itch.io

Dear All,

I’m happy to share the release of the https://wandering-peak.itch.io/forbidden-finals.

It’s a PnP board game to play with your family and friends.

It’s the last night before the exams, and you play as students who have broken into the Forbidden Library. Will you manage to prepare for the Final Test in just one night, or will you summon chaos demons instead?

Players take turns studying chaos manuscripts in an attempt to improve their skills and theoretical knowledge and prepare for the Final Test. At the same time, they need to keep an eye on the level of chaotic energy and destruction in the library. Otherwise, their study rush could be stopped by an invasion of either chaos demons or angry professors. Main mechanics: Roll and Total

The game was designed for 2024 Children & Family Game Design Contest at BGG.

Number of players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 45-60 min

Game Design: Wandering Peak (C) 2024

All components fit into 3 A4 Pages.

The game looks fascinating. I like the interactive story concept, which is also very close to my heart.

I didn’t progress far, though, mainly because of two reasons:

1. The font was extremely small for my eyes.
2. The combat buged out for me. Or maybe I didn’t understand how it works.

Sorry, I can’t read this text on a retina laptop. I suggest you change the font to a more readable one because the main purpose is to convey the information and then to be beautiful. Please also allocate more space for the text in general because reading it is the single important action in the game. There is no need to have only a tiny dialog window while the rest of the screen is unused. When I’m in dialog, I would prefer to interact with text mostly, and the rest of content becomes of a secondary importance.

The download link, although marked as cross-platform, gives you an archive with a Windows executable only.

Thank you for your game! The art for characters looks great. Overall, there’s a lot of content, as it seems. The starting dialog contained a lot of information that was hard to understand without the context. Then, you slowly start to understand the setting and the plot, but the main characters and their relations remained a mystery for me.

I would lower the amount of VFX that appears randomly on the screen. They look good, but there are just too many of them for my taste. It’s distracting. It would also be great to have characters’ names visible somewhere during dialogs to know with whom you are speaking.

A full-screen button in the browser version would also help to enjoy the game better.

A nice miniature. Enjoyed playing it, thank you.

It is a very interesting game with engaging but somewhat complex mechanics to my taste. It’s fascinating to navigate through the host of monsters while also thinking about the positive and negative charges. Still, I would prefer some basic, less brain-intensive attacks for a change. The helpers were super helpful until the host of monsters became too large. Then, it was hard to do anything. I shouldn’t let them grow, but I only got into mechanics after losing some 10 HP. That’s probably due to personal incompetence in such games.

I noticed one minor problem: in rare cases, enemies can hide behind the large crystals and can ambush you. You cannot deal with it because they are entirely hidden behind. I didn’t quite understand what the forge itself was doing.

Nice little puzzle with an interesting and original idea! Thank you for your game, I had a pleasure playing it.

Thank you for trying our game! You collect resources by clicking on them while they fly in the air. To forge, you drag and drop them back onto the ground into a pile according to one of the recipes.

Quite a fun game. I rarely play similar games, but I enjoyed it. It did feel challenging, but not too hard. Just the right level to keep you trying again and again, each time getting a bit further. Obstacles are very thematic, and I love the final little touch: the picture of a melted or quashed cube. Great game made with love!

The art style and MC animations are superb. However, the game was very slow on my computer. I played it in the browser. Maybe because of the lags or maybe because such games are not one of my strengths, I can’t make it far enough to see the actual forge. I understand that the author may pass this challenge easily, but I recommend that in the future, adding a setting for game complexity, easy/hard, will help to engage many more players who like exploring more than fighting.

I love your art, and the music is also very nice. The concept is quite exciting and intriguing. I played only once, though. Exploring different endings doesn’t motivate me enough on its own. If the game built more connections with the story and characters, then it would become more tempting to see the alternatives.

Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad that you enjoyed the game :)

Thank you for your feedback! It’s great that the game worked well for you.

