A small ode by fusionnist
"A small ode" is an exploration and puzzle-solving game:
Combine magical cards, summon helpful elements and creatures.

This entry didn't leave the experimental phase, so it plays like a loosely tied sandbox.
Features: five card types, three area types. How to play: mess around, close the game when you get bored

Controls:
WASD keys control movement, TAB opens the card menu, E summons your custom spell. SPACE BAR lets you enter doors!!!
SHIFT + ESCAPE closes the game.
Tip: the game randomly generates a world to explore. If you feel stuck, you can restart it and perhaps get an easier area! If exploring still gets hard or tedious, I made a video that shows off gameplay:
Tip: the game randomly generates a world to explore. If you feel stuck, you can restart it and perhaps get an easier area! If exploring still gets hard or tedious, I made a video that shows off gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7PpmQa1CJ0

| Windows | https://fusionnist.itch.io/a-small-ode |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/a-small-ode |
Ratings
| Overall | 119th | 3.679⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 146th | 3.5⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 78th | 3.776⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 124th | 3.803⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 161th | 3.551⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 57th | 3.769⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 138th | 3.088⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 78th | 3.73⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 42🗳️ | 60🗨️ |
However, I couldn't figure out how to enter the door in the first level. I picked the gem, tried TAB and E, jumping around, clicked everything at sight with mouse, restarted multiple times, but nothing worked. Is this the first puzzle and I'm missing something? Bummer, based on the gifs and the comments here and on Itch.io, I'd expect the game to be quite delightful. I'll redo my ratings if I get past the first level.
BTW, restarting multiple times I realized the level has some randomization - Nice!
Nice!
- you could spawn a floating platform from a floating platform and jump while falling to get on top of it.
- I feel like the game needed a map as I felt lost and wasn't sure which areas I already explored
- Most of the time I had a hard time to figure out when to use the summoning power, I don;t know if there where only a few spots or if I missed the somehow
- Watering the plant takes too much water, or something weird happens with the water
- Maybe make the combining area a little smaller, I never actually closed it, and even with plenty of cards I wasn't very bothered by not being able to see my character
- It took me a long time to figure out the spells go in the direction of the mouse and not the character, I was using the mouse to move the cards and keyboard to move the character and summon objects, so it felt weird that the direction was governed by the mouse
- Sometimes the stairs would go up to the platform but the character was not able to get on the platform and fell instead, and sometimes while on a platform it was hard to go down the stairs.
The exploration was fun, I got lost at some point and never found my way again xD

With a goal in there this would have gotten more stars from me but still I enjoyed my game time quite a bit.
Personal gripe with the game is that you cant jump with space bar :D thats just me though
Returning the favor with this gameplay video, although I'm not a fan of talking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j_gqPcIFHo
As already mentioned by others I would have wished that at least the first few screens are hand crafted and force the player to use the mechanic, but I guess you would have done that if it would have gotten out of the experimental phase. Overall still a cool entry! I especially liked the snakes