FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD48 → GOBLIN HAMBURGER LASER ARENA

GOBLIN HAMBURGER LASER ARENA

By youthfulidealism

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall3673.5661
Fun1083.9061
Innovation3673.3761
Theme8662.3160
Graphics4673.4260
Humor503.8859
Mood3373.4361

Comments

hestrateja 2021-04-26 03:11

Died on the last hp of the bell. Loved the art and the minimalistic song. Also, very good take on the theme!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 03:16

Thank you!

billnotic 2021-04-26 03:21

goblin deez nuts

But seriously, I really enjoyed this. Didn't fit the theme at all, but it was fun albeit weird as hell.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 03:25

Thank you!

elsombrero 2021-04-26 04:43

Bot really on the theme maybe

sbug 2021-04-26 08:32

The html5 version was super laggy for me, but what I was able to play was really fun! The mouth laser was really satisfying and dodging the enemies to get to the burgers made for a good gameplay loop

2021-04-26 09:55

Incredible!

twoshoedlou 2021-04-26 11:12

So much fun, love the dark art style and the huge laser! I was so close to completing it, got the bell down to 1hp. Not really sure on how it fits the theme but still a great effort overall!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 14:27

Thank you All!

@sbug I'm sorry to hear that it was laggy for you. I made some architectural design choices that, in retrospect, were very poor. It doesn't lag at all on my machine, but I'm totally unsurprised to hear that it lags on other machines.

locustjin 2021-04-26 16:44

Art is beautyfull and very nice smooth gameplay and animations.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 16:53

Thank you!

cogcomp 2021-04-26 17:51

Haha! Awesome! Loving that mouth laser effect! Well done!

javicoder 2021-04-26 17:53

nice idea!, the gamefeel is awesome, good work.

john-harper 2021-04-26 17:53

I liked how you had some recoil to the laser. The more powered up you are (and the larger the laser) the more push back the player gets when firing. Really made the firing mechanic satisfying. Very inventive. Good work.

pfeyffer 2021-04-26 17:56

What? This is ridiculously funny. Nice twist on the theme with the sounds getting deeper. Unfortunately I got stuck in a wall by the mouth lasers backlash and then mauled to death by goblins.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 17:58

Thank you all!

@pfeyffer that's unfortunate. I didn't think it was possible, but obviously it is. Sorry! I'm glad you enjoyed the game otherwise. :)

jedemac 2021-04-26 18:04

The game works suprisingly well.

Becoming slower as your attack gets stronger is a really interesting game mechanic, and well integrated here.

The artwork is also nice, love the marks on the ground that accumulate as you attack.

Couldn't finish the last level but the game is so good I'll try again until I beat it! :)

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 18:09

Thanks, @jedemac ! I appreciate the detailed feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

szymon-ogd 2021-04-26 18:10

I love the idea. I had a lot of fun.

loonydrope 2021-04-26 18:15

I don't know if it fits the theme or not, but for the humor category, I think it is all good, for the game and for your description of making it!

The mouth laser is a very satisfying weapon, but those shield-enemy make the game really harder when they appear. I really like how you managed to build those different enemies, and how their order of appearance make the difficulty curve increase along the game.

I didn't get to the destruction of the bell for now, but I think I will come back later. I want to win and finish this game, I think it deserve it.

Congratulation for the work!

bidentworks 2021-04-26 18:33

Hey there ! Couldn't really play the game all that well because I do not have the same keyboard as you do. So pushing WASD feels really unatural to me. As a rule, I think you should always add the arrows as an option. A shame because I'd really like to play it seriously...

Avoiding goblins while looking at my keyboard is hard...

Btw, the laser is super fun. The knockback is a fantastic feedback. And the way it burns the arena is a really nice touch !

rgb-games 2021-04-26 18:36

Awesome game dude! The burger-laser really is a great mechanic.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-26 19:09

Thank you all!

@bidentworks Oh, no, I didn't even think about AZERTY keyboards! I've patched in arrow key support for you.

taft-punk 2021-04-26 21:06

This was a pretty fun game. I like the creative take on the theme, and I like the way the really big laser pushes you around as a good payoff after the effort of buildup.

anton-savinov 2021-04-27 04:52

Wow! That's more fun than any ludum dare entry has any rights to be. Superb!

bidentworks 2021-04-27 13:54

@youthfulidealism thanks for arrow key support!

