Death's Helper

supercrunchy 2017-08-01 23:45

The gameplay is fairly basic, but works. I would have liked to see more variety of enemies and situations (e.g. some platforms and not just a flat surface)

The main problem for me is that the character moves too quickly, to the point where it removes any strategy in it and it becomes just a matter of running around and smashing the left mouse button (melee attack). Are you running your logic inside FixedUpdate or Update? My frames per second are probably way higher than yours and the game runs too quickly for me. By the way, I found some problems at the edge of the map: if I run against the wall then i somehow get stuck in it and start to move up. I think this is probably some bug with the position of the collision box when turning your back against the wall.

pkenney 2017-08-12 23:24

Pretty cool little run-jump-fighter arena type game with some time pressure. My favorite touch was the Last Struggle mode when you're at the edge of death - I enjoyed surviving through a string of three of these by nabbing a bat a couple of times, and then filling back up on a mob of the human-shaped enemies. Very cool.

Couple of small things that got in the way of me really sinking my teeth into this one:

First, I was quite frustrated by the fact that the way I'm facing is changed by the mouse when I shoot the gun attack, but not when I swing the sword attack. In my opinion if the mouse is used to activate the attack it should control the direction as well!! This was a constant problem because the strategy against bats is to jump away from them and turn around and swing. But turning around to swing was not really controlled with the mouse, it required cross-hand coordination with the keyboard, a frustration throughout the play experience.

Last, what's up with the walls? When I jump sideways into a wall, instead of stopping like I expect, I become slowed down greatly and then drift slowly away from the game, to certain death. I appreciated the R key to restart here! This was my most common reason for death for the first bunch of times I played the game. Eventually I just got tired of dying that way and never went anywhere near the edges.

OK that's the nitpicks!

Overall game was a solid action core, with a few nice flourishes like the dribbling particles emphasizing the timer, and of course my favorite Last Struggle feature.

Nice work, especially for a second LD.

mikethewayne 2017-08-13 07:33

Pretty cool game, reminds me of a game "Risk of Rain". The controls were smooth (I don't have a middle mouse button, but oh well), the game played well, and that combination made it fun to play, I enjoyed it. The power bar drained fast, but I found that made the game even more fun, adding that aspect of tension. That last struggle feature, very innovative, and added that extra bit of necessary time to stay in the game, especially cool with the slow-mo. I'd say that if it weren't in the game, death would be a lot more infuriating!

The walls were a little broken, but it's understandable, I find walls time consuming to properly implement, and in fact in the last LD I didn't include them at all (nobody noticed as it was a top down 2D game, I guess they're a bit more noticable in a side scrolling platformer). Either way, I managed just fine by staying away from them.

Overall, this is a game I enjoyed playing, some minor faults, but they can be overlooked, especially with the additional cool features.

phi 2017-08-16 22:50

Nice! I think you could make the controls a little more intuitive and responsive. I mostly just ran around and used the knife, middle and right mouse button weren't of much use to me (except when I got stuck in the walls :P). Killing things felt more like collecting coins, which can be very satisfying, but in this case it seems a bit weird. Otherwise, solid execution, good integration of the theme and not too overloaded graphics. I think a bit of moody background sounds would aid the general appearance greatly. I've found that a bit of brown noise and random spooky triangle wave notes with a ton of reverb and some echo go a long way... ;)

turkey 2017-08-18 15:36

Fun game. The objective doesn't seem quite clear in the game and like others before me have said, there's a bug with the edges of the map and climbing up it.

sleepystudios 2017-08-19 13:55

I feel like you die too quickly in this game. Also I'm not sure if I'm just really impatient or the game just ceases to work after you die?

franklins-ghost 2017-08-19 15:27

Had to play the updated version cause the other link didn't work for me. Nice simple game for a first effort with Unity. Think the character could move a bit slower so he doesn't fly around the screen as much and might help stopping the falling into walls bug. Good use of the theme.

rockhoppergames 2017-08-21 14:14

Congratulations on your first Unity game! Unfortunately it seems like you had a bit of trouble wrangling with it and it's physics engine. I encountered the falling into walls bug too, which felt like Unity trouble. It's a powerful engine, but sometimes it's a bit too powerful for what you need... Hopefully you learnt some good tricks with the engine, though!

pcmaster 2017-08-21 15:10

Very nice that you put this together. The sounds were OK, the graphics definitely. The "sucking" at the edges was a bit weird but I don't mind, it was playable! :)