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Blacksmith's Apprentice's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Controls | #10 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Overall | #15 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Theme | #17 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Audio | #18 | 3.722 | 3.722 |
| Fun | #22 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Originality | #23 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
| Accessibility | #24 | 3.278 | 3.278 |
| Graphics | #50 | 3.556 | 3.556 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.2.1
Wildcards Used
Wah Wah Wah Waah, Hardcore
Game Description
In Blacksmith’s Apprentice, the player takes on the role of an apprentice blacksmith, trying to appease their grumpy employers. They are required to perform many chores around the smithy as part of their apprenticeship. Be careful as the blacksmiths have red hot tempers and will blow at the slightest mistake!
How does your game tie into the theme?
This is a fairly straightforward interpretation of the theme “Forge” as the game takes place within a forge. I tried to recreate the Bum dum tss sound on loss and the game ends immediately if the player makes a mistake.
Source(s)
No.
Discord Username(s)
tjmcsaxy
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
First time!
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Comments
Very original concept - taking on the role of an apprentice versus a blacksmith definitely helped this game stand out from others. Also as a QoL feature, being able to rebind the keys was great. Definitely a bit of a difficulty curve, but only so much you can do to balance in a week. A small thing I would have is also potentially making the outlines of the tools in that minigame a bit more distinct, or maybe adding labels? It was a bit hard to distinguish between the mallet spot and the hammer spot at a glance when time is a critical factor.
Overall though, really lovely submission. Impressed you manage to get such good AI for the blacksmiths in a week! Great job!
This game is fantastic! I'll admit I haven't beaten it (what I assume is the final day is nuts!!) but that's only because I'm strapped for time; I'm coming back to play this one in my free time, I want to finish it.
This is one of those cases where I really have no complaints. The sfx is great, the music is cute, the art is on point, and the gameplay itself is perfectly engaging. What a great game jam effort! Thanks for giving us a game to play!
I really enjoyed the resource management aspect to this game! My only feedback is that the 2nd level felt like a bit too much of a jump but I appreciate you only had a week to make it and each level takes time :)
Very nice submission for a first GWJ and welcome. Really like the mini games and art. The idea was great and if any fellow employees ever complain, I will just tell them to play this game and feel lucky they are no blacksmith's apprentices :)
Only complaint is the first two levels are super easy and the third one just seems too hard... is it possible?
Thanks so much for the feedback! I agree that the difficulty curve is still a bit uneven. I added different curves for the dwarfs, such that each dwarf drinks a little bit less than their predecessor, but it still definitely gets hectic at the end. I promise it is possible, though!
I liked a lot the minigames and the music was good, nice game!
Loved the chunky pixel art style. The 3rd level felt impossible. I had hard time getting to all the needs, sure enough I would be busted not cleaning up a spill. I loved the mechanics between each system, very well done! Mini games were fun and the concept came together well. Nice job!
Thanks so much for the feedback! I agree that the difficulty ramps up probably a bit too much for the 3rd level (I guess I padded out the play time by making it so difficult). I tried to take some steps to fix this (increase the time that the smiths would wait, make each dwarf drink a little less), but it's still quite hectic at the end.
Here's some unasked for tips that might help you or others with the 3rd level:
Wow! What a fantastic game! I could tell immediately that it was gonna be fun, and when the extra jobs got added in it was so crazy. My only critique is that I think maybe you should be given a slight bit of leeway with the AI catching you. Well done!
I GOT SPANKED SO MANY TIMES D:
I feel like this is one of the most fun games in this jam! I really like the twist on being the apprentice and not the blacksmiths! The minigames were fun!
I think you should make the ai's move to the edged because I found if I hugged the walls the game was a lot easier.
GREAT GAME, VERY FUN!! :D
Enjoyable but the blacksmith's are very unforgiving. I barely block their way and they've decided to fire me.
Fantastic game, second day is super hard, to the point that I re-mapped the controls a couple of times for that competitive advantage and I think I bugged the mop (remapping action to space bar, I think). But I like it enough, and was so impressed that you did remappable controls, to re-start the game and finish it. It can feel like you have no chance on some tries, but it's quick enough that you just try again.
Funny too, "You were consistently in the way" got me good, and just how obnoxious the blacksmiths are. Fine work!
Thanks for the feedback! Developer secret: Space is already part of the default input map if you want to use it without remapping. I did put some thought into making the bite of defeat a bit less (restarting the day instead of the whole game, and making each day only a minute long) to try to incentivize people to say "just one more try..."
I tried to be a bit humorous, since the set-up is a bit absurd, so I'm glad some of my humor meshed well with some players.
What awful working conditions, poor little boy :( But what an amazing submission. I love that all the minigames were different and quick, got some flashbacks from among us having to focus on multiple things at once while playing small minigames. Impressive effort, but I do hope those blacksmith's learn their lesson soon xD
Thanks for the feedback! Among Us was explicitly listed as an inspiration point for this game in my design doc. I think the blacksmith's did find a way to get along with the young apprentice in the end (still being quite grumpy of course).
I only managed to pass the first level. :) The idea is interesting, and the graphs and animations are nice. The grumpy smiths are pretty brutal—they punish the apprentice for a single mistake!
Maybe in a game like this, you need enemies with more or less fixed routes with some variations. Otherwise, when it is completely random like now (it looks random at least), you can’t really plan your job. Also, it just may happen that one smith makes a puddle, and the other one discovers it soon after, and you don’t even have a chance to clean up because you can approach the place without approaching these bullies.
Overall, it’s an excellent idea, and it could make a nice, puzzle-like game when tuned a little.
Thanks for the feedback! The blacksmiths do behave more or less randomly. There's a state machine driving what they're working on: wandering, forging, smithing (hammer), or whacking (mallet). They will complete their task (taking any time to drink) and then pick a new task to work on.
I think the idea of putting it on rails and making various levels (where you know they'll get mad if you don't intervene) is a great idea for a different mode.
Fun minigames! The blacksmith kept hitting me while the minigame box was active but I guess that makes sense in context
Thanks for the feedback! I thought about pausing the world during the minigames, but there's no real way to fail the minigame. To incentivize you to do it as fast as possible, I left the world running which also means you have to try to make sure you're not in the way.
Yeah makes sense! Definitely a fun concept! :)