hekateras 2023-05-01 10:30
Itch.io link still not working, I'll keep an eye out for when it updates
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD53 → The Infernal Trail
By tudvari
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 208 | 3.50 | 30 | |
| Fun | 204 | 3.37 | 30 | |
| Innovation | 182 | 3.41 | 30 | |
| Theme | 127 | 4.05 | 30 | |
| Graphics | 272 | 3.26 | 30 | |
| Audio | 250 | 2.96 | 30 | |
| Humor | 145 | 3.16 | 29 | |
| Mood | 309 | 2.86 | 28 |
Itch.io link still not working, I'll keep an eye out for when it updates
Interesting concept, would love to see a post jam submission with upgrades included!
just finished your game. Very nice! simple and interesting. The combat mechanic was impressively interesting having to always be in a a safe distance away. from the enemies. Well done! The road mechanic was also very nice. A bug I noticed is that sometimes I can create a road on top of the house.
@hekateras Thanks, now it should work. :)
@neonlare Thanks! Yeah, I'm also really thinking about it because this is my first entry that I actually enjoy playing! :smile:
@greenphox Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it and I'm glad that you could finish it. Hopefully others will say the same and finally I managed to achieve a game which is at the right difficulty. Lol, I forgot about houses. At one point you could place roads on mountains as well, so I fixed it, but totally forgot about the house. (by the way, I've just discovered a few minutes ago, that I forgot to implement that if the wagon dies, you actually lose. But I never encountered that scenario because it was always me that died first. :smile:
Anyway, thanks for already checking it out guys, appreciate it! :)
The game is pretty good, it's quite hard when the monsters arrive, they hit hard XD
I thought the game was a bit too easy at first, but the last two levels are actually rather challenging. I also ran into the road on the house issue, but it doesn't break the game, so no big deal. Maybe it would be interesting to prevent attacking behind cart/mountain, so that you are forced to get close to the ennemies ?
Anyway, great game, I would love to see it upgraded.
@castitatis @reo-silmetal So it is too hard, or well balances? :D
Yep, that's another improvement which could have been nice. And it wouldn't be hard to implement, just a simple raycast. Shoot, maybe next time I won't forget it. :| Thanks for the feedback, cheers!
I think it's rather balanced, maybe one more level in-between level 4 and 5 would smoothen the difficulty curve.
Nice, you too have a game where you have to time attacks just right. Nice! I loved the humour here and I think you got a fairly balanced game as you wished for, even though it was getting pretty hard towards the end. Great job here! If there was something I would improve, it's for the player to not register wagon's hitbox, because once I got stuck in the crevice, even though that was just me being stupid (I thought I would be able to destroy the walls and overlooked a correct way), but that's no biggie. :)
@dzejpi Hey Dzejpi, thanks for the feedback! :) Shoot, you could still get "crushed" to a wall by the wagon? I thought I fixed it by not going forward if something is in the way. Anyway, thanks! :)
Oof beatifull fun little game. Good writing in the tutorial good job!
I really liked the menu it is so simple and goodlooking, also music dose it job. I dont expect that the game would be so hard or it's just me, whe on lvl2 i got 6 guys suraunding me and messed me up pretty bad. On the next levels that stuff just escaletes.
I had a hard time when the ennemies started to spawn : it's difficult to think of a direction and avoid ennemies at the same time. It's like trying to solve a puzzle while people keep comming and try to punch you and the puzzle box. Also, the road placement had some bugs, sometimes I spammed the space bar, but it did nothing. The fact that control where the wagon will go when they are several path is quite frustrating too.
For now it's too hard for me, and I'm not sure if I saw all the features. it's too bad because I think the idea is intresting.
@hoeleboele Thanks! :)
@gmiss Hmm, 6 enemies surrounded you on level 2? But on the second level it's just 1 monster like every 10 seconds. And it takes like 3 seconds to kill one. Could you elaborate on this? Like what happened, what did you do and when? Maybe it's a bug, and in that case I should immediately fix it. :\ Thanks in advance! :)
@axelle-desquilbet Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I designed the game so the core game loop of the game is mostly like this in the early stages:
1. Use all your roads to move the wagon, 2. then while you wait for your "road counter" to refill, you kill the attacking enemies, 3. go back to the wagon, 4. repeat from step 1.
And in the latter, more hectic parts of the level, where monsters can get closer to your wagon, you have to do it parallely: lead your wagon by hitting space, while you are clicking on the attacking enemies.
With the space spamming, are you sure your "road counter" in the bottom right corner wasn't zero?
