WaLeFi by Strike
WaLeFi is a little witch who possesses a shapeshifting magic wand, allowing her to control three different elements : water, leaf and fire.
Monsters are attacking, stealing time from people, and preventing game developers to have enough time to sleep during game jams and to complete their games !
This is a shoot them up with some puzzle elements where you must attack enemies with a stronger element than them to damage them. The same element has no effect. A weaker element will give them extra health points.
I would have loved to make a longer game, with more enemies and challenge. But those evil monsters won this time.
Monsters are attacking, stealing time from people, and preventing game developers to have enough time to sleep during game jams and to complete their games !
This is a shoot them up with some puzzle elements where you must attack enemies with a stronger element than them to damage them. The same element has no effect. A weaker element will give them extra health points.
I would have loved to make a longer game, with more enemies and challenge. But those evil monsters won this time.
| HTML5 & Download (Windows, Mac, Linux) | https://kop-strike.itch.io/walefi |
| Original URL | https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=56894 |
Ratings
| Coolness | 79% | 2 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.13 | 637 |
| Audio(Jam) | 3.25 | 340 |
| Fun(Jam) | 2.88 | 730 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 3.68 | 350 |
| Humor(Jam) | 2.72 | 391 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 2.40 | 994 |
| Mood(Jam) | 2.89 | 708 |
| Theme(Jam) | 2.70 | 930 |
This is a truly awesome game ! The artistic choices are coherent, everything works perfectly together, and the "particles" effect is stunning ! In terms of Emotional involvement, you get everything right !
The gameplay is also great, mixing puzzle game and shooter. you have to have good reflex to move quickly and perfectly, and a good memory to remember which element to use. And I also love the link with RPG games (Inazuma Eleven, ...) with the element system.
This game stands perfectly as it is right now, and I am truly impressed ! Three days for that level of result, you are now the real deal buddy !
For future versions, here is my feedback :
- one key per element, so that you can directly go to "FIRE" or "WATER" or "LEAF". This will give your game a more "dance dance revolution" kind of kinaesthetic involvement.
- a rethinking of the enemy waves, to work better in terms of "difficulty curves". Very quickly, you have a wave mixing the three elements. Easy to kill once you get the "rhythm", but very difficult the first time. However, later in the game, you got the same wave, but with one enemy at a time. I think this should have been before the "difficult" wave. To "teach".
- And why not considering that the enemy will not shoot (or less) unless you use the wrong element on them. And then, they can become berserk.
Well, I imagine that after such a hard work, you need some rest. So enjoy a good sleep, and looking forward for your next creation.
I would have liked to have had one button per element so I could switch directly to them instead of cycling. That might be harder to pull off on a gamepad, but you could have each shoulder or face button correspond to a particular element.
Love the concept and execution!
SHUMP with elemental changing twist. Reminds me of, but is distant enough from, Ikaruga.
Great job on getting it this polished in the time frame! =D
A couple of thoughts from my play-though...
---
Took me a while to get the elemental association down.
This is due in part because I lacked the visual feedback that my shots were working.
So I was thinking perhaps:
1. The earlier enemies could die with 1 hit.
2a. The on hit particle effect could be changed to give us more information (e.g. Hurt or Heal animations).
and/or
2b. The enemies themselves have a visual indication of health remaining.
---
I felt that cycling through elements was slowing me down and was having trouble remembering which element was next in the cycle.
I would take raphix's suggestion of binding 1 button per element but have that button instantly shoot rather than just switch.
Thinking more along the lines of BISHI BASHI and how it makes players tackle the mini-games of matching colors.
Perhaps this can lead to color mixing (i.e. pressing 2 elements buttons at once to shoot new element shot)?
---
That's all off the top of my head at the moment.
Hope some of these suggestions can be of use to you should you intend to expand and polish it further.
Cheers!
Thanks for playing my game. Let me answer you.
1. That's the case, the hp for first enemies is 1 according that you don't hit them with a weak element first. You can only heal them up to max 3 hp.
2a. Right now the enemies flash yellow if you heal them, or red if you hurt them. Maybe it's not obvious enough.
2b. That's a good idea !
Thanks for your feedback. :)
Was going to comment that it wasn't clear if you hit them with the wrong element whether you needed to hit them more times with the right element (it seemed inconsistent), but have now seen your comment explaining it. I would second the thought that it could be more obvious when you heal vs hurt them (vs doing nothing).
I also found that it wasn't clear what the lose condition was; whether it was just getting hit too often or whether it was letting too many people past.
PS. you suggested a step-by-step tutorial for my game; a youtube walkthrough has been made and listed in the description. Thanks for the feedback!
Weapon switch would be better for me if each weapon has it own button. Keep up the good work!!
Can you add your game on indiexpo.net ? (it's free)
So we can include also your game in the video ;)
p.s. write #LDJAM in the game's description