For the Team!

pixlark 2018-12-03 19:11

This is a really fun game! I'm just going to list my pros and my cons because that's easier than trying to write everything out in paragraphs:

*Pros:*

- Huge map - Multiple exits are awesome - Really good variation on the theme - Color advantage/disadvantage provides depth to the gameplay

*Cons:*

- Buggy. - Bullets don't really seem to shoot if I'm standing in a doorway (maybe the bullet hitboxes are too big). - Many bosses seem to just stand there glitched out for a long time. - I also had a bug where every time I hit one of those long green bosses with a bullet, it would increment my counter for them. I didn't realize this until I had 40 green boss counters. - Enemies have way too much health - When I sacrifice a guy to open a door, my next leader is the one on the very back of the snake for some reason, that's a very jarring jump. I'd rather have it go to the guy who's now at the front, next to the door I just opened.

I really liked this game, though, good job! The map in particular blows me away, I can't imagine trying to design a level that big for Ludum Dare.

jakobthequizguy 2018-12-03 19:12

Cool gameplay. Cycling between team leaders to sacrifice the right one was neat, and the enemy sprites look good. Some of the enemies take way too long to kill though, to the point where it just becomes tedious.

ale 2018-12-03 19:26

@pixlark Thanks for the super thorough feedback! Yeah I completely agree with your list of cons. I spent a huge amount of time making the graphics and designing the map, but was left with nearly no time to do any actual play-testing. The enemy and player health values and the number of starting teammates are essentially arbitrary :(

The shooting through doorways thing is actually a feature. I added invisible barriers so you can't just camp at a door where the enemies can't get you. But without visual feedback or something I guess it just looks like another bug :P

@jakobthequizguy yeah the enemy health needs some major balancing. The green boss fight in particular has way too much HP. Glad you liked the sprites :D

I actually had some fun with this idea, and I think I'll continue to work on it post-LD to see if I can turn it into something fun. At the very least I want to fix the bugs and controls, especially the issue with the team leader switching to the one at the back of the line (which is extremely annoying)

jhell 2018-12-03 20:51

Hi,

It's an interesting entry, but to be honest I think you went for a concept a bit complex for a jam. I didn't figure how to use the split mechanic and the swap leader one was a bit anecdotic. Impressive size for the dungeon, but I'd probably have gone for something smaller with a tighter experience overall :)

It was still a nice game!

j0ye 2018-12-03 21:14

Impressive what you've all done in 48 hours. - The monsters are super - The idea is great - The map is very large - There are many mechanics that are interesting

Aside from the bugs you probably know about, the content is good and the number of features is impressive. Good work

ale 2018-12-03 21:16

@jhell haha yeah it's definitely complex. Had I gone with something smaller I would have been able to produce something more polished, but I wanted to try my hand at something unique, and see how much content I could squeeze into a 48 hour game. No regrets :)

The split mechanic is just a casualty of the overall crappy controls. They were actually worse before, but I did a complete refactor around 30 minutes before the deadline. Most of my development time was spent drawing/animating the enemies and bosses, designing the gameplay/progression, and building out the map.

ale 2018-12-03 21:17

@j0ye thanks!

craftlord 2018-12-03 22:20

Fun game, but a little buggy. Has great potential!

backurio 2018-12-03 22:21

That pink blob monsters are crazy. The rest of the game seems interesting, but with a lot of bugs as some already mentioned. Good work for 48h.

kunonooni 2018-12-03 23:52

WOW! What a major undertaking for 48 hours! Congrats on finishing it. I liked the mechanics of the game and the way you implemented the theme. I agree some of the enemies had too much health but all in all it was a fun game to play.

c1fr1 2018-12-04 17:53

I like the size of the dungeon and versatility of the enemies. although I would like to have seen a minimap for the dungeon that is visible while playing, I would have pulled it up on my second monitor but I was just playing on my laptop.

ruthiepee 2018-12-04 23:14

Woot for Haxeflixel! This is a really ambitious game, which in game jam terms, means it's really buggy. ;) I keep clipping into the inescapable wall tiles. The enemy artwork is great, it's truly terrifying! Conceptually I really liked the mechanic where you can swap leaders, and the puzzle elements involved. I felt like I needed 3 hands to play though, between WASD, J/K/L, and mouse controls.

eddie-li 2018-12-05 00:35

Good overall. Has a few bugs, as pointed out already, and could be overall more polished. But other than that, very well done! Congrats on finishing it!

codekim 2018-12-05 00:57

This game makes me happy! Using your own team as keys makes all of them really valuable which is great. as previously stated, the key bind doesn't really work for regular people but of course this can be tweaked. Loved the art, the ant people seriously creeped me out. Some more work and I could see myself playing it a lot! Nice job!

vinay-rao 2018-12-21 00:15

A nice take on the theme! The key sacrifice mechanic did well in assigning value to each team member.

I'd suggest using a different keybind for swapping team leaders or splitting the group up, just on account of it being a bit out of the way to use the mouse, move, and hit keys on the right side of the keyboard at the same time. Perhaps the keys around the WASD controls or scroll and mouse buttons could take over this functionality.

Enemies do feel a bit bullet spongey. I think they could do with a bit of health reduction in general. I don't think I encountered any bugs other than what was already mentioned, but for as much art and time spent on the level design as this game seems to have I imagine the looming deadline didn't leave much opportunity to catch and fix bugs.

Speaking of time...

Wow, you got a lot into this game in 48 hours. Color me impressed. That had to have been some rapid sprite asset generation, and even had some little details like rubble trails on underground enemies.