kali-mccord 2022-04-05 04:29
This game is ingenious and so fun to play. The music really sets the scene and every level is a blast. Wonderful job!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD50 → Hearts Ablaze
By jon-topielski, mafgar and Apphons6
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 16 | 4.36 | 51 | |
| Fun | 11 | 4.39 | 51 | |
| Innovation | 295 | 3.69 | 51 | |
| Theme | 206 | 4.08 | 51 | |
| Graphics | 66 | 4.53 | 51 | |
| Audio | 11 | 4.54 | 50 | |
| Humor | 339 | 3.59 | 49 | |
| Mood | 189 | 4.00 | 47 |
This game is ingenious and so fun to play. The music really sets the scene and every level is a blast. Wonderful job!
I loved playing this game! It feels very polished. Little things like screen-shake and the various difficulty modes and power-ups all work together to give the game a lot of depth.
The game is just fun. It had me coming back for multiple rounds. Congrats on completing an awesome jam entry!
- the pixel art graphics are great - the music SFX are nice - good polish over all - had a few situations were the gun seemed to shoot in a different direction then I was aiming - looks like someone was really hoping for the 'single resource' theme to win.
Gameplay is intense and fun! Musics are so great that I wanted to stay in the improve skill more longer haha
At first, I have encountered a bug where I was not able to move, after refreshing the page is was fine.
It's a quite impressive, congrats!
oh this was super fun! really loved the graphics, especially the dead animations and bullets were done really well oh oh oh and the yeeeeehaw sfxs and music nailed that western feel <3 <3 <3
Really neat jam game! I really love the sound effects and overall juice, very nuclear throne-like.
no notes. love this game!
Love your stuff. I feel like I always play your games and then think "oh this reminds me a a lot of another jam game I played" and I click the profile and you made that game too.
I also encountered the movement bug a few times (had to come to these comments to find out you could move) and it's a little difficult IMO, hard to last more than a few levels which is a shame bc I want to see all the upgrades
Hello Aphons and team,
All around this game was awesome! Loved the feeling and western aesthetic. The sound design specifically was very nice. The only thing I had to doc points on was the innovation. I've seent his game concept done quite a lot in game jams so it's not super original.
Other than that, great work :D
i think its a super cute game i love the music, art style and the bonus system. super cute. the camera felt a bit laggy but i think thats because you made it pixel perfect
Great game here. Loved the visuals and the audio. My main gripe though is that I really feel that all enemies should spawn health pickups on death. It was rather frustrating going into the next level with little to no health, and very little chances of replenishing it. Apart from that, it's a good entry none the less
Incredible! Really impressive presentation and enjoyable all around. I think a lot of arcade-style games fit pretty naturally underneath the umbrella of "delaying the inevitable," but this game integrates it better than the average arcade game submission might, though I suppose there is that there isn't a lot you can actually do to delay your death other than not getting hit and not missing shots, and maybe getting lucky with pickups on top of that.
great game, felt very punishing with the timer shots, upgrades, and being hit all reducing your life. but its a well polished game
The presentation and gameplay feel are flawless. What I'd say though is maybe look into roguelike generation/pacing a bit more. A good roguelike is one where you can get consistent results despite the different obstacles it throws at you if you're good enough. With this game I felt like I'd get stuff like a whole bunch of blocks surrounding me at level 1 with no way to access enemies and that's just instant gg. I'd also recommend having an enemy tracker that kicks in on the last few enemies OR as an upgrade. The challenge of the game should be being accurate and resource management, I don't think actually finding the fight, which is truly just RNG (as you must choose a direction to go no matter what with no idea about the minimap on limited time,) should be part of the difficulty, and you'd benefit a lot from reducing that.
All that being said, it is a game jam, and I REALLY liked this one. The bullet drawing on the menu was a nice touch!
Really cool entry. I survived something like 15seconds to 90 seconds, so ti's an incredibly fast game. I was wondering if scattering collectables, which give you a lil bit of health would make the game longer, while still keeping you in motion - if well balanced this might be cool. I also really enjoyed the art. I especially loved the heart graphic, which felt a lot like from amiga games, while the rest of the game felt more flat shaded. While I really like the heart, I wondered if a more similar artstyle for it, than for the rest of the game might be better. Anyways, cool thing you got going, it's one of those games for which a ton could be added post jam.
soo cool! love the music and sfx :-)
yessss! reminder me so much SunsetRiders for SNES!! Even the "IHAAAAA" scream! Nice game! I missed staying alive longer, i died three times at floor 2, but its ok, i had fun anyway! nice game!!! please continue :)
Amazing music, amazing art, smooth game play, good design! The whole package! Bravo!
Right off the bat, I was impressed by the quality of the music and pixel art. The small details like the gunshots in the menu were the cherries on top of this already fun game!
