FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → Medically Inaccurate

Medically Inaccurate

By emperor-eagle and nyoomNyoom

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall10693.55103
Fun3703.77102
Innovation14273.18103
Theme5293.99103
Graphics15093.40104
Humor12192.8396
Mood13873.3099

Comments

xenith 2020-04-20 23:21

the HTML link doesn't work :(

lawnchair-society 2020-04-20 23:29

Looks like the itch.io page is down.

shigor 2020-04-20 23:37

yep, itch pages are not visible

teamnova 2020-04-20 23:43

The game isn't playable :/

emperor-eagle 2020-04-21 00:16

@teamnova @shigor @lawnchair-society @xenith

So sorry everyone! I haven't used itch.io before but I have made the page public now! I hope you play it!

semmler 2020-04-21 00:34

Fun Game! Would ve been pretty cool though if the wappons are leukocytes or something like that :D

bobothegreat 2020-04-21 03:15

It's kind of like a boxhead style game. Sometime the AI would bug out, but it was pretty fun trying to balance your health and the heart health

blueman 2020-04-21 03:20

Lots of fun! A simple mechanic executed very well. Running around to collect health and keeping the heart alive kept gameplay interesting.

I lasted for 6:33 with a score of 20930 :smiley:

emperor-eagle 2020-04-21 03:29

@blueman Nice! I think my highest (keeping in mind I messed with the difficulty during development) was about the same, but on this version, I got 16610, so you beat me!

bootygangdisciple 2020-04-21 05:04

This was definitely interesting. I enjoyed how difficult it got later on in the game trying to keep yourself and the heart healed. I think the colors were a bit bright. Overall, nice job!

emperor-eagle 2020-04-21 05:25

@bootygangdisciple Thanks for the feedback! I'll keep the colour thing in mind (I'm a bit colorblind especially around red so that makes it hard). I enjoyed your stream as well!

almighty-games 2020-04-21 05:52

I felt engaged with the game play. It was intuitive enough to keep me playing, and I'll likely come back for a second try when I have a little more time. The music loop was short, but didn't turn me off. I thought it fit the game. The sound fx were also fitting. Thanks for your game jam entry and good luck!

yigitserin 2020-04-21 08:06

Great gameplay feel on hitting enemies, loved destroying them viruses :D

lazzydev72 2020-04-21 08:40

Love the Game play The level design could be better and sound too but the only thing i didnt like was the color scheme. but over all it was nice. ienjoyed playing it. keep it up and Good luck. :v: I enjoyed your game too

emperor-eagle 2020-04-21 09:30

@yigitserin Thanks! I was really happy with how they felt to destroy (bit taxing on performance though, all physics based). Thank you for your feedback!

@lazzydev72 Agreed, I would have liked a better level (we had a design) but the AI weren't smart enough to pathfind. Hopefully next time though! And I'll make sure to check the colour theme with others next time. Thanks for the feedback!

maksym 2020-04-21 09:47

medicalinn.PNG

Very good gameplay. Graphics are totally fine as it's a gamejam. I enjoyed the mechanics of sharing health.

justin-c 2020-04-22 03:43

Interesting game. I liked the idea of transferring health from yourself to the heart to keep it alive. Having to run around to collect the health pickups meant that you weren't just camping the same place. I also liked that the bullets were syringes, and the knockback and cartridges flying out were nice touches that made the gun feel a bit more impactful. The pathfinding was a bit broken, as enemies kept getting stuck on the walls, though.

emperor-eagle 2020-04-22 03:56

@justin-c Thank you for the comment! I agree about the path finding. Hopefully next time it will be better. We just had to strike a balance between the map complexities and the enemies (as some enemies getting stuck meant that they found it harder to get to the heart). But next time, we will go with what you said and make the AI move properly. Thank you for the feedback!

scott-steffes 2020-04-22 07:07

Shooting the syringes felt great. Seeing them stick into enemies and push them back was awesome. Balancing the heart health and your own health was also interesting. Great little combination of mechanics and gamefeel.

lykawolfie 2020-04-22 07:13

I love the game! It's a very creative way of playing around with the theme. The particle effects and the blockiness of everything strangely came together in a nice way. The gameplay feels great overall with the big bullets and knockback.

A thing to note which they've said before is the enemies getting stuck on walls. Also if I may request, perhaps switchable guns or upgrades if you plan on further development :smile: Cheers!

emperor-eagle 2020-04-22 08:46

@scott-steffes Thanks for the comment. We were really proud of the game feel (and thee syringes sticking in viruses) so I'm glad you were too!

@lykawolfie Thanks for the feedback. I was initially planning for different levels, but ran out of time and focussed on a more infinite game but yes, I agree, more weapons would have been great (shotgun and minigun were planned). And thanks, the AI have been noted.

romarogov 2020-04-22 09:22

Game plays smooth and fun, I like it. Interesting idea and cool physical effects. Good job!

nicu-comiati 2020-04-22 09:28

really cool game. I liked the way the gun pushes you backwards and the pacing. Took me a while to realise that i also have an HP bar lol

pomeroyb 2020-04-22 09:28

the sharing health mechanic was very interesting, i liked it a lot. nice game!

emperor-eagle 2020-04-22 10:31

@romarogov Thank you, I'm happy to see you liked the physical effects! (As CPU intensive as they are.)

