The Kings Summoning Man by D3kryption
Welcome to The Kings Summoning Man.
Voting
Please vote on my game <3
Theme
This game was written for Ludum Dare 55 with the theme: Summoning
Gameplay - Video
Review - Video
tbc (after the jam reviews are in!)
Dev Breakdown - Video
tbc
Story
You are the summoner. More so, the King's summoner. If he needs to see someone or settle a matter then that person must be summoned. He crowed you the Royal Summoner since you did so well on your last job (and nothing to do with the fact he executed the other 5 royal summoners for being late).
You don't want to make the King angry so he demands someone and it's your job to go into the village and find them.
But this village is not ordinary. Some mystical force, fate, karma or something always makes it harder than it should be.
Gameplay
This is an FPS adventure game where you find the subject avoiding enemies, obstacles and the random nature of the game. You can pick perk cards to change the gameplay and the game will choose some extra to make it fun. Each building is randomised and can be well over 10,000 building variations each time you play. Random NPCs, random buildings, random card effects and random targets.
Developer Comments
This game has been quite fun! I was really looking forward to the theme but for the life of me, I just kept drawing blank ideas! Always wanting to try new things I came up with this card idea. It's pretty good! Not too different to the point I might not finish it, but also enough to tweak that little part of my brain that likes learning!
Lots of new things learned, new tools used and a pretty decent game in the end! :D
I think the bigger thing is the fact I mixed up the times. I figured I had 48 hours to make the game. It wasn't until 24 hours in that I was informed no its 72 hours which is even better!
What I did well
- Lots of new tools used! Common UI, Nav Mesh Modifiers, random generators, npc optimizers and more!
- New style of play with the card system. Can change the gameplay simply by selecting perk cards!
What I would do better next time
- At the moment the card effects are simply blueprints that kick into play. This is 100% the reason for GAS (Gameplay ability systems) usage. But I still need to understand the C++ more to implement it
- Find an artist. I need someone who wants to work on the games but loves the art side! I can only do what I think is okay and its never enough time!
New things I've learned
- Common UI - Only the basics but it gives some really nice animated, cross platform results
- Nav mesh modifiers - the ability to change the navmesh at runtime in specific areas when you spawn/despawn stuff
- Npc optimizers - I used a plugin but its really eye opening to the changes it makes. There is so many Unreal should do by default IMO!
- State trees MORE - I studied state trees last time, and I'm 90% sure I've found bugs in there but its still so much easier than Behavior trees!
Known bugs
- None so far!
Assets used
- Narrative Quests & Dialogue by Reubs
- Narrative Navigator by Reubs
- Narrative Interaction by Reubs
- Polygon Dungeons by Synty Studios
- Polygon Knights by Synty Studios
- Polygon Fantasy Rivals by Synty Studios
- Polygon Plushies by Synty Studios
- Polygon Adventure by Synty Studios
Voices
All voices in this game were generated by ElevenLabs.
| Link | https://d3kryption.itch.io/the-kings-summoning-man |
| Link | https://d3kryption.itch.io/the-kings-summoning-man |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-kings-summoning-man |
Ratings
| Overall | 805th | 3.383⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 856th | 3.167⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 875th | 3.05⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 747th | 3.467⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 357th | 3.433⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 780th | 3.383⭐ | 32🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 31🗳️ | 43🗨️ |
This is pretty impressive! Well done!
I can see a future version of this game as perhaps a puzzle variety? Where the trip to the person summoned, as well as the return with them, has more obstacles to consider (like guards, angry villagers, or an unexpected fruit-stand-spill). I used to play a lot of Zelda growing up, and the levels where you as Link had to escort Zelda through a dungeon (where she would stop moving upon seeing any rats), are a great example of an interesting way of puzzling through an escort duty of sorts.
Great job on the submission!
There was not much to play though, and I kind of dislike the AI generated voice lines. I would have stuck with just text, as it at least can be read with a consistent voice (inside one's head). But that's just me.
The style is quite coherent and vibrant. I could imaging playing something along these lines, if there was more engaging gameplay mechanics involved.
Good job for 72 hours effort! :)
One bug that I cannot reproduce is I talked to the one I need to summon, but he does not follow me.