itch.io

Well, this is coming from a failed guitar player who's idea of keeping the rhythm involves playing the riff up to 10 bpm slower or faster than what is required, so take it with a grain of salt, but the gameplay didn't feel 'disconnected' from the music. I didn't feel precisely connected either though. Something in between I'd say. 

Congratulations on your first jam entry! I think that you managed to create a delightful little game, which is really a great feat considering your level of experience. Don't worry too much about the fact, that you're having trouble with understanding the solutions that you implement in your game. I'm told that people much more experienced than you or I routinely face the same issue. Also, I can assure you that it gets a lot better with experience. Like with most other things, if you want to get better you have to 'put in the reps'. Ludum Dare is just around the corner, it's pretty much 'the' goto jam for most people, and it might offer you an interesting challenge by forcing you to make a game in 72h instead of two weeks. Anyway, I wish you good luck with your next project!

You're not the first person to ask me this very question which is flattering, but... no, I have no plans to develop it further. It's not exactly the kind of game I want to make and I already have one other project in mind (that I'm a bit obsessed by). I used Feeble Fire mostly as a training exercise. I forced myself to make a game that relies on a bunch of features I'm not that good at or experienced with (3d animations are definitely my weak point, I'm not that experienced with AI and while I do enjoy a good combat system I'd assume that a good percentage of my future creations will be non-violent or at least not that combat focused). Thank you so much for asking though! BTW, I played your game just now and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I'm a fan of games that try to put the player in this sort of a relaxing, meditative state (Sir Percival Drinksalot style :P ). Even though the gameplay is vastly different it reminded me a bit of the game called Refunct.

Thank you so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it. Now, when it comes to your suggestions:

1. Crosshair wouldn't work well in the current implementation of the attack ability because the origin point of the projectile is not dependent on the rotation of the camera but the rotation of the character. That said, I understand that it might be tough to get used to, especially at the beginning. A target locking system could've been a great solution to this but I haven't tried to implement it.

2. The checkpoint system on the other hand would've been fairly easy to implement. I decided not to due to how short the game is and as a reference to Dark Souls (which this game is lightly inspired by). 

3. That's a very good point. I could've picked a better icon to represent this particular ability.

Once again, thank you for playing the game!

This was a very nice experience. Short, sweet and polished which - if you ask me - is a great formula for a jam game. For a first game ever made, this is a really great effort. Thank you for this experience and good luck with your game dev journey!   

Game Title/URL: Feeble Fire https://lemonbalmgames.itch.io/feeble-fire

Pitch/Information: Third person action-adventure game lighty inspired by Dark Souls. It has some great voice acting in it and I'm told it doesn't look half-bad either for a low-poly title. 

I'd like feedback on: I'm still relatively new to this whole game dev thing so any feedback will be much appreciated. Please let me know how the game runs on your machine and if the untested gamepad controls work. 

That's all, I hope you'll enjoy my little creation.  

I think it might be an issue with the compression algorithm. It was already brought to my attention and apparently installing the game via itch.io app solves it. I'll probably upload additional files using a different compression algorithm when I get the chance, to see if that solves the issue.

This indeed looks great! Also, now that I think about it, our games have a similar color pallets (mostly brown and orange with a touch of primary colors).

Depends on the game engine that you're using. Also, I don't think it's necessary to make more than one build. Browser build is probably the best thing you can do accessibility-wise but Windows build should cover most of the users. 

Day... umm... second to last?
Another good news/bad news kinda scenario. The bad news is that I was too busy working on the game to update this devlog, but the good news is that I have some stuff to show for it! 'Volcanic Island' (hmmm... now that I think about it, it's possible I might still go for the late title change) is almost ready. I created the main level, I'm almost done with sound and UI. I just need to program a bit of level logic, polish the whole thing a bit and the game should be done. 

Oh, and this project gradually became a very light Dark Souls parody which is another reason why I'm considering changing the title. Still, the parody elements aren't super overt (well, maybe a few of them :P) so additional reference in form of a title might be an overkill.

Gifs!

Day 5

I made two new enemy types - a ranged stationary mage character periodically hurling balls of magma in the player's general direction (that's a mouthful), and a cute kamikaze imp that's faster than Usain Bolt (gifs below).

I also created low poly 'water' and 'magma' materials (or shaders like they are often referred to in other engines), imported some NPC characters that I'm going to use later, removed costly and unnecessary particle effects from AI characters and made a bunch of other small improvements that I can't recall now.

Plan for tomorrow:
- Level design a.k.a actually making something that resembles a video game and not a prototype of a rudimentary combat system.

Gifs!

Days 3 and 4
I now have a rudimentary but functional combat system. Which is great because that was my main goal for this jam. With a bit of polish, one or two more enemy types, and an actual game level, this may yet become a real game and a reasonably fun one at that!

What I managed to do:
- Improved ability cooldown system.
- UI.
- Combat ability - water projectile that staggers and deals damage to AI.
- AI that can both take some and give some.

Here's how it all looks in action:

Day 2 - Continued 

I made even more stuff! A mana-pickup that will be randomly dropped by fallen enemies, a short dash (a.k.a 'water slide') and a super jump ability that spawns a giant geyser below your feet (this will be used mostly to traverse terrain but it can also serve as 'get out of jail' free card during combat scenarios). 

