Runed Memory

by comicsans

co-authored: @digitalwizard, @embedder72, @jellzilla, @kapitstick, @zissou

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.53

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.64

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.91

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.05

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.51

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.16

Introduction and Controls

Nothing. You remember nothing.

What is this staff? [Click to cast spells]

What is this dusty book? [Shift to open spellbook]

Even moving is hard [WASD/Arrow Keys]

Red eyes are glowing menacingly. Will you survive?

Updates

2019/10/8 - Lowered music volume; fixed monster spawn rate

Credits

* Design, Programming, Visual Effects:
Tony Aquino, Warren Dukes, Brian McBarron, Chris Pitstick, Kevin Pitstick, Zak Wise
* GUI Design: Kevin Pitstick
* Level Design: Zak Wise
* Sound and Music: Warren Dukes
* Voxel Art: Brian McBarron

Thanks to Babylon.js for the framework, Qubicle for the voxel editor, and Hermetica for the awesome rune font!

Screen Captures

Runed Memory | Can you remember your spells?
:---------------------------------------------:|:---------------------------------------------:

Eat some lightning! | How did they get up there?
:---------------------------------------------:|:---------------------------------------------:

Editorial Comments (from Brian/ComicSans)

This is more of a tech demo than a game. Our purpose was to learn new technology (TypeScript, BabylonJS) and have fun. You can see the pieces of a game are in there, but we didn't bother to string them together in a meaningful way. Still, we hope you have fun blowing up monsters and enjoy the experience.

Comments50

Jason Porritt8 Oct 2019, 01:14

That was fun! I liked having to figure out the rune combinations to unlock the different spells. It was pretty easy once I unlocked fireball. Really enjoyed the rocket wizard :)

Idontknow8 Oct 2019, 01:19

I really like the spell combinations...especially Rocket Wizard.
This was done in a weekend. I'm just gonna let that sink in for a moment.

JLV8 Oct 2019, 01:20

It is impressive to see such a magic system implemented in such a short time. I also greatly enjoyed the lighting effects, with their consequences on the overall gameplay.

Pluses :
- Experimenting with the magic system
- The lighting impacts the gameplay !
- Once mastered, the controls allow for great flexibility (space bar as well as number to change magic, etc)

Possible improvements :
- Maybe a little more explanations ? Also, some of the combat/spellcast seems a little buggy (For some spells I could not make sense of the casting conditions)

All in all, great job !

Cincerteri8 Oct 2019, 01:22

Really cool game. Once I figured out how to combine components into new spells it became really fun. I liked the audio as well.

Swordishmage8 Oct 2019, 01:24

A really fun and creative game! I had a great time casting spells. :)

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:25

Thanks, @jason-porritt and @idontknow! @kapitstick added rocket wizard at the last minute. We're glad you enjoyed it!

EoG8 Oct 2019, 01:25

You're a rocket wizard harry

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:27

@jlv thanks for the feedback! You're absolutely right that we drop you in the deep end. That was more due to time constraints rather than design. Some spells require proximity to an enemy to take effect!

DigitalWizard8 Oct 2019, 01:27

@idontknow -- We have a very talented group of people!

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:28

@cincerteri We're glad you stuck with it to figure it out! The awesome music was composed by @zissou on real physical synthesizers, not software. He's old school and awesome!

bobotast8 Oct 2019, 01:29

Interesting game! Map is a little tedious to navigate.

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 01:30

@eog LOL

James Beninger8 Oct 2019, 01:31

Not too much to add. You've got a solid magic system here, and the combinations make sense. It would have been nice to have some endgame content, maybe when breaking the top of the pyramid, but I'd say you have a good foundation of a game here.

The spell effects are real nice.

mharring8 Oct 2019, 01:32

Great use of the theme! The different spells were fun to play around with. It didn't seem like there was a way to lose though? Even so, well done!

scalliondelight8 Oct 2019, 01:32

cool game! i like how you made each spell relevant to the level, but I couldn't figure out what Send is for.

psychic_ash8 Oct 2019, 01:40

I'll second JLV. Also I would have liked a volume control. The music was nice and interested but after a while, it started to grate on me. That's more about me and less about the music. I think if it was a little lower or I could have controlled it.

jellzilla8 Oct 2019, 01:44

@scalliondelight We had trouble with naming toward the end (both Blink and Send were originally named Teleport). The Send spell picks the closest enemy and teleports them to where you clicked. Thanks for playing!

Jayometric8 Oct 2019, 01:44

Very cool concept! Figuring out the right combinations was interesting and intuitive. Great use of the theme!

cottontshirtz8 Oct 2019, 01:45

Definitely got some 'godly powers' vibes going on here. Once I got both fireball and blink it got to be the only combo I used

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 02:01

@mharring Ha! You can lose, but you kinda have to try at it (AFK for a while). There's a really subtle visual effect that your staff crystal flickers when you take damage. But, without time to balance gameplay, we decided to err on the side of godly powers. hat tip: @cottontshirtz

--08 Oct 2019, 02:07

I can pretty much second what everyone else above has said. A great little game! The only thing that gave me pause was that the inferno spell seemed to deal a *lot* of damage, seemingly one-shoting any enemy I encountered.

Prasolova Masha8 Oct 2019, 02:10

Great concept, I enjoyed playing with spells. Graphics is minimalistic, but effects are diverse and nice-looking.

