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A jam submission

Phantom of the GroveView game page

You are the forest’s fury - haunt, possess, and prevail.
Submitted by Survansix (@survansix) — 9 days, 5 hours before the deadline
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Phantom of the Grove's itch.io page

Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17JzoJLv8A0BRY47NSzBKyTWiKFGqtGSU10kAlA3PHtE/edit?usp=sharing

Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes

Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes

Summarise your game!
You are the vengeful spirit of an ancient woodland, tasked with defending the sacred Aya trees from relentless invaders.

How to play:
- Move: WASD and mouse.
- Ghost: Click to possess / Space to unpossess
- Loggers: Left mouse button fight / Right mouse button throw weapon
- Energy: Track energy in the top-left, recharge near trees and spend it on possession.
- Objective: Don’t lose the forest!

Please explain how your game fits the theme:
In the face of environmental catastrophe, you don’t just defend a forest: you are the forest. As the vengeful phantom of the grove, you strike fear into invaders by possessing enemies, triggering deadly traps, and twisting the environment against them. Every action you take is a direct extension of the forest’s wrath, making you not just a weapon but the ultimate force of nature.

Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
All of the art is from scratch and made with love. While we have upcycled some of our past projects which never saw the light of day, we've spent heaps of time remoulding them into this game. With that said, we're currently focusing on developing our gameplay juice skills, so if you could provide any insights into how the game felt to play that would be greatly appreciated! E.g. how did you find the controls, was the game intuitive to play, was the difficulty ramp engaging, did you find strategic depth on any replays, etc.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I really like this idea! There are a few problems however. The art is amazing, however the initial impressions leave a lot to be desired.  It would be better to start on a smaller map in order to give the player more time to get accustomed to the mechanics. Additionally, the way the enemies spawn encourage camping as well. The fact that enemies have different weapons that you can use against them is really damn awesome. However, I would simplify the energy system and communicate the ways it drains / grows. Solid game!

Developer

Thanks Vickyboi! Yep totally agree about it being ideal to have multiple stages. Unfortunately the time crunch has made this more a prototype than anything, but in the future I think it would be cool to have "worlds" that you slowly unlock by accessing more and more trees. Good note about the camping and energy communication. Thanks a lot!

Submitted(+1)

I'm sorry, I can barely play this game. The controls are overly precise on a larger screen, there's no in-game way to see the control scheme, and one button is mapped to two actions. The concept is neat, the gameplay is not.

Developer

Hey Feli, thanks for the feedback! May I ask, when you say "larger screen" are you on an ultra-wide? 🤔 Or 1920 x 1080? We definitely need to add an in-game way to view the controls (unfortunately that's been last on the list). Thanks for letting us know about the control issues, we'll try a few things to improve it!

Submitted(+1)

The idea and execution are really well done! I didn’t figure out the energy issue before most of my trees were destroyed, however the forest is now safe forever as the AI cannot successfully path find to the large tree. The all drown in front of the tree, and I am now on day 14 without having done anything. Enemies stopped spawning eventually.

My only criticism is that the days are too short. When you possess an enemy, you only get a few attacks before the day has ended. This makes it near impossible to clear the entire forest quite quickly.

Developer

Thanks DragonMoffon, this is great feedback - really useful. We've fixed the bug where they drown in front of the tree and increased the length of the days by double. I have a feeling you'll have a hard time getting to Day 10 now >:)

Once I figured out that you have to stand next to the trees to recharge energy, I got really into it. Can't get past Day 8 though, it's too crazy...

(+1)

Nice interpretation of the theme. It's probably one of the more unique ones I've seen so far, nice work :)

Developer

Thanks! It's a subject that's dear to our hearts :)

Hordes of goblins are close to my heart too :')