Bard Summoner by Mark Swinimer

[raw]
made by Mark Swinimer for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

summoner-image.png

About

Choose one of three guitars and press tab to build your own dungeon to conquer. You will also get to choose from three summons which each grant a unique movement ability to help you traverse your dungeon. Choosing the correct summon will help you beat certain rooms!

This is our first entry into a game jam and our first actual build of a game! There are a lot of bugs and flaws in the movement, camera, and level design so we appreciate your trying of our game. Thank you!

Being a game about a bard, there is unique guitar music and sounds for each summon and guitar you choose.

Play in browser - https://ryaneklipse.itch.io/bard-summoner

Credits

Development | Art - Mark Swinimer

Development | Art - Ryan Child

Music - Mike Child

Controls

Input Commands

| Key | Action | | ---------- | -------------- | | [WASD] | Movement | | [Spacebar] | Jump | | [E] | Summon (click to place) | | [tab] | Entire tile placement (in shrine) | | [Escape]| Open Pause Menu | | [i] | Open instructions menu |

Summon Effects

| Summon | Action | | ---------- | -------------- | | Angel Nugget | Allows you to perform a second jump when in its radius | | Rock Platform | Creates a long platform which you can walk and jump on | | Void Orb | Alters gravity around itself |

Everything was made from scratch (except our movement script which we modified heavily).

There are some small bugs but we've managed to fix most of the big ones. We had some larger bugs around tile placement, but fixed them around 10AM EST 4/16/24

Ratings

Overall 1195th 2.583⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1166th 2.552⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 660th 3.283⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Theme 855th 3.31⭐ 31🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1031th 2.667⭐ 32🧑‍⚖️
Audio 761th 2.286⭐ 30🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1027th 2.04⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1155th 2.596⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Given 29🗳️ 36🗨️

Feedback

OnlinE_Play
16. Apr 2024 · 01:05 UTC
![obraz_2024-04-16_030325804.png](///raw/047/e2/z/62ff0.png)

A very interesting concept, but something got bugged out, probably when I spawned those platforms on my character. Anyway, good job!
BoroBoro
16. Apr 2024 · 01:06 UTC
The different summons were really cool to play around with, really nice job on there.
However I ended up getting stuck often due to being unable to summon more tiles, I dont know if I just overlooked something.
Still, really solid thing you got going here.
HongqianH
16. Apr 2024 · 01:13 UTC
Really innovative gameplay, nice JOB!
Ryaneklipse
16. Apr 2024 · 10:53 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone! We're aware of the issues around tile generation and trying to fix it
zablas
16. Apr 2024 · 15:10 UTC
I think I got stuck at the start where it did not generate the correct tile. Other than that, a cool idea :D
Unbreakable
16. Apr 2024 · 15:14 UTC
Can you complete this game?
Nytezerak
16. Apr 2024 · 15:43 UTC
Pretty cool concept, me and my dumb head need more instructions about the [tab] thing ;u;
Liam Squires
16. Apr 2024 · 18:10 UTC
The platform summon was my favourite, it made for some fun platforming. Well done!
villhest
16. Apr 2024 · 19:54 UTC
Great idea! I struggled a little with the controls, but that's on me!
Deruitda
16. Apr 2024 · 19:57 UTC
Great art and music, definitely a bit rough around the edges control wise and some bugs, but once I figured it out I enjoyed it!
Poutine Studio
16. Apr 2024 · 20:00 UTC
Great concept! It's amazing that you did everything yourself. I found the controls a bit hard to master, the player was a bit too quick for my liking. The art was also a bit confusing, I found myself lost in the cramped space. Very impressive anyway. Good job!
Tugaryn
16. Apr 2024 · 20:02 UTC
Very fun controls, the idea is unusual! but a bit confusing, not quite sure why add mouse clicks for a platformer along with keyboard controls
anaastaska
16. Apr 2024 · 20:03 UTC
really interesting concept of the game, i like generation of levels, but sometimes it doesnt work pretty well. Mz favourite part is platform summon, he is really helpful (also i looove, that bart start playing guitar when you standing on that platform summon).
Flokami
16. Apr 2024 · 20:32 UTC
A very good idea ! I love when a game give me the keys to break it like that. I would totally play a roguelike game with this ability type !
Amerigo Gazaway
16. Apr 2024 · 20:55 UTC
Wow cool concept! I love the build your own level idea, very unique. Also love the music and hwo it was incorporated into story/gameplay. The pixel art is great as well, def has Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery vibe!
LDJam user 238639
16. Apr 2024 · 21:10 UTC
Needs a lot of work to be honest. The concept is interesting, but it kind of seems like you had too much complexity to work with doing both summons and the tile-based level building. I immediately made an unbeatable dungeon without knowing what tiles I was placing or that I could only have 1 instance of 1 summon. I think the idea could work if you had more time to make it, but for a game jam (esp. your first one) I think you would've been better served going with a simpler concept that you could polish rather than trying to make several complex mechanics all work together.

Some other general issues I noticed that are relatively easy to fix:
- The game's UI does not scale with the display resolution. Playing on a 4K monitor exposed this right away. You can force whatever display resolution you want in the Unity editor to check for stuff like this.
- The 45-degree slope I encountered initially was an instant death trap. I couldn't jump or run back up the slope in any capacity. You should be able to adjust your character's physics so that they don't slide down into the abyss.
- Some might say this one's subjective, but I think the gravity is waaaaay too high. Jumping looked and felt kind of janky, even though it technically works.
- The game seems to visually update only with the physics steps, meaning I could tell it was 50-60 updates per second or that the framerate was capped. Not a huge deal, but it is nice to have the game look smoother on higher refresh rate monitors. You also get less input lag with higher framerates.
OrangeDragon
16. Apr 2024 · 21:34 UTC
I'm a guitarist myself, so it's obligatory that I check a game with guitars when see one x)
Cool concept, I would've liked it if you released a finished version sometime in the future! I like this style of sandbox/puzzle/platformer game! Nice job!
🎤 Mark Swinimer
17. Apr 2024 · 16:14 UTC
@dovodx Thanks for taking the time to leave the detailed feedback. We definitely got too ambitious for our first game jam. We had some ideas to keep a simple scope before the jam but the summoning theme kind of blew us up o-o. All of those points you dropped are ones we can accomplish. The resolution one is something I conceptually struggle with though, definitely didn't have enough time to wrestle with it.
LDJam user 296265
17. Apr 2024 · 21:55 UTC
Very cool concept, even though it was super buggy, I enjoyed it :)
willhoit
19. Apr 2024 · 19:11 UTC
Sounds like a neat idea - I couldn't make it work though. Sound didn't play consistently, movement was extremely hard to control and keys often didn't register as being pressed - hopefully you'll get the issues worked out. Good luck with your debugging!
Yanato
30. Apr 2024 · 12:29 UTC
An interesting concept of creating levels in order to pass them. Maybe add some (0\w/0) monsters