Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD43 → King's Last Stand
By pukami
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 192 | 3.55 | 138 | |
| Fun | 200 | 3.38 | 141 | |
| Innovation | 351 | 2.92 | 140 | |
| Theme | 211 | 3.57 | 141 | |
| Graphics | 50 | 4.09 | 140 | |
| Humor | 253 | 2.72 | 131 | |
| Mood | 284 | 3.06 | 134 |
I had a good time throwing my poor little Astras at the enemies. They had a satisfying boom impact. Maybe it's just me, but this theme has me enjoying sacrifice. I enjoyed all of the environment. It was a little tough to see near the castle, but that was also incentive to just get out there and murd..um... sacrifice some Astra.
I was a little annoyed by the loss of mobility while attacking, but otherwise enjoyed it. It did feel like I was mostly stuck near the castle, though, and didn't have much reason to leave, other than visibility.
They're so cute! :laughing:
It's a shame that there isn't any audio -- it feels like the only thing missing, and even a simple explosion sound effect could make a lot of difference. I highly recommend [sfxr](http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html) and [musagi](http://www.drpetter.se/project_musagi.html).
I really enjoy your games graphics. The little astra are quite cute. That said, I didn't feel a strong connection to the theme. Giving the ammo eyes didn't make me feel more like I was sacrificing something by using it, especially since I could always go back for more.
Finish with 87 in my first run. Amazing game with crazy good graphic for a jam!
Great graphics and animations! The attacking did feel a bit slow/awkward. But, fantastic execution!
As others have said, i'd love to attack faster. Also what's stopping the player from just sitting in the Circle that gives you more? There's no incentive to wander off.
THAT SAID, i like the concept, and I think you should make a Jam version too with some adjustments! <3
Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I do agree that the game can be tweaked and adjusted more. I initially wanted there to be more "weight" to commanding your Astra and for it to be used as minimal as possible, but I wasn't able to get the design down in time. Thus, a slowed attack mechanic with no good explanation as to why.
Sitting at the circle makes it easier to be surrounded, as well as less visibility! Not the best design, but I definitely wanted the player to try moving around a lot to try and "herd" the enemies more.
ExoWin.png
Let me know if anyone else is able to clear all 7 waves! :D
the one thing that i would like to see is maybe a rain from the sky aoe attack you could use on a cool down.
Really love the looks of it! Hadn't read the commands, had a hard time on wave 7 without the mouse lol. It was fun to play, some sound would be really nice.
Yeah, I really wanted to put in audio as well. But I have no audio experience and was running out of time, so I had to decide to focus on other parts instead. Thank you for your comments :)
Got through to the 7th wave, but, couldn't pull out a victory. But, holy crap, I had a lot of fun trying! I really, really, really want those little cute creatures to have some awesomely cute noises coming out of them then... BOOM! detonate and watch the bad guys go bye-bye. The difficulty ramped up nicely. The first couple levels, I didn't really move from the spawning spot. But, on maybe the 3rd wave, I got completely swarmed, That's when I had to rethink my entire strategy. Great job!
I reached round seven and goodness there where a lot of enemys, but I really enjoyed it.
i really like 3d games over 2d idk why nice game reached 4 wave
I reached round 7 and lost as well. I really like the graphics and the concept and the gameplay. Fantastic work!
Good job! Feels great to kill a clump all clustered together with one star boi!
This game visual style is really impressive.I really liked graphics :).Great job!
Nice graphic, good job :)
Awesome visuals! The gameplay and controls all feel very smooth and pretty natural. I don't like how when the monsters hit you, you stop moving. Also, add in music and sound I think it'll be great that way!
They're so cute I don't want to throw them <3
The graphics are cool and the difficulty seems to increase as fast as it should be. The theme is well respected too. The only thing that disturbed me a little was that the character does'nt often shoot in the good direction, which is pretty disturbing.
Great job then ! :D
Nice work on the arts, not mush to say, the game is well finished and fun to play. I wondering how it could change the game is you can have a dash where (e.g. 5 ) Astra make shield and die but only push enemies (you couldn't kill enemies by dash).
