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A jam submission

Pen & SwordView game page

Form words from a set of six letters to defeat your enemies.
Submitted by Cody Mace (@CodyRMace) — 23 hours, 43 minutes before the deadline
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Pen & Sword's itch.io page

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Comments

Submitted

Very fun!

The intro animation with the falling letters is really neat.

Three classes? In a jam game?! And upgrades? Very impressive.

It feels like maybe the game is a bit too easy right now, with the upgrades and everything? I made it to level 17 on my first run, which seemed crazy far.

When I'm at a point (after upgrades) where a three-letter word is worth nine points, it feels a bit odd for a six-letter word to be only worth twelve points. Maybe have an extra bonus for a six-letter word?

I really enjoyed the main mechanic, especially having to strategize about when to use words, and having to remember words you've thought of but want to save to use for later.

I love the character art. Fighting with a pen is great!

I could imagine this being really fun as a daily game where everyone has the same seed. This isn't something I would want to sit and play for a long time, but I would play it daily (if the games were typically shorter than 17 levels.)

What a great, polished jam submission! It really feels like a full game. I did find some bugs, but they didn't detract from my enjoyment:

Bugs:

  • Somehow, I was once able to submit the same word twice? (See used words in screenshot below.) I was only able to do this the one time.
  • When I did the +5 health upgrade, it didn't show my new health immediately (but it did after my next move).
  • Somehow, I got into a mode where hitting "enter" was functioning as "backspace" if what I had typed wasn't a submittable word. It was only temporary.
  • I got the same set of letters two levels in a row. It seems like there are only a small number of letter combinations (I later got other repeats, but never twice in a row). It felt weirder to me having it twice in a row than with some space between.
  • Somehow after I ended the game (I hit "quit" instead of starting a new game), I was able to resume my game, and I still had some health left.
  • It also seemed like I was able to get in an attack after dying (before hitting "quit").

Developer (1 edit)

Hey, thanks so much for playing and for leaving such a detailed comment. This info is very helpful. I agree that it's too easy right now, I had it too hard and then made a finally adjustment before submitting. I have some ideas though on how to make it harder, but also more strategic in order to get past the really hard fights.

I'm also contemplating having a set length instead of the game being endless. So if you have any thoughts regarding that, I'd love to hear them.

Submitted

Hmm, I like the idea of having a high score of how far you got, for replayability's sake.