FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD44 → HeartString

HeartString

By pcoridan and conroy

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall5183.4853
Fun5933.2353
Innovation8972.7452
Theme6083.2852
Graphics1934.1254
Humor8492.2340
Mood1493.8353

Comments

jlelez 2019-04-30 02:23

Hello !

- The graphics and sounds are so cool :)

- I played with my mouse but i think the target is for gamecontroller right ?

Good job !

team-kelly 2019-04-30 04:12

Great stuff! Feels really good to play and looks great. Especially liked the use of lighting, made the game feel much more alive.

oktarian 2019-04-30 13:40

The game looks amazing! Using the bow is a bit hard but still a fun game with a great ambiance. I like it a lot!

two70 2019-04-30 13:41

The controls were a bit clunky. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and sound you have going on

raffe 2019-04-30 13:42

Woah! That was cool! The graphics and music are so freaking moody! All of the sprites look really cool and the players shooting works really well! Also the menu screen was sick when the character even turned to watch you..!

If I needed to say 1 complaint, I think it would be the movement since it just felt kinda weird and sluggy, but maybe I would just need to get used to it. Didn't manage to beat the game but it was cool to play. Congrats on making such a cool game guys!

nandon 2019-04-30 13:57

Great art and choice of music. Gameplay and feel could use more work.

cleowillo 2019-04-30 13:59

This was a really great game that presented a calm atmosphere for what I'd call a tense objective, soo smooth, love the music btw. (I should've worked with someone on mine)

lorwon 2019-04-30 14:30

First of all i want to say that the graphics are really cool, the audio is nice and the theme is well respected. For the negative part I just want to say that the game is quite easy, and at the begining the way the character walk is a little akward. But you have done a really good job :).

becher 2019-04-30 14:39

aside from the feeling i walk on ice, or i'm drunk... i really like this game, graphics and concept are cool. At the end i don't have enougth life to shot so i ran away with a hord beside me X)

wolderado 2019-04-30 15:03

Graphics are awesome. Controls are a bit wonky though. I played with mouse and it looks like you didn't locked the mouse position. Crosshair position changes a lot according to where mouse position is. I had a hard time aiming espicially those small enemies (chickens?). Other than I had fun.

lola 2019-04-30 16:59

Le jeu est très joli j'ai passé un chouette moment ! (at first I thought you were playing a cucumber lmao)

conroy 2019-04-30 17:00

@lola hahah When I first made him, it very much looked like a pickle....but alas now he is a cucumber

lola 2019-04-30 17:09

Love it !

jkazuk 2019-04-30 20:40

Such a chill atmosphere. Love it! Mouse controls leave something to be desired but I imagine that would be better with a controller. Had a lot of fun with this one.

sempiternal 2019-05-01 02:58

Great graphics and music, really make the atmosphere work for me. Controls aren't great but you can just perceive them as an extra challenge ;p Awesome job overall!

supergamersgames 2019-05-01 03:14

Looks interesting, I'll play it when I can.

Also, love the name.

kritz 2019-05-01 03:24

Visuals are really well done, my goodness! Very atmospheric, everything looks and feels consistent. Good work guys, very nice game. However, I feel like the gameplay elements needs some work. The gameplay reminds me a lot of the icy level in Spyro 3, where you gotta skate on the ice and push ice cubes into the enemy's goal. But this can be easily fixed by just manipulating the positions instead of force and velocity.

Overall though, I love the arts, the visuals, the music and yes I'm GOD DAMN jealous but holy moly that's... that's just... *Mwah* fabulous! Tell the artist "Keep up the good work" for me. See you guys in the next Jam! :)

carraka 2019-05-01 03:57

At first I tried to run around all of the enemies, and they all clustered together, causing the framerate to drag, so I couldn't even kill them. After that I just killed enemies one by one and made a break for the stairwell when I saw it, like a normal unskilled person. The graphics really comes together! The music was beautiful, but it didn't really fit the frenzy or violence of the gameplay. It sounded like I was supposed to be comtemplating something, but really I was just shooting stuff and running away.

tattomoosa 2019-05-01 04:25

Visuals are very nice. I seemed to have some issues with hitting enemies, the arrow would fly through one periodically. Wish it had more sound effects, but I liked what was there. I thought the music was pretty good.