This is a very nice base to a cute game! Some feedback:
- a minimap, an arrow around your player (think Kid Icarus Uprising) or a way to move the camera angle would go a long way in helping the player locate their enemies. - Of course: sounds and music
Great job!
This game seems cute at first but shooting this stars, who count on your help is cruel dammit :D
Very much enjoyed this, went from wondering where the heck the enemies are to trying fruitlessly to gain enough space to not be completely surrounded. Much fun, would sacrifice again.
I liked this game! It's relaxing atmosphere, simple mechanics and graphics are fitting each other rather well! Good job!
Too bad therre isnt any audio, other then that its really good!
Great visuals but slow gameplay
You can definitely tell that the waves are getting harder and harder, which makes it fun and competitive. The visuals of the game is cute. Definitely fits in with the theme.
Really enjoyable game, especially love the art
Thank you everyone for the lovely comments!
Good, wish i could move while i shoot, bit slow otherwise good game
Nice graphics and cohesive art style -- perhaps the Astra could track the enemy though as it is quite easy to just miss an enemy
Fun gameplay it could use some incoming enemies direction indicators and some way not to obscure view when moving closer to castle beside that great game.
Amazing you did this in 48 hours! The game is super cute. The gameplay was good but could perhaps be a faster? Maybe the player could move and shoot quicker. The last two waves are crazy!
It's so satisfying hoarding all the Astras, and seeing them follow behind you. I got to wave 6. It's great having a little information screen at the start, telling you everything you need to know.
Alright, here's my feedback:
The mechanics show promise, but they aren't exactly fun yet. Having to constantly stop while shooting, coupled with the long charge animation before firing, really served to kill the fun of the game, incentivizing you to turn into a turret (which will kill you) rather than running and gunning (which is way more fun). It has potential, but some of the core mechanics need to be redone. My rating: 3.5 stars
The graphics are your strong suit. Great job with this one! The art looks great, and everything is well animated! My rating: 5 stars.
Not particularly innovative. The theme doesn't allow for much innovation, but still, it is a rather old formula. Tower defense is stale, hands down, and while the whole ammunition thing would be innovative in any other setting, it is just a side-effect of the theme. My rating: 3 stars.
A generic interpretation of the theme. At least it's light hearted. My rating: 4.5 stars.
Aaaaaaand it's time for another rant about opting out of (shocker) humor. Seriously, it doesn't have a whole lot of funny to it, so opt out! It will just hurt your overall score by lowering the average value, not increase it!
The mood is cute and nice, but is SEVERELY hurt by the complete silence the game sits in. The graphics set up something that just seems heartless without audio. Next time around, try SFXR, if you have time, or try to get someone else to make audio for you. It's WELL worth it. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Overall, I'd say that this game rather heavily relies on its graphics, and while they are quite well done, this does end up leaving the rest of the game, mechanics, audio, and all, lying in the dust. I'd suggest looking for a team to join, as that would allow you to focus on making your art good and let your teammate make the rest of the game better. My rating: 3.5 stars.
Thanks for the feedback Koala Squad!
While I agree that the slow shooting can definitely get annoying for some people, I don't think that just making it a free shooter is going to be the solution for it. I wanted the focus to be on movement and trying to use the least amount of shots necessary, but I know that I didn't fully execute it well enough. A run-and-gun shooter isn't the kind of design that I find enjoyable in the long run, and a slower pace shooter that makes you think before you shoot was what I wanted.
I do appreciate the comments though! With more time, I'd definitely love to address all the problems in the future (and I really wish I could've added music and sound). However for this game jam, I'm already happy with how it is.
The camera for the starting position is a real problem. It could use some more intuitive controls or at least a directional indicator for the casting.
Otherwise, nice game. Extremely challenging. but a fun mechanic.
i like it so much!, one thing i notice is that the player goes at double speed diagonally, and it's a little difficult to see the player near the castle, but it's very fun!
