Great writing, nice use of music and sound effects.
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Magical Grandma's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Magical Girl Concept | #3 | 4.178 | 4.364 |
| Gameplay Polish | #8 | 3.133 | 3.273 |
| Originality/Creativity | #8 | 3.482 | 3.636 |
| Overall | #9 | 3.395 | 3.545 |
| Engagement/Fun | #9 | 3.307 | 3.455 |
| Audio | #12 | 3.133 | 3.273 |
| Aesthetics | #20 | 3.133 | 3.273 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the Magical Girl Genre?
The deuteragonist, Cheryl, is a retired magical girl with the powers of bloom. Her granddaughter Mia is also a huge fan of the manga Sparkling Saviors, which is of the magical girl genre.
Which theme(s) do you pick?
[Smoking], [Dragon], [Age]
How does your game fit those theme(s)?
1. Smoking - After the earthquake, there are smoke clouds in the horizon. Cheryl is captivated by this because it slowly triggers her memories to come back. There's also the level where the school is clouded in smoke because of a fire elemental monster.
2. Dragon - The final boss of the boss rush mode is a dragon. A Chinese dragon to be precise.
3. Age - The titular magical grandma is well... a grandmother. She's in her 60s but was once a magical girl in the past.
Were the assets for your game made during the jam? Elaborate as you see fit.
Asset making started prior to the jam, due to time constraints for both creators. Gensun did the overworld sprites and maps, while I drew the character and monster designs, the battle backgrounds, and the CGs. Although 2 exceptions are the final boss design (those familiar with RM2K would recognize it) and the background for the boss rush is from RMMV’s dlc folder.
Some assets were bought and/or taken from plugin providers. Particularly the attack animations and the UIs.
Music and sound effects were also bought.
Comments
Only explanation I have for Mia hitting as hard as Cheryl's magic is so the party's balanced out and both members have their own niche. Though story-wise I'll just say that Cheryl's age caused her powers to not be as effective as they were before, and/or that Mia's actually quite athletic thanks to swim club, though they may sound like hand waves more than anything.
I did initially have plans for more optional areas but they were a bit too ambitious to include in a jam game, not exactly sure if I (or my brother) would be up to create a larger scaled post-jam version. But there is an optional boss rush where it takes place back in Mia's house, and it unlocks right before the final area.
As for the next time you attempt the Camazotz battle, have Mia tank with Textbook Guard on first turn, it's a lifesaver.
Overall, I appreciate the feedback!
I enjoyed this game! I loved the stye and story. This feel like the start of a full length game. I would love to see this fleshed out or continued. I want to learn more of this world and characters! I also want to see the girl's magical powers in action. Did she get the water element or something? Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't try to befriend the final boss. Maybe that could be a option for her in the future.
I'll give my full thoughts once I finish the snes challenge. For now, I'll just report some bugs:
Big # 1:
This is probably the most major bug in the whole game. If you return to the school after beating the turtle, it would respond you back inside the school. And since you already beat the turtle, you are pretty much stuck in there with no way out. A simple fix to this is change the transfer event location to the front of the school.
Bug # 2:
You can walk into the void at the swimming pool. Unless you plan on hiding a Easter egg in the darkness, this was probably not intended. I simple fix to this is to either set up some invisible walls, or change the tile priority from O to X on the tilesets tab on the database.
And that's it! Overall, good game! The battle system is well balanced and it feels pretty full for a month's worth of dev time. My only cratiqe would be that I want more content despite it being a complete package. That's a sign of a good game!
1 year ago(+1)
I’m fully aware of the map teleportation bug but my lack of knowledge in programming and my brother working on another jam that unfortunately overlapped with this one didn’t give us enough time to fix it.
We’re not exactly planning a sequel (at least as of right now) but you are correct about Mia gaining water powers, and I’m glad you enjoyed the game. ^u^
A good way to keep assets more cohesive is to decide on a color palette beforehand. Sites such as https://lospec.com/palette-list can be helpful - I find this site useful even though I don't usually do pixel art.
Shadows can make a pretty big difference so deciding on a shading style for all art can also be helpful - soft or hard shadows? Which shadow color? What direction does the light come from? A more technical tip is to use a multiply layer for all shadows with the chosen shadow color.
Being able to adapt to other art styles is a very helpful game artist skill, though that one can take a lot of time to build up. In general discussing what styles and techniques the artists feel comfortable with ahead of time and trying to pick ones everyone feel they can do justice can also be a good approach.
We hope this was of some help and wish y'all good luck in future endeavors!
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