The adventures of the Squire and the Liar by JonathanG

[raw]
made by JonathanG for LD33 (JAM)
Play as Axel Lyre, as he journeys across the shire with his trusty squire.

The villages are in danger from nearby monsters, and they're looking for someone to protect them! Axel Lyre could be that someone... except he has no intention of actually fighting any REAL monsters! Instead, his squire dresses in a monster costume and pretends to fight, so he can gain the trust of the townsfolk and take their gold.

During the stage fight, icons will move across the top of the screen. Hit the WASD keys in time with the music to perform moves! Some moves have to be matched, but blank icons let you fill in the gaps with your own flair! Just try not to:
- beat the monster too easily
- get beaten back by the monster
- accidentally skewer your squire.

See the 4th screenshot* for more information about the controls.

Note that:
- on the main menu, press ENTER to start the game.
- on the map screen, click the VISIT button on an adjacent village to go there
- on the village screen, press SPACE to start the fight!

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by Jonathan Gover, Duncan Stead, Simon Withington, Thomas Fawcett, Richard Pilot and Ed Moffatt

Ratings

Coolness 50% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.48 303
Audio(Jam) 3.72 115
Fun(Jam) 3.26 373
Graphics(Jam) 3.85 302
Humor(Jam) 3.88 80
Innovation(Jam) 3.59 142
Mood(Jam) 3.72 142
Theme(Jam) 3.42 553

Feedback

Dastina
25. Aug 2015 · 02:32 UTC
Haha, I LOVE this game!! So far the game with the most content, core mechanics work well, the feel of the game is authentic and and art speaks to your sarchastic side. Love it!!
peecestudios
25. Aug 2015 · 02:34 UTC
Very good game. Well done graphics with audio! Very difficult at least for me XD !
FortressAustria
25. Aug 2015 · 02:34 UTC
Nice funny artstyle, i have to find out how to start that game xD
raducumiczzz
29. Aug 2015 · 22:30 UTC
Great Game feel!
placatedduck
04. Sep 2015 · 16:25 UTC
The randomly generated world was a nice touch!
Drauthius
04. Sep 2015 · 16:37 UTC
Very nice game! The web version was a bit laggy at later levels though, but it does run on Linux.
Atridas
04. Sep 2015 · 16:38 UTC
I liked the concept! Rithm-battle game is great, but the difficulty curve may be a little too step :-P
Arnage
04. Sep 2015 · 17:06 UTC
Great game with lot's of polished content hampered only by a too steep learning curve.
Strike
04. Sep 2015 · 17:19 UTC
One of the very best game of this LD33.

I'll start with a minor complain about the usability of the interface (main menu, map) which doesn't seem consistent and easy to use. Switching between mouse and keyboard is not really practical. But once you are used to it, it's fine.

I love the concept, I love the gameplay, I love the art, I love the music, I love the procedurally generated worlds, I love the random events. I beat this game and I keep replaying it. Really great job here. That's really sad you have so little reviews, your game deserves to be way more known and played.
Xanjos
04. Sep 2015 · 19:32 UTC
I recommend people play the Windows version since the WebGL version has some lag that's a huge no-no for rhythm games such as this. Other than that, I absolutely loved the concept and I really like the freestyling elements (and how surprisingly deep the battle system is).
puppetmaster
04. Sep 2015 · 19:44 UTC
Humor ist top, gamplay get some time to know what to do! Very cool entry!
Draknek
05. Sep 2015 · 23:29 UTC
Could do with more consistent button usage! My first attempt to play:
* click new game, doesn't do anything, okay so it's a keyboard game
* press space, doesn't do anything
* press enter, go to world map
* use arrows to move the camera
* press space/enter, doesn't do anything
* click on starting town, doesn't do anything
* click on other towns, but on the image of buildings and the hitbox isn't big enough to detect it so it doesn't do anything
* Eventually hover over the right part of a town so it becomes obvious that yes it is mouse-based even if it doesn't seem that way
* on town info screen, press enter, doesn't do anything
* in fight, try to press arrows/space/enter/anything. Nothing does anything.
* go back to this page, see that you have to use WASD in the fight, not arrows.

And then the fighting isn't convincing enough even though the village is 96% gullible and I don't even know what triggers the fight to end.

Hopefully that's helpful!
Teesquared
13. Sep 2015 · 08:35 UTC
Really funny and complete game. The difficulty for me was too high but it kept me trying and trying (and lying :). Maybe showing the key to press and icon would help some. Great play on words too. Lyre Liar, costume on squire!
crucknuk
13. Sep 2015 · 09:40 UTC
Well done, the graphics, the music, the layout of the game. Was really cool! :)
A bit hard to get your hands on it at first it reveals its true potential after some training :P
anyway good job :)
LeoM
13. Sep 2015 · 12:34 UTC
Very hard at start to understand how it's working and what you have to do.
After a few (a lot) of try I succeed my fist battle, only play up and down ! ^^
The insta game over when you lose, even after succeed in 3 or 4 villages is very punishing.
Liked the generative worlds.
azokal
13. Sep 2015 · 23:06 UTC
Nice game! Well done!
aberdeenphoenix
14. Sep 2015 · 20:33 UTC
Funny little game!

This game could very much use an in-game reference for the controls. Also, the timing seemed a little off to me. More indication of the rhythm would help. Even on easy, it was nearly impossible.
g_o
14. Sep 2015 · 21:45 UTC
Nice entry, pretty hard though XD
Twinters
14. Sep 2015 · 23:23 UTC
I'm pretty impressed by all the animations and the content of this game. The controls were rather hard to figure out though, made the game even more difficult than it already was. Great job anyway!