The auto scrolling of the camera could be improved, I agree. We can make it less jaggy if we don’t immediately retreat when your unit dies. We could live without it, maybe, but the latter needs testing. You see, some camera limits are a must in such a game. Otherwise, you can scroll to the right and start Stomping the enemy castle right from the start :)

Thank you for playing and for your feedback! I’m glad that you found it cool. Having only a limited window for a dragon action is an important challenge in this game. Without it would be too easy to make your way through the enemy defences.

Quite a dynamic game. I played it a few times. The first time, I managed to survive for quite a long time. Maybe because there was a face painting several times in a row, and I made some money for living thanks to it. But I didn’t have money to buy any instruments. My art skills are not good enough. It was hard even to survive during my second and third plays. There were several filled paintings, and the games offered me about 5-10$ each. And I died. But it was fun.

Thank you for the fun game! I fought 44 times and died 4 times. :) I dutifully crafted until I reached 120/170. The art is fantastic. If you add music, it will be a wholesome experience. The combat is a bit repetitive, but not too repetitive to repeat it 44 times. I really enjoyed the game.[Spoiler alert] But the dragon was a bit of a surprise in the end. I expected a tough challenge, but it was easy to win at that point. Overall impression very positive.

Thanks for the gorgeous game. The art is astonishing. The music is perfect as well. But the number of enemies… is a little too much for my taste. I could barely survive a few seconds when a wave came.

It’s a wonderful game. I appreciate meeting the creator in person, but I would suggest placing a ‘continue’ button on the splash screen.

The visuals are clean and modern. The music and SFX match the game well. Especially the SFX, which builds anticipation during mining.

Sometimes the scene and the character become whiter. Is it also an effect? It looked like an interesting peculiarity.

Wondering around was quite atmospheric despite the fact that there was mostly bare landscape (or was it thanks to it?). There was a constant feeling of being alien to this place and also a feeling that you needed to keep track of where you went so as not to get lost. Placing some Easter eggs on such a level would feel very rewarding for a wandering player. Or were there some? :)

I have to admit that collecting the other 6 x 3 of the same elements did feel redundant. My kid really wanted to see the tiger, so we just went to the wild and waited there. XD

I only managed to pass the first level. :) The idea is interesting, and the graphs and animations are nice. The grumpy smiths are pretty brutal—they punish the apprentice for a single mistake!

Maybe in a game like this, you need enemies with more or less fixed routes with some variations. Otherwise, when it is completely random like now (it looks random at least), you can’t really plan your job. Also, it just may happen that one smith makes a puddle, and the other one discovers it soon after, and you don’t even have a chance to clean up because you can approach the place without approaching these bullies.

Overall, it’s an excellent idea, and it could make a nice, puzzle-like game when tuned a little.

It is very original and fun. I was ready to play more if the mic didn’t stop working. Is there a workaround?

The game gives an excellent RPG experience. And you made it in just a single week. This is something. Congratulations. The music and graphics are very good. The Combat system is quite original. At Least I haven’t played anything like this before. At first, it looked puzzling. With one enemy, the combat was like an image matching in a game for children. But with a couple of more advanced enemies, it becomes much more interesting.

I defeated the final boss and was ready to play more :)



I didn’t fully get how the elements work. But forging two of my dice with elements/spells really won the final battle for me. On every turn, I had either a shield or a sleep spell, so the snake was helpless.

A few side notes:

1. During the forging of dice, you want to know what elements do.
2. Dice in combat and foreign were in different positions for me. Confusing
3. There is no way to roll one step back if you made a mistake during forging and exceeded the budget.
4. Some enemies are too cute.
5. The map is excellent.

Good luck with your game!

Nice idea. Relaxing. It would be interesting to play more if you fix the issues. My character got stuck on the second level for me and prefers to walk on the water :)

Wow that was cool. I like how you achieved solid gameplay with just a handful of elements. The game has its vibe, and there is a pleasant feeling when get your chance to push back after first retreating slowly before giants. I didn’t understand why some hoplites were bigger than others. The winning tactic for me was to maintain the steady recruitment of spearmen while gradually increasing the number of archers. In the end, we were unbeatable :) The animations are super cool. The music is pleasant and relaxing until it is interrupted by the sound of a dying man, which helps conjure up the vibe of Ancient Greece.

