VOLUME WARNING: DUE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING MANY ENEMIES ON SCREEN AT ONCE AND CAN OVERLAP EACH OTHER, HITTING THEM WITH A SPELL WILL OVERLAP SOUNDS AT ONCE CAUSING HIGH VOLUME NOISE.
Hello,
Here is my entry for the “Lo-Cal” Gain Jam. I unfortunately did not complete the scope of my project, so it is more of a conceptual battle system rather than a game. Credits to the assets I’ve used are in the link. Controls are located in the link as well, but I’ll provide a guide below.
To play, you use the Z key to cast spells. Just pressing the key will default to the last spell you’ve selected and its spell level. More on the spell level later. Holding the Z key will allow you to select between four spell elements after half a second: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Fire is the standard damage, Water will raise and push away enemies slightly, Wind will shoot them into the air, and Earth is your defensive option (requirement to survive) to negate staggering from enemies.
If you continue to hold the Z key, you will be able to cast the elemental spells at higher levels. For Fire, Water, and Wind you will spawn more projectiles. For Earth, you will gain a regen at second level, and a flat heal at third level. Note that casting Earth spells at first level after casting the regen version at second level will refresh the regen buff.
To regain mana, press and hold the X key. You will regain mana at a slow rate, but not only will you take less damage from enemies, you will also gain extra mana from defending their attacks.
I’ve made the game endless, so wolves will keep spawning until you lose all your health. They spawn a second faster after every 50 spawns.
I apologize, I did not make a pause screen. I am dumb.
Ramblings
I definitely had thought my idea was doable within the two weeks, but it was not. The things that did not make it into the game:
- 9 out of 12 of the planned spells and their mechanical effects
- 11 out of 12 spells’ visual effects
- Another enemy type besides wolves
- Enhanced wolf boss (easiest to do from this list)
- Selectable stages
With regards to the spells that did not make it in: with two days left, I ended up deciding to just throw the 1st level Fire spell visual into 2nd and 3rd level Fire spell and into all the Water and Wind spells.
The estimated days it took for each task:
- 2 Days – Thinking up project ideas
- 1 Day – Looking up assets to use
- 3 Days – Modifying the fox base asset to use for the game jam
- 6 Days – Programming
- 2 Day – Godot Tutorials & Troubleshooting
Note: A lot of the tasks were back and forth; I did some programming, then went to look up assets to see if anything fit what I was going for, then programmed around the asset.
If I did work in a group with an idea in mind, more days would have gone into programming time (obviously). The problem is that I was unconfident with my knowledge of Godot (or other engines) prior to the jam that I felt like I would not be able to contribute to the group. It felt like a safer bet to go solo and learn as I go. Worst case, I drag myself down rather than the group.
Before the game jam, I only had half-a-week’s worth of Godot knowledge prepared for the jam, and that knowledge was only surface level. I did manage to learn a lot throughout the jam, and definitely have tools/premade functions like hitboxes to use for future jams (if I continue to use Godot). I definitely had fun creating code through the C# option they provided. This game was not made with prebuilt functions, so I’m kinda proud of what came out of it, despite it not ending up how I wanted it be.
With the knowledge I’ve gained from this jam, I’m not sure if I have what’s necessary to work in a group still, but I might keep my eyes open during the next jam to see if anyone’s looking for someone with probably a low skill level with Godot. I would hope to be able to contribute properly.
Do I plan on trying to continue to work on this game? The answer is “no” for now. It has been an exhausting last couple of days on the project, and I spent so much time on it that I’d like to focus my time elsewhere. I might pull some functions for any future projects or use the gameplay concept somewhere else, but I am unsure if I want to come back to this game.
