Play opus
Ja Wizardman's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #8 | 2.985 | 3.500 |
| Fun | #10 | 2.132 | 2.500 |
| Overall | #12 | 2.132 | 2.500 |
| User Interface | #12 | 2.132 | 2.500 |
| Visuals | #12 | 2.345 | 2.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://enygmatic.itch.io/ja-wizardman/devlog/165302/improvements
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Creator of the original Ja Wizardman 4 here. First off, yes, this is sanctioned. It's unofficial and ambiguously canon at best but done with permission. Yes, it goes Ja Wizardman 4 -> Ja Wizardman, with The Old Papers V: Stratopause somewhere in between if I ever get that project off the ground.
This thing is amazingly goodbad and I loved every moment of it. It's not perfect, and I ran into some game-breaking bugs, but for something this ambitious made that quickly that's to be expected.
Also, don't bother playing the original, it's truly awful. Even the remastered version is merely an improvement from unplayably horrendous to barely tolerable.
Thanks for the kind words man!
Also while he may not recommend the original, I highly recommend checking out XCVG's other games. If you're a fan of ambitious game jam submissions like Ja Wizardman, this guy has a fair number of them.
Oh My Gosh, what a game! I absolutely loved this. The audio was pretty good, I noticed the popular front didn't have recorded lines just speech but that's ok. I love the world you've mashed together and I really like the idea behind the combat system. As it is it was easy enough to button mash through combat I wish there was a bit more delay and the control was flushed out a bit more to give that satisfying engagement outwitting the enemy. Really loved your game can't wait to see more.
Thanks for the high praise! Yeah unfortunately I haven't fleshed out the main factions as much I would like yet. The Federal Legion doesn't have voice acting yet either, and each faction only has one or two voiced characters. I was actually planning on clipping a bunch of real Joe Biden soundbites and mixing them together for his voiceover.
Yeah the combat as a mechanic works surprisingly well at a base level, but it really does need a few more layers of polish, along with several layers of polish for the AI. There is currently a system in place to have variable reaction times in NPC's, but due to how buggy their AI is at the moment it works best with reaction time ramped up to max for everyone.
If you enjoy the world I recommend checking out the original game this was based on by XCVG, mine is obviously a bit different from his but I think there's still enjoyment to be had from it. And I will be adding some updates to this game for the next little while, mostly because I intend to reuse some mechanics in future games.
Nice work, man! Too bad it wasn't ready in time for SBIG2020 because I think it would have been up there with the best of them (or should that be the worse of them? ;-) Anyway, definitely worth the wait. Looks like all the hard work paid off. Looking forward to further updates. Great job!
Thanks man! Yeah it sucks I wasn't able to finish it on time but I'm glad I at least have it released now. I plan to push out a few more updates to iron out most of the unintentional bugs, and maybe implement a couple other features I wanted to try.
I think the fight system will improve if you give the player some room to try to figure out the next move. The way the npcs defend after I pick a position of the sword is a little frustrating
Thanks for trying it out! Yeah I do have a couple ideas for changing the combat to make it a bit more dynamic, and fixing the NPC reaction time.
I like the game play. I think you should remind the player when teaching them to fight that they not only have to equip the item in their inventory but also pull it out with R key. And Vosmer (The person at the camp at the beginning) His head follows you but not his body, I think either his head shouldn't follow you or turn his body as well. Finally, picking up the key for the cell, is hard... I would increase the hit box for that action. I had to basically move towards the loot and press E at the same time to do it.
Hey thanks for playing! Yeah the lack of instruction or tutorials has been a common complaint, and one I intend to address in the next update. I always end up leaving quality of life features for the last minute.
As for Vasemor, that's intended as part of the weirdness of the original jam this game was intended for. So as odd as it is, it's a feature not a bug.
Yeah interaction is fucky, that along with the tutorials is the objective of the next patch. I have a couple ideas of how to address it later tonight.
Awesome, overall. I love the game play. I think I understand you as a design from making the big overarching mechanics at the start and then fine tuning them. How I tackle this in my design is I will choose a list of ten major features I want, and focus just on those. Then give 10 hours in a 48 hour game jam time, just dedicated to bug fixing and play testing to bring the quality of life up.
Yeah that sounds like a smart plan, I've always been a kitchen sink designer and tried to cram in as much as possible. But yeah as you said my focus was on making the mechanics function, then focused on adding content and polish afterward.
I'm glad you liked it man! It's been nice to see that being several weeks overdue for the other jam eventually paid off.
It not about when you complete it, it about the journey of doing it. And I wish you the very best with it all!
Was fun to play! I had some bugs thou, like where by pressing "P" all characters losed fell on the floor and because of that trish disappeared from her cage. Also I didn't really like that to fight you had to press "T".
Hey man thanks for trying it out, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yeah I somehow missed that key which automatically enabled rag-dolling for every character in the game. It was for testing but I must have forgotten it since I haven't edited the script for a couple weeks.
When you say press "T" to fight are you referring to pressing "R" for sheathing/unsheathing the sword? If so, that was to make it more like RPG's where NPC's won't talk to you if you have a weapon drawn. Might have been a failed experiment though.
In any case, thanks for the feedback! I'll address the ragdoll button in a patch along with several other issues.
Yeah my bad, I meant "R". Your welcome!
Just FYI I did fix that "P" key bug along with a few others for anyone who plans to try it out. Details of the small patch are here: https://enygmatic.itch.io/ja-wizardman/devlog/165572/ja-wizardman-v11