FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD27 → Tiny Arena

Tiny Arena

By dooleus

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness366
Audio1143.42
Fun1153.55
Overall1953.47
Mood2073.27
Humor3892.57
Graphics4163.12
Theme5663.17
Innovation8042.64

Comments

cogentinvalid 2013-08-26 03:27

Very tense, I like how quickly the gameplay changes. It gets a little claustrophobic at times, though, especially with how slowly you move.

thebluerage 2013-08-26 03:29

I gave this my best ratings yet! So much fun... I'm glad you made this haha. My only complaint is that bombs are too difficult to use. Otherwise, this is fantastic! :)

ranf 2013-08-26 03:43

I found the movement a little slow but I had fun beating up zombies and skeletons with those weapons.

kevinalbs 2013-08-26 04:14

Great job, this was fun to play. Moving felt a little awkward, but I think it was mostly because of not being able to move while attacking. But overall nice game!

dooleus 2013-08-26 04:25

Kevin:
The movement being limited by your attacking is what helps to balance the weapons, so that the more powerful/useful weapons (like magic and the bow) are a little bit riskier to use.

BlueRage:
The bombs are definitely tricky, but pretty powerful if placed correctly, as they can potentially deal three damage to a nearby enemy. I may rebalance things slightly by making the enemy's invulnerability period shorter, making the bomb do more hits, while increasing the magic speed to prevent it from doing multiple hits (it goes through enemies which already seems powerful enough to me)

mclogenog 2013-08-26 04:51

Scored 5020! This is nice. I agree with some of the other comments that it feels too slow, and a little too crowded, though. Mainly, I think it would help if the pits weren't in the corners (so that I can kite the baddies), and if some of the enemies didn't take so many hits (or if the weapons were all more powerful). Right now, two zombies and a wizard is really tough because the amount of safe space is reduced to almost nothing. It would also be nice if the weapons weren't repeats of what you just had.

gravyhands 2013-08-26 05:15

I really enjoyed it. I liked that the weapon randomization gave it more of a 'try to stay alive' feel (like an arena) more than a 'headshot 360 no-scope' feel.

oldpeculier 2013-08-26 05:19

It really is amazing to have put something like this together in 48 hours. There's a ton here! And it's fun!

sanojian 2013-08-26 05:49

Web version did not run in Firefox for me. Chrome worked. I really like the retro sounds and music. Movement was a little bit clunky. Nice variety of weapons and items. Great job!

dooleus 2013-08-26 06:01

Mclogenog:
I thought about making multiple arenas a la Super Crate Box, some of which may have helped with the cramped feeling, but ultimately didn't get around to it. Perhaps in a future version.

OldPeculier:

It definitely helps having done a top-down Zelda-like game in Game Maker before! I've also made several arena-style survival maps for HL2 in the past, from which this draws some influence.

Here's a breakdown of my weekend from start to finish:

I came up with the concept at like 12AM Friday night and got out of bed to work on the basic framework for a couple hours, but a crash took out my first hour or so of work. Frustrated, I restarted and got back up to where I was, then put together all of the art before I went to bed at like 2:45. The next morning (after waking up at 9AM because my GF was going to work) I knocked out most of the sound effects in a short time (I really love working with BFXR), added in some extra mechanics like the pits, and touched up the UI.

Last night, my '80s cover band had a gig, so I had to leave for setup and soundcheck at 1:30 and didn't get home til about 5:30, at which point I had about another hour to work on the game - I threw together the battle music and the title screen music during that time. I got home after the gig at around 2 and I was completely wiped out so nothing else was worked on then.

Today, I fixed up the UI some more, refined some of the sprite depth code and tweaked the weapon balance a little bit to make running out of ammo pretty difficult to do. I also put together a death music theme which I'm pretty happy with. I added in the powerups in the last couple hours or so of the compo before I submitted and went out to gorge myself at a Chinese buffet. :)

Thanks to everyone for playing and leaving me feedback! It's definitely a pleasure to hear that people enjoy my work.

magicdweedoo 2013-08-26 07:41

that was fun

rezoner 2013-08-26 09:09

It screams - Shadow Warrior

lizzip 2013-08-26 11:55

Oof that got a bit hectic. Really nice all round

proc 2013-08-26 17:30

Enjoyable. I was rubbish with the sword and I'm no match for a wizard enemy. Oh and bomb dropping got me killed a bunch. Still, good fun.

dekart 2013-08-26 17:34

Very challenging gameplay, i like it. The music is great too!

dooleus 2013-08-26 18:19

proc:
At one point I made the sword able to kill the wizard's attacks, but that made the sword feel super OP to me. I'll probably reduce the cooldown from the bombs, too, as they seem a little skewed on the risk/reward ratio. Thanks for your feedback!

dekart:
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! You can check out some more of my music at http://www.soundcloud.com/rob-dooley if you'd like.

rylgh 2013-08-26 19:41

Fun game! I liked how all the weapons were balanced differently. Some thoughts:
- agree with kevin that not being able to move while attacking was painful. i can see how it's useful for balancing/differentiating but it doesn't feel good. didn't really enjoy using the bombs or magic, everything else felt more fun.
- large player hitbox + large enemy magic bullets + high rate of fire for enemy bullets + small arena = often impossible to avoid
- nice death animations!

farfromsleep 2013-08-26 22:37

Really fun game with a nice amount of variety to it, feels a lot more finished than most of the entries I've played. Great stuff!

scriptorum 2013-08-27 12:30

3300. Nice music, very Doomy, I felt some John Carmack hanging over me. I loved the shurikens and the bows, great feel to them. Hated the bombs! Bombs hurt. Bad bombs. Really hated the bombs when angry otto comes out and bounces at me. Overall a good, complete game!

cthulhu 2013-08-27 16:50

Web version is not working for me, I am stuck to the start screen, space is not working.

cthulhu 2013-08-27 16:53

Ahah I loved it. So much fun! The music was great and I also liked the different weapons. The graphics / animations looked great.

robotparking 2013-08-27 17:16

ONLY THE TINIEST ARENAS WILL DO

lcass 2013-08-27 17:30

This was written in html 5. YOU SIR, ARE A GOD!

iiechapman 2013-08-27 17:33

One of the most fun games I have played so far, the music is great! Love the sprites animation ESPECIALLY when they die!

dooleus 2013-08-27 17:46

lcass:

Don't give me credit for that, I used Game Maker Studio, so all I had to do was click HTML5 from a drop-down menu :)

Everyone else:
Thanks! I'm super happy so many people are enjoying it! I'm sorry the bombs are so crappy. :) I'm brainstorming ideas to make them suck less.

teruem 2013-08-27 18:40

Actually a lot of fun! The movement was slower than I liked, but that seemed to add to the challenge!

nachoda 2013-08-27 19:41

Very nice retro style and good enemies. Well done!

andrew-2 2013-08-27 23:46

Delightfully retro with pretty fun weapons. A selection of various arenas would have been nice.

fgielow 2013-08-28 01:04

I liked the rhythm when there are several monsters in the screen! only thing that bothered me was that you always 'lock' to attack, in the sense that you stop moving and for a reasonable amount of time. But that is personal taste I guess, I expected it to be a little faster! Nice touch though

siat 2013-08-28 02:44

I liked it, particularly the Legend of Zelda references. It could use more consistent enemy spawning behavior, though, especially in the early game.

anachron 2013-08-28 05:44

Nice arena game and good selection of weapons

matrixbai 2013-08-28 10:54

Very funny, enjoy it.

diptoman 2013-08-28 10:56

Loved the game. We had initially thought of trying something like this, but went for something else entirely in the end.
Glad to see it being done, and so well at that. My favorite weapon would be the bow. :D

Great job on this! Really enjoyed it!

aglushakov 2013-08-28 14:05

Nice game!

It very fun and chalenge to play. Good job!

flarb 2013-08-28 23:36

Like them music and graphics--seems like you can hang the game by mashing keys a bit. (Well at least get the character stuck)

kevinworkman 2013-08-30 16:59

Nice work, reminded me of Smash TV. I agree with what other people have said about the difficulty (especially the guy with the green orbs). But great job for 48 hours.

georgebroussard 2013-08-31 05:12

Good job. Loved the music and the quick and varying gameplay. What this game had was fun. I was never bored. New weapons and bad guys all the time. Would work on it more and improve the art/animations.

supermaximo93 2013-08-31 14:31

Nice work! Fun although I felt the movement was a bit slow. The animation and music were good. I also liked how you could pick up your arrows and shurikens, it was a lifesaver sometimes!

krasse 2013-08-31 18:09

Nice theme implementation!
The game was fun and the music was really good.

ariake81 2013-09-05 20:00

no luck running it in firefox, but chrome was fine. Its certainly well made, very complete in design and bug free. but it did'nt grab me like some of the more innovative entries did.

shard123 2013-09-09 22:17

Really addicting and unique! Loved how you used the theme!

seconddimension 2013-09-12 13:26

Fun little arena game, thanks!

jaj 2013-09-16 18:03

Nice concept. I'd balance the weapons out a bit more. For example the bomb was inferior to the other weapons in almost every regard, it would be nice if they each have their strength.