trashmob 2015-08-25 00:37
:D finally, a game where you kill elves.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD33 → Elven Blood
By nihilaleph
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolness | 1 | 100 | ||
| Mood | 125 | 3.59 | ||
| Audio | 333 | 3.00 | ||
| Graphics | 439 | 3.14 | ||
| Overall | 442 | 3.16 | ||
| Theme | 566 | 3.24 | ||
| Fun | 599 | 2.82 | ||
| Innovation | 614 | 2.76 | ||
| Humor | 648 | 2.29 |
:D finally, a game where you kill elves.
Graphics are nice, smooth controls, dark atmosphere created by the music and burning buildings, constantly being reinforced by the graffiti written in blood. Nice twist on the theme too. Excellent work.
Thank you for playing!
@trashmob Well... Actually you are the elf ^^;
@Shaw I'm glad you enjoyed it! =D
The overall mood is really nice here. The stealth aspect is pretty cool, and I like that you don't have to kill to get past enemies.
I do wish you could attack while moving, but that's subjective.
Great job!
That deceleration after you let go of the keys is a bit annoying. Other than that, it played solid.
Question, what was that white gradient bar next to the vision cones meant to be?
Controls are very floaty. However, i thought the mood was great. I like your interpretation of "You are the monster."
Very neat little game. Interesting use of theme. Controls were a bit odd, but I eventually got the hang of them. The visual indication of line of sight was a very nice touch. You also did a good job of generating atmosphere with the visuals and audio. Good job!
@tweedle @avultima @jmschrack @SuperPokeunicorn Wow thank you all for playing! I'm glad I could set the mood right ^^ About the controls, I wanted to make it a bit awkward because Anya is just a little girl, not a professional assassin... But I guess I overdid it ^^;
@avultima Could you send me a screenshot please? I'm not sure what you're talking about xp
Great game overall!
@Mikhail Thank you for playing!
I feel I should note here that the conclusion is different depending of how you play the game....
Here is a screeny of what I was talking about. If there is a way to PM, I could not find it.
http://i.imgur.com/YcRvKKr.png
@avultima I've always wandered about that xp If you want we may speak over Twitter!
OMG that's super wierd!!! It was supposed to be like the screenshot I took for the entry... I guess there was something wrong with the shader... Maybe your OpenGL version didn't like it..? T_T
Next time, you need to pick a thicker font and better font color. The gameplay was really slippery, which I understand since you were using Box2D, but if you use Box2D you can always set velocity to 0 or increase the friction when moving.
It seemed the flashlight area was a big rectangle as opposed to the cone as I was caught a few times without actually being within the cone. You should indicate this more clearly.
I liked the graphics, though, and the music fit the mood.
To answer your question about my game, yes, the levels loop once you beat the game. There are 5 levels in total.
@ChosenCharacter Thank you for your feedback! I actually increased the friction to a level that I was satisfied (again, I didn't want to make the controls quite confortable), but I see that it wasn't enough >.<
About the flashlight, you're right! I actually I used rectangles to detect the player, and then I had the idea to put the light cone. I was gonna change the sensor to a triangle later but in the end I didn't have time to do it T_T I'm sorry that it spoiled the experience... u_u
Nice game, a little tough to control but the concept is solid.
Pros:
The mood is quite nice. The music, in combination with the colors, and fire, etc. all come together well.
I like the story telling method of dumping the character into an event where the player knows nothing. It's a good way to hook the player from the start. It made me want to keep playing.
I like how you did the fire with 2 frames of scribble. Good job.
As others have said, nice twist on the monster theme. Kudos.
Cons:
Controls are very floaty. The gradual acceleration/ deceleration was annoying to get used to, and even once I was accustomed to it, I still felt it took away from the game.
The visual aid for the humans vision I feel was necessary, but it was very misleading. I'm not sure what the giant block of white was for, as it seemed to serve no purpose save to mock illumination. At first I thought the yellow cone in the center was the "they've seen you" zone, but you can still be seen a little outside the cone.
Also, the white block obstructs player view of platforms and such, so there were often times where I had no idea there was a platform to be jumped on until the human turned away.
I didn't like how it's possible to avoid killing the humans, but then if you finish the level without killing them, you have to restart anyway. I feel like, at the very least, the level design could force your hand. So you have to "clear your path" so to speak.
