Ouija Boy: What's My Name? by VaustXIII

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

You have summoned a demon! But you forgot rule 2 of demon summoning: if you want them to obey, you have to know their name. Luckily your sister's Ouija board has just what you need to try and guess the name. Be quick! The candle protecting you will not last much longer...

HOW TO PLAY

GOAL: Guess the demon's name before the candle burns out.

Type any existing word (for example, "Interest") and hit Enter!

If the demon's name starts with the same letter (or letters) as the word you typed, these letters will be highlighted green in the middle of the screen (for example, "I", "N")

Next, you need to make new words starting with these green letters (in this example, "Index", "Interior", "Infinity" etc.) until you unlock all green letters or guess the whole word (in this example, "Inferno")

Once you guess the demon's name in time, you WIN!

Otherwise, the demon takes your soul...

Good luck!

Pro tip: when you have almost got it - try all forms of the word. For example: sin, sins, sinned, sinning, sinful, sinfully, sinless etc. Those demons are quite cunning...

Ratings

Overall 942th 3.241⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1065th 2.879⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 549th 3.411⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Theme 628th 3.621⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Humor 927th 2.426⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Mood 627th 3.5⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Given 52🗳️ 34🗨️

Feedback

Gnum_
16. Apr 2024 · 22:49 UTC
I really liked your game. You did a great job and did a great job!!!
aameliebernardd
16. Apr 2024 · 22:53 UTC
This is very innovative in my opinion and I really liked it! Unfortunately I am not a native english speaker so I had to do a couple guesses :P
prcastro
16. Apr 2024 · 22:59 UTC
I'm so bad at it! But I liked the atmosphere!
Justin Pena
16. Apr 2024 · 23:03 UTC
This was very solid guessing game! I liked it a lot.
ditam
16. Apr 2024 · 23:19 UTC
I really enjoyed this one! Very simple concept with beautiful polish, bravo! It really needs a give up / reset button though, I kept having to reload the page, because I'm apparently bad at guessing words, but I wanted to keep playing.
TheKatMol
17. Apr 2024 · 19:51 UTC
As a non native speaker of english it was hard even on what I assume is the easiest level (IMP). nevertheless, it was fun trying to guess the name of the demon.
🎤 VaustXIII
17. Apr 2024 · 21:01 UTC
Thank you everyone for the feedback! We're glad you've liked it :)

@aameliebernardd @thekatmol yeah that's the thing about word games they definitely need translation/localization, unfortunately we didn't have enough time for it. Maybe post-jam version...
🎤 VaustXIII
17. Apr 2024 · 21:02 UTC
@ditam I was thinking about the "give up" option, but I think one of the fun parts is getting stuck for a bit and then having a moment of inspiration and making a breakthrough. I'm gonna think about it again and weigh all the pros and cons of adding it in the post-jam version. Thank you very much for bringing this up!
Merrow
17. Apr 2024 · 21:53 UTC
Was hard for me to find the names, but nice atmosphere and idea, well made!
LDJam user 383058
20. Apr 2024 · 06:31 UTC
I really love the idea. It reminds me of a saying from Jahan in *Divinity: Original Sin 2* - "**A demon's true name is its weakness**".
Though, it is quite difficult for me (not native). Perhaps adding more hints and clues and some constraints on words and spelling would help.
LDJam user 237945
20. Apr 2024 · 19:19 UTC
The graphics really helped to create the ambience! Was quite difficult to guess even on the IMP level, but being non native english speaker must have contributed to that. But overall very nice and well made game!
satacat
20. Apr 2024 · 23:57 UTC
i didnt get what am i supposed to do in the first place but then i realised its something like wordle and things got interesting.. the idea is quite simple and can be explored in different ways, well done!
Lisek Gagatek
20. Apr 2024 · 23:59 UTC
Cool game, very replayable. The rules are simple, but fun. The game was a bit harder for me, as I'm not a native English speaker, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!
Brainbetter
21. Apr 2024 · 21:49 UTC
As someone who regularly plays word games in English, I had a lot of fun with that. Definitely found myself speed-typing and trying to remember what letter combinations I'd eliminated!
LDJam user 267116
24. Apr 2024 · 03:50 UTC
Nicely executed, tight game with a fun take on the theme. Good job!
K-toll
01. May 2024 · 19:42 UTC
Good guessing with the ouija board.
The graphics and sound go well together for this type of game.

English is not my mother tongue and my vocabulary is very limited... I wasn't able to fully enjoy the game.

But I really enjoyed the rest of it, well done!
Volkolak
02. May 2024 · 16:43 UTC
Very cool idea. I have an average level of English, but nevertheless I managed to catch the demon. The decoration adds atmosphere, especially this candle. I would also like to add more versatile musical accompaniment. Overall it turned out very cool!