2019-10-07 20:59
Congrats, funny, but lightning, not too perfect.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD45 → Shadowy Monster Land
By space-wumpus
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 887 | 3.08 | 31 | |
| Fun | 928 | 2.79 | 31 | |
| Innovation | 583 | 3.13 | 31 | |
| Theme | 708 | 3.13 | 31 | |
| Audio | 354 | 3.38 | 27 | |
| Humor | 493 | 2.86 | 28 | |
| Mood | 408 | 3.51 | 29 |
Congrats, funny, but lightning, not too perfect.
Yes, the blocks shouldn't shadow each other, but I ran out of time to fix it.
The monster sounds are top notch.
i give up, im not getting past level 2, i can see that it is possible! but i have been trying for to long now haha! those monsters are to fast for me. wish i had kept my torch from the first level, i lost the feeling of progression.
I like the idea though, but yeah the graphics could use alot of love and the sound track got repeatative after a while, mechanics are solid ill give you that!
@douglass Thanks. That was just me making 'monstery noises'. :-) No post-processing. Each monster emits a random noise (from about ten) when it is first activated, and each time it becomes illuminated. This did work quite well, and I was pretty pleased with how it sounded.
@kekkodude. Yeah, keeping stuff between levels would make sense. Soundtracks are really short - I just did a live recording of some hastily improvised stuff (DeepMind12 synth), and they are only about 30 seconds each.
The game very nearly had no sound at all, until I unexpectedly had a few more hours available on Monday!
Hey! That was a lot of different stuff to remember from the help section :D The gameplay was kinda weird but kinda cool at the same time, my laptop for some reason doesn't run this game perfectly so the fast monsters just rekt me xD SFX are great, the music is pretty much just a short loop which kind of irritates me.. :D Nothing too bad though. Graphics and lightning could've used a bit more tweaking, but the base core of the game is quite solid. Good job for your first Ludum Dare my guy!
I liked the lighting effect and the whole idea! :) Thanks for so many options, Dark Mode is great, but I cheated with invulnerability :D Great game ;)
@raffe Yes, the help section had rather too much in it. I spent too long adding lots of mechanics, which needed explaining, and then I ran out of time to made proper levels to actually use them. The music loops are very short, because I had almost no time left to make it and get it in the game!
@pablotitan. Thank you, glad you liked it! I am quite tempted to continue working on it. But not just yet - I need a rest. :-)
The lighting was really interesting to play with, also really enjoyed the way you have to respond to the enemies. The music and mood really worked well. My only real gripes were with the help screen, which was fairly overwhelming and resulted with me deciding that no, I did not actually need any help, following with my subsequent confusion and death. Really, just some sort of tutorial/slow build up of needed information as you play would solve that, but the game is fun without that!
@doey Glad you liked it! I worked hard on the lighting - annoyed that I couldn't get the lighting on the walls working properly (the tiles shadow each other, which they shouldn't).
Yes, in retrospect, the help page had far too much on it. Would have been much better to have quick popups whenever you encountered anything new - I have these for the torch and batteries, but nothing else.
For my first game jam, I'm pretty pleased with it. Wish I'd given myself a lot more time for designing levels though - spent too much time adding mechanics which were then barely used due to the lack of levels!
I might well continue working on this after the jam - once I've had a rest!
Well, of course it’s cool, but there were a lot of places where you could work more on the code. But in general, anyway, good luck with your beginnings!
@paulsams Thanks. I am quite tempted to work more on this. But not right now. :-)
Would have been nice if the dude moved a little bit faster. Got stuck on level 2 for a while, the ramp up in difficulty was a heavy there.
Pretty cool but the 2nd level in my opinion was too hard. I did like the audio :musical_keyboard: though. Definitely home made audio too :smile: ! I also really liked how you could change the focus of the beam. The beam although was very difficult to control as, it pointed the direction you were moving. Good entry though!
@cg-fred Yes, I agree. In retrospect, the player does move much too slowly. The levels got thrown together in very little time, so yeah, they aren't in any way balanced.
@coatline Totally home-made audio! I did at first have separate controls for beam direction, but at the time felt that was too more complexity in the controls. I think this was actually a mistake, and having direct control of the beam direction would have made for a better game.
I may well continue working on this, and will speed up the player, and will add back in direct beam direction control. Thanks for the feedback!
Having the button for "toggle flashlight" right next to the button for "restart level" resulted in a lot of frustrating restarts in the middle of frantic gameplay.
Good job with the audio, particularly the random unit noises.
Oops - I'd forgotten that I'd even put in a restart level button. I agree - it's very unfortunately placed. Sorry about that. Glad you liked the audio - making monster noises was fun!
Increase the walking speed. some levels seem to be impossible with cheating even with the flashlight.
Monster sounds: 11/10! Pretty solid entry, especially for the compo! I barely get things done for the jam and that's like another whole day! :)
@terryg Yes, in retrospect, walking speed is too slow.
@rubixnoob13 Thanks - the monster sounds seem popular! BTW, this was a Jam entry not Compo - though I realise that there's a message in the game help saying written in 48 hours... This is sort-of the case, and was what I intended when I put the message in as I didn't expect to have any time to do anything other than package and submit on Monday due to work being busy - but I unexpectedly managed to get half a day. Good job too as without that it would have had no sound, and even fewer levels! Anyway, total WORK time was less than 48 hours, and this was submitted to Jam not Compo. (It had to be anyway as I used third-party sprite graphics, which is why I've opted out of graphics rating). I spent a total of 39 waking hours actively working on it, though elapsed time was 3 days.
The learning curve is too steep, otherwise it is quite cool
game was as good as it was promising :dvd: - to mee the 1st level was quite hard compared to the others. The help overlay was a good idea and helped a lot
@p-r and @oilen Sorry about the difficulty balance - this was my first jam and I spent too long coding mechanics and left myself with nowhere near enough time for level creation or any balancing. A lesson for the future!
I do plan to update/improve the game, so if you are at all interested then please follow it on itch.io to get notified of new versions.
the first one seemed easy, as i got to the second i felt i was doing things wrong but it kinda was difficult mah man
@karanveer Yes, sorry - I had very little time for making levels so they aren't at all well thought out...
Hey, I think the help screen is TL;DR for the first time. Better make an ingame tutorial that guides you through the game as you explore the dungeons. The raycasting ist super nice. But looks a bit incorrect at wall tiles.
@guckstift Agreed on all counts! The lighting on the wall tiles was the thing that annoyed me the most, but a fix would have taken far longer than I could have afforded!
@space-wumpus Anyway a fine and interesting, pretty advanced work for your first jam! :thumbsup:
Bugged
Interesting game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 45 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/98_o2aOM-SQ