Wicked flame! by Kaldrin


You control a cute lil' bomb. You wouldn't want it to explode right? Then run, fire is catching up on your wick.

Use your wick to your advantage but don't let the fire catch up to you!

Fire will never stop following

Music Credits : Thermal - Evan King
POST JAM LAST LEVEL TIMING FIX NOW YOU CAN ACTUALLY COMPLETE THE GAME 100% OF THE TIME
| itchio game page | https://kaldrin.itch.io/wicked-flame |
| itchio game page | https://kaldrin.itch.io/wicked-flame |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/wicked-flame |
Ratings
| Overall | 14th | 4.382⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 25th | 4.25⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 10th | 4.412⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 3th | 4.647⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 122th | 4.414⭐ | 37🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 461th | 3.339⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 208th | 3.985⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 54🗳️ | 52🗨️ |
Which level bugged for you and what happened ?
Except the unfortunate (what I assume is) bug I at least enjoyed the presentation a lot. The controls also felt really tight.
Glad the controls worked well too!
- I see why some of the oil spots had different flame propagation timings, but it felt weird to have some that instantly ignited, and some that would wait a second to start burning. I would like to see them be graphically different to indicate what is going to happen (it feels more like you have to lose first to know what will happen instead of being able to plan ahead).
- The last room seems a bit random as to if you make it through or not. I just held up and would get very close some times, and not very close other times. After about 8 lives, I made it to the end. Not sure why the timing is like that.
- I would have loved more sound effects to make the gameplay feel more immersive
All that said, this game is graphically very cohesive. Overall, the mechanic was decently explored. This is a great entry in the jam. Congrats on a very clean game.
It might just be a me issue but I'm the explorer kind of person so when oil patches were introduced I went to the paths that openened first which lead me to out of bounds I think? Maybe something which blocks the player but still lets fire propagate would be good here.

After dying on this screen the fuse didn't light up anymore. Replayed it up to this point and couldn't replicate it though.

I really liked playing it. Also great soundtrack. Keep it up!
The fuse that doesn't light up anymore is a weird bug that we didn't experience at all, it's weird, I hope no one else gets it :/
The idea is very original and fits the theme, and i like the art style. Maybe it's just me, but i think the single colored theme gets a bit repetitive after playing for a while. Nonetheless, a solid game.
That might sound like I had a bad time, but I wanted to say that because I *still* think this game will win it all! The art is fantastic, from the sprites to the color scheme, so good. The mechanics are amazing and so creative, I've never seen anything like it. Fantastic job all around.
I got to this room and can't progress. As far as I can figure, the only strategy is just straight up and try to outrun the fire. Is it possible there's a framerate issue and you can only outrun it at 60 fps or something? I'm expecting the puzzles afterward are equally creative or more.

(I tried like 50 times after reading the comments here, holding W, going back and forth, running along the walls until the flames extinguish, I think I tried everything human possible xD)
Still, cool entry.
Music is not from us but you can say we chose well I guess haha
Good luck with project development!
Really good entry, the level design is awesome. I don't know how you have done all this in 3 days, congrats!
Where to being.. graphics! Phantastic! I really like this kind of vintage disney-esque but also unique look, the animations were sooo cute, the music was very well chosen and this is one of the best gameplays I have seen in all this jam!
Soooo well done guys! I'm currently stuck in the level with the maze and the 4(5?) switches and fire plates everywhere, haha.
I really don't know anything you could improve, this is so amazing
Gameplay - CHECK
Graphics - CHECK
Sound - CHECK
Checkpoints - CHECK :))
Also the Level design is soo great, I really loved how you introduced new features and threats to the player in a save environment, thats top notch game design!
That's something gamejam games raley manage \*cough\* we had to add a tutorial level afterwards \*cough\*
So indeed, very well done guys!!
The puzzles complicity increases smoothly and includes a learning process into gameplay, it feels coherent and completed.
But I couldn't figure out how to solve the big maze with flammable tiles.
It is clear that there is probably only one way to solve it, but after 10+ fails I felt frustrated a bit, and gave up trying) I think the complicity with this certain mechanic increased too rapidly.
All in all, a very good implementation of the theme!
Thanks for playing!
You did a really good job of introducing mechanics and interactions with simple levels that demonstrated how things work. I thought the burning tail was really innovative and I thought it was a nice touch that if the tail crossed itself it would burn along both paths at once.
Inconsistent door-opening speed felt a bit unfair on some levels the first time around, but you get used to it I guess.
I found that I have a really long tail the first time I try a level and if I die I have a short tail for all retries of that level. I would also sometimes randomly die a couple seconds after restarting a level. (I think this happens if I die to an indirect fire as opposed to dying to my own tail)
Torches burning out and needing to be lit simultaneously is really annoying, especially for the level where I need to light 4 torches simultaneously using falling blocks. My control over the timing of my tail burning is not very precise. I was unable to beat that level with the short tail so I restarted the game and then beat it with the super-long tail by making this monstrosity:

(Also, web build never finished loading for me but desktop version was fine)
We should remove the fading out mechanic of the torches in the level you mentioned as it only makes it harder.
Having a long tail is a reward for completing levels fast, but all levels are perfectly doable with a short tail or so we thought but I hear it's not easy for everyone for some of them, let's fix this!
I played it on stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1456354231?t=2h11m55s