The Summoning Goes On by Inkweeper

[raw]
made by Inkweeper for Ludum Dare 55 (COMPO)

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This is a game about a hungry demon who wants to obtain the offerings but not get summoned.

Different colors and patterns of the summoning circle mean different way the summoning is triggered.

Control

W A S D to move

{7846F4EB-117D-42ee-996C-620C34FF54A2}.png {F620BCE0-D9CD-4909-821E-340D33FADDA5}.png

Ratings

Given 0🗳️ 0🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Inkweeper
15. Apr 2024 · 07:00 UTC
First time I join Ludum Dare. Wish you have fun! :D
LDJam user 384191
15. Apr 2024 · 07:26 UTC
![Screenshot 2024-04-15 at 09-25-23 itch.io.png](///raw/fbc/d5/z/61a6d.png)

Nice concept! The difficulty rises up pretty quickly as the screen gets filled up fast, but the patterns are easily recognizable so you can plan your moves accordingly. I found the yellow "surrounding" circle a bit tricky to avoid as the safe zone in the middle is pretty small, but other than that it's good, and the music is a nice touch!
atomicptr
15. Apr 2024 · 07:31 UTC
Cute art, was a bit confused initially at what killed me but liked it overall :)
LDJam user 5243
15. Apr 2024 · 07:34 UTC
At first I didn't get that the different circles told you how to avoid the summoning, but as soon as I got that, it became a more strategic game. Nice idea and good entry!
candlesan
15. Apr 2024 · 07:48 UTC
Great music and sound fx. Switching seamlessly to a death tune works super well too. Fantastic art. Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare - look forward to more.
yohadams
15. Apr 2024 · 11:55 UTC
Great first entry! Super cool art and good audio design. The gameplay is pretty simple but includes some variations. It would be cool if there were some explanations about what each circle does, but after a couple of deaths, you can figure it out. Overall, good job! ;)
LeoAtopos
15. Apr 2024 · 15:17 UTC
Had a good time playing. I like the idea and music.
m0zrat
15. Apr 2024 · 18:50 UTC
nice idea! I think there could be some way to make it easier to learn the different circles. It's pretty brutal as is.
PieRo_PBeS_studio
15. Apr 2024 · 19:46 UTC
the idea is nice and the art too, but it could be more progressive in the difficulty or a kind of a first level with only one type of attack... but hey pixel art hamburgers are cools
cirno
16. Apr 2024 · 05:05 UTC
The idea is great. A bit hard to me but still having fun in the game. Congratulations on your first Ludum Dare!
🎤 Inkweeper
16. Apr 2024 · 08:09 UTC
Thank you all for your feedbacks!

@piero-pbes-studio

I did consider to add a tutorial or something, but my mind was stuck: I didn't devise that I could have add several levels explaining different circles, but tried to attach a bunch of text instructions, which made me feel difficult in reading. In the end I delete the text 😂.

Your suggestion about adding kind of first level is true a good solution!
Bx007
16. Apr 2024 · 10:10 UTC
The idea of running away from being summoned is very impressive!
LDJam user 382819
16. Apr 2024 · 13:56 UTC
![037D9FED2CBA74B366D01EFF9FF39049.jpg](///raw/367/d5/z/63a7c.jpg)强,大佬,强,太牛逼了!
PromZona
16. Apr 2024 · 14:03 UTC
Circle obstacle is a hard one. When you grabbing a food and becomes trapped inside is deadly stuff and your intertia pushes you to your death!

Definietly good game. Have a nice Jam!
D0vid
16. Apr 2024 · 14:51 UTC
Very fun ! And challenging, you really have to think about how to move depending on which circle you walk over.

I enjoyed it very much :)

Great job !

PS: I liked the music a lot, fits the game perfectly imo :D
Oznarox
16. Apr 2024 · 18:55 UTC
The concept is good, the music is not bad at all, and the art is cute. It took me a little while to figure out why things were happening the way they were. My main issue is with the instant death mechanic. It might be better to have some health points in the game, because it’s frustrating to restart from the beginning after a single mistake. I don’t have the patience for this level of difficulty.
Oznarox
16. Apr 2024 · 18:55 UTC
The concept is good, the music is not bad at all, and the art is cute. It took me a little while to figure out why things were happening the way they were. My main issue is with the instant death mechanic. It might be better to have some health points in the game, because it’s frustrating to restart from the beginning after a single mistake. I don’t have the patience for this level of difficulty.
cogcomp
16. Apr 2024 · 19:26 UTC
Took a while to get that the circle hinted about the coming summoning. Other than that the graphics are nice, the music is catchy and I think the game pace is problem good but a bit too fast for me. Well done!
Frib
16. Apr 2024 · 20:05 UTC
Fun gameplay loop, pretty tough but doable. Learning the patterns is essential but even then it's hard to avoid some traps. Good stuff :D
CodeRaurus
16. Apr 2024 · 20:13 UTC
I like the catchy tune. The gameplay feels simple yet challenging enough.

