Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

BrainwaveView game page

Mindshifting Strategy Battle
Submitted by parallax.rat — 9 hours, 10 seconds before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Brainwave's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#2103.2143.214
Theme#2273.1433.143
Presentation (graphics, audio)#2772.9292.929
Fun#3612.1432.143

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game represent Mode?
Modes of thinking (Analog & Digital) - Certain skills move your mental state towards a breaking point of either extreme, leading to a shift back to neutral through a powerful final attack.

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted

I liked where this went. Would like to see more. 

Submitted

always love an unfinished product when the direction comes through.! Good attempt, would be cool to see a more fleshed out version of this one. If nothing else the visuls and music were there!

Submitted

Interesting concept! The idea of switching between left and right attacks could be really fun in a full version of the game, with expanded ideas.

Submitted

Cool, looks like you were designing a sort of weaving like turn based combat system! I love that. Unfortunately the game wouldn't let me kill the first enemy, they were just stuck at zero HP :C

Submitted(+1)

Fun initial prototype, interested in what else you were planning for this - Would you be able to swap/upgrade abilities? Think with some additional mechanics (to give a reason to not just force one direction) would help add a lot more complexity to the gameplay.

Developer

Yeah! So my biggest shortcoming via the jam timeline was not getting all of that content that was planned into it - I spent most of the time getting the structure of the combat system, the logic if where your current brainstate was at etc.  

But there was more planned around this mechanic. Enemies that represented one style, or would shift around themselves, upgrades/perks that could modify or replace abilities etc.

This is some of the initial design planning that started things:


Submitted(+1)

Interesting concept and very nice art and music! I couldn't quite figure out if there was a good reason for me not to just go full left or full right. Since the moves seem stronger at the edges, it seemed like there might not be incentive to stay near neutral. Would definitely enjoy seeing this developed further.

Developer

Unforunately in this released form there isn't too much of a reason to do so, outside of this one enemy presented has a shoe-horned weakness to left mode abilities but that isn't telegraphed or informed very clearly outside of one small line in the combat log.

The idea was originally formed around having to dyanmically shift between the two modes. When you reach the max intensity of one area you are forcibly returned to a neutral mind, and temporarily would have the one you just exploded out of be weakened, but the opposite mode would be boosted. Reaching either logic paradox or lucid daydream would also enable additional effects from certain abilities for their duration. An example would be By The Book not just protecting you from debuffs, but it would reflect them back at the enemy for a few turns increasing it's effectiveness.

I posted a couple images in a reply to another comment above that shows the actual diagram that was the basis of the build.

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

The left/right brain modes are a fun twist on conventional turn-based combat systems and a good way of implementing the theme. Could be cool to see more of a distinction between the effects of the analog and digital moves if you decide to develop it further.

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

As much as I'm happy with the visuals and the bit of polish I was able to throw in, I did learn my limits and that next time I should focus more on the content first, because I just didn't have the time to implement it all. I posted a couple images above in another comment that lay out what the system would look like if I had been able to get all of them implemented in time. As this build stands, the only abilities that do anything more than deal [x] damage are By The Book, Meditate and the enemy's Taunt ability - this naturally leaves the majorty of the abilities feeling like little more than the same button with different images.

That reflection on what was able to be completed was worth doing though, gave me a lot of experience to move forward with!