By the Light's Grace [Gain Jam 2024]

Gain Jam Gain Jam 8/2024
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21

Yeaaaah. Compared to Punch out. You made my day. :smiley:

-For the flash and the protection I didn’t know what to do. I know it’s less fun to flash with an opponent stuck in a defensive position, but I wanted the player to really focus on the timing. Especially when you look at it, flash is an extremely strong technique for this game. But the objective is not to slow down the gameplay. Perhaps the protection can protect from flash or reduce the time to 2 turns during the protection to give the player time to reposition without wasting too much time. To think about.

-I’ll check for Burn. I had the impression that the command could get stuck a little and not launch each time but in general you have to force it a little. I’m not making excuses, don’t worry. It’s malfunctioning and I know I need to perfect it. On the other hand, if it is not in the launch but in the execution I will have to check more in depth because in the action of the Jam I have a past experience.

Thank you very much for your feedback which will allow us to bring even more improvement to the next version and for this comparison with an anthological game. :smiley:

See ya. ;3

1 Like
22

This was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the combat and the art! Definitely was bittersweet to see the belly not ready yet screen in the credits lol. Looking forward to seeing future updates!

2 Likes
23

This game feels really meta and refreshing. Gonna play through it and see how it goes :slight_smile:

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24

Had a lot of fun with this one! Really loved the meta writing, and the art is super cute too!

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25

This is one of the most fun short little games I’ve played in awhile. The writing and worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic, and the combat twist really made the game super entertaining. The art especially has a charm to it that makes the 4th wall break even funnier, as if the hero is jumping out into the storyboard. I am super excited/hope there is more to come, as some more fights/minibosses and possible weight gain stages would be super exciting to see. Great work!

4 Likes
26

@Milodinosaur23 et @Plant_Planterson : Your feedback really made us happy. THANKS. :smiley:

@rocketman2000 : Thank you very much for your feedback and congratulations for your foresight. :wink:

I’m taking some time here to give you feedback on what was planned with the team. As said previously, the game is not over. So let me tease you about what’s in the kitchen. :stuck_out_tongue:

-First of all, some problems have been resolved.
Emotion bubble too high, real burping sound implemented, and the reduction of unnecessary resources in games. Problems that could arise during Burn have been fixed.

But all that is nothing about what happens next.
-Modification of Burn and Flash mechanics
-New interface for the adventure part of the game and new menu.
-Bestiary that explains the monsters’ abilities.
-6 Boss fight (one per zone)
-Possibility of using spells outside of combat in order to interact with the world.
-An new end for completionists (surprise),
-The missing images,
-The real fight against the antagonist
-A modification of the demonic castle which will lose importance in this episode for the benefit of the following episode.
-New dialogues between our protagonists based on its new features.

This is all that has been decided so far. There are still some loose ends but we have the bulk of what “By the Light’s Grace” should look like at the end.

In order to have time to do everything neatly (And not to be on the verge of death like at the end of the Jam) We have defined that the next version will be released in October or November. The holidays being over, we work on it when we have time.

The second episode will take longer to come. It is planned and thought out, but there is another project we are working on well before the Jam. So we need to get organized before talking in more detail about what happens next after this game.

We finished by saying that apart from the bosses which were originally planned, all the future features were thought of by you and your feedback which allowed us to give more depth to what we can offer. Thank you again for your feedback and don’t forget that your opinion matters a lot to all content creators.

In this, i say you "See you next time and thank again. :smiley: )

ps: Sorry for mi poor english.

27

Love the game, but I feel like I’m to stupid to get the last 20 food in the desert area XD

1 Like
28

Yo.

We are working on a new puzzle for the desert.
I will give you the solution.

-You have a number of trees defined on each side of the map where you arrive.

-Taking a direction will give you as many points as trees.

-Each time you have a multiple of 5 in points you will go to a different place. unless you exceed 20, you will be sent to a map that will take you out of the desert.

it gives:
-5 points = oasis
-10 point = the abandoned village
-15 points = the monster camp
-20 point = the pyramid.

I can give it because we have already planned to change the riddle and the clue.

