Witchcraft Starter Kit by Belea

Congratulations! Your Witchcraft Starter Kit has arrived!
* Please, use it wisely.*
TW: This is a horror visual novel. It contains cartoon blood and violence. Please be aware!*
Fonts:
- Isaniburger (https://www.dafont.com/insaniburger.font)
- Roboto Condensed (https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Condensed)
Tools:
- Unity 2021.3.9
- Audacity
- Clip Studio Paint
- DOTween
Note 02/05: Released a new version fixing a bug that blocked the game when using 2k resolution screens.
| Link | https://rothiotome.itch.io/witchcraft-starter-kit |
| github | https://github.com/rtomeg/LudumDare53 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/witchcraft-starter-kit |
Ratings
| Overall | 199th | 3.541⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 271th | 3.122⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 300th | 2.986⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 367th | 2.973⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 17th | 4.5⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 161th | 3.095⭐ | 39🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 55th | 3.921⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 7🗳️ | 12🗨️ |
Loved the art style and effects =)
The idea of different outcomes (or at least a win/lose condition) was included in the initial idea, messing with the order of the ingredients. I cut it off in the last minute because it didn't add much to the story and I wanted to focus in narrative/mood.
I'll consider adding it again in the future. Thanks for the feedback!
I really like the horror cuteness, awesome job!
Very nice graphics, and the cute-horror was really strange but interesting, well done!
@asasin56 thank you for your feedback! It's indeed 100% visual novel.
@greenphox I'm happy you liked the game! Thank you for playing!!
@sean-spiggle Thanks for playing! I guess I could have made it a little bit more obvious in the first steps, I hope you understood the story as it proggresses. Thanks for the feedback!
@drunkardwolf Thank you for your kind words! :D
Visuals are just stunning, post-processing is palpable, and the story line... I love a good Hemingweian put-it-together-yourself art.
Just beautiful!
Great drawings though!
Some constructive feedback:
- The blue background for the intermission texts didn't quite fit the mood imo, it felt somewhat lighthearted. Something like midnight blue or midnight purple might've fit in better.
- A pet peeve of mine: poems that follow a strict metrum, but break their own rules. In all of the poems there is at least one verse where there are too many or too few syllables to fit in with the rest and/or the metrum changes only for that one verse. I don't want to criticise this too much because I know very well how difficult it is to write poems that follow a strict structure - let alone under time pressure! - but the poems would be even more satisfying if the metrum wasn't broken. For example, in the first poem, the last verse could be "To fall for me forevermore" This would fix the metrum. (And also it would specify that it would actually be *the caster* whom the crush falls in love with. Though it would've been a funny twist if they just fell in love with some random person on the street because one didn't read the fine print :laughing:)
I also cringed hardcore when I first used the pliers. :grimacing: The sound and all was way too effective :laughing:
I completely understand cutting back based on time (all too well :cry: ), but even from starting this, I was really excited for the 'alchemy' aspect. Trying out diff ingredients to see what they'd do, and how they'd affect the story or outcome. Instead it felt like just clicking through after a while. That was the only thing really missing for me. It felt like my choices didn't matter.
The feel and mood of this is so spot on though! And I liked the unique interpretation of the theme.
It would be so cute to see more of this game but it's a jam game so it's amazing to see the level of polish in such a short timespan and gosh the graphics are just too cute!
The knock really scared me :D
@jul-li I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the game! Thank you so much for playing!
@nathan-franck Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that the game was a bit scary for you. I completely understand since I don't usually play horror games myself. However, there aren't any big scary moments in the game other than some sprite swapping and white noise. My main focus was on the narrative and creating a mildly creepy atmosphere. Thanks for giving it a try anyway!
@rawb Thanks for playing the game! I did my best to include even more effects, but unfortunately ran out of time. I'll try to add a few more in the future. Thanks for the feedback! :D
@robobarbie Thank you for playing the game! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. :D
@shawn-beck It seems there was a bug when playing with large resolutions in certain browsers, thanks for pointing it out! I've uploaded a hotfix to address this bug, so please let me know if it's working properly now if you give it a try again.
