FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD43 → Death Metal Crowd Pusher

Death Metal Crowd Pusher

By wizardofozzy, sodaraptor, Goss and Danny Pellegrini

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall2143.7869
Fun3203.5171
Innovation3163.4271
Theme2303.8971
Graphics434.4671
Audio124.3371
Humor1333.7269
Mood1483.8370

Comments

evan-overly 2018-12-04 02:36

Really great music and graphics, it's a shame there's only three kinds of crowd members.

qtm 2018-12-04 02:40

Stellar artwork! The gameplay is fun and addictive. :)

bificommander 2018-12-04 02:57

Never have I been so eager to have a fat guy go crowd surfing. A neat concept, with great visuals and awesome audio.

wizardofozzy 2018-12-04 03:21

@evan-overly thanks! And agreed - I think if we had been able to work all three days we would have tried to add at least two more crowd members. At the very least, add some pallet swaps :)

mrgrimace 2018-12-04 04:14

Fun to play and great music and graphism. It would have benn even better if making a big sacrifice gave you a timer bonus

wizardofozzy 2018-12-04 04:21

@mrgrimace great feedback, thank you! Maybe a “sacrifice streak”?

mrgrimace 2018-12-04 04:33

@wizardofozzy Maybe more of a multi-kill bonus, the sacrifice streak would seems a bit odd to me: would it break if you use a crowd member that sacrifice nobody or if the crowd member did not kill enough people or would you rate higher 3 successive crowd members who killed one people or a crowd member who killed four? I think with some time, it is possible to come up with something good around a sacrifice streak but on a short term, the multi kill bonus seems easier and more intuitive

muzzz29 2018-12-04 04:46

Nicely done, I never thought I could Jam out so hard to a game about sacrificing party-goers. The soundtrack use and graphics are very nice. I especially liked the character that bulldozed through and knocked heaps of enemies into the pit.

stevie-bushman 2018-12-04 06:22

Nice graphics and sound

wizardofozzy 2018-12-04 13:56

@mrgrimace we're thinking about continuing work on it, so I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thanks again!

Thank you for the feedback @muzzz29 and @stevie-bushman !

nuclearfriend 2018-12-04 16:21

The graphics, animation, sound and feel of it is really high quality for a jam! But if I wanted to say something negative, I didn't feel like there was a big difference between the different rockers and no need to actually aim for anything in the pit. So I just mashed space bar as fast as I could to get as many guys out as possible, which seemed like the best strategy. Was still pretty satisfying to do even that but just wish there was a bit more to it!

amolker 2018-12-04 20:03

Cool graphics and sound. I like the idea, but for now the best strategy is to just quickly press the space bar or LMB. The fans will still fall down, but so they fill the hall much faster. Anyway, very good work. Good luck ;)

wizardofozzy 2018-12-04 20:46

@nuclearfriend and @amolker thank you for the feedback!

If we keep working on the game after the jam, we're definitely going to focus on making sure that just jamming the Dive button isn't the best strategy. I know that as we were play-testing toward the end of dev, it felt like spamming the Mohawk guy was the correct move, but planning out where the other two Metalheads were launched was a bit more important.

guillaume-baril 2018-12-05 00:10

Good game !! The theme was perfect and the graphics really polished ! This could easily be a phone game because the controls where very easy :D I managed to get a higher score only by spamming space hahaha. Good job!

nkrim 2018-12-05 20:16

Simple idea but executed perfectly, and fits very well in the theme. Everything looks and sounds great, and the gameplay is very satisfying.

ridderfar 2018-12-05 20:21

The game looks good, theme is used well and music was good :) unfortunately the game really isn't fun. I get the idea, but the only way I really managed to push people down into hell, was spamming space until time was up. There is no highscore, new levels or anything else that makes me want to try the game agian.

finn-truman 2018-12-05 20:36

I got 15,000 points by spamming left click. The game looks nice, the music is good and it's well made made, but the game isn't very well designed

sadsmile 2018-12-05 20:41

(Un)Holy shit this was metal as fuck! Very nicely done!

