itch.io

Hey! I'm a 26 year old game designer building a team to make a hybrid Lego/Legend of Zelda fan game. I primarily use Godot, though I also have a little experience with Unreal Engine. I've only uploaded one 2D Platformer so far, but my portfolio can be found in the following itch link.

https://joshima.itch.io/

The team currently consists of myself as project lead/game designer and one other programmer, and we're using Godot. We're currently looking for a 3D Modeler who can make and animate characters that look like Lego Minifigs, but audio designers and concept artists are welcome too. Also, feel free to message me if you have a skill I haven't listed but would like to help the project.

The goal is to create a game marrying the surprisingly similar puzzles and gameplay of the two series, a love letter to the two series and realization of the "what if there was a Lego Zelda game" dream. My primary inspiration comes from Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Lego The Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie Video Game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The project is in very early development, as we've only just started programming using pre-made/generic assets, hence the need for a 3D Modeler. If you would like to participate in this project, please message me and let me know your relevant skills. Thank you!

I don't know why, but I can't seem to find you by that username. That said, I haven't been able to figure out a game to make, so you may be better off partnering with Ines. Good luck!

Hi! I see someone else already volunteered as a musician and artist, but I thought I'd also offer myself as a pixel artist. I can send you samples if you like, and I recently uploaded a game for a game jam that utilized handmade pixel art as well (that game is all simple small scale stuff, but I have more detailed work on my computer)

Due to a lack of confirmation, I've elected to upload the fixed version of the game. If that wasn't allowed, I apologize, but I've waited about a week and haven't been notified so.

Hey, just thought I'd let you know I uploaded the fixed version if you wanted to try it out. Have a good one!

I wouldn't mind collaborating, but just so you're aware, Lewdi_S is the music artist, not me

Hey, now that the jam's started, I'm ready to start planning. Are you still down to help, and if so, should we just chat through this thread or some other platform?

Thank you for the feedback! I agree that the adjustable jump height may be a desirable feature, but the jumping is already finnicky (specifically when on seesaws), so I'll probably prioritize getting that sorted out first. As for the sand hazard, I figured mentioning it in the description and relying on the player's previous knowledge of the game (aka floor is lava) would be enough, but I may add an in-game tutorial in the future. Lastly, I haven't figured out how to communicate information between levels, much less get the music to continue when loading/reloading a level, so I may implement that if I can figure out how the game engine does it.

Your plans sound really interesting, and I hope you're able to realize them!

I haven't thought much about what kind of game to make for the jam yet, as I was previously preoccupied with the classroom jam. That said, I like the idea of a top-down rpg like the old zelda games or some form of turn-based rpg. Hard to decide much more than that until the second theme is announced.

Hi Lewis, I'm Josh! Are you still looking for team members? I'm a gameplay designer fresh out of schooling, but I can also do a little bit of art, programming and narrative design (if you check my page, you can see my first finished game, completely original aside from the audio).

I'm glad my review was useful to you! Good luck!

Okay, I played through it, and it looks great! The animation of the hearts getting destroyed was incredibly smooth, so A+ for that. As I'd guessed from the samples, the music matched the visuals just fine, but I wish there were some sound effects for the combat, such as a shooting sound for the "arrows" (idk what else to call them, but that's not an issue I'd be too concerned about) and a damage sound for when you hit the hearts. Additionally, I assume something like this is in your to-do list, but the lack of consequences to the combat is a big problem. You might consider something as simple as a health gauge (call it distraction or whatever suits your fancy) that decreases as long as the player is touched by the hearts, and if it reaches zero, there's a restart or game-over type scenario. Again, though, it looks like you're on a great path and, once you have the time and energy to put into it, it will become a very enjoyable game. Good luck!

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, that bug was previously brought to my attention and I'm waiting for a response about whether I'm allowed to re-upload the fixed version.

Before I get into reviewing the game itself, just letting you know that the 3 stars in sound is because your game neither has or needs sound. I believe the fact that the game jam rules stated that sound would be one of the judging factors implies that sound was requisite, but I wouldn't want to dock you especially if either I'm incorrect in my assumption or if it was a matter of you just missing that detail. Anyways, I think you did well with the visual presentation. If you were trying to construct a setting of a strange, run-down, 18/19th century school, I'd say you succeeded. I do wish you'd included some graphics besides a building and an empty classroom, such as a couple students working a printing press, but that may just be personal preference on my part. As for fun, it reminds me a certain party game where you need to rant about a random topic, so I assume you'd follow similar vote-based victory conditions for each round, but as I don't have immediate access to a big enough group to really test this, I'm going to give you a general passing rating. It does look fun, and I'd like to try it out with some friends when I get the chance.

To start off, I don't really enjoy clicker games, so it's possible I may be rating the game harsher than it deserves. That aside, while the visuals look like they were made in mspaint using the mouse, I suspect that was your intended result, so I'll give it a pass. The music was pleasant enough that it didn't annoy, and I assume again that the contrast with the setting was intended, so you get another pass there. I didn't enjoy the gameplay, however, for a few reasons. First, while the various things I could click were explained fairly clearly, I didn't understand what the numbers were going towards. It also took me a while to notice when the kids were "getting lazy" because the progress bars were already moving so slowly that I didn't see them stop.  Both of these shouldn't be too hard to resolve, such as by explaining how increasing the different homework scores will impact the final score and by including a little alert sound and/or visual signal when a student's progress bar stops, but as it is, I didn't find the game enjoyable even among other clickers. Again, I'm not a fan of the genre as a whole, and it may appeal more to people that aren't me, so I wish you well as as you continue to improve upon it (or move forward to other projects as the case may be).

I'm going to be blunt here. First off, I'm not much of a horror game guy either, so I'm not well equipped to judge how good of a horror game it is. That said, the visuals are clean, and the I think you did well in using the lighting to provide both challenge and suspense to the game. I was disappointed, however, because most of the objects were too small for me to really appreciate any detail, making the whole scene look bland in my opinion. The lack of any audio really hurt the experience, too, since most horror games (to my knowledge) rely on both the use and skillful absence of sound to amplify feelings of fear and anticipation, but the complete lack of audio along with the simple ball of light graphic you used for the ghost was entirely unable to evoke any sense of fear. Many horror games are able to compensate for simplistic gameplay (like that of your game) with the aforementioned fear, but without that fear, it felt like I was just cleaning up fallen objects. All in all, I think that the game would perform much better if you could at least incorporated some kind of ambient noise and sound effects in the future (i.e. flickering light sounds, some violin shrieks, those sorts of things). If you're able to do that and some more polishing, I'd say the game could get somewhere you'd be satisfied with.

From what I can see, the visuals are well done. I like the pixel art, particularly the character portrait's texturing and shading. I also checked the audio samples you referenced, and they seem suited to the visuals. Unfortunately, since I don't see any way to play the game, I can't rate the game on fun or any higher for the sound or visuals since I can't properly experience them and confirm how skillfully they were implemented. Based on surface evaluation alone, though, I'd say you're off to a great start!

Edit: I posted this review before you uploaded the game. Will give it a quick playthrough and revise my review when I'm done.

Upon further investigation, it only happens when the player is on the monkey bars. I have the fix ready, but I want to make sure I'm allowed to reupload it before the end of voting.

Someone I asked to playtest my game just discovered that the kids don't reload the level properly. It's a simple fix, but am I allowed to reupload the game with just that fix?