This was a really complete package! Did you brainstorm this for 'only 1 resource' theme? Either way it worked here as well. Loved the sound and music ALOT. Gameplay was also fun and the upgrade system was very nice.
its fun!!! i kept playing new runs even after telling myself i had to stop and get back to work. the visuals and audio are top tier!!!
This is so good & legit! The sounds in particular make it very satisfying. Also I really appreciate the "1 more" message.
Awesome entry. Reminded me a lot of Nuclear Throne. Great art, soundtrack and utilization of the theme. Keep it up!
Wow, I think this is probably my favourite submission I've played so far!
Things I liked:
- There is so much polished feedback that adds to the gamefeel. From the screen shake when you blow up terrain, to the many little FX animations. Even the little message that tells you when there is 1 enemy left is such a nice quality of life touch. The whole thing just feels insanely polished for a jam game. - I loved the audio. The music is catchy and perfectly matches the tone of the game. All the SFX that you need is there and sounds high quality. - The use of a single resource for time, health, and ammo is a really cool idea and makes this game fit the theme perfectly. It really did feel inevitable that I was going to lose (and quickly!) - I love the way you implemented upgrades where instead of picking them up in the world, you have to make a decision between levels. This adds a nice aspect of strategy (especially since you can skip upgrades) - The art is a very cool style. Any single screen shot wouldn't be some super impressive piece of art but it's all so readable and useable in a game setting that while you're playing you're just thinking "damn this game looks good". Really great job, Alphons!
What I think could be improved:
- I did feel like the difficulty could be scaled back slightly (on Easy) so that you could have a little more time to learn the mechanics without having to restart over and over. Then you could move onto the harder difficulties without having already played the game 10 times. - I think it could be explained a little more clearly that things like the shotgun or the exploding shot use a lot more health to fire. You kinda just have to learn this stuff by trial and error. I wouldn't say this would be an issue in a full game, but for a jam game I think it's good to overexplain (people only want to spend like 10 minutes playing these generally) - While I love the art, it looks very grid based which doesn't match the free movement very well. However, I'm assuming this was probably a choice because of the lack of time with a jam. Also, to save some time I think you could have gotten away with a single 3/4 facing direction for the enemies. - I think some health pickups on the ground would have been a nice touch and served to let you extend the runs a little longer if you were quick in your exploration
Overall, I was blown away by this game. Like I said, I think it's my favourite I've played so far!
This is nothing short of excellent for a jam game. Solid all around, and REALLY fun!
A very polished game for a jam project! The theme is represented tremendously well, and would've been right at home with the "one resource" theme as well.
The aesthetics are fun and coherent, the gameplay is fast enough to encourage multiple attempts, and the upgrades are interesting. Amazing work.
Really well done, lots of fun! The mechanic feels balanced and engaging, and fits the theme very well. It made me keep wanting to play another round. The difficulty was pretty extreme. The "easy" difficulty could have probably been medium/hard. But overall, amazing work!
Not my usual type of game, but really fun! HP and ammo being one and the same is certainly an innovative touch that I don't think I've ever seen before. Graphics and sound were awesome too.
Really polished entry! Love the bullet holes on the menu. Everything was very cohesive and an overall great experience. Good work!
Very well done! I enjoyed the fact that the players' life was used in multiple ways. Each death was fairly quick so I ended up playing it a few times, which is a good sign!
Overall a very good entry!
The game looks very polished. Great art and fitting music and sounds! I do think that it was slightly too unforgiving. Having easy mode be more rewarding with more hearts and a bigger increase in health per heart I think would have been nice. None the less, a great game, well done!
Thanks for the game!
Ohh, excellent entry! I didn't expect the upgrade system. Very polished indeed. It controlled well and looked very nice! Loved the art.
Perfectly executed little roguelike. Very fun. Would love to see this with a bit of story and maybe tipping a bit into a more roguelite territory, but otherwise no complaints.
This is one of the better entries for this jam!
To start off, the controls are well-mapped and intuitive. The animation (and the moving camera) is fluid, and the pixel art is well-drawn! The music fit the mood of the look that the game is going after, and the sound effects are well-polished. Though I usually would criticize the audio for being too polished than the graphics, I'll let this slide since it's really well-done. The UI and the hand-drawn, pixellated font faces also add to the immersive experience.
As for the gameplay, using one's own life as their ammo is quite the innovative approach, since this sort of feature I usually see in RPGs, but tailoring it to a near-roguelike shooter is what makes it on the innovative side, making this also a survival game. The randomized powerups at the end of a level are also a plus.
One critique I have is that I could not get past the second level since the player character retains the life over from the first level. Maybe have it so that the player's life can be partially restored depending on difficulty and on how quickly one takes care of the enemies in the room.
Overall, a pretty great game! Congratulations! :thumbsup:
Damn, such a fun game! Loving it in every aspect. I was having trouble getting the character to move and thought stationary gameplay was a feature... :D
What a cool game! I included it in my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/QO-q-Xmgol0
Awesme tp shter game