@nicu-comiati Thank you! A streamer who played it also didn't realise they had a health bar until they died too :)

@pomeroyb Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

the1 2020-04-22 11:14

Damn, cool game! Love the particle effect

singleshoe 2020-04-22 11:18

Nice game, really liked the life sharing mechanic. Not sure how hard it gets alter on, but after a couple minutes playing I suicided by sending all my life to the heart just to see what happened haha Good job!

bastienre4 2020-04-22 11:36

Good job, gameplay is good :)

evert 2020-04-22 14:06

Kind of addictive! I love the ammo, and how the syringes stick to the enemies :sunglasses: very satisfying! With some pathfinding AI and a few more options (other weapons, other enemies and maybe an AI helper or so) this would be even better! :D Sound effects were very nice too btw. A jam well done!

khud0 2020-04-22 14:16

It's very interesting that you sacrifice own health to keep the heart alive. I also like how the shells fall on the floor, it's a nice addition to the game

bulent-altinay 2020-04-23 04:49

Awesome game. Really like the gameplay. Shooting effect is great. Mouse aiming is quite confusing at the beginning but one can get used to it after playing a while.Nice interpretation of the theme. 5 :stars:

emperor-eagle 2020-04-23 09:04

@the1 Thank you for that!

@singleshoe Thanks for playing! It eventually gets near impossible, but you have to play a while for that. Before then, you encounter four different enemy types at increased spawn rates.

@bastienre4 Thank you for the comment!

@evert Thanks for the review! Agreed about the AI and I'm happy it was addictive (as I found myself overplaying it during testing too).

@khud0 Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you liked the shells!

@bulent-altinay Thank you for that! Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the high rating!

gallahron 2020-04-23 09:57

Fun game, really liked the feedback when shooting. There was a glitch where the player died just before the player healthbar hit zero which felt kind of unfair

emperor-eagle 2020-04-23 09:59

@gallahron Thanks for your feedback! The player dying was probably because the heart died, or there could be a glitch.

arcus 2020-04-23 10:08

@emperor-eagle I had the same bug. I'm not sure why it happened, but it a little anoying. Either way the game was very fun to play at parts, and shooting was ineresting. Well done!

tuesi 2020-04-23 13:08

Really like the death sound, so meaty. Overall really fun game!

shubh 2020-04-23 13:22

Nice graphics

jarithius 2020-04-23 14:53

Great Jam game, I loved the life find and transfer mechanic of the game, and the shooter style was fun. I did not make it past 4 min 37 sec, but its was good. I was thinking it might be neat to get or find rare items from some bigger bad guys like maybe a defibrillator to help restart the heart when its near 0%, might be a neat item. Or the the player can get 1 chance to use a defibrillator every like 3 mins or something. Over all a good game, Nice Job!

finnthepirate 2020-04-23 15:55

hey nice concept and game play keeps you engaged, I like the audio work

mlho7 2020-04-24 09:13

Really good concept and gameplay, sharing life is great idea. After failing I kept the gamover screen running, it really shows how hungry viruses are. Good job.

mobiledev 2020-04-24 09:19

Had so much fun playing it. Good controls and great music. Good job!

emperor-eagle 2020-04-24 09:22

@arcus Just a question about the bug. Did the camera move away from the player and focus on the heart? Possibly a bug, but the heart probably ran out of health. Thanks for your feedback!

@tuesi Thank you for that, I'm glad we achieved that meaty feel, it was a goal!

@shubh Thank you!

@jarithius Now this is a good comment! Lots of ideas for improvement! I have noted them for future development. Definitely like the defibrillator idea and bigger enemies.

@finnthepirate Thank you for that, glad you were engaged with the game and liked the sounds!

@mlho7 Thanks! I was hoping someone would do that, they really are aggressive!

bitpokit 2020-04-24 16:47

I love this game!!! There's something about the way the heart beats that is very satisfying to look at. It makes me want to keep it beating lol. Very responsive controls, and I love the way the ammo gets left on the ground. Awesome job, one of my favorite entries! :smile:

echo-team 2020-04-24 20:11

I really like the physics of it. But of course with physics comes funkiness, lots of virii got stuck on the top wall.

unimaginable-code-studios 2020-04-24 23:00

I love the movement and the sound effects!! This game is so good. The theme is awesome too!! Amazing game. Good Luck on this Ludum Dare!!

uberardy 2020-04-25 00:57

I really like the concept of having to sacrifice your own health to heal the heart!

mister-collette 2020-04-25 01:29

Satisfying shooting. Would have liked a win condition. The popping sound on kill is very visceral.

iamscissors 2020-04-25 01:35

Wow incredible game for how short you had. I like the concept of having to give your life to the heart to keep it beating and the mechanic of shooting health makes it go to the corner so you have to walk over and get it and leave the heart un-protected was very slick. my score was 10780 and went for 4 minutes. I liked to watch the swords pile up on the tanky enemies.

emperor-eagle 2020-04-25 02:35

@bitpokit Thank you very much for that! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

@echo-team Thanks! I understand the virus physics issues, mainly, the pathfinding was too basic, next time/future development we'll ensure that doesn't happen. Thank you!

@unimaginable-code-studios Thank you for that! All the best for this Ludum Dare and hopefully the many more to come!

@uberardy Thank you for the review!

