Broomstick Blitz by nsadie
Have a broom, must zoom! You are a witch starting a delivery service across the kingdom.




| itch.io | https://neil-sadie.itch.io/broomstick-blitz |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/broomstick-blitz |
Ratings
| Overall | 536th | 3.621⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 721th | 3.288⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 723th | 3.182⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 353th | 4.132⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 289th | 4.132⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 507th | 3.226⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 357th | 3.797⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 25🗳️ | 49🗨️ |
I thought the discrete speed zooms are a really smart design. Giving me a chance to aim but also feel a burst of WOAH when I'm confident in my aim.
I found myself feeling a bit disorientated at times, not from the controls but regarding my goals. I kept wanting to see my "current mission / quest" in the UI or something. Maybe also a way to zoom out and see the whole map to plan my route (at the expense of time / control).
:beers:
The movement controls are wacky as hell, but it lends a sort of charm to it. I feel like I'm always a bit out of control with the turning. Though I'll note that the slow movement felt too slow and the fast movement too fast (though the latter is really satisfying to activate; perhaps the slower starting move speed is what makes it feel that way).
As for the gameplay loop: It's pretty easy to get into a flow, though often it feels like the best strategy is to activate a mission you have no intention of completing to collect some items so that when you get a real mission, you can finish it more easily. The arrow showing where you need to go is great, though having some directional indications of the closest of each resource might have been helpful to avoid the temptation to pre-collect. That said, towards the end of the game, I started to remember the layout, so perhaps it's better to leave it to the player to memorise (though then perhaps either the resources should be more logically distributed in a more distinct series of places [e.g. crystals in the mountainy area, and red gems in a city-esque area], or the time limits should be a bit more generous to start off with).
That's about it. Nice entry!
@jaco-van-hemert Thanks for playing! I like the idea of putting the resources in more logical places.
For people who are playing for the first time, it might make sense to up the timers a bit.
I really liked the art, even if its placeholder, it has a really neat minimalistic feel.
Agree with other commenters that the controls feel a bit wonky/unsatisfying and that it wasn't quite clear what I needed to be doing at first. Zooming past a destination at high speed because your aim was slightly off is also a bit frustrating.
I think the idea could have promise with a bit more balance/tuning. It's a cool concept and I liked zooming around the little world :)
@aevek @japes One of our friends joined for the first time to do the writing. We used YarnSpinner for the dialogue system. He is not a developer, but it was really cool that he could write it!
@rjdrag I am really happy with how the art came together (except for the main menu, that is AWFUL).
Nice entry.
I fell the control a bit wonky especially when you are in hight speed mode. And if you miss a gemstone, the time you stop and accelereate again make you failed the mission.
I would like to control the acceleration or make a boost.
Great sound and graphic also.
good entry !
And the graphics are amazing. and the music is nice.
The one thing that felt maybe a bit unnecessary was the R to reset cargo. In most cases, I forgot that I was still carrying something and just ended up messing up jobs. In other cases, such as story missions, I found that I could completely fail a mission, only to have everything I need to retry it and go straight to the goal. Basically I think it might help to just automatically drop all your cargo after a mission failure.
Cute presentation also! Nice work!