Was there a way to read the books? There were so many designs and they seemed almost highlighted in the levels but no matter what I pressed I couldn't read one.

magnanix 2019-05-01 09:54

Nice small game, love the art style, and the music piece that was on loop :). Had issues with mouse aiming, through that is on me. Only other thing was that sometimes the collisions on the skeletons felt like they weren't triggering, and there was no immediate feedback to show that I'd hit them (so I shot many arrows, when one would have done :P).

pcoridan 2019-05-01 13:57

Thank you all for the awesome comments!! If anyone checks back we did add a WebGL build with the controls fixed up as they were pretty buggy.

linnet5 2019-05-01 15:37

From the short time I had to try the game, I have some issues with the player being incredibly fast and the complete lack of visual or audio feedback when taking damage from enemies. I also feel as there is no goal to the game as I will die no matter my playstyle. The graphics are really clean however and the music is superb.

greg-lord 2019-05-01 16:04

Really beautiful pixel art -- between that and the lighting and the animations, the mood was perfect. The music was atmospheric and haunting, and set the tone the rest of the way. Loved the environment all around.

The couple of thoughts I had would be to smooth out the acceleration of movement a little, so that it's less floaty, and to add some kind of visual or auditory confirmation when you've killed each of the enemies. The squeak of the rats was easier to tell than the skeletons, who seemed to pause a few frames in a standing pose before dying, which usually burnt an extra arrow or two trying to kill them. Small things, hopefully, and otherwise it's great!

Would love to see more -- well done, and good job!

gaming-night 2019-05-01 16:05

Really beautiful, really liked the introduction with the good music choice. Well done !!

nerzal 2019-05-01 16:05

Hey, does the game really end after level 2? Felt strange to end that sudden :D Nice graphics and music :)

b33thr33 2019-05-01 16:29

Nice graphics, music and atmosphere, theme was well implemented, but gameplay felt a bit unprecise for this kind of game and I missed some hit feedback. Overall interesting experience though.

langotriel 2019-05-01 17:05

Someone needs to give the artist a kiss from me cause the visuals are beautiful and the choice of music goes well with it to create a good mood!

tommyflower 2019-05-01 17:14

Great mood and choice of music. I feel that there should be a way to rate choices of stock assets as well! :) I enjoyed the game, the light effect adds atmosphere and the sprites are super! Had a little trouble with the mouse but got the hang of it. Only thing: I would have loved some more visual cue to identify interactive objects. Overall a great job!

enjoy-the-tale 2019-05-02 04:12

Amazing atmosphere, incredible pixel art, music and sound made the game as imersive as possible! Great job! Just one thing, and that's my opnion, I think that an animation when the arrow hits the enemy would be more interactive to the player feel that he is inflicting damage.

levidsmith 2019-05-02 04:23

Nice survival game. I managed to complete both levels. Once I figured out where the exit was located, I would make a mad dash through the level and have a long conga line of skeletons and rats following me. I liked the graphics and animations (eight directions for the player is a lot). I wish there were some health pickups throughout the level, and I kept wanting to interact with the books on the table.

aditya-kumar 2019-05-04 19:46

I loved the use of lighting, and merging time money and health all into 1 was a really good actualization of this theme. I agree with previous comments that were wishing for items, I think with some more interesting mechanics that work with the whole "life is ammo and timer and currency" idea , this game could be really interesting.

vjmunhoz 2019-05-04 19:49

the game is cool, I was at 50 life when I realised that I would not recover it till the end of the room haha

webox 2019-05-04 19:56

Oh man the music was so well fitted with the game's mood. The life draining bar was spectacular and the art is great. Maybe enemies were a a bit too fast to move and a bit too slow to attack you. I ran out of health pretty quick at first since I started shooting like an idiot haha. I didn't read the manual..