@mister-collette Thank you for that! After looking up "visceral", I am happy that the sound worked like that! As for a win condition, it was an infinite game, but you're right. We should hopefully add a win condition (levels, wave by wave etc) after this Ludum Dare. Thanks!

@iamscissors Thanks for the comment! I actually got annoyed at the bullets hitting the health away (I couldn't make it not do that), but it turned out to work for the best! It makes you shoot more accurately and you have to be more active in your movement. We're glad you enjoyed our game! Great highscore also, thanks for posting it!

systematic 2020-04-25 05:26

Pretty satisfying shooting mechanics.

neithernathan 2020-04-25 06:10

Really liked the feeling of the game, specially shooting the sirynges into the viruses, i was a bit frustrated by shooting the heart when trying to shoot the enemies but i understand the logic of it.

nathant 2020-04-25 07:04

The banger tune mixed well with the beating heart. Loved the composition and the fx. I'm usually not big on mouse aiming for this style but it worked nicely. Good jam!

sky-fighter 2020-04-25 07:10

The shooting felt very nice. there were some problems with the enemies getting stuck on the walls tho

local-minimum 2020-04-25 07:31

I got to about the same time as your screenshot before I accidentally sacrificed myself for the heart. :rofl: I must say that the mechanics of shooting the syringes were very satisfying and well made. A bit surprising that I also repelled the health drops, but it also made it interesting to not overshoot. :syringe: :syringe:

It would have been nice, I think if the obstacles weren't simple rectangles but had a V shape to them so that virus got stuck on the far side quite often. If the world could go through various phases with obstacles appearing and disappearing could also really have improved re-playability.

In general though, a very well made and funny tower defense.

fazy 2020-04-25 07:39

Kept it alive for 5 minutes and I have to say this is a pretty solid demo game. Good choice of vibe with music and sound effects and I did enjoy the ramping up difficulty. Enemies had some pathfinding issues and the game would probably benefit from having a second offensive option but I like it! Good work :)

emperor-eagle 2020-04-25 07:58

@systematic Thank you!

@neithernathan Thank you for the comment!

@sky-fighter Thanks for reviewing our game! The pathfinding problems were ther,e but the viruses getting stuck meant it was easier when it got hectic and the terrain had more effect on their movement. But I totally agree, and next time, we'll fix it by making them pathfind properly (but also walk slower if they push against walls, one of my ideas)!

@local-minimum Thank you for that! I liked your idea to improve the levels with moving/changing obstacles (an idea for the future). The AI would also be improved if we were to further the game. Thanks!

@fazy Thank you for your comment. I agree about the weapon options. We were originally going to have a shotgun and minigun but closed the idea due to time and focussed on an infinite level. Thank you!

mathieu-semin 2020-04-25 08:37

Fun game ! I like the core mechanic of trading your life for the heart's live. I enjoyed the music, sound effect and color palette of the game. I think you have a solid gameplay loop and should try to focus on level design and replayability for a post-jam version. Well done :)

joeshanahan 2020-04-25 08:39

Woo! This was fun! I really liked the projectiles getting stuck into the virus like arrows, felt really satisfying. And the central mechanic of sharing health provided an interesting dynamic too, trying to balance keeping yourself alive with not losing the game. Great job!

Untitled.png

cg-fred 2020-04-25 08:42

Great concept and I really like the gameplay. Would have loved to have different levels and powerups that you could collect. Loved the fact that if you shoot the health poweup it actually gets pushed away.

antti-haavikko 2020-04-25 08:58

Pretty damn solid gameplay around a simple idea. Of course, as usual, some kind of multiplier system or something along those lines would make the scoring more interesting. Now it's very linear with the survival time so it's kinda like you're getting two same grades.

viruses.png

And that was played on hard mode (ie. laptop touchpad)...

Weren't a biggest fan of the controls. Somehow found it funny that your menu was "press space to continue" stuff while the game itself was mainly mouse controlled. It's very common to see people do it the other way around, needing mouse for menus while the game is only played with keyboard but I think this is the first time seeing it this way around. I think `Input.anyKeyDown` would be the way to go.

The movement felt too slippery. Just would need so minor tinkering around with the numbers. Moving is a simple thing to do but needs a lot of trial and error to get to feel right. I also quite often got stuck to walls and the heart, I think an easy way around this would be to drop down the friction on them and tweaking the collider shapes maybe.

I liked the multiple functionalities shooting had. Obviously you could kill stuff with it but also can use the recoil to move faster. And then you could even use it to move the health pickups. Which were kinda awkward though. Quite often they ended up being so damn far and then you even shoot them a bit further. So they end up in the corners. Making the shots affect them more and adding way more bounciness to them might fix the issue. They wouldn't just get stuck in the corners but would bounce and get closer to the middle perhaps.

The AI was very good at getting stuck on the walls. Would be pretty easy to fix. Raycast from them to target and if hitting a wall, just do something to fix it. For example get the closest point of the four "holes" between walls and move there before resuming their normal behaviour. It was also very easy to shoot them through the walls. Changing collision detection mode to contiuous from discrete would fix this. Or could check manually with raycasting too.

I liked the sound effects and visual effects that were there. Well, the sound effects could have packed a bit more punch though. Just would have liked to see and hear more. Like a spawning effect for the enemies. So much of the early game was just circling around the heart checking all the spawns. The enemies getting hit would have needed some feedback effect too. Or not needed really but would have made it way more satisfying to mow them down.

