thanks ! weeeell, we are already working on a bigger game for now ! It is called Klay : The Potterymancer. You can follow us on Instagram or Twitter if you want to have news about the project ♡
You fixed what I didn't liked about Cultist Simulator and made your own fun thing. I was totally hooked and curious about everything, the mystery is awesome. On a greater scale, I would love to have a game centered around an ever-evolving Homunculus, and less about "survival".
Congrats on the writing and the art is so strong and bold, love the weird style.
Overall a fun and solid little game. The research and discovery of the different recipes is what made me wanna play more, so if you keep going try aiming for making these very rewarding, in terms of both visual feedback and gameplay effects.
So, I played for half an hour (fair warning : did not finished the game), and I've gotta say, I'm positively suprised of what I've discovered by getting over some of the initial issues.
Here are my (very subjective) thoughts :
- The game needs a better "onboarding". The tutorial is quite slim, you're thrown a bit at random and I would like to get more explanation about it.
- There's an Azerty/Qwerty keyboard compatibility issue, along with some screen size issues, which can be very difficult to understand. Be careful to test your game on different computers/keyboards !
- The lore seems very good. There's a nice melancholic tone, almost poetic at times. Few writers manage to hit that style.
- The pixel art is nicely drawn, but the palette of colors are not there yet, in my opinion. I would have loved something a bit less saturated, or in a more limited palette of colors. (A nice reference site : https://lospec.com/palette-list )
- Also, maybe a less zoomed camera would've helped to enjoy more and feel less lost.
- The main issue of your game is, I think, your level design. And it's probably one of the hardest thing to achieve ! Some parts of your levels feels a bit stretched, some could've been longer. The overall pacing is a bit too slow to make me wanna continue and discover the game. I feel like there's more, but I was repelled by the difficulty of some level parts. It's an iterative process, and a hard one.
- The game feel was nice in the attacks, but the movement felt a bit "slippy". Something slower and with more control would've felt better.
- I didn't used the swap reality power that much. I loved the "maze" idea and the river, but I feel like the game didn't wanted me to use the power, and didn't invite me that much. Maybe more links between the two worlds would've make me want to use it more !
In summary, this is a nice small game that is hidden by the level design and user experience issues, with a nice sad tone. I encourage you to keep going !
Congratulations on finishing the game and participating to this jam. It's such a difficult challenge and your team made it, you can be very proud !
The overall clarity in the item buying system, the recipes and what kind of Homunculus you'll make needs indeed to be improved. We wanted to make a goofy game, but still with a cool gameplay.
Thanks for pointing out the title screen music ! Will add a fading out effect so people can enjoy more the vibe.
Oh we totally forgot about the naming system ! Will absolutely think about it. Darn my post jam todo list keeps on expanding that's awesome.
Omg thank you so much for your lovely words. We're so happy you've enjoyed our silly game and hope you did, in fact, made the biggest and baddest homunculus in existence.
To your more specific feedbacks :
- Oh no someone found it ! :x Yes, we realised that you could use the healing/recycle "abuse" to make your game easier. I guess the only drawback is that you have to redo your little buddies, but the healing system is more of a "ghost" of the beginning of the jam than a really thought system. Will probably swap for an auto-heal or something else entirely.
- The menu bug is linked to a transition/tweening issue, if you don't let the "animation" plays to the end it'll visually bug, but you can indeed find your way back by clicking to the other buttons. Nice catch.
- A recipe to ingredients you've already made is something that I want to add indeed, or at least something to add to the alchemy screen, so you can strategize better.
Thanks again for taking the time to test our entry, there's a lot of them in that jam.
Thanks a lot for your feedback ! It's great to hear everything you had to say. A lot of what you say is completely valid and I added what was missing to my to do list. The difficulty spike and the UI bug are very frustrating ! I'll fix them asap when the jam is finished.
Love the Newgrounds reference. Completely agree on that, got that feeling too ! Thanks for your precious feedback. I've added everything you said to my todo list.
We're so happy you've enjoyed the wizard street fight club ! 🦝🧙🦝
Thanks a lot for your feedback ! It's great to hear everything you had to say. Everything* you say is completely valid and I added what was missing to my to do list. The difficulty spike and the UI bug are very frustrating ! I'll fix them asap when the jam is finished.
Audacious take on the theme, love that! It was sometimes a bit frustrating, especially when the awkward bar was too high, it felt kinda obligated to "break it" in order to start over. But I see the design choice and respect it : It felt stressful and exciting.
Congratulations on the art, cosy, calm and warm, we felt the alchemy between them. :)
It's difficult to prioritize what to focus on in these kind of projects, with such short deadlines ! Making the most fun out of an idea is the hardest thing to do.
Eye catching game, and delivered. The mood and the humor is very cool, but the puzzles were kinda confusing. Little hints, objectives like in Untitled Goose Game would've helped a lot. The small secrets felt very rewarding to find, but I would love to have more things to do as an overall experience.
I would definitely pay for something like that in a fully fledged version with some adjustements. Congrats !
I enjoyed the overall atmosphere and mood, and clearly the artistic direction is awesome. But, fair warning, I did not finished the entire game, and skipped some bits, because the level design felt sometimes unfair and a bit too complex, especially when you don't have a lot of checkpoints. I would've love something a bit simpler and easier to go through, so I would've enjoyed more some of your cool ideas. That would be the only black spot in my opinion.
Anyway, congrats on completing the jam with such a cool submission. :)
Great potential. Felt like the main sequence was a bit too long and the goal a bit too high to reach. I enjoyed the spells, especially the good effect / bad effect it gave. Would've have love to have a game more focused on that though.
Very cool artistic direction, love the characters.
We loved it ! Such a great idea, well done ! This is such a simple yet efficient concept, even if some puzzles were kinda hard. Would've love to see some hint system to unstuck ourselves. Also, a nice story and touching cast of characters, (NUMBER 3 YOU ARE NOT CUTE ahaha loved him)
Too scary! Love the VHS horror atmosphere, Joe is terrifying. As said before, controls was a bit confusing at first, but once we got the hang of it, it felt nice.
The atmosphere and the mood is there. Clearly a great hommage. The gameplay is difficult to grasp at times, would've love to see more context and scenario around that core idea.
Good job, enjoyed the mood and the artstyle. Some attacks were a bit hard too read, but felt good when it hits. Enjoyed the chara design also, reminded me of Medievil!
Was hooked right away, but I didn't got the controls right at the beginning, a small reminder (like a sprite of a key/button over the cauldron for example) would've been a nice touch.
Overall the core loop is working as intended, even if that's a tad repetitive at some point. I would've love to see a bit more stronger variety in the upgrades or some kind of more clear end goal, maybe some more situations where you have directly agressive enemies to prepare you to the inevitable overload.
The art is really cool and cute, I love the dark tavern/bar setup and the overall mood is really cool and somewhat cosy, even if that's stressful af when customers piles up.
Bravo to you, congrats on completing the jam with a finished and successful game !