Just a few ideas: *A little bit more of an impact when pusing people into the depths of hell would be nice (uproaring flames, a sound effect, screenshake) * Some more sound effects would be nice

If you keep working on this (adding more music and content) i'd SO play this game on my mobile phone! A very solid entry!

poweranze 2018-12-05 20:51

I have to agree with with @nuclearfriend and @amolker . Right now spamming is the best strategy which is sadly not very engaging. When you try to throw your rockers deliberatly they have to much time to get back to the front and your thrown in rockers lose all their impact. On the other side, Art and music is top notch, some of the best of the games I've played so far.

wizardofozzy 2018-12-05 20:59

@ridderfar, @finn-truman, @poweranze - thank you for the feedback! We definitely agree with you on the spamming issue, especially for the mohawk guy. We'll spend additional time on it as we continue to work on it post-jam, and focus more on gameplay for our next jam!

@guillaume-baril and @sadsmile we're very much considering making a mobile version of the game! Aside from making the gameplay more engaging, there will certainly be more art from @sodaraptor and music from @danny-pellegrini!

jantaaa 2018-12-05 21:17

Very nice graphics and funny theme:) In a few plays I recognized that it feels like it might be too much about luck, than skill.

shweep 2018-12-05 21:18

Love the style and the music, really nails down the thrashing going on. Others have noted that spamming feels like the best strategy. Waiting for the crowd to bunch up on a side and sending from there seems to be the intent, but yeah dunno might need more variance for that to be interesting. I also think the gameplay didn't feel sacrificial, sure the context was but as the player I didn't feel like I was "losing" anything for another.

Normally I don't make suggestions, but might have been cool to have it so that if all the rockers of the same type fall into the pit they no longer spawn. There'd have to be a lot of design that goes into giving a reason to keep all the rocker types. But that's just my idea on making the game feel more sacrificial, you're killing the rockers for score but you need to keep all the types in circulation in order to potentially gain the best possible score.

Even with that said I did enjoy it for what it was, the 666 phase is a good adrenaline rush.

volkomist 2018-12-05 21:25

Nice art!

devilqube 2018-12-05 21:36

I like the style of the graphics and the tunes are cool. Some sound effects and multi mosh combos might be fun to add. Well done \m/.

mohrro 2018-12-05 21:41

Really original game with awesome art! I love it!

skiddings 2018-12-05 22:22

The art is perfect for the theme of the game!

thefunattic 2018-12-05 22:39

Cool submission ! It looks very nice and polished, your art is excellent. The music also goes very well with it all.

Gameplay wise I found it kind of confusing : I just mashed the left mouse button until the game was over, not quite sure about what strategy to adopt.

I would love to see future improved versions of this game !

Congrats, Have a good day :)

angelnm 2018-12-05 23:35

Very good music and art!! It looks amazing when the music changes by the appearance of the Lord of Metal :metal_tone3:

jharler 2018-12-06 19:50

This is awesome! The music and graphics are top notch and the game was a lot of fun. Other than lacking a title screen (which would be my only suggestion), there's nothing I can recommend changing.

christina-antoinette-neofotistou 2018-12-06 23:54

this is most excellent! I wonder, is the dominant strategy button mashing? I tried playing strategically, and got only slightly better results? Might be my bias though! I loved the one click gameplay, feels like a more honest and more interactive coin pusher.

Kudos!!!

takayamushi 2018-12-07 03:16

That was pretty fun! Well done folks!

pkenney 2018-12-07 03:32

Man... I think I've been to this club. Except there was more drinking, the way I recall it.

I don't read the instructions to my heavy metal, so I jumped right into this one. It took me just a couple of seconds to find out what button to press, and only maybe a minute to recognize that the type of crowd member telegraphs what pattern of attack I get. That was pretty cool!

The art is really strong here, as is the music. I found the combination of the two was more than the sum of the parts because they fit really well together.

