FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD39 → PoweRL

PoweRL

By stevejohnson

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3303.3245
Fun1663.4843
Innovation3113.1242
Theme3323.5042
Graphics4222.9743
Audio1603.3242
Humor2782.4440
Mood3232.9741

Comments

increpare 2017-07-31 14:02

ah this works pretty well! not easy!

really amused that you managed to get 868-style sfx :P

good work!

pcmaster 2017-08-02 05:47

Oi oi... you didn't make it in a multiplatform engine, did you? No Mac around to play it :(

timothy-hoffman 2017-08-02 06:10

Fantastic! Kept me playing for a while! And very challenging too. Lots of replayability!

jemsmith 2017-08-02 06:23

I enjoyed this. I haven't played 868-HACK, so I don't know how close they are in gameplay, but nevertheless this was fun to play!

The new pixel graphics are a bit closer to 868's visual style, but I do agree they look like a better fit than the vector art which feels a little clip-arty. Is there a particular reason the critters are real life animals?

I like how you've integrated with the theme too. Well done!

steve-johnson 2017-08-02 16:02

@jemsmith The enemies are animals because I was using emoji during development. It didn't seem right to use Apple's super high quality animal emoji renderings in the compo, so I did the vector tracings in the last hour. Hopefully I'll get some better ideas in the future. :-)

tim-eriksen 2017-08-03 00:27

Nice game! Pretty fun to play, it offered some real challenge :) I like the music and sounds too! I think the aesthetic you are making for the post-compo version looks a lot better. This could make a pretty neat litte iPhone/iPad game!

ninjascribble 2017-08-03 03:54

I agree that the pixel art you're working on now is better-looking, but the vector graphics aren't terrible. It's really obvious what everything is/does, and didn't take much to pick this one up. It took waaay more effort to put it down -- I really enjoyed this one! Those rabbits are jerks though :P

kalibrated 2017-08-03 03:57

I can't play it since I have windows but I wanted to say I thought the vector art looked quite nice! I think what could improve them a lot is not using gradients as heavily as you do, and instead just try using complimentary colors more, like go to one of those color scheme websites and try that.

steve-johnson 2017-08-03 04:08

Thanks @kalibrated, that's really good feedback!

junjunlowpoly 2017-08-03 04:54

This is definitely a fun game. I like how each type of enemies have a partially predictable movement pattern so you can act accordingly. The power limitation prevents the player from just picking up all the power-ups in a level. It is also great that levels are procedurally generated. However, the program seems to be buggy. I encountered "program exited unexpectedly" several times (I'm playing the Mac version) . Also, the level generation seems to need more constraints: the player can be spawned at a non-walkable position and the enemies can be stuck.

I like the post-compo art!

sarah 2017-08-03 05:00

I don't have a mac so I checked out your source instead haha, but your pixel art is very nice :)

steve-johnson 2017-08-03 05:28

@junjunlowpoly Sorry you hit crashes. I haven't hit a single error in the compo build, and the level generator does check for exit reachability. I'll keep testing to see if I can find anything.

steve-johnson 2017-08-03 05:49

@junjunlowpoly if you could open up Console and see if there's a crash log, I would be very grateful. Can't reproduce any issues. :-(

simonhutchinson 2017-08-03 14:40

Really nice work here. I love how clean the audio is (I love grimy bit-junk too, but, boy, it's nice to have some things that aren't that too).

I'm also a big roguelike fan (in moderation) so this is right up my alley.

Really nice entry.

junjunlowpoly 2017-08-04 02:49

@steve-johnson Here's one of the crash log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2jyuhzjl3g2az8c/PoweRL_2017-08-02-213911_MacBook-Pro.crash?dl=0

steve-johnson 2017-08-04 04:39

@junjunlowpoly I think I fixed it! Download v1.1 from itch. Sorry for the trouble!

balthatrix 2017-08-04 05:31

The game is fun. Cool that you made a health attribute as well as power! I did seem to run into a bug though? It looked like sometimes the critters would "skip" a few squares. Not sure why, but it seemed to happen at level start after spawning next to an enemy.

Much respect. Not easy to make a turn-based game like this!

hunttis 2017-08-04 06:49

Cheers for the game! I thought it was quite enjoyable. Especially enjoed the mellow music and the non-grating, but chippy sounds.

