Elemental Force - The Medallion's Guardian by redzero

[raw]
made by redzero for LD34 (JAM)
Matt Connor always heard about the legendary Elementarian People and its famous elementary Medallion. When Matt found the Medallion in a cave near the ruins of a temple, the ancient gods began testing Matt to see if he is worthy to keep the Medallion and control the Elemental Force.

Controls:
[X] - Change element
[Z] - Use Powers

There are 5 Levels to beat!

Powers:
Fire Blast;
Air Jump;
Lightning Slash;
Rock Immunity;
Water Blast.

Tips:
Lava Pillar: harms all. Destroyed by water;
Stone Pillar: harms all except earth. Destroyed by lightning and fire;
Ice Pillar: harms all. Destroyed by lightning and fire;
Wood Log: harms all except fire. Destroyed by lightning and fire;
Stone spikes: harms fire and water;
Puddle: harms fire;
Fire strip: harms air and lightning.

Ratings

Coolness 65% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.55 292
Fun(Jam) 3.03 619
Graphics(Jam) 3.79 317
Humor(Jam) 2.58 560
Innovation(Jam) 3.76 114
Mood(Jam) 3.10 614
Theme(Jam) 3.97 253

Feedback

terry90
15. Dec 2015 · 14:47 UTC
Nice art style, good introduction. However, the gameplay isn't balanced very well. I couldn't make it past four columns. That's either a testament to my horrible gaming skills or the difficulty ramp is a bit extreme. All the elements (pun intended) seem to be there to make a fun game, it just needs some fine tuning in the level design to get the player invested in playing it.

Things I liked:

* Art style was really nice and consistent. Color palette was easy on the eyes (great).

* Elements were explained well, and the dual functionality in the game had good potential for a variety of obstacles. Having even more complexity in the obstacle (e.g. lava to rock) was also a nice touch.

* Good animation on the character and lava

* Music is great, and matches/inspires the urgency. The run speed feels right because of this.


Improvements:

* Speed felt good, but the obstacles came up way too fast in the beginning. Perhaps a slower speed to adjust to the obstacles? OR Pace the obstacles out a bit more?

* Make the visual feedback on player life bigger.

* Pause Menu

* Mouselook for element selection? Direction the mouse is dragged in to shift elements... X is way too slow for the frequency of obstacles.
suppi
15. Dec 2015 · 18:23 UTC
nice game. I really liked the graphics and audio, but it was a bit too difficult. it takes a lot of time to change to the right element and after you use it on one obstacle they often transform to something else and there isn't enough time to change to something else.

Still, good work!!
danielsann7
15. Dec 2015 · 18:23 UTC
Awesome game! really enjoy the graphics and the power mechanics!
Dalkor
15. Dec 2015 · 18:28 UTC
Fun, addicting, but extremely challenging. Really like the art and the music. Suggestion: switch between powers using both x and z rather then having to cycle through them all and long press to use a power?
EMPBomber
15. Dec 2015 · 18:38 UTC
The game uses the two button controls theme well and fits with the mechanics. This also makes the game difficult because it requires reaction time to get to the right element to keep going.

I got to level 4, but that was from remembering the order in which the obstacles come after multiple attempts. Aside from that, it is a good game. Nice job.
WASDMagician
15. Dec 2015 · 18:49 UTC
Very nice idea, a little too quick for my liking however.
mikedurn
15. Dec 2015 · 21:19 UTC
I think this would be really fun with more buttons. The two button control makes it really difficult (I can only make it past a few obstacles). But the graphics and idea are great!
Fathom
15. Dec 2015 · 23:49 UTC
I really like the concept and your use of the theme.

I feel like the element switching wasn't super intuitive at first - it took me a while to really get the hang of what I should be doing.

It was fun though, and I like the art a lot.
zenmumbler
15. Dec 2015 · 23:52 UTC
The idea is solid and the ring of powers + use is cool, but I will need a lot of time of tries and memorisation before I get past obstacle 5 :) Nice intro screen too.
Indie L
15. Dec 2015 · 23:58 UTC
A good game.But is very difficult to avoid the obstacles.If you fix this,the game will be amazing!
fxtagn
15. Dec 2015 · 23:58 UTC
Awesome non-trivial elements-based mechanics!
Astro Cat
16. Dec 2015 · 09:24 UTC
Gameplay and idea are realy awesome, rly. But I think it too hard)
VladRusu
16. Dec 2015 · 14:01 UTC
That's a game we like! Difficult? YES! But oh, that's challenging!
Ittai Manero
16. Dec 2015 · 16:27 UTC
Loved the graphics on this one! The idea is pretty cool as well. Congratulations! :D
🎤 redzero
17. Dec 2015 · 03:06 UTC
Thank you so much to all! :D
sonelliot
17. Dec 2015 · 03:35 UTC
I liked the art style and music. I couldn't make it past the first three columns though. Lore-wise, it seems inspired by Avatar :p
Lukbebalduke
17. Dec 2015 · 03:57 UTC
Dude... what a hard game! (btw: I saw the tips after end the game hdushsaudasd)

Anyway, I did it! https://gyazo.com/f5ba9bc95276f0cd5fb680dd2690961f

Nice gameplay
DraKlaW
18. Dec 2015 · 13:58 UTC
Nice concept ! Too hard for me (I'm a console gamer, so until it doesn't use the thumbs, I'm lost !) but really great !
Logicon
24. Dec 2015 · 01:15 UTC
I am worthy of the medallion. Whos paying for my new keyboard?
JoseArias
24. Dec 2015 · 14:51 UTC
I know that the Them is two button. For future versions, an additional button to change the power but in the opposite direction would be nice. I liked the game!
Wakefield
03. Jan 2016 · 18:49 UTC
The gameplay and the mechanics are really clever! nice job! Love how the art is well implemented and the various powers.
The level is a bit hard at the beggining and maybe a non explicit tutorial would work great.