Thank you for playing and for your feedback! To collect resources you need to first Stomp! on things and creatures on the ground, and then quickly click on the resources that fall out :)

Stomp is this button:

Thank you for playing! We will improve the accessibility after the jam. Please take a look at the main page for the HOWTO. To Stomp or Forge, you need to click the corresponding dragon button:

Before forging, you need to drag the resources out of the left grid and drop them on the ground in the level:

Thank you :)

Nice to meet you again! And I’m glad to see how your game is progressing. The changes you’ve made since the last jam are great. The new levels are also good. I finished up to C2 yesterday.

Maybe you can consider allowing players to adjust heading/cargo with WASD. Quite oftern, when I was experimenting with +-1/2 degrees, it was a bit tedious to do it with a mouse.

A couple of soundtracks would make the game even better.

The idea is interesting. Maybe a more lively gameplay would make me stay with the game longer.

Best luck!

I like your game. It has dynamics, and the graphics are nice. The music will add even more to the atmosphere.

The first time, I died in the middle of the level, and the second time, I made it to the end, almost consumed by the virus. I saw a victory overlay soon after I thought that having some save points here and there could be handy.

A minimap would also help with exploring around.

I didn’t use all the abilities that match except for the ray. The ray helped a lot with big packs of enemies.

The shield (was it a shield?) time was too short for me. My skills in real-time gaming are not strong enough to use it effectively.

It was easier to kill robots with a gun, even in relatively large packs, because they were slow. The guards posed more danger. One problem was that it was impossible to tell when they were going to shoot at you. Maybe some anticipation animation would help here.

The slide I didn’t use also. Again, not with my real-time skills.

Best luck with your game!

A very pleasant-looking and exciting game, thank you!

I think you can make the text larger, especially the cards. I couldn’t read the text on the cards.

On the other hand, it didn’t stop me from understanding what does what. Except maybe for the star—what does it do?

I didn’t encounter any bugs, but the game stuck after taming the island. Is this a bug?

The game has a clear and clean process, I would say. You can easily build upon it what you want. Regarding your question, it depends on what you want to make of it. I would add some story, personally, so there will be a start and an end. And player would feel the progressions and learn about the lore and the personality of the protagonist.

Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad to hear that you completed all the levels! Generating levels could work, actually. The game mechanics are not that complex, but I never did it before, and it’s not in the immediate plans. I also gradually came to the conclusion that I could at least double the number of levels without adding any new mechanics. This would be the next task here.

Thank you for playing! Your idea about the prizes is quite interesting. I thought about achievements for passing challenge levels, and we can make them as stickers. We’ll see. And maybe, we can give prizes even without special challenges. After all, solving a puzzle is already a challenge.

The game was quite atmospheric and perplexing. On the other hand, I can’t even approach figuring out who did what after 21 questions. The main reason is, I would say, the general lack of information. Who, when, what. Also, when the detective starts his work, the criminal medics may already have some conclusions for him.

Overall, the situation you are in felt more like the Gatcha crime videos children watch online today. You are suggested to ask five correct questions and point at the murderer. It is fun, especially if you invite your child to help with playtesting. But overall, the situation feels way too complex to solve it just with some random questions.

While wandering around the mansion, we found several clues (keys, recipes, bills), but they didn’t guide us to any meaningful conclusion. They only hint at motifs. But as a detective, you need to validate the alibis and recreate the crime scene. And there was a problem here, as the character kept giving contradicting info, and the questions ran out.

Your game’s visuals are very good, and playing was a pleasure. I would only ask for some UI improvements. For example, maybe show a caret when you input text.

I agree that characters should behave more politely and stop when you talk to them. It is inconvenient.

Also, we can’t find the journalist anywhere.