Good continuation. :3

EDIT: Don’t forget that if you play the Jam version I forgot 1 monster and it can only be finished if you use the cheat that I left in time. You will find its location here => A problem and a solution! - By the Light's Grace by Cadek Crew
But if it’s not the jam version the location of the cheat has changed.

29

I love the battle system here, shaking up the RPGMaker formula instantly makes this 10x more enjoyable (not that the original is bad, but I sure have seen it a lot). The artwork and the descriptions for the goddess are amazing, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the stuffed versions. The combat sprites are great too, the cavelings are my favourites.

The story was compelling, and seeing the goddess become more attentive to the hero as they explored more locations was sweet. Seeing the hero’s status changing in the menu as the game progressed was a nice touch also, and I liked the twist at the end.

Some bugs I found: the goblin count went down to -2 when checking the number of enemies left, and the caveling count never went down. The caveling fights were also a bit annoying due to their stun spam, they never damaged much fortunately but it usually just boiled down to waiting for them to run out of mana then start the actual fight.

3 Likes
30

Thank you very much for this feedback.
First, the problems:
-Ok for the goblins I will see that for the next update.
-The cavelin: lol. In fact it is a bit of a joke of these monsters. They do not hurt. They are really just there to annoy you. When Citozo released this sprite, we were totally in delirium and it gave this. ^o^;;; . We reduced its stun time which was 5 turns to 3 turns. The new flash system should further reduce its impact. Getting stunned while defending will reduce the stun time to 1 turn for the player and 2 turns for the monster. If it still poses a problem after that we will see about changing its spell.

Now the good part:
Thank you for your feedback. We really wanted to make the game much more dynamic than the classic combat system. It is still perfectible but it is totally made without pluggin. I agree for the classic turn-based system. It is not bad but if we use it, it must be worked on to give it a real identity. Rpg maker is a good game engine, but many maker stop too easily at the base and the pluggin without trying to go further. In our case we wanted to create one from scratch. It would not be so good without the Art of Wonkywankit.

The game would not be the same without the pen of Erronwolf who knew how to transform the ideas into a real story, and the pixel art of Citozo who gives us our unique character.

Hoping that the next version to come will make you have as much fun as this one, and that you will still follow us when we release the 2nd part.

See ya. :smiley:

1 Like
31

Cool game! I enjoyed seeing it through to the end. The fake out at the beginning was really funny and endeared me a lot to the game right away. The writing was funny throughout (especially the final scene) and the feeding scenes were great. I loved seeing Aurelia’s attitude toward food and her eagerness shift over the game. The art was lovely, although I was maybe expecting more drastic changes in her body over the last couple stages. I really liked the monster sprites funnily enough, their sketchy style is very fun and cute. The yeti and goblin are my favourites. The caveling was creepy in a kind of cute way, its hurt sprite is so silly.

The combat was an interesting take on the ATB formula. I do think it suffers a bit from being an in an awkward middle ground between action game and turn based combat. It gets a bit spamy at times, and while you do naturally find the rhythm as you play, there’s no “tell” (visual or auditory) so it feels fairly random and like a guessing game, particularly at first. I think it might have felt better if there were some kind of visual tell before the attack, and maybe more work on the audio/visual “game feel” (for lack of a better term) would have helped too.

The spells also felt a bit mixed in their usefulness. This is pretty par for the course for rpgs tbh, buff spells never seem to be as useful as offence spells. Fire and Stun were definitely the most useful, where as attack up did not feel that useful as you will only seem to get a few hits in between their blocks. The shield spell also felt somewhat superfluous as it just saves you some hit points, which you can easily get back from countering. Countering also kind of completely negated the need to ever heal as well. I didn’t mind as I think I would have been annoyed if I died or had to return to the temple constantly, but its something to think about. Having collectible healing/mp items that you manage could make managing health more fun/interesting as well. If the enemy attacks followed more of a pattern (maybe they do and I didn’t notice…) I think the buff spells would have been more useful as you could have timed using them to hit the enemy while their defence is down or soak up a lot of damage. Punch out was mentioned in another post and that’s an interesting comparison. Haven’t played them much myself but iirc those games rely heavily on patterns to the point of being “solveable” (e.g. I think there are blindfolded speed runs of them).