Replayed it, and again lasers are super satisfying. Had a blast!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 13:55

@bidentworks Awesome, glad to hear it!

@anton-savinov Thank you!

refrax295 2021-04-27 15:08

Wow, that was fun to play. The mouth-laser was super satisfying to fire, especially when charged to the max. Excellent work!

firellon 2021-04-27 15:09

My god, this is very, VERY bizarre, awkward and ridiculously fun at the same time. Nice and unique take!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 15:27

Thanks!

maximbegunov 2021-04-27 15:37

Very funny game! I totally didn't expect the dude to burst a giant laser after getting fat with burgers. And the other aspect are great too: gameplay is solid, you have variety of enemies and the shooting is really satisfying.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 15:47

Thanks!

chiyeon 2021-04-27 16:03

Super fun game! The giant laser was super satisfying to use, and overall the mechanics worked well, trading mobility in a kind of 'bullet hell' landscape in order to gain a powerful attack advantage. Well done!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 16:16

Thank you!

elosociu 2021-04-27 18:08

this is so good. the first time i saw the burger beam was SOOO funny. love the concept, the graphics look really good and the gameplay is pretty fun. i lost on the last wave, but everything up until that was really fun! great game! (and amazing title)

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 18:11

Thank you!

mdotedot 2021-04-27 18:35

Very funny. But I needed to get back and read the instructions which is a bad thing. But after I did. WOW amazing. I adjusted the score that I had given you to much higher rating. So much satisfaction and the enemies are different. Excellent work after that initial bad run with not knowing how the laser/shit/barf worked. The only real suggestion left is that you don't deplet your dump in one go so that you have some left for the other enemies. Very satisfying. Good job.

ramkey 2021-04-27 19:09

Soo polished, simple but satesfying gameplay. Art was great and it also reminded me of attack on titan for some strange reason. The enemies were different and worked as intended, their movement could be read and pretty balanced progression. Its an amazing job especially for such a short time. All in all, great job, atho I don't see how it fits the theme of the jam.

robowarrior1982 2021-04-27 19:37

Waouw this game is amazing, very fun. The game mechanics are nicely implemented, and work together very well (the food which give you more power but slow bown your move) Graphics are good, sound is perfect, that not fit the theme i think but for all the rest is georgous.

rgb-games 2021-04-27 20:01

Just played it again cause it's really fun lmao

genpaku 2021-04-27 21:14

Awesome art, funny game, I enjoy playing it

lmb 2021-04-27 22:16

Quite fun to play and challenging! Graphics work very well, animation was very nice. I especially like the way the arena keeps its scars as the game progresses: looks nice and doesn't distract from the more important game elements. Sound helps to create a very nice mood.

I have a personal gripe about those games that use the keyboard to move and the mouse to shoot. I'd love to see how this game would play on an analog gamepad (use the analog stick to walk on the exact direction you want to shot, then just shot). I think it would feel much better!

As other commented, I think the game was not a good fit for the theme, but the game itself it very nice!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 22:39

@mdotedot `But I needed to get back and read the instructions which is a bad thing.`

This is fair. I'm glad you enjoyed it otherwise! Thanks for the constructive feedback. :)

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 22:46

@lmb `I have a personal gripe about those games that use the keyboard to move and the mouse to shoot. I’d love to see how this game would play on an analog gamepad (use the analog stick to walk on the exact direction you want to shot, then just shot). I think it would feel much better!`

That's amusing, I have a personal gripe with gamepads as an input medium... probably something to do with the games I grew up playing rather than an actually-useful design issue. To each their own lol. I haven't found an input library for Javascript that supports gamepads... but if you happen to know of one, please share! Even though I don't much like gamepads, they're one of the only ways to do good couch-coop on PC, and I'd like to be able to support them as a result. I'm pretty committed to JS at this time; the iteration speed is *so fast*.

`I think the game was not a good fit for the theme`

I also agree that my use of the theme was a little bit of a stretch.

I'm glad you otherwise enjoyed it!

Thank you for the constructive feedback!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-27 22:47

Thanks to everyone who I didn't personally respond to, as well. I'm glad you all enjoyed the game! :D

lmb 2021-04-27 22:55

@youthfulidealism

> That’s amusing, I have a personal gripe with gamepads as an input medium

Amusing, indeed! :laughing: And you might be right: I cannot remember playing _any_ games with this keyboard+mouse control scheme (well, other than FPSs). I need to find and find some games like this, to maybe create a taste for them!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

3lstmsinatrenchcoat 2021-04-28 02:53

The fact that you move slower as you get more powerful makes it a lot more interesting than a move-around-and-shoot-things game otherwise would be. Weird mix of subject matter. Overall a very interesting game.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-28 02:55

Thanks!

nyanpierre 2021-04-28 03:07

Really nice game !

potatolain 2021-04-28 04:55

What a unique take on the theme - it's a stretch, but the best ideas often are. Any game that can get me to exclaim something about "burger antlions" gets a few points from me.

I liked the mechanic of slowing down as you powered up. While it took me a few seconds to realize the bell wasn't vulnerable all the time, and enemies came in waves, it worked pretty well. (I think there may be a bug where the "The bell is vulnerable" text doesn't always show up) The laser knockback was also an interesting mechanic.

I thought the shield enemies were particularly clever and worked well to up the difficulty. I do think the last wave might have been just a touch too tough, cutting down on the enemies just a little might've made it less painful. That said, I did beat it after 3 tries, and you got an actual out-loud laugh from the ending. Of course, that was the only way for it to end!

I try to give some constructive feedback on any entry I rate, so I'll mention that the audio got a little bit repetitive over time. Making the repeated loop a little bit longer, or adding another instrument might have helped.

Lastly, I'll try to give an opinion on the audio thing since no one has really mentioned it. I'm honestly not sure if that's okay or not - it seems like a bit of a gray area. In the future I'd probably create the sound effects from scratch for the compo just to be safe. I don't think people get disqualified for that, but some folks rating the game might rate it lower because of that. (Of course, if you entered the Jam instead of the compo, you'd be fine.)

There are some great sound effect generators out there - or some of the more memorable games I've played have had sound effects that were just the creator's voice distorted a bit! All that said I won't rate you down for it; you were honest and did your best. Sorry there's no clear answer here.

Thanks for a fun entry!

godsboss 2021-04-28 19:31

Beat the game on the first try, with two hearts left. I liked the varying enemies, especially the big ones which seemed to shield the firing tentacles, so I had to time eating the burgers (as they slowed me down).

youthfulidealism 2021-04-28 20:33

@cppchriscpp Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

`I do think the last wave might have been just a touch too tough, cutting down on the enemies just a little might’ve made it less painful.`

I definitely agree that the last wave is inconsistent with the difficulty curve of the rest of the game. Making that design choice was definitely a tradeoff--I wanted it to be just difficult enough to get the player to make more than one attempt (I think three attempts would be right on-target), but not so difficult that the player felt that it was unattainable. I didn't necessarily want everyone to see the end. I wanted that piece of humor to be a reward for the player who enjoyed the game enough to invest a little more into it, and I wanted it to feel like an acheivement.

That said, I am still a bit on the fence as to whether or not it was too much. It's difficult enough that I get through it maybe one in every four or five attempts, and I'm the one who made the game and has been playing it continually throughought development. Then again, I am unabashedly quite terrible at this kind of game. I'm definitely willing to countenance the idea that the last wave is too much to achieve my intent effectively.

`While it took me a few seconds to realize...`

Mdotedot also expressed this sentiment; I think I need to continue to work on my mechanic communication. Tutorials, man. Bane of my existence.

`I try to give some constructive feedback on any entry I rate`

Thanks, I really appreciate it! I'm kinda wishing for a mechanism to give out extra hearts on feedback. I want to show appreciation for everyone who took the time to comment on and play my game by hearting their comment, but answers that are both thorough and constructively critical like yours are the best, and it'd be nice to have a mechanism to reward them extra. It's always really nice to hear "I liked your game!" from people, but it doesn't help me to improve. "I liked your game, here's the stuff that was effective and here's the stuff that was ineffective" is so much more useful.

