FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD31 → Rome's Little Step

Rome's Little Step

By tuba

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CategoryRankScoreCount
Coolness281
Humor3252.85
Audio3383.07
Theme3963.72
Fun4193.23
Mood5122.97
Innovation5263.17
Overall6573.10
Graphics7502.77

Comments

hd_ 2014-12-08 03:04

Pretty solid game, although I guess I am bad at it because I couldn't beat one guy.

johngalt 2014-12-08 03:25

Interesting. I love the settings of weapons and characters.

bcole99 2014-12-08 03:26

Awesome! I totally sucked at it, but I love the vector look. I was a little confused by the movement, but it's a fun little idea! Oh, SFX totally rocked!

xenolupus 2014-12-08 03:30

The AI is too smart, and am I supposed to be able to leave the ring? I like the idea though.

snail_man 2014-12-08 03:31

It was a nice idea, and pretty fun to play for a while, but there was an annoying bug where the enemies kept running into my axe over and over again with their shield, thus stunlocking me. They couldn't reach me to hurt me though, so it was just an endless stalemate where I couldn't move. I broke out of it eventually, but it was still a bit annoying. Cool hats though, and cool music.

tuba 2014-12-08 03:42

Initially you weren't supposed to leave the ring, but the collision was giving me too many bugs and there was no time to fix so I decided it was best to just remove the collision.

gillenew 2014-12-08 13:25

very nice, a little hard but a lot of fun :)

rzfmzn 2014-12-08 13:27

Lol :D

franklins-ghost 2014-12-08 13:59

Loved the vector art, thought it was a nice design choice. The variety of helmets and weapons was also a great touch. Did find the enemies really hard and there was a few times were me and the ai seemed to freeze up together. Fun little arena fighter.

vrld 2014-12-08 14:09

Very nice, but hard game.

ysty 2014-12-08 14:36

Nice. I love the look.

mrexcessive 2014-12-08 15:49

Hi there. Liked the vector graphics, choose hat etc. Could not do the combat at all. Defending just prolonged the agony ;) Nice sounds too. Good job!

mutuware 2014-12-08 19:23

Great audio! :D

cbear_wallis 2014-12-08 19:24

The combat is surprisingly good. A little more tweaks and it could be kind of like dark souls.

ali312 2014-12-08 21:08

Ha-ha, I couldn't even win ever :D
Nice "i don't care" style graphics)

Also had a bug where player started moving sideways by it self and went completely offscreen ignoring all my inputs

spacemyname 2014-12-08 21:11

This game makes me feel un-MLG, still fun

nuiguy 2014-12-08 21:14

I found the game really hard to play, because I'm left handed, so I use arrow keys, and maybe I'm just bad, but I never killed anyone, and I played about 10 rounds. The background audio is very good, and sets the mood quite well and I liked the vector graphics style. Overall, it was great concept, but with some more time spent on it, could be potentially a really great game!

-Nuiguy

cmayhem 2014-12-08 21:15

A bit buggy where the enemy gets stuck in a loop sometimes. I love the simplistic graphics! The AI is really difficult. Would have loved to play more but the bug ruined it a bit.

maurogik 2014-12-08 21:18

Yessss ! VKTORY ! Great game, simple visuals but the do marvels in this context, and you can even customize your gladiotor ! Seriously, you rock, Great job !

march 2014-12-09 00:22

The best weapon is the axe. You can move around enemies and kill them from behind.
This game is very fun to play.

barry-p-evans 2014-12-09 06:11

I like the little character customiztion!

6downstudios 2014-12-09 07:41

I liked this quite a bit! The graphics are simple but very cohesive, the design is elegant, and the music/vocal fx complement the raw essence of gladiatorial combat (and game jamming).

Really solid.

7soul 2014-12-09 16:00

I like how it requires fast reactions to defend or attack. But I kept on getting a bug where the AI would stunlock me and it takes like 10 seconds for it to let go of me

bubblechien 2014-12-09 16:04

Went for a rush and flee approach which was successful!

