Spellbook Shuffle by ice9

[raw]
made by ice9 for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

A tower defense where you don't know the rules of summoning! https://awesson.itch.io/spellbook-shuffle

You wake to find a note left by your wizarding master: Intro.jpeg

You summon monsters into a lane via a summoning circle with either 2 or 3 ingredients. Every game these "recipes" are randomized, so you'll just have to experiment!

As a studious apprentice, you can take notes of summons which you like by pressing the number keys . These will be saved into the respective slot at the top of the screen. (This is informational only - you will still have to pick up those ingredients and use them to summon that monster again.) EUwvKo.png

There are a variety of monster types, with different fighting styles. Ranged, tank, etc.

There are also elemental variants of most monsters, which have strengths and weaknesses. * Fire is strong against, and takes less damage from, Grass * Grass is strong against, and takes less damage from, Water * Water is strong against, and takes less damage from, Fire * The elusive Rainbow summons are strong against everything TypeWheel.png

Controls:

  • You move with WASD
  • Press SPACE near an ingredient to pick it up
  • Press SPACE near a summoning circle to use your current ingredients to summon a creature.
  • Press a number key, 1-5, to save the recipe for the last summon. It will display at the top of the screen in the numbered slot.

Ratings

Overall 426th 3.71⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Fun 454th 3.581⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 311th 3.677⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Theme 84th 4.339⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 428th 3.935⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Humor 511th 3.148⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 905th 3.217⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Given 32🗳️ 46🗨️

Feedback

Alkemiste
16. Apr 2024 · 11:54 UTC
Maybe a slightly faster difficulty ramp would help to grasp the concept faster by forcing you to try different strategies... but well executed overall!
pres2300
16. Apr 2024 · 12:32 UTC
This game was on point with the theme! I enjoyed the variety of enemies and what you could spawn. I suffered from tunnel vision on some of the lanes and some enemies would sneak by and attack a portal I wasn't paying attention to. Some sort of visual or audio indicator that a portal is under attack would go a long way, I think. I liked that you just have to know what combinations do what after a certain point. Nice work!
Balgorode
16. Apr 2024 · 12:33 UTC
Nice work! Though definitely could have been faster paced. Also spamming hydras is so op lol xD
SNIFFbl4
16. Apr 2024 · 12:43 UTC
A very cool idea and a good mix of genres! Adding a few animations for the summons would make it simply perfect!
ZEN
16. Apr 2024 · 20:11 UTC
:eye: :star: :four_leaf_clover: :mushroom: :sunflower:
Love the monster casting meets tower-defence genre mix. Great submission!
🎤 ice9
16. Apr 2024 · 23:09 UTC
Thanks for playing and the feedback!

To those mentioning the difficulty, maybe we should have added a setting. Midway through development it was pretty hard and maybe we went too far the other way in the end. But it does ramp up over time - let us know your high score of Monsters Mashed :)
Zhirui
18. Apr 2024 · 03:20 UTC
Had fun summoning the creatures! A wave/level system would be a fun option as well :)
Gabriel Mendonca
18. Apr 2024 · 05:37 UTC
​Fun game and cool concept, easy to play and very enjoyable :D :D
BenjaminW
18. Apr 2024 · 05:50 UTC
Nice game! I thought it might be frustrating to have to figure out the spells, but you literally had a creature for every combination (which I thought was great) so that wasn't at all a problem Dx Simple and fun, is what you expect it to be :)
M.Kusy
18. Apr 2024 · 11:11 UTC
Fast paced and fun. Got a little lost and just summoned stuff at random, but in the end I got the gist of it.
I like the lighthearted graphics and pokemon vibes.
saintchristopher777
19. Apr 2024 · 13:49 UTC
Well done! Fun mechanics, and everything works as expected. The art is really good. Only thing missing is music and sfx. Great job!
MatthewDrake
19. Apr 2024 · 21:46 UTC
Fun mechanic, it was pretty interesting trying out different combinations and trying to find what I needed (especially when the Water Birdageddon happened.) Fun game overall!
Bearacus
20. Apr 2024 · 18:11 UTC
Nothing made me happier then when I summoned the rainbow slime! I thought the loop would run in wave, after somepoint when i had realized i was 60+ monsters mashed i figured there was no end to it so I felt like I had done everything. The Idle animation for the PC could be slowed down or held for when they would get hit.
Anastasia_Lukiy
21. Apr 2024 · 18:50 UTC
I loved the graphics and that I could create recipes, the creatures looked very cute!
Liu Pa Yueh
21. Apr 2024 · 18:54 UTC
Always happy to see more female protagonists!
HaaYaargh
28. Apr 2024 · 17:05 UTC
Mashed 150 monsters before ending early.

I like the concept of figuring out combination, sending summoned creatures against opponents they have advantage over, but I don't think I was good at it. I had two or three combinations more or less deciphered out, but usually I just spammed intuitively, which kind of worked as I lost only one portal health, but that's because I lost focus for a moment.

So as I mentioned, I might be bad at it, but if I were to work on this more, I would try to make the rules clearer to obtain, communicate more what is what and then reshuffle every new level/round.

Overall, pretty enjoyable game, pretty innovative. Well done! :rainbow: