FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD57 → Dead & Buried

Dead & Buried

By frogravity

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall443.9420
Fun463.7520
Innovation533.8020
Theme1153.7220
Graphics204.3320
Audio463.8320
Humor54.3620
Mood384.0020

Comments

badpinkchicken 2025-04-07 09:33

Adibuuuu

dnp 2025-04-07 10:07

It was a nice surprise for the mechanics to change up as the game progressed. It was looking to be a rather bland puzzle game, but it turned into something interesting. It would be cool if there was an alternate ending if you ignored John's advice and didn't launch the zombies into space.

zirrrus 2025-04-07 17:55

I really enjoyed this. Short and sweet, looks great _and_ has very nice audio.

busisen 2025-04-07 19:55

I love the presentation and overall feel (much thanks to the graphics and audio, and John), and it was surprisingly engaging once it got started - also appreciate you putting the palette in the description, got it bookmarked now :) great submission!

frogravity 2025-04-07 21:29

@badpinkchicken - I didn't know this character, but they do indeed look very similar :)

@dnp - Thank you! Yeah, that's a great idea! I originally wanted to do something like that, but ran out of time unfortunately...

@zirrrus - Thanks! The audio was a bit rushed, so happy to hear you liked it!

@busisen - Thank you! It's a very cool palette indeed :)

straightupgruntled 2025-04-08 21:05

This was a quite fun and charming little game! The audio was fantastic, interactions felt great, and the humor and story was fantastic! The mechanics of moving the coffins into graves is fun, and trying to place things near each other is fun as well.

I think if you planned to expand upon it at all or polish it, I think adding some sort of time limit or penalty could be interesting, and provide some really great challenge. Right now the game starts to get repetitive a bit (The use of new things introduced each day though was great, and the humor won me over!), but maybe zombies start to appear and attack the existing graves or something, and you have to click on them to attack them and defend. Or maybe it's kind of like those party games where you get orders over time, and there's a time limit per day. That way it feels more frantic, and there's more skill involved with what the player can do.

Very well polished short experience, and great for the scope of the jam!

thomas-bringer 2025-04-09 07:51

Great one! Scored 51050. The humor/writing is fantastic. I really loved how each level is a little different, keeping the game fresh and interesting at all times. I'd suggest maybe having the name of the deceased always show up on the grave, not just when hovering the mouse over it (although, keep the details when hovering the mouse over cause that's cool), it would make the gameplay a bit smoother. Overall very cool entry!

milq 2025-04-09 11:52

Wow! What a great game! I had such a good laugh with John Jones, what a fantastic character! The graphics are really well done. At first, I wasn’t quite sure how to keep the family members together (I wasn’t sure if the dirt path was meant to separate them or not) but that confusion only lasted a moment. The "depths" theme couldn’t have been chosen better, ha ha. I absolutely loved this game, and for something made in just 48 hours, I’m seriously impressed. Hats off to you, great game!

captaindreamcast 2025-04-09 18:43

John Jones the type of guy who doesn't let death, a big hole or even a rocket bring him down, inspiring.

Hilarious game from start to finish! The interactions with Jones, the texts on the coffins (guy who died of not drinking during a game jam, rip) and the overall escalation of getting rid of the zombies all culminating in the hilarious ending. Wonderful from start to finish, I laughed out loud multiple times!

I think the game also really nailed the horror mood, when you see the day text pop up with the ominous ambience, you know something is going to happen, there is a feeling of approaching dread as Jones becomes more peculiar. Art has a nice cartoony quality that goes well with the humorous vibes of the game (Jones in particular is, again, incredibly charming). Gameplay was very fun as well, it threw a couple of loops with the disappearing coffins and the day where you have to remember where everyone is while you go to the underground screen. Plus the element of planning to maximize the family bonuses. I didn't play perfectly optimally, but I still think I managed to get an okay score, I had families together for nearly every coffin:

42k.PNG

Very well done game, great job! Had a great time playing it!

frogravity 2025-04-10 13:25

@straightupgruntled - Thank you! Glad you enjoyed placing coffins! Yeah, the core gameplay is definitely very basic, adding time-based mechanics could work!

@thomas-bringer - Thanks a bunch, and that's a great score! I was worried about screen space, but turns out it could totally work with the small font - good idea!

@milq - Thank you! Glad you liked it, especially the theme! Good to hear the family mechanic wasn't too confusing.

@captaindreamcast - Thank you so much! Super happy you enjoyed so many part of it, especially the horror/comedy mix!

fupi 2025-04-10 18:38

Oh this is so charming!! You think it's just gonna be a clever lil puzzle game but then the story takes a turn and suddenly you're sending hordes of zombies to space! I was really enjoying the actual puzzle too, it makes you think! Very cute graphics too. Short and sweet, well done all around!

jovialknoll 2025-04-12 04:43

Gorgeous game. Not just sprites, but the backgrounds, the UI, how the text is laid out, the little flourishes in all of those, graphically one of the best games I've played from this jam so far. Music / audio very nearly as good. Humor is a home run as well, actually funny without trying too hard.

Innovative gameplay, but I think I would have had more fun if there were more layers on top. "next to family members" for points is good, I'd like to see it scale up from there, maybe that becomes mandatory once the big hole opens up, and we keep adding more placement restrictions or opportunities for bonus points (say placing coffins of the same color adjacent, or one family needing to be away from another, etc). Plenty of room to add to something like this, could even be randomly generated. Lots of potential here if you wanted to develop further.

artel 2025-04-12 20:16

Cohesive and polished visuals.

zimny11 2025-04-13 08:14

Well done! What an idea for a game :D Manged to get 51050 at the end. I know it is a game jam, but I really want more interactions, like people who did not like each other and you need to figure that out from their description. I think I have nothing really to add to this, since game is really well polished.

eugenik 2025-04-14 08:14

nice game!.

mikeliosus 2025-04-15 16:33

Monosnap DeadAndBuried 2025-04-15 20.31.36.png

It is a very nice idea and approach to a theme. I would love to play cemetery management simulator. :D

jhax 2025-04-18 11:09

It's a very fun interpretation of the theme, and the core like scoring system's good for pushing you to think ahead about placements. The story line's great for adding to the fun of it all as well, and doesn't over-stay its welcome!