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Demon Rising
Demon Rising
By gerardb
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 117 | 3.94 | 68 | |
| Fun | 42 | 4.07 | 68 | |
| Innovation | 450 | 3.22 | 68 | |
| Theme | 291 | 3.81 | 68 | |
| Graphics | 301 | 3.93 | 68 | |
| Audio | 195 | 3.61 | 61 | |
| Humor | 278 | 3.33 | 64 | |
| Mood | 248 | 3.65 | 64 | |
Comments
kamekai
2018-12-04 01:45
Loved the aesthetic. I'd like to give it 5/5 for audio but I'm not sure if you're qualified for Audio ratings due to your use of 3rd party music and sfx. Still, the composition was great and everything came together nicely. :)
A possible improvement might be corpses disappearing over time, which would create a need for prioritization, increasing tension for the player. It could also help out with lower-end machines though I didn't profile the performance because it ran great for me.
Great job!
gerardb
2018-12-04 02:32
@kamekai That's a great idea! Thanks for the feedback :D
zeaga
2018-12-04 03:26
Fantastic! The art is awesome and adorable. The fact that this was made solely by you is very impressive.
In addition to kamekai's suggestions, I think the dissolve shader (which is amazing btw) should be a little faster, unless there's some gameplay element there I'm missing.
Really great work!
gerardb
2018-12-04 11:02
There's no gameplay implications to the dissolve shader. I just wanted to show off my shader skills :P But its definately a fair point. Thanks for the feedback and kind words!
jaa
2018-12-04 14:10
очень крутая,особенно аудио
zsolt
2018-12-04 14:12
Very nice game! I very like the audio :)
Great little game! Had a lot of fun playing this one, enjoyed the sick soundtrack and really tight controls. I found the shooting enemies to be quite hard to dodge though in comparison with the swordsmen. Impressive for a one man team, congratulations on this entry!
guilb
2018-12-04 14:36
Very Funny game! The controls are very smooth, but some times I got fixed in the borders, maybe it could be a problem with the web version. Nice graphics, great potential.
fredr121
2018-12-04 15:08
Funny game. Controls feel good. Sometimes while pushing bodies around they can get caught on walls. The tutorial is done well.
The game is just amazing ! One of the best i've played so far ! The characters made me think about the canadians in south park :D Great job !
elfunck
2018-12-04 15:35
Super cool game man, love the feeling of the control.
Well done
sashbros
2018-12-04 15:56
Nice Work ..Cool Graphics, Gameplay.. Just one thing ..If we can shoot with SPACE bar..this would be absolutely the best. Great Work !
gerardb
2018-12-04 19:23
@guilb @fredr121 @gebowunjo @elfunck @sashbros Thanks for the praise and feedback!
xesenix
2018-12-04 21:34
Fun little game. I had only small problems with handling bodies that got stuck to map borders no particular way to move them to sacrifice circle.
Great art, smooth controls, love the music :metal: This is my type of game
gerardb
2018-12-04 23:29
@xesenix Corpses bounce against walls. But if for some reason you can't get one away from wall there's always plenty more souls to sacrifice :metal:
@mateusboga Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! :)
shendev
2018-12-05 02:54
Really polished game, I had a lot of fun, everything looks and works really nice, game feel was on point, congratulations :)
seanw
2018-12-05 03:13
Really enjoyed the game! It reminded me of the Binding of Issac!
I definitely want to see even more of your shader skills next time!
Cool game! Nice gameplay and art
Very cool! I love the multitasking game play where you are trying to level up and kill.
meadjix
2018-12-05 13:38
Really fun to play, the gameplay feels very polished ! Nice work :)
franfox
2018-12-05 15:12
By far this is the more addictive LD game I've played today! I like how tricky is the way yo need to push the corpses in the first leves, after that, when you get more powerful and the sword acts like a gun it's a little less funny but still being addictive. Good work!
oakenman
2018-12-05 15:19
Great game buddy ! Probably the funniest game i've played this LD so far. The gameplay was simple but quite interesting, which is the thing we are looking for in a Game Jam. Way to go !
dyzzyd
2018-12-05 15:24
Very nice little game, the gamplay is simple but sooo good ! However I was disapointed when the game was finished beacuse this is so addictive ! Very nice job !!
Really nice and juicy gameplay! It’s really clear that you spend a lot of time on polishing and adding juice to it, and it really paid off. While still not being ”too much” (perfect amount of screen shake etc). I liked that there were more than one type of enemies as well, it made the gameplay more interesting. Overall great in every way, nice art and great sound!
:)
uinelj
2018-12-05 16:05
Very satisfying to play, nice one!
That demon is so adorable, I loved it, I could spend all day killing those guys
You got the *game feel* right in this one! A lot of fun to play, maybe a little too easy as I finished it on my first attempt, but then again about the right length for a gamejam where you only get to play games for a few minutes each.
Cute art, though the backgrounds and characters feel like they're not really in the same style. A heavy soundtrack that suits the game, juicy sound effects. Overall, very nice work!
gerardb
2018-12-05 23:04
@seanw Thanks! And you will definately see more shadery goodness on the next LDJAM
@dyzzyd Thank you! That means I did my job right ;)
@simon-rahnasto This kind of messages makes all the effort worth it!
