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A jam submission

Kalia and The Fire Staff Pre-AlphaView game page

A fiery top-down dungeon crawling adventure.
Submitted by gdn001 (@GDN001) — 3 days, 2 hours before the deadline
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Kalia and The Fire Staff Pre-Alpha's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
UI#133.6673.667
Overall Fun#163.6673.667
Sound/Music#233.0003.000
Art#382.6672.667

Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

(+1)

Not bad! The thing that stood out the most to me was the fire mechanics and how objects and enemies can set each other on fire. The difficulty is good too. I wish Kalia moved a little faster out of combat because the block puzzles were a bit tedious, and the only reward for exploration was mana and health potions. I also wish that her melee attack wasnt locked to 4 directions and that she had more abilities that play off the "ignite one thing then play around it" gameplay. I also would have appreciated knowing how much damage I was doing, whether that be a health bar for enemies or popup damage numbers. Good job.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Regarding the melee attack directions, you'll be glad to know that it has already been upgraded to 8 directions and should feature in the next update. The idea to include numbers and enemy health bars is interesting, currently my vision is to keep the UI as simple as possible, but it could potentially feature as a toggle (other elements such as area previews for enemy special attacks are planned, so it wouldn't be a stretch).

There are certainly plans for more interesting abilities, her ability bar has 7 icons for a reason! More interesting interactions with fire are also planned. Glad you found the prototype enjoyable still!

Submitted(+1)

This is an extremely solid pre-alpha. While I think the artwork is basic, the consistency of the style across the game helps it hold up and gives it the charm of something like an early newgrounds game. That said, the style's simplicity can cause some ambiguity about what is a wall and what is a walkable floor area, since both can share the same overall simplistic aesthetic. I do think the animations are solid and weighty, however, which lends itself positively to the overall feel of the game.

The Diablo/Zelda inspirations of mana bars and block puzzles mix well, though in this pre-alpha stage neither element feels especially in-depth, though that is likely just due to it being a pre-alpha and a tutorial dungeon. Currently, much of the combat revolves around kiting the enemies into formations that would be best exploitable with spells, which generally functions well but can be somewhat tiresome when overwhelmed and needing to repeatedly move them into exploitable formations or run around for extended periods shooting fireballs at them. The feel of the combat is solid, but it could benefit from further stipulations (i.e. some enemies being more powerful but also explosive, thereby encouraging a focus on them first to yield explosive damage) or incorporating a secondary type of depth to other actions (perhaps successful dodges yielding a minor refill of the mana bar). Also, I think the dodge roll could use a smoother outro or less ending lag. I believe the reason the lag is so long is to prevent exploiting it, but the lag can feel so long that simply running around attacks can seem more favorable. The amount of time it takes to break debris could also use some reducing as there's a lot to break and a full set of swings being needed to break them can eat into the playtime.

Otherwise, I think the fire mechanic is a solid base to build the combat and puzzle solving around. Currently, the puzzles seem to trend simplistically toward finding the ignitable object and then shooting/hitting it, but I feel that with additional combat elements, moving elements like conveyor belts, and secondary properties being added to the fire like light/shadow and/or heat properties being used for actions like cooking, creating heat plumes for ascending, or controlling temperature-controlled switches would help imbue further depth into the systems. 

Overall, solid work! It noticeably needs more elements and tweaking, but it functions well as a pre-alpha and lays out the positive qualities of the future release quite well!

Developer

Appreciate the feedback! Very valid points. While I consider the current art a "placeholder", there has been some effort to give it a good and consistent look (maybe too much). At some point in the future, the art style might get changed completely, but the early details and animations should carry over.

I'm glad that the combat is solid, but you're right in that it needs more depth. Enemies that are afraid of fire, explode or will try to put themselves out are just some examples of what's in planning. There's also a plan to rework the fire meter into a combo meter of sorts, where landing attacks consistently will raise it and getting damaged or not attacking will decrease it, for example. You're also correct about the intention with the dodging, it does need some work and possibly a different way to prevent easy spam.

I like the suggestions for fire puzzles! One of my inspirations for them is the Portal series, and I have a couple of notes on more advanced puzzle types, it would just be difficult to implement, include and teach about them all in this short of a demo, but they'll definitely be a part of the full package!