LudumData

The Summoner's Forest by joe40001

[raw]
made by joe40001 for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

Title.png

Story:

You're a Summoner traveling through the woods to search for the materials and mana for your next big project.

Controls:

  • WASD or Arrow Keys to Move
  • Press 1 / 2 or Use the Mouse Scroll Wheel to Change Summons
  • Press Left Shift or Right Mouse Button to Grab
  • Spacebar to Jump
  • Left Mouse Button to Summon

Tips:

  • You can hold onto walls by holding Grab
  • You can wall jump from walls you are holding onto
  • While grabbing walls, press down to slide down the wall
  • To use the plane, touch it and press Grab
  • Mana bushes reset how many casts of each summon you have based on the next challenge. The max number of summons you can do in a section and the max number of any given type of summon that can be used in a section are shown in the summon panel (left side of UI).
  • Completing a section (getting to the next Mana bush) with leftover unused summons will reward you with bonus Extra Mana.
  • Extra Mana (number on right side of UI) is your score. It is increased by collecting mana crystals and by completing sections with leftover unused summons. It does not have any effect on the summons you can do.

It gets quite challenging at the end, if you are proud of your final stats feel free to share them in the comments!

Bonus Challenge:

At the end of the game you will get a summary of how much Extra Mana you collected, and how many times you Died. Try to beat the following targets for an additional challenge: - Bronze Challenge: Less than 25 deaths, Over 50k Extra Mana - Silver Challenge: Less than 10 deaths, Over 60k Extra Mana - Gold Challenge: Less than 5 deaths, Over 65k Extra Mana

Changelog:
"Windows (Official Jam Version)" is the official Jam Version.
"Windows (Minor Visual Bug Fixes)" is a version with a few fixes to minor visual bugs. It is identical to the official Jam Version in gameplay and code.

Windows (Official Jam Version) https://files.jam.host/uploads/$387152/Build4_LD_Official.zip
(Minor Visual Bug Fixes) https://files.jam.host/uploads/$387152/Build5_LD_Official_Visual_Fixes.zip
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-summoners-forest

Ratings

Overall 1103th 2.982⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1036th 2.929⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 999th 2.893⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 914th 3.212⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1084th 2.885⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 51🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

Literally Void
15. Apr 2024 · 18:53 UTC
I'm not sure why, but I can't download this---I'm getting a 404. If you've done everything right on your end you may want to try reuploading the game!
🎤 joe40001
16. Apr 2024 · 05:20 UTC
Thanks for the feedback @literally-void, the issue should be addressed. It seemed like a hosting bug.
ryusui
23. Apr 2024 · 05:01 UTC
The platforming controls are really clumsy and unresponsive, and the summoning mechanics are hard to make sense of; I'm not sure what the relationship, if any, is between the "mana" I'm picking up and which summons I'm able to use.

I also really recommend playing the Megaman X games for an idea of how a wall hang/jump mechanic ought to work; it shouldn't require an additional button press.
maxededo
23. Apr 2024 · 05:52 UTC
Pretty neat little game you got here! I think you could tweak the feel of things like the gravity - I found there wasn't enough air time to really get a sense of my jump arc or where I would land. The summoning mechanic was a cool take on the theme, but I was a bit confused by the relationship between mana and summoning, as well as why the bushes refilled my charges. I would suggest rethinking the level design in relation to the summon charges, since there wasn't much of a purpose to the charges, but I think you've got a really strong starting point!
zablas
23. Apr 2024 · 08:37 UTC
Cozy little platformer. Just wasn't sure when my summons were going of cooldown sometimes.
Dan Allison
23. Apr 2024 · 12:09 UTC
I like the core of this a lot, I think summoning new ways to move around the world is a really cool twist on a platformer and when it works well here it works really well. The main issue for me is the cooldowns/mana system. Right now with one mistake, which I think is quite easy to make since since the summons don't stay around for very long means you're then out of mana. So there's a lot of going back and forth to the last bush to try again. I think tweaking this system or even having a quick reset to last mana bush button could change things for the better. I still think it's a solid idea and the core is executed well. There's a lot going on here as well so to get this much in and working in a game jam is really impressive so well done.
LDJam user 374028
23. Apr 2024 · 17:55 UTC
Summoning stopped working for me after the second bush for some reason.
🎤 joe40001
24. Apr 2024 · 10:57 UTC
@ryusui Sorry you had a bad experience, we based the hold to grab mechanic on the wall grab mechanic in Celeste which does hold down the button. Still, thank you for your feedback and we'll think about changing how the wall hang is done for a post-jam version.

@maxededo @zablas Thanks for the positive feedback, sorry there was some confusion, the tips section of this page has been expanded to hopefully clear up some of your confusion.

@dan-allison Thanks for all the feedback! That's a lot of useful things to consider. As far as running out of summons, the bush should always reset that, also if you die you are sent back to the last bush. But yes, I think you have a good suggestion about having a hotkey to instantly go back to the last bush.

@andriybyelikov hmm, that is quite odd, you should be able to track what summons you have available (as well as which one you have selected) with the left UI element. Perhaps you had a summon selected that you did not have power for? If you do ever run out of charges you can go back to the last bush as the bushes basically work as checkpoints/mana recharge stations.
LDJam user 374028
24. Apr 2024 · 14:34 UTC
@joe40001 Yeah, I just realized that I simply didn't have any platform mana left and should have spawned a spring instead.
AffinityChris
27. Apr 2024 · 17:50 UTC
I beat it with 61680 mana and died 30 times - love that you have a results screen. Overall, thought it was fun and I like the spawning mechanics were navigational changes. I thought it was odd that the cooldown and the duration of each summoned element being the same time was frustrating, since it seemed to discourage players from using the ability in tandem (which was required to get through the final obstacle). Otherwise, some stuff was a bit difficult to understand without the game explicitly calling it out (like how the mana bushes give you different amounts of mana for each summon, rather than a full restore), but it wasn't anything I couldn't figure out.

Overall, pretty fun, but tough!
Rowlof
27. Apr 2024 · 18:19 UTC
Ayo, I beat it! I don't know if I did the last challenge in the intended way but it worked.
![temp.png](///raw/641/33/z/64d73.png)
🎤 joe40001
27. Apr 2024 · 20:06 UTC
@affinitychris awesome job, and thanks for the feedback! Yeah, if building from the ground up now we'd probably tweak the cooldown system. We were working up until the end (as you can maybe tell by the underwhelming UI, lol) so some things like the cooldown timer which got in a "good enough" state didn't get revisited. But we'll definitely take your feedback in consideration for any post jam version we do!

@rowlof Wow! Looking at that death counter I can see you aren't a quitter! Well done. The final section is hard enough that when we discovered there were somewhat cheesy strats to beat it we left them in anyway. "Intended" route was based around wall slides, wall jumps, and carefully placed platforms. But beating the game any way you can totally counts! :thumbsup:

Great job both of you! And thanks for your feedback and for playing!
Rowlof
28. Apr 2024 · 10:06 UTC
@joe40001 I beat it using midair spring jumps :smile:
JUSTCAMH
28. Apr 2024 · 10:11 UTC
Wooooooo
![Screenshot 2024-04-28 201045.png](///raw/48d/d1/z/64d9a.png)
StaNov
28. Apr 2024 · 21:12 UTC
You saw me playing it live :)

It was very hard for me, as a casual platformer enjoyer :)

The screens were too big to get to the start, so repeating the attempts was tedious.

I liked the choice of music, the adventure was obvious :)

A tutorial teaching me the mechanics would be highly appreciated! :)

Thank you for stopping by!