FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD43 → Gifts for Satan

Gifts for Satan

By patvanmackelberg

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall1673.6045
Fun1343.5545
Innovation2173.2645
Theme794.0245
Graphics1833.5545
Audio1993.1743
Humor593.5843
Mood1353.4842

Comments

shulgaboy 2018-12-03 03:37

I need to teach kids to play closer to THE HOLE. Fun to play. There is a potential for something bigger inside. Loved soldiers who failed while yelling "I will not fail"

jakobthequizguy 2018-12-03 06:53

Really satisfying seeing the village being built up from nothing. The game really feels alive! A bit slow when it comes to gameplay though, after some time I just stopped offering children so I could see some action. Overall, I like it!

myfriendtames 2018-12-03 07:01

Oh, your game is so funy :smile:

Wonderful work, I realy love your art (I love pixel art!!!! :v: ), it's beautiful.

I had a fun time tryin to stop the satan's wrath :smile:

Awesome game :star:

awd.png

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-03 15:18

@shulgaboy lol! Thanks for playing!

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-03 15:20

@jakobthequizguy thank you for playing! When i was making it I kept feeling like I wasted a lot of time just watching people get burned hahah

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-03 15:21

@myfriendtames looks like you almost had him! I've never actually been able to beat it myself lol thanks for playing!

fat-cat 2018-12-03 19:51

Cool game! The children got stuck in walls sometimes (hmm, it's almost as if the children didn't want to die) :p Very cool town building idea

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-03 20:25

@fat-cat thank you! I love making little village simulations so this was a lot of fun. I just wish I had more time- I think I started 16 hours in :(

fat-cat 2018-12-03 20:37

Oh wow - That's incredible though to be made in such short time! Are you going to keep working on it?

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-04 00:50

@fat-cat Thanks! I don't think I'll do much with it after this contest - it was a fun concept but I think I will work on other endeavors!

rikun 2018-12-04 02:58

@patvanmackelberg Very Fun game somehow i managed to win

mrryzen 2018-12-04 04:36

This really fun i love the all the things that are by the soldiers and demons great job.

wizard-exe 2018-12-04 04:36

hilarious! i loved it. my units kept getting stuck and pathing was hit and miss. loved watching the demons rampaging through my village and destroying everything. gameplay was simple though, only one thing to do and that is timing. simulation was great.

jhell 2018-12-04 12:16

I loved this game. Very interesting take on the theme, although a bit literal. I think the most optimized solution is to actually sacrifice each and every child you get and keep your pop as a couple ^^.

I'd have liked to be able to have more input though (maybe place some buildings to defend?)

Anyways very nice game!

slashee-the-cow 2018-12-04 12:46

After reading the description I was a little intimidated but then I loaded it up and realised "oh hang on, this isn't complicated at all". Watching the village get destroyed is hilarious (does thinking that make me a terrible person?) and the graphics are pretty good (the sound is basic but it works, which puts you above the sound in my game, which is non-existent).

The main problem I had was those little idiots kept running around circles when their time came to go downstairs (I don't blame them for stalling for time) and so I couldn't sacrifice them fast enough.

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-04 18:17

@jhell thank you! I think with a bit more time I could have had building placement but I was very pressed for time, I started 16 hours late! Thank you for playing :D

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-04 18:19

@wizard-exe I've thought up some simple solutions to the pathing now, but it is all so primative - the units literally just look for a spot and slap a building - then attempt to run to a spot they randomly choose. If they can't reach the spot they will time out after roughly 10 seconds, sometimes more or less lol so you'll see them running circles like crazies! Thank you for playing :D

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-04 18:20

@slashee-the-cow I really tried to keep it simple but fun! I spent a lot of time just watching the villages get destroyed ahahah thank you for playing :D

nakami 2018-12-04 22:22

Nice and interesting one action button game. ANd I like the pixel art

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-05 03:13

@nakami Thank you!

vethergen 2018-12-05 04:05

I dig it :)

madjackmcmad 2018-12-05 04:58

This was a good time! Really sweet art, and fun to watch the little city grow. Fine work for 48 hours.

one-seed-fruit 2018-12-05 05:35

Feels good. It's satisfying to watch things unfold. I wish there's more to do, but it's still very fun. I wonder if there's a way to fast-forward. Great job!

c1fr1 2018-12-05 05:48

I thought this was fun to watch, not much of a challenge, but still plenty amusing. I had a bit of trouble with getting some kids trapped and unable to jump into hell, but by that point my village was big enough to kill satan anyway.

pelicanodepico 2018-12-06 00:08

Cool gameplay and cool pixel art! Keep going

conrad123 2018-12-06 02:35

Cool concept and nice job for a compo game. I felt that the gameplay got quite lacking after a while. Sometimes my children would get stuck and Satan would level up because of it. If you could have more interactivity, like selecting certain children to sacrifice, or being able to break them a path, the playability would be much improved. Also, a score system would be nice to judge how well you're doing and add a reward system. That being said, the animations in your game were really well designed, and I loved listening to music and sound effects. Keep working on this and you could have something really neat!

luis-giron 2018-12-06 04:00

Hahhaha, i had a lot of fun with this! has a really good concept, i see future in this. The artwork is pretty cool too. I only have some problems with the childs, they get stucked in the trees and makes satan destroys everything, also, the difficult level goes up so fast. Great job!

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-06 14:12

@vethergen Thank you :D @madjackmcmad Thanks! I really tried to keep the scope small - mostly because I started 16 hours in! I love little village builders so making this was really fun! @one-seed-fruit Thank you! I feel like there could be a lot more to it, but because I wanted to finish it as it was, I didn't do anything like prolonging the demons, giving them more hp then making all buildings upgrade-able! Next LD hopefully I don't have to work haha @C1FR1 I have a solution to the units getting stuck now - but I wish I would have come up with it sooner. Some of them get stuck inside of the wall and some just get stuck between buildings where there's no exit. Maybe if I do pursue this I would solve all those issues and make the game a bit more challenging! I still am yet to kill Satan lol good work! @pelicanodepico thank you! I love the minimal style art, it helped me keep the scope of the game small! @conrad123 Thanks for playing, and for the input! I questioned a scoring system myself, but it was the last day with 6 hours to go - so I just gave the knights kill counts, and they could level up if they got 3 kills or 2 kills I can't remember right now! I may try to polish it up and add somethings just to have a final version :P @luis-giron I wish I would have fixed the units getting stuck! It seems like it was bothersome haha, if I finish this up I will definitely solve that problem :P Thanks for playing!

beelzeboss 2018-12-06 15:51

I gad way too much fun with this one. The village feels alive. Awesome style. Some more gameplay elements would make the game even better. Great Job!

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-06 16:02

@beelzeboss Thank you! I may try to turn this into something bigger - I definitely spent a lot of time just watching the village get built and blown down though ahha thanks for playing :D

cdunham 2018-12-10 11:09

Great compo game! The AI works surprisingly well, though the kids pathing to the pit of hell sometimes gets messed up. Its cool to watch the world change from all forests to massive villages with a thriving population to destruction when you can't sacrifice a kid in time and Satan gets pissed like a child when you take away their toy for 3 seconds. My only suggestion to making this better would be to add some more interactivity between the player and the NPCs on screen, maybe you can highlight kids with the mouse and click to specify which one you want to be sacrificed? Either way, good work!

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-12 01:40

@cdunham Thank you for playing it! I wanted it to feel more like an RTS with some unit selection but I got worried that it would be too ambitious and I played it right because I was time crunched!

blodyavenger 2018-12-12 12:28

All was well until the devil himself came to the village. well.jpg

I had some problems with kids getting stuck between the buildings which caused demons getting to me too early. But apart from that the game is a lot of fun with such a simple mechanics.

It was great watching the village grow, adults turning into solders who charged into demons with battlecries. Watching kids go was hard, pleading to stay alive, calling their parents!

But really, the mood and gameplay is on spot, well done!

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-19 02:57

@blodyavenger I wish I had set it up so there was a bit more room between buildings - that was the problem with those pesky kids. Thank you for playing!

mikethewayne 2018-12-20 02:13

Very cool game, I had a lot of fun with this one! It's so simple in terms of input, you merely have to press the spacebar, but it's all in the timing of the presses. The problem with many 'simple input' games is the balance, too often things either get too difficult too quickly, or they never become difficult, unless you're inept and can't press a button. You however, managed to get the balance just right, in my opinion. Sure, by the end of it, you're mashing the spacebar because the nearest kid might be a while away, but the balance comes with trying to train enough soldiers before the armies from hell pop out, and you got this balance just right!

The problem, as others have pointed out, was with the kids' AI, constantly getting stuck on buildings. This seemed to resolve itself eventually, as the armies of hell would do me a favour (or, I suppose, themselves a favour) by destroying the buildings that were in the way, so that I could continue sacrificing. In that sense, you managed to balance away the problem! The AI getting stuck is still an issue though, and should be resolved if you work on this further (which you absolutely should, it's great fun!!).

Overall, a fantastic game, I thoroughly enjoyed playing it through to the end! Watching my village grow, and then be almost completely destroyed by the end, it was a beautiful cycle! I was victorious, by the way, but only just; my last soldier managed to win the game for me :D .

folex70 2018-12-21 00:56

ld43.png

I loved your game! I really enjoyed seeing the village growing. would suggest the possibility of adding upgrades to the citizens if you are to continue with the development of the game. It's very good, please continue! I wanted to be able to interact more with the city, the churches could make priests who fought against the demons too or something. and also create some negative effect on society by sacrificing children, so we would have other enemies instead of demons.

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-25 02:24

@mikethewayne Thank you so much for all the feedback! I really had a lot of fun playing and making the game - but I think I played more than made lol! I have a solution for the AI now but I'll have to wait till the holidays are done to fix it all. Thanks for playing :D

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-25 02:25

@folex70 Thank you for the feedback! There are so many little details I'd love to add to make it seem more alive. Thank you for playing :D

stan-fan 2018-12-25 18:56

This game really created a mood of sacrifice - a trade-off mechanic which allowed you to make choices between sacrificing a child and putting the whole village at risk. Fantastic designs.

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-26 02:11

@stan-fan thanks for playing!

jacquouille 2018-12-26 16:48

This was very fun to watch ! However I didn't feel like "playing", as there wasn't much input or skills needed. The potential storytelling however is huge, and I was emotionally involved in the final fight against Satan where he was ravaging most of my village while the remaining survivors where hiding in a small corner of the map, desperately growing carrots and sending soldiers to defeat him one hp at a time. It was surprisingly epic and intense. I also had a great surprise when I saw one of my soldier level up (I event think I got a level 3 soldier if that's possible ?), that's not much (and I didn't really see the benefit), but this is definitely one of these little features that makes you fond of a game. The music on title screen was good and I wonder why you didn't let it run during gameplay ?

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-28 03:11

@jacquouille I'm glad you had so much fun! I had a lot of fun making it, and playing it while I made it lol. The soldier did level up to level 3! I think Level 2 did 3 damage, and level 3 did 5 damage to enemies. The title screen music I was worried that it would get repetitive and annoying, but also it would overpower some of the sound effects so I cut it from playing throughout. Thank you so much for playing!

hilvon 2018-12-29 16:38

An interesting take on the theme.

Not sure if sacrifices actual need to be made (tried a "playthrough" without sacrificing and easity got to the last wave, at which point died because Satan managed to burn both carot fields... Maybe if you are more lucky with building spawns you can pull off the "no sacrififce" victory...) but given that sending someone to death is the only interaction with the game you have, I guess they have to be made because everythin else is done without any player interaction.

There are some issues with pathfinding though. Sometimes peiope would get stuck into a building. And this might be annoying, but in one playthrough I had Satan spawn outside of the map which resulted in game running infinitely with the village being outside of Fireball range, and soldiers not being able to get to satan to kill it.

Also I just couldn't help to call this game "Giftd to Santa" in my head all the time. :smile:

patvanmackelberg 2018-12-29 21:51

@hilvon Thanks for playing! It's funny you found that outside map spawn - I had it happen to me one time and I think it's from too many buildings being close to the hole, but no one else seems to have had it happen until now :D There were definitely some pathing issues but in the new version I'm creating I've hopefully eliminated that :P