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See You Tessellate-r, Alligator!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #2869 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Enjoyment | #3485 | 2.727 | 2.727 |
| Overall | #4614 | 2.530 | 2.530 |
| Style | #6688 | 1.682 | 1.682 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Build a grid-based spellbook with tetris-piece spells. Scale up your spellbook using your rewards to defeat increasingly tougher bosses. Also, Alligators have scales ;)
Development Time
96 hours
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
Sounds built using ChipTone by SFB Games - @ SFBTom - https://sfbgames.itch.io/chiptone
Wizard image by @zedstudio on Canva
Alligator image by @GeoImages on Canva
Lightning image by @sparklestroke on Canva
Icons from game-icons.net:
Lorc - https://lorcblog.blogspot.com/
Delapouite - https://delapouite.com/
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Comments
The idea is there, and it's quite promising. Did I get it right, there are 2 battles, and enemy portraits didn't happen to be in final build? I want more of this :) There's some QoL lacking, like snapping to nearest cell in drag&drop and being able to move placed blocks without resetting whole book. And that powerful attack from enemy must be telegraphed, possibly through log text, so it's reaction to gameplay and not meta of knowing what will happen. There's not much graphics, but UI is made very satisfying, I guess it's vanilla engine UI but you did good job picking colors, fonts, sizes and offsets to make it look good. I wish you good luck with your future work, good job!
Yep, 2 battles, no portraits. Glad to hear you want more :)
We're going to overhaul the drag and drop and make sure you can move placed blocks ASAP
In alpha-v2 we have enemy portraits and for now we have put the boss's next attack in the combat log 👇
If you're serious about wanting more, we have an email list and a private discord for playtesting. You can sign up at https://shadowboltstudios.com 📩
We'll be releasing alpha-v3 later this week.
Thanks again for the feedback :)
Aegis 🛡️
VERY good idea for a game, realized quite well. The puzzles are nice and I like the roguelike aspect. The drag and drop could use some work though. Overall good job!
Thanks videozax,
Do you mind elaborating on what you mean by drag and drop could be better?
Guessing you mean a bit “kinder” as in not as harsh and a bit more predictable?
thanks so much for your comment and feedback <3
Aegis 🛡️
I found that I would try to drag a piece onto my grid and it wouldn't attach a lot of the time. It seems like if I didn't place it in the exact right place I was trying to put the piece, instead of snapping into place it would instead just go back into my inventory. This also seems like it could have been a problem my resolution effecting how the game perceives my mouse position possibly because I havent seen other people have problems with this in the comments but that's just a guess.
Thanks for the insight, we definitely need to work on the snapping, it is very strict.
You might also find you can sometimes drag and let go quickly and the pieces will snap all the way to the other grid.
Difficult to get right!
Btw really appreciate you replying. If you would be open minded enough we are trying to build an email list of play testers so we can keep trying new things. We really want to make this into a full game. You can sign up at shadowboltstudios.com and I’ll send you an invite to the discord.
Will try play SUPER GIMBAL as soon as I’m home to exchange feedback <3
Aegis 🛡️
Hi, we have the same idea for this jam. Love your ideas. Great game
Ah cool! Thanks for the kind words <3
shield is useless
We're pretty confident the shield works but I think you may have discovered a slightly different bug.
For anyone reading this there are 2 things that need fixing:
Sorry if you found this frustrating.
We'll do better next time <3
Aegis 🛡
Reminds me of Resident Evil 4 inventory system. Cool idea to “weaponize” that
Interestingly, when we had the idea we couldn't remember which games had done it - but we knew they were out there..
I mentioned DayZ at the time.
After a bit of research, we found a few more - Stalker, The Forest...
We're going to keep building on this concept :)
Thanks for your comment <3
Aegis 🛡
The premise of this is great because in dnd you have to "prepare spells" once the menus and are start to come together more I can see this as a game I come back to play!
Thanks MysticsDen, we’re working on v2 as we speak.
If you're serious about wanting to come back and play we have an email list if you want to join our alpha testers? You can join at https://shadowboltstudios.com
Thanks for your kind words!
Aegis 🛡
Subbed!
The menus of course need some improving, but I love the spell inventory system, and it's nice how the shapes kinda resemble their spell!
Thanks tEEvy, glad you noticed...
We had a few more ideas for shapes resembling their spell:
A big heal:
Upgraded Lightning bolt:
Btw we are working on v2 as we speak and if you would like to help us test this we are looking for playtesters for our next release. We have an email list that you can join at https://shadowboltstudios.com/ :)
Okay, I just completed it.
And I have to say, it's actually really fun. I absolutely love turned-base games, and this one would surely scratches that itch. Finding the perfect loadout for the next boss and trying to fit all the necessary items into your "backpack" is a really cool idea.
I can definitely see the potential here.
Obviously, there's not that much content right now, and the art side is still lacking, but this is a jam game after all.
A few suggestions:
- An indicator that shows when the boss does his "special attack." In my first round against the second boss, he did it on the second turn, and in the second round, he did it on the third. This makes it hard to plan around the attack and to time your shield correctly to be able to survive the attack. It also removes some of the strategizing.
- Maybe make it so the player is able to rotate the items to put them in the backpack.
That being said, I think this is a really good start to a potentially awesome game. Good job, guys!
Great feedback, thanks Jumi.
We discussed letting the player rotate the items but decided we didn't have time to playtest/balance. There would be many more combinations and layouts to beat each boss.
As for the special attack, this is supposed to be on the second turn every time. We made 2 mistakes - firstly we weren't specific enough with the boss description. And secondly I think the turn counter is broken. Thanks for pointing this out.
We are working on v2 as we speak and if you would like to help us test this we are looking for playtesters for our next release. We have an email list that you can join at https://shadowboltstudios.com/
Sure! Just signed up!
I really like the concept and the humor. Also fun ideas for the boss mechanics :)
Would have loved to discover even more spells and bosses!
Funnily enough, we're designing more spells and bosses as we speak!
We had loads of ideas from the jam but just couldn't get them implemented in time.
Thanks so much for playing :)
Aegis 🛡
I love the use of limited inventory as a decision space. A unique entry. GG
Thanks for the kind words HazyMajor!
Having to decide what spells you can take based on their physical size is a fun idea! Maybe they could have buffs based on adjacency with other spells?
Thank you so much for the positive feedback!
Great recommendation! Combining spells in a fun, adjacent or diagonal way is on the top of our to-do list for this game :).
Hope you enjoyed playing.
- Gambit ♟
Thanks for the feedback!
We thought about adding spell combinations later in the game. Like combining a Shield and a Fireball could give you a flaming shield that does damage to an attacker while shielded.
Having buffs based on their adjacency to each other though is such a great idea! Much harder to balance but we love a challenge 😂
Can't find you on Discord but if you're interested in seeing how we develop, we have a playtester email list that you can sign up for at shadowboltstudios.com.
Will try review Mouse Tower this evening!
Loving the combo of plotting your moves on a Tetris board and battling bosses!
Thanks so much for the positive comment TOXUDIO. More bosses and spells to come :)
- Gambit ♟️