Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD48 → Coffin Drop
By cdunham and jkoftekian
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1445 | 3.20 | 29 | |
| Fun | 1430 | 2.98 | 29 | |
| Innovation | 870 | 3.25 | 30 | |
| Theme | 1478 | 3.14 | 30 | |
| Audio | 817 | 3.30 | 28 | |
| Mood | 1311 | 3.19 | 28 |
Interesting idea in concept, but the UX really drags it down. I can't figure out how the charge-up meter for digging holes works, it's like it only works when I let go of the button? Would be nice if picking up an item while already holding one just swapped the two items. Shovels need to do more damage. Would be nice if I could trick zombies into falling into holes and stunning or slowing them with that.
@koboldskeep Once you left click on a dig spot you start interacting with it. When the bar is filled up all the way it should finish digging and leave a hole to put coffins in. Same thing when putting coffins into those holes. Hope this helps!
I had a similar issue with the controls but I did figure it out :P I do think this is a fun idea, and throwing the shovels at the zombies was unexpectedly fun/hilarious. Good job! Very impressive for (essentially) a one man team
@animatrix1490 For some reason only the shovel interaction is slightly delayed at the end. Glad you figured it out though. Thank you both for playing!
I agree with previous commenters on the controls, but other than that it seems well polished. I like the concept and I think it has a lot of potential.
@romanempire Thanks, glad you liked it!
Ooh this is a really unique idea! I like the item management, only being able to hold one item at a time adds a lot of chaos to the gameplay (in a good way)! The item pickup can be a bit finicky - sometimes I'd try to pick up one coffin out a pile, and instead I'd pick up a nearby shovel or weapon - but it wasn't a major issue. I could definitely see this being added onto. Nice job!
@brainloaf-studio Glad you liked it! Had to spend some extra time making throwable items more fun to use. In hindsight, I probably should've added some UI to indicate what item you're closest to or something. Either that or make the pickup range for items much smaller. I thought it played better if the range was bigger though, it'd probably be frustrating for players when they try to grab items from too far away and fail.
Interesting game. The respawn for the zombies was way too fast. By the time you kill the hoard following you, open the grave, throw your gun, pick up a shovel, kite the hoard that just respawned, switch tools again, kill, switch tools, and bury, everything is respawned with additional ones thrown in.
kind of fun, was having trouble figuring out how to bury the zombie steaks
@aaranos Fair enough, that was one thing that I was worried about. I didn't have much time to balance the game. Because of that it ramps up fairly quickly. To be fair though, as long as you don't die you can last a while.
@nikolaj Gotta dig a hole with a shovel, put the coffin in, then use the shovel to fill the hole. Hope this helps!
That was a very interesting idea for a survival game. However, I think that burying the coffins should make the zombies not resurrect at all. Otherwise I feel like it's not worth it, as it takes too much time and it's too risky to let go of the weapon.
The game is very fun and satisfying to play though, good job!
This is really good! Perfect theme, music fits the mood, and the mechanics are refreshing (as is the world's best pistol - I enjoyed that surprise!)
Funny design and concept, yet felt harder to play than it could be. Pity, you can't use shovel and coffin to fight the Z's back. Enemies could have some comic version of pitched Bomb Man from Serious Sam sfx. Overall quite cute, and there seems to be enough digging with gunfire.
@asdehielo At first I was going to make it so they never resurrected, but then I would've had to make the map really big with lots of dig spots or make everywhere diggable, which I tried to do at first but gave up on. I really should've just made the resurrect really slow, but I didn't have time to balance out and test different spawn rates for things. Glad you liked it though!
@aquasheep3000 @ardorugus Glad you guys liked it, thanks for playing!
Neat design and concept, but it's a pretty clunky interface and a little cumbersome. I was confused about how exactly to dig the holes, the input seemed rather strange. I thought I should hold the mouse down but that made the system not work. Some more audio design would add a lot to the experience. I think the main thing that stops it from being a 'fun' experience is the lack of reward for objective completion (audio / powerups / weapons / less zombies / etc). Though I understand, it is still an impressive accomplishment for a weekend. Nice job :) Also, if there is anything worth expanding on, it's the throwing mechanic. It makes me laugh every time.
@hankworx Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed the throwing mechanic as much as I did! If I do expand it, I'll probably tweak the digging so people understand it easier lol
This was a super interesting take on the typical wave-based shooter. I was a bit surprised to see that I couldn't carry more than one item at once, but it definitely added to the challenge in a good way. Unfortunately I think the dominant strategy here is to just keep the gun up and shoot the zombies, pulling coffins off the line as necessary. I think making the coffins take longer to spawn zombies could be good, or maybe just making zombies not drop coffins once killed. Both of those things would slow the difficulty progression down a bit, which I think would give people more time to learn the ropes at the start. Either way, this was a cool proof of concept. Nice work!
@morrilet Glad you liked it! I wanted the players to have to juggle items rather than just hold onto one of them the whole time. While you can just shoot the zombies forever, you won't get more points until you start burying them. I should've played around with the numbers and spawns a little better so difficulty ramped up at a better pace. Thanks for the feedback!
The game didn't want to load in either Firefox or Chrome (linux), but this sounds like one of the most original ideas I've seen so far :)
i like the concept of the game although there are a few things that need polishing. some sort of respawn indicator would be nice for each coffin. i like the idea of trying to juggle items although it does need a little work as i often picked up with wring item and it seemed to favor picking up coffins. another thing that kept tripping me up is the completion bar when digging was too short and would show that it was complete before the hole appeared. lastly i feel that there needs to be a bigger reward for burying a coffin due to how long it takes as it doesn't seem worth it other than to get "points" (maybe some health back for each complete bury could be nice)
although there is a bit of work that i feel could be done these are all adjustments or extras and not problems with the game itself. the shooting felt nice especially when mowing down a hoard of zombies and the movement was smooth.
@hilkojj Yeah, sorry I have no clue how Linux builds for these things work. If I knew I'd make builds for all systems. Glad you like the idea!
I liked the non-literal take on the theme! The UX does drag it down a bit, but it's a neat game overall. The audio work is really nice, it adds a lot to the atmosphere.
@themightytrout Thanks for playing! Like I mentioned to someone else, we wanted to have money and a store for upgrades instead of just a score but there wasn't enough time to implement that whole thing. If there was time we could've done more polish, but I'm mostly happy with what we ended up with.
Really intriguing! I like that it's not just about killing the zombies, there's an element of management to it. Where should you bury them, what's the most optimal way of making sure they stay down as long as they can?
I think if there was a more noticeable ramp-up of challenge (more zombies over time, faster zombies, etc) you'd have a solid arcade game on your hands. Good work!
I like the shooting mechanic but I wish you could carry both the gun and the shovel and swap between vs dropping one to pick up the other.
@ditam Thanks, glad you liked it!
@dan-mcalister Glad you liked it! If I had more time to balance I could've added some better balancing to the game, but I'm overall happy with what I ended up with.
@frompdx That's part of the challenge, having to manage your resources and juggle the items. Glad you liked the shooting though.