@arvejeitor Be careful to say those kind of things in public! XD
@flaterectomy Hey there! Thank you very much! I always overshoot difficulty, so this time I was aiming to make it very accesible, simple and cool. But definately a bit more balancing would have been great. And yeah, I need to work on my background art skills. I'll be preapred for the next Ludum!
eddie-li
2018-12-06 01:26
I absolutely loved this game. Everything was very nice about it. The one and only thing I can complain about is the pushing mechanism. I think that some other way of getting the dead bodies to the circle could've been used that's less annoying. But besides that, it was amazing. Good job!
vimlark
2018-12-06 09:18
Super fun. Only issue is I wanted to keep going. Art, sound, and game play were all there and I would totally play an endless mode for way too long to get a stupidly large kill count. Great work!
gerardb
2018-12-06 13:21
@eddie-li There's probably a better way, there always is. I can't really think of one though. Do you have any ideas?
@vimlark If I had more time I would have loved to implement an endless mode that unlocked after the main compact experience I wanted to create. Thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it!
Wow, I loved this game! Let me see where to start .. the simple animations pleased me a lot, it was something very fluid and combined with all the visual, the gameplay was very fun, I liked it a lot, I was imagining a menu with several upgrades for the character, it would be really cool! Anyway, I think that despite everything, he did not present a very good difficulty, the attacks of the character were very strong, I think if I limited them and only managed to recharge if I made a sacrifice would be interesting, I myself died because I could not see the enemies on the screen because there were several bodies. Anyway, I really enjoyed his game, and I believe he has enormous potential, I hope he continues to develop and adding new things to him. God work!
Incredible game, very high polish and fun gameplay, controls are responsive and feel good. One of the best entries.
royur
2018-12-06 19:59
Fun game. played it till finish. easy progression, easy control.
eldogg
2018-12-06 21:34
Great work, I played you fruit eating game a few jams ago and you have come a long way!
The graphics look great and the animation makes it really satisfying to play.
Appreciate they are 3rd party sounds, but you did an excellent job integrating them into the game.
Gameplay wise the mechanism is great. I like how powerful the weapon seems, even at the beginning when it has a small range, and then the upgrades make it even better.
I was ready for maybe one more type of enemy, but still it's a great entry and one of the best I've played this jam, well done.
kirke
2018-12-06 21:56
Let's sacrifice some souls! *hungry of souls* Your game is really smooth, I like it! It's perfect for chill out (of course, for people who loves chilling out sacrifices others, like me) :D Great job!
gerardb
2018-12-07 00:25
@eldogg Ohhhh. Thank you very much! Having you remember and realise the progress over time has literaly made my day. Grind is slowly paying off after all! And I also would have loved to add a third enemy, my body was completely ready for it too! It's hard being a solo dev in a jam. But hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it! See you in the next jam ;)
@kirke Thank you very much!hahaha
I liked the graphics, I was getting a bit tired of the pixel art graphics that most people in the jam choose so the change in style was very welcome. The music and audio was very well done too! It has a nice sense of progression and was pretty fun to play! My only suggestion is that you should stop the music (or at least make it more quiet) when you lose as the combination of the music and the lose level audio is messy. I think just the lose level audio would sound better
THIS WAS FUN AS FUCK. MAKE IT A REAL STEAM GAME. I see short games like this that make a big success, like Ubermosh and Akane. You can do it. I had tons of fun. Well done.
gerardb
2018-12-07 19:10
@sadzanenyama Thanks for the kind words and feedback :)
@publicidadeba Thanks for comparing me to those 2 awesome games and for the encouragement!
I was pleasantly surprised when I got my first upgrade, I actually didn't expect that + when the gun enemy got introduced is when everything clicked in my head as to what this game could be. Even though it was a simple twist to the formula, the sacrifice mechanic immediately fixed one of the worst things about twinsticks - the fact that you always pretty much just kite in a circle and shoot, with little variance. With this game I added in the corpses to my positioning, and changed my routes a bit to knock them into the goal while killing things. Now I do agree with @kamekai , if the corpses despawned this would solidify the decision-making even more and up the ante on positioning, but I'm ok with it as is. Another thing you could add to keep differentiating your game is to make the zone move around, so the player doesn't get too comfortable with 1 route and maybe have to think on the fly a bit. I think this game has a lot of potential and when I got that 2nd upgrade hoo boy, I felt SUPER powerful.
gerardb
2018-12-09 10:06
@peachtreeoath Thank you very much for your feedback and kind words. Also I'm glad that you like the upgrades as much as I do! :D
I totally agree that despawning corpses would give you a sense of urgency that would add a nice layer of gameplay on top of the existing mechanics. I'm not so sure about a moving circle though. It would accidentaly pick up some corpes for you. But there's no real way of knowing if it would work or not without testing.