As for enemy abilities I think a lot of them served to elongate the fight rather then force the player to learn a particular strategy. I think making the goblins ability to steal mp was also maybe a little counter intuitive. As a player, I went to the forests first since they seemed like they would be the easiest zone (since they’re introduced first) so to get all your magic stolen right away kind of gets me out of the habit of using magic right away. I would have probably put that ability in another area and made it less frequent so it’s more of a continuous drain on resources.

I think the feeding minigame was a cool idea, but I was a bit sad that the burping only happened when you messed up. I found it fairly easy so I felt like I kind of had to mess up on purpose to get the burping. Neat idea though, might have worked better for me if it had been more difficult.

Anyway these are just some thoughts I had as someone with an interest in game design. I wouldn’t expect anywhere near perfection from a jam game. You all took an idea and ran with it and honestly came out great for a jam. I played the current patched version so obviously it was a little more polished, but its still super impressive what you guys managed to get done. I only give this critique to give constructive advice that may be helpful for future work on the game or other projects in the future.

Thanks for your sharing this!

2 Likes
32

Yo.

WOW

This is competition feedback. Let’s go point by point (I will do the first and last chapter for the finish).

Combat System:
The first goal was to make a game where the speed of the actions was closer to the combat games, but spamming could have been a problem in the sequence of actions. That’s why we opted for the ATB. I’ll see about your idea of ​​an indication before attack. Maybe add directly the enemy’s ATB or a flash like we find in the classic combat system. It was hard to think of all that with the little time of the Jam. But now we have time to refine all that. So thanks for your feedback.

Spell:
Already for the AI ​​of the monsters. We did not have the opportunity to work on a real AI of the monsters as much for the tracking as for the actions of combat. It is my shame during this jam to have proposed an AI so bad but time was limited. You are right. The monsters act in a totally random way with a tendency to defend themselves too often. It is planned to change all that! For the spells it is a little more complicated. We had thought of the spells with a double use. One in exploration and one in combat. This is what the discussions with the goddess and the hero underline. But time did not allow us to create the actions outside of combat. I also had the same impression for the spells in combat. Their usefulness is too unequal. That is why I applied certain nerfs like for Burn and flash and that I think about ups of the other spells. But the balancing is not easy. But your point of view on the usefulness of spells that help because we can see the pattern of the enemy is very interesting. I will keep that in mind for the next version!!!

Abilities:
The basic objective is to make enemies that at each level require you to focus on a spell. The Goblin requires mastering the counterattack. The Grizly speed with Moon beam. The Fishmen not to stay too much behind his defense and burn. The Snakman not to rely too much on Burn or Flash (immunity when he has the white diamonds on him), and the Caveling… ok uh they’re trolls, it’s not the same thing XD, but he requires mastering the fight before he has time to attack with Flash. I agree the execution is not good but I think it comes from the AI ​​which prevents real depth in the actions of the enemies. I’m not looking for excuses and keep in mind your point of view which seems very enlightened to me.

Feeding mini game:
I was saying the same thing… the mini game seems poorly finished to me. I hadn’t seen this aspect for the burps I would change the moment when they appear. When we wanted to put the burps we were afraid that it would not suit some players and so we made a just middle. The mini game is very simple because the goal was that the player does not struggle too much for this version. But to be honest I am not satisfied. From an animation point of view I would have liked the actions of the characters to be also visual on the screen. Maybe see the belly rubbed when it is the moment… But I promise nothing. We have not yet talked about it. In any case this mini game must be reworked too.

Thank:
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback.We put all our efforts for 2 weeks in order to give the best of ourselves at our respective levels. It was not easy to sometimes do more than ten hours a day of work. We had a lot of fun making this game (a lot of suffering too XD). Knowing that it was fun is an immense pride with an equally great joy!!! I hope that the next version will meet the expectations that you may have had for this first version. Cross well that it is with your remarks that I will review the combat system, the AI, the tracking and the mini feeding games.

