The Wizard's Duel

A short piece of Interactive Fiction

The Wizard's Duel
This game was created for the fifth Alakajam Game Jam, which has Spell Casting as theme. It is a short Interactive Fiction with a built in game.
Note: I submit this as an unranked entry because I want to allow myself some time tonight to maybe add some drawings.

Used tools:

  • Inky and the Ink language by Inkle
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Garageband & Logoist 3

Source code:
You can find the source code on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/maartene/alakajam5

Contact the author
maarten@thedreamweb.eu / www.thedreamweb.eu / Twitter: @maarten_engels

Licensed assets:
This game uses the Abhaya Libre font. Copyright (c) 2013-2016 Abhaya Libre Project Authors (https://github.com/mooniak/abhaya-libre-font). License: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/license/abhaya-libre

Comments (10)

inacho_
(@thesunda) • 5 years ago • 

What a lovely fiction! Loved the ambiance with the BG Music. And also I loved to learn about Inky.

For this, I thank you! Good job.

maartene
  • 5 years ago • 

@thesunda thank you for your feedback. What would you like to learn about Inky? The documentation over at Inkle Studios is pretty solid.

Ashtrail
 • 5 years ago • 

Nice game, I liked the mood. The music, art style and story blend well together. I gotta say that's some high stake (and dangerous) rock paper scissors. I got two different endings and I was a bit confused, there seems to be some family issues on the witch's side.

Anyway I enjoyed playing it !

ultrakilla
(@pepelka) • 5 years ago • 

Nice interpretation of rock paper scissors, maybe would be even better with lizard and Spock)

innomin
 • 5 years ago • 

I liked the disney references in this one, definitely getting a Sword in the Stone vibe from the whole thing. The ending did throw me off, as it went off script from the original movie, but I liked where you took the story and it makes sense to me.

Your text was written very well, and set the mood and character personalities nicely. The pictures added a lot to the whole thing, too. I absolutely felt like I was in a wizard's duel through the story, and the stakes were pretty high. Not so easy to do in a text-based game, so excellent job with that!

HuvaaKoodia
 • 5 years ago • 

There are in effect two endings you can get to through a few different paths. One fake choice too (refuse/agree) which immediately resolves at least and it also makes sense in the situation.

One of the paths is broken. If you lose the duel right away, the result is something like this:

"Simsalabim" you shout as you transform into an mouse.

"Hocus Pocus" the witch cackles as she transforms into an snake.

The witch-snake lunges towards you. You jump aside. It misses you by an inch.

The dragon is not impressed with your last efford.

"Time's up!" "It's time to do as you promised."

Agree

You reluctanly nod, knowing very well what your fate will entail.

The dragon is engulfed in a cloud of smoke and mist once more. After a while you see the witch has returned to her original form.

"Thank you. I've been alone for far too long. It's good to be married once more."

The section about the witch turning into a dragon with the brief discussion about cheating is skipped for a strange instant transformation. Hmm, how much testing did you do?!

A story like this could be fleshed out a bit of course (e.g. more animal variety in the duel, writing more prose so that the same sentences aren't repeated all the time, adding in another phase to the duel before the dragon install), but sometimes a short tale with a few funny bits is enough. Good work.

thomastc
 • 5 years ago • 

Yay, more IF! The mechanics seem oddly familiar, just add some lizard and Spock ;)

I laughed out loud at the "winning" ending (which is the one I got first).

A wee bug in the "losing" ending (emphasis mine):

The witch-snake lunges towards you. You jump aside. It misses you by an inch.

The dragon is not impressed with your last efford.

I turned on the music and now I realise that not only didn't I get the urge to turn it off again, but I'm actually keeping the tab open a little longer in the background :)

killerrabbitt
 • 5 years ago • 

I've learned about Ink recently and been thinking about trying it, so cool to see it was used in this jam! :)
I really liked it, btw, and totally digged the Sword in the Stone reference! Great Job!

Thrainsa
 • 5 years ago • 

Nice little story, my only complains would that I wasn't able to change myself as a Dragon :)
I like the music ;)

maartene
  • 5 years ago • 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I had a lot of fun making this game.
@killerrabitt there is a link to the games source. feel free to look at the Ink source (story.ink) to see how this game was made.

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