@exozetart Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the game. In the earlier versions of the game, I had included a fail state where players would lose if they didn't use the ingredients in the correct order. I ended up removing it during development, but you're right that it could have added more depth to the gameplay. I was worried about distracting players from the fun and playful mood of the first spells, but I'll definitely consider adding it back in a future version.
@morepixels Wow, thank you so much for the kind words! I'll definitely consider adding some of the changes I have in the backlog once the jam is over. Who knows, maybe I can take it even further! Thanks for playing the game!
@louiejams I'm happy you enjoyed the game! Thank you for playing
@scrapmetal do you know the pliers sound is just scratching a cardboard box? it was quite funny recording all the different sounds! haha. I was worried of the choices-don't-matter feeling from the very first moment, and I had originally considered including two different endings depending on the order in which players used certain ingredients on each spell. Unfortunately, I had to abandon this idea due to the 48-hour time limit for the COMPO. I'll consider adding it back in a future version :( Thanks for playing!
@weefairyfabi thanks! My wrist still hurts after all the drawing and coding haha. I'm happy you liked the result!! Totally worth it :D
@zefphyer Thanks! I'm happy you liked it!!
@yumykon Thanks! I'm happy you liked it. Since it was a COMPO game and I can't compose a single jingle, I recorded some background noises and sound effects instead. However, I definitely agree that a nice, subtle, turning creepy background music could have added to the overall atmosphere of the game. I'll keep that in mind for future versions!
@thomas-bringer I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the story! I was a bit nervous about not having enough gameplay, but I wanted to focus on the narrative this time around. Thanks for playing the game! :D
@grid96 Thank you for your feedback! I did try using handwritten fonts (even writing everything out myself!), but I couldn't find one that was easy to read at that size. I'll definitely consider reevaluating the font choice in a future version.
As for the rhythm, I must confess that I'm not a native English speaker, so it was quite challenging for me to get it right. I did realize that it was becoming increasingly difficult with each poem and I regretted the decision to add them so quickly. Some of the poems were even based on internet spells that I had to tweak a bit to match the situation. When I heard a native English speaker recite them for the first time, I realized that I had completely messed up the metrum on most of them. I'm happy that he provided me with many suggestions and corrections before I added them to the game, otherwise I would have had to remove them all.
It was a good exercise though, and I learned a lot from it.
I would love to see an anthology of stories like these based on concept presented here. It is a really solid game, congrats!
@droo-shayne I completely agree with you. The last spell was supposed to be in a creepy place, but due to time constraints, I had to cut it. I plan on adding it once the LD ends. Thank you for playing and for the feedback! :D
And don't worry too much about the poems. Chances are, even many native speakers wouldn't have noticed those irregularities (which is why it has become a pet peeve of mine in the first place). What's most important is that the metre* is something you're aware of when writing poems like the ones in your game - and from what you're saying I can tell that you definitely are. That's all that matters; the rest is simply a matter of practise. And just to clarify this one more time: your poems are _already_ quite good, so keep at it! :sparkles:
*Speaking of being a non-native speaker: I just learned that it's actually called "metre" (or "meter") in English and not metrum, argh... x_x But I'm glad you knew what I was talking about anyway. Just shows that I've still got some things to learn myself.
The reason I noticed is that I was trying to find you some online resources, because I know that there are at least _some_ fixed rules about when syllables are stressed (metre can also be partly subjective though!), and I figured knowing where to look might help you. But since it's called metre and not metrum, googling it is rather messy because of overlapping meanings. On the other hand, though, looking for pages about [lingustic stress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_%28linguistics%29%23Word_stress) might already do the trick without even having to go into poetry. But it's possible that these kinds of pages don't account for any subjective factors. (Also, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to explain something extremely trivial here, because it absolutely isn't. English pronunciation is a mess after all.) Idk how helpful this is, but hopefully it was at least a little bit interesting.
Enjoy your day! c: