Isekai Summoner by PatateNouille

[raw]
made by PatateNouille for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

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A visual-novel meets a tactical RPG.

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Follow the story of an Isekai Hero Summoner, an old priest from the royal temple. Although not for too long, we couldn't get more content in for the jam, hah.

The summoned heroes need to be powerful enough to defeat the Demon Lord, and simply sending them to the battlefield might do more harm than good depending on their skill level. There's no time, you have to check for yourself whether or not they are worthy.

Enter the tactical RPG side, fight each hero (well, just one in the jam version) with your spells (or you know, walking and bashing at melee range). If you can defeat them, they are not worthy and you must continue summoning (er, it's just one hero still) until you find the true hero, the one that will easily defeat you.

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:joystick: https://patatenouille.itch.io/isekai-summoner

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V0.1.1 - Bug Fix Patch - inv.png Two things happened :

First, we got a linux build of the jam version, which you can use to rate this game for the LD 55 jam if you want to stick to the original version.

Second, we patched the unskippable cutscene issue, along with several other smaller fixes in V0.1.1 :

  • Added option to skip any cutscene, just hold any key or button ! \o/
  • Changed player turn to begin with movement action pre-selected

  • Improved health bar colors a bit, they are less flashy now

  • Player action bar doesn't hide anymore outside their turn, so they can see the health bar while taking damage
  • Improved icon for the melee action
  • Fixed missing icon for the movement action
  • Fixed canvases not scaling well with resolution
  • Fixed subtitles not wrapping properly, potentially cutting some lines on smaller resolutions
  • Fixed level 01 arena having badly placed blockers preventing a few random tiles on the edges to be used

I recommend using 0.1.1 to rate, it doesn't change any of the content apart from the fixes mentioned above.

The intro cutscene being quite long and unskippable felt like it was blocking most players from retrying the combat which can be hard until you understand how the warrior enemy can attack.

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As you might have guessed, we tried to bite more than we could chew, and although the end result is playable and features a handful of cinematics, making both a tactical and a visual-novel proved to be too ambitious for us.

Try to beat the Warrior to see the good ending, or get beaten and receive the bad one. As a bonus challenge, try not to take any damage (technique to increase the lifetime of the very short content).

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You only need a mouse's left click !

The cinematics cannot be skipped (sorry to those who want to retry multiple times)

During a fight, the selected action displays its name above the action bar.

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  • Hugo "Denis" Ludinant - Code - @patatenouille
  • Matthieu "Denis" Tourneur - Story & Voice Acting - @sevenso
  • Miiyu - Hand Drawn Art - Insta @ Ka.miiyu

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  • Eleven Labs AI - Speech to Speech Voice Modifications - https://elevenlabs.io

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Screenshot 1.png

Banner - Play this game ! - inv.png

:joystick: https://patatenouille.itch.io/isekai-summoner

V0.1.1 - Bug Fix Patch - inv.png - Added option to skip any cutscene, just hold any key or button ! \o/ - Changed player turn to begin with movement action pre-selected

Ratings

Overall 586th 3.563⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 513th 3.521⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 841th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 919th 3.208⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 498th 3.84⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Audio 225th 3.792⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 103th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 469th 3.682⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 18🗳️ 38🗨️

Feedback

SStyles93
16. Apr 2024 · 06:47 UTC
The summoning theme is respected although it isn't a gameplay feature.
Having the audio narrator is really cool and the story is fun.

Nice little game, even if I'm a noob at turn based games ^^'

PS: Poor shrimps T_T
🎤 PatateNouille
16. Apr 2024 · 10:22 UTC
@sstyles93 Thank you !
Yeah we had some plans for heroes that would summon things during combat but even then theme would still be mostly for the story.

Tip : the warrior only attacks in orthogonal directions, and deals less damage when stopped by a wall
SStyles93
16. Apr 2024 · 10:50 UTC
@patatenouille Thanks for the tip ;)
YoYoJ
16. Apr 2024 · 10:53 UTC
Hi ! Cool graphics at the beginning, was expecting the same visuals in game but it's ok :) Quite a quick battle, I lost very quickly xD
🎤 PatateNouille
16. Apr 2024 · 13:36 UTC
@yoyoj Lol, the transition from the cool hand drawn art to the rushed pixel art is rough indeed haha x)
derllie
17. Apr 2024 · 11:54 UTC
such a beautiful game and really good gameplay, you did a great job!
ThomasVenner
17. Apr 2024 · 12:58 UTC
I like that you did a real introduction scene, with voices and everything. Unfortunately, I lost in the first fight, and didn't have the courage to go through the all introduction again, a skip button would have been nice.

Being used to this kind of fight, it felt a bit weird, having to click somewhere is the UI to select the "move" option doesn't feel intuitive for me (also the icon was not helping)
🎤 PatateNouille
17. Apr 2024 · 14:58 UTC
@thomasvenner Completely agree, during testing I would disable the cinematics and it didn't come to mind that I would need a skip button until less than an hour before the final build, at which point other things needed to be fixed.

Fortunately for you there is only one fight, there is a cinematic mid-fight and for the good ending but I understand watching the intro multiple times isn't fun.

The move option was supposed to be selected by default but it caused an issue with the preview not being visible until you swapped to another and back, and this was the simplest fix.
xazens
17. Apr 2024 · 15:56 UTC
The game system looks pretty cool. I wish I did not die that quick. :D
🎤 PatateNouille
17. Apr 2024 · 23:46 UTC
@sstyles93 @yoyoj @thomasvenner @xazens

Hey, out of the blue ping but I posted an update that makes the cutscenes skippable !

It also fixes the move action not being selected by default at the beginning of the turn among other small things. I'd be delighted if you had the heart to give the game a second try if you couldn't beat the warrior during the fight, you gotta save those shrimps after all !
Baluj
18. Apr 2024 · 21:44 UTC
It's an interesting game, good job!
Cameron Dunlap
18. Apr 2024 · 22:28 UTC
Fantastic presentation, the work on that front really shows. Loved the overall aesthetic, full voice acting, and the character portraits. I unfortunately didn't figure out how to approach combat in my first time through (the shrimps died ); ) and didn't have the patience for sitting through the full cutscene a second time, though. Overall great work!
🎤 PatateNouille
19. Apr 2024 · 12:48 UTC
@cameron-dunlap Thanks a lot for trying it out and the kind words !

I recommend using the 0.1.1 version as it adds a way to skip the cutscene.
Caveman54
21. Apr 2024 · 02:46 UTC
I definitely see how this came from over scope. What you have is short but definitely interesting. The voice acting is cool. Nice entry!
Kevvy
21. Apr 2024 · 02:46 UTC
Oh dear, I almost fell out of my chair on that invocation chanting. That was hilarious!

I feel like I got used. First by the king who is the actual weirdo then by the "true warrior". This is a great start, and I understand there is a lot of work put in here so far. The imagery is adorable, the voice lines from ElvenLabs were responsibly utilized.

I am grateful you put in the skip scene button as that made my losses a bit more bearable. Following your tip helped me defeat the unworthy warrior after a few tries on my own.

Man, I need some shrimp to cope with my feelings right now.
🎤 PatateNouille
21. Apr 2024 · 16:26 UTC
@kevvy Hahaha, glad you enjoyed it ! xD

Thank you for playing :D
OGma_badparenting101
21. Apr 2024 · 18:49 UTC
"They did not" I laughed every time I lost, and I lost every time - the graphics are very good, I loved the story and the voice acting- so so so good!!!!
LDJam user 385017
26. Apr 2024 · 21:34 UTC
I really liked the humor and art of this game. It would be really good if i could try more content in this game :)