On the other issue, it's a bit strange. Because I designed all the maps in a way so that every path leads to the goal, and it takes around the same time. On most of the maps the goal is nearly visible instantly on your screen. And there is only like 1 map where there aren't mountains instantly in the bad direction, but after like 2 seconds of walk you see them.
Now that I think about it, maybe it's about screen resolution. I have only checked it on my 1440p monitor. What resolution did you play it? Maybe on smaller resolutions it's harder to see the mountain ranges?
Hmm.. Maybe I should have placed a "goal indicator" on the screen, so players always know where the goal is, even if it's not on the screen.
Thanks for all the valuable feedback guys! :)
Cool concept with building the actual road the wagon travels on, there are some fun things you could do with this mechanic. I would have preferred to have some ranged attacks, or at least a juicy axe or something. It was quite hard when the enemies spanned, as there are not many options for the player on how to handle the fight. I did enjoy the short little start music and jiggly start screen. Really neat compo entry, the features you planned could have spiced things up, but you delivered a working game with multiple levels. So hey, congrats!!
@stuembi Yeah, I wanted to make it much more juicier, with sword swinging, etc... but I was already out of time so I had to go with a simple particle effect. :D Ranged attacks would have been really nice as well, switching between melee and ranged could have spiced the game up a bit. Amyway, thanks for the feedback, hopefully next time I'll be able to manage my time a bit better! :D
@tudvari yes, like this:
2023-05-02_11-24-38.png
But like I said, that's just me being stupid, not like it makes any sense to do this. :D
@dzejpi Woah, thanks for sharing. I was so stupid that I used raycasting, and not i.e. circle casting. :D Thus once your collider is below or above the middle of the tile, the wagon no longer sees you and pushes you.
Most times this wouldn't cause an issue because if you are above or below the middle of tile, you would be pushed sideways. (Most times :D) But if you are surrounded by rocks you can't really be pushed sideways, I guess.
Nice find, appreciate it, thanks! :)
Really fun game only one encountered problem I paved road and the house disappeared. also with there were only particles when hitting an enemy instead of when punching, overall Great Game.
@triangle-point Thanks! Well, the house was still working under that road by the way, it's just a visual glitch. But still a glitch, so thanks. Hmm, there are (grey) particles everytime you attack, not just when you damage an enemy. Are you sure? Anyway, thanks! :)
Nice well balanced game. Liked the audio and was fun playing it. My suggestions would be to have added a highlight to the tile where the road will be placed if button is pressed.
@smdg Thanks for the feedback! :) It was planned, but then it fell down on the priority list because I thought that in most cases it's obvious where your character stands. But yes, there are edge cases certainly, it's a shame I didn't have time to add this neat little feature. :| Cheers!
A fun little game with enjoyable writing. my biggest complaint is that it could've used an indicator for where the path would be placed as I did have it place it in the "wrong" spot.
@peachtreemcgee Thanks! :) Well, then now it's obvious that I should have implemented that indicator, a lot of you requested it. :) Thanks for playing!
That's a lot of fun. I enjoyed trying to decipher your spawn mechanics and AI to cheese the game. Those upgrades I imagined were really good too :)
https://youtu.be/noKMhbgA9yw
Managed to reach Day 5 before finally being overwhelmed 4 squares away from the goal :) All in all a solid experience I thoroughly enjoyed!
It was pretty tough for me, placing roads was a bit of weird experience. I see you kind of worked around the difficulty instead of making it smoother. I felt weak and unprepared, ah its a dangerous world out there.
I'm really enjoying this game, but the click effects seem unclear so sometimes I'm having a hard time trying to attack the zombies. It would be also nice if you make the cooldown between attacks clearer (maybe giving a cooldown bar) so we can see how long we have to wait until the next attack and can time it properly. Overall, I love the game and managed to beat all the levels :laughing:
@bangkerpow Glad to hear that, and thanks for recording it, I'll watch it for sure! :)
@balimaarthebassfish Thanks for the kind words and congrats for reaching so far! :) I never really thought about calling the levels "days", it's a cool idea, it would have made "story" a bit more continuous. But I guess I'd had to explain why monsters don't attack you at night. :D
(By the way, there was one idea, that there would be day-night cicles. During each level, you prepare & move during the day, then fight & move during the night)
@zealous-coder Oh, sorry to hear that. :| I did a few playtests, but I guess I should have done more! :smile: It felt okay at the time. I was able to easily complete the first 5, but more and more movement, reflex, etc. was required. They were getting harder and harder till on the 5th one I nearly failed. So I thought I need another one, a last level, which I should be able to complete only on the second or third try. I thought that if I balance it this way based on me, it would be challenging enough and not too easy for other players. But I guess I always forget how much easier it is for the developer. Noted! :slight_smile:
@pralista Congrats! Thanks for playing, it feels good to hear that it's beatable! :smile: Yep, most likely the UI was blocking your attacks. :cry: I forgot to fix it, sorry! And I also forgot about the cooldown bar. Though it was planned. At least now I know that I had the right idea about it. Thanks!