It was fun to play, I reached wave 7 but didn't manage to beat it! I found myself wanting to zoom out more, just to see more of where the enemy swarms were during the brunt of the wave. It was very annoying to be running from a huge swarm and having another one come right from the front without any warning.
The movement of the main character could be a bit faster, also the throwing. But a nice kind of tower defense. Well done!
Really solid game, it's unfortunate it has no audio, otherwise it would have been a perfect 10/10 for me. I really enjoyed it a lot. The graphics were really good.
I don't want to repeat what everyone already told you. I can clearly see the effort behind this game and the design problems you encountered while doing it. You should be proud of it, it's pretty, fun and has a nice difficulty curve. Good job!
I liked the art, very cute and clean art style. The animations felt a bit lackluster though. Using the Astra as ammo didn't feel like a real sacrifice since I could always get more. It would have been cool if they had some cute SFX to make them actually feel like living creatures, but I understand that you had no time to put sounds in. All in all, a nice game.
Very well done Game! easy to play and nice to watch. I love how the astra looks like Luma from Mario Galaxy!
This would be an awesome game with sound :smiley:
Well it's been said already, stopping for every attack is a little flustrating. Also when you get stuck between enemies, there isn't really any way out even with full "ammunition" :) However I still had a good time, nice work!
Very cute graphics! solid game concept too
So kawaiiiii
Cool game! Really amazing graphics for a compo! And fun too!
Some feedback: - more enemies might make it more interesting (although i get it -- time constraints) - one time an enemy spawned almost ontop of me, which was kindof strange, I was on the botton left corner of the map - The shooting animation was a little frustrating -- it would have been nice if it was a little quicker -- i kept getting nabbed by the critteres when I was trying to shoot them - It was easy to train the critters (they followed in a line) and there wasnt much of a reason not to train them (like if you start going in a circle they trail behind you). See image Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 2.37.49 PM.png
- Noticed an off-by-one bug at the end (see screenshot) Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 2.41.09 PM.png
Overall I really did enjoy the game! Really cool work!!
Well done! Only wish the shooting animation would be faster.
Beautiful graphics and nice mechanics. I feel that some good audio would really help it stand out. Well done!
very nice grafics
such a lovely lovely art style <3 The game is fun as well, we jumped to almost the same game mechanic you and I. The only thing I'd like is a farther horizon so I can have the overall picture of what's happening, but I get this was a design decision. Overall very impressive!
Man, this was hard. I was completely demolished on wave 7 my first playthrough, but I made it round 2! :D Screenshot (109).png
I had alot of fun trying to strafe around enemies grouping them up and taking out huge groups with few Atra. Also of note, the player seems to move faster going diagonally.
Great fun, this game. And the models are adorable! Amazing job :D
So cute and so sad I don't want to sacrifice my little critters. The art for this game is amazing and game balance is well done I tried to train the enemies like in black ops zombies but was quickly overwhelmed. The lack of audio was a bummer. So in case you want a quick and easy way to make sound effects try bfxr. The shooting also just isn't very fun I think this is because of two reasons one the character stops instantly which feels unnatural and the input delay for the animation. To fix the instant stopping I'd have the character slide just a little bit when you let go of the arrow keys, and to fix the input delay I would make it to where you have to click, hold and drag backwards to shoot them like a slingshot or I'd make it to where you hold down the mouse and show the charge up with a indicator of some sort. Loved your game overall though. Great job!
Have you seen these? https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpokemongamersblog.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fblue-luma.jpg&f=1. Nintendo may take issue with your art...
One of the things I always enjoy in games is having a good looking UI, and even with the small time we had, you managed to pull a very simple interface that really does the job. Nice game!
Nice one, had a hard time getting to wave number 6, main problem was the castle and trees blocking my view of lateral enemies. The overall feeling is great, liked the polishing of the UI. Good job!
I had quite a bit of fun ! I love the graphics it's cute, and the balance to the game is surprisingly well thought ! Too bad there is no audio, it would have completed the picture. Well done !
Loved the art style! My only comment will be about placing the camera a bit higher and maybe an indicator where the waves are coming int! Good Job!
