| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #2 | 4.419 | 4.419 |
| Overall | #5 | 4.290 | 4.290 |
| Graphics | #12 | 4.387 | 4.387 |
| Authenticity (or, Creativity in use of resolution) | #15 | 4.355 | 4.355 |
| Audio | #16 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
Ranked from31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Themes
I was partially inspired by "The main mission is a sidequest": Instead of a standard boss fight, the game is 50% "Practice mode", which is kind of like a side quest. I didn't really use the themes much though.
Tools
I used Love2D for the game engine, aseprite for the art, LMMS for the music, and BFXR for the sound. I've built a decent amount of tooling around Love2D over the past 3 years, so my dev workflow is super smooth now.
Lessons
I learned how much easier it is to use a larger color palette. My games usually use pretty restricted palettes, but this time I used a 16 color palette and I think it gave me a lot more room to work with art-wise. I also learned that I can keep a music track really simple (like 2-3 layers max) and still have it sound good!
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Super smooth combat and interesting combos! I had a blast playing through the game, with this amazing looks and soundtrack!
Combat felt great and mixed up, the only thing I wish for is a way to restart the current phase from 0 instead of continuing what I have, so I can try and actually master things and not win by sheer brute force of attempts. My blocking skill is seriously lacking x)
Stood up 9 times and had a blast! Amazing entry!
Thanks a ton for playing, glad you liked it! Technically you can restart a phase by hitting escape / start and selecting ‘restart stage’ and itshould reset the boss’s health to max, but it’s not mentioned/explained anywhere unfortunately. Only 9 retries is great, thanks again for playing! I really appreciate the comment.
Great job! I loved the combat techniques and the idea of the game. I was only disappointed by the end. (I hoped that there would be a true boss fight.) This game will have a success!
Thanks for playing! Glad you liked it. Just to make sure that you didn’t run into a bug: There is a boss fight after the practice phase (after the Practice Phase, there’s a Battle Phase and a Phase 2 as well). Did you see both of those + the “The End” screen at the end? If not, you might have run into a bug or something. Let me know!
I'd play a full version of this. Even if the story keeps being about training all over again. xD The characters are simple, but still expressive, and I love the colors. The animations and player-feedback are well done, and the gameplay is to the point. The music is nice, but after a while I wished there were one or two tracks more. Maybe one less dramatic for cutscenes only.
This game is fantastic! The smooth combat, engaging boss battles, and excellent animations make for a rewarding experience. While the practice phase was a bit lengthy, the overall design, and graphics are top-notch. Great job!
Stunning! This is really tight, well executed, and the visuals are so slick. I’d love to see a longer-form take on this.
Man that was great, I'd play this game over and over for the battle phase alone.
This was a wild ride and I loved it! Excellent use of animation and transitions that just kept you pumped for the next round. I would've liked to be able to jump into the boss fight directly on another playthrough without the practicing again, but it's all so well done that I'm not complaining . The use of color and telegraphing for all the attacks always felt fair and it really was rewarding to feel all that practicing pay off in the end:)
I got ABBA on first time through and died 3 or so times in the end. The music and sfx were all top notch too so congrats for putting together something excellent for the jam!
This was a great game!! I really enjoyed getting to practice my moves against the boss! If I had to critique one thing I would say that I felt like my held was held a little too much. I just wanted the game to throw me in there and make me die until I could 100 to 0 the bosses healthbar! The game design and mechanics are frickin great tho. Beautiful game as well!
Great experience playing your game, but IMHO tutorial (practice) parts is too long and completely unnecessary. I think it would be more interesting, challenging and exciding to learn all the enemy moves and gameplay mechanics while playing and trying.
wow this is a solid proposition for this jam, the graphics and especially the animation are great, the character is controlled really well and everything is very fluid... the idea of the game is great and makes the boss rush accessible with these different learning phases... in short, a great little game, very nervous and satisfying
