The Witch Exam by puppetmaster

[raw]
made by puppetmaster for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

Once a year, the young witches will give to appear at the exam.

This year the head witches have thought up something special.

The young witches must bring an unstable potion with the right ingredients into a stable state.

icon_v2.png

For the controls you only need a mouse or a touchscreen.

The game was created in three days completely by sammakko and me.

I was mainly responsible for the graphics and sammako for the coding.

screenshot2.png screenshot3.png QR<em>Code</em>v2.png

update:

level corrected which had multiple solutions but were not recognized as valid (thx you for reporting)

Ratings

Overall 930th 3.391⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 857th 3.328⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 898th 3.172⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 981th 3.281⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 693th 3.672⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Audio 349th 3.688⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Humor 729th 2.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Mood 969th 3.21⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Given 86🗳️ 39🗨️

Feedback

SecretPocketCat
04. Oct 2021 · 21:18 UTC
Itch is giving me a 404. Maybe it's just a draft?
🎤 puppetmaster
04. Oct 2021 · 21:56 UTC
thx, the itch.io page is now published
Miss_iiV
04. Oct 2021 · 23:09 UTC
Cute little game. Great job!
🎤 puppetmaster
05. Oct 2021 · 23:18 UTC
thank you, your game has also become very good
DevParty
05. Oct 2021 · 23:24 UTC
I like the game! Its a nice casual game. Could make a good full release on mobile. 8/10 nice game.
Carraka
05. Oct 2021 · 23:44 UTC
The graphics really went above and beyond. You know when there's an animated menu that someone has put their time into the game...and the way the camera shifted from level to level is something that I wish we had implemented for our game (but didn't think about from until way too late).

The game itself was fun, until the later levels, when I got annoyed at the puzzle design. There were missing letters and you had to fill in the right letter, but there were multiple solutions. For example, IEF and the correct option was L for LIFE, but R was an option as well, which can spell RIFE or FIRE. Or DESE came up, and the answer was SPEED, but T was also available, and STEED is a word as well. Or LITH and I'm not sure what the intended answer was here. Maybe LITHE? But I put in F for FILTH. So either design levels where there really is only word possible (definitely use one of those anagram websites to verify that there is only one possible solution), or add some sort of hint text as to what kind of potion we're looking for. Anyway, that's how I ended up with a score of 9 out of 16, failing the exam. Haha, I feel like one of those students who's trying to insist the problem is not with the student, but with the test.

In other news, I loved the irony of flinging an empty flask into a potion. And I still don't know what the O object actually was, other than that it started with O. Orb?
José Bonilla
06. Oct 2021 · 00:02 UTC
Hi, congrats on your game! I think it's a fun little game, especially for younger audiences. I do think it's not as fun as it could be and a bit simple, but overall good job!
🎤 puppetmaster
06. Oct 2021 · 00:03 UTC
@Carraka
Thanks for your detailed comment. We have unfortunately used the anagram finder only in a few levels.
Solutions that are not recognized as correct is stupid and would have been recognized in a detailed test certainly.
Thanks for your message It will be corrected in the next version and definitely also the Orb object.
Armias
06. Oct 2021 · 00:07 UTC
great graphics! the way the level changes to the next one was really smooth. this was a clever take on word puzzle games, but for me the later levels got a little bit confusing. still, a very fun idea and theme!
fabula_rasa
06. Oct 2021 · 00:19 UTC
Yeah, I am now a real witch! Incidentally, we also made a game about stabilizing an unstable witch potion - great mind think alike :grin:.

It's a neat idea, and it's well executed. The graphics are pleasant and clear - which is very good here, as you need to know at a glance what you are putting into a potion.

If I have one complaint, it's that every stage has only one set solution, even though there are sometimes other viable words you could create. For, example: creating "steed" doesn't work, only "speed" does. Same with "filth" on another level - it doesn't work, even though there is no reason why it shouldn't. So the player does everything fine within the game rules, but fails anyway.

Overall, I enjoyed playing the game - good work!
amkingTRP
07. Oct 2021 · 10:54 UTC
This was really good; something that my daughter would probably like to play on the iPad so could easily be extended into an "edutainment" style game.
There was a bug for me where I accidentally clicked menu after completing a level and then clicked continue; it dumped me back into the same level with everything already complete and no way to carry on.
Sibi
08. Oct 2021 · 22:46 UTC
I'm so happy to see so many great cauldron-centric games! Fun combination of image and text riddles. The graphics were lovely and the sound effects tied it all together. As a non-native speaker I was actually struggling a bit with which word you mean by each object which got layered with the difficulty of guessing the word that had to be created. So I was glad I still made it and can now finally call myself an official witch!
🎤 puppetmaster
10. Oct 2021 · 12:41 UTC
@amkingtrp thanks for your bug report, we have fixed it, I have adjusted our web build so that it scales, you can try it out if it works on the iPad
Sestren
10. Oct 2021 · 21:57 UTC
I would love to see more puzzles added to this. I think the main game mechanic is fun and the presentation is great. The sound effects in particular are spot on.
farouchelark
11. Oct 2021 · 05:09 UTC
A very sweet game. It definitely felt easier than other puzzle games, more suited for kids. The color effects of the potions and the sound effects were great!
GodDoesPlayDice
11. Oct 2021 · 10:03 UTC
Simple game mechanics and very high-quality implementation, both in terms of graphics and sounds. Perfect for a release on mobile platforms (personally, I would play sometimes).
yikescloud
11. Oct 2021 · 11:16 UTC
Simple word game but fun! I love the game not show you the letter but let you guess what letter element means. Showing the right answer when you failed can be more friendly
Inokentii_Best
12. Oct 2021 · 18:09 UTC
Good game)
Bithellio
14. Oct 2021 · 12:43 UTC
Some good concepts here .. Like the word jumbles and and guessing a lot. may i suggest a time element in there as well to add a bit more pressure plus one or two of the ingredients i cant guess what they are ( for example the "O" ) so maybe as has been suggested a label telling you what they were when you get it wrong .. other than that I like it a lot a couple of tweaks here and there (spelling checks and for some reason the pause menu pops up at the start behind the other menus) Nice job :)
Krjemelik
14. Oct 2021 · 13:34 UTC
Really nice! Great visuals, sound effects, good fit for the theme
Kirby
14. Oct 2021 · 13:39 UTC
nice visuals, nice gameplay. rly great game
🎤 puppetmaster
14. Oct 2021 · 19:46 UTC
@bithellio Thank you for your longer comment. We may have planned the time element for a postjam release. Most of the games we have invented always have a stress factor. We wanted to take a more relaxed approach this time.

We are going back and forth on whether we should show the solution or force the player to play through the exam again to pass it. We'll see which solution we decide on, probably something in between.

The menu bug is already fixed in the post jam version, thanks for reporting it.
The spelling mistakes have already been corrected, but perhaps new ones have been added. :smile:

@all
Thanks all for playing and commenting, hope you have as much fun playing the game as we had making it. :hugging:
kakapoy
16. Oct 2021 · 19:09 UTC
Very cute, love the increasing level of difficulty !
coolestdoggie
20. Oct 2021 · 15:59 UTC
So cute graphics! I like the witch cat on Itch page! From my pov, this game is better for Edutainment, for learning words, not relevant for Unstable Theme. Good work!
Rewzu
21. Oct 2021 · 00:09 UTC
Simple and intuitive game! Nice audio and graphics. Overall solid entry!