The overall visual style was ok but I really didn't like the color selection. The bright almost pure reds and blues just clash together and do not look harmonious at all. A better ligting job could have also improved the look immensly. Also took me ages to realize that those were actually enemy health bars. They really blended to the models. The color palette plays a huge role here as well. And the same was true for player/heart health bars too. They're something that should be like noticeable all the time without really looking at them and red on red just made them camoflage themselves very well. And the huge scale and double sided nature didn't make it very clear to get their value at a glance either.

Funnily the player model was graphically the weakest part of the game. Even the static heart had more character with its animation. So obviously it could use some more love. Also its movements were very jerky at times. Lerp and MoveTowards are your friends here to make stuff look smoother.

Anyways, good job! :thumbsup:

huvaakoodia 2020-04-25 09:55

This is pretty good! The feel of it, etc. Pretty good!

You've gotten a lot of comments already (and I didn't bother reading all of them) so I'll just pile onto the list of suggestions: - Pull back the camera. It is much easier to plan ahead if the incoming enemies can be seen. - Add an enemy type that only targets the player (requires that pathfinding, though) - Accidentally shooting the heart should have consequences. - Tougher enemies (instead of more numerous enemies. Easier to manage the waves) - An overdrive mode where the heart starts beating faster (and losing more health), but damage is doubled for x seconds. - Object pooling for the syringes and other often instantiated objects (helps with the performance)

Them's the pointers this time. Keep jamming!

despdair 2020-04-25 14:13

you may increase friction between surface and player, it felt hard to control and unrealistic to me. Overall, this is a good game and fun to play

marcusnystrand 2020-04-25 15:01

Cool music! Here's my score

unknown.png

technonugget 2020-04-25 18:16

Nice! After playing a few times I got to 5:06 with 13070 points. I accidentally right clicked too many times and gave all my health to the heart and then I just disappeard :(

It was quite a fun game! Maybe a bit rough around the edges but I enjoyed the experience a lot! I Think one thing I would change is maybe put the health containers on a separate physics layer that doesn't collide with the bullets so you don't end up shooting the health pickups to the other side of the map.

The music was great, the sound effects were satisfying, the particle effects were nice, fun gameplay too, just needs a bit of polish. Great job man! :)

zachary-shah 2020-04-26 00:34

Hey, keeping my end of the bargain, I played your game. I really liked it! the gameplay was easy to understand and I found myself mixing up my strategies to try and get the longest time. the visuals were great and I loved the physics based enemies and health! if you plan on working on this game, some more enemy diversity would be nice as well as a slightly larger level. Other than that, great work!

emperor-eagle 2020-04-26 05:19

@mathieu-semin Thanks for the kind words and advice! We will definitely look at further levels and content if we keep working on it.

@joeshanahan Thanks for the comment and for sharing your score!

@cg-fred Thank you for that! I like your idea of powerups and level expansion. Definitely a good thing for us to work on.

@antti-haavikko Fair idea about the score and time representing the same thing. I think we would improve this by making the final score the total, while you get a breakdown of time, enemies popped etc. I never thought about a multiplier system, but it sounds great! I understand and am so happy you told me about the controls and the need for consistency, as I got a bit used to it while developing. The movement was based on forces, and you're right, some polishing is required, but do you think I should just alter the Transform directly, would that be smoother? You appear to have found the butter zone with respect to shooting and moving the health pickups. Most liked them, some found them a bit annoying, but the bouncing idea would work really well! As per the AI, thanks for the advice, I haven't coded very complex ones before but that gave me good insight! Shooting through walls was actually shooting over since the walls were short on purpose; to keep out viruses while you could still attack, but we could make that more obvious. More sound effects, understood, and I definitely should have checked the colour scheme with my friend since I'm colorblind (colour deficient around reds and greens) so I didn't realise the brightness. Thanks for very, very much for your extensive feedback! I found it valuable and very helpful as we continue in the game development art!

@huvaakoodia Thank you for the great feedback. The optimization idea was great and I like the ideas you had to add to the game (especially the overdrive). The camera moving up is a good idea for the tactical and visual reasons (the background texture is so cool)! The side effects of your actions, ie, shooting the heart, would add depth to the game so thanks for that. If we continue with this game, or work on another, I will keep these in mind as they are very valuable! Thank you!

@despdair Thank you, agreed, hopefully that will be polished a tad more next time.

@marcusnystrand Thanks for playing, reviewing commenting, and posting your score!

@technonugget Thank you for the review! We appreciate it! Polishing the physics sound like some good advice, and addressing the ability to shoot health pickups (separate, or as @antti-haavikko put it, even allowing them to bounce back to you after shooting). Overall: Thanks!

@zachary-shah Thanks for rating our game! We're glad you enjoyed it and found yourself mixing strategies! Thanks for the advice on the level size and enemy types too!

eldogg 2020-04-26 09:56

Feels fun to shoot the gun and cool when the syringes are stuck in the enemies. Like that the pickups had magnetism to them and that things shrank before they disappeared.

The gun fire sound could do with some pitch variation, normally you randomly change the playback speed, can make it sound less repetitive.

Could do with a color that's not red, kind of made my eyes sore looking at it, the meshes are good, just the lighting/coloring could be less harsh to make things easier to look at.

Cool game! Has fun built into it!

antti-haavikko 2020-04-26 11:59

@emperor-eagle Using physics for the control is totally fine. Just need to tweak those numbers (the force amount, mass, max speed, drag, bounciness and friction) around to make it feel good.