Good work!
Game-mon
16. Apr 2024 · 20:34 UTC
One of the best games I played so far. Concept is simple, easy to understand, hard to master because you need to remember the different spells, which is perfect. Pixel art is great, so is audio. Great entry!
Storeyware
16. Apr 2024 · 21:33 UTC
![Screenshot 2024-04-16 173303.png](///raw/777/f5/z/63e1b.png)

I might have played this a couple times >.>
Addicting!
Kirass
16. Apr 2024 · 22:57 UTC
I like this game! You guys are great!
LightningST
17. Apr 2024 · 03:15 UTC
Fun game! Very nice take on the theme! I was sad that I couldn't use the arrow keys though, as I am a bit more comfortable with those for games like this
🎤 Inkweeper
17. Apr 2024 · 03:56 UTC
@lightningst

Sorry I forgot to include arrow keys 🥺
OldDog
17. Apr 2024 · 09:15 UTC
还不错,快赶上我都水平了
Moonblast
17. Apr 2024 · 14:19 UTC
好简洁聪明的设计,风险收益结合,并且要识别记忆不同法阵的躲避方式,思考当他们组合在一起的时候如何应对
LDJam user 3808
17. Apr 2024 · 18:20 UTC
Start was little bit jarring. Little tutorial with only few burgers and only few slower summoning circles would ease the player with the mechanisms.
vivid-hallucination
18. Apr 2024 · 02:12 UTC
Being a hamburger demon myself I find this kind of representation very empowering.

🖤
Chuckiee
18. Apr 2024 · 07:20 UTC
Kinda hard to play because I am very impatient :smile: Audio is great, idea is also innovative. Very nice entry overall!
martonel
18. Apr 2024 · 15:37 UTC
I like the music, and the idea of the game. It was really fun to me!
FootLettuce
19. Apr 2024 · 15:35 UTC
**Congrats! You've both entertained me AND made me hungry!**

Super fun game with a great learning curve. The difficulty ramps up fast enough to rival the Speedforce and outpace most Star Wars ships travelling at light speed, but DAMN is it fun! I would argue that that actually adds more to the gameplay.

Near the end when the screen was super full, I would valiantly hurl myself into the fast food horde in an act of desperation for one last buffet.

Brilliant work!

![MAH CHEESE.png](///raw/5cd/44/z/6475c.png)
Phlip45
19. Apr 2024 · 18:34 UTC
Really liked this one. My one complaint is that I wasn't able to play it on controller, which I think would make it a bit more fun.

![2024-04-19 11_32_00-Window.png](///raw/68a/3/z/64787.png)

I think this is a decent high score. Total of 51. I focused on getting the whites, purples, and greens, and then made a last dash at a bunch of stacked up foods to finish it off.
JoeShanahan
20. Apr 2024 · 15:26 UTC
Took me a while to understand what I was supposed to be doing, but thought it was super original once I understood properly. The idea of summoning circles being like mouse traps for demons is conceptually hilarious, and haven't seen anyone else think of something like that. Needing to learn the different types of trap takes a while, but isn't too complicated.

I do think the number of traps builds up too much too fast though. You end up just in an impossible state, where you'll have overlapping traps where one requires you to zoom past it, and the other requires you to stand still, so no matter how good you are - that part of the screen is now off limits. Being able to have the difficulty ramp up a little slower would allow for longer games, where the pressure builds up in a more satisfying way, rather than hitting a wall of impossible.

Overall, really cool idea and great job executing on it!
JoeShanahan
20. Apr 2024 · 21:21 UTC
I uploaded my playthrough to YouTube! Annoyingly, the original video I took didn't record properly, and I only got the narration. I recorded a second video, but put the original audio first so you could get a sense of what it was like for me to learn the game. Apologies for this mistake, I hope the video is still useful for you! :smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4bCRA9xFGE
🎤 Inkweeper
21. Apr 2024 · 13:07 UTC
@phlip45
WOW that's a really high score!! Friends of mine tryed this game and the highest records I know were 60, 57, and your 51. You are really a master!

@joeshanahan
Thank you for your playthrough video!! You are right about the difficulty curve and the thickness of circles. I didn't come up with a good circle generation frequency f(x) during the compo. This problem truely deserves more studying. And if the existing circles on the ground are took into consideration, maybe a better performance will be.
LDJam user 364744
28. Apr 2024 · 20:23 UTC
oh!! this is extremely clever and well put together. it reminds me a lot of "super crate box", where increasing your score requires putting yourself directly in harm's way. agreeing with some of the other comments about difficulty scaling and wanting maybe a little more complexity, but the game idea itself on display here is gold. great work!
benskca
02. May 2024 · 12:25 UTC
Looking back at my life, at least I did enjoy:

burger


This was super fun, I like the learning curve of figuring out what each of the different colors do. Yellow was the main one I had to be careful of, a lot of the others I found I could always make it through if I just went quickly. I also really liked the audio, especially the jingle that plays when you die.