LudumData

Forging Through Fire by ryusui

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

Princess Julianna, a charming member of canine royalty with aspirations of heroism, has gone delving in the Dread Dragon's Dungeon to find the Dragon's Heart Ruby, destroy it, and put an end to the ferocious beast's reign of terror. There's one thing she didn't count on, though - the dragon is awake, he's angry, and his fiery breath will blast her into cinders in seconds! With no way out but forward, the sword-slinging princess plunges deeper into the dangerous depths, braving its tricks and traps as she goes, not to mention the ever-present danger of death by dragonfire! Can she make it to the bottom - unburnt and in one piece - and complete her quest?

Gamepad and keyboard supported. D-pad/analog stick/WASD/arrow keys to move, A (Xbox), X (Playstation), B (Switch), Space, or Z to attack. Switches open and close doors, rubble can be cleared away with your sword, gratings allow fire to pass but not yourself, and guillotine traps will cleave the lovely princess in half (fortunately, you have infinite lives!) Watch for the telltale glow of dragonfire and find - or make - a safe spot before the dragon unleashes its flame!

Created in Godot 3.5. Graphics created in Aseprite; sound effects created with my own voice and Audacity.

godot-4.1-3.5-stable<em>2022-10-03</em>15-28-39.pnggodot-4.1-3.5-stable<em>2022-10-03</em>15-28-49.pnggodot-4.1-3.5-stable<em>2022-10-03</em>15-29-19.pnggodot-4.1-3.5-stable<em>2022-10-03</em>15-29-36.png

Link https://watercrown.info/games/Forging%20Through%20Fire/Forging%20Through%20Fire.exe
Link https://watercrown.info/games/Forging%20Through%20Fire/HTML5/Forging%20Through%20Fire.html
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/forging-through-fire

Ratings

Overall 265th 3.83⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Fun 196th 3.852⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 284th 3.67⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Theme 90th 4.233⭐ 45🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 611th 3.602⭐ 46🧑‍⚖️
Audio 564th 3.155⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Given 35🗳️ 69🗨️

Feedback

ZephyrSpark
03. Oct 2022 · 23:32 UTC
I had an enjoyable time, one death to standing a wee close to the guillotine, although I had a few close calls with the dragon fire and shutting a door right in front of me to save :D
min4uk
04. Oct 2022 · 04:47 UTC
i had a great emotions from playing this. and a bit of frustration hahah)
Joshua Denk
04. Oct 2022 · 04:54 UTC
Fun! Speed sometimes your ally, sometimes your enemy. Could benefit from music if developing further. The splitting fire idea/implementation is awesome!
Nbrowning5
04. Oct 2022 · 04:55 UTC
Loved it, especially the art style. The pixel art worked really well for this type of game.
Alexzoin
04. Oct 2022 · 05:01 UTC
One of the best jam games I have ever played! Super fun to play through to the end, figuring out the penultimate level was an absolute joy! I love the combination of puzzle solving and then execution. I liked the theming that perfectly fit the mechanics. The player controller was tight and responsive. Everything in the games was clearly readable and self tutorialized.

It was just very very well done and was an extremely fun and polished game nugget. I would absolutely play more levels with more mechanics. I could totally see two alternating sources of fire, obstacles that get consumed by fire, switches the fire flips or torches that get lit.

Just a very thoughtful and innovative core mechanic. I loved it. Very well done.
mrs.wheelsx
04. Oct 2022 · 05:05 UTC
Great game! I would have enjoyed a persistent indicator (like maybe a light smoke trail) to show you where the fire is going the whole time, instead of just a couple of seconds before the it flares. But, then you do offer infinite lives, to that eventually you can memorize the puzzle. Great job! I really enjoyed playing
Linnea Isaac
04. Oct 2022 · 05:07 UTC
I liked the puzzles - after a while I realized that you can stand right by the button and then step to see what the fire pattern will be and step back on if it would hurt you, which allows a bit of exploration rather than trial and error

I was getting a neopets vibe from our protagonist and in general - v nice. Really liked it overall
Jaker
04. Oct 2022 · 05:13 UTC
The second-to-last level was brutal! It took me 8 tries and a lot of thinking :D

