Hocus Poquest by Miyolophone

[raw]
made by Miyolophone for Ludum Dare 51 (JAM)

poquest.gif

A horde of monsters has come to conquer the realm of Malthador the wizard-warrior. The only problem is that Malthador has been dead for centuries... or at least, he was, until a mysterious deity resurrected him. And gave him a gun. And started issuing him quests to complete every 10 seconds.

Will Malthador be able to mow down invaders, upgrade his gun by completing quests, and save the people of the realm?

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Controls - WASD to move - Mouse to aim - Left click to shoot - Right click to dash - R to reload - E to access quest rewards

You can hover over modifiers to see what they do.

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We here at Team Juicebox are proud to present a new bullet-hell-dungeon-crawler featuring over 900 million possible unique guns! Yes, really! You should try to make them all!

Our Team!

johnfn - coding, buying a $7 thimble of coffee

const_arch - code, player art, environment art, basically everything

SlurpeeThief - quest design, coding

LunacyEcho - level design, writing

Miyolophone - music, enemy art

fawnblue - being hungover

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POST JAM feedback: We've added a couple POSTJAM downloads below based on feedback from the comments. If you're rating, don't use those! We changed how mod vs gun drops are balanced to be dynamic based on player need, and changed the camera centering due to the quest menu feedback in the comments, so just a couple quick fixes, but they make a difference.

Ratings

Overall 160th 3.955⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 244th 3.773⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 748th 3.136⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 962th 3.205⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 564th 3.652⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Audio 450th 3.386⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 172th 3.705⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 517th 3.523⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 39🗨️

Feedback

Lepletier
04. Oct 2022 · 21:11 UTC
Very beautyfull, love the music. I think the game is out of theme but i have nice fun time!
Ryan Dotsikas
04. Oct 2022 · 21:16 UTC
Wow, this was honestly exceptional. I know rating hasn't been going on very long but man you all deserve so many more ratings, this is such a gem! You made a legit fun, entertaining, lasting game in just 72 hours! I love the idea of constantly doing these small quests to gain bonuses, and the fact that you always have so many to do is great. My only gripe is I wasn't able to get rid of gems on my guns/get new guns often enough that I was often stuck and not worth trashing an existing gun for an empty one. But hey this was awesome, great job with the writing too!
ADerpyChickenStudios
04. Oct 2022 · 21:27 UTC
Really fun and cute game I loved the humor and the small quests kept me motivated right to the very end great entry!
thedude3600
04. Oct 2022 · 21:31 UTC
This game was really fun! I was halfway through before I remembered I was supposed to be rating it, I got kinda sucked into it. The art style was good, that and the humor kind of reminded me of "Nobody Saves the World". The quest progression was a cool idea, though at times it took a back seat to me just shooting things. One nit pick I had was the quest Icons were a bit intrusive and could maybe have been smaller? But it didnt prevent the game from being playable. Good Job!
Firebelley
04. Oct 2022 · 23:33 UTC
This was a fantastic game! Super fun, loved the in-game quests that rotated in and out. Weapon upgrades were interesting and fun to see. Very nice job overall! My only minor complaint is that I wish I could have minimized the quest display since sometimes it obscured enemies. But, that's minor. The game is wonderful!
const_arch
05. Oct 2022 · 09:50 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I put up a separate POSTJAM version with a couple quick fixes for the issues you ran into. @ryan-dotsikas I switched the upgrade vs gun drop rate to scale based on how many empty slots you have, and @thedude3600 and @firebelley I changed the camera centering so that you can see equal amounts on both sides of the player. It's not a complete fix but I think it makes that menu obstruction issue feel a fair bit better.
LDJam user 237261
05. Oct 2022 · 09:52 UTC
I thought this type of ironic Gen-Z humor would quickly get on my nerves, but no, it was really funny throughout the game! The graphical style is really simple but fits the game well! I had a lot of fun with the game, congrats!
blobo
05. Oct 2022 · 15:03 UTC
I think the theme is a bit too much in the background. I know that the quests disappear every ten seconds if unachieved, but in most cases that wasn't something I was even giving any attention. I would just make my way through the dungeon, and every now and then I would have 4 upgrades to cash in.

The humor was great! I'm on the older end of gen Z, but I was able to ironically enjoy the "no cap"s and dream reference. "Back to dead" was a really good bit. also the "Luna put something really good here" sample text got a chuckle out of me.

The artwork is great. I honestly love the flat bold outlined, lack of shading style. You can really feel the game's humor in the artwork, which normally a team of this size wouldn't consider. Most games with this many devs have some artist going overboard and everything looks... kinda just like all the other games with that many devs. Your game stands out in a good way, and I like it.

The gun upgrades weren't always useful. I found myself getting a gun with two explosions upgrades, and I hurt myself way more than I hurt enemies. I never noticed what returning does, and there were a lot of upgrades I didn't even try out. I think having some of the quests be "trash an upgrade" is counterproductive, as it leads to not trying things. Definitely focus on more "throw your gun away" ideas to encourage the player to try something they haven't seen yet.

All around, stellar work!
Panda Ermech
05. Oct 2022 · 15:08 UTC
The only problem with this game is that it ends...Seriously, this is a master piece. I really enjoyed it. Every step of the experience was enjoyable. The gameplay, the mechanics, the mood...all of those things were incredible!Thanks for doing such a great game in a short period!
gwenckatz
05. Oct 2022 · 19:54 UTC
Hey, this was really fun! I'm not usually a fan of bullet hell but I caught on fast and had a lot of fun upgrading and optimizing my different guns. The combat felt super smooth and the controls were very easy to use, and the tutorialization bit at the beginning was well-designed. My issue was just the balance of the quests--it felt like there were too many and they came too fast, so it felt easy to just ignore them and hope you'd just randomly complete the objectives while you were playing. But that's just jam stuff--no one has time to iterate and optimize on things like that in one weekend. Great game overall!
bozzwtf
06. Oct 2022 · 00:29 UTC
awesome :metal:
LDJam user 290219
06. Oct 2022 · 06:33 UTC
hahha this game is so cute.Feel like control the character again and again
Ronn Fever
06. Oct 2022 · 08:41 UTC
Luny! Where is my interesting text!?
LunacyEcho
06. Oct 2022 · 08:50 UTC
@ronn-fever

10/03/2022 4:02 PM

Luny: how do i actually change the you win text LOL

johnfn: LOL YOU CANT HAHA ITS GONNA BE LIKE THAT FOREVER

Luny: MAN

johnfn: ITS AFTER 4 SUCKS FOR U
digital bacon
06. Oct 2022 · 10:56 UTC
Nicely done, I liked the cartoony graphics. Potential for a real bullethell shooter, though the enemies' rate of fire and speed would need to be upped. Also, bullets going in any direction except l-to-r would have their shadows in the wrong place.

Well done, though: I had lots of fun playing this.
LDJam user 298334
16. Oct 2022 · 12:30 UTC
Awesome concept, loved the style and it was satisfying to slowly get more powerful.
AJ Studio
18. Oct 2022 · 05:00 UTC
Great concept, great arrwork