I will finish by saying that feedback like yours or that of @Wulf_Diomhaireachd are gold mines for us to improve and always be able to do better. Thank you very much. Without this time that you take to really tell us what you think without also omitting the bad points (which are sometimes even more important than the good ones), we would not move forward and would remain in error.

Thanks again and until next time I hope. :smiley:

ps: Sorry for mi poor english. Is not mi main langage. ^_^;;;;;

2 Likes
33

i loved this short game.
the art was great, the characters fun, the erotic aspects rewarding and the gamepla engaging. my personal favorite thing is how ever once in a while aurelia would make small talk with the protagonist, making them both likable and making them actual characters that matter.

2 Likes
34

Your team did a fantastic job on this game. It’s my favorite to come out of a jam in several years. Here’s why:

  • The combat was some of the most fun I’ve had playing a game on this forum.
  • The artwork for Aurelia was so good! All around, the art was excellent, but Aurelia’s “inspect” art was on another level.
  • The dialogue between Aurelia and the MC was cute, and also engaging. It made me feel invested in both characters.

The fact that the team accomplished all of the above in a 2 week jam is really, really impressive to me.

I’m super excited to hear the plan is for the project to get ongoing support! I’ll be following it closely. Thanks for taking the time to make a great game!

4 Likes
35

Thanks for your feedback

@superaguilar2002 I also think Erron did a great job at this level. It gives a depth to their relationship that is rare to find in a jam. Namely, there are at least 6 discussions of this kind per zone that are already implemented. (except for the demonic castle where there is none and the mountain where 1 is missing. No time to set it up). Character development and character personality has always been a central part of the discussions during the writing process. While I give credit where credit is due, it was mostly the discussions between Erronwolf and Wonky that created the range of personalities in our work.

@vrazz We are happy that you liked the game.
We have spared no effort so that this project resembles a game as much as possible despite its 2 short weeks.To tell the truth, the last day, Wonky could no longer hold his pen and I did 36 hours of programming straight.I won’t say how tense we were when the forum stopped working 1 hour before the deadline XD. Despite this, several features are missing but we had planned to release them in Post Jam. Your feedback always gives us more motivation to stay on course with this project. As said above, we will take the time to complete it properly. So it will take a while. But we are still on it.

Thank you for your interest in this project, always hoping that the next release will confirm your choice.

See ya. :smiley:

2 Likes
36

The writing is great and the combat is interesting, however, what really holds this game back is that the belly screens are a WIP as they are the players main reward/motivation to keep going

1 Like
37

Thanks for your feedback. You are totally right. The Stuffing images are missing. On the other hand, there are all the weight gain images . If you wait until it has finished digesting you have access to all the images of weight gain. We will also rework them because we agree that the weight gain of these images is insufficient.

It doesn’t look like it but there is a lot of drawing in the game. Combat scenery, combat visual effects, battler, There are also all the reference drawings for the creation of sprites that are not in the game. (Thinking about it, it could be interesting to make a gallery with that).

At the end Wonky no longer had the strength to hold his pen. We make no excuses for this shortcoming and know that it affects the final result.We could have just put the images of the weight gain without even talking about the stuffing images which would have just made people believe that there was nothing more. But we preferred to leave these images which certainly do not show anything, but testify to the basic idea that we had for our project.

Hoping that your experience was not too bad, I thank you for your feedback while hoping that the next version meets your expectations.

See ya ^_^. (and sorry for mi poor english level.)

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38

Sorry if my review came off as only negative, I had a wonderful time playing your submission and it deserves to be in the top twelve of this game jam! I am excited to see what the next version brings, I will 100% be playing it!

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39

Yo. Dont worry. A negative review is also very important in improving a game. Especially if it touches on a point that is true.To be honest I’m a little disappointed that there aren’t any images of Stuffing because Weight gain isn’t really my thing. So I totally understand your point of view.

My thanks were sincere and I thank you again for showing interest in our project.

40

I like this art on this one. Very mid-90s MSPaint.

2 Likes