`I try to give some constructive feedback on any entry I rate, so I’ll mention that the audio got a little bit repetitive over time. Making the repeated loop a little bit longer, or adding another instrument might have helped.`

Agreed!

`There are some great sound effect generators out there`

I actually started the build with JSFXR, but I couldn't get the gamefeel I wanted with it. If there are other good audio generators, I'm all ears! A game like this really needs audio with "oomph".

I definitely agree that it's a bit ambiguous. With one exception, all the audio I used was from the [GDC audio bundles](https://sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc#1605030813191-c5a1f3d0-8baf), which are accessible to everyone. (The exception was a CC-0 sound from Freesound.) I've done my best to ensure everything was a derivative work... and while I technically downloaded all the sounds years before the event, the libraries are so big and I use them so rarely that I was essentially finding each sound from scratch. I'm fairly sure I'm in-line with the spirit of the rules (especially since I opted out of the audio voting), but I may indeed have broken the letter of the rules.

I appreciate your feedback and position. I may be able to do mic sounds in the future. If I can't do mic/generator sounds, I will certainly continue to opt out of audio voting.

jj2oo2 2021-04-28 20:49

That was great fun. Felt crunchy and lots of feedback on all controls. nice interplay of player speed, monster speed and power to create nice flow. I died on last bell health bar dammit. Thank you and very nice work

youthfulidealism 2021-04-28 20:50

Thanks, JJ! Glad you enjoyed it!

ladybenko 2021-04-28 21:26

This was fun to play although it doesn't really fit the theme. Anyway, good controls, and firing the laser felt really satisfying!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-28 21:28

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

jcmonkey 2021-04-28 21:34

nice game, the guy getting bigger then smaller was pretty neat

youthfulidealism 2021-04-28 21:40

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

kooky 2021-04-30 00:45

Big congrats on your first ever game jam!

I like that you tried to use the theme in an original and abstract way, and I love the logic you use to get from "Deeper and deeper" to "hamburger-powered mouth laser". Incredible. :)

Satisfyingly huge laser weapon (and knockback always makes weapons feel more meaty), and nice use of risk/reward gameplay with the collecting-burgers/speed-decreasing/charging-your-attack mechanic!

I definitely got Crypt of the Necrodancer vibes (one of its bosses in particular) from the setting you chose, is that where you took any inspiration from?

Also, out of curiosity, may I ask which engine you used?

Well done!

youthfulidealism 2021-04-30 01:31

@kooky I'm glad you liked it, thanks!

`I definitely got Crypt of the Necrodancer vibes (one of its bosses in particular) from the setting you chose, is that where you took any inspiration from?`

Nope! Crypt of the Necrodancer is one of those games I'd like to play, but haven't tried. I haven't made the purchase because I know I can't get a ton of use out of it; pumping that much music into my ears for an extended period would give me a headache.

`Also, out of curiosity, may I ask which engine you used?`

I wrote a Javascript (Typescript) engine for myself a few days before the event:

https://github.com/youthfulIdealism/js-engine/tree/88fa4593bf7ab28386be22dafa07724f6ccd3c15 (Specific version linked, if you go to https://github.com/youthfulIdealism/js-engine/ in a few days, I'll probably have taken a pass at fixing it and pushed an update)

It is currently not a good engine. The biggest misstep causes each render pass to be O(N) (where N is the total number of entities in the game, particles included). I used a lot of render passes, and was not shy about spawning a lot of entities or particles. This misstep can be fixed with a little elbow grease, however...

...There are also bigger developer-ergonomics issues with the engine. It's perfectly possible to write neat code with it, but doing so slows you down and spreads the code out into too many pieces. It is my fervent opinion that a library is not good if ergonomic issues encourage messy design, regardless of any internal neatness or performance.

It is currently my intent to radically redesign it. I'm probably going to move to something resembling an entity-component system.

I also need to find a way to make a fast dedicated particle system without dipping too deep into complex stuff like WEBGL. I like particles too much to want to worry about messing about with them.

I'll be sticking with Javascript for the time being, regardless of how I redesign it. Despite all it's bizarre quirks (I'm lookin' at you, "truthyness"), the iteration speed I get out of JS is unparalleled. Iterating quickly has real power.

youthfulidealism 2021-04-30 01:34

@kooky It occurred to me that I talked about what *wasn't* my inspiration without talking about what *was* my inspiration.