Oops I should rephrase that, I meant it stays in one area til you reach 30 corpses or w/e, then it teleports to another area and stays there for another 30, so that it doesn't just vacuum everything like a roomba. But yea, just a little thought I had while playing.
gerardb
2018-12-09 12:00
@peachtreeoath Loved the roomba analogy XD
And yeah the stage swap could work, it's definately a good thought!
Ooh, this's so juicy. The players starts so weak and by the second upgrade just demolishes everything. Honestly, I'd tone it down a bit :laughing: Anyway, the combat feels really awesome. The need to balance between shuffling corpses and fighting enemies is a pretty cool dynamic and the above mentioned disappearing corpses could enhance that nicely. I also do like the proposed teleporting portal, especially if there was some cover/walls. You could also use the corpses as meat shields, but for that to make any sense, there'd have to be more long-range enemies. Anyway, what a cool game. My only knock against it is how short it is. I wish there was more, especially enemies.
gerardb
2018-12-11 00:27
@secretpocketcat I also agree that the game is a bit too easy. Making the demon less powerful and making the knight run faster would have been the way to go.
Thanks for the feedback and kind words. If I ever continue this I'll definately take it into account :D
Unfortunately there's not much more I could have done. I was the only programmer and artist, I work on weekends and went to university on Monday. I finished the game 30m before the deadline. It's a miracle that I had all of this on time.
dk5000p
2018-12-11 16:37
The only issue I have is how terrible webgl builds work when combining keyboard and mouse, so that detracted from the game but not your score since it is just how webgl builds are. Loved the artwork and when the controls worked the game played nicely. It was fun, but once you leveled up it did get a little easy.
@gerardb Don't get me wrong, it's still super impressive. I meant it in a good way :wink:
@dk5000p The WebGL build in fullframe was dropping frames like crazy for me. I just opted for the Win and that ran nicely.
sethr
2018-12-18 22:41
Solid and polished. WebGL version worked great for me, one of the few games that worked well on my 21:9 monitor after clicking fullscreen. The dissolve shader effect rules, now I need to figure out how to put that in one of my games someday...
firebug
2018-12-30 23:08
This game really gets you hooked. Gameplay is smooth, the graphics are adorable, the audio is great. One of the bodies got stuck to the wall, I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen, but everything else worked without a hiccup. Graet job for such a short time!
2019-02-04 21:10
Very cool game! The graphics look amazing and the sword swinging action looks very fluid. I really enjoyed it! The theme was very clear and I found the spin you took on “Sacrifices Must be Made” to be very funny. Instead of thinking of self sacrifices, killing people and sacrificing them instead was great. It fit very well too since you play as the demon not the humans. That gave me empathy for the avatar very quickly. The graphic design of the demon with such silly big front teeth and the expressions on all characters made me empathize with the demon very quickly despite going around killing humans and sacrificing them for my own volition.
I didn’t feel that too many of the decisions I could make had meaning though. I feel that was tied to the core mechanic. On earlier levels the projectile wave that shoots out of the sword was really good! It allowed me to have to make judgement calls on risk/reward of how close I wanted to get to an enemy if I wanted the shockwave to hit the enemy behind the one immediately in front of me. Later own though, this mechanic became very OP since the width and the travel distance of the wave both grew a bit too much. This made me go from tactical positioning and maneuvering to simply running around spamming my swing button and having the ridiculously huge wave hit everything without much effort from me. Since the possibility space was only that small room, it seemed unfair to have a wave that could cover half the distance of the room and be about a quarter of the size of the room.
As far as the core dynamic though, I was glad to see your tip about moving the bodies with your sword waves too instead of trying to push them in. If that would not have been possible I think it would have really made the game almost impossible since pushing them has that type of “sliding” effect on them.
I was really getting a good flow too during the beginning and mid game. Dodging the bullets, maneuvering to the corners of the room (instead of the walls since that’s where the enemies step inside from), brooming in dead bodies to get incinerated, and seeing the little sword swing around with all it’s might felt really good. Again though, after you increase to level 3 on your demon, it kinda looses that flow of excitement and replaces it with more of one of slight boredom. In my opinion, the level two should be the most strength the sword should get unless the enemies become harder.
The inherent narrative could have been a bit better too if towards the end you’re not as OP. The struggle is supper satisfying at the beginning since very quickly the gunmen are introduced as enemies. Then the more you see the little demon with it’s silly teeth burn bodies the goal becomes more exciting. However, again, I wasn’t very happy with the transformation since it was very quick and very OP.
A large part of my enjoyment from the game aside from mechanics also came from the graphics. The graphic effects were very clean and I liked the harsh colors used as the bodies disintegrated too. Growing the horns as he leved up was a nice touch too! I’m also glad he healed at those points as well. It was super good!
gerardb
2019-04-23 17:19
@nutomuh Hey. Thanks for the awesome review! Being overpowered was one of the goals of the design. But I understand how it made you feel bored instead of excited. You are probably a more experienced gamer than the target player I was aiming this game at. That being said I probably overshot the OP-ness of the daemon. Again, thanks for the review, I really love reading reasoned and well though impressions of my games, very insightfull! ;)