Hiyek's Ludum Dare 40 Submission - Swami Shooter PT

justin-toyo 2017-12-05 01:38

This is really awesome! The approach to the theme you took was very interesting! Plus, the character design for the player was awesome!

hiyek 2017-12-05 01:45

Thank you very much! :D That means a lot to me!

Does this count as a submission? Did I put it in the right place?

enchaec 2017-12-05 04:54

Interesting idea. I would've liked to see some more developed graphics.

hiyek 2017-12-05 04:57

Thank you! Yeah I didn't manage sleep and priorities very well, but I will definitely be working on updating the level/animations/UI for this within this next week or so! As well as fixing the enemy health/strength code

flaterectomy 2017-12-05 10:37

The take on the theme is pretty interesting, but I felt that it didn't have much effect in-game. I could avoid enemies pretty well and circle back around to the purple square whether I had absorbed positive or negative vibes. Definitely a take that could do with a narrative, it has potential in that regard. I do wonder what the enemies would actually *be* in order for them to get zapped by the swami's mind-bullets.

I read your notes, you seem to have a good grasp on what was lacking due to the time constraints. Obviously having coloured squares as enemies/NPC gives the game a very prototype-feel. My own pet peeve I often run into in jam games is the scaling inconsistencies of art assets. You have very a zoomed-in background, but a *relatively* high-definition main character. Is it me or has that one been scaled x1.5 or close to it? It looks a little deformed.

The enemies spawning at the top just clustered up on that ledge and remainder there. I didn't need to worry about them at all. I also didn't get hear sounds, but the page allows me to vote for audio so I am not sure whether the sounds simply didn't play.

Overall, you've finished a playable game for your first jam, so congrats! I hope my comments were helpful. Good luck on its future development. :smile:

hiyek 2017-12-05 22:24

@Flaterectomy Thank you for the very objective criticism! You're correct in the art asset assumptions, and yeah there was no audio and I just realized I could opt out of stuff, so good catch! I just woke up after passing out last night before getting to play your game! I have a ton of tabs open of different games and everyone here in the comments' games are in those tabs, so I look forward to playing all of them over the course of the evening! :D

My main concern was just getting something out there for my first jam, so in that regard, I'm proud of myself for accomplishing that goal as well as getting music done for the other group in the last 3 hours of LD! O.o However, quality-wise I know I can do much better, and this weekend was just a good jump off point to get started on development (hence, naming it "PT") ;D

Edit: I actually already played @EnchaeC 's game, Viral Arena, and you guys should give it a go! It's one of my favorites of the few games I've tried! <3

Edit2: Oh and the extra spawner up top was added for a wee little bit extra element of strategy. The circling around stops working after a while because the red squares on the street will keep adding up to a wall of death with enough negative thought RNG. So if you don't take care of the ones up top, and need a new escape route, they become a sort-of feeding pit :P

daanvanyperen 2017-12-06 16:23

Love the bad/good thought idea. I had some trouble understanding the 'reloading' mechanics. Maybe having the good/bad thoughts appear as spawned move-over pickups would make the game and control scheme a bit more traditional/intuitive. You mention mistakes. To me a big part of the Ludum is about confronting your limits and growing from it. It's great fun leveraging all the things you've learned in your next game.

Even if the game didn't end up where you wanted grab that glitter anyway, you might surprise yourself.

rargrave 2017-12-08 16:00

I think with a bit more level design this could be a pretty good game. Maybe if the 're-load' station moved around or something? Nice work though, I liked the feel of depth to the level.

josephine 2017-12-11 10:20

really really cool idea, very innovative. I also had some problems with the reload mechanism at first. Hope you keep developing this, it has a nice base for now and a lot of potential, also storywise!

yishalee 2017-12-15 02:41

Exciting new ideas. The graphic looks good but need some improvement. But I don't think it's complete. Now I can just stand by the purple man and keep reloading and getting away and reloading, and so forth. So in such way this game becomes boring. But I do think that you have a better thought on it so I'm looking forward to it. Overall congratulate that you've made it.

somnium 2017-12-27 15:36

An interesting concept, harnessing the thoughts of people, in order to protect them by sending evil spirits to rest!

Thematically, the game is a pretty good fit, both from a "more enemies mean more obstacles to avoid" and a "more bad thoughts mean having a harder time" interpretation.

The presentation suffers a bit from the placeholder graphics for enemies and humans. That being said, the graphics are clear and functional, and the character design for the main character is quite nice. Fully realized art for the remaining characters would improve the mood. Your idea of having the art change depending on the balance between the amount of good and bad thoughts absorbed, is intriguing, and would also clearly communicate this state to the player.

The gameplay is simple, but functional. Adding "roaming" people to feed from would be a nice addition, and would also open up additional game play possibilities (for instance, defending the people from the evil spirits). Adding a layer of context to the thoughts could also be an interesting addition, e.g. a small procedural text instead of directly specifying that a thought is good or bad.

As you mention in your notes, one of the biggest challenges with participating in a game jam for the first time, is prioritizing your time (and realizing that sleep is usually necessary). You've managed to finish a game with a complete set of mechanics, which is an achievement, even if the game was not as fully realized as you imagined!

>On thoughts I shall feed, >to release the enemies, >to their deserved rest.

rialgar 2017-12-27 22:37

If you develop this further, I think different npcs with different likelyhoods of good/bad thoughts would be cool. Maybe have protesters with signs likely to have bad thoughts, children likely to have good thoughts, etc.

And the difficulty of enemies should increase with time, not be influenced by what thoughts you read.