly intuitive where to move on, and I like that I had a use for the ice attack to bridge the areas! That also forced you to acquire the new "spell" before moving on, same with the fire and vines.
The firing mechanic was pretty fun, but could have used more juice. Hitting the characters wasn't too satisfying. And you might have done something as simple as reducing their size on every hit, as an indication of their "health". Also, most of the game I was focusing on what I was shooting at or what was near my player--it was hard to keep an eye on the health jar! So without any effect on the player when I got hurt, I only realized I was low by chance.
The punishment for gaining too much power is an interesting concept. I think I would have liked something else to use the "bursts" for ... like the fire could have been an attack. That might have been more interesting imho than "you slow down" or "reset the level", but still fit your original idea? Otherwise, I feel like I'm just firing off spells to avoid the punishment, rather than using that "burst" strategically. Still, I think you had a concept and executed it well!
It did take me a while to figure out the crystal pylons--were they hurting me, or helping me? I eventually realized I could destroy them ... but was that the objective? Or was it the boss? overall objective could have been a little better communicated. The game ended once I killed the boss, but since I couldn't freeze a path to it, I felt like I didn't get a chance to really interact with it. The ending felt a little rushed overall, with just the sudden "you win" text. But hey, it's a jam game! It's gotta be rushed haha.
Overall, this was a really solid play. Kudos to the entire team!! Like I said, I like to give a lot of feedback (good and constructive), so I hope it's helpful. Thanks for the game!
The arts was all really good! I especially enjoyed the terrarium style spell icons and the cel shaded game world. The health potion icon felt a little out of place visually, but was still really cute!
some of my ideas if you guys have plans on working on this more:
-I didn't know what the beams were doing at first (probs my fault because I dont remember reading the page oops!) I think it just having some text pop up when a crystal first latches onto you that says "super charged" or "overloaded!" or something similar could help and makes your character glow blue or something. Then the glow starts becoming red as you become more unstable until it finally damages you and resets back to the blue color. I think having that color change could help communicate it better while also keeping the players eyes more focused on the action instead of the UI since the beams take up a large portion of the screen.
-maybe healing can be its own spell that you start with that charges very slowly and has only a minor drawback if it becomes unstable, such as healing nearby enemies
-I don't know what happens if one of your abilities is already maxed and a beam connects to you, but if it damages you one solution could be that the beam also increases the max capacity so you dont get damaged immediately or just give it a short time buffer so it doesn't damage you within 1 second of connecting. (I don't know how it works because I kept spamming my spells, and I'm @ work so I'll have to test later :D)
-Boss was a lil too easy I killed him before I even got a good look! Having him teleport around and use more elements could make the fight more interesting, even if the projectiles were just different colors to make it seem like hes using different attacks for the jam version haha
Great work you guys!
VOD Link: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1168815129
Outstanding job as always, y'all. :thumbsup: The visuals and audio were both wonderful, and I personally think the design of this game is open enough for plenty of expansion, if y'all are so inclined to do so! :pray:

The levels were well designed, the mechanics felt solid and self explanatory.
Sometimes more visual feedback would have been good, for example when you got hit. Also, the green shots of that one shooter enemy were almost invisible on the grass.
Overall, very nice game!
Solid entry,i've loved to play with <3