poisoned hero

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.04
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.97
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.26
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.64
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.19
Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.35
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.14
*first ludum dare participation! and my second jam game overall!*

can you collect the appropriate flowers, craft them into potions and drink the right one before the poison spreads through your body? can you.. delay the inevitable?!

part clicker, part crafting, part survival!

*ran out of time for some menu elements, and the how to play section could've gotten a little bit more love, obviously. but the game is playable! my second jam game overall, and i'm fairly satisfied with it!*

(after a few waves of poison, the time you have to use an antidote becomes shorter. also, you need to allow a few seconds for the potion's effect to repel the poison!)

*credits*
- everything made by me, using the following open source tools: godot engine & libresprite
- flowers art created from cc0 reference pictures
- music generated by playing and tweaking knobs on the WolframTones experiment

*known bugs, issues, and plans*

*(which will be fixed/implemented after the ratings period. thank y'all so much for all your feedback!)*
- the "play again" / possibility to play another game doesn't work and the page currently needs to be refreshed to play new game
- the orange potion text's color is missing
- making a clearer how-to-play section, with better visuals, including a mention about RYB colors
- display something when the difficulty increases
- fix the difficulty levels and make a smoother progression towards a more and more challenging game
- later on: add settings
- possibly a high-score system?

Comments24

Zack HD
Zack HD5 Apr 2022, 03:43
What an interesting game! I was really drawn into the color mixing aspect, but I then proceeded to forget to make sure my head was in the right color space (RYB not RGB) and I died because of it LOL! It feels like everything happens in this game a little too slow, and it was frustrating to accidentally restart harvesting a plant by clicking it again because there was no/not enough feedback.
Selicre5 Apr 2022, 03:43
The use of RYB as opposed to RGB tripped me up a bit, but this is a really interesting management game, especially that you have to make sure you use your time to pick flowers when you already have the potion ready.
LDJam user 264390
LDJam user 2643905 Apr 2022, 03:55
Game's pretty interesting! I thought it was difficult, I wish the potions replenished just a little bit more health. (Once it goes under 28, it never seems to go over it again.) Once you drink a potion, the health bar keeps going down for a few seconds. I don't know if that's intended or not, I could see it being feature since medicine doesn't always act right away.

I might give it another run later because I want to unlock the automate haha, the overall vibe was pretty chill even though you had to manage your time carefully. I enjoyed it!
miraculousMelon
miraculousMelon5 Apr 2022, 04:01
Took a little while to understand how to play, but once I got into a rhythm, it was fun! The one thing that was slightly frustrating though would be the way the death timer continues even after you drink the potion so you can't easily judge when to drink it, but overall a good game!
subvertissement
subvertissementauthor5 Apr 2022, 17:28
thanks for your feedback, @zack-hd @selicre @payaosito & @miraculousmelon !

there are clearly issues with how some things are presented. the top-timer going from 60 seconds down to 30 seconds after a few rounds of poison was intentional, and i wanted to make more difficulty levels for a better sense of progression, but ran out of time and didn't manage to present in a way that was clear for the player!

and the issue with the timer continuing for a few seconds even after you drink the antidote is indeed something i would fix in a later update! it would *make sense* that it takes a few moments for the antidote to do its thing on you, but that's an easy cop out and it clearly wasn't planned that way..! X)

the RGB/RYB thing should definitely be cleared up in the "how to play" menu page. glad y'all figured it out! :)
subvertissement
subvertissementauthor5 Apr 2022, 17:52
*(my own current high score is surviving for 12m 30s!)* :slight_smile:
Morricore
Morricore5 Apr 2022, 19:08
Great idea. But UI kills it. Great work!
Raiponz
Raiponz5 Apr 2022, 20:04
The game look good, with nice text effects. The interface is a bit confusing, and it's a bit boring to unlock the firsts plants.
Flawed_Gamer
Flawed_Gamer5 Apr 2022, 20:14
The game was fun and simple, although, I didn't really feel a sense of urgency.
Chocolat-Endive
Chocolat-Endive5 Apr 2022, 20:28
How to play was not super clear at first, but once I've understood it, it was pretty fun. The only minor issue I've encountered is some counter glitch when I tried to play again after a game over (I had to reload the web page to be able to play). Also, I'm not sure the automation is really useful. I've survived a little more than 14 minutes on my third run. I may try a another run later in the evening, I want run longer than 15 minutes!

