Play demo
The Needlemancer - Demo playground #GodotWildJam27's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Controls | #9 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Fun | #14 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Audio | #16 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Overall | #17 | 3.259 | 3.259 |
| Originality | #21 | 2.889 | 2.889 |
| Theme | #23 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
v3.2.1
Wildcards Used
None
Game Description
Wield the power of the needlemancer!
Source
Spaghetti!
Discord Username
Bobbi Burrs#6374
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Comments
If you wish to make a full-fledged game out of this demo, please include “feedback” when attacking an ennemy or getting hit. The spell are great but they lack impact.
As other have said, there are good visuals and spells. It reminded me of some shoot them up as well.
Hello Sayanel! Thanks for trying it and your suggestions. Right now spines which hit produe a small particle and enemies briefly flash white (mostly visible on ghosts as they have some HP, whereas bats have 1 or 2 I think). Maybe I should make the particles bigger or add some sound (which I was a bit afraid of doing due to the sheer volume of bullets). Do you think player also needs more feedback on top of sound and screenshake?
In my opinion (so take it with a grain of salt), I do think the ennemies more than the player needs more feedback.
I can only suggest you The art of screenshake. It is 30mn long~ but the tips given in this video would -in my opinion once again- synergise very well with the feel of your game. So something like a small freeze when hit, random bigger explosion and permanent impact when hitting an ennemy.
Thanks for sharing! I'll dive into it and see what I can apply to my game.
The sprites and effects of this game are really polished. The setting is a little bit strange. Why can a cactus fly and why is he fighting against bats and ghosts. That's definitely new. ;P
One things I struggled the most with were, starting the game. Needed way too long to hit enter to start. :D
Hello dunkelgrau! Thanks you for tryin the demo and commenting. The setting is weird indeed. The original idea was to fight a Demonology book who summoned minions on the way. The cactus wizard was just an old idea sleeping in my sketches. I thought it could make for a fun character in an '80s style cute 'em up, using different configurations of spines as bullets.
I agree it's not super clear how to start the game, sorry it wasted your time. I'm still working on this prototype and I hope to turn into a short full game.
That was way better than I expected with "small demo". I'm not sure how I was doing (I'd probably have died in two seconds if I could have), but that was ALMOST a game. The art was good, it had music, it had sound effects, the controls were responsive.. it even has a menu with volume control (which I always want to make in my entries, but always gets cut).
I specially liked the cactus attacks. It shots spines. Of course.
Hello angelab! Thanks for playing and the kind words! If you want I can share my volume control thingy with you, it's pretty simple and you can just copy/paste it in projects. I only used it twice, but I should get a habit of including it in all my jam games I think.
It's embarassing I called it Needlemancer but the actual name for them is spines... ^^
Hey! Sure! I always like to look at other people's code. If you want to take a look at any of mine, the source is linked in the submission for the jam ;)
About the name, if it makes you feel better, I didn't know if "needle" was a common word for the thingies, or just word-play for the title, and I had to look up the proper name for them xD.
You just need a slider going from -24 to 0 value wise (you can use a different range, I like that one which was used in the tutorial I followed). Then you connect the value_changed signal to a script running this code:
func _on_VolumeSlider_value_changed(value):
You need to tweak the buses if you want to use different ones for music and sound effects. This will affect the master volume. Enjoy!if value == -24:
AudioServer.set_bus_mute(AudioServer.get_bus_index("Master"), true)
else:
AudioServer.set_bus_mute(AudioServer.get_bus_index("Master"), false)
AudioServer.set_bus_volume_db(AudioServer.get_bus_index("Master"), value)
Pretty cool demo with some nice sprites and effects, not surprised to see solid shmup mechanics since you already showed some in the past :)
Also having a cactus be a wizzard is certainly something you don't see everyday :p
There's no lives in this demo but i feel the screen gets "bullet hell - ish" a bit too soon and makes the game quite hard but nothing a bit of balancing can't fix.
I like that you get a circular spam fire of your own to use though ! And the full menu with control layouts for both keyboard/controller and the bg color change and all are nice.
So appart from the difficulty balance, i can oly agree with what's been said already, add in win/lose conditions, a score and you got yourself a cool game, which if you make it endless score base can be pretty well suited for mobile as well.
Good job there dude ^^
Hi PixelMetalWolf! Thank you so much. Unfortunately there is no level design in the current demo, it's just randomly spawning dudes in order to have something to shoot at/dodge while testing. I didn't actually complete a proper game (I am very slow), but i still wanted to share what I managed to create. I will try and update this into a meaningful game.
no probelm it's till a solid gameplay showcase, plus jam deadlines are rough when you're doing everything on your own :)
Don't kid yourself. All you need to add is a score counter and 3 lives and some balancing and you have a great shmup. The graphics and UI are gorgeous, and the Needlemancer feels great to control.
Hi lapspider45, thank you for playing. I am happy you liked the visuals, with some more effort I will try to make a well paced shooter out of this. The balancing part will be the most difficult and time-consuming I think.
The sprites are lovely!
fun game liked the cool efects
Interesting, but I'd like to see more!
I get that this is just a demo, but I'm liking what I see! The visuals are amazing, and the different abilities work really well. I think it could be amazing with some more time!
I had issues knowing what my hitbox was thought as it seemed to be smaller than the sprite? Unsure, or it just was not communicated very clearly whenever I was invincible.
Great game!
Hello Golden! Thanks for taking the time to play around with my project and for the kind words. I am glad you liked the visuals, as it was where I put most of my effort and it was my first attempt at pixel art. Hopefully I'll be able to make a fun little shooter out of it, with time.
The hitbox is indeed a little smaller than the sprite, as it is custom with 2D shooters although you are right in assessing that it's not clear where it actually is (mostly the face area). I might probably just make it the whole cactus. Thanks for the feedback!