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The Dragon Keeper Is Late's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Pacifist Theme | #9 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Visuals | #9 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.680 | 3.680 |
| Fun | #15 | 3.300 | 3.300 |
| Audio | #16 | 3.100 | 3.100 |
| Originality | #21 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Briefly explain your games interpretation of the Pacifist theme?
You're running late, so you have to rush through the first task of the day: feeding the dragons! The worst that can happen is mild food poisoning if you give the wrong food to a dragon (but nothing serious). Not sure how pacifist dragons would be outside of this context though.
How much CODE (text or visual) did you make?
You created all of the code from scratch (excluding game engine)
How much of the game's ART did you make?
You created all of the art assets seen in game
How much of the game's SOUND effects did you make?
You didn't create any sound effects - you used existing audio for your game
How much of the game's MUSIC effects did you make?
You didn't create any music - you used existing music tracks for your game
Other comments (Code / Art / Sound / Audio)
The whole game was made over the course of 3 days. Code and art are all done by me (art/animation is hand-drawn using Procreate on iPad). Music and sounds are from different platforms (links are on the game page), with some slight modifications done by me on some sound effects.
This game was made for 2 game jams occurring at the same time, so it follows 2 constraints: pacifist and playable using only one button/key (both very interesting constraints!).
Did you enjoy the jam? Is there anything you'd change if you could start over?
Yes, working on this game was fun, and I'm quite curious to see the different entries!
Not really anything I would change given my current skills level and the time frame. I'll let it sit a day or two before coming back to it to see what I could improve upon with fresh eyes (I already have a few ideas though).
Aren't you awesome for being creative and taking part?
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Comments
This was a charming little dragon feeding game if I've ever seen one! I really liked the dragons that wagged their tails while waiting to be fed. I do enjoy the mental challenge of matching two aspects at once (colour or type). The trouble I had was that once it got so fast, it felt the easiest approach was just to use colour. I did see at the end you gave extra points based on the dragons fed per second, which incentivises not just doing it by colour - but perhaps something displayed on your UI could help encourage that during a play session too!
Thanks for taking part in the jam :)
Thank you so much for the feedback and for hosting this jam!
Glad you enjoyed the game! I have to give credits to the original inspiration for those « wagging tails »: it’s 100% my dog.
I absolutely agree with your feedbacks on the fast moving part. Two improvements I had considered for this (and there are probably other things to do as well):
I find it funny that your game also had a mechanic about matching by color or shape, like mine did :)
I didn't have much trouble understanding the instructions, but I do think the yellow halo on the selected food is a bit hard to notice (I only knew it was there after reading the other comments here 😅). Maybe an arrow right below the selected food would make it more clear?
Just played your game and it's indeed pretty funny! Especially since our games are very different despite having this similar core concept. I suppose we got inspiration from different games though (in my case: a boardgame called "Jungle Speed").
Glad to see you found it easy to understand! You're absolutely right about the yellow halo around the selected food. I actually noticed it towards the end of development and... kind of forgot to fix it as I was rushing through the last hours. An arrow would definitely have been a quick and efficient fix!
Yeah, my inspiration was the card game Set - and at first the matching mechanic was based on it but, when I finally implemented it, it wasn't much fun. I almost threw my game away 😅
I have no clue what to do. Do I need to type the entire word? Because once I start typing a lot of things are happening instantly and I'm confused. The art is nice. Country music isn't something I'd associate with a medieval game, that was hilarious
Thank you for the feedback! No, you don't have to type any word, you just press one key (any key you want, or you can also use left or right mouse click) at a time, and the wizard will throw the farthest right food item. If a dragon is underneath the cart ( dragon is highlighted in pale yellow + some black lines around it), it will eat the food. To avoid mistakes, the food has to match the dragon type or color.
This game was also made for another jam at the same time, the constraint was: "game playable with only one button/key", so it was probably easier to understand in that context. I also added the controls explanation on the game page, but as stated in other comments, I wish I was a bit clearer on what the player is supposed to do.
If you don't mind, could you tell me why you thought you had to type a word?
This is such a cute game! I loved the sound effects and UI design. It was still pretty user friendly and easy to get into! You made it very clear and it was really fun to press, watch, and listen!
I could not imagine being a Dragon Keeper after seeing how stressful it is!
Thank you! For how user-friendly it is, I think it depends on the person: I've seen some understand almost immediately, while others struggle (so not as user-friendly as I wanted...).
Yes, this poor wizard is running all over the place! But usually (hopefully) he isn't like this: it's just because he's late!
Cool concept, but it was a bit hard to know what to do at first
Also try our game!
Thanks! I originally planned to make a tutorial, but ended up being short on time... Plus I think it lacks a few animations/effects in game to make what's happening clearer.
Your game is pretty fun!
love the art!
Thank you!
at first I didn't think my choices mattered but then I quickly realized that I had to match the dragon with the item in the front
very good game
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Yes, there is definitely room for improvement for both the rules explanation (probably some kind of short "tutorial level") and for the actual gameplay readibility (there is a yellow halo around both selected food item and dragon, plus some black lines around the selected dragon, but it's not clear/visible enough right now...).
oh yeah, I did see the black lines around the dragons. I assumed that meant it was the one I was currently in front of (to like feed it the food)
but yeah loved it none the less :D