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Merlin's Mess's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #126 | 4.379 | 4.379 |
| Overall | #345 | 3.954 | 3.954 |
| Design | #400 | 3.759 | 3.759 |
| Adherence to the Theme | #877 | 3.724 | 3.724 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I saw the gifs during development and I loved the idea, but I didn't think it would be this fun to play around!
The mana felt a little too punishing though. I didn't really understand how the two bars worked, and I feel like it was bugged on my first try? Like, the top one wouldn't fill completely, and when I ran out of mana I still had 3 or 4 potions.
But I still tried a few individual levels with the selection and it seems I had more mana to play with, even without all the potions from level 1.
Thank you for the feedback! It's probably not very clear, but the potions are scattered throughout the level and you have to bring them to Merlin so he can drink them. The big Mana pool is your reserve and the small one is your immediate useable Mana.
After all the feedback and play testing, the other developer and I do agree that the Mana availability is way out of balance! We have an updated build that is much more Mana generous, and we'll probably release that after the jam.
Thanks again!
I wasn't sure I'd like this but... I did! For some unknown reason, throwing stuff in the air is fun :D I enjoyed just looking for the objects - the mana bar wasn't even really needed! Maybe rather than counting down, have a bar that counts up the total used? So then if you want to play competitively you can, if not, you can just enjoy hunting around. Good job, had fun with this :D
It's so satisfying to throw a room full of stuff in the air :D The game mechanic is very fun and relaxing, the physics is very fun too, I really liked it.
It's always a good sign when I'm not very good at a game, but still enjoy myself. There's something so cathartic about throwing the piles of junk around and watching them float gently through the air, and it mixes well with the relaxing item-find vibe of the game.
The best critique I can give is that it's not immediately clear that the target items will be visually similar but not identical to other items in the level. Stage two definitely saw me bringing up table after table to the wizard, not understanding why none of them were good enough until I saw the one I was supposed to find had a little wobble on the edges.
Really engaging game, found myself continually trying to beat the levels even though it became apparent very quickly that I was not good at it.
The key issue this game runs into is one of clarity. It is not completely clear as to what you are supposed to do, and how you are supposed to do it. You can see a bunch of spells on the controls menu, but the game never teaches you how and when best to use them. It is also not completely clear when you're about to run out of mana. I have been told that you can pick up potions for more mana, however I never felt the need to do so, as I would not have any idea how much I already had, and instead opted to try and finish the levels before running out, versus looking for potions.
A great idea for a concept, but needs a little more attention to detail from an outsiders perspective (i.e. someone who doesn't know how to play, or is playing for the first time).
Super fun to find the little trinkits! The spells, especially diviniation, definitely gave me "I'm a wizard vibes" :D
Thank you for trying it out!
Merlin had better keep your treasure chest out his vault, or he won't have any trinkets to sort through XD
omnomnom lmao
A nice idea and well executed. I was surprised by how good a job the different layouts do keeping the levels feeling fresh. I did a few levels with just the left mouse button before realising there were more controls (the bottom of the screen was cut off due to my monitor's resolution), and that alone made for a fun little gameplay loop.
Wow, I'm not sure I could beat the levels with just left click, sounds extra hard, haha. Thank you for leaving a comment and trying our game!
Hahaha nice idea! I liked the use of color, nice choice. Congrats!
Thanks for the feedback and for playing! I agree, Edoc did a great job on the art!
Very solid idea, but I think I had more fun making even more of a mess than to actually help Merlin find the object he wants ^^
it can be distracting (it was during development!)
Thank you for giving it a try!
Original idea, challenging yet fair, and fun gameplay loop.
Only problem is the lack of tying in with the theme of the jam, but as a game it's extremely solid
Thank you for playing, we really appreciate the feedback!
wow this game has blown me away.
I did not expet to see something like this,
It is quite an original idea.
Currently it feels a bit hard, but maybe this it is more fun :)
Thank you for giving it a go! It probably is a bit on the hard side. I was worried about it being too easy and I think I might have tilted the scales a bit too far to the other side.