LudumData

The Guardian by Bastienre4

[raw]
made by Bastienre4 for LD32 (JAM)
Here's our entry : The Guardian.

In this game, you will use your own pixels as your weapon. It also mean that you loose life when you are shooting ! Be smart and avoid fights as much as possible.

You need to protect the forest !
It's really important to finish the game in order to understand the message and to fully appreciate the mood and the audio of the game.

WASD (or the arrows) to move, Space (or UpArrow) to jump, Left mouse button to shoot.

NOTE : The transition glitch should be fixed now.

WebGL player -> We had a lot of issues with it, so we won't provide a webgl build. For the next LD maybe.

Team : Meghan Martin (Graphics), Adam Coyne (Musics and Sounds), Bastien Giafferi (Code)
Web http://bastien-giafferi.fr/player/TheGuardian/index.html
Windows http://bastien-giafferi.fr/files/Windows_TheGuardian.zip
OS/X http://bastien-giafferi.fr/files/OSX_TheGuardian.zip
Linux http://bastien-giafferi.fr/files/LINUX_TheGuardian.zip
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=45409

Ratings

Coolness 94% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.80 108
Audio(Jam) 4.16 24
Fun(Jam) 3.60 165
Graphics(Jam) 4.12 134
Humor(Jam) 2.28 790
Innovation(Jam) 3.60 204
Mood(Jam) 3.89 75
Theme(Jam) 4.12 52

Feedback

Modoc73
20. Apr 2015 路 10:08 UTC
Nice art, and seems like an interesting game. Good music too. But I can't get any further than the 1st robot. the floor isn't rendering??
馃帳 Bastienre4
20. Apr 2015 路 10:16 UTC
@Modoc73 : Thanks. What browser are you using ? The floor should be grey. Can you send me a screenshoot ? There might be a bug sometimes between the scene transition. I'll fix that in few minutes.
ajopart
20. Apr 2015 路 10:18 UTC
Nice entry. Good concept. Should have been possible to get back some live through the levels. I came just short at the end... Nice art too. Congrats !
馃帳 Bastienre4
20. Apr 2015 路 10:24 UTC
#ajopart : Thank you so much ! The fact that the player can regain life is on purpose. We really wanted the player to be really careful about that in order to force him to play hidden and to give more impact to the end of the story.
Tipyx
20. Apr 2015 路 10:34 UTC
I'm so in love of the music :3
Good job, even I die when I win :p.
And some collision bugs :p
morazor
20. Apr 2015 路 12:21 UTC
I really like how music, pixel art, story and gameplay blend together. Good job guys!
MRvanderPants
20. Apr 2015 路 12:24 UTC
The game is really well polished! Love that you just chuck away parts of your body, it's a neat take on the theme.
Multiplexor
20. Apr 2015 路 12:29 UTC
Lovely art and killer music! In my first run i was bugged (I kept on walking until I fell down) But when i tried again i was able to finish, the game is a bit short, but i liked the stealth concept and the mood overall
馃帳 Bastienre4
20. Apr 2015 路 12:31 UTC
@morazor : Thank you really much for your comment !

@MRvanderPants : Thank you ! :)

@Multiplexor : Yeah, this happen sometimes (i don't know why). I'll try to fix that. Thank you !
ManicMiner
20. Apr 2015 路 12:54 UTC
Wow - that's a lovely experience you guys have built there. I wish it was a little longer, as the stealth gameplay was nice, and the trade-off with shooting enemies and losing pixels could be a nice balance between instant-fail stealth and making the player not just run and gun the levels. Great idea!

Also, that music! It feels like its building to something awesome but I guess it never gets there, but wow - talk about atmospheric! the volume swell in the final third of the loop is AMAZING!
pavel_insight
20. Apr 2015 路 13:36 UTC
Lovely, meditative game with original and phylosophical concept.
Birke
20. Apr 2015 路 14:47 UTC
Really good aesthetic. I got quite attached to the little guy as well specially given the ending. A shame you get reset to the start of the game when you die.
retrophantom
20. Apr 2015 路 15:17 UTC
very nice concept, i like how i can hide and avoid fighting enemies
XeroCake
20. Apr 2015 路 16:10 UTC
I really love the artwork in this game. The controls are nice and responsive, but I did face some difficulty with the first laser thing, but that could just be that I am horrible at games. Overall, a job well done.
ethankennerly
21. Apr 2015 路 03:38 UTC
When I heard the soft melody, saw the dark shades of a gray forest with eerie glowing eyes, and shot pixels of my body at the shadowy robots, I felt bittersweet. When destroyed the battery, and read the credits, I wanted to play more.
馃帳 Bastienre4
21. Apr 2015 路 07:22 UTC
Thank you so much guys, we really appreciate your comments.
Team-KwaKwa
21. Apr 2015 路 19:05 UTC
To use your own body as a weapon is an enjoyable concept and works fine as a tradeoff. Seems to be a very nice way to interpret the theme! Great take on theme. Seems like an interesting game, fitting music, had a nice feel to it, great impact. Visual-coherence, but not the most beautiful pixel art, but it still blend together pleasantly.
Team-KwaKwa
21. Apr 2015 路 19:07 UTC
And I record myself playing it: https://youtu.be/ZUPe9bSDK1U
local minimum
21. Apr 2015 路 19:59 UTC
I liked the style and the fact that the game was rather 2.5D when the movables turned. The weapon was great and so was the mood/music integration with the visuals. The shooting of cameras was a little annoying since it was hard to know where to stand to hit them, maybe add some UI assistance for the throw-trajectories if the pixels need to feel gravity. In general a very solid game. I didn't get really far but I did enjoy the experience.
馃帳 Bastienre4
21. Apr 2015 路 20:22 UTC
@Team-KwaKwa : Omg, thank you so much for recording the video, we loved that ! You are awesome !