I also liked that the enemies made sense (in the way they move) and that the game was pretty easy to understand. One thing about the directions though, I'm not sure what the 'swipe to move' means, since I just used the arrow keys. I tried to move the character by swiping and it just told me that I don't have ammo (which I naturally didn't have at the beginning of the game)

zenmumbler 2017-08-04 09:06

This was quite a bit more strategic than I thought. First I was just gunning for the exits but quickly learned to path out a good way along the powerups. Those butterflies are bastards though. They surround you and quickly kill you. Good one!

iovorobiev 2017-08-04 14:16

Awesome entry! Love the multiple types of the enemies with different strategies. Graphics is very nice as well.

steve-johnson 2017-08-04 16:17

@hunttis Heh, looks like in v1.1 I forgot to swap my desktop help text in there ("arrow keys move") instead of the mobile help text. The game runs on iOS too and I'm considering putting it in the app store. Anyway, it's fixed now. Thanks so much for pointing it out!

estebe 2017-08-04 16:55

Awww, I wanted to try this game after reading the words: rogue-like!

I agree that vector art can be tough to do well. I myself went for vector too and I thought there were a lot of inconsistencies in the graphics.

crass-sandwich 2017-08-04 18:30

Very fun game! Nailed the 868-Hack vibe, especially with the updated graphics. Not to mention, getting a roguelite to work in 48 hours is incredibly impressive.

Have to agree with you that the vector graphics weren't the right fit. Also, wasn't really feeling how the music matched the mood of the game. In the short playthrough I did, the power mechanic felt kind of inconsequential, but, being a roguelike, it could have been due to circumstances of the runs I got.

fwazle 2017-08-04 21:51

I had lots of fun playing this game! The music and sound effects help set a calm/laid-back mood. I really like the art, but I don't feel like the critters mach with the rest of the art. Overall, I love a good strategy game. Well done!

ryte2byte 2017-08-05 05:29

I'm sorry, but I do not have access to a OSx system to play your game. That said, I did read your entire entry page and wanted to let you know that your vector art looks great! I'm not sure which style is most appropriate, but, since I'm here, I wanted you to know that the original looked good.

studio-rtv 2017-08-05 05:55

10/10 graphics!!! (haha now you have to add me to the quote on the main menu ;P)

As a huge fan of roguelikes, I really enjoyed this game and I think you nailed the roguelike/puzzle feeling for the game! It was a lot more complex than I was expecting too, which is a plus. Loved the music and the sound effects too; they really wrapped the game together nicely.

The game was a tad too difficult to win, since between the - tiles and repeatedly getting surrounded by enemies I'd find myself dying pretty quickly. Not to mention that the enemies having the ability to move diagonally while I couldn't made it feel a little bit more unbalanced than it should've been. But that aside, I still loved playing it, good work!

fledgeling93 2017-08-05 06:30

Yep, no windows link. Sadly won't be able to play it, sorry for that. Maybe you should consider multiplatforming

emery 2017-08-05 06:39

I really liked this game, and it had a really cool chill mood to it, helped by the audio. Good Job :)

brolton 2017-08-05 07:48

lol, it's funny! But I did not immediately understand how to shoot. I thought that "Tap" is for mobile version. I'm idiot)

mamoniem 2017-08-05 14:43

I hope next time it is easier to get to play it :D

-m

jezzamon 2017-08-05 16:00

Amazing! You and I made very similar games :P

Mechanics wise, I think the game needed some extra sense of progression. It's be cool if there was some goal you're working towards, like some unlockable to buy or like, a different type of level after every 8 or something (like spelunky).

The music was good but I felt like it was a little bit too chill? Not sure whether it fit the vibe of the game. But it was a good song.

I agree with you about the graphics, in that the pixel art is nicer, but there are some things you could probably do to make the vectory art nicer as well. One thing that can help is to design the graphics around a colour scheme/colour palette. If you do some googling you can find some nice looking ones and then base the game around that. Also visual effects like bloom and lens aberration can help too, if you can do them.

Also nice to see a Swift game. I like Swift 😁 Shame it's not very cross-platform 🙁

ditzel 2017-08-05 21:38

Wow. Very nice game you have there :smile: Keep up the good work and keep making games

elmismopancho 2017-08-09 23:30

Very good roguelike! and the vector graphics weren't that bad.

mindfungus 2017-08-10 23:59

Really enjoyed this one! The sounds and music were quite compelling and I think you made the right choice updating the graphics - your pixel art has a charm that is missing from the vector version. The gameplay works well and has definite 868 feel.

neowhoru 2017-08-12 07:26

Nice game - I really enjoyed it.

abductedplatypus 2017-08-17 17:17

Its a SpriteKit game, nice. This was pretty enjoyable; game play was fun, sounds decent and graphics good. Cheers!