Overall:
I feel like the mood was definitely the best feature, and the floaty controls were the worst.
If the controls were tightened up, and the visual aid for the human's view were changed, this is a game I would thoroughly enjoy. Kudos.
To the people that are complaining about the controller being too floaty. I just ran the game in others computers and the game is running really slowly!! I don`t know what happened! I`ll try to fix it ASAP! I hope you guys see this... TT_TT
@djfariel Thank you for the feed back! As already posted, I don`t know what is that wierd white box that appears... Also it seems that the game is running slower than inteded in some computers... I will try to fix them ASAP! Hope these problems didn`t spoil all the fun >.<
@djafariel Oh right, about the killing humans. I intended to let the player choose whether to become the monster or not. Killing the humans is much easier to complete the game, but if you take the harder path you maintain your sanity ^^
The story is nice, but the colntrols are a bit clunky and floaty. And that music is too loud! Other than that I liked is, the art is beautiful and the setting is unique.
@glerikud I'm glad you enjoyed the art! Sorry about the music volume >.< but I guess you can always turn it down a little ;)
I just uploaded a post-compo release that fixes a bug with the physics simulation (it was in slo-mo in low performance). I'd be glad if you try it again! ^^
@nihilaleph [From MGD:Jonathan] I retried it. It's sped up a bit which is an improvement, but still feels a bit stiff. I would recommend playing around with horizontal movement speed, specifically the character breaking. If i let off of an arrow key and hold down the space bar to attack, there is a 3 second period before the attack happens. If you want to continue this conversation some more without having to comment back and forth, my email is ([email protected])
@nihilaleph
Replayed.
The human view cone seems to be fixed. It accurately represents where you can be seen.
The giant white...thing (lol) is gone, so no more issues seeing platforms.
The floaty controls still remain however.
To try to describe it with more detail, as MGD mentioned it lies almost purely in the player characters horizontal movements speed.
When you start running, you go from 0% speed to 100% speed in a little less than 3 seconds. Same for 100% - 0%
This gradual accel/ decel, is what makes it feel "floaty"
Also, I think I was misunderstood about the killing vs not killing thing. I absolutely agree with your decision to give the player the option. What I was saying was if you try to complete the level without killing them, it makes you restart as if you had died. Meaning that while you CAN avoid killing them, you still have to to "win."
As another final thought, if the controls are adjusted a little, even in the games current state, I would thoroughly enjoy playing through multiple levels. All things considered, this was one of my favorite games out of about 30 I've tested :D
@djfariel I'm glad you enjoyed the game! It's an honor to be one of your favorites *-*
I see what you mean by floaty, I'm sorry for making the controller feel uncomfortable T_T I guess I can't change a mechanic part of the game now ^^; As I was talking with MGD, I realize now that I should've made linear damping different for vertical and horizontal velocity...
Oh about the ending, sorry I misunderstood you >.<. I actually offered the option to restart in all "endings", so you can go through again and try to get another one~
Movement is too slidy, but it's a nice game, and good idea! The better aspect for me was the Music, really set the mood.
It's much easier to kill. And then there are those I didn't need to kill but went out of my way to kill..
The best I could do so far is not kill anyone except the last guy.
It was too hard to get the last "peace" ending so I cheated and just looked at the source code :D
Don't judge me!!!
Neat game - It seemed a bit slow paced though for a platormer! Loved the graphics!
That sound they make when they die is funny :). Great concept. Looks like you might have had some trouble with the line of sight sprites. But otherwise, congrats on submiting your entry!
Thank you all for the feedback!
@theholychicken Well, the dark side is "quicker, easier, more seductive" ;) I did the 4th ending for those who just kill everybody anyway, so you ARE the monster! kkkk
Oh don't you dare look at my source code! xp
@patvanmackelberg It was intended to have more stealth features, but you know, you can only do much ^^;
@kidando Oh, I actually did the voice over xp And the line of sight is actually just a shader~
Very polished game!
Nice work!
I actually enjoyed this!
Very nice project guys, i really love it, please check our game too and if you liked it give us a vote. Look for Road to hell and enjoy.
Nice platform game.
A little difficult to jump, so I failed to pass the guardian on the 2nd floor without killing.