Had fun and the combat felt good.

eduardo 2014-12-09 17:50

Could beat only one guy! Nice entry!

justinmullin 2014-12-10 02:59

A little buggy, but I enjoyed the combat.

watercressstudios 2014-12-10 02:59

Sound effects were priceless, combat was a bit fiddly

vdz 2014-12-10 03:15

axe OP plz nerf axe

Very nice game. Simple and fun to play. Combat is fun and challenging, and the mechanics are well thought out. Music set the mood well and the sounds were great. The graphics have a consistent style, are clear and work well.

I found the difficulty ramps up a bit too quickly. With both damage being kept AND a challenger being added every round, it becomes impossible to survive round IV for a player of my skill level, and I'm sure that people better than me won't be able to survive round V. A more gradual difficulty increase would motivate players more to get further; as it stands now, I'm sure I won't get past round IV and even if I would somehow beat that, round V would be absolutely impossible for me no matter how much I practice.

Shield mechanics seem inconsistent at times. Enemies can trigger your 'blocked attack stun' while you're not even attacking, and it's possible to get 'blocked attack stun' even though your attack is not blocked. (It probably hit the shield through the enemy.) Worse, when being attacked, you are occasionally damaged through the shield somehow, making shielding unreliable (and with the persistent damage, useless for anything but stunning the enemy).

The enemy has no hitstun, which is hardly fair when you do have hitstun and they outnumber you. I can understand being punished for missing an attack or having an attack blocked, but being punished for hitting the enemy and not retreating IMMEDIATELY takes away a bit from the whole 'beating the shit out of your enemy' thing.

The weapons are severely unbalanced. The axe is clearly superior in every way, while the trident's limited attack angle (and damage? Feels like it did less damage but that might just be me) make it very difficult to safely attack, especially in the absence of enemy hitstun.

However, all of the above are minor issues that are only harmful to the experience in the long run. For the length of time LD games are usually played for, it was great fun.

code-medicine 2014-12-10 03:29

Very cool game. I love the hand drawn vector look and the music and weapon slicing sounds.

lynx 2014-12-10 03:46

Fun game! I like the vector style graphics (that's something you don't see much)
confused about the circle since I could actually travel outside it but hey, who am I to judge random included object that serve only a decorations *cough*cough* my random distracting white diamond*cough*cough*

tuba 2014-12-11 04:32

Thanks for all the feedback :)

shackhal 2014-12-11 22:59

I like the sound effects (your voice, right?) and gameplay. Also the graphics are very simple, but they do their job.

The game still have some control bugs, no idea how they happen.

Overall, I like it :)

nikteddy92 2014-12-12 18:40

Nice game, I like the possibility to choose the weapons! Well done!

hoyt-hoy 2014-12-12 18:57

Great idea!
And use the Asteroids style for the art was really nice!
But a lot of bugs coming out when I played.
Continue with the good job!

odefus 2014-12-12 19:02

This is more or less what I had in mind as well as my first idea after the theme was announced. I ended up making something different though.

I do like the concept. It fit very well with the theme. Love the sound effects.

The shield mechanics seem inconsistent. Sometimes the enemies don't seem to get stunned as they hit my shield so they will keep spamming attack. At that point all I can really do is bumrush face and hope I get the timing right in between its attacks.

hippolyta 2014-12-12 21:01

Very well done, too hard for me though, got bashed up pretty nicely :) Loved the audio!

vdz 2014-12-12 23:30

Tuba, are you planning to make a post-compo version? I think it'd be much more replayable with some adjustments.

tuba 2014-12-15 20:30

Not sure about a post-compo version of this exactly, but I liked working on this kind of game, thinking about starting something using these mechacnics.

benjamin-soule 2014-12-19 17:19

On my first game my character was going top without me touching the keyboard, then he left the arena, then he left screen and maximus seemed pretty confused about it.
On my second attempt I could fight but when I tried to defend the game froze with the maximus attack loop. I had to restart.
At this point, I was ready to give up, but I read the good comments and wanted to try it again. I played 3-4 more games with no bug the game is pretty good and the IA fun to play with. I could not beat more than 3 opponent.
I think the game is really easier with the axe. And I like the funny SFX :)

madmaw 2014-12-24 10:39

Lots to like here

lacaranian 2014-12-28 21:08

So hard! But nice use of customization! I dub thy game a good one.