Holy moly. My jaw dropped the instant I heard the music. Between that and the graphics and title screen, this looks so professional. I see the makings of something big here!!
The idea of protecting the light from the shadows is really interesting. I like how the game is mostly about defense and kind of about like formations and looking around you. It's still very intense even if you don't do any direct attacking. Plus the atmosphere really keeps you on edge and on our toes. I had a lot of fun playing it!
A couple things I came across though. First off, while I love the idea of the shadows creeping up on you, I felt they had a bit of a drawback too. When enemies attack from there, you almost like can't see what's going on. The first time the druids killed a big creature from the shadows, I actually almost had a heart attack from the sudden glow collecting sound and then was like... woah, I have a lot of Glow all of a sudden. xD I feel like to really get the "creeping up" vibe you were going for with those sneak attacks, maybe make monsters eyes glow a lot brighter when they're in those shadows behind you (the ones that advance) so that you see then coming and have to adjust your formation accordingly. Either that or, maybe consider making it so the creeping shadows make the monsters even stronger so you can see them when they come out (surprise attack style) instead of accidentally killing them in the shadows.
Second, while I totally get you guys were trying to go for like the unpredictable war feeling with the waves, I feel like the monster waves could be a little more balanced. There were a lot of times where I felt the druids were just standing there, and I was waiting for something to happen... while other times it was a total ambush. A bit of that is good, but I think it could use a little more balance, especially with the waiting times.
Finally, as beautiful as everything is, I did feel that the incentive for the player to keep playing did fade away over time. Tweaking the waiting times will deffs help with this, but it also might help to consider an objective! Maybe the druids are trying to get the light to the safe spot, and every time after dying the player knows how close they got! That would definitely add some extra suspense!
Sorry this got so long haha! I got really into this game xD I hope to see you all do more with it in the future! It has a ton of potential!
Awesome job!
-Sasha
Oh, PS. Question for Carl. What software do you use to compose? Do you use a sample library? That music box sound in the title screen song was soooo pretty, I was just curious where it came from! Beyond amazing job on the music. Hats off to you good sir!
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Wardens of Glow's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound | #3 | 4.020 | 4.444 |
| Aesthetics | #16 | 3.719 | 4.111 |
| Overall | #26 | 3.241 | 3.583 |
| Gameplay | #34 | 2.915 | 3.222 |
| Theme | #55 | 2.312 | 2.556 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Wow, thank you so much for this wonderful feedback, it made us very happy! :D While we of course are not pushing updates to the game while the jam is going, we have a few updates on hold and will continue to develop the game, at least for some time after this.
As the one directly responsible for the balance-issues you describe with the waves, I can promise you this is something I will put high on my list to look over. ;)
Carl's DAW of choice was PreSonus Studio one. In regards of what VST's he used, I was too deep into the code to follow his process there, but I'll tell him to pop in and give you an answer! :D
Again, thanks a ton! :D <3
Hello!
Thank you so much for such a nice review!
As Robin mentioned, I used Studio One as my DAW. For the VST's I used a whole lot (I think the plug-ins themselves takes up more space than the actual music and sound effects).
The plug-in you specifically asked for is the "Music Box Suite" downloaded from frozenplain.com and has both a free and paid version. I used the free one which had surprisingly high quality and is, as far as I know, not a demo version to get you to buy the paid one.
Thank you once again for playing our game and leaving such a nice review.
-Carl
The atmosphere in this game is excellent, and that (IMO) is one of the hardest things to get right, so kudos to you. There is a wonderful creepy & unnerving feeling from the moment you see the title sequence and that continues into the main game. Love the environment, love the music. Really great work man.
Overall good game, the light getting bright again as you add glow was good, the one thing I have for feedback was in the game info page you said wardens that hold onto glow get stronger, but because you constantly have to move wardens and the lantern to fend of the darkness, it was impossible to not trigger the automatic deposit. If you tied the deposit of glow to a button press then the player can decide between a higher score and strengthening the defensive line.
The game and intro look good. But I don't know how to play the game.
Top score 250
Nice Entry, one question the Tutorial¿?
I jump to action, it's dark the scene but with intention, interesting move mechanic switching between the wardens, I would say this is like a tower defense to protect the light.
Gameplay: Interesting moving but I prefer to stay still around the light farming wardens. I would spicy the score formula with how much distance you travel.
Theme: Teleportation only saw in spawning the allies
Aesthetics: Simple and nice. I like the design of the enemies.
Sound: Great entrance Tense Battle theme
Thank you for playing! :)
Yes, the tutorial sadly fell short of the deadline... sadly, it means that one of the mechanics may be missed by players; you are able to teleport gnomes between eachother. Click a gnome, and drag the pointer to another gnome and release to make them switch places. Great for getting the lantern or a dying gnome out of a sticky situation. :)
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