Ahoy Corsair! Welcome to The Isle-Hop Odyssey, where you are stranded on an island with little more than your two legs and a soon-to-be-rusty ship nearby. Hop from island to island like a seafaring kangaroo - or maybe more like a seagull after a cake - conquering forts, battling crabs, and other scallywags as you sail through treacherous seas filled with giant squids and sea serpents just waiting to ruin your day.
\nYour mission? Siege castles, recruit a ragtag crew (who might not know port from starboard), and loot dungeons, all while trying not to sink your ship or get pinched by a particularly grumpy crab. But don’t get too cozy! There is a mysterious island no one talks about - except when they’re screaming in terror. The Cursed Isle (it’s the 13th one), hides the nastiest dungeon of them all, home to a certain Balrog (or was it Balron?) who’s been feeling a bit cranky lately and definitely doesn’t like visitors. So, buckle up, sailor! Your Odyssey awaits - if you don’t get eaten by a squid first!
\nControls:\nMobile controls are available in the bottom left of the screen. You can also move with gestures. For keyboard controls, use the arrow keys, WASD, and Spacebar.
\nGameplay:\nYou have three main characters: the Hero, the Crew, and the Ship. Combat depends on your location: when sailing, you’ll fight with the Ship; when on land, you’ll battle with the Hero and Crew.
\nYour adventure kicks off on an island with a castle where you can upgrade your Ship. Scattered across the map are other islands, some with enemy-occupied forts and others with dungeons.
\nYour first task? Conquer these forts and build up your strength. But don’t get too comfortable! Your ultimate mission is to defeat the Balrog, a fearsome foe lurking in the deepest level of the dungeon on the 13th Cursed Island. And remember, you have just 13 days to accomplish this, so set sail and get cracking!
\nThe game has an installable Progressive Web App version. Enjoy!
\n","source":"foumart/JS.13kGames.2024_Odyssey","stars":2,"dc":"https://www.foumartgames.com/games/Odyssey/","yt":"AKqqwFODsuk","comments":[{"at":378923330,"author":"Cliff Earl","login":"Antix-Development","gh":17822130,"text":"nice strategy game. My crew were just revolting!
\n","games":["Badluck Butter Chicken Goes To Outer Space","Badluck Butter Chicken Flies The Unfriendly Skies"]},{"typ":1,"at":378947947,"re":378923330,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Hi, thanks for trying my game! There are sail points that you need to pay attention to (indicated by the ⚙ bar). If you try to sail with no sail points left, the crew will suffer, and if their HP reaches zero, they will revolt and demand money. Sail points can be refreshed at the Castle’s Inn, but this will cost you one of the precious 13 days you have to complete the game. :)
\n"},{"at":378976718,"author":"Jonas Olmstead","login":"sanojian","gh":428082,"text":"I love travelling around and exploring the map. I feel that the combat is too difficult, though. Just about everything can kill you. And there is no way to know how difficult something is until you fight it. The revolting crew was annoying until I figured out they prefer to sleep at the inn. Makes sense.
\n","games":["Wendol Village"]},{"typ":1,"at":378983516,"re":378976718,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Yeah, I know the game lacks explanation for pretty much everything. I should have provided completely different description, and I will probably do so after receiving enough feedback. So, thank you for explaining what is confusing to you. The sail bar definitely needs to pulse to be more visible when it’s getting empty, and a dialog when the crew gets hit for the first time because of that will help. Regarding the enemies, the pre-battle screen should indeed be more informative (it was). At first, only the Serpents are overkill (hence the harsh colors) and the Castle siege battle to some extent. There are a some strategies that can be used initially: either search for the easiest dungeons and loot them (only 3 floors displayed in the dungeon intro screen) - clearing a dungeon gives attack and health bonuses that are needed for successful castle siege, or look if there are castles on the shore that can be sieged from sea by the ship. Once you get another castle and upgrade the crew, things get easier.
\n"},{"at":378993364,"author":"Cody Ebberson","login":"codyebberson","gh":749094,"url":"https://cody.ebberson.com","twitter":"codyebberson","text":"Oo, there’s a lot of content here. The game seems compelling. I like the idea of going out on treasure hunts and managing the crew. It feels like a near miss, because a little difficulty tuning could make a big difference. There’s a lot of good raw materials here, nice pixel art, nice sound effects, and a ton of UI. Nice job
\n","games":["Phantomicus"]},{"typ":1,"at":379054170,"re":378993364,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thanks for playing my game, providing feedback and for the nice words. On the difficulty aspect - I have deliberately left a cheat on so it will be easier for players if they want to progress faster, and that is the Apple healing mechanic which can be exploited - just go to a tree and heal as many times as you want ;)
\n"},{"at":379087442,"author":"Steven Lambert","login":"straker","gh":2433219,"url":"https://stevenklambert.com/","twitter":"StevenKLambert","text":"Interesting little game. I liked exploring the map and the fog of war effect. There was lots of interesting things to discover around the map and figuring out what they did.
\nI do wish I could tell what my relative strength was to the enemy. The game tells you what the enemy strength and attack is, but doesn’t tell me what my own units strength and attack is. I mostly had to die a bunch of times to figure out what fights I could take. I also couldn’t figure out how to upgrade my hero strength. The shipyard upgrades my ship but I couldn’t find any place that upgraded my hero.
\n","games":["The Encroaching Darkness"]},{"typ":1,"at":379217863,"re":379087442,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thank you for playing, and explaining what was unclear. When tapping the units UI a window appears with information.. but, it doesn’t work on the battle intro screen ;/ had to disable that in the last minute because of a bug, sorry for the frustration. Regarding Hero upgrades - that’s the only unit that actually gains experience - looting the easiest two dungeons is enough for him to level up.
\n"},{"at":379158633,"author":"Ryan Tyler","login":"tyler6699","gh":50468,"url":"https://carelesslabs.co.uk","text":"A really nice idea, I love how you hop out of the boat and can travel around and attack other islands etc.
\nI entered a cave which seemed to go on for some time so I fled, was not really sure if I should keep going.
\nQuite a lot going on and not sure I full understood it all, I feel with some futher instructions I would have lasted longer. After hoping a few islands and winning some battles I journied too far and lost.
\n","games":["The Fear Factory"]},{"typ":1,"at":380578894,"re":379158633,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thank you for the feedback! It was wise of you not to venture too long into the deeper dungeons without a buffed party. There is a clue on the dungeon intro screen indicating whether a dungeon is easy or hard, with a (…) sign on the level display showing there are more levels. Part of the game’s challenge is that players don’t know which dungeon contains the final boss (e.g., the 13th island). I’ll make this clearer in the post-compo update. Thanks again for your insights!
\n"},{"at":379161932,"author":"Andy Sommerville","login":"aksommerville","gh":1869768,"url":"http://aksommerville.com","text":"I really love the graphics here, and it’s appealing to just sail around the world. With audio and gamepad support, this could really be something.\nI’m amazed how much detail you were able to cram into 13k!
\n","games":["Economy of Motion"]},{"typ":1,"at":380579628,"re":379161932,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"I’m glad you enjoyed sailing around! I drew inspiration from Heroes III, but I wanted to add my own touch by allowing players to hop between islands as much as possible, while still needing to return to a home island by the end of the day. Will definitely try to enhance player experience further, especially with gamepad support, thank you for the suggestion!
\n"},{"at":379194126,"author":"Alexey Kalmakov","login":"rndD","gh":850302,"text":"There are so much content in it, amazing.
\nI made only to day 3 tho. Combat is difficult. I wish there was a button to run away before death, or respawn with -1 day in the inn instead of game over.
\nBeside of the difficulty it’s nice, complete and polished game. Congrats.
\n","games":["Data Warrior: 13kb limit"]},{"typ":1,"at":380578113,"re":379194126,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thank you so much for playing my game and for your valuable feedback! Your idea about respawning with a penalty instead of a game over is very insightful!
\n"},{"at":379231474,"author":"Lewis Nakao","login":"lewdev","gh":1469960,"url":"https://lewdev.github.io","twitter":"lewdev","text":"It seems like a very deep game where there’s so much to discover and strategies to employ and so many sprites! I gave it a few rounds and I didn’t get very far, but I learned that you need to pick your battles and not fight a serpent right off the bat!
\nI might suggest is to enable fleeing while in Auto battle. I saw my health dwindling too low I thought I could flee, but it doesn’t look like I can.
\nI should have read your description before starting because it gives at least a few pointers that I should have known but I think that’s how retro games were.
\nOtherwise, in a massive map with a crew and ship to build, you could go on to experience some interesting and unique adventures.
\n","games":["13attle TanKs"]},{"at":379284909,"author":"kennyfully1988","login":"kennyfully1988","gh":181469182,"text":"I enjoyed how the game has so much content packed into it. It was a great experience to go explore things freely and figure out the world. Controls were a bit hard to use on my Android tablet, but other than that, it’s a nice game!
\n"},{"at":379298838,"author":"Mark Vasilkov","login":"mvasilkov","gh":140257,"url":"https://mvasilkov.animuchan.net","twitter":"mvasilkov","text":"Such a fun little RPG! We don’t get nearly enough of these in js13k.
\nI’m into the old school graphics, works really nicely here. The lack of emojis is fantastic.
\nThe progression is nice, conquering castles to get better crew. Haven’t finished the game yet, I always die to a beefy castle. :) Will try again though, I want to see the ending.
\nOne UI feature I especially enjoyed is how you implemented the sound button, such a neat idea.
\n","games":["Shoot 13 Nomsters","King Thirteen"]},{"at":380021530,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"A cool looking game, pixel graphics are ace.
\nI enjoyed exploring. The auto-battle feature was handy.
\nI like the animations. But there were some parts of the screen where it looked like it was trying to show a font or emoji that I didn’t have as there were unicode numbers shown instead.
\nThe transition from land to ship was quite smooth.
\nWhen out at sea sometimes the boat moved fast, and other times really slow, I wasn’t sure why.
\nWhen on desktop and using a keyboard to move around, it was a little clunky to switch to a mouse just for the UI elements.
\n","games":["rollermaze"]},{"typ":1,"at":380405547,"re":380021530,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thanks for the feedback. Indeed I use a few special characters in the game like the crossed swords (⚔) and I suspected it could be problematic on some devices. Lesson learned to not rely on such symbols, will improve all that in the Post-Compo version, including the slowdown you mentioned and the keyboard controls.
\n"},{"at":380291507,"author":"Mohammad Jawad","login":"mhmdjawad","gh":22205462,"url":"https://pdemia.com/","text":"an rpg, wow nice game, took while to get hang of it but it get easier once cought, well done.
\n","games":["The 13 Invaders","Cookie Maze 3d","Maze Runner vs 13","Tower Defence Walking 13s"]},{"at":380334011,"author":"Daniel Whiffing","login":"dwhiffing","gh":4886651,"url":"http://directive.software","text":"Very ambitious and interesting game, graphics look great and controls work well enough on mobile. As other comments have mentioned, it’s hard to tell if you’ll win/lose a fight, so takes a bit of trial and error to make progress. Some more audio would be a nice touch. Nice job!
\n","games":["Final Lift"]},{"at":380382925,"author":"Richard Chung","login":"gregwoodsfrontier","gh":80141657,"text":"Sprites are cute although it takes me some time to understand them.\nThe map are also different every time, so every play is fresh.\nIf there are more SE and music, it would be a pretty charming game.\nAlso liked the UI you made here.
\n","games":["Wands of Triskaidekai"]},{"typ":2,"at":380430426,"author":"Emanuele Feronato","login":"triqui","gh":389551,"text":"omg, the work behind this game must have been immense.
\nThere are a lot of elements, from unit movement management to combat, done with very nice pixel art.
\nThe strategy component is also perfect, the game is very well balanced and this aspect goes beyond the 13k limitation, you can tell there has been a lot of beta testing work.
\nKudos.
\n"},{"typ":1,"at":380601057,"re":380430426,"author":"FoumartGames","login":"foumart","gh":3528138,"url":"https://www.foumartgames.com","twitter":"FoumartGames","text":"Thank you for the encouraging words and for recognizing the balance in the game! I failed in explaining some of the crucial game aspects, which made the game seem harder for many players. It was indeed a lot of work, and I didn’t have much time for testing - it was more like playtesting the game in my mind while frantically developing and adjusting things as I felt they should fit :)
\n"},{"typ":2,"at":380500960,"author":"Noël Meudec","login":"Noel-FB","gh":71314518,"url":"https://facebook.com/instantgames","text":"It took my a while to figure out what to do, but I think I got it. Maybe a quick tutorial would be nice?\nI wish I could just skip the auto-combat in one click, because I spent a lot of time waiting for the battles to finish.\nThe first few times, I died so easily. It is not an easy game for sure!\nBut the graphics are good, there are SFX, and once you understand how to play it gets more fun.\nThank you for submitting this game!
\n"},{"typ":2,"at":380539570,"author":"Dann Sullivan","url":"https://bigbossbattle.com","text":"This is incredibly impressive. I really loved the art style and scale you picked, it gave a sense of visual simplicity that didn’t match the game but hooked me. There’s so much going on here, it’s probably content-wise the most impressive game I’ve seen so far.
\n"}],"results":{"theme":{"rank":69,"min":1,"score":2.68,"max":4.2},"innovation":{"rank":65,"min":1,"score":2.91,"max":4.47},"gameplay":{"rank":47,"min":1,"score":3.27,"max":4.29},"graphics":{"rank":53,"min":1,"score":3.5,"max":4.76},"audio":{"rank":126,"min":1,"score":1.82,"max":4.34},"controls":{"rank":62,"min":1,"score":3.05,"max":4.24},"primary":{"rank":75,"min":6,"score":17.23,"max":24.47},"label":"Overall"}}