I played through a number of times, trying to improve my score. It was interesting to try to control the chaos using the varied attacks. Unfortunately my highest score by far was the time I just hammered the spacebar thoughtlessly. I ended up with 170 sacrifices that time.

If I could add one feature to this game, it would be that during the solo the crowd would change behavior and start doing a circular mosh pit, to capture that aspect of a metal show. But maybe that's just a different game altogether! I'd play that game, too.

Anyway, nice job here, you hit the theme, the art, the sound, and the feel nicely. Well done.

furtive-pygmy 2018-12-07 03:51

The music and art go really well with the gameplay. It was a bit repetitive, and I think some sort of strategy element would have added a lot of replayability. Really polished entry though.

shrekshao 2018-12-07 04:00

As a rock & metal fan can't stop to give a 5 for audio for this heavy djent among a lot of midi soft source game bgm lol

kovakomes 2018-12-07 05:09

- 66.6 seconds to play - 666 blood to summon the Lord of Metal - 666 stars deserved

666 of out 10, would summon Lord of Metal again.

cjn 2018-12-07 05:51

Wow! This is such a cool game I loved it! I love the graphics and music. This game is super fun and I really enjoyed it! Well done!

steel-dev 2018-12-07 06:55

This was super super well done! I'm a huge metal fan- so the music and the visuals kept me going >:D loved this game- was a lot of fun :D I think it fits the theme well- great job on this :DDD

jevgeni-orehhov 2018-12-07 07:24

Game is a bit straightforward but still it is fun and addictive. I did want to score more and more. Graphics are very nice. Music is not so death metal but you tried :) All in all pretty solid entry. Way to go!

t1a2z 2018-12-07 07:29

This is awesome! Great music and art, gameplay are fun and could be turned into a cool mobile game. Great work guys! Only 1 question: where is the drummer?!

vivien-fargette 2018-12-07 07:46

I played it with @mrgrimace but forgot to rate it with my account so here I am. You already discussed with him the idea of the multikill and, since then, I thought about a ranking system where you enter your name and it shows where you place (a local rating is easier but force the players to play on the same computer to compare but a global ranking is harder to implement and require a server). I think that could be cool to make a bit of competition between friends :)

About the game, I loved the musics, the graphics (especially the band) and the game is fun

slipultura 2018-12-07 18:15

Such an amazing game, the graphics are awesome, I love it ! But I feel that mashing the button is the best strategy, I saw that you were considering working on the game, so if it's not intended, be aware. Very impressive job anyway, the game is incredibly polished, it amazes me :O

nisepandakun 2018-12-07 18:35

When I was rating the game I gave it a 3 overall at first. But after rating the rest of the categories, I realised the overall score was the lowest! 4 stars overall for me :smile:

Great artwork and absolutely amazing music. I loved how seamless the transition is between the music before and after the Lord of Metal appears. Overall great mood as well, music, artwork and character designs all fit nicely with the theme.

In terms of gameplay, I feel like it is a little shallow as I quickly realised that spamming the spacebar was the best way to get the highest score :sweat_smile: But still fun nonetheless!

f4kethis 2018-12-07 20:08

Looks gorgeous and I love the metal show aesthetic. That Nathan Explosion looking frontman on stage is great. The game itself felt like there wasn't much for strategy to it beyond throw things at the most densely populated area, but it was fun anyway. Great job!

josh-bothun 2018-12-08 00:32

I think this is a nearly perfect game jam entry honestly. While the game itself is quite simple, the audio, graphics, and mechanics all directly support the theme and concept, which is a rare thing to pull off well in limited time. Amazing work!

benburgh 2018-12-08 04:51

As others have said, its too easy just to mash. Great art and sound!

rohezal 2018-12-08 12:50

It is like evil tetris. The graphics are beautiful and the sound track is gripping. Each time the lead musican transforms into a demon everything rocks. Well done. I just noticed after several games the best strategy is to click randomly as fast as you can. Maybe improve the skill level, but except from this, this game realy rocks :).