Yeah AI doesn't need to be sophisticated or smart, fake it till you make it. Just like the "go to reset pos on stuck" method I described, simple and dumb but most likely would get the job done and still look organic enough. And a whole lot faster to implement than a full blown A*

Haha, not everyone has colorblindness to blame for their less than optimal color palette choices :smile:

madalaski 2020-04-26 20:18

Definitely not got more and more hectic as it went on! Loved how the 3D-aspect worked, with physics objects flying about and my syringes stuck into enemies. Felt v satisfying. I think health pickups could have a bit more magnetism but apart from that a really solid entry!

nyoomnyoom 2020-04-27 09:39

Thanks for all the great messages! and I'll be sure to convince @emperor-eagle to either continue development on this game with me, or a new one!

I'm glad so many people enjoyed it!

larsspawn 2020-04-27 14:33

Damn what a game! it's getting harder and harder and It would be more fun if you can play with your friends and add another mechanics such as ammo is no longer infinite or build a turret like a tower-defense game. And I also think the same think! My idea for the game jam is protect something in the center but in 2D platformer + Tower-defense, strangely enough the thing in the center was a heart like this game but I changed it to a crystal. Tbh, this game is 10x better than mine :). Overall it's a really great game!

fabula-rasa 2020-04-28 18:03

Simple yet engaging! I had fun playing it.

It felt strange to me that you can just shoot through the walls and the enemies sometimes were just standing behind the wall, doing nothing, like they lost their nefarious purpose in life ;)

skyeward 2020-04-29 00:48

Had fun with this game, got a score of 16k!

I like the mechanic of siphoning your own HP off to keeping topping up the HP of the heart you're protecting - you're constantly having to reevaluate where the health is the most valuable, and how risky it would be to lose health on your character since you can't move it back once it's placed in the heart. A nice take on the top-down-shooter formula!

Next I would look at getting some more juice into the game, perhaps camera shake when things die, and maybe change up the way things are lit. An indicator of when you or the heart are almost dead would be cool.

Thanks for the game!

trigueiro 2020-04-29 03:49

Interesting concept and very enjoyable. The only thing I think needs revamp are the graphics but that is not that big of the deal. The game-play is solid and fun. which is the more important :)

emperor-eagle 2020-04-29 04:49

@eldogg Thank you for that! I especially took into note the gunshot sound and how variation would improve it, and the colours. Thanks!

@antti-haavikko Righto, thanks! That all makes sense and if we continue, we'll look at some more work based around your great advice! Thanks!

@madalaski Thanks for your rating and comment! If we continue, we'll have a look at your magnetism idea!

@larsspawn Thank you! I like the play with friends, and turret mechanics ideas you had!

@fabula-rasa Thanks for your comment and advice! The camera angle doesn't show it, but the blocks weren't meant to be walls, but they were meant to hold the off viruses a bit. However, I definitely get your point in how they sort of stopped when they got to a wall, so thank you for that! I like how you put it, "like they lost their nefarious purpose in life," just need to put some slightly smarter AI in I guess!

@skyeward Thank you for streaming our game! Thanks for the advice on spicing up the game in terms of screenshake and near death indicators! And for liking the one-way health trade system! Thanks for playing!

@trigueiro Thank you for the review, and for your advice on the graphics work!

walkalope 2020-04-29 13:46

Hi there! I played your game on stream over the weekend. What a juicy game you've carved out!

The game is quite lovely to look at - although too much bright red can start to be hard on the eyes after awhile. But the consistent style of the viruses, the syringes, the health pickups - very thoughtful and coherent design :thumbsup:

There were little touches that added major value to the excitement of the game: Like how the only way to heal the heart is to give it some of the player's health - this requires a bit of strategy and adds a balancing act rather than a straight forward "just don't die" type of gameplay. Also how the player's bullet's actually interacted with the the physics of the health powerups! A skilled player could anticipate it and avoid shooting the powerups, while a newer player might "spray and pray" and as a result end up shooting the health packs away. A more thought-out approach to playing is rewarded.

I think that the game is very juicy - but you can always add more juice! Maybe some voice-overs... floating damage numbers... camera shakes... whatever. You've got a solid foundation of a game, polish is the only thing left.

Thanks again for sharing!

whitefox 2020-04-29 16:22

The gameplay was great. Even though I read the tutorial, it took me a while to understand the concept of transferring life points from the player to the heart. I liked how the game became progressively harder with time. Also, the music and the sound FX were on point. Good job on this one!

adonisdevs 2020-04-30 02:59

I scored 14,400! This was a very strong entry. My only feedback would be that the pacing is slightly too slow, which is understandable because pacing is near impossible to get right in such a short amount of time to playtest. It felt like nothing really happened until 4 minutes in, but after the 4 minutes it was really fun! Because difficulty in a game like this really differs person to person, I recommend just adding an option to change the difficulty. The mechanics are perfect, the shooting and movement felt really fun, and I liked that the bullets stuck to the enemy hahaha! Great game :D

rubixnoob13 2020-05-01 05:22

I made it 5:11 and got 14530 points. I agree somewhat with @adonisdevs that the pacing seemed a bit slow, however once it picks up, whew! I actually found it a little charming that some of the enemies got stuck on the walls, almost like "I'ma get that heart... one day..." and the other viruses just looking at him like "That's Jeff, he's not too bright, but he means well..." :smiley: Overall, really solid entry and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I know your page said you didn't make all the assets etc, but everything seemed to fit together really well, and the music and sound effects fit well with the overall aesthetic of the game. Great job!

turritom 2020-05-01 11:04

fsc.JPG

yes simple game but it works. great work.

binaryprinciple 2020-05-05 02:14

I like a lot the mechanic of balancing your health and the one for the main heart. What if some of those bacteria actually heal your heart so you have to be very accurate with the shooting. The music was awesome! Nice game!

duke 2020-05-05 16:17

Really nice! A good old twin stick shooter with satisfying mechanics :) I really enjoyed this one. The aiming and shooting was spot on and was a lot of fun. Especially wit all those squishy sounds effects. The mechanic with the medic drops on the heart was also a nice touch and fit the theme of course. The graphics were ok, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the general color scheme. Seemed a little uninspired and lacked some art direction. The soundtrack was a nice choice. Only the walking controls seemed a bit laggy, at least in the browser version i played. When I stopped pressing WASD after running for a bit, the character went further for half a second and then stopped. The rest of the controls felt very tight, so it wasn't a general laggyness. Maybe something with inertia? Felt off nontheless.

All in all, enjoyable experience :)

screenshot.jpg

2020-05-05 23:43

Neat game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/HbpVWKRHlfc

emperor-eagle 2020-05-05 23:56

@walkalope Thanks for playing our game on stream, and for the great feedback! I like the idea of floating damage numbers and agree with you about the red colouring. Brilliant feedback! Thank you!

@whitefox Thank you for the positive feedback! (We might try to make the tutorial simpler with an in game part that shows you rather than tells you, so thanks for that!)

@adonisdevs Great highscore! Thanks for the great feedback! We might speed up the rate of change in spawning at the start, because you're definitely right.

@rubixnoob13 Thank you for the positive and funny comment! We're glad you liked the overall aesthetic!

@turritom Thank you for the feedback and for posting your highscore!

@binaryprinciple Thanks for the positive feedback, we appreciate it!

@duke Thank you for the great feedback! We're glad you liked it! I understand about the red and, you're right, we could definitely improve the movement. I needed to change the numbers so the player had more friction. Thanks!

@jupiter-hadley Thank you very much for featuring our game on your video! I subscribed!!!!!

kjscott 2020-05-06 08:05

Windows 10, Chrome, the game was a bit laggy at times. I found the waves a little slow in building up in difficulty but after about 4 minutes the pacing seemed a lot better. I feel it would have been a little easier to play if when destroyed, any health/+ symbols stayed in place and weren't affected by your own bullets.

The mechanics worked well, sacrificing your own health for the health of the heart made for interesting choices at time in the balancing of resources.

convg 2020-05-06 13:36

Nice game! I love the fire rate. For some reason, it's really amusing to see a rocket launcher firing so fast and the shells piling up on the floor. The gameplay feels really smooth. Nice job!

elio 2020-05-06 14:59

Nice gameplay, the colors are a bit confusing, i mean the contrast between them, nice game :D

leonardo-fraga 2020-05-09 12:34

That's a nice game I like it! Love the sound effect when killing the monsters and the fact that the niddles stick to them for a while :smile: It's pleasant to shot and kill them! It doesn't immediately stops when I stop pressing the buttons, so it feels a little slop, don't know if was planned or not. Also I love details that add juicess, like niddles sticking out for a moment, "bullet" shells droping, blood. Nice job!

joror 2020-05-09 14:05

Shooting the syringes has a great visceral feeling - the control screen at the start was really helpful - and the enemies ramped up in a nice way.

Got to almost 5 mins and 12700~

Things that could be tweaked: Sometimes I could shoot syringes through walls, sometimes I could not? A bit more evocative surrounding than square walls

All in all a great feelin lil shooter, nicely done!

kschmidt 2020-05-09 17:51

Wow that was pretty fun, good collection of game mechanics, twin-stick shooting + managing two health bars. Nice work!!

kschmidt 2020-05-09 17:51

Wow that was pretty fun, good collection of game mechanics, twin-stick shooting + managing two health bars. Nice work!!

emperor-eagle 2020-05-10 01:47

@kjscott Thank you for your feedback! We're still thinking about the health pickup collisions with the syringes since some liked and some didn't (one person's idea was to make it bouncy so you could knock it back to yourself). But I can understand it being annoying. (Performance and wave difficulty noted by the way, just needed more time to optimise it. Thanks for telling us that! It's important we get onto that later.) Thanks for playing!

@convg Thank you for for that! Glad to see you found it amusing!

@elio Thank you (I understand about the colours, tweaking time I think)!

@leonardo-fraga Thanks for your feedback, and we're glad you enjoyed the "juiciness"!

@joror Nice highscore! The reason the syringes varied in going through walls was because the walls were actually blocks of a certain height. Since the syringes dropped over time (which allowed them to have a maximum range), they would sometimes go over said block, or fall and hit it, but I understand what you mean, we might tweak that in the future. We're glad you liked the visceral feel of the game! Thanks for playing and giving us feedback!

