Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD44 → Blood Pressure
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 43 | 3.90 | 37 | |
| Fun | 55 | 3.74 | 37 | |
| Innovation | 68 | 3.68 | 37 | |
| Theme | 59 | 3.82 | 37 | |
| Graphics | 48 | 4.09 | 37 | |
| Audio | 125 | 3.38 | 33 | |
| Humor | 107 | 3.30 | 32 | |
| Mood | 112 | 3.52 | 37 |
Very nice take on theme, the art style is so clean yet effective.
I had fun, and this is really important. Awesome work for a compo, dude!
Please, work in a post-jam version with polish and improvements, this can really rock!
The only file in the windows download is a .jar file, but I don't know how to open that. Can you export it to a stand-alone executable?
That's a lot of blood! You pulled the effect off really well. Looks great. Keep going!!
@deglis Just double click on the jar file. You do need java installed on your computer to run it.
This is a wonderful small game which got my adrenaline pumping really fast! The balancing act of shooting, avoiding enemies, recharging and picking up coins is nothing for the fainthearted.
Very good use of the theme. And I really love those blood effects and how it leaves behind a trail on the walls! Nice one!
Nice concept and I really like the color splashes. The only problem I see are the controlls that feel a bit rough. Nice work!
I tried playing on itch (the app) but it just opens a terminal window and immediately closes itself down. I see no error logs or similar either.
Brilliant and morbidly hilarious idea of attack. I had difficulty getting the coins though, as the jump isn't high enough to reach or even jump on top of the demons most of the time. The blood splattering on the walls of colours blending together for the duration of the game is a clever touch.
Although for some reason there was no audio, I'm not sure if there was meant to be but I couldn't hear anything.
A big thumb up ! Perfect retro game, difficulty just as it should be and perfect graphics.
Beautiful aesthetics :smiley: Spreading blood while also coloring walls around you with the blood of you foes :smile:
Nice concept, mechanics have good feels to them. Wonder what else could be done with it. :slight_smile:
@gamepopper There should be audio. Not sure why it isn't playing for you. What type of computer are you running it on?
@superpokeunicorn I was running on a Windows 7 machine. The sound works on my Windows 10 machine, plus I just found out about the double jump so I've updated my ratings.
@local-minimum It works in the app for me. Do you have java installed on your computer?
@gamepopper Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for playing the game, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Haha I love this. Very nicely made. I like the downwell-y vibes to it and the blood idea was really funny. Really cool with the texture change too.
I do feel that the game slightly missed the theme. It's more "Life **and** Currency" than "Life **is** Currency". Since the blood is basically ammo and the coins are the win condition.
And as a sidenote, I think it would have been absolutely hilarious if the little dudes also got splattered by the blood like the floor does. But I figure that might be hard to make. You're swapping the sprites, right? It's not a shader I guess?
I could see this as a small indie release. The package is pretty solid as it is. With some polish and stuff, it could really be something.
I like this, fun and simple art style that doesn't take itself too seriously. Like Koni said I do feel like the theme could've been interpreted better but I think the gameplay makes up for that. The particles and colors mixing with eachother look really really nice
@koni @kp-cftsz Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you liked the game!
To clarify the use of theme, I wasn't really thinking about the coins as the currency. The idea is that life is currency in that you have to spend HP to shoot, although I see what you mean that it's more ammo than currency.
To answer your question about how the color spreading works, each pixel of the background/level is its own object which stores its color as an RGB value. Notice how the blood is red and the enemies are green and blue, meaning changing the color is as simple as modifying the appropriate RGB value (that's also why the colors mix). Also, when a pixel is hit by the same color multiple times, it uses a simple recursive path finding algorithm to color in nearby pixels, thereby spreading the splotch of color. There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the gist of it.
Coloring in animated sprites like the player would be a bit tough, since their pixels are always changing. I think keeping the player as white helps them stand out from the background, but it might have been cool to have enemies get colored in as a form of damage indication.
In any event, thanks again for the feedback. Your input is appreciated.
This is a cute game with a good idea. I noticed sometimes I couldn't turn right after shooting, which led me to shoot in the wrong direction a good amount. The visuals were fantastic and I loved the blood.
@valid I'm glad you like the game. I made it so you couldn't turn around while in mid air, but maybe that was a bit confusing. Thanks for the feedback!
Nice polish on this! I agree with the point that being able to turn around in mid-air would have been nice. After getting used to the controls though, it wasn't so bad. That recharging animation was perfect, it felt REALLY good to use.