niterich 2018-12-08 20:09

I really liked how you managed to seamlessly switch between the regular soundtrack and the Lord of Metal solo section, I thought that was a nice touch.

kromzem 2018-12-09 01:43

This was nice! I love the music, the visuals and how you implemented the theme :D It was a fun (but sadly short) experience. Keep it up ;)

lukel 2018-12-09 17:44

Fun game to play! The audio and how the tracks mix gives a big feel to the game. Only 1 problem is i could just spam the M1 button and get a higher score than if i tryed to plan when to press the M1. Overall though a fun game to play a few times!

peachtreeoath 2018-12-10 06:28

I had a couple thoughts before coming to the conclusion the others did. When I first loaded up the game, I actually thought the goal was the opposite, to fill the stage with as many people as possible without having them fall in, so I was actually carefully choosing my shots each time. After I noticed the score I still was a bit careful, since the game reminded me of those redemption arcade games with the coins you have to push in to the bucket. I'm curious how you guys will end up stopping the spam meta, though something quick like limited resources should be a quick thing to try out. The game itself is very eyecatching and absolutely why I clicked the game in the first place. Excellent presentation and idea, just needs that 1 tweak to solidify it.

drauthius 2018-12-10 22:55

Fun concept, that looks and sounds great!

jorgegamedev 2018-12-10 23:28

2018-12-10 22H-55M-06S.png

That was metal as hell! The graphical presentation and music were really stunning and the graphics looked really sharp and neat! The gameplay, while it did have the smashing issue that others have already talked about, did feel tight in terms of movement and pushing the others down the fiery pit. The combo at 666 points also made it interesting and varied in terms of pacing. :guitar:

However, I do feel like such great and really-well-designed graphics also come at a slight sacrifice (no pun intended). It took me a while to figure exactly where to focus my attention at first when I started the game due to how busy it was, and I eventually noticed that I was supposed to look near the stage, to see where and who I was aiming.

I think this is probably more due to the way the presentation is setup than anything though, and my only thought is that I'd really enjoy to see a mobile version of it so the portrait presentation gets more justice. I hope you do consider it at some point, as I feel in the current desktop versions most of the graphics get downscaled that it doesn't make them the justice they deserve, and I think the gameplay would definitely work excellently on mobile!

On [behalf of our team](https://discord.whalesandgames.com), thank you for this rockstar moment, and once again congratulations on the whole theming and the sharp art! Cheers! :whale:

lucecyl 2018-12-13 02:05

Great game! I love the attention you put on the details, like when you are on the special mode, the blood amount is 666. The graphics are soooo cool! The game has a great mood!

keksa 2018-12-15 16:23

Cool game, but super easy when you just spam the dive button, I was able to get 11750 score by just spamming. However, the feel of the game is awesome, the graphics and audio really great and sacrificing fans to raise the Lord of Metal is great idea. Overall really nice game.

P.S.: Just an idea I had, I think that the difficulty would be easily solved by decreasing score when you toss a metalhead. Maybe would get you to think more about it.

sodaraptor 2018-12-16 01:57

@Keksa - that is a very interesting idea! Would involve a bit more strategy if there was a type of dude you weren't supposed to throw in the pit, forcing you to stage-dive around them. Thanks for the feedback!

ddrkirbyisq 2018-12-22 05:22

Haha, this is a fun concept for sure. Props on a great idea.

Agree with the comments about the design needing...something (?) a bit more to get the gameplay to be a little more involved. Something that feels a bit more pinball-ish would be great fun, if you could manage to achieve that. I also wish that the 666 "fever" mode would let me push guys at a much faster rate; feels like that would really get players hyped up!

2018-12-24 16:59

Hi ! :) I made a review of your jam entry, you can watch it here : https://youtu.be/PPd1xANxHKI

Congratulations for having made such a polished work ! :)

oda 2018-12-28 20:37

Heavy Metal Coin Pusher, Yeah :metal: