The Path of Wonder by Enot487

[raw]
made by Enot487 for LD 39 (JAM)

Path<em>screenshot</em>3.png

Path<em>screenshot</em>2.png

Path<em>screenshot</em>1.png

This game is about overcoming the endless path in the darkness with a bright goal.

Gameplay features: - ​endless flight with obstacles​; - collecting certain ingredients to maintain the power level​​.

Use W and S or "Up" and "Down" to move and Z to reset your inventory.

Music by Eliot Corley from ChaosIsHarmony, https://opengameart.org

Ratings

Overall 575th 3.125⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Fun 475th 3.063⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 320th 3.219⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Theme 463th 3.438⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 666th 2.818⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Humor 322th 2.645⭐ 33🧑‍⚖️
Mood 426th 3.219⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Given 31🗳️ 32🗨️

Feedback

Max Amaden
31. Jul 2017 · 21:16 UTC
I didn't expect this game to be so fun until I started playing it! The potion brewing mechanic is a very interesting hook that keeps you on your toes throughout the game, and the music and graphics are pretty damn good as well.

My only complaint is that I didn't realise that the potion recipe had changed, so a little message or some kind of audio/visual cue to tell you that the recipe has changed would be a nice addition.

Anyway, nice job on the game. Keep up the good work! :)
Mandow
02. Aug 2017 · 19:19 UTC
I agree with @max-amaden, fun game, nicely done !

And you really need some sort of notification when the potion changes !
madalaski
02. Aug 2017 · 19:31 UTC
I liked the core concept and the difficulty changes were a nice touch. A solid entry :)
khams
03. Aug 2017 · 01:03 UTC
Nice game, it seems pretty innovative to me, I had not played a game such as this one before ! I had some collision problem though that made my game end up earlier than it should have been :(
BerserkerChris
03. Aug 2017 · 15:54 UTC
Cool Idea nice Game, maybe it should have a other Effekt if you turn only mushrooms or only water. oder the recipte should change every time.
🎤 Enot487
03. Aug 2017 · 16:14 UTC
@berserkerchris, you gave me a great idea, thanks a lot!
🎤 Enot487
03. Aug 2017 · 16:27 UTC
@khams, I think that this is becouse collision borders of game elements do not coincide exactly with the sprites. Unfortunately I didn't have time to polish off this moment. Thanks for your feedback!
VitasaMode
05. Aug 2017 · 20:02 UTC
Unique concept. A lot more fun than I though it would be!
h.attila
06. Aug 2017 · 11:32 UTC
It's really more fun than you would expect, good entry!

I agree with the other comments, the mechanic is great, but some sort of notification could've made it a much better game experience!
SaraMartins
06. Aug 2017 · 17:21 UTC
This was a fun endless runner, I saw myself trying really hard to last! I also didn't notice about the potion recipe, but I think you are already checking that from the previous comments ;) I'd like also to see little Fuzzytail :P Nice and simple art too. It was a fun experience ;)
otiv
07. Aug 2017 · 18:07 UTC
Quite nice. Possible quick win to improve this game: It would be fun if recipes for potions would get more complex as you play.
Kubenexion
07. Aug 2017 · 21:32 UTC
Funny game with interresting mechanisms and good evolving difficulty.
Konstantin Boyko
07. Aug 2017 · 22:07 UTC
The idea of having specific ingredient targets is an interesting way of changing up players' goals in the middle of game in an intuitive way. I think the game would have benefited from some changes in balance, I sometimes felt that the simple gameplay didn't keep me engaged enough, even though I did want to make progress in the game. Ramping up the difficulty faster as you play would have been appreciated.

Nice to see Baba Yaga starring in a game =)
ToonTeamJ
07. Aug 2017 · 22:14 UTC
I liked it, although some ramping difficulty would be nice. There seemed to be some collision problems when I played.
Natrium729
08. Aug 2017 · 01:37 UTC
The idea is quite good but, as other said, it would be cool if there were more ingredients, more recipes and visual feedback after completing a potion (particles like sparkles, for instance).

I liked the art, and the scenery were really evocative (the sword in the stones, the warrior statue...)
Royoyo
08. Aug 2017 · 05:17 UTC
Круто! Летит Баба Яга и думает: "Где б еще грибов достать?"
Арт отлично попадает в атмосферу, а крафт хорошо разнообразил геймплей. Действительно играть становится интереснее, чем просто в леталку с препятствиями!
Peter Jonsson
09. Aug 2017 · 21:03 UTC
A great game for some casual fun. One thing to explore would be to add more potions (speed maybe?).
amras0000
13. Aug 2017 · 16:30 UTC
I enjoyed this game a fair bit; the potions forced me to keep re-evaluating my path, the visual design was pleasant to look at if not super shiny, and the movement, while nothing particularly innovative, was smooth and responsive. The game's polished and fun to play.

In the spirit of constructive criticism I do have a couple minor gripes. For one, the hitboxes in the game are a bit unclear. I occasionally picked up items when my character wasn't touching them, and a lot of my deaths were caused by hitting some invisible barrier around the obstacle. Also, I think the game just runs out of steam after a couple minutes of a given game. The recipe seemed to only change once, and my speed never changes, so once I got into the rhythm there was nothing to challenge me. I'd have liked the speed of the game (both the vertical and horizontal speed) to increase slightly over time, or for the recipes to become more complex, maybe requiring more ingredients.

I know some other people have suggested making potions serve other potions than just keeping the game going. I think with the time you had it was a good idea to focus on just the one behavior. But if you were going to expand the game, having a number of similar potions with different effects could add a lot of interesting gameplay. Maybe you turn the next 20 pickups into obstacles, or get a speed boost, or maybe you concoct a poison and lose half your energy. If you were to combine something like these with the increasing speed of the game and increasingly complex potion combinations, there could be a lot of fun in frantically trying to work out the right ingredient combinations without flying into a wall.

Still, as it stands the game's pretty solid. Nice work, and do keep it up.
🎤 Enot487
13. Aug 2017 · 17:55 UTC
Thanks for your feedback everyone! I fully agree that changing the recipe after each cooking and a large number of different ingredients will make the game much more interesting. @amras0000 maybe you right about increasing the speed of the game over time, I have to think about it.
joebeard
14. Aug 2017 · 04:51 UTC
The way that items increasingly become dangerous obstacles if you don't need them is clever. Having to correctly prioritize the collection of certain items over others adds even more complexity. You've got a really cool mechanic here that I don't think I've seen implemented in quite this way before, certainly not in any of the other LD entries.
quadtree
14. Aug 2017 · 06:01 UTC
Interesting concept, I don't think I've ever seen that before in an infinite runner. The only thing I can think of is I'd probably have a gradually increasing difficulty curve, where it was fairly forgiving of failing recipes early on but less forgiving later.