@tudvari That is a fine strategy, I think what was bugging me was kind of weird, I don't know if it is input related or hit box. It led to a little frustration. Balancing the challenge the way you did I think is fine. I think though there is a balance between making something difficult and making some frustrating. So like in the design if you made the placement of roads really easy you'd probably have to increase the difficulty somewhere else to compensate.
I just played it again and I know what it is, I expected the placement of the roads to be at the characters feet but I think you are using the center of the sprite. I'll see how far I can get now.
@zealous-coder Oh yes, I'm using the sprite's center, sorry! :D Thanks for the detailed explanation regarding difficulty, you are totally right, I'll keep them in mind. Thanks! :)
Pretty good entry. Interesting idea. You could try to make width of dialogs a little bit wider for better look. Good job! ;-)
I liked it. nice game. Simple design, but nice on the gameplay. :D i thought the messages were neat too, i remember believing that upgrades went somewhere, but most of all the game was a SNAP!
@commanderstitch Thanks Stitch! :) Well, the upgrades went somewhere, because your health increased, your attack damage, range, radius increased... you just can't allocate them yourself. :D Thanks for playing, appreciate it! :)
@paveldlouhy Thanks for the feedback, will do, cheers! :)
Nice game, skeletons look pretty badass! I like I can maneuver enemies into positions where they cannot hit me but I can hit them. If they won't spawn on random positions but go from a couple of predictable places, it could have even more strategic gameplay. I like the main mechanics, where you need to wait till you can put another road block. Cool entry!
@jiri-hysek thanks Jiri, I'm really on the verge of continuing its development :D
Nice game, really reminds me of "Unrailed" paired with "Wild Woods". Only one type of attack (afaik) meant that options are exhausted really quickly. I felt like the roads should be placed at the feet, misplaced roads from time to time, because I expected it to be further down on the character.
@lyxali Thanks for the feedback! Woah, Wild Woods is really really similar, wishlisted! I wonder how it will go, now I don't have to make a market research, I'll have to just wait for their game to come out! :D
Yeah, I should have put the roads at the character's feet instead of the center, and ranged or some other kind of attacks are a must have! I planned to have more, but ran out of time. Thanks for playing, cheers! :)
That's a cool idea and a great game! I like the polish in UI, these little animations and good-looking buttons. The game's color palette is neat, very coherent! I enjoyed pixel art and an Unrailed-inspired music track. As for the gameplay, moving around and combat feel a bit awkward, build bar fills too slow, most of the game is a passive waiting in the area, where there's nothing meaningful to do, since the enemies are not that interesting to fight with. Maybe, some more sophisticated battle system would suit the game well.
Anyway, it was fun to play! Here's my playthrough. https://youtu.be/w9KR_2J2dTA
@yngvarr Hey Yngvarr, thanks for the kind words! :) The Unrailed track similarity was fully accidental. :D Just as the colour palette. Surprisingly at one point, the color scheme of the game was no longer ugly. :laughing:
Yeah, I guess if the combat would have been a bit less boring, the fighting around the wagon while waiting could have been a bit more fun. But I guess in the original concept there would have been no waiting because you would have to wander off to collect stuff. :D Who knows, maybe I should give it a few hours to implement that part of the game as well, and see how it goes.
Thanks for the playthrough, it was fun to watch! :)
@tudvari, funny, I thought periods of silence was also a tribute to Unrailed. XD
If you want a reference for melee combat, take a look at [Streets of Rogue](https://store.steampowered.com/app/512900/Streets_of_Rogue/). The author mentioned that he struggled with making combat more fun too, and what he came up with turned out to be a lot of fun. =)
@yngvarr ahh, no, I just got a lot of feedback previously that playing the music 24/7 is annoying. So now I always implement a waiting/silent period between 2 replays of the same music. :D Thanks, it do seems fun, I'll check it out! :)
The wagon movement was pretty buggy and almost soft-locked me a few times (on rocks or going back to the starting point). Other than that though this was a pretty fun game.
The difficulty felt perfect, I was always worried about losing, but always managed to scrape through last second
Great work!
@lone-wolf Yeah, the wagon it a bit strange, and it even changes from machine to machine! :D Thanks for playing, appreciate your kind words, finally I could hit a good difficulty curve. :)
Hi guys, I've updated the description with the just finished post mortem! :) It wax exhausting, but really fun! What do you think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wXzGgvJpTA