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Trials of the Arcane's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #198 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Game Design | #723 | 2.929 | 2.929 |
| Theme | #761 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
| Overall | #774 | 2.827 | 2.827 |
| Innovation | #870 | 2.571 | 2.571 |
| Audio | #985 | 2.321 | 2.321 |
| Fun | #1027 | 2.429 | 2.429 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
In what way does your game fit the theme?
Random chaos effects happen as a side effect of the wizard's magic.
Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
All assets and code created from scratch except for the few credited in the game credits.
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Comments
Honestly, I keep playing so the despair doesnt get to me! well done friend, fun ideas!
Good game!!
The player animation is super expressive, but it just looked a little clunky. Also the movement is kind of slow.
Nice Job! I wished the the character moved a little faster but it added to the chaos!
It does definitely make it more chaotic - perhaps we should have rolled with the 'its a feature not a bug' line ;)
Thanks for reviewing :D
I liked the character animations, especially when jumping/falling and his scarf going up makes it look realistic. There wasn't really any music throughout the level so when I hit a spike and the character made a really loud noise it made me jump haha. As others have said, the movement needs to be improved, but I really liked the art. Well done team :)
Hey, thankyou for testing & reviewing :)
We were going for a more realistic movement type so glad that came across - but it definitely needs some adjustments to make it easier to use.
Sadly we ran out of time at the end for adding more music and sounds through the game - would have been great to have! Will make sure we set things up for it sooner next time :)
Great SUbmission, just wished that the controller was a bit more snappy! Video Review: 54:40 Trials of the Arcane
Hey - love the video review, thanks for doing that, really gives us a good idea of someone else playing it!
We've taken onboard peoples reviews on the controls and will make sure we get them a bit snappier next time. We tried to build in a bit of realism (slower movement and a slight delay when switching direction as you shift the weight) but it does make it a bit harder than some platformers as a result.
The combination of underground spikes growing and arrows falling from above is the hardest 2 chaos abilities combined - usually if you get arrows you can go underground to avoid, and with spikes can go through the trees, but with both its much harder :D You were unlucky to get that combination when the wizard sent you back in time.
Nice art! You should improve movements control however, it is a bit frustrating.
Nice job though!
Thanks :)
Some great feedback from people which we can build on next time :D
I loved the game and art!
What i didn't understand was the objective and also why u didn't use the font u used in the menu!
Hey - thanks for playing & reviewing.
Sadly ran out of time to implement new screens in the game as I was brought in later on to do the art due to family visiting so the black screens with default font were put in temporarily but then didn't get chance to replace with nicer ones else we certainly would have -that and music/sound effects were the 2 things we really wanted to have included before release but didn't get chance.
The objective is to get to the tower & defeat the wizard - but when you get there the first time the screen that pops up tells you he sends you back in time and chaos is a side effect of him doing that, so you have to do it again avoiding the chaos. Had we had more time there would actually have been several run throughs with more and more chaos each time :D
Did you not get the popup at the wizards tower to tell you why you were sent back to the starting cabin?
yeah i didn't get any pop up msg
I got teleported and i was super confused haha
Ig i found a bug
This is what you should have seen :D
Another naff design screen though - didn't get chance to implement nicer ones!
i think it looks good enough for a jam game!
I am sure if u had a bit more time
It would have been a banger video game!
ahh thanks - we have learnt a lot from everyone reviewing and definitely some things we would change for next time - not least the fact that we'd have 4 extra days due to not having family staying during the jam!
Hi there! I have some feedback for your game:
1. I unfortanetly don't know where to go, and i don't know what todo. Maybe you can explain that to me, but i just can go to the castle and then everything repeats.
2. The jump (animation) seems kinda buggy and it seems like the character doesn't immediately react to the player's inputs.
3. The assets all look great, but they sometimes don't really fit together.
4. Why do you use the standard font for the game over? You have such a nice font in the main menu?
5. Add music! Also, choose a different hit sound efffect.
I hope my feedback helped you, and maybe you can explain the game to me, and it would be cool if you could check out my submission too. Thanks! :)
Hey, thanks for checking out our game :)
The first playthrough is simple enough in that you just have to get to the wizards tower - he then sends you back in time to stop you reaching him, but as a result creates chaos in the land (random effects happen - like arrows falling from the sky, spikes growing and enemy mobs which will hurt you, the idea being that you have to go underground for example to avoid arrows / above trees to avoid the massive spikes) but we ran out of time to develop other chaos effects sadly as the idea originally was to have each run through get more chaotic).
At present if you then reach the tower a second time you can defeat the wizard.
We had other sound effects lined up -music for different zones & when you take damage etc. but ran out of time to implement - family visiting took up a lot of development time :D Would have loved to have done this but not to be this time.
I tried to create assets with a similar graphic style, but have no experience in animation (and had no time really for learning!) so a prebuilt asset was used for the NPC & players - which aren't quite in keeping with the rest of the style used. I've more of an idea now anyway looking at the sprites as I did customise them a bit to create the NPC & Wizard so hopefully if they do another I can help more with the player animation stuff!
Standard font was simply because I ran out of time to create screens to use in the game as I was only brought in to do artwork after our family went home - I focused on ingame assets first and then the main menu screens. My son & husband are coders rather than designers so tend to go for the default stuff :)
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
Interesting art and background! It reminded me of picture books. I also like the character frame movement animation. While some platform are hard to distinguished from the background, but that makes it interesting in its own way.
I wish the movement are a bit faster and more reactive to controls because I find it to be quite hard to jump to specific point. Other than that I think it is a nice game!
Hey,
Thanks for checking out our game :)
Yes the tree platforms are designed in such a way that they do blend in a bit - but once you know what you are looking for they are easy enough to spot from then on :D
Character movement seems to be a consistent theme in our reviews - the aim was to go for a slower more 'realistic' movement pace, but probably needs tweaking based on the feedback we've received.
Thanks for your review , and glad you otherwise enjoyed it :D
Great game! and superb graphics/art, the controls were a bit difficult as I took time to jump from one platform to another, overall its a great game! keep it up!
Thanks for checking our game out :)
Seems like the controls is a consistent theme in our reviews so we'll make sure to work more on that next time, though the slower pace animation was partly by design as we wanted a more 'realistic' pace to the movement rather than the usual zipping around everywhere
Glad you otherwise enjoyed playing & thanks for reviewing :)
Nice art style and design . 100% giving a 5 star on graphic
ahh thankyou for reviewing - glad you liked it :)
The art is so good. Must have taken you a lot of time to make. But the controls were a bit off. Couldn't jump over some obstacles. good game overall!! good job!
Hey, thanks for testing & reviewing :)
I was brought in fairly late on due to family visiting to do artwork so didn't quite manage to get everything done in time I'd have liked! But glad you like it :)
Controls are a consistent theme in our reviews so we'll make sure to reassess that next time - we were trying for a slower pace but sounds like it needs tweaking! I could do most obstacles but not all - but my son & husband (the coders) play far more platformers and had no troubles themselves :D
ohh lol I might be a noob then. I legit wasnt able to jump up some obstacles XD
The art is beautiful. But you should work on controls, it's too slow and even jumping on a tree is very hard.
Great game all around, and definitely has the potential for a lot more levels. The only thing that could maybe use a little work is the player movement. Nice job!
I defeated the chaotic wizard! Nice idea fits the theme well.
Really nice graphics! Even though you didn't make the character yourself, it fits really well with the rest of the game. I do wish the movement were a little bit more responsive because it kinda felt like everything was an ice level.
Gave me some old school Flash game vibes.
Took a little bit before it clicked with me.