Very cool game, gameplay and awesome graphics !!! Too bad there is no sound :s tell us if you implemant it one of these days ! Now i'll go for another try ^^
I had fun playing through the first time, but I think there isn't much variation in strategies you can use, which can limit replay-ability. That being said, I think the game is very well done with nice graphics and effects and I liked the core gameplay loop. Well done!
That game remind me SuperMario Galaxy. Anyway this game it's pretty cool and i really enjoy it
Very cute! I didn't feel much remorse in killing the lil Astras tho, haha. But i sure had fun mobbing and AoEing those (also adorable) monsters.
As of improvement, I think that tweeking the vertical movement would do great (as the player move a lot faster when diagonally moving). I didn't feel much punishment as I made mistakes, maybe decreasing the player HP and increasing it's movement speed to balance the previous nerf? What do you think?
I had fun playing it, nonetheless. Good job and thank you for making'n sharing this adorable game :)
The artwork is really cute, reminds me a bit of Lumas from Super Mario Galaxy. Controls are really good as well, and the waves really scale well in difficulty. Adding in sound effects would really help to feel more compassion/sacrifice towards the Astras, but overall a really good and polished game!
The art style is sooo cute <3 The lumas...uhm...astras and the king are very cute designs.
Very difficult, we were defeated in 7 wave. Good animation and programming with the Astra. Congratulations =]
I died at round 7, almost there :_(
I really enjoyed it though! Little astras are really cute, I almost felt bad sacrificing them. The rest of the art is great too!
Couple things that could be improved though. Adding some audio. The camera, sometimes is really hard to know whats going on since you can't really tell whats behind you and sometimes things get on the way (like the castle).
Other than that I would have prefered a faster pace in general and a faster animation for throwing the astras away. But hey this is a design choice and at the end is a matter of preference.
Really cool game, congrats!
Cute! I was also defeated in Wave 7, made it there with only a quarter of my health left. A little sound would have really, really helped, I think. Art is amazing, curious to know what you made it in.
Thank you everyone for the comments and feedback! It gave me a lot of insight for game design in the future. Sorry if I can't address each one of you all individually, haha.
@mrpiedpiper Congratulations on completing it!! That's amazing :D I'm glad you enjoyed it.
@bendev-games Yes, I also agree that the movement could be reworked a bit better. Moving faster diagonally was unintentional, so I definitely would pay more mind to it next time and try to keep the speed more consistent (and possibly even a sprint mechanic).
@jimbly Thank you! I used Blender to model and animate everything!
Wave 6 and I'm getting cut off from my castle, dying without my loyal astras... Really good entry, the gamefeel was good, and the animations had weight. I disagree with those who say the attack animation is too slow. I think that was the intent, and forces some thinking from the player. Thank you for this game !
Graphics are amazing, too bad there isn't any sound. I would have liked to see ahead instead of having a forced camera perspective. The fact that the enemies were following you instead of trying to reach the castle was an interesting mechanic. Controls worked quite well, it was intuitive to hit the enemies. Nice job with the self-exploding mechanic too!
Very well made! The art is fantastic. I got completely surrounded in wave 7 and was unable to make it back to the circle, but i still had a ton of fun! great work.
Very very good game ! Thank you !
Capture.PNG
Your game is really enjoyable! :) 3D graphics is neat and so cute, I love it. Gameplay is easy what makes this game perfect to just play and relax! :D Maybe is a little sad that we throw our loyal friend, but... I understand: sacrifices must be made! Very good entry, congratulations! :D
I thought the gameplay was fun and balanced quite well. I liked the cute and simplistic art style. Good entry!
Cute game!
Probably one of the best looking games in the LD43. The curve was good (maybe a bit too easy at the start?), I can see this be one of those small fun games on steam. Well done.
Can't beat wave 7 but enjoying it nonetheless. I actually disagree with a few comments on here about the pacing. I really like the "slow" shoot and how you stop to attack. In a way I kept seeing the game utilize the theme in several other ways.