minibobbo 2019-05-04 22:40

Great ambiance! The controls were a little loose and I think that the camera makes things a little difficult. I found a pretty simple way to let the player have a little extra space when shooting. All you need to do is position the camera half way between the player and the mouse cursor. It is dead simple to do and I think leads to a nice feel. It looks like this.

wingman_shooting.gif

pcoridan 2019-05-04 22:48

@minibobbo Ohhh I like that, our first iteration of the controls was more for a controller which we didn't really realize, so we just dumped it and went free mouse. We should try adding that and see how it looks.

minibobbo 2019-05-04 22:52

It's super easy to do and gives the player the ability to look ahead at the cost of the vision around themselves. I think it is a good tradeoff.

ivan-garcia-filho 2019-05-05 18:34

Lovely, touching and chilling folk music also an awesome artwork.

You could enhance the experience polyshing the sounds, like adding footsteps, equipment bag shaking and leather shrugling as long ad the protagonist walks.

Improve the ambience by adding some torchs fire crackling, reverberance do add space and depth to the dungeon, echoing noises like, rats, bats and dripping water.

Increase the strength of the shooting by adding a string stretching sfx, wood creaking to the bow, a vibrating arrow upon impact and some grunts from the protagonist before firing the arrow.

Add more weight to the skeletons through some sfx like bones shaking and falling/rolling upon death.

elysiagriffin 2019-05-08 22:30

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=01h07m55s

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

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

pcoridan 2019-05-09 00:06

@elysiagriffin Thank you again for taking the time to play, and the feedback!! Great to meet some more Orlando people!!

elysiagriffin 2019-05-09 03:32

@pcoridan For sure! Hope to see you guys at the next meetup :D

conroy 2019-05-09 14:18

@elysiagriffin Thank you again! Maybe catch you at that meetup you mentioned!

aurel 2019-05-13 17:14

Really fun! I made it through both levels after dying on my first playthrough. It would have been nice for there to be more enemies, but as I also made a game with enemies, we know the pain of working within the time limits ;)

The art is excellent, my only gripe is that the way you guys placed lights made me think you were luring me toward the books or the tables and since nothing was interactive, I was a bit disappointed. I kept expected there to be some form of healing or other mechanic other than "walk through the maze and don't die", but it was a bit sad that that's all there was, because the game was otherwise really beautiful.

I would also have really liked to have some better audio cues for 1) when the player is taking damage 2) when enemies see you, etc.

It also would be nice, if you had used a randomizer for the skeleton sounds so that when they die they play a random sound, rather than always playing the same grunt, lol.

All in all, I did really enjoy the game, and it's obvious it was made with a lot of love, but I wished there had been something more to it than "get to the goal and don't die along the way". In fact, as I was writing this I went back in and did a 3rd playthrough and just ran to the ending:

- Level 1: 15 seconds - Level 2: 33 seconds

So if I just run and shoot forward and more or less ignore the enemies chasing me I can make it out in very little time. One way to deal with this is with ambush rooms - where the gates lock until you defeat all enemies in a given space, forcing the player to deal with the threats.

Anyway, that said, it was really fun and I enjoyed the game a lot.

gamepopper 2019-05-13 18:47

That was fun, a pretty good twin-stick with a medieval element to it. I especially like the lighting and and music.

ruddiculous 2019-05-13 19:11

Movement was pretty frustrating, it felt a bit frantic accelerating instead of having an absolute speed to navigate a dark and enemy cluttered hallway. The enemies completely halt you if you aren't able to navigate around them and while they eat at your life you lose more life trying to kill them which isn't the most satisfying experience. The artwork all came out great and mood was excellent, just would have loved less of a skill curve right away to take in some of this beautiful looking game and then earn difficulty steps as I pass through stages. Well put together and finished look and feel, just a little too difficult for me!

coleslaughter 2019-05-18 06:57

Neat idea. :) I did find the controls to be kind of really slippery, which was especially frustrating in the tight corridors and when the mice were blocking my forward momentum.

The art is super lovely though! I love all of the animations, and the lighting throughout the scene. You did a great job setting a mood for the game, and I can tell a lot of effort went into it. :)