@kschmidt Glad you had fun! Thanks for the feedback!

gameovermexico 2020-05-10 05:21

Nice Game and good job its adicitve! juegocorazon.jpg

sandra-martinez 2020-05-10 08:05

Nice graphics, the gameplay is smooth, the sound effects are great too. Overall I truly think your game is pretty fun since the mechanics is simple, I can just simply play it without reading much instructions, very entertaining, Great game! That's all I can say.

teamjs 2020-05-10 09:37

Great sense of atmosphere! The visuals and sound all build to that sense of urgency. I wasn't too sure if the sustained damage or when the virus things attacked, I assumed it did. But I started to feel a bit invincible after a while and felt like a bad ass noir hero in a gun fight. Nice work! - J

Good work! Really liked the music! Great choice even if you didn't make it yourselves! Good incorporation of the theme, though I feel you could have gone further with the assets, particularly the antibody. It would have been great if it was more antibody shaped. Also, the environment could have been more human-like, with curved walls, etc. But overall good use of the theme and a solid entry into the competition. - S

eduardogacn 2020-05-10 22:17

The game is entertaining.

It was hard for me to realize that the "x" recover the player's health, some time later I realized that it was not x, but a "+" of health xD.

I liked the concept, it would have been great to have seen the level spawn randomly every time you start.

Overall good work.

emperor-eagle 2020-05-11 07:27

@gameovermexico Thank you for playing and posting your score!

@sandra-martinez Thank you for that feedback! We're glad we accomplished the goal of simple and fun!

@teamjs Thank you for the great feedback! We'll definitely improve the graphics side in the future!

@eduardogacn Thanks for commenting! I can see the mixup between happening between the 'x' and the '+' XD. I like your idea for random level spawns, sounds like something to research!

civmaniac 2020-05-11 11:51

This twin-stick shooter mechanics could go really well with defend the point game like this. I call it twin-stick shooter, because this game would work nicely with controller! I liked how you have to balance defending, with going after a health drop. Especially, that they run away from you eventually and shrink. Couple of times I caught myself in a situation where going after a health drop wasn't really worth it in the end, since heart lost more from an invader than I gained from picking up a health drop. I wish there was something else to do, like maybe a grenade to throw at a cluster of enemies or maybe a melee attack with a push to repel the parasites away from the heart. Graphics are fine for a jam. Could be better though. Music choice was good, and the sound effect of dispensing your health to your heart went organically with it. Pretty good!Background really hurt my eyes, this fleshy red, but I got used to it after a while. Overall, a good entry with tight gameplay! Screenshot from 2020-05-11 14-25-31.png

Special thanks to respecting other aspect ratios besides 16:9. I was pleasantly surprised that your game scaled nicely on my 21:9 display!

I really missed gamepad controls here. Movement and shooting actually worked, but I couldn't control the look direction. I would recommend mapping shooting on right trigger and controlling look direction on a right thumbstick. It would work like a charm! And some button should also dispense your health to your heart. I think this kind of game would be great on a gamepad!

Thank you for participating in **feedback exchange program**!

emperor-eagle 2020-05-11 12:05

@civmaniac Thanks for the extensive feedback! I didn't really think about controller support, but you're definitely right, it would be a great addition (just a time management thing next time if we do implement it)! I like the grenade idea and thanks for noticing the aspect ratio effort! It scales out to quite ridiculous ratios which I was proud of so I'm glad it came to some fruition! I'm a bit colourblind which is my excuse for the colouring (but I should've consulted my teammate better, so my bad :). Your feedback is greatly appreciated so thanks! Nice highscore too!

midnightmist 2020-05-12 01:10

Very cool game! It was immersive and easy to learn. Great job!!

gustavo-christino 2020-05-12 02:21

Writing an analysis...

J1.png

gustavo-christino 2020-05-12 02:41

Análise...

1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo: Gostei muito da mecânica de doar parte de sua vida para salvar o coração. Outra parte interessante da mecânica foi a de empurrar as unidades inimigas ao acertá-las. Isso eu achei muito bacana. Quanto a aprender a jogar, achei simples aprender (ainda mais com as explicações antes de começar). Por outro lado, demonstrou-se bastante complicado dominar e jogar bem (notei que muitas pessoas fizeram mais pontos que eu, hahahahah). Aliás, já quero adiantar também que o jogo atrai bastante em termos de pontuação. O fluxo de jogo é frenético, tornando o jogo bastante divertido. Podendo (também) ser ajustado, para favorecer a possibilidade de as pessoas voltarem e tentarem outra vez. Algo que eu não gostei foi o fato de o tiro empurrar os coletáveis de cura para longe. Gostaria que o tiro passasse direto, ou que houvesse um tipo de gancho para puxar inimigos e coletáveis para perto de si (permitindo retirar unidades inimigas de perto do coração, ou até mesmo reposicioná-las para fins estratégicos). Gostaria que fosse sempre possível atirar através das muretas, mas é um pedido específico meu (porque assim seria uma forma de ter alguma vantagem a depender de como se joga). Seria bacana ter algumas novas armas: deixar granada, fazer muro temporário que pode ser atacado, fazer um escudo em si, fazer um escudo no coração, gerar regeneração no coração entre tantas outras. :) Tudo isso (claro) apenas se a equipe estiver interessada em dar continuidade ao projeto. Apenas divagando um pouco. Hahahahah.