I tried to play the compo version but stopped by the shader bug.
(note that I played the post-compo version)
The yay:
- general mood
- different endings
- nice touch with eyes getting more and more filled with bloodlust
The nay:
- controls felt too slow and floaty
- intro text is replayed every attempt without any option to skip whatsoever
- endings could be a bit more rewarding
- game could also use arrow controls aside from W/A/D ones; while it's not a problem for me personally, I think people with AZERTY keyboard would appreciate
Pretty climatic entry, but gameplay needs quite a polish.
Thank you all for playing!
@Biruts I tried to play your game but couldn't find it! Could you please send me the link?
@LastLeaf The path of peace is a hard one to walk ;)
@Sunflower Thank you for those insights! Didn't think about the AZERTY keyboards xp
I thought people wouldn't mind the intro text ^^;
And I wished I had time for better endings... Hope you enjoyed nevertheless!
The pacifist run is the true competitive
Lovely sprite art, nice moody color, excellent details with the writing on the wall! :)
On my first finish, I left two humans alive because I didn't bother jumping up the tower area, and got the ending where it says I wouldn't rest until all the humans are dead. I took this as a hint... so I tried again, making sure to pick off those two guys at the top too... and got the same ending. Dang!
I won't complain about the flashlighting-through-crates anywhere else since the challenge/setup relies heavily on this, but in one particular spot (the rightmost guy on the bottom) the flashlight's range feels a little misleading. The light doesn't quite go past the crate, so it looks like standing behind the crate should have been a safe spot... but it's not. Oopsie--had to find that out the hard way!
The jumps near the end are pretty brutal, where it's easy to hit the wall above you. Takes a lot of practice to get the feel for it!
Great job overall! I went and got all the of the endings. Super challenging to not kill anyone!
Managed to get the pacifist ending. I think it's impressive you got as much done in the compo time frame as you did. It was short but felt like a prototype for a much longer game. Now we're all left to wonder why the humans attacked the elves… we will never know. Well done.
I had to modify your original light shader to use `discard` for the case where no light was projected. Not explicitly setting the out color of the fragment shader is implementation-defined, I think, which is why some implementations default to vec4(0) and others will have random data in there. (Mine showed the full color spectrum circle in the light quad)
Thank you all for playing!
@Jelinib Sorry for the misleading text ^^; But who knows, one day I may finish this game and killing every single human could have a new ending ;)
Oh that tricky spot, it was suppose to get you, but not so misleading! xp Glad you enjoyed it anyway!
@zenmumbler Why thank you ^^ It was a lot of hard work, and got really exhausted after it! Of course I had more in my mind when I made the concept of the game, I hope I'll be able to finish it some day~
Thank you for pointing it out that bug! I tried to set alpha = 0 on those cases but I guess it didn't work properly. I still need to learn more about shaders ^^;
Love the sad music it give a good mood to the game. Had problem to jump on the platforms. Cool entry!
I liked the idea of this a whole bunch and the mood was well done with the music being sinister and the darkness being played up! The stealth aspect was simple but worked well. The controls felt quite clunky but delibarately so - you are a small child after all! I feel this entry would have worked even better with some more time to polish things up but I can say that for almost every entry, including my own. Overall, good job on this!
Very interesting game. I liked the art style, and the platforming mechanics were pretty good. :D
Thank you for playing!
@pirate_shell Thank you for reading my post mortem! ^^ Oh yes, additional time would had been great xp But if I really continue this project there will be plenty of time to polish~
Loved the mood, graffiti was a nice touch, controls were really spongy though. Overall nice job!
i cant make it with no kill :/ awesome graphics
A nicely executed grim mood, good art and music and an interesting idea. Turned out to be quite hard, due to the controls feeling a little unresponsive/buttery... Or I just suck at jumping. Nice job!
Thank you all for playing!
@MAnimal Quoting @Nurbs "The pacifist run is the true competitive" ;)
@CtrlAltTea Oh yes, probably the controls... Sorry about that ^^; (btw, loved the username xp)
ToT my vpn was broken can't use dropbox...(because the damn GFW)
is there a web/other download method~~?
your game seem so great(also have a good narrative and full of potential
after i played it,i will write more feedback here~~