Spirits of the Forest by aucguy
I over-scoped and made a game that was too complicated, but here it is anyway.
Description
The game is a turn based strategy game that consists of four levels. Spirits can inhabit trees. You control the red, green and white spirits while the computer controls the yellow spirits. Your spirits will attack the computer's and vice versia. Once a spirit loses enough health it will die. You may spawn (summon) your own spirits into uninhabited trees.
Spawning spirits and going to the next level costs mana. Having white spirits in elder trees (i.e. the bigger ones with a white outline) will give you mana.
Additionally, darkness expands over time and will hurt your spirits.
Controls
To spawn a spirit click a spirit in the HUD and then click a tree to place it.
The buttons A (archer) selects the red spirit, M (mage) selects the green
spirit and E (elder) selects the white spirit.
To go onto the next turn press the TURN button or press Z.
To go onto the next level press the LEVEL button.
ESC pauses the game and allows you to go back to the main menu.
Use the arrow keys to scroll. Use + and - to zoom.
Abilities & Costs
Red spirits attack more frequently and at only one enemy at a time. They cost
5 mana.
Green spirits attack less frequently and at multiple enemies at a time. They
cost 10 mana.
White spirits do not attack, but gain mana when placed in elder trees. They cost
30 mana.
Moving onto the next level will require you to have all 300 of your mana.
Ratings
| Overall | 319th | 2.86⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 318th | 2.7⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 200th | 3.22⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 190th | 3.52⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 335th | 2.38⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 272th | 2.208⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 286th | 1.974⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 296th | 2.729⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 20🗳️ | 28🗨️ |
A few things that could improve the user experience:
* If there are no enemies, automatically increase the turn counter.
* Is there reason that the user needs to press the "level" button once they have enough mana to move to the next level? It seems like this could be automated. If you have enough mana, it seems there is no reason to want to stay on the current level
* This could be really cool as an "auto battler"! If the game recognizes that the player has no moves available besides pressing the turn button, the turn could auto increment.
* The sound volume was rather loud and could be turned down a lot. I normally have my computer volume around 30-40%, and this was at a good volume when I turned my volume to 4%
Hope to see you continue this idea!
Had to play the first level a few time before I got the mechanic down. I really like it, has a nice puzzle aspect.
Maybe a bit hard from the beginning, but all in all a very nice game. :thumbsup:
I think the game really lacks an in-game tutorial. There are instructions on the web page, but having contextual hints would really enhance the experience.
Great job! Good luck with your future projects!
Also, it would be nice to see some screen shots on your page.
I think @thinkwithgames put down a lot of what could be improve at least on the UX side, but mechanics wise movement probably would be something to look for, as it would be less of a "how many trees are in range" thought process.