Stalk: Blood Harvest

jk5000 2023-01-18 11:14

This feels like a very classic unreal engine game. Okay you made a game, and it is always fun to shoot zombies. For me the game misses a personality, but you have hopefully learned a bit about making games in UE5.

mohamed-dkd 2023-01-18 16:40

Very nice game idea, I love how you linked zombie hordes with harvesting and protecting your plants :smiley: , but here are a few points to keep in mind for future improvements and other jams: -Add more screenshots to the game to make it clear what does the game involve -Try to limit file sizes in game jams, not everyone loves the idea of downloading an almost half gigabyte game -itch.io is better than google drive as it allows the game to be shown to more people, and jammers are more familiar with it -the enemies just disappearing doesn't feel rewarding, especially since you already have attack animation -the game needs more sounds -The enemies almost never attack the crops, so you need to balance between attacking the player and the plants -remember to play other people's games to receive more feedback on your game

On the plus side, one thing I really liked about your game is how you start without a weapon and then go and pick it up. It is a small detail, but very lovely (it feels as if you were farming and then switched to "killing" mode)

lizelive 2023-01-24 23:43

nice game, but kinda soulless. very good graphics made in the time span!

hawkin 2023-01-25 01:39

It seems like you are just starting out on your game dev journey, so you should be congratulated! It takes drive and courage to start a project and then share it, especially on a tight timeline. Here are a few things to consider for future projects.

1. Purpose

A game should really give the player a sense of purpose. Why am I playing the game? What is my motivation? You had "crop health" on the screen, but it didn't seem to actually track anything. I let the zombies get close, but they didn't seem interested in it. If the point of the game is to play the game, that's not much of a motivation at all.

2. Urgency

In an action oriented game, a sense of urgency will heighten the experience of the player. "Not only do I need to do this, but I _need to do it now_ or else something bad will happen." For example, it was good that zombies started to chase me if I got too close. That's good! But the zombies mostly seemed to wander on the edge of the field by default. Very rarely did they seek me out. This left me to seek _them_ out instead, which turned the game into more of a chore than a defense.

3. Reward

Feedback is a __major__ component of good design. How does the player know that they are doing the right thing? Or the wrong thing? How do they know if they are doing the right thing _really well_? Here are some examples: blood squirts or zombie reactions to being hit with bullets. Without that, I have to guess that I'm hitting them. When the player gets hit, you spawned some sort of symbol (at first I thought it was maybe health I could pick up). There are better ways to warn the player that they are being damaged (e.g., flashing lights, or a red vignette, or sound effects). Finally, most people are familiar with headshots being especially effective against zombies. Reward the player for being a _really_ good shot, and they will be motivated to try and get better and better. If it doesn't matter where I shoot them, I'll go for the easiest shot.

Thanks for the submission! I made sure to give it some time so I could look for specific feedback :)

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(Unfortunately, many people might find this a bit prohibitive to rate! The download is nearly half a GB, and Unreal isn't the most ubiquitous. Somebody made a blog post about it not too long ago, [worth a read for the perspective](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/harvest-from-your-success/unreal-engine-is-a-master-of-making-games-that-people-dont-want-to-play). Just something to think about if you are wanting to continue with game development!)