2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa: Gostei dos gráficos, mesmo sendo simples. Achei que eles transmitiram bem o conceito que se queria transmitir. Polimentos poderiam ser feitos além do tempo de evento (incluindo redesenho das paredes, com devidas alterações nos colisores). O áudio serviu bem ao propósito, como foi optado não votar, creio que não seja autoral (ou algo assim). Sugiro apenas após tempo de Ludum Dare criar algo autoral tão bom quanto o que foi aplicado. A narrativa é simples e direta: proteja o coração. Não há muito o que eu poderia falar além disso (seria possível quebrar o jogo em diferentes estágios, mas eu manteria esse modo de sobrevivência).

3 - Cultura: No meu ponto de vista, o personagem do jogador (PdJ) doar vida (sangue, HP, life) é uma propaganda simbólica à ideia de cuidar da saúde (própria e dos outros). Creio que o jogo possa, com os devidos cuidados, servir como propaganda para alguma campanha de saúde.

4 - Monetização: Uma das possibilidades seria o jogo ser utilizado como jogo sério em algum tipo de campanha de saúde (não sei qual seria a aplicabilidade dessa ideia na prática na sua localização geográfica atual). Quem sabe envolver a tabela de pontuação mundial com algum tipo de brinde e incrementar ainda mais o brinde se alguém for doar sangue ou algo assim (a depender da religião da pessoa, dado que em alguns países (ou religiões) doar sangue é visto como algo negativo/errado). Outra forma de monetização seria implementar um modo história e vender o jogo em stores como itch.io ou (a depender da qualidade final) outras stores maiores ou de maior retorno financeiro.

J2.png

PS: Pois é... Acabei jogando mais uma vez. Hahahahah. PS: Yeah... I ended up playing one more time. Hahahahah.

gustavo-christino 2020-05-12 02:41

Analysis...

1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow: I really liked the mechanics of donating part of your life to save your heart. Another interesting part of the mechanics was pushing enemy units when they hit them. I thought that was really cool. As for learning to play, I found it simple to learn (even more with the explanations before I started). On the other hand, it proved to be quite complicated to dominate and play well (I noticed that many people scored more points than me, hahahahah). Incidentally, I also want to say that the game attracts a lot in terms of scoring. The game flow is frantic, making the game quite fun. It can (also) be adjusted, to favor the possibility of people coming back and trying again. Something I didn't like was that the shot pushed the healing collectibles away. I would like the shot to go straight, or there would be a kind of hook to pull enemies and collectables close to you (allowing you to remove enemy units close to the heart, or even reposition them for strategic purposes). I wish it was always possible to shoot through the walls, but it is a specific request of mine (because that would be a way to have some advantage depending on how you play). It would be nice to have some new weapons: leave a grenade, make a temporary wall that can be attacked, make a shield in itself, make a shield in the heart, generate regeneration in the heart, among many others. :) All of this (of course) only if the team is interested in continuing the project. Just digress a little. Hahahahah.

2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative: I liked the graphics, even though it was simple. I thought they conveyed well the concept that they wanted to convey. Polishing could be done beyond the event time (including redesign of the walls, with due changes in the colliders). The audio served the purpose well, as it was chosen not to vote, I believe it is not authorial (or something like that). I suggest only after Ludum Dare's time to create something authorial as good as what was applied. The narrative is simple and direct: protect the heart. There is not much I could say other than that (it would be possible to break the game at different stages, but I would maintain this mode of survival).

3 - Culture: In my view, the player's character (PC) donating life (blood, HP, life) is a symbolic advertisement for the idea of ​​taking care of one's own health and that of others. I believe that the game can, with due care, serve as an advertisement for some health campaign.

4 - Monetization: One of the possibilities would be for the game to be used as a serious game in some type of health campaign (I don't know how applicable this idea would be in practice in its current geographical location). Who knows how to involve the world score table with some kind of gift and increase the gift even more if someone is going to donate blood or something (depending on the person's religion, given that in some countries (or religions) donating blood is seen as something negative / wrong). Another form of monetization would be to implement a history mode and sell the game in stores like itch.io or (depending on the final quality) other stores that are bigger or have higher financial returns.

emperor-eagle 2020-05-12 02:53

@gustavo-christino Thank you so much for your extensive analysis! I have liked all three of your posts so you can get the maximum karma! I like your idea for new weapons and powerups (I was planning a shotugn and minigun but ran out of time) if we continue with it (and we are definitely going to continue with something)! I'm glad the tutorial was easy to understand and that you liked the gameplay overall. Your third and fourth point is very insightful and brings a very new way to use this game, not just as a game, but for society's benefit so thanks! Thank you very much!

doritolord 2020-05-12 10:54

damn this looks really really polished. i find the concept hilarious and ingenious. i liked it. also i'm your 100th review. so congrats!!

emperor-eagle 2020-05-12 10:56

@doritolord Oh yes!!! Thank you so much for that! And what are the odds, I was the 100th reviewer of your game too! Wow! Anyway, all the best for the results in just 9 hours!

archimagus 2020-05-12 15:09

Pretty fun game. I liked how physical everything was, the bullets, the health pickups. How the bullets "syringes" stuck into the enemies. The shooting is quite satisfying. Some sort of upgrade pickup would be nice I think, to shake things up a bit.

emperor-eagle 2020-05-13 22:47

@archimagus Thanks for the feedback!

leyaotang 2021-05-11 00:22

This is crude, not at all serious, but we play it without watching time go by. That is nice? I do not know!