ToDo list for tomorrow:
- Basic UI for abilities.
- Clean up and balance cooldowns (I'm using magic numbers for now).
- 1 or 2 combat abilities.
- Start working on the AI and combat.

Wish me luck!

That mustache can conquer empires. They don't stand a chance! 

Day 2

So... I have your standard, run of the mill 'good news/bad news' kinda rigmarole. Due to my poor time management skills, I skipped like two full days of development doing 'work stuff' instead. That's the bad news. The good news is that from now on, I'm going hard on this whole thing, and while I might not be able to finish even 50% of the stuff that I initially envisioned, I'll try to submit #something, come hell or high water.

Onto the actual dev update. Meet Marvin in his new and improved version (turns out that animating robes can be... tricky, I'll probably still use the previous model for something). He now has a monstrously powerful mustache and he looks more like an apprentice than a master of arcane arts, which works better for the extremely generic storyline that I have in mind. Oh, and he can now move, and also heal himself with some basic magic. Neat right? 

I've managed to set up a very basic animation blueprint using animations found on the extremely useful website called mixamo. I have a very rudimentary health and mana system (two variables and two UI progress bars) and I created a basic 'healing spell' that uses said system. I'm not done for today, and I might have more updates so stay tuned!

I have a somewhat similar idea for a game (fast, combat based, designed around dodging + water based abilities) though I'm trying to make it in 3d using a third person perspective. I'm also going to start by tackling movement and seeing as our projects have some obvious parallels I'm excited to follow your progress. Good luck! 

This looks great so far! I'm not the biggest D&D fan in the world but I was brought up on the old Infinity Engine RPG's and I can appreciate the fact that your first enemy looks a bit like mustard jelly:) As for 'outsourcing' the graphics - that's a perfectly valid approach, especially if you're working alone. I'm also going to rely for the bulk of my graphic on kind strangers from the interwebz posting their stuff under CC license. Anyway, good luck! I'm excited for the future updates. 

Hey there! I absolutely love Firewatch, Life is Strange was a great experience and I'm about to play Night In The Woods so I commend you for your video game preferences :)

When it comes to the music creation software, I think Reaper might be your best bet seeing as it's very cheap for personal use (60$) and its trial version has full functionality, which is something very rare for DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software.  FL Studio is also great if you want to create music using virtual instruments and samples but the demo version is somewhat limited. Also, while Garage Band isn't commonly considered a professional grade DAW it's actually really capable piece of software, that should be enough for you basic game dev needs and it's probably the most user friendly option available (opening something like Reaper or even FL Studio for the first time might be really overwhelming). Oh and there's of course Logic Pro which is pretty much the industry standard option for mac users. If you're just starting out, there's no need to go for anything other than Garage Band and the basic skills you'll learn using it (working with virtual instruments, recording, working with tracks, basic song arrangement and mixing) will transfer to the next, more 'professional' DAW you decide to use. Garage Band might not be a powerhouse workstation but it's not a toy either, it's a capable piece of software and a great place to start your music journey (perhaps even the best one seeing how user friendly it is). Plus, Garage Band is a bit similar to Logic Pro so it sets you up on a natural upgrade path to the professional quality software. 

I have no idea why I'm pimping Garage Band so hard btw, I don't even like Apple...

Going back to the game dev aspect of things, I'm not experienced enough to know this for sure but rhythm game sounds a bit ambitious for your first project. Marrying the bpm of the song with frames displayed on screen might prove... tricky. In any case, I'm excited to see what you'll manage to create and I wish you good luck :)

Day 1

I won't be able to do much today but I wanted to take at least the first step on the path to finishing my game. Meet the hero of the story in his glorious T-pose. I think I'll call him Marvin. It's not my model but it comes with a very gracious CC BY license so I gave him a quick paint job and I'll be sure to include the name of the author in the game page and credits. Graphics are the one thing that I most likely won't be able to do on my own (other than the odd prop or particle effect that is) so given how I'm working alone I'll have to rely on the kind people posting their free stuff on the interwebz. Anyway, tomorrow I'll try to make my hero move and maybe even cast some spells if I'm lucky. Stay tuned! 

Hi there!

I'm Matt a.k.a LemonBalmGames and this is my third ever game jam. I played the first two a bit safe, making somewhat similar games and it's time to change that! My aim for this jam is to create a game that includes a bunch of things that I haven't tried before (third person perspective, animations, AI, UI, combat system and more). Enter - Volcanic Island.

Elevator Pitch: 

Third person adventure game. Low poly style. You control a mage with a few water-based magic abilities (projectile, dodge, self-heal, super-jump etc.) fighting and platforming your way through the titular volcanic island on some sort of a generic quest :)

In case you want to know more about it, check out the design doc included in my Trello board (linked below).

Plan of Attack:

During the first week of the jam I'll try to create as many core game-play elements as possible (main character movement and abilities, AI, combat system). Then - depending on what I manage to create - I'll reevaluate, most likely scope down, and try to make what I have into a game during the second week of the jam. I'm determined to finish 'something', so worse case scenario I'll create a third person character with the ability to hurl projectiles at some basic AI characters. Best case scenario I'll make something that actually resambles a game with a working combat system. Wish me luck!

List of Tools:

Unreal Engine 4.19.2

Blender

Gimp 

Reaper

Trello - Click to view the board!

Stay tuned for future updates!