My only complaint is that there is a considerable amount of reading for the player at the start of the game.
🎤 ryusui
04. Oct 2022 · 11:23 UTC
@jaker Got you covered there already - you can hold the action button to skip the intro!
triggthediscovery
06. Oct 2022 · 06:00 UTC
Great little game! I commend you, this is the first game I've played which paced the 10 second loop well. I think you found a really good balance point where the game wasn't boring (too much time) or frustrating (too little time).
Leopold
06. Oct 2022 · 07:11 UTC
Great game ! you undestand very quickly what to do even without reading the tutorial ! Good job !
Ayxs
06. Oct 2022 · 08:25 UTC
Really great! I really like the puzzles, the big room was the best one, opening all gates one after the other was really satisfying. Well done!
BytingGames
06. Oct 2022 · 08:41 UTC
I really liked the pixel graphics combined with the squishy animations! Also nice game idea. It soon got too complicated for me though^^ Nice of you, that you showed the path the fire would take.
Darkmax14
06. Oct 2022 · 09:19 UTC
The difficulty spike on like level 4 or 5 when it goes from 2-3 buttons and gates to like 8 really got me XD. I liked the warning overlay that shows where the fire will go though, really makes it manageable to keep track of where you're safe
Gonzalol
06. Oct 2022 · 09:37 UTC
Congratulations, it's a perfect entry for Ludum Dare: easy to understand, fun to play, fit the theme, nice art and sound.
Some thoughts:
- I love the fire effect, it reminds me the classic Bomberman games
- I found a bit confusing the doors system, the sprite could show more clearly when the open is open and when it´s closed
🎤 ryusui
06. Oct 2022 · 15:09 UTC
@gonzalol At first I was a little confused about the comment regarding the doors, but then I realized the empty door tracks have about the same saturation value as the doors themselves - they're not very colorblind-friendly, whoops!
arzi
07. Oct 2022 · 10:06 UTC
It's a nice puzzle game and you integrated the theme really well!

The difficulty escalates quite quickly though, and I wasn't able to complete all the levels. Also I wasn't always 100% sure about the door logic.
Gno Evenimente
08. Oct 2022 · 05:16 UTC
This is a great take on the theme. Really had fun figuring out the puzzles in each room. The presentation is great, needs some retro music.
Gildar76
08. Oct 2022 · 21:17 UTC
Great game, I kind of wish you didn't have the 10 sec restriction. R andom fire events would have been a bit more enjoyable, but this follows the theme well. Great game overall.
Baconinvader
08. Oct 2022 · 22:04 UTC
Nice game! good puzzles and length.
🎤 ryusui
08. Oct 2022 · 22:17 UTC
@gildar76 You might notice that player input pauses while the fire is burning - this is because I didn't want to deal with the edge case where the player might change the fire's course in the short time the animation is in progress! I was worried the pauses would interrupt the game flow, but I'm relieved to see no one has issued a complaint. (I imagine they would be more noticeable and annoying if the fire *was* random, though!)
Smooches
09. Oct 2022 · 10:36 UTC
This was a neat little puzzle game. I really like redirecting the fire with doors as a mechanic and telegraphing where will be hit by it beforehand helps to reduce any potential frustration if you get hit.
tigerfinch
09. Oct 2022 · 14:10 UTC
Nice idea, and got pretty complex and interesting. I found the guillotines a little too punishing, and was still a bit confused about where the fire would go in some cases, but had a lot of fun playing it. Cool!
🎤 ryusui
09. Oct 2022 · 14:34 UTC
@tigerfinch The basic rule for the fire is this: if it hits a wall, it will try to travel perpendicularly. This means T-junctions are deadly (as the fire will spread both ways), but cul-de-sacs are safe (as the fire has nowhere to spread). Doors block flame, rubble blocks flame (until it's cleared, of course), and gratings don't block flame.
dp3rucha
09. Oct 2022 · 22:19 UTC
Great work! The control is incredibly fluid and the puzzles are very well paced. My only point to improve is the sound and perhaps the icon of the guillotines. Impressive work.
Blue Pin Studio
11. Oct 2022 · 07:42 UTC
Love the game! Very nice! The level before the last one got super complicated but i just trusted that the path of the switches is linear and i managed to get through ok. Only died 7 times to get to the end, great entry!
Yanrishatum
11. Oct 2022 · 20:33 UTC
Short and sweet. The menus would have felt better without the gradients, as text was somewhat hard to read. Especially since the stylized serif font was already heavy on the eyes. The second to last level was a bit of a surprise, compared to its predecessors. However while overwhelming at first glance wasn't too hard to unravel. The fact that you couldn't burn the heart/ruby with dragon fire I think was a missed opportunity.

Overall it was a good experience, and the victory screen honestly sent me laughing because I noticed the "boob physics".
Pietrek
12. Oct 2022 · 07:30 UTC
The fire mechanic is quite novel and fits well with the theme and the puzzles are really well done. One of the best games I played from this jam.
LDJam user 298496
12. Oct 2022 · 10:33 UTC
Really nice little puzzle game, nice job!
Matoux42
12. Oct 2022 · 12:39 UTC
Really interesting, love the level design
Skyward4d
12. Oct 2022 · 21:03 UTC
Really liked this one! Good level design for a gamejam.
Solid application of the theme. Nice work!
PureImprov
12. Oct 2022 · 23:48 UTC
Nice logic! It would be even better with some music but the focus on the ui really showed (:
Sibi
15. Oct 2022 · 08:37 UTC
That was really fun! I would have loved some more levels but you managed to show the potential quite well with those levels already. Really good that you are showing the dragon breath a few seconds before to allow for a last second escape.
Steve7411
15. Oct 2022 · 08:44 UTC
This is a really lovely game. Great idea, good level designs, fun mechanics, great overall experience!
LDJam user 267116
16. Oct 2022 · 00:24 UTC
Really neat game! Love the sound effects, cute and clear art, and some nice puzzle design. Nice job!
Hacktier
20. Oct 2022 · 21:16 UTC
Cool game. The game looks good and plays well. Nice work.