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 02:13

@$162477 Thanks! Our plan was to add different cooldowns for the different powers, but didn't get there. Hopefully you had fun frying everything!

mattdotam8 Oct 2019, 02:41

The combinations are a cool touch - most funw as going hard as the Rocket Wizard. The main menu gave me Mount & Blade vibes which is always good. Lots of effects, and the game title is clever. Good job!

CrimsonHorizon8 Oct 2019, 09:48

Realy nice concept with the spells! Rocket wizard and inferno was op!

MrArc8 Oct 2019, 11:48

Nice job, guys! Love the visual effects and the magic crafting system.

"Rocket wizard burning out his fuse up here alone."

TheMiSta928 Oct 2019, 19:13

Nice concept, sadly took me a while to understand that you have to combine the "elements" to create spells -- maybe I just read over it. In general nice assets, some enemies were a little buggy and I wished there was a better introduction in what to do, since first I only killed the enemies but didn't work on the spawners themselves. Still, great submit!

Shunt8 Oct 2019, 19:22

A really clever game, impressive in the time taken too! The combination of the runes leading to different spell effects was a nice touch with the theme. Perhaps some more clues towards discovery would have been nice. Maybe a little brighter in places too.

superpaltus8 Oct 2019, 19:30

Clever little game. Fun to play once you figure out the spell system (it took me a while though). Great work!

Alyn8 Oct 2019, 22:15

Nice game! I really like the rune selection and spell creation mechanic.

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 22:34

@psychic-ash Thanks for mentioning the music volume! You found a regression, where we accidentally deleted the volume adjustment for the music track. A fix is uploaded now.

ComicSansauthor8 Oct 2019, 22:40

@mattdotam @crimsonhorizon @mrarc @alyn Thanks for the feedback! @kapistick did all the design and programming for the awesome spellbook GUI. Without time to create levels of increasing difficulty, we struggled with making the various spells discoverable without being obvious.

Seabird8 Oct 2019, 23:52

Cool game. I loved the spell approach and how to set them up. If you plan on adding updates after the jam maybe you can add different outcomes for every combination of the spell, I really liked the idea of selecting multiple per slot. Great job. And thank you for the feedback on our game, I just came back from work and saw your comment about the game-breaking bug and knew exactly what it was when you gave me the exception. I went ahead and fixed the bug and uploaded it again. Thanks.

NachtWitch9 Oct 2019, 00:35

Really cool game, the mechanics were fun and intuitive, the art was ok, but the gameplay was super smooth, fun game, 10/10 for a game made in LD

Kooshy9 Oct 2019, 00:46

Great magic system! The mixing and matching to see what you can get is fun, and it's really satisfying to discover a new spell and then use it. (Especially 'Rocket Wizard' - that was hilarious!) There were a bunch of combinations I wanted to try that didn't have spells, but that's probably a result of the short timeframe.

One question: what does 'Send' do? I never figured out what to use it for.

Also, the ramp leading up the pyramid wasn't obviously a ramp to me. It took a little while to realize I could go up it.

Unlockingcube9 Oct 2019, 00:50

Loved the combinations. You should be able to use that type of combination platform for a number of great future.

Michael K im9 Oct 2019, 01:30

Nicely done! I liked the day/night shifting. Very interesting concept!

Erin9 Oct 2019, 02:44

I liked the big pyramid in the top right and how the colors shifted so dramatically when you got close to a baddie spawner. I couldn't figure out how to get the other spells to do anything, so I just ended up zappin' everything.

Danilo Freire9 Oct 2019, 03:14

Congratulations to the team, this game is wonderful! I only felt that the map was too big and empty, it messed up my experience a little

stephenwhoskins9 Oct 2019, 03:15

This was visually gorgeous. I loved climbing through the stairs and taking on the menacing red blocky dudes with the scary eyes. They thought that I was stuck in there with them, but in reality they were all stuck in there with ME!!! :: Maniacal laughter ensues ::

BustosMan9 Oct 2019, 04:23

I enjoyed that I could craft my spells on the go. Good entry. Although, it did feel tedious when going up those stairs because each row/column had a somewhat long path.

mimusangel9 Oct 2019, 07:29

Nice game but a little easy!

Demuss9 Oct 2019, 09:45

i love how the characters look the combination of pixelart and lowpoly is always nice for me, nice little and cunning spell system ( i see what you did there )

MrArc9 Oct 2019, 16:17

Paulsams9 Oct 2019, 16:53

Of course it's cool when your ass burns in the literal sense). Cool concept, even if it’s been invented thousands of times already - I advise you to develop it.

Deiidara10 Oct 2019, 15:41

I liked the spells but i didnt know what to do :c

TORT6009111 Oct 2019, 18:34

I really like the idea about lighting and visibility, but I don't understand what I should to do in this game ))
Anyway I like the concept!

Try to make small levels step by step to explain aim of the game for the player

Daitse12 Oct 2019, 16:59

Cool idea, love the combining of runes to make spells ! The only thing missing is a bit of backstory and polishing ! Nice entry !

Captain Nakou14 Oct 2019, 00:04

Okay, the combination system for the spell is amazing. You did that in so little time, that's really great.
The sounds was a little agressive tho.

But really good overall.

freedompotatoes27 Oct 2019, 04:17

I ran out of things to kill eventually but had so much fun doing it.