I built and released a game a couple years back. My failure to market the game aside, the biggest failing of the game was the gamefeel. It just didn't feel good to control. As a result, I've been experimenting with gamefeel for a couple years. I'm fascinated by it, and really want to get it nailed down well.

Other than playing games actively instead of passively, my biggest direct inspirations in gamefeel come from a talk Vlambeer gave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U

I definitely haven't mastered gamefeel yet, but I'm making a dedicated effort and have obviously come a long way since my last game.

icyysilver 2021-05-01 18:37

I really like this game!!! It is so much fun, I am hooked. Been trying to destroy the bell for so long, always die near the end :(

youthfulidealism 2021-05-01 19:48

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

logicon211 2021-05-01 23:53

Cool take on the theme. I ended up achieving my hamburger heaven ending.

youthfulidealism 2021-05-02 02:40

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

rhoff95 2021-05-04 00:27

Really cool game. Great concept, and it is really nice that the player acts as the UI of how many burgers you have eaten. Would love to see full game based on a more polished mechanic. Well done.

youthfulidealism 2021-05-04 00:28

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

leyamez 2021-05-08 21:31

Oh my god... Definitely the funniest game I've seen in a while! Played it live at https://www.twitch.tv/leyamez

I think the movement felt a little bit too restrictive when you had a lot of hamburgers, which made it really really hard to get more when they were across the map from each other.

Overall though, really fun to play, and a nice quick one too!

youthfulidealism 2021-05-08 21:56

@leyamez I watched! Thank you for playing it!

`I think the movement felt a little bit too restrictive when you had a lot of hamburgers, which made it really really hard to get more when they were across the map from each other.`

I totally agree. I'm a little conflicted whether the design is fundamentally flawed, or whether it leads to all the interesting gameplay. At higher levels of play, hamburger management becomes a critical issue--picking up lone hamburgers and offloading them onto the weak enemies in order to increase the odds that three hamburgers spawn next to each other and provide an opportunity to nail a strong enemy is the strategy.

If I increase the 3-hamburger player speed, then the projectiles are no longer a real threat.

I'm definitely in agreement that the chore of hauling your behind across the map to grab that third hamburger detracts from the fun significantly, particularly if you've killed off all the tiny enemies.

Perhaps is I made it so that the player could regurgitate hamburgers? That way, you could build a stockpile of hamburgers in a strategic location and then use them all at once? That seems interesting. I'm sort of tempted to do a post-jam version of this.

filgru 2021-05-09 14:57

Yeeaaaah! What an awesome game!! Very cool, simple, funny idea! I had a lot of fun eating hamburgers and shooting laser from my mouth :) This music is such a great choice! Cool character design and animations. Congrats! Great work!

youthfulidealism 2021-05-09 14:58

Thank you!

adamphoebe 2021-05-10 21:11

**Fun**: It was sometimes hard because of the slowdown because you got fatter, but never too stressing!

**Innovation**: Really funny and innovative idea! I laughed so hard!

**Theme**: Sorry m8, but I did not see anything indicating "Deeper and Deeper", so I'll have to give you a 1.

**Graphics**: Could be better, but they work!

**Humor**: Yes.

**Mood**: What do you even call this mood, this seems like you came up with this when you were high, I love it.

Overall: Great timewaster for a boring weekend.

youthfulidealism 2021-05-10 22:26

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

asdehielo 2021-05-11 11:34

Genius concept, great execution. I died in the last level, which was a bit frustrating, but I was hooked up enough to try again. And it was worth it, very funny ending!

One small suggestion: Maybe increase the rotation speed a little bit when you are shooting.

Very cool game, congrats!

youthfulidealism 2021-05-11 12:44

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

nsadie 2021-05-13 07:30

I really enjoyed that! I can see you put a lot of effort into gamefeel. I loved the controls and thought the mechanics were clever and well thought out!

Although I think the theme is a bit of stretch, I would much rather have this than ANOTHER mining or diving game ;) The idea of the theme is to make you creative, and that is what you deliver on!

youthfulidealism 2021-05-13 12:55

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!