But the main problem I had with the game was its ending. After all the investigation and searching, I expected to finally learn who the culprit was, but instead, the ‘chief detective’ told us we needed to wait for the 1st of May to know the result. This feels off. I didn’t even get if he meant the real-world time or game time. I guess it is the real-world time because May is coming on us. But that reallly feels strange. Or maybe it means that I was wrong in my guess? Still strange.

Maybe it would have worked better if you reduced the amount of info/number of suspects the player has to work with in his first task so that the players can understand the mechanics behind the AI talks and also get a feeling of progression and reward before diving into a more complex murder mystery.

My best wishes for developing your game!

It was a fun little experience. I absolutely accidentally… killed the second NPC before talking to him (it?). Somehow, having a huge spiky club in your hand calls for violence. But it didn’t ruin my play. :)

I passed a couple of levels, and then the game returned to the menu. If this is all the content the game has now, I suggest hinting at it on the game page. I mean, you start by highlighting: ‘It will be an action RPG, top down melee, sandbox, construction and more. In which you will be able to immerse yourself.’

It builds anticipation, and as a player, I expect to get a sneak peek at all the aspects mentioned.

Best luck with your game!

Hi! Does the game now work in auto-resolve mode only?

Thank you for playing!

Interesting suggestions you have here :) You are right that the game needs some juicy animations, but they are not in our immediate plans. We first want to be happy with our set of characters and levels.

I like your idea about indicating when characters pick up resources along the way. However, showing all the routes at the same time and pre-calculating all the events are not things that we aim for. Not knowing how everything will work together is the main challenge of the puzzle. In Forest Farming, you set up individual farming routes and then run the simulation to see the result.

We can, however, indicate if each individual route makes sense, and this is a good point.

Thank you for your feedback!

I’m glad that you liked the game. The initial levels try to introduce players to the basic concepts. But you are right—they might seem like individual mechanics from the user’s perspective. Afterward, the new characters are mixed in, and it quickly becomes overwhelming. I didn’t think of it before, but now I see that we need levels in between to allow the player to experiment more and see how every piece of the puzzle works.

Your idea about indicating the puzzle result without running the simulation is interesting. However, it contradicts the game’s main idea. In Forest Farming, you plan individual routes for each character without knowing the result, and then you test how they work together and whether everyone gets what they need in the end. I will think about how we can improve ‘build-time’ indications. Thanks for the suggestion!

Good catch with the ‘Exit’ button :) It somehow vanished in the course of development.

Thank you for playing!

Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad you like the Forrest Farming. It is indeed remarkable how visually similar our ideas look. Forest Farming was conceived during the Cozy Autumn Jam of 2023. I don’t remember the exact steps in which the final idea was formed, but you are right; it is rather fascinating how versatile it is.

We have many more characters that we would like to place in our world and hope to find time to implement them later this year.

Amazingly captivating gameplay. It’s interesting to observe how your units match against the enemy and try different combinations again and again until you win.

I’m a fan of turn-based tactical stuff, so please take away from my further feedback only what helps your game and ignore the rest.

As a fan of turn-based strategies, I mostly lack some control over units’ behavior and a better understanding of units’ strengths and weaknesses.

The game ‘flows’ smoothly on its own; you don’t need to press ‘move’ and ‘end turn.’ And this fact helps to engage you. But sometimes I wanted to see unit stats/kill ratio or statistics for a wave. Something that can help to understand what went wrong or right. I would actually prefer if there were fewer units on the battlefield so that I could feel their strengths and weaknesses. How to use archers properly remained a mystery for me. It was more clear for mages, but they tend to die quickly, and I wasn’t able to get a lot of kills from them most of the time.

The ability to upgrade units unlocks the player’s feeling of progression. But it also doesn’t help your understanding of their qualities. I would prefer each level to present a tactical challenge that I could solve by correctly setting up my waves and understanding how units work together. But now enemies spawn a bit randomly, and I can pass a few levels by defeating several waves, dying, then upgrading my units and doing the same thing, but now winning without actually changing the tactics.

Your music is lovely btw, and somehow sounds oriental to me. Best luck with your game!