This is not an issue with the game, but I always find generated music quite annoying. I think I would have enjoyed more simple sound FX.

Really enjoyed it, good job on this game! (and the intro was fun)
Heloise
Heloise6 Apr 2022, 09:45
This is a really interesting theme and atmosphere, but i couldn't understand exactly how to make the poisons(maybe it's my fault :tired_face: ) and when i tried to replay the game doesnt allow me, but i really like the mood.
subvertissement
subvertissementauthor6 Apr 2022, 12:23
@heloise yeah, i realized too late that a bug happens when you try to play again from within the game. refreshing the page should work, thouhg. definitely will fix it after the rating period is over!

the instructions will also be made clearer!

(basically, once you've clicked on a flower at the bottom, it takes some time to collect it. once you have a flower, you can click the corresponding color-button just above that. these are the ingredients for your antidote. so i you only click the red button once, clicking the arrow will craft a red potion. finally, if the prompt at the top asks for a red drink, clicking the red potion will save you from the poison. (but apparently it's a strong poison and you need lots of different potions!))

anyways, thanks for playing!
LDJam user 2795466 Apr 2022, 12:29
Having the color names sometimes written out in different colors is quite evil. I approve!
subvertissement
subvertissementauthor6 Apr 2022, 12:48
@jzucc12 that orange text glitch was... *checks notes*.. yes, totally intentional! :eyes:
LDJam user 234567
LDJam user 2345676 Apr 2022, 15:24
I found it boring until the color mixing came along. Then I realized that you have to know the primary color mixes.

Good game idea!
sarahs76 Apr 2022, 21:40
Loved the idea of this potion mixing game. It took me a little while to figure out how to play but after I did it was really fun. Nice work.
Gix7 Apr 2022, 03:10
Tutorial essentially showed me the high-concepts of the game but it took me multiple attempts to figure out how to craft a single potion. "Play Again" immediately puts you into a lose state; even going back to the title screen doesn't fix this... so that was annoying.

Otherwise it's a neat take on Simon's-Says.
WilhelmStein
WilhelmStein7 Apr 2022, 18:30
I wish I had read that after a while the timer gets half filled :laughing:
I had just unlocked the automate action and I had no flowers remaining. Then I was asked for a black dhalia :stuck_out_tongue:
Amolker
Amolker7 Apr 2022, 21:25
Nice entry.
I think it's a little bit repetative, and automatistion button is too risky to buy, due it's utility is low.
LDJam user 202408
LDJam user 2024088 Apr 2022, 13:09
a bit confusing at first but this game has a good consept, didn't expect to find a potion mixing game in the jam, but I'm not disappointed, the music could use some improvement but overall the game is just dandy!
Steve74119 Apr 2022, 01:31
It took me a few tries to figure out what to do, but after that it was surprisingly engaging. This is a deceptively addictive experience
robin_schmitz
robin_schmitz9 Apr 2022, 13:58
Cool concept, I like the idea a lot. At first, i struggled a bit to figure out, where I could click and what effects the buttons had, but once I got it, it was a fun experience. Well done, impressive for a solo-dev. Keep it up! :)
videodotexe
videodotexe9 Apr 2022, 13:58
Color mixing is cool, maybe a better feedback (visual and audio both) on the flower picking process would add a lot to this one.
Grotfang9 Apr 2022, 14:14
took me couple of try to fully understand how everything worked , apart from that the core concept is pretty cool, love the soundtrack !
(ps: i think there is a bug when you "play again" the timer start at 0 so you loose directly)
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