One of my favorite so far! its super juicy, I wish there were more levels but thats the nature of jams
Nice game. But it's difficult for me. Too many blue monsters.
Nice concept and art style!
I had a good time with this one. It has a few strategies to learn, a few exploitable elements(the last level with the platforms in the middle is quite easy if you just get on the top platforms and shoot down all the greens), and uses the theme in a clever way. One thing that is missing is dynamic range in the pacing: the monsters just spawn, and there isn't really more urgency at the end of the level than at the beginning. If you can figure out ways to safely gain health, the level is as good as cleared.
@triplefox I'm glad you enjoyed the game! You're definitely right about the pacing. I did try to increase the spawn rate as the level went on, but I didn't have a lot of time to balance it, so it's not that noticeable. I think you're right that more dynamic changes or even waves of enemies could have helped. Having to go after the coin does sort of change things up a little bit, but that's about it.
Also, about the last level, I tried making it so that the blue guys could jump onto the platforms and even jump from one platform to the other, but that wound up making the level way too hard and disinsentivised using the platforms at all. I wound up making it so that the green guys cold come from above and bellow (they only come from above on the other levels) but you're right that it's still pretty easy to camp it out. Maybe making the coin spawn on the bottom for that level would give players more incentive to come out from their safe spot. Anyway, thanks for the feedback! It's really appreciated.
Absolutely loved the artwork. The color splatting was really neat to look at.
I love the Downwell style and how minimal but functional this is! The blood regaining reminds me a lot of the "focus" effect in Hollow Knight and makes you think about when you can squeeze in a pause in order to get some health back - tactical! I do find it becoming too difficult too quickly, however, because of the knock back those blue dudes can easily chain hits and rack up some sick damage. Perhaps some i-frames would have solved that
The controls locked up a lot on macOS - sometimes I couldn't move or jump but could revive, and sometimes I could not jump, etc. The game mechanics are unique, and the level of polish is top notch - it seems everything is very well executed. It's just a shame it wouldn't run too well here. :slight_frown:
@oivin-f Thanks for the feedback! Hollow Knight's focus and Dark Soul's estus flask were definitely both big inspirations for the recovery mechanic. I think you're right about how easy it is to get juggled. There are iframes, but perhaps I should have added more.
@gwinnell I'm sorry to hear that the game didn't run well on your computer, though I'm glad you liked it. I don't have a mac or linux computer, so it's difficult for me to test platform compatibility. I've uploaded a full play-through video in case you want to see how the rest of the game looks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6Vnr4QPY0
@superpokeunicorn Ahh nice! I've adjusted my rating slightly. :slight_smile:
Love the graphics. Reminds me of a a very stylish DOS game.
I enjoyed the minimalist visuals, and the core gameplay whilst simple was quite fun, though personally I felt like the second level was a lot harder than the levels that came after it - it made for a bit of an odd sense of progression.
@rufia Thanks for playing! You’re definitely right that the level order could have used some work. I should have spent more time on balancing. The feedback is appreciated!
Very cool! The theme was uncovered very nicely, and the game is very fun to play!
Good idea work well with the theme maybe the game just lack a bit of balance but it's really fun anyway !
This is a tight little action game here! Some old-school brutal arcade fun.
The blood thing works great. It's on point for the theme, looks fabulous in the graphics, and does work as a design tradeoff where attacks and movement are a tradeoff against health, and you can buy it back if you can free up the space to hunker down for a bit.
The difficulty level was over my head. I watched your playthrough and you make it lose easy, but I got my ASS kicked.
I remember your game Mouse and Blade, which was similarly difficult. But that one I could take in little chunks, and advance to see what was next. In this one, you mercifully didn't send me all the way back to the start, but I felt a bit less like I was progressing to new things and so I didn't smash my face against the wall over and over for as long as I did with your earlier game.
What seriously wrecked me were the blue dudes. I just never found an effective counter... although I watched your playthrough after and you're clearly not getting hit by them much at all!
I think the biggest difference is you never miss a coin. I'd be in control, and recharging between each guy, and then I would lose control in one of two ways: either the coin would come and I'd wiff a jump at it and then spend to much time getting to it, letting dudes pile up which leaves me behind on my recharge time, or else I'd get like 3-4 blue guys in a row and lose it. The green guys were slow enough that there was more slack in the system for me.
I never got past the second level (not counting the tuturoial/title, which was very nicely done btw).
So high marks here, the concept and execution are on-point, the controls tight, the graphics and sound really strong. I just wasn't up to the skill level and despaired.