Post Game Jam Major Update

Two weeks ago, we submitted Pseudo Summon to the Indie Tales Game Jam. Since then our submission has received a ton of positive comments and amazing feedback!

With the closing of the voting period for the jam we would like to give our thanks to everyone who played Pseudo Summon as well as those who took the time to leave us a comment or piece of feedback. Furthermore, we would like to offer our congratulations to everyone who participated in the jam.

We have taken much of the feedback we have received into consideration and felt we should try to implement changes and features based on this feedback as well as improve on areas we felt we missed out on originally due to the time constraints of the game jam.

Below we have detailed the changes we have brought to the new version of Pseudo Summon as well as some insight into the design processes behind how and why we implemented these changes. If you would like a quick overview of the changes, please see the Changelog section at the bottom of this Devlog.

WebGL Version:

The game is now playable on WebGL!

Something we overlooked during the jam was creating a WebGL version of the game. After seeing many other submissions provide a WebGL version, we decided that we should follow suit and provide one for Pseudo Summon as well.  If you're reading this you can play Pseudo Summon in your browser right now!

Major Gameplay Changes:

“Limit Break” Mechanic

In order to vary the flow of the fight, the “Limit Break” is a large damaging attack that requires a lengthy windup before it’s execution. We received plentiful feedback that the flow of the fight felt “one-note”, and we agreed! The original player’s moveset was considered secondary to the varied attacks Malakor had up his sleeve, and more development time was given to making the Boss moveset over the player during the course of the three-day Jam.

Now the player has access to a powerful move that requires successful strikes to charge, followed by a lengthy windup to fire.

The attack will build over time,  as indicated by a meter next to the Player’s Health . This effectively breaks the fight into three distinct phases:

• Charge - The player’s light attack acts as a way to deal damage over time, but is primarily the incentive to charge the “Limit Break”.
• Execution - Once charged, the challenge becomes finding a window of opportunity to execute the Limit Break. The windup can be dodged out of, so it’s easy to correct a positional mistake if needed.
• Recovery - Once executed, a short recovery phase begins, where the player can focus on evasion and recovering after they’ve committed to the Limit Break’s Execution.

Going for a perfect run now is much more involved, as each distinct phase offers some unique strategy to effectively execute. While the core of the game’s feel was preserved, the extra ability was an excellent suggestion that greatly varies the strategies employed by the player!

Improved Player Mobility

The player's ability to maneuver was somewhat limited in the original Jam version of Pseudo Summon. The base move speed was kept low to match the small bounds of the arena, and the dodge felt a bit sluggish due to excessive recovery frames along with some inconsistencies present to the actual I-Frame period.

In addition to improving the initial burst of velocity to the dodge, we reduced the recovery window before additional dodges can be performed. This, alongside some flashy speed lines, greatly improves the feedback of dashing, and the overall mobility of the character.

This allows for some quick successive bursts of evasion under intense pressure!

These improvements additionally contribute to the new inclusion of the Limit-Break, which forces the player to switch between a highly mobile phase to the methodical positioning and offence required to maximize damage.

Player and Boss health changes

In order to accommodate the changes described above we have adjusted the health of both the player and the boss.

The player now has less health as they are more mobile and able to do more damage with the Limit Break attack. Conversely, Malakor now has more health to reflect the player’s ability to deal more damage.

Gameplay feedback:

Player Bounds Overlay

Some players found that it was unclear where they were able to move to in the room. We wanted to communicate the bounds visually through clutter, maintaining the focal point of the room in the center, having the portal along with candles and books to denote the region of play. We thought having a summon circle sprawled in chalk or arcane ink would also help, but of course, time constraints denied it’s inclusion.

However, the clutter did not work as well as we thought as an affordance on it’s own, so we added an additional signifier, as player feedback indicated confusion over the playable space. We added a simple, transparent image as an overlay to denote the edges of the arena. The clarity of the game should always be prioritized over art direction, and this approach melded naturally enough to the aesthetic. We believe it to be a non-intrusive solution to the issue.

Boss Attack Windups

Something we felt was lacking was the Malakor’s attack windups. Due to time constraints we left this aspect unpolished but have now further refined the visual and audio feedback when Malakor casts an attack.

Now Malakor will go through an attack windup animation when casting a spell. We have added some visual effects and his staff will glow the colour of the attack and a sound cue will be played. Our hope is that this gives players further information about what kind of attack they will need to avoid next.

Player shadow indicator

For further clarity we have added a shadow which is cast directly beneath the player. We hope this will help players visually identify where they are standing in order to dodge attacks.

Quality of Life and Polish:

Options menu

The inclusion of an options menu was an important point for us as we had received feedback about performance issues on lower end computers. As our goal during the jam was to get something working, any sort of optimization or graphics options fell by the wayside.

We have added an options menu which now provides players with graphics settings options as well as the ability to adjust volume levels independently for music and sound effects. Hopefully this will accommodate a wider range of hardware that players are using.

Pause menu

Having a pause menu was another important point of polish for us to include which again, like the options menu was overlooked due to the time constraints of the game jam.

Players can now pause mid game in order to tweak graphic or sound options, or if they wish to, quit or restart mid game.

Additional music track

There is now an additional music track that can be played during the fight with Malakor! This can be selected from the options menu before or during the game.

Changelog:

• Created a WebGL version of the game.
• Added a secondary “Limit Break” attack that is charged by doing damage.
• Increased the speed of the dodge and added some visual effects to it.
• Tweaked health values for both the player and the boss.
• Added an intro and UI overlay to better convey where the bounds of player movement are.
• Added visual and audio effects for boss attack windups.
• Added a shadow beneath the player to better indicate player positioning.
• Added an options menu for graphics settings, volume levels and music selection.
• Added a pause menu.
• Added a second music track for the boss fight.

We hope you give this version of Pseudo Summon a try! Please be sure to let us know what you think!

We plan on creating more projects going forward and are working on a new project at the moment. Please follow us if you would like to see our future projects!

• https://itch.io/profile/dechro 
• https://itch.io/profile/eldergib

Once again, we would like to thank everyone for their kind and thoughtful comments and feedback.

Sincerely,

- Gib and Dechro