FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → Against The Ninja

Against The Ninja

By tori, berumondo and Monogatari

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall7203.2736
Fun4313.4236
Innovation6543.0035
Theme8223.0036
Graphics6603.3635
Audio2833.5335
Humor7502.4632

Comments

ahmed-ali 2019-05-01 08:01

Good Controls But work on graphics

banzi 2019-05-01 08:10

I like it. I didn't realize that enemies were taking my stamina, so I was wondering why they are one-shotting me ... then I found out that I can't spam the attack, but I need to plan it to have enough stamina to survive the enemies. Also the audio seems to fit the game. Well done!

tk07 2019-05-01 08:30

Cool concept, graphics, fast paced and love the soundtrack. The attack direction lock is hard to learn. Sometimes you can get unlucky with multiple big pink guys spawning near each other Also you can dash outside of the screen :)

argon 2019-05-01 10:25

Came for the DOOM artwork, stayed for the pixel ninja (I like his animation).

I like it, it's fun to play, but I found myself not using the dodge because it was too risky : whenever I used it I get one-shoted direct after. Maybe you could try making the dodge decrease the damage meter, it's a softer price. Also in one run there was just one type of ennemi spawning (the ghost nest thing) but maybe I wasn't lucky... Anyway, well done !

neon-glass 2019-05-01 10:29

Liked the idea, the pace and dynamic soundtrack!

I'll honestly say that on my second attempt (aka after getting ok with controls) I somehow managed to destroy skull piles fast enough to disable other spawns altogether, thus gaining not-so-high score but surviving for over 2 minutes! ...Of course, afterwards Ninja got tired of knocking skulls around and was overwhelmed quickly. Tough luck, tough luck.

jofersgames 2019-05-01 10:43

I liked it :)

berumondo 2019-05-01 11:05

Thanks for the feedback folks :heart: this is the 1st game jam we made together as a team and we had on ton of fun making it.

But yeah the spawn rng is the thing that's the least well balanced, the only thing i really specified is that skulls have more chance to spawn if there's not a lot of them already.

bentekiller 2019-05-01 11:30

Good simple fighting game, I like the challenge, but felt the button placement to be weird and also there ain't a visible score while in play mode so hard to now your progress.

theustweak 2019-05-01 11:31

it was fun. although dash and direction lock mechanic was hardly used while doing my play-through. i believe the game is self sufficient and fun with only movement keys and one attack button.

davidus 2019-05-01 13:04

Cool game!

zandecki-alexandre 2019-05-01 14:19

The game itself is fun when you understand how it really works ! Took me a few minutes to get it but I quite liked it !

sleepqt 2019-05-01 14:54

Really like the difficulty, music is awesome, but takes some time to adapt to game tempo. Good job!

good-enough 2019-05-01 15:32

Hard... I'm never good with this type of game, but I played it several times, dying before I ever got past x2 damage..

I can tell though, that if I was more skilled, I would really enjoy it. There is an element of strategy with timing the attacks, and which enemies to target that kept me trying to do better. Great visuals and music too!

berumondo 2019-05-01 18:04

@theustweak i kinda agree, the thing is when we started we wanted to give it more of an action rpg gameplay (something like Bastion for example), but that would have required mouse + keyboard controls, and i knew right away that i would not have time to implement that properly (like, i wouldn't want players to die because they clicked outside the window and lost the focus, and there's no way to prevent this with gamemaker studio without having to build your own cursor system). I still though that i could make it word with keyboard only controls, but it was only like 40 hours in that i realized i could not, so i went back to a simpler gameplay that requires only a couple buttons. So i only kept the dash and direction lock because they worked, but they weren't necessarily relevant anymore. And i still think this game would work with a more complex gameplay if it had mouse and keyboard controls, it would make it way easier to go circles around mobs to dodge and attack at the same time, and you'd still be able to use spells / special skills in addition.

And here's a few tips for anyone having trouble with the difficulty : you need to keep 3 or 4 skull nests alive to build your damage multiplier up to x4 (which is the max), and you're gonna want them to spawn in the same corner of the arena so you won't get surrounded by them (you'll just have to pray for good rng for this). Until you have a high combo though, you're gonna want to dance around ennemies to avoid their attacks and adopt sort of a hit and run strategy (you can still spam your attacks on the mages, they really don't have a lot of health). Once you've built your combo to the max you can pretty much destroy anything, even the big guys only die in 4 hits, you just have to make sure there's not too much skull piles, otherwise you'll end up spending too much stamina to kill the flying skulls and you won't have enough left to kill the other monsters.

fahim-faysal 2019-05-02 04:46

Really loved the dynamic soundtrack that builds up when you slice through a bunch of enemies quickly. The animations are snappy and pretty good considering it was done in 6 hours. I think that the dash is the main problem. It should be like a 'get out of jail' card, instead of putting you in a bad spot.The combo multiplier is a good idea. It makes you want to play more aggressively. I think what the game needs is more attack options and balancing. This game has potential to be fun if you polish it later on.

Good entry!

rgarbati 2019-05-02 19:14

Love the visuals and music, but as you tell in the description of the game, some balancing could have made it better. Anyway, gg to you !

lazertrax 2019-05-02 20:48

Very interesting game, I really enjoyed playing this one. The animations and the movement is very satisfying and the visual style is one of my favorites. My only complaint was that I wasn't able to move with WASD . I'm not really used to using arrows for movement but that didn't stop me from enjoying the game. Well done!

a-coltzz 2019-05-04 16:56

I really like the way the game plays, however not knowing how much HP I have or not knowing what to do is a bit confusing. so I'll say 4/5 keep up the good work. If you have time check out my game too :v:

vinay-rao 2019-05-04 17:34

The controls feel tight and responsive. The character movement speed is just right. The action is just the right amount of stressful when there are many enemies on the screen.

The sprite work is fine. Given the level of zoom, I think the sprites work well for this game. I think if anything this game just needs some hit feedback. Maybe a little particle splatter or something for when enemies are defeated.

The music is on another level. The escalation of the soundtrack tied to the damage multiplier was an excellent touch. Very cool.

The game's pace is pretty good, though I did notice that if you manage to clear the entire field of enemies, that the first enemy that appears is one of those swarm pod things that spawn the 3 homing projectiles. If you get the game into this state, it's not too hard to endlessly kill that one enemy type without much hassle. However, if you intentionally let the last enemy live, the pace of the game is much better. As the damage multiplier increases, it becomes easier to fall into that easier game state.

This game is begging for expansion. A few hypnotic background elements, stage transitions, new enemy types, maybe a boss or two, etc, etc. Oh yeah, I could see that being a thing.

Great job folks!

skylark721 2019-05-04 18:33

Very addicting gameplay and the music just makes it so much better, haha!

berumondo 2019-05-06 08:32

@vinay-rao well glad to see such a positive reaction, that means a lot to us :)

We are gonna keep working on the game (at least to keep building up experience working together), but since we're just a small amateur team i think it's better if we keep it small scale and stick to a score attack game. In any case if we manage to make it something that looks like a finished product and we're satisfied with it, we'll upload it to itch.io as well.

elysiagriffin 2019-05-08 22:56

Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421765787?t=02h37m02s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

bbaf 2019-05-09 22:03

Nice game which has some style. For me the controls feels a bit struggling but it's not bad. SFX and music are great !