🌲 The Witch in the Woods - Winter Flowjam 2023

Game Updates & Announcements
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WFJ23_Loading_screen

https://flowlab.io/game/play/2192902

Hello everyone,
Here is my Flowjam game for Winter 2023, and this time I’m working with @glowbug for the art!

The Witch in the Woods is something new I’m trying in Flowlab. All objects are projected from a 2D top down map to try to create a sudo 3D world. World objects will move around the player as you change the camera rotation. It creates a really nice effect, but I also put a lot of mathematical workarounds to really get the game going. There’s still a lot with the game that I’m figuring out, but the game came out pretty good. I would go into a lot of technical detail, but this post is already pretty long as it is.

The game itslef is really focused on RPG aesthetics, with many inspirations from the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series games. But more specifically, what really inspired the mechanics and art direction is some of my favorite game devs on Twitter like Galof Manron and Faxdoc. It’s always fun seeing new ideas to try to add into Flowlab.

Please let me know what you think of the game! It was a lot of fun working with Glowbug with making all the enemies and magic. I would like to keep working on this later on and try some new ideas with this too.

creditscropped

Cynthia the young Witch

WFJ23_Player01

Cynthia is a witch that is the protector of this forest. One day, on her way back home, she finds appearances of monster ravishing through this forest. You must remove these monsters from the forest and find the cause of their invasion.

Magic

Magic is selected by the number you press. The elements are Blizzard, Lighting, and Firebolt. Each one is stronger than the other, but some enemies will have different damage to the spells. MP restores every second after 2 second of MP usage.

Blizzard - is a short range attack that uses 1 MP. The reset timer is 1 second.

Lighting - is a stronger attack that needs accuracy to use, uses 2 MP. The reset timer is 2 seconds.

Firebolt - is the strongest attack that shoots in a straight line, and uses 4 MP, The reset timer is 4 seconds.

Elements

Achievements

WFJ23_Achivments Savior - Beat the game

WFJ23_Achivments3 Leave Nothing Alive - Kill all monsters before entering the Boss Room

WFJ23_Achivments4 Drink Up! - Find all Potions

WFJ23_Achivments5 Perfect - Beat the game without taking damage (*Broken)

WFJ23_Achivments7 Speedrun - Beat the game under 5 Minutes

Having performance issues?

Not that I’ve had any issues, I do know this game is somewhat expression heavy so it may be a little slower for older computers. If you are experiencing any issue, please let me know immediately. The download link below will help run the game better locally.
https://flowlab.io/assets/users/62/user_622236/game_2202241/windows.zip?stamp=1673837218

21 Likes
2

those slimes remind me of enter the gungeon!

Looking forward to playing this - the art looks super good!!

11 Likes
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So many bangers this jam, it’s crazy

I really liked this one, the visual trickery is especially amazing in this - well done @JR01 and @glowbug !

12 Likes
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Splendid visual effects!

11 Likes
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Awesome work, this game is really fun while incorporating some advanced stuff like the world rotation. The controls are intuitive, the enemy design is straightforward, and the combat and UI are very readable. I’m interested to see if you expand on this at all, since it feels like a great baseline for an even bigger game.

10 Likes
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I would be interested on expanding the game.
There were ideas to have more worlds, not just a dark world. As well as puzzles, pickup items, and more sprite stacked landmarks, a general a real standard RPG game vibe. I would be interested on making a full game, if Glowbug would be interested as well.

Before anything else though, I want to fully figure out the 3D world rotation.
Even as I was making the Boss fights, I was still learning new things about the rotations’ system. As well, the system I’m using now is just squishing a circle world, making the y-axis slower than the x-axis; and also created a lot of problems and mathematical workarounds that honestly burnt me out in the Jam. So a correct oval orbit that is based on angle and distance would be my biggest priority.

Also thanks to everyone who have been sending me feedback,
I have several ideas I plan to add, change and fix when the Flowjam ends.

10 Likes
7

Sounds like something I said before :thinking:

2 Likes
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I made a 100% walkthrough with all achievements and both boss fights

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The Witch in the Woods - Flowjam Winter 2023 | 100% playthrough - YouTube

7 Likes
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Update 1/21/23:

  • All attacks take 2 MP
  • All attack recharge has 2 second recharge each
  • Replaced and Fixed the Perfect achievement
  • Fixed and adjusted on monster health’s
  • Added marks in MP when you don’t have enough.
  • F for full screen
  • Updated the Boss Fight & removed one of the boss achievements

Any additional feedback and ideas are appreciated

7 Likes
10

Sorry to revive but I just played this game for the first time and its amazing! Will it be updated?

2 Likes