Friends OR Food

justcamh 2018-12-04 08:06

An interesting game! The combat is really juicy! All of the explosions, particles and text effects really paid off in improving the mood of the game. The art style was also very nice, with the cute characters, tiles and enemies. But there is also things that could be improved for it to reach maximal potential. The audio was generally good, but the sound effect for failing to pick up health was obnoxious. I also disliked the movement of the allies. The approach that most other games take is that allies follow in your footsteps, but here, they are always directly behind you. Consequently, I'll turn around and have my allies killed, which feels less like a feature and more like unfair controls. When going into new rooms there was also the chance to spawn in a swarm of bees, killing off large amounts of the party. There also could have been more variety in the enemies to freshen the game play. Finally, I didn't feel a very close connection with the theme of sacrifice. Whilst your party could definitely die, there was no value in 'sacrificing' them, especially since this caused you to lose. Furthermore, most of the party members had good abilities, and why would you want to sacrifice that? Overall, the game is fun for a few minutes, but many minor problems stack together to make it enjoyable only for a short time. More variety could fix this, but it is understandable that this is hard in a jam. Nice game, keep developing!

najmm 2018-12-04 08:15

@justcamh Thanks a lot for a detailed feedback. I will see if I can improve on the design based on your observations and update the game...

anfaas1618 2018-12-04 08:27

Loved your game

mzhovnach 2018-12-04 13:31

Nice game, cool graphics and animations. One think that i don't like is controls. It's good to control your player but sometimes it's annoying to control attached guys so they could collect all the stuff on the level. Anyway this is very pleasure to play. Survive and shoot! Keep working on this game, maybe add party mode to play with different controllers on the same screen?

kirroyal 2018-12-04 13:35

I like it. It feels like one of those old games i played on my very first PC. Good memories =). The controlls are a bit funky and I sometimes get the feeling that its not correctly responding to my clicks, even in full screen. That made it unfair in crowded situations.

najmm 2018-12-04 13:39

@mzhovnach Thanks for the review. Actually you are supposed to control a single character. The allies are supposed to follow you around and are expendable. Right now I am modifying their transforms directly to follow the "Hero", which results in some weird behavior at times(like the allies going outside the level). A better approach would be to use forces/physics...

najmm 2018-12-04 13:42

@kirroyal Thanks for mentioning this. I will take a look into it...

theihe 2018-12-04 15:02

Very nice graphics along with super solid effects! What I would have liked to see would be being able to hold down the mouse to shoot, aswell as some camera shake to spicy up the game a little bit more!

Overall a very nice project considering this is a Ludum Dare Entry!

Also a special thanks for checking out our project "Shortcut to Game-Dev Success!" We appreciate it!

Good luck on your future Game Dev endeavors!

najmm 2018-12-04 15:02

@theihe Thanks...Appreciate it...

drskort 2018-12-04 15:21

Cool game with nice graphics and really great sound effects. The controls were also very smooth. The only thing I didn't like very much was, how I got overwhelmed by enemies real fast.

jestilla 2018-12-04 15:24

Nice graphics

craftlord 2018-12-04 16:54

I'm not a big fan of games where one must use wasd to control the player. Because I suck at it :-) I tried your game nevertheless and really enjoyed it. Great athmosphere, visuals and sound.

I disn't get far, died alot, but that's me to blame, not the game!

Keep up this good stuff!

najmm 2018-12-04 17:07

@craftlord Thanks man...Glad you liked it...

lizouille 2018-12-04 17:53

The graphics are great! I also love the concept, even though I'm not good at games like this one. Shooting at ennemies is really enjoyable, you did a good job on the game feel.

najmm 2018-12-04 17:58

@lizouille Thanks for the kind words...

xcvzxc 2018-12-04 18:11

I dont know if you made this music but its great and fits perfectly for this kin of shooter gamplay. Generally very good entry :)

dk5000p 2018-12-04 18:26

I liked the idea of the characters moving like a snake but it didn't play very well. Also, would have been nice to be able to swap which character was in control. The guns also were weird for two characters. I agree that the sacrifice theme is not very clear. I see you opted out of graphics, did you not make them? Either way they look nice.

2018-12-04 22:07

Feels great to play ^^ good work!

najmm 2018-12-05 04:03

@dk5000p The idea is that you control a single character and the others are expendable. To ensure your own survival, you may need to sacrifice them. Also I got graphics/music from opengameart.org

najmm 2018-12-05 04:03

@dicul Thank you :)

franfox 2018-12-05 10:16

It was a bit confusing at the beginning to understand which role has every character but it's normal, it's hard to have a good introduction to mechanics in a Jam game. I like the snake mechanic (I also made a similar game few months ago) and extra point to putting a bazooka in each side, totally cool! Well done and congratulations for your first LD game ;)

najmm 2018-12-05 12:36

@franfox Thank you for the review. Btw I checked your game Twist of Souls. It is beautiful...

novella 2018-12-05 15:09

I liked the concept, the variarity of music and the control of weapons. I didn't like the formations(very ugly when part of the party go outside the room) and room transitions.

najmm 2018-12-05 15:27

@novella Thanks for the review...I will see what I can do to fix that...