@local minimum : Thank you for your comment. For the fact that it's hard to aim, it's totally on purpose since we wanted the player to avoid shooting so it have to be hard ! But maybe we should have done that. Thank you again for your kind words. We all appreciate.
louis.denizet
22. Apr 2015 路 07:25 UTC
Really great concept, it perfectly fits the theme ;) The mood is excellent and everything goes smooth : good job! =)
Enneract
22. Apr 2015 路 11:17 UTC
Nice little game, I agree with others here. Wish it could have been longer! It would have been cool to see the smoke and the explosions done with pixels since they seem out of place in the game, but other than the aesthetics were really nice :)
DeadFragment
23. Apr 2015 路 11:00 UTC
If you could also make the W key to jump aswell that'd be handy! but really good gameplay and very unique idea of using yourself as a weapon and losing your health so you need to be smart as to when and when not to fight. Awesome art style and music really suits the game. Awesome game!

-Neith
lochmann-apps
23. Apr 2015 路 11:04 UTC
nice parallax graphics & sound!! sometimes i'm dying even there is no enemy, but still good job!
Jellyhard
24. Apr 2015 路 17:37 UTC
I loved the art and the music. I have a soft spot for jam entries that keep things small and neat in order to present a complete experience. One of my favorite entries so far.
rnlf
24. Apr 2015 路 20:45 UTC
Cool game and sad ending (I suspect there is only one?). Like the presentation. Good entry!
Gunzil
25. Apr 2015 路 05:42 UTC
I like the gimmick and art a lot, I just wish there were more levels to it so the final confrontation could have more emotional strength to it.

Also all I could think was "This battery is probably replacable", attacking something more permanent would have made it work better.
zerocreativity1
26. Apr 2015 路 09:08 UTC
Little short. Like the mechanic of your shots destory a little part of you each time. nice if you could add more levels that focus around that. Story had an interesting concept, but certainly wasn't flushed out in this little game.
Dynad
26. Apr 2015 路 14:29 UTC
Very short, but I love the concept, art and the mechanics.. and ofc the music.. fits well together.. well done!
馃帳 Bastienre4
26. Apr 2015 路 14:34 UTC
Thank you for your comments guys ! Yes there is only one ending.
generic_ghost
26. Apr 2015 路 19:43 UTC
WOW! The graphics, the music, the story. Incredible. I seriously started to tear up when I died destroying the battery. To make me really feel something in such a short amount of time is truly impressive. I also like that it was short but felt complete. My only nitpicky thing is that the explosions didn't fit with the rest of the graphics.
norwalnate13
26. Apr 2015 路 21:40 UTC
I really want to play your game, it looks awesome, but I can't run it on my computer. My laptop uses a 32bit operating system and your game requires a 64bit. Please post a download for the few of us that still use 32 bit OS.
mike.cullingham
27. Apr 2015 路 04:36 UTC
Really like this use of the theme. For some reason the gravity on the shots felt out of place, but that could just be me. Nice job.
FistBumpGames
27. Apr 2015 路 17:05 UTC
Entertaining and interesting game, Nice take on the theme
slowfrog
27. Apr 2015 路 20:24 UTC
Noooooo! This is too short! But it's worth every minute playing. The concept could certainly be extended to a full game. The atmosphere is awesome, and the basic mechanic is stressful (spare every pixel) but really unconventional.
lumscum
27. Apr 2015 路 20:25 UTC
That was really rad. The only thing I would suggest is adding more feedback for when you shoot things! It took me a minute to realize that the camera took damage from my first shot.
Omiya Games
28. Apr 2015 路 23:52 UTC
Very cool experiment with game narrative and game mechanic integration. The graphics were really nice, and I liked the music, too. Perhaps more ambient sound effects could have been used to contrast between the forest and the laboratory, but the current set was serviceable.

Believe it or not, I really liked the short length.
Geckoo1337
29. Apr 2015 路 22:23 UTC
The forest is safe. Interesting concept. I liked the story and the mood. I think that this project can be improved by adding some features, but it's good enough. Well done ++
Ammypendent
30. Apr 2015 路 05:38 UTC
This feels very nicely polished and great soundtrack! The health = ammo is a nice mechanic that fits the theme!
flummox3d
07. May 2015 路 19:18 UTC
Awwww, short and sad story. I really liked the parallax effect. Great job! :)
Xanjos
08. May 2015 路 13:38 UTC
Painfully too short but I like the idea of using your pixels (or pretty much your lifeforce) as a weapon (the stealth elements were well thought out too) plus I absolutely loved the soundtrack.
pstudio
11. May 2015 路 16:44 UTC
I like the idea of using yourself as a weapon. Too bad the game is so short.