- You gain distance by kiting then sacrifice your spacing to take out groups of enemies - You sacrifice health to run through groups of enemies (or tank hits) - I was trying to start waves at the top then slowing work my way down to the castle to refill, so I was sacrificing territory to allow kiting
I know these are looser interpretations but the slower pacing made me think more about my shots and where I needed to be to make them safe, as well as should I shoot forward to clear a path vs clearing the pack behind me. I thought the game overall was very solid and the rolling astra animation alone nets this a lot of stars in the graphics category. Fantastic polish for a compo game too!
Really awesome game! I was very surprised when I saw it's a compo and not a jam game. It was very well made. I also found it very hard - I worked very hard to finally be able to reach wave 7 on the last bit of health and then was killed pretty quickly. After reading the tips - I realized you could send the Astra forward without aiming at anyone and then they would harm creatures that try to chase you. I think that could have probably been explained better in the game - I was basically just using them as ammo.
Anyway, this is super polished, and very fun and challenging. Thank you for making this!
Cute game, and I have to respect being able to make a little 3d game like this solo in the time limits.
Others have mentioned before but audio always adds a lot to a game, and write a script (or use built-in methods if they exist in your engine) to convert angle and speed into position, then you can keep a consistent speed whatever angle you move, regardless of keyboard or controller inputs.
Cute low poly graphic, nice story and a lot of fun! Didn't manage to pass 7 wave but it was very enjoyable!
A good game. Got to the last wave but got killed in the end. There was glitch for bit where all of sudden I couldnt move. It didnt last too long but I lost some health because of it. I would have preferred to have more of a view of the field but all in all a fun game that I enjoyed a lot. Great work!
There's room for improvement for sure but being able to do a 3d game all by yourself is a huge success. Well done!
The wind up animation is a little extensive; for often used actions like that you want the response to be quick and snappy. But for a solo project, this is great work.
Congratulation! it's a cute one! You could improve the character maneuvering by making it always look towards the mouse (the mouse would handle his rotation) while AWSD would handle the movement; I think that the releasing the stars mostly break the mood, i think that you should optimize the shooting speed to improve the juicenes of throwing them and the need of always having to worry about the remaining amount of stars...
Awesome game!
could really use some sound effects.
Cute graphics, though I would have liked to see the Astra look a bit more distinct from the lumos from mario galaxy. (Also are they just an anagram for "A star"? xD)
Very well put-together for the amount of time available. I'd recommend putting in a custom cursor that is easier to see than the default Windows one is. Because I was streaming I had two monitors running and I lost half my health when I accidentally moved my mouse over too far.
In case you'd like to watch my play-through, it happened in episode 3 of my "Dare to Play" series and it was the last game played that night. https://twitch.tv/cyberlightgames Thanks for submitting it!
Really cute looking game. Someone else seems to be using the web version to make ad money though -.- https://gamesx2.com/game/king-s-last-stand/ Also, do you have twitter by any chance? :D
Nice concept and it looks great. I found it a bit frustrating in the later waves. The action just got a bit chaotic. I really enjoyed it.
Beautiful, entertaining game! The art style is so adorable, and the sacrifices are fun and satisfying. It's really too bad about the lack of audio, but perfectly understandable given the time constraint. My only nitpick is the shooting animation felt a bit slow, but otherwise the gameplay is smooth and fun!
I do like the idea behind this game. Having all of the Astra following me around reminded me quite a bit of Overlord. On that basis, it would be quite nice to have some sort of mechanic to control where the Astra go, rather than just having them follow behind you all the time. Overall, I enjoyed playing, so well done!
When I watched the cute king walk through the world and get chased by a round figure, I felt childlike! If you continue to develop this, when the round thing blinked the king red, I didn't discover how to retaliate or do anything more effective than run away.
Cute looking models and animations. It took me a little while to figure out that the guy was shooting in the direction of the mouse cursor, so maybe a targeting reticle would help. There also doesn't seem to be any incentive to every leave the refill area with the circling rainbow.
Fun game with cute graphics. Shame there is no sound though. Bug report: The enemy sometimes gets stuck on the trees. Overall nice game! I enjoyed playing it. Good job! :D