The Summoning by rcxa

In The Summoning an evil wizard is summoning monsters to destroy you. You must enter the sum of the numbers above the creatures' heads to cast a spell to destroy them.

A run of the first 7 waves:
https://youtu.be/YzEzr6A5F8M
| Github Repository | https://github.com/bsladewski/ludum-dare-55 |
| Itch.io Page | https://rcxa.itch.io/ludum-dare-55 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-summoning-2 |
Ratings
| Overall | 154th | 3.558⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 116th | 3.615⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 146th | 3.423⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 275th | 3.077⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 156th | 3.577⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 176th | 3.167⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 214th | 2.625⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 250th | 3⭐ | 28🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 23🗳️ | 32🗨️ |
cool sound effects tho
@cleverdumb Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if there might be a bug with the bosses or if I don't communicate which enemy is the boss well enough. I ran out of time to really test the game in depth. The boss is just the final enemy that spawns in a wave. So for wave one it's a slightly larger red enemy. There are 3 bosses total. The other two are a big red boss and a really big black boss. They start spawning in waves 4 and 6. They still only deal one damage and take one hit to kill but the math problems that spawn above their heads are much harder than the basic enemies.
@jcmonkey Thanks! Yeah, there's 3 enemy types that can generate problems with more than two numbers. 2 of those can go up to 4 numbers in the sum. I had the same experience with my mind just going blank on the 3 number problems. I still go blank on the 4 number problems even after a few hours of testing.
I think when enemies are coming up from the bottom edge the equation is quite slow to actually be on screen and readable compared to the other three directions, maybe it makes sense for it to appear on the side determined by the enemy's path to the player?
@burnedkirby Thanks for the feedback! You mentioned it feels pretty addicting until the levels get harder. What was your experience when the levels did get harder? I tried getting some code in place to make a better difficulty curve but I ran out of time so I only use it after wave 7 to ramp up the difficulty once all of my defined waves are completed. And yeah, I stuck to sums for the pun with "summoning", but I could see having a much larger set of wave with different math concepts as a sort of learning game.
@denvil Thanks! To be honest, when I got basic game loop finished and got to the first boss, it took me by surprise too lol.
@unx There is some code to increase difficulty after wave 7. It's actually kind of unfair lol. In the attached video I lose pretty promptly on wave 8 because of it. I wanted to integrate it into the first 7 waves as well to create a difficulty curve but I couldn't quite figure it out. I totally agree, though, I think that would have improved the gameplay a lot!
@pimeko Thanks for playing!
@mahobear8 I was worried I was biting off more than I could chew with the wave system but I'm happy with how it turned out! @pebkac I feel you on the power surge comment. I think the two moments of gameplay that feel the best are hitting 2 enemies with one attack and when you destroy a boss last second.
Loved the enemy designs, especially the boss models. Great work!
Delightfully intuitive in a jam where a disproportionate number of games are overcomplicated!
And also quite polished! GJ!
Now who's done their math lessons now we see XD