Impossible gameplay

I'm having quite a bit of trouble understanding what all these terms are. Even with the explanation in each move, it's still hard for me to comprehend what I am supposed to be doing.

Perhaps some sort of introduction that explains the mechanics of the game would be a good idea.

I really enjoyed the music, nice work! :)

Maybe add some screenshots for people who don't have windows.. Really enjoying checking out game jam games but I'm on Mac so can't try windows version :/ Good luck to you either way ;)

I'm of the same opinion as quichi.

The graphics and sound are very cool, there's obviously a lot of work put into it.

I'd like to have some tutorial to see how to read the AI and beat it.

My windows just refuses to run this 

I didn't realize that my research into fencing terms would confuse people the way it seemed too.

I was also confused but I it wasn't so much the fencing terms that confused me. I just did understand how to play. It wasn't clear how to win and there wasn't any feedback from the game if what I was doing was working which made it impossible to figure out how to play. If the game had a tutorial that would probably help a lot.

Hey! Congrats on making your first LD entry!

Turn-based fencing is a very cool concept. I remember playing the Flash Duel card game, which was inspired by an old fencing card game called En Garde, so I was excited to try this.

There was some friction, though. I'm going to provide some feedback that I hope you find useful and constructive.

I see the game comes packaged as an installer. Please consider not shipping that way, since I prefer not to have to uninstall 30-50 pieces of software after LD. Also, when I did go back to manually uninstall this after playing, I could not find it. It does not install under its own name, but instead under the name "Made in GameMaker Studio 2" which took me a while to locate.

That doesn't bear on the game or the rating, just a convenience thing to consider next time!

On to the actual game:

I like the presentation, and the round structure concept is interesting. The way the play goes back and forth between attack and defense mode is also cool. The background music creates a nice tension, and the clock raises that higher, but it's nice you allow me to forget the clock with easy mode.

So I think you have a strong platform for an interesting turn-based battle here with a unique feel.

But you are getting complaints that people are confused. That's super-common for a first LD. In fact, it's more common to have a crapgame or even fail outright, so you're already ahead of the curve there. But confused players is also a very common problem, and I encourage you to really dig into that feedback with an open mind because it can lead to some of the most important improvements in your jamming skills!

I know it's not super-useful feedback to just say "I was confused" so I tried to challenge myself to give you better than that... not sure this is what you want, but here I have typed up my thought process as the player, going through a round against the Easy AI:

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I'm playing now (yeah I reinstalled it). I start with a feint, and the AI did a breeze. Is that good? Bad? I don't know. I try to judge by looking at which options it left open, but I can't really draw a conclusion. Now I am choosing, and I guess I'll pick remise because it's a turn 2 ability and I'm in turn 2! OK the AI did breeze again. But is that good? I can't tell. Now I will do break because it says turn 3: he did beat. It seems I did well because a heart disappeared -- although the heart is half red and half blue, so it's kind of unclear whether the enemy took damage, or if I did. The move card also said "take damage if you lose the round" so it also hints that either of us could have taken damage. But I guess I'm the one who won because I'm still on the attack?

Next round: open again with feint, and the enemy did displace. I can't tell if it's good. Instead of remise I will try the other turn 2 move, bind: enemy did breeze. I am supposing this was bad, because now I don't have any turn 3 move, only turn 1 strike and turn 2 remise available. Not sure but that seems like probably bad. I'll try remise: AI did breeze. Oh wait I won! So I guess I was wrong that it was bad.

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I'm sure you the dev are flabbergasted that I didn't understand the state transitions through the gameplay, so sorry about that. :(

Overall I think you have a strong design idea here, because I like the presentation and the structure you have layered over the battle system. I regret that I couldn't understand it clearly enough to really appreciate it.

Congrats again on a successful LD. The confused-player problem will pass - and the very best way to get past it is to watch someone play, either live over their shoulder saying NOTHING, or having someone record a first-sight youtube play where they talk through their thoughts. Not some big streamer, just put your game on a list from someone like Jupiter Hadley.

You really have to witness the confusion to believe it!

Wow honestly... that was more comprehensive then anything I could come up with. I think that cleared up a great part of where the confusion was coming from.
Edit: Well the description doesn't look how I want it to but hopefully it will ward off some of the confusion

@sode You hit "more info" and can then select "run anyway". Also, there is a zip download where it is already compiled.

And for you, dev:

**First, the UI:**

**1)** The difficulty menu is gorgeous. It's the same color scheme as the rest, but it's just put together so well.

**2)** The attack menu is kinda rough looking. The left panel looks great, but the rest has sharp edges. What you need is some shaded edges on the hearts and attack "cards" like you did in the left panel.

**Next, the gameplay:**

**1)** There isn't really any feedback, and, because of that, everything is a bit rigid. Some click, transition, and attack/defense sounds would do a lot for that. Adding small "jiggles" or sprite changes when things are clicked on/changed would also add a lot of feedback.

**2)** I think your main offense is the lack of feedback in the attack/defense category. The problem is, we don't know what we are doing right or wrong. You should translate that to the player, such as through a menu that shows what beat what in the previous skirmish.

Other than that, I can appreciate a good strategy game. I sorta started figuring things out, but I still have a long way to go.

I like the concept, the way you set up the battle system, and the fact that it is based on fencing techniques. Teach us some fencing!

Very cool idea for a turn based RPG. I'd really like to see this extended

@gmaanicus i added the zip afterwards when people complained about having to download it


Avaliação...

1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Estou um pouco confuso sobre como as coisas funcionaram (hahahah).
Ao que entendi (julgando pelo conteúdo no jogo), você pode apertar botões no menu à esquerda (nem sempre funciona apertar ou há algum delay para processamento, sobre isso não pude ter certeza).
Sua escolha combate a escolha da IA (num esquema similar ao pedra-papel-tesoura).
Ao que vi no site da Ludum Dare, cada habilidade permite predeterminadas combinações após serem usadas (creio que simulando um combate).
Seria interessante se existissem mais pistas dentro do jogo quanto ao funcionamento e quanto às combinações das habilidades (talvez uma janela flutuante com poucas palavras).
Senti falta de feedback no áudio também (facilitaria para saber se estou esperando a IA ou se o click não foi processado).
Tentei jogar seguindo a intuição do que seria o "lógico" em termos de combate (mesmo que isso não seja bem assim na prática), mas acabei perdendo (no nível intermediário).
PS: O relógio não estava funcionando (não sei se foi problema com o meu computador).
Tentarei jogar mais algumas partidas para ver se me perdi em alguma coisa.

2 - Gráficos, Áudio, Narrativa e Polimento:
O jogo tem gráficos que fazem tentam transmitir as ideias usando texto, creio que seria bom ter iconografia trabalhada para transmitir ideias mais rapidamente (pode ser uma boa se continurem o projeto).
Senti falta de efeitos sonoros e (sei que optaram por não fazer) uma trilha autoral (de qualquer forma gostei da trilha escolhida).
O jogo não apresentou narrativa (também não parece carecer de uma a princípio, a menos que o sistema de combate em questão se torne ferramenta para um jogo maior posterior).

3 - Cultura:
Uma vez os problemas sendo corrigidos (pelo vídeo notei que há funcionalidades que já devem ter sido corrigidas/implementadas); creio que o jogo faça referência a jogos com sistemas de combate. Quem sabe funcione como ferramenta para game design ou como sistema de combate para um jogo maior.
Nesse sentido este jogo poderia ser visto como algo que colabore com sistemas de combate.

4 - Monetização:
Creio que o jogo poderia monetizar caso se tornasse algo maior, por enquanto é um bom trabalho a nível experimental (ao meu ver). :)

Evaluation...

1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
I'm a little confused about how things worked (hahahah).
As I understand it (judging by the content in the game), you can press buttons in the menu on the left (it doesn't always work to press or there is a delay for processing, I couldn't be sure about that).
Your choice fights the choice of AI (in a scheme similar to rock-paper-scissors).
From what I saw on the Ludum Dare website, each ability allows for predetermined combinations after being used (I believe simulating combat).
It would be interesting if there were more clues within the game as to how they work and how to combine skills (perhaps a floating window with few words).
I missed audio feedback as well (it would make it easier to know if I'm waiting for AI or if the click was not processed).
I tried to play following the intuition of what would be "logical" in terms of combat (even if this is not so in practice), but I ended up losing (at the intermediate level).
PS: The clock was not working (I don't know if it was a problem with my computer).
I'll try to play a few more games to see if I got lost in something.

2 - Graphics, Audio, Narrative and Polishment:
The game has graphics that try to convey the ideas using text, I think it would be good to have iconography worked to convey ideas more quickly (it can be a good thing if you continue the project).
I missed sound effects and (I know they chose not to do) an authorial track (I liked the chosen track anyway).
The game did not present a narrative (nor does it seem to lack one at first, unless the combat system in question becomes a tool for a later major game).

3 - Culture:
Once the problems were corrected (through the video I noticed that there are features that must have been corrected / implemented); I think the game makes reference to games with combat systems. Maybe it works as a tool for game design or as a combat system for a bigger game.
In that sense, this game could be seen as something that collaborates with combat systems.

4 - Monetization:
I believe that the game could monetize if it became something bigger, for now it is a good job at the experimental level (in my opinion). :)

This is a great concept, but I personally don't know anything about fencing so I didn't know what to do. I did beat the easy AI by doing random moves lol.

I think that if you added some basic animations to show the moves and the outcomes, it'd make the game more approachable to people who aren't familiar with fencing.

Anyways, nice job!

@gustavo-christino everyone seems confused by the game, but you were probably expressively confused due to the language barrier. My reserach into fighting terms was the equivalent of about 5 minutes of digging for terms that seemed like they would work.

In terms of the clock, on Medium and Easy the clock is turned off as it gets a bit too hectic. However, you do bring up an interesting point that maybe I shouldn't of left it up there if it wasn't on.

In terms of the game itself, it was built as a sort of proof of concept for a combat system for a larger I may or may not be doing in the future.

@ale I think you shouldn't worry about what the terms mean in real life, because honestly, I don't even know if they are right. Beat, for example, I found 2 different definitions for, one defensive and one offensive. I'm also using Crush incorrectly since technically you have to actually hit someone to crush. There are other examples of my quick research that harm the game in terms of fencing accuracy.

The moral of the story is what they do in the game is more important to the game then what they do in real life.

I do plan on adding a post-Ludum Dare update some point in the future. So i hope you can play it again then.

IM A FUCKING BEAST AT THIS GAME AFTER I FIGURED OUT HOW TO PLAY, sorry music got me hype . some glow vfx maybe around the shield and swords button ui would be helpful towards indicating to the player that they should be clicking these to play and interact with because i personally didn't know and was v confused at first, which led to me closing the game because there was no way to back out of the match and i chose the hardest difficulty anyways. so i then reopened and had some fun with it haha it is pretty cool!! fencing is a good idea for a turn based game

I couldn't really figure this one out. I liked the idea of choosing fencing maneuvers, but the interactions didn't really make sense to me.

I had no idea what I was doing at first, but once I figured it out I felt like a god. I haven't felt this way since I was a little boy and I love that you have brought this feeling back to me!

Thank you kind stranger

@guin36 can you tell me what confused you at first?

Nice game!!