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Mage Hand's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #278 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Theme | #600 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Playability | #801 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Artistic Style | #884 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.
- Game was fun to play, a little hard to tell what the hand was when reading some of the scrolls. Game had a great spin on the theme and the play style was very intriguing. It was frustrating at first, but it made me want to try and understand it better. The simplistic art style was great and let me focus on the mechanics.
- While I found the story interesting to want to look into, along with the way the combat was presented, I did find it to be a bit of a challenge on your regular difficulty to properly read the hand symbols you needed to use, and select the correct key in order to execute whatever power the hand signs would have. The implementation of both themes are quite clever and are used in a way that definitely makes this more intriguing to play. The music was also done quite nicely (big fan of being able to change the settings there), and the art was good, too. I think my only gripe would be with combat as I first stated, though not some super unattainable issue, it just felt a bit more challenging having to use the number keys while balancing everything else out (movement, attack, interaction, etc). Would definitely like to see more from this, so keep up the good work!
- Playability: 3. The controls are very clunky, I had issues reading what fingers were for what spell, and also there is no way to quick cast your previous spell. You also can't easily remember and recall from a spell quickly without having to exit to go to your memory castle place. Theme: 2. Wheres the shadows? Alchemy? Magic in my opinion is not all Alchemy. Cleverness: 4. I really like the concepts this game have, so don't be discouraged by what i've said! I see a lot of potential of this idea is more fleshed out and polished! Artistic Style: 4. Its pretty good, music is a bit loud and would benefit from a sound setting.
- The game is being held back by some gameplay choices. Being able to quickly recall spells would have been amazing. If it's there, it wasn't painfully obvious to me, the player. I died to the first skeleton. It should have been just as easy as the door, or maybe even the note you read before should have said, KILL THE SKELETON WITH A MIDDLE FINGER or something of the sort. The art was good. The music was a tad simplistic, but served its purpose. You're definitely onto something here, but needs to be tweaked to be a bit more accessible.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes!
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
You are a magician who's memory of spellcasting has been stolen. Venture through a mysterious manor where you've been imprisoned, casting spells if you know them. Due to the magical aspects of the manor's rooms, the spells you find may very likely be different. Note that any spells you know how to cast (by just knowing the signs) can be cast no matter what. Your abilities grow as your knowledge grows.
Extra Notes
It may take a while for the game to get "good" or enjoyable, with the building up of game knowledge being an integral mechanic. By failing you learn more about the game and learn more spells, so don't just stop at death if there's time.
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Comments
Really awesome game ! I really like the mechanic to cast spells. I got pretty lucky on my second playthrough since i got the magic revolver spell XD. I used it to deal with pretty much every enemy. Some spells are way more OP than others, though it should be just a numbers issue. Each one is still fun to use, though.
That said, I think it could be nice to have a quick note that can store 2 or 3 spells so players can look up certain spell combinations quickly. Of course, this depends on what direction you want to take the game, but having a memory aid can be really helpful for some players.
Overall, awesome and interesting game ! Enjoyed it really much.
I found this idea incredible! The game is so cool. Just a litle hard when you have to prepair a new spell in a chase, yhe only easy one is the onde that repeat the last spell, but you can only use it one time. But is an amazing game. Great idea, well done!
thank you so much for engaging with the game and enjoying it! i made sure to limit polyspell to only copy non-polyspell spells because otherwise it would've probably been way too easy to rapid-fire cast something like fireball and totally wipe out most enemies. glad you liked it!!!
Awesome game, I love the mage hand mechanic! Not sure if it's intentional but I found a spell combination to do super jumps, no spoilers!
it is intentional! glad somebody found that spell and made good use of it!
I do like the game's concept, the mage hand actually mechanic was quite unique but in all honesty was quite hard.
couldn't make it past the first skeleton
Music and art was good :)
It's an interesting idea, but either I'm terrible or the system is way to confusing to use quickly
Awesome game, super unique concept! I found the spell system a little bit cumbersome/unintuitive to use controls-wise, but with some tweaking, I think it could be a lot of fun. Great art and music as well!
Soooo, the game is pretty hard, I did not make it past the skeleton :( , tried a few times but kept dying.
The spell concept is pretty cool.
Cant say much about the rest of the game, but can see this being a proper game with a bit of polish and playtesting.
Good job :)
lots of people are saying they cannot get past the first skeleton, did you read the spell scrolls on the bookshelf along the way? most spells you can get from that will definitely help, and the game might take some patience to get used to at first but trust me it's really cool once it clicks. i do hope you give it a second try if you feel so inclined.
I read the scroll the first time, but instinctively went; "got dmg spell, lets kill skeleton" only to realise he's gonna pound me into a wall and kill me xD
I played the game again, and got past the first skeleton, but the game is still rather hard(one mistake and an enemy will just walk up and kill you).
Once i got the spider climb spell cast, i did not remember it afterwards, the only spell i remembered was call lightning because it was powerful enough and by constantly reminding myself the "code" 1-2-5,1-2-4,2.
Remembering spells like that is really difficult, especially when its multiple spells.
I plays into your story very well though.
Also the hands on the scroll are kinda hard to read + when i think i did it right, but nothing happened, its hard to figure out which finger was not supposed to be up.
The system is very interesting and cool, if it is also easier to use.
so yeah, tldr; hands on scrolls are hard to read/understand, spells are hard to remember.
hey thanks for giving it a second shot! that really helps. the spells are probably just a bit too complicated at the moment and could've used some balancing. with regards to memorization you could check any spells you previously cast or found in the memory castle from the pause menu, but that probably could've used a much better tutorial to explain as well. i may continue working with this idea in the future so it's good to know what to change, thanks for all the feedback.
played on stream: timestamp