adventureislands 2018-12-05 17:34

Really nice graphics! I like your take on the theme of having to escort bunch of characters in a row. If there is something I would improve, I would make shooting happen via holding down left click instead of constantly clicking, and when moving up or down, the camera has trouble keeping up, so it's difficult to see what's coming from outside the screen.

robowarrior1982 2018-12-05 17:52

Yeah PIM PAM WAOW ! Nice mood ! Love music, graphics style is good and fun, fun is the name of this game, but there is a map ? because i'm lost in all these rooms ! But it's easy and repetitive ! But fun game really !test.png

falak 2018-12-05 18:13

I don't quite understand what's going on but good luck!

najmm 2018-12-05 18:27

@robowarrior1982 @adventureislands Thanks for the review... @robowarrior1982 Actually the rooms are randomly generated, so there is no map...

nanda 2018-12-05 18:28

I really like the core gameplay, but what confused me was the levels, Being able to flee like that all the time keeps the tension pretty low. I feel like just having one big room with enemies, food and vials respawning would've made it a lot more focused.

sbeif 2018-12-05 18:32

I really liked your subtle take on the theme, I think it's very smart (although I wouldn't have caught it if not for the description). Nice game, I'm not a fan of survivals but it's definitely well made. Maybe since you aim with the mouse the fact that the camera moves w.r.t the player can mess up their aim (it happened to me a lot because I tried it on a laptop with a touchpad, not the best call). Anyway, this is great for your first LD, well done!

kasaki 2018-12-06 17:02

The game play really makes me relieving stress. Will you have a BOSS in the dungeon ? :laughing: Well done !

najmm 2018-12-06 17:06

@kasaki Nope no boss for now...Maybe once the rating period is over, I will continue working on it...

kamekai 2018-12-26 16:25

I want to echo @nanda's comment about only having one room, perhaps with multiple walls that pop up and down between waves.

Also, the HP bar is a little confusing. I thought I was accumulating something until suddenly I was dead. A dark background with a light overlay would be easier to grok.

Otherwise, pretty interesting game! I liked how you tried to get your partner to fire in the opposite direction. Perhaps the number keys could tell your partner to provide different forms of cover fire. (opposite direction, sweeping, sides, targeted, free-range, etc) which could be unlocked as rewards.

acaral 2018-12-26 18:09

Polished and very dynamic. Jammer you worked well :wink:

naali 2018-12-26 18:58

Nice job. It was fun to move and shoot around, and it was definitely easier with fewer characters to control (sacrifices must be made, braw-ha-ha). After a bit of playing I was hoping to see some variation: new enemies, weapons, or levels. Overall a solid foundation to expand on.

najmm 2018-12-27 15:46

@kamekai I am aiming for a dungeon crawler mechanic akin to Legend of Zelda...I realize I may have to work it a little more for it to feel good...Also, the HP bar is supposed to be the hunger meter...I didnt work a lot on UI but yeah thanks...I will try making it more user friendly...

@acaral Thanks man...I checked out your game Lastcrifices...I love the humor and artstyle...Good job...

@naali Thanks for your suggestions...You have given me some good ideas...

vija02 2018-12-27 16:45

As mentioned, the movement of friends could be better. I find myself wanting to just stop and shoot the enemy(could make it hold to shoot, my fingers are tired haha). Gameplay wise, you could try and make a connection between the enemy and the food. As it stands right now, the focus is on food. My plan would be to only shoot enemy as i see and try my longest to survive.

In terms of graphics and sound, i like it! Shooting feels rather fun(minus the fact you have to click every time). UI could be better. The health bar should be made more obvious. Perhaps a flashing red screen when you're low on HP? And maybe even a sound effect.

Overall nice submission :)

luker128 2018-12-27 17:01

I really enjoyed shooting the enemies, but the hunger mechanics made was just getting in the way of fun for me. Loved the music and graphics - both worked really well.

It's a small thing but: I hated that it forces full screen on you. Especially that on my setup game works perfectly in window but stutters in full screen at time.

dock-frankenstein 2018-12-27 18:27

Fun game. Keep it mind that this comment comes from a guy that doesn't like playing games.

najmm 2018-12-28 13:45

@franciszek-pyrc I am a little skeptic of your comment coz you are browsing Ludum Dare's website 😉...But thanks anyway...

@vija02 Thanks I will try on improving the ally movement and UI. Also a lot of people want continuous shooting, so maybe look into it as well...I will also work on making the enemy kills count(no pun intended) for the player...

@luker128 Thanks for pointing the fullscreen thing...I didn't know it caused issues. I will remove it as a default option...Also, the hunger mechanic was for the Jam...I will work a little more on the design...Thanks again...

tgiant 2018-12-31 05:59

Hi @najmm , this was a cool game. I really enjoyed the game play, the graphics was very good, the sound did fit very well with the game and the hints and tips really help me as player to understand the game better. The only thing I struggled with a bit was controlling the player. Also the enemy movement was very predictable. Other than that very good job.

najmm 2018-12-31 13:28

@tgiant Thanks for your comment...Glad you enjoyed it...I will work on